[PS2] I need some recommendations for ps2 action/adventure games

The most important requirement is that the games aren't too long (not rpg length type of stuff; 20 hours max, but around 10 hours of gameplay is preferable). Again, I'm looking for action games, like devil may cry, onimusha etc. Action RPG's are fine, I suppose, as long as they aren't too long.

A few games that I own and have enjoyed: Onimusha 1, 2 and 3; genji: dawn of the samurai; shinobi; and devil may cry was decent.

Also, would you recommend these games?
Armored Core 3 (or the armored core series on ps2, in general)
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Devil May Cry 3
Gungrave

I'm really running out of ideas on what to get...

Thanks.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

God of War and God of War 2. Get them both.

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Everyone is going to tell you to get God of War and rightly so.

From the ones listed, I would recommend Lament of Innocence and DMC3. Gungrave is great, but only if you like the Max Payne style shooting and dodging.

I suppose you could also look into Chaos Legion and Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex.

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Youn seem to have played most of the better ones. I noticed though, that you haven`t played the fourth installment in the Onimusha series:　Dawn of Dreams. I haven`t played it myself, but according to the reviews I`ve read, it seems like it uses the same, great action formula of the other games in the series.

I for one liked 1-3 a lot, and considering the fact that they are made by Capcom, notorious for sticking with successful formulas until the end, I can`t possibly see anything go wrong there.

Also:

Devil May Cry 3 is the best in the series. Highly recommended. BUY.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is decent, and short enough, if that`s what you`re after. Curse of Darkness is bit more complex, and it takes some time to get into. I personally thought it was better than LoI, but you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time on the game if you want to find everything in it. They are both worth their current pricetags though (10-20 bucks or less)

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I didn't play the second Castlevania game, but the first was alright. It'd probably be worth playing for 10-20 bucks.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was very good. I played the Gamecube version, but I really enjoyed it. I didn't play the other PoP games, but I don't think they were as well received.

And definitely the GoW games.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Warrior Within wasn't very well received but The Two Thrones was actually. It kind of borrowed from both games and it worked out pretty well.

If he's never played Sands of Time he should definitely get that and if it weren't for the fact that Two Thrones sort of connects with Warrior Within I'd say skip it and go straight to Two Thrones.

If you never played Zone of the Enders you should try out ZoE: 2nd Runner also. I can't say I recommend the first game, however, but on the plus side it barely connects to the 2nd game anyway (a single character and a few references) so you could enjoy it stand alone easily enough.

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Originally Posted by Hush and Cool

shinobi

Then try Nightshade. It's basically the same game.

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the Metal Gear series would be good too

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Castlevania: Lament of Innocence I would definitely recommend. Pretty short, as in 10-13 hours without rushing, and a nice amount of optional items to try to get, should you wish to extend the length.

Curse of Darkness I didn't like as much as Lament of Innocence for some reason, but it's probably just a personal thing. Differences such as the familiar system, linearity, and the way Hector jumps are all a matter of taste.

I would highly recommend Okami but the length might be an issue since it takes a decent amount of time to work through. Psychonauts is my next highly recommended game, but I forgot how long it took to finish. Another one you might have to take a while to play.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Hush and Cool

A few games that I own and have enjoyed: Onimusha 1, 2 and 3; genji: dawn of the samurai; shinobi; and devil may cry was decent.

So you enjoy hack n slash, eh? Judging by these games I'd recommend the following:

- Way of the Samurai 2
- Dynasty Warriors 5
- Kunoichi
- Bujingai
- God of War 1 and 2
- Devil May Cry 3

Avoid DMC2 and Dynasty Warriors 2/4 if you can. The hack n slash genre is pretty small when it comes to quality. Dynasty Warriors 5 is probably the best out of what I mentioned. Way of the Samurai is highly recommended as well.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Beyond Good & Evil, definitely.

As far as the Castlevania games go, I loved Lament of Innocence, because even though the areas looked basically the same, there was that sense of Symphony of the Night exploration that I loved. It's a bit like playing a 3d platformer with a tinge of Devil May Cry.

The second one, Curse of Darkness, is all about the familiars that you get. Because you need to use them and have them fight in order to gain experience and level up, I found it got tedious pretty quick. Second strike against it is that as silly as the first one was, the second one was even sillier in terms of character design and plot.
I still plan on finishing it, and leveling up my familiars, but I've been putting it off because I have a lot of other, better games to play. If you really are starved for action games, or if you enjoy pokemon-type creature growth, it might be right up your alley.

Ratchet & Clank games are great if you like exploring and collecting stuff, and there's a lot to see and do, so it never really gets stale.

If you haven't played The Suffering, I highly recommend it. It's got a great mix of adventure style exploration (for ammo and story-related stuff) while keeping the action consistently high with the 3rd person shooter mechanics. Really I just loved seeing a game with the moxie to have a dark atmosphere, and keep it that way the whole way through.

Shadow of the Colossus is a great adventure/puzzle type game, but I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard of it by now. Definitely worth the $20, though.

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Originally Posted by Skexis

Beyond Good & Evil, definitely..

Totally agree on that one.

If you're looking for some decent hack & slash, try Devil Kings. I don't like the "Dynasty Warriors" type of game, but i found this one really fun to play. It's more humor-oriented and has plenty of characters too. Also, i should add that it was made by Capcom, so...

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Originally Posted by Forsety

ZoE: 2nd Runner.

I couldn't recommend this game enough, if it's still possible to find it. My only problem of the game is that there isn't enough of it. The Gradius mini-game is a plus as well.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Dizzy

Totally agree on that one.

If you're looking for some decent hack & slash, try Devil Kings. I don't like the "Dynasty Warriors" type of game, but i found this one really fun to play. It's more humor-oriented and has plenty of characters too. Also, i should add that it was made by Capcom, so...

Oh yeah, Devil Kings. I haven't tried that but I own the sequel (Sengoku Basara 2) which hasn't been released in America with shitty voice acting yet. There's just something about killing thousands of Chinese warriors and getting points for it which feels great.

Apparently they're making another game in the series for the PS2 and Wii.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'd have to recommend Jak 1, 2, and 3, Sly Cooper 1, 2, and 3, and Ratchet & Clank 1, 2, and 3 (haven't played the latest one yet, so I don't know how it is). Each one of the games is pretty good and play completely differently. It's also advantageous to play the R&C games in order since if the game detects save data on your memory card you can unlock weapons for free.

I don't think any of the nine games I mentioned are more than $10-15 each now, so they're definitely a quality bet. I do have to say if you're going to skip any, Sly 3 was very disappointing after the first two, as was Jak 3. Jak 3's difficulty after Jak 2 was like playing Barbie Action Adventure after Ghosts and Goblins. It was also way shorter; I finished and was pretty disappointed it hadn't even taken me close to 20 hours with doing almost every one of the skill test things.

Of the three, R&C is the most like a third-person shooter, and due to the way weapons level up in later games and the pretty good stage design and very few areas that felt "cheap" it's my favorite of the three, but all three are worth playing a bit.

Also, as Skex said Shadow of the Colossus is fantastic. I'm only at the seventh colossus because I feel like I'm completely losing out on the experience playing on a 19" TV with crappy speakers. To truly appreciate this you need a 100" projector and surround sound. God, how freaking sweet would that be.

I played through Beyond Good & Evil, and it was a pretty good game, though I was able to get everything on my first play through without much trouble. It was a pretty solid game, though, so if it appeals to you I'd say go for it.

I like this thread, this kind of genre is probably my favorite at the moment (due to lack of boring drawn out storylines) so I've got a whole load of new games to buy that I'm not going to be able to touch until next summer.

Also, having owned and played the hell out of Dynasty Warriors 3 is it worthwhile getting any of the newer ones or any game in a similar style, or would I just be better off keep playing that one when I feel the need to chop the hell out of some yellows?

FELIPE NO

I didn't recommend Beyond Good & Evil or Shadow of the Colossus because they both seem more like adventure than anything else to me. But I absolutely loved BG&E.

Are the Sly Cooper games as good as the Jak and R+C ones?

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They play completely differently, but they're a lot of fun because they tend to shy away from direct combat and feel more like a traditional platformer with all sort of spire jumping, wall jumps, swinging from ring to ring, and that sort of stuff. The first one plays like a traditional platformer with one level followed by the next, while Sly 2 and 3 have areas you go to to start missions, and the missions take place in the general overworld place (GTA-like).

Both are tons of fun and I'd recommend them to anyone, but the third is a total letdown and I'd only recommend getting it if you played the first two and really liked them (and play it after taking a long break after the second one or else you'll just keep remembering how much better the second was).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

I'd have to recommend Jak 1, 2, and 3, Sly Cooper 1, 2, and 3, and Ratchet & Clank 1, 2, and 3 (haven't played the latest one yet, so I don't know how it is). Each one of the games is pretty good and play completely differently. It's also advantageous to play the R&C games in order since if the game detects save data on your memory card you can unlock weapons for free.

I don't think any of the nine games I mentioned are more than $10-15 each now, so they're definitely a quality bet. I do have to say if you're going to skip any, Sly 3 was very disappointing after the first two, as was Jak 3. Jak 3's difficulty after Jak 2 was like playing Barbie Action Adventure after Ghosts and Goblins. It was also way shorter; I finished and was pretty disappointed it hadn't even taken me close to 20 hours with doing almost every one of the skill test things.

Of the three, R&C is the most like a third-person shooter, and due to the way weapons level up in later games and the pretty good stage design and very few areas that felt "cheap" it's my favorite of the three, but all three are worth playing a bit.

Agreed, I love these games, although the Jak games are my least favorite.
If you like these, then try Haven:Call of the King. It was a great game, and very underrated. Good soundtrack too.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Haven's ending was the biggest piece of shittery in the history of games, though. Even while following a walkthrough I wasn't able to find all of the secret dungeons without tearing my hair out (though they were devilishly fun/frustrating once I got to them). The rest of the game was pretty good, though. It was like Jak 3 except with even more ADD.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Yeah, I like how everyone's touting God of War's boss minigames when Haven also had it, along with many other games. I actually gave up on finding the secrets in Haven, I could never find those one Rune pad things. But the fact that you could go from space battle to exploring the planet was awesome. Even though there was that long time when you were flying through fog, I never thought you'd actually be able to land on the planet.

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Originally Posted by Forsety

Warrior Within wasn't very well received but The Two Thrones was actually. It kind of borrowed from both games and it worked out pretty well.

If he's never played Sands of Time he should definitely get that and if it weren't for the fact that Two Thrones sort of connects with Warrior Within I'd say skip it and go straight to Two Thrones.

Nonononono
PS2 got Prince of Persia TRILOGY with all three priced at $cheap. I can't recommend any purchase more. It comes in some crazy thick DVD case with orignal discs and manuals for all three games.

I'm also reiterating any and all support Beyond Good and Evil has received in this thread so far. It'll only take a couple of afternoons to finsih, but it is magical. I've never played a game that reminded me so much of Zelda, and anything that brings Zelda to mind is awesome.

Also motherfucking Tomb Raider Legend it's pretty much thrown away for free these days and it's like Prince of Persia but with guns and boobs. It's also not quite as fluid but you know.

I was speaking idiomatically.