The Official RPGamer RPG Suggestion Thread

Gouden Draak

Looks like this is now an official suggestions thread!



I'm bored and sad. I also don't have any RPGs and none i am looking forward to until Digital Devil Saga 2 gets released in September or so. I need a new game to cheer me up!

Not sure what there is out there though that I haven't already played or considered. I have played and enjoyed all the FFs, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, Summoner 2. I have played and enjoyed less Shadow Hearts 2, the first Shadow Hearts, Xenosaga, Xenosaga 2. I enjoyed Disgaea but by the time I finished Phantom Brave, I have gotten bored with the tactical RPGs, so I am not interested in Makai Kingdom or La Purcelle. I also picked up ICO recently, but got frustrated by my buggy copy.

I am not sure about Atelier Iris either. I have seen poor reviews in EGM and the real-time battless can be rather badly done in some games.

So, any suggestions?

RIPtoad

Well, going out on a limb, have you ever tried Dark Cloud 2? The art is spectacular, though it might take a wee bit to get used to if you aren't familiar with cel shaded games. The combat is all real-time, but it's pretty well done and not too hard to get a handle on. The character design is very good, the story is serviceable (if not the deepest or most mature), and the mains are generally likeable. I am not big on reaction-time games, but this one certainly is quite accessible. And there is a certain pleasure to be gained constantly transmogrifying your weapons to make them stronger. If you haven't given it a try, now would be a good time to do so.

Also, if you haven't played it yet, run, do not walk, and pick up a copy of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Whether you are a big Star Wars fan or no, this is an incredibly rich and deep game. The battles can be tough at first, but if you use the pause function, you can make it into a very elaborate turn-based sytem. The story is great, plus you can be your good self or take a walk on the Dark side, if that strikes your fancy. I know it's not PS2, but it's out for PC, Mac and Xbox, so if you have the hardware, it's a game I couldn't recommend strongly enough.

And try not to be sad. Life's too short.

Solon

Star Ocean 3, Ys VI, Growlanser Generations, Wild ARMs 3, Breath of Fire V: DQ, Suikoden III (maybe even IV would appeal to you)......what else.... Kingdom Hearts maybe? There are loads of good games you haven't played (or so it seems).

Zephyr Elvirion

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (RIPtoad @ June 21 2005,17:41)</td></tr><tr><td class="QUOTE"The art is spectacular, though it might take a wee bit to get used to if you aren't familiar with cel shaded games.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Now that's got to be the understatment of the year, considering a couple of your favourite named games were SMT:Nocturne and SMT: DDS, lol.

Like you I'm hanging out for DDS2 too, but I've played - and liked - most the games you have. ?I've also tried Dark Cloud 2 and hated it. The plot's sparse and the graphics aren't much better. ?I'm very suprised you didn't like Shadow Hearts: Covenant tho, I loved the suble humour and the double-endings that leave you wondering are great. ?

Have you tried Summoner 1? ?It's graphics are little dated now - but not as bad as some of the newer games coming out - but the story is a gripper. For a loong time Summoner had the distinction of being the only game I'd played more than once. ?

Have you tried the dotHack series? ?Another great plot, a few good twists, loads to do and good character development. What about the Legacy of Kain series? ?I know they're not rpgs, but they're excellent - then again, I like the time-travel theme. ?The Bard's Tale is good for a light-hearted hack n' slash and it's garunteed to give you chuckle or three. ?ICO's great too, but loads of puzzles which I found a little difficult. ?The entire story comes from your visual perceptions, so you have to pay attention to everything! ?

Have you tried Vagrant Story on PS1? ?Yes, it's an older game but the graphics and story still stand strong today. ?VS's one of MY all-time favourites. ?

Well, that's my 2cents worth. ? ? ? Roll on DDS2!!

Yeah, as above, Suikoden III, well any of the Suikodens really - except 4 - are excellent rpgs with good plots.

MeoTwister5

1. Star Ocean 3

2. Give SH2 another chance. Please?

3. Brutally murder whomever sold you the bugged copy of ICO.

ffwarrioress

Yeah, Star Ocean 3! (til the end of time.) ?


Also, I hope you feel happier soon!


Oh and yeah, what Solon said! Growlanser Generations is awesome, too.

Jackal

I think Breath of Fire V would be fun. They treat dragons like the forces of nature they are....

Slayer of God

You know, she didn't say that she disliked SH: C, or any of those other games. She just said that she enjoyed them less than the ones she mentioned first.

Fanboys, really.

RIPtoad

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td colspan="2">(Gouden Draak @ Jun. 22 2005,02:20)</td></tr><tr><td width="10" id="QUOTEHEAD">Q
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E</td><td class="QUOTE"I am not sure about Atelier Iris either. I have seen poor reviews in EGM and the real-time battless can be rather badly done in some games.[/QUOTE]
Roku seems to think it's looking pretty good . You might want to give it a shot. I'm thinking about picking it up, myself. Though you are correct, the mainstream media is not being overly kind to this particular title.

Gouden Draak

Atelier Iris - I guess I am waiting to hear some fan-reviews. I find that reading a bunch of hands-on-reviews by the fans really helps sort out the "maybe" topics. But the official reviews have been lackluster...

KOTOR - Sorry, I`m not getting an X-Box or upgrading my PC for one game

Dark Cloud 2 - I did not like the first Dark Cloud. The story seemed lacking, and the random dungeons were rather tedious (especially the whole running out of water thing). Is the second any better?

BoF 5 - I have heard good things about this game, but I am a bit skepitcal of the idea of having to die and start over again and again with your new items and stats.... My local rental places never carry RPGs, so I am not sure about buying this at all.

Growlanser - I have not heard of this one... which one should I look into? I like story-driven RPGs most.

Star Ocean 3 - have it
Summoner 1 - um... it was rather bad and went back to the shop in less than a day
Vagrant Story - I did try it but it didn`t work out for me.
Played KH and enjoyed it
Suikoden - tried 2 & 3 but was never able to get into it. 100 characters seems a bit much to me too

keele864

Growlanser is a strategy RPG, but the battle system is rather unique. It's a realtime system that allows some extremely entertaining and challenging battles. Growlanser II , the first of two games in the Generations package, has a relatively simple story, though it is extremely open-ended. There are several ways to go through the game. Growlanser III, the second game in the collection, is longer and plays more like a traditional RPG. I don't like Nippon Ichi games much, but I love Growlanser. I suggest you give it a try.

RIPtoad

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td colspan="2">(Gouden Draak @ Jun. 22 2005,21:05)</td></tr><tr><td width="10" id="QUOTEHEAD">Q
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E</td><td class="QUOTE"Atelier Iris - I guess I am waiting to hear some fan-reviews. I find that reading a bunch of hands-on-reviews by the fans really helps sort out the "maybe" topics. But the official reviews have been lackluster...

KOTOR - Sorry, I`m not getting an X-Box or upgrading my PC for one game ?

Dark Cloud 2 - I did not like the first Dark Cloud. The story seemed lacking, and the random dungeons were rather tedious (especially the whole running out of water thing). Is the second any better?[/QUOTE]
You don't have to apologize about missing KOTOR (after all, we're trying to help you here)--but you do have my sympathies. If it had never been released for the Mac, and I had not just recently upgraded my machine, I would have missed it, too. It is a terrific game--keep it in mind if you ever upgrade your machine. You really won't be sorry.

I didn't play Dark Cloud 1, but from what I've heard, 2 is a definite improvement. For instance, if you break a weapon, it isn't just lost forever. And you don't "run out of water," whatever peculiar bit of gameplay that entailed. It's probably hit or miss, but there's a good chance you would like it if you liked Kingdom Hearts, I should think. And Ys: the Ark of Napishtim (as Solon suggested) is probably in somewhat the same vein, just of a ?simplified variety. I enjoyed that game quite a bit, as well. (It's quite a bit shorter, if that means anything to you.)

And yes, at this point I suppose that Atelier Iris is a bit of a crap shoot. Personally, I'm replaying Dark Cloud 2 at the moment. 72 hours in, and I'm still hooked. The dungeons could be a bit repetitive, but you're trying to do so many different things that it really doesn't seem monotonous. To me, at least.

Edit: Here's what your friends from EGM had to say about Dark Cloud 2:
<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td width="10" id="QUOTEHEAD">Q
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E</td><td class="QUOTE"You can call an RPG a lot of things - compelling, cinematic, thought-provoking - but rarely addictive. Dark Cloud 2 is completely, utterly addictive. [Mar 2003, p.111][/QUOTE]

Going out on yet another limb, though it's not an RPG, have you ever looked at Ratchet and Clank? I'm not a hefty-reflexes kind of player by a long shot, but that was one helluva fun game. Even challenging, in parts. I cursed and threw my controller at times, but it was a worthwhile trip when all was said and done. And it's funny--just what the doctor ordered for a case of the blahs! (Just a thought.)

Vampire Hunter V

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td width="10" id="QUOTEHEAD">Q
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E</td><td class="QUOTE"Dark Cloud 2 - I did not like the first Dark Cloud. The story seemed lacking, and the random dungeons were rather tedious (especially the whole running out of water thing). Is the second any better?
[/QUOTE]

Golden Draak, if you're not into cutesy style of characters or themes in a game stay away from Dark Cloud 2. I rented the game way back when, played it for a couple of hours and never it picked back up. Way too childish for me. From what I remember the gameplay is "Zelda-like", action RPG, but with an extensive weapon upgrade system.

From the RPGs mentioned above, can't really recommend a PS2 RPG that you would enjoy. I would probably wait until DDS2 comes out. Until that time, you could always get a classic PS1 RPG. Persona 1 or 2 are pretty good games, and you should play them if you're into Nocturne/DDS type of games. Dragon Warrior 7?

Or if you get a chance, there's a plethora of RPG's for the Game Boy Advance. Tactics Advance, and of the Castlevania's are classics.

Gouden Draak

Dark Cloud 2 - Well, the first one you had to carry around water with you or you`d die of thirst. Since you had limited inventory "weight" having to carry water and/or run back to a pool or to town all the time was a pain in the.... I`m afraid the words "random dungeon" still scares me though.

Persona - pretty much out of print, I can`t see if for sale anywhere and I am not paying $100+ on Ebay for a used game

Dragon Warrior - I didn`t like the series when I gave it a try. *runs and hides from the Dragon Warrior fans*

I`ll look into Growlanser and Ys a bit more.


Anyone played Stella Deus? I was looking at it the other day, but couldn`t decide if it was good or not. Also, any advice on BoF5?

Gouden Draak

Thanks for the suggestions though! Game mags don`t always have much attention paid to RPGs, especially the less main-stream ones.

Dracos

Breath of Five V is a love or hate game, as I understand.

I loved it myself =P

Dracos

Unknown

If anything you can get a copy of BoFV for ten whole dollars. Hard to lose even if you hate it. Same with Wild Arms 3. It's so dirt cheap that even if you hate it, you can at least say you tried... (for the record I didn't love either game. BoFV was a tolerable time waster, but a little tedious to play, and WA3 is one of my least favourite PS2 RPG's or RPG's of all time really - your mileage may vary)

Actually, since it doesn't seem to be brought up, how about Arc the Lad Twilight of Spirits? I actually enjoyed that a little more than BoFV (which has a similar battle system but a less... traditional storyline and gameplay system), even if I didn't finish it. Another dirt cheap game you can check out.

King Jowy XXII

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td colspan="2">(Gouden Draak @ Jun. 23 2005,11:44)</td></tr><tr><td width="10" id="QUOTEHEAD">Q
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E</td><td class="QUOTE"Persona - pretty much out of print, I can`t see if for sale anywhere and I am not paying $100+ on Ebay for a used game [/QUOTE]
Really? Why? The game is sublime. @_@

Martyr

All righty. Since this is an eternally recurring topic, that will no doubt be started anew a few months down the road when this current one slips past the first page of this forum, this topic shall henceforth be pinned, and will serve as RPGamer's RPG suggestion thread.

Dracos, if you have a problem with this, feel free to unpin or whatever ^^

Davis

A hundred dollars for Persona? Is that like Canadian dollars or something?

Five tons of Flax,
Davis

King Jowy XXII

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td colspan="2">(Davis @ Jun. 23 2005,23:09)</td></tr><tr><td width="10" id="QUOTEHEAD">Q
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E</td><td class="QUOTE"A hundred dollars for Persona? Is that like Canadian dollars or something?[/QUOTE]
Struck me as funny, too. Still, I'd pay it. ^^

Davis

Well yeah, we all know a hundred CAD is like twenty USD...

Five tons of Flax,
Davis

Gouden Draak

Yes, its Canadian, har har

Its a rare game now, I suppose, since nobody seems to carry new copies anymore.

Davis

It's not printed anymore, yeah, but if you're a smart shopper you can get a used copy on the cheap. (e.g. I found one at a local EB for fifteen USD)

Five tons of Flax,
Davis

Gouden Draak

Thanks for the suggestions all!

I have a copy of Persona2 coming my way eventually. (My Canadian bank account cries).

I have also gotten hooked on my Star Ocean 3 game, which I never did finish (long story, got a new copy).

Hopefully others might get some good ideas for less-known RPGs from this thread

theprofessional

Tales of Rebirth (arguably the best Tales game since Destiny/Destiny II Jap)
Tales of Destiny II (True sequel to Tales of Destiny following the story of Stahn's boy, Kyle)

Both are Japanese only unfortunately without a release date set, which brings up another topic, Namco needs to start releasing some freakin games over here....

Dracos

Following ToD?

It's hard not to go up from the worst game in the series.

Dracos
Who stabs farmboy Stahn for the poser he is.

theprofessional

And may I ask which game you started from? I don't think it's the worst game in the series at all and I've played every Tales game besides Tales of Destiny II JP and the GBA games Tales of the World.

I may have to agree on a specific standpoint on TOD though concerning the gameplay but regarding character/character development, level design, music, its all fine to me.

and besides, Stahn/Rutee kicked ass in Namco X Capcom

Solon

I agree with Dracos, the first ToD is by far the worst Tales game. It had some of the most annoying dungeon-tracks I've ever listened to. The level design was monotonous and undetailed, the stiff world map was horrible without the abillity to move diagonally etc. None of the characters really stood out either imo.

theprofessional

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td colspan="2">(Solon @ Jun. 26 2005,05:02)</td></tr><tr><td width="10" id="QUOTEHEAD">Q
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E</td><td class="QUOTE"I agree with Dracos, the first ToD is by far the worst Tales game. It had some of the most annoying dungeon-tracks I've ever listened to. The level design was monotonous and undetailed, the stiff world map was horrible without the abillity to move diagonally etc. None of the characters really stood out either imo.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't matter how TOD was, this doesn't automatically make TOD2 any worse just because it's a direct sequel.

Aragorn

All this talk of Tales, I figure I'll chime in and say Tales of Symphonia is one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and I've played alot.