Stylishly late to the party: PS2 thread

[Professor Smarmiarty]

So I found a PS2 for super cheap so I picked one up. Never played a PS2 before so what games are must gets to track down.
I like strategy RPGs- Ogre Battle is best thing ever- mostly as well as games that are awesome.

[Kim]

I'd recommend Nocturne. Excellent battle system, lots of room for party and character customization, and the story is pretty aces. Hard as fuck at times, though.

[Ravashak]

Disgaea 1 and 2
Soul Nomad & The World Eaters

are the main SRPGs I can think of off the top of my head.

And I guess I'll put in Mana Khemia as a (j)RPG I liked a lot, the item creation system works well, shops keep up with said creation process well enough so you don't have to excessively backtrack, and the I found the combat system entertaining enough.

[Julford Hajime]

...Seriously? No PS2 up until now? Fuck. I'll just list everything I have for my PS2 that I have fond memories of, as well as all the sRPGs I've played.

Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts 2 (Plot is either non-existent OR completely retarded, but the combat is still good)
Mega Man X Collection (Only if you don't otherwise have Mega Man X-X6)
Armored Core 2 (AC3 is okay, but I liked 2 more. It's a very fast-paced Giant Robot fighting game)
Front Mission 4 (sRPG, really good though requires a guide to get just about any good equipment)
Final Fantasy X (Good battle system for the most part. Everyone should play it so they know whether they love/hate it)
Final Fantasy XII (Another love/hate one; you either love the combat or it's abysmal)
Ar Tonelico (Moderately funny jRPG)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front (Even if you hate Gundams, this is a good strategy game. You command up to three squads of Mobile Suits through various battlefields)
Suikoden Series (3, 4, 5, and Tactics. 3, 4, 5 are jRPGs. Tactics is an sRPG that is a side-story of 4, and requires beating 4 to really understand >.>)

EDIT: How did I forget the Disgaea Series? I mean I don't love the games, but they are sRPGs with a big following.

[TDK]

Shadow of the Colossus is a MUST HAVE.

If you like action shooter type games, Devil May Cry 1 and 3. 2 is awful and 4 is next gen.

On that same note, God of War 1 and 2.

If you like action/survival horror, Resident Evil 4 has a great port for the ps2.

Did you ever have a ps1? There's a whole list of ps1 games you should have since you can play them in the ps2. Chief among them, given your taste, would be Final Fantasy tactics if you can get your hands on it.

[Kim]

FFXII is a great game, but there are a couple things that really stand out as more what Squeenix had put in rather than what Matsuno wanted to do. That it turned out as well as it did is surprising.

[EVILNess]

The Jak trilogy is lots of fun, even if 2 is frustrating enough to make you want to punch puppies.

Odin Sphere is probably the most beautiful game on the PS2.

Dragon Quest 8 is the BEST (In my opinion at least) Dragon Quest/Warrior game.

Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 are super great games, but if you play 4 first then FES will seem much clunkier on the battle mechanics.

If you can find them, Fatal Frame 1 and 2 are probably the scariest games ever.

[Kim]

If you haven't played it on the Wii, play Okami. I'd argue it's the best Zelda game ever made.

[greed]

FFXII is excellent and mostly by Matsuno the guy behind the Ogre Battle series(though it's an excellent normal RPG with some MMO elements not a strategy RPG). He quit/got fired at about the 75% mark(you can tell as that's when all the ancient conspiracies, political intrigue and evil gods disappear). But up til that point the writing's great, and even after that point the world building and combat are ace. It's also got the best world to just run around killing things in out of any RPG.

I'm gonna also second Nocturne( known in PAL regions as Lucifer's Call), it's the best RPG ever. The other six(Personas 3 and 4, Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, Devil Summoner 1 and 2) games with the words Shin Megami Tensei in the title are excellent as well.

There's Disgaea as mentioned, it and Soul Nomad are pretty much the big strategy RPGs on the PS2. Not counting Grim Grimoire as that's more an RTS with JRPG writing. Saying it's weird is an understatement, but it's also one of the vey few RTS games actually built for a console so it's interesting for that alone.

Other random stuff I really liked would be the Shadow Hearts games (especially Covenant, they're good if easy RPGs that don't take themselves or the genre seriously and delight in screwing with the player's expectations. They're also occaisionally really goddamn funny), Odin Sphere, Shadow of the Colossus and GTA San Andreas. The Timesplitters games are great FPS' for just chilling with friends too, though you need a multitap to play with more than one other person, because Sony were money grubbing retards.

If you've never tried a game in the series, try We Love Katamari as well it's ridiculously addictive and pretty much the most insane video game ever.

Edit: Also there's Godhand. Which is pretty much one of those old 2D brawlers, made 3D and really goddamn hard.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I'm going to echo Lucifer's Call (Nocturne) here because it's the greatest PS2 jRPG you can find in my opinion.
There's also the Persona Games. Which were also already mentioned.

If you like a challenge you can go for DMC3. If you like to be scared: Silent Hill 2

And... yeah, I just wanted to say Nocturne, sorry.
Probably only a good suggestion if you're into jRPGs

[bluestarultor]

Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 are super great games, but if you play 4 first then FES will seem much clunkier on the battle mechanics.

Persona 3 FES is a great game, but with the time limits on everything, it's easy to burn out on. Persona 4 takes everything that was good about 3 (which is a LOT, don't get me wrong) and makes it even better. It also ditches the stuff that doesn't work and even provides a functional party AI, and then lets you control them manually if you want! If you have to choose one, definitely go P4, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't grab both if you can.

Another good one is Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzonoha Versus the Soulless Army. It plays very differently from Persona, but that's not at all a bad thing. It an equally great game that just has different mechanics. Also, it's in 1920s Japan and has a film noir feel, which is great for the atmosphere and gives you a unique look at a Japan in the middle of becoming Westernized.


Also recommended are Grandia 2 and Grandia 3. They're both very well-written and share a great battle system and the fact that no one else has mentioned them before this has directly led to the deaths of several childhoods. That's right, it's your guys' fault that little Jimmy has resigned himself to working in a cubicle at age six! Grandia 2 and 3 are nothing short of sublime. Heck, if you have extra change, pick up Grandia Xtreme, too. It's not as good as the others in terms of story or voice acting, but it acts as a middle child between them and is actually pretty good based on those merits. It experimented with team attacks and Mana Egg fusion before Grandia 3 nerfed the magic system and battle plays out beautifully. As long as you keep in mind that you're actually expected to go back to town to drop off loot before you finish the dungeons, you'll be rolling in free items and equipment.

[mauve]

I'll echo Shadow of the Colossus. It's absolutely amazing. It takes a little getting used to at first: there are no grunt enemies running around, no NPCs, no immediately noticeable character leveling systems, no new weapons or hidden items... It's just you, a horse, a desolate and abandoned world, and a crapload of bosses big enough to step on you and not notice. But despite this, and despite the fact that there is little dialogue and a plot that remains vague throughout most of the game, Shadow of the Colossus is one of the most absorbing, visually fascinating, and emotionally-involved games I have ever played. It takes everything you expect in an action game, throws it out the window, and proves to you that you don't need it to have an amazing story and playthrough experience.

TL: DR VERSION: Shadow of the Colossus is fucking awesome.


Beyond Good and Evil: It looks cartoony, but it's actually a surprisingly deep and borderline spooky game. Gameplay is a mixture between combat, info gathering with a camera, and stealth puzzles, plus hovercraft races and a handful of minigames. The character design is very interesting, the characters are likable, the storyline is engaging, the voice acting is pretty good, and the world has plenty of hidden levels to explore at your leisure. The only bad part about this game is that it's a bit short for my liking.


I adored FFXII, but like everyone says, people generally either love or hate it. I liked that you could see upcoming random battles and avoid them if you liked, and I thought the new battle system was a lot of fun: It mixed turn-based and real-time in a way that allows you to move your characters around the screen as you please in real-time while your action gauges charged. As far as characters go, the two main characters are boring. Everyone else in your party is awesome. Especially Balthier and Basch.


I'll second the original Kingdom Hearts. It was cute, managed to make a playable and oddly enjoyable game that somehow involves Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters living in the same universe, and the combat system was fun, if a bit unwieldy at times. KHII fixed the awkward controls, but the storyline was twenty levels of idiotic and featured waaaaay more long-haired angsty pretty boys than there ever needs to be in a single game. Plus it kind of expected you to have played a spinoff version made for the Game Boy or DS in order to understand what was going on, which means if you haven't played it, like me, the storyline seems even more idiotic.

Devil May Cry 1 and 3. Three is the most fun, since they completely remodeled the controls and battle system to allow for better hit combos and special moves, but the original is a bit more hardcore and borderline creepy. But hey, both games run like $10 these days, so get them both!! They're fantastic! Word of warning: The voice acting is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Both games have hilariously cringe-worthy cutscenes because of this. I'd post a link to the most (in)famous one, but it's full of spoilers.

Dragon Quest 8: IT WILL EAT YOUR LIFE AND YOU WILL REGRET NOTHING.

[TDK]

If you like a challenge you can go for DMC3.

I still maintain that DMC3 is not that hard, and that you guys are a bunch of pussies.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

It's not that hard as long as you play on the pussy difficulties, like... hard. I'm talking Special edition hard here, which means regular edition Normal. That one's hard is now called very hard.

What really isn't hard is Contra, if you have trouble beating Contra (without the Konami code) you shouldn't be playing video games.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Thanks for allt he suggestions- I'll totally look into them all.
Also with this talk of difficulty: what's the hardest game on the PS2? Cause you don't get to be king of hobo by rolling out the cheat codes.

[Krylo]

Probably Shattered Soldier. The PS2 Contra game.

But it's hard in the 'memorize the spawns and attack patterns of all the enemies' way, as opposed to hard in an actual skill way.

[Revising Ocelot]

Devil May Cry 3 is crazy hard. Ignore TDK, he crazy.

I don't know if you'd like them, but you could try Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and San Andreas.
There's also Metal Gear Solid 3, the best of the bunch and also doesn't require knowledge of #1 and #2, although they help.
There's also the 'first' Prince of Persia game, Sands of Time. Good stuff.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

'memorize the spawns and attack patterns of all the enemies'
Finally someone who's not me shows that he figured out the game.

Personally I think DMC3 is much, much harder. Although, I wouldn't call it the hardest game. I just can't take Shattered Soldier's difficulty seriously, because all you have to do is die one or two times to figure out how to not get hit by that one attack you couldn't dodge the first time. Often enough this is easier than it seems.

The game's still fun, though.

[Krylo]

I would have called DMC3 harder when it was the original version, but the SE toned everything down quite a bit and it's not really any harder than DMC1, anymore, which isn't hard. I'm too lazy to check, but I think you need to beat any of the DMCs on normal to unlock hard, too, so you can't just play it at the original's difficulty--and playing hard (normal) after beating normal (easy) is much easier than learning the game at that skill level. Could be wrong on that, however.

I never got that far in Shattered Soldier, though, because I don't like having to memorize spawns.

[Revising Ocelot]

I've got the normal EU version. The game's "Normal" mode was actually the Japanese "Hard" mode, so I hear. There's ofc also Hard and Dante Must Die. I think only the latter is locked at first. Or it may just be Heaven or Hell that's locked. *shrug*

There's also the Easy Automatic mode. Which would be Japanese normal in my version, except for the whole easier-to-perform moves.

[Krylo]

That's what the normal/original US version was, too. Everything one difficulty higher.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

In the special edition, as far as I remember, Hard (regular edition Normal, which supposedly was called Hard in the Japanese...) is unlocked from the start. In addition there's Very Hard which takes the place of the regular editions Hard. Then there are Heaven or Hell (I'm not sure about that, maybe that was Guilty Gear???) and Fuck You, which I believe is called Dante Must Die in just about every version of the game except mine, which I hacked to say just that. At least I would've done that if I could.

[Revising Ocelot]

I still haven't touched Dante Must Die to this day, mind, as it might just break my fragile mental state permanently and leave me gibbering in a corner about Cerberus.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

The key to DMC3 is to start on easy, and work up through each difficulty from there. Playing (EU) normal from the off is a one way ticket to frustration. By the time you get through the game once though, you've levelled up enough to get a decent number of upgrades and moves, which levels the playing field a bit. It also allows you to get used to the enemies you face and work out the best ways to beat them before they gain the ability to one shot kill you.

OT; I concur with all mentions of DMC1 and 3, MGS3, Shadow of the Colossus, the Jak series, Timesplitters (3 in particular), FFX and Okami. There are others, but my short list comprises about 100 games for that console.

[Krylo]

The key to DMC3 is to start on easy, and work up through each difficulty from there. Playing (EU) normal from the off is a one way ticket to frustration. By the time you get through the game once though, you've levelled up enough to get a decent number of upgrades and moves, which levels the playing field a bit. It also allows you to get used to the enemies you face and work out the best ways to beat them before they gain the ability to one shot kill you.

Yeah, I guess you could do that...

If you're a twelve year old little girl.

[TDK]

If Krylo didn't say it, I was going to.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

If you want to play it on hard, there is no substitute for DMD mode anyway, so until you get to that point you're not playing the game properly. My way is just easier to get to that point and makes sure you're fully powered by the time you get there.

[Archbio]

If you're a twelve year old little girl.

I'm interpreting that as approval of the tactic suggested by Hawk.

[mudah.swf]

Zone Of The Enders 2. One of the best action games on the PS2, full stop. Graphically it still holds up even today. If you like huge battles, there is no less than two epic battles in this game, one of which pits your mech against a handful of massive battleships of which you have to destroy alone, preferably with the massive laser cannon that's so big you have to be standing on something to even use it.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

Sly Cooper 1-3. Good platformer games. Spy/Thief themed, with some good play options. Entertaining story & nice use of cell shaded graphics.

Ratchet & Clank, R&C: Up your Arsenal, R&C Going Commando, and R&C: Deadlocked are all decent fun. Mix of various weapons & platforming action. Fairly entertaining story, if somewhat oddball.

R&C: Size Matters and R&C: Secret Agent Clank are okay. But not great either. Both are ports of PSP titles, and as such the graphics don't entirely transfer well. Also, as PSP titles, there is a bit less than what you'd get in a made for PS2 title.

Jak & Daxter, and Jak 2 are amazing. (Especially Jak 2) Jak 3 is also good, but a let down from Jak 2. Really a great platformer, with a really rich & hilarious story.

Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier, is another PSP port & isn't horrible, but not all that great either.

Maximo:Ghost to Glory & Maximo: Army of Zin are semi fun. Basically a 3d update on Ghosts & Goblins. Story isn't all that great, but the play value is decent.

Ico!A really fun adventure puzzle game, that you move blocks, pull levers & fight shadow creatures. Made by the same ppl who made Shadow of the Colossus, so I don't know why it hasn't been mentioned yet.

Zone of the Enders 1 & 2, are fairly fun mecha games. Fairly good play mechanics & the story is engrossing at times. By Hideo Kojima, of Metal Gear fame.

Spyhunter is a pretty good update of the old arcade classic. Didn't care for the games that followed (well, I only played Spyhunter 2 & never bothered with anything past that). Might be worth your time. But, its play value is limited & you might find yourself getting a tad bored with it.

Metal Gear Sold 3 doesn't hold much ties to the prior Metal Gear games & has all of the really good points. Strongly recommend you pick up the Subsistence version of the title, which has a better camera angle. Plus, a extra disk that has the original MSX version of Metal Gear & the MSX Metal Gear 2 (which never made it stateside).

I'd skip Metal Gear Solid 2 myself, as it has a somewhat confusing plot, which is left hanging until MGS4.

If you can manage to pick up the PS1 titles of Metal Gear Solid & MGS: VR Missions, do so. Admittedly, those two tend to run on the pricey side & are hard to find.

SWB
- And I double the recommendation on Beyond Good & Evil.

[Jagos]

Yeah, I guess you could do that...

If you're a twelve year old little girl.

I think from now on if something has a more difficult mode, we might as well call it IWBTG.

[Krylo]

I'm interpreting that as approval of the tactic suggested by Hawk.

It is tacit approval for the tactic, assuming the person applying the tactic prefers to play with Barbie and Ken than kill demons.

[Seil]

Psychonauts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPUZIagbl94&feature=search)
Gun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13IybB3hAu4&feature=search)
Killer7 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rhvLebx1iA&feature=search)
Amplitude (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW023XoUqRo&feature=related)

[Fifthfiend]

Intelligent Qube is the Barrelpants of games.

[TDK]

It is tacit approval for the tactic, assuming the person applying the tactic prefers to play with Barbie and Ken than kill demons.

But you do spend most of DMC 1 fighting dolls...

[Nique]

Intelligent Qube is the Barrelpants of games.


If that's good than I agree! Good luck finding that game though.

[Azisien]

Dynasty Warriors 2....

Haha, someone had to say it...

[Darth SS]

Stlishly late to the thread

Rogue Trooper was actually a very good game, and you should pick it up.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Manthere's like a million suggestions here. PS2 games are like a pound each but i still probably can't afford that many. Thanks for the help guys, I'll see what I can scrounge up.