Good RPGs

[jon_jinn]

Can anyone recommend a good, inexpensive, and fairly clean RPG for Gamecube or PS2?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Tales of Symphonia for the gamecube. It has some religious material, plus seems very linear in the beginning. However expect MASSIVE plottwists. (Which includes the parts about religion in the game)

[CookinLikeSanji]

I'll second the ToS suggestion.

Kingdom Hearts you can snag for $20 as a greatest hit, I'm not too fond of it myself, but loads of others seem to love it.

If you don't mind picking up some older PS1 games and playing them on your PS2, try Legend of Dragoon out, it's not hard to find at a shop that sells used games, and runs for below 20.

And, if you can manage to find them at Gamestop/EB, you should definately pick up Final Fantasy Chronicles, Final Fantasy Anthology and Chrono Cross. They're rare to come by, but I don't believe they go past $25 for a used copy.

[Stephen]

FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10, FF Tactics, Legend of Legaia, Legaia 2 Duel Saga, Legend of Dragoon, Vagrant Story.

[DragonSlayer]

Id suggest ff9, its definetly the best final Fantasy to date. Also Tos is a good choice, I actually think it came out for the ps2 first in japan. anyway Legend of Dragoon is a good suggestion too but out of all of these I'd still pick Final Fantasy9

[Puritan]

You could also get the Final Fantasy Anthology for old-school Chrono Trigger goodness, or Chrono Cross for even more Chrono goodness from Square-Enix, both of which are classics. I would also second the Final Fantasies, I'm a fan of FF8 myself.

[Steeltemplar]

For the Cube, I would hearily recommend Baten Kaitos. It's unique card based fighting system is rather engaging. Don't know how much the game costs these days.

[Gypsy]

Any of the Tales series is good, same goes for any of the FF titles. Lunar and Lunar 2 are a little harder than a lot of rpgs, but I thought they were great. And like Ark said, Legend of Dragoon is fun too.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

You could also get the Final Fantasy Anthology for old-school Chrono Trigger goodness

Anthology is a bundle with Final Fantasy 5 and 6 (6 is my favorite <3). Final Fantasy Chronicles was FF4 + Chrono Trigger

Final Fantasy: Anthology It's 13 bucks. This is a MUST buy for ever RPG fan (Mainly because it has FF6 lol). I would also recommend Final Fantasy 4, 7, 8, 9, Tactics, and the Chrono Games.

[everdred12a]

Star Ocean 3 (aka Till The End Of Time). It's $20 bucks new (greatest hits) and even cheaper used. There's always an abundance of used copies at the Gamestop I go to, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. Many other people also like the other Star Ocean games (which I haven't been able to find), so those are probably worth checking out as well.

[DragonSlayer]

Many other people also like the other Star Ocean games (which I haven't been able to find), so those are probably worth checking out as well.

Yup, I've played Star ocean 2, :The second story, And its pretty awsome, thoguh I havnt beaten yet.

[Nate]

Star Ocean 3 (aka Till The End Of Time).

This game isn't the friendliest game in the religion department, be warned. Let me put it this way. I had no problems with FFX or FFT (which I hear some Christians denounce for its anti-religious themes), but I had a lot of problems with Star Ocean 3. So take that as you will.

Dragon Quest VIII is good, and I also highly recommend any Final Fantasy titles EXCEPT X-2. Don't waste your money on X-2. It's a fanservice fest and isn't any good besides.

I also recommend the Wild ARMs games.

Gamecube doesn't offer much in the way of RPGs, so I can't give you suggestions there.

[everdred12a]

This game isn't the friendliest game in the religion department, be warned. Let me put it this way. I had no problems with FFX or FFT (which I hear some Christians denounce for its anti-religious themes), but I had a lot of problems with Star Ocean 3. So take that as you will.

Thanks for pointing that out, Kaemmerite. I probably should've put some kind of disclaimer or something.

[TriezGamer]

I second the Legaia suggestion -- very intriguing series. Love Duel Saga's art style, too.

Also, I particularly liked Grandia II (some central religious thematic elements though). Haven't played Grandia or Grandia III yet, though.

I had no problems with FFX or FFT (which I hear some Christians denounce for its anti-religious themes), but I had a lot of problems with Star Ocean 3. So take that as you will.

Kae, would you mind PMing me with details about this (SO3)? I don't mind spoilers.

[MasterDias]

I'll stick in a recommendation for Skies of Arcadia: Legends which I haven't seen mentioned.

As for Star Ocean 3, I found that particular plot twist more over on the amusing side of things rather than offensive especially considering it wasn't executed very well.

[Stephen]

I second the Legaia suggestion -- very intriguing series. Love Duel Saga's art style, too.

Whoa. Another Legaia fan? Man. Here I was thinking there was like 4 of us....

[jon_jinn]

thanks for the suggestions. i just got Tales of Symphonia. It's an excellent game. The cashier even said that it was an awesome game. It seems like I'll be hooked on that game for a while...

[Myoti]

Indeed you will. ^_^

I second on FF Crystal Chronicles (though I never played with friends... but the final battle is incredible!) and Baten Kaitos. Good games.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I do NOT recommend Crystal Chronicles. I LOATHE that game with a passion. The only reason it closely resembles final fantasy were some enemies that were from previous games. The game is long and repetative. Multiplayer REQUIRES Gameboy Advances and that special link cable. Why can't you simply use a regular controller? Supposedly to see stats on the GBA screen? Big whup, why not just have then on the TV screen instead. Singleplayer is a TOTAL bore. There is this circle that is around you that you are not allowed to exit out of. In single player you have a moogle flying around with this crystal/urnthat emits some "special forcefield", but it gets tired easily. In multiplayer, someone HAS to carry it, so when they want to fight they have to drop the crystal/urn, fight, then pick it up.

[Tommy]

I second MSP.

The game is awesome, but it gets old because that "awesome" repeats over and over and over until it becomes "not awesome".

Worth a rent, though.

[Kkun]

Dragon Quest VIII is super rad, Kingdom Hearts is super rad, Kingdom Hearts 2 is about to come out and it's going to be mind-blowingly rad...I think.

As for older games, if you can hunt down copies of any of the PS1 Final Fantasies, I think you might enjoy those. Also, Final Fantasy X for PS2 is great. I wish I had more to say on this subject but I stopped playing RPGs for a while.

[jon_jinn]

oh yeah. i have kingdom hearts and i'm really excited about kingdom hearts 2 cause it's coming out soon.

[Nate]

Kingdom Hearts is super rad, Kingdom Hearts 2 is about to come out and it's going to be mind-blowingly rad...I think.

Kingdom Hearts and KH2 aren't role-playing games though. Granted, they have some of the mechanics of role-playing games (experience points, armor/weapons, and the like), however I think it would be more accurate to call the Kingdom Hearts games an action-adventure type game.

If most people seem to call Kingdom Hearts an RPG, it seems to share an odd quirk with another title that is not an RPG but has absorbed the label somehow...that game being the Zelda series.

Calling Zelda or Kingdom Hearts RPGs is like calling NFL Blitz 2006 an RPG. In fact, EVERY game would be classified as an RPG in this sense. After all, in Super Mario Bros, don't you assume the role of Mario? Aren't you in fact playing the role of Mario in his quest? Then wouldn't it be an RPG?

Some may see it as splitting hairs, but I think RPG as applied to console games should apply solely to games with text based battle systems, something which Kingdom Hearts does not have. After all, if you want to use the "experience points" aspect as an RPG qualifier, then boxing/wrestling games would be RPGs, since there are some of those games that allow you to earn points and use them to improve the attributes of your wrestlers...and I hardly think anyone would consider those RPGs.

Thus, Kingdom Hearts is not an RPG, and should not be treated as such.

[Lynx]

i'd have to say the "cream of the crop" of the ones mentioned are the chronos, final fantasy (im a 10 fangirl myself), and kingdom hearts. that's just my opinion.

i also love the shin megami games, but they're rated M for a reason, so im not recommending them to you specifically jon_jinn, but any of you who dont have issues with playing games that are a bit less then clean and have religious plots, i'd recommend it!

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Worth a rent, though.

Definately, It's a good game to rent or try out. But I personally really don't like it.

[MasterDias]

Kingdom Hearts and KH2 aren't role-playing games though. Granted, they have some of the mechanics of role-playing games (experience points, armor/weapons, and the like), however I think it would be more accurate to call the Kingdom Hearts games an action-adventure type game.

If most people seem to call Kingdom Hearts an RPG, it seems to share an odd quirk with another title that is not an RPG but has absorbed the label somehow...that game being the Zelda series.

Calling Zelda or Kingdom Hearts RPGs is like calling NFL Blitz 2006 an RPG. In fact, EVERY game would be classified as an RPG in this sense. After all, in Super Mario Bros, don't you assume the role of Mario? Aren't you in fact playing the role of Mario in his quest? Then wouldn't it be an RPG?

Some may see it as splitting hairs, but I think RPG as applied to console games should apply solely to games with text based battle systems, something which Kingdom Hearts does not have. After all, if you want to use the "experience points" aspect as an RPG qualifier, then boxing/wrestling games would be RPGs, since there are some of those games that allow you to earn points and use them to improve the attributes of your wrestlers...and I hardly think anyone would consider those RPGs.

Thus, Kingdom Hearts is not an RPG, and should not be treated as such.

The character statistics and inherant leveling is what most people use to define an RPG. Kingdom Hearts has an emphasis on both, and you even have a party. Zelda doesn't really have either, but the gameplay is closer to an RPG than it is to Mario or most action games.

What exactly do you mean by "text based battle systems?" Are you talking about a system where you select commands from a menu and watch the result? You do realize that Kingdom Hearts technically has a menu, don't you?
But, regardless, Kingdom Hearts is considered an "action RPG." Mainstream game sites consider it thus, and RPG-oriented game sites like RPG Gamer and RPG Fan cover it whereas they don't cover non-rpg Mario action games or wrestling games.
So you can expect to see KH recommendations in RPG recommendation threads.

Calling Zelda or Kingdom Hearts RPGs is like calling NFL Blitz 2006 an RPG. In fact, EVERY game would be classified as an RPG in this sense. After all, in Super Mario Bros, don't you assume the role of Mario? Aren't you in fact playing the role of Mario in his quest? Then wouldn't it be an RPG?

That's an extremely vague definition of RPG that could apply to anything. I'm not the best person to explain this but to reiterate what I said before, I define an RPG as a game with character statistics, some form of leveling, and usually a system/structure that is at least vaguely based on pen-and-paper RPGs. Under these terms, Kingdom Hearts indeed qualifies. Sports games that feature character stats and wrestling games that feature points to upgrade stuff do not qualify.

[Peanut]

I would recomend Tales of Symphonia...but you already got that game. Other good RPG's on the GC (in my opinion at least) include Paper Mario2, Skies of Arcadia:Legends, and Lost Kingdoms(the first one... I honestly have never played the second one... oh and I might as well add that Lost Kingdom is... well... lets just say that for all the Gamecube exclusive games... Lost Kingdoms definately wins the award for worst graphics) Also, if you have a GBA I recomend that you buy any of the Golden Sun games now. Fire Emblem is good though its kind of a mix between an RPG and a stratagey game... oh and there is also Tales of Phantasia, which is by the makers of ToS... I honestly don't like it as much as ToS but it is still a very good game. Finally, though I have never played it, I have heard really good things about Vagrant Story.

[KBMaster]

I couldn't have said it better myself, MD. KH just isn't a turn-based RPG, it's an ACTION RPG. But anyways.
For the PSOne, I recommend (I know this is going to sound weird from someone over ten) Digimon World 3. It was my first RPG and the card games and auctions were dangerously addicting. I also recommend FF: 7 and 8. I've played each through twice.
KH is the only PS2 rpg I've played, and you already have that sooo....
For the GC, I would recommend Fire Emblem: Paths of Radiance. It's a tactics RPG, but it's a wonderful game. And also I recommend Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. It's a true RPG and it's the only Mario game I've succeeded in. ^^;
I can't recommend any TRUE RPG's for the GBA, but some good tactics RPG's are the two Fire Emblems and Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis(although the latter is a bit hard to come by and is expensive at that).

[Peanut]

I can't recommend any TRUE RPG's for the GBA...

out of curiosity... have you ever played any of the Golden Sun games?

[jon_jinn]

yep. beat both. very fun. probably my favorite RPG for GBA. i didn't find fire emblem to suit my taste.