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