I don't even know if I can run all these games on my ps2 emulator, but I am bored and I need something to play!
The games I am thinking about right now that I haven't played are:
Shin Megami Tensei
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
I know there are many more rpgs than this, but I saw these 3 were pretty highly rated. PS2 RPGs that I have actually played at this time include the kingdom hearts games(well I didn't play them, I watched my friend play them), Dragon Quest 8, FFX, FFX-2 (sorta played it.. don't really want to again), Star Ocean Til the End of Time... and probably some others I am failing to think of lol.
Oh... and a random requirement: I can't play any game where you HAVE to use an analog stick... since I can't do that with my keyboard.
Oooookay, ty! Help me out!
P.S: Don't ask me about PS2 emulator in this thread.... *cough*
Tactics is super fun. Turn based strategy RPG, sort of like chess with magic spells and stuff. Disgaea works with the same mechanics, just different characters/story line.
It's probably my favorite genre of video game, so I recommend those! So much fun building your team exactly how you want it and crushing the competition.
If your comp can run sc2 fine then most games will probably work. Rmb to try turning on some of the speedhacks packaged with the emulator.
I'd go with the Shin Megami Tensei series. If you havent play the persona series try it out! P4 anime coming later in the year.
Ico+Shadow of the Colossus are definitely worth trying (to run), you will not regret it. They can be seen more of as a piece of art than just another game.
Would highly recommend Disgaea and Persona 3/4, though if you're worried about it running on your PC, I'd imagine the Persona games might be a bit demanding.
Disgaea and Persona 4 are probably my two favorite PS2 games, and easily rank within my top 10 overall.
Disgaea has a light-hearted story that holds quite a bit of humor, but the gameplay is easily where the meat of the game is at. You can spend hundreds of hours on this game, even past the main storyline. As with a lot of RPGs, it can start out a little slow, though.
Persona 3/4 are more story driven and both have a great story. It's a more traditional RPG whereas Disgaea is a strategy (grid based) RPG. Persona 3 is challenging, but I personally feel as if the difficulty is a bit forced, since you can't directly control all of your party members and they often make retarded decisions that can screw you over immensely. 4 does allow direct party control, which is why I love the game so much more. I could have been more welcoming of it had I played 3 first, but I started with 4. Otherwise, the gameplay for both is very similar, rewarding with fun boss fights and the story generally keeps you moving forward.
I'd also recommend Front Mission 4. Another SRPG with a passable story, and a lot of weapon customization options for your mechs.
SMT is really good, the first one I played was smt persona 3, it takes a while to get used to, has a pretty cool school sim during the day and dungeon grinding during the night, and zany style of humour. The music in the game is quite nice too. I prefer 3 to 4 but thats just me.
Dont really bother with ff12, its not bad game, but it's kinda meh, it's the type of game you play when you have nothing else to play, took me about 6 months to complete mainly due to the stop start way in which I played it. FFX is okay, at the time I loved the graphics and the story kinda pulls your heart strings, FFX-2 I looked at the trailer and did not even bother.
In general I'm not a fan of SMT/Persona games, I played Shadow Hearts some and didn't think much of it, and I played Disgaea some and thought even less of it (just not a tactically interesting TRPG...which is a problem).
If you want to play RPGs that don't have braindead battle systems, try Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria (mostly same people as Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, but doesn't have a real-time system) or Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.
I wrote a blog post review four years ago about VP2: Valkryie Profile: Silmeria review/overview (edit: you'll have to excuse the wordiness of sentence structure and length, sorry)
Another vote for Disgaea. I've spent so much time on that game. If you are a perfectionist or someone who has to complete every aspect of a game, it'll keep you more than busy. I'm a bigger fan of Disgaea 2, though. I will agree that the series isn't the deepest in terms of intense strategy needed, but in my opinion, the rest of the gameplay makes up for it.
You should really pick up a cheap gamepad instead of using your keyboard to play PS2 games.
Persona 3 and 4 are both great, but they're also 70+ hour games. As much as I liked them, I never finished 3 and had to practically force myself through the final dungeon of 4. Not only are they long, but you'll probably want to have multiple FAQ windows open while you play. They'll both run fine on an emulator though - neither game is graphically intensive or badly optimized (hello Shadow of the Colossus).
Definitely pick up Persona 3 and 4 (I know, this has been said countless times)--the gameplay is really unique (school/dating sim by day, dungeon crawl by night!), the writing's great (real life lols), and the menus are really well designed (okay that may be just me but I like good menus). Also it almost has this Pokemon-ish mindset ("havetogetthemallhavetogetthemall") to it because of all the personas you can get. (Although I know this is not limited to P3/4--all SMTs are like that--but the production value of P3/4 and writing are better.) It is very much JRPG though so if that's not your style you may not like it.
Another RPG could be Rogue Galaxy--same developer as Dark Cloud. My friend played it and loved it. A huge plus is very low load times.
Edit: just saw that it said "rpg" in the title. How embarrassing. Well leaving the below in case you're curious about others. Also for variety (this isn't strictly RPGs, right?)--God of War I/II, Fatal Frame II, and Odin Sphere. The first is low on story but high on action and blood, and as a mythology geek it was cool seeing those characters recreated...and then ripping their heads off. The second is a survival horror game and highly atmospheric. My friend had it and he would literally not play it unless the lights were on, and I was in the room and reading the walkthrough to him. As to why the second in the series, I think the story's best. And Odin Sphere is like a weird side-scrolling action RPG (I guess you could call it that) but has really good art direction and charm. It may lag on your computer though...it lagged on the PS2 sometimes.
On May 30 2011 07:47 Torte de Lini wrote: Wild Arms 3 Oh and my girlfriend loves Persona, the entire fucking series. I kid you not, she won't stop about it.
But seriously: The Wild Arms series is so underrated ):
I just stopped in a little independent game shop today that carries a bunch of old school games (so I immediately love it more than any other chain - I miss being able to buy Dreamcast games) and I happened to pick up Wild Arms 3.
Along with Valkyrie Profile 2 and Heavy Rain. ^^
Travis: Glad you're liking Persona 4, it's such an amazing game and only gets better.
On May 30 2011 07:47 Torte de Lini wrote: Wild Arms 3 Oh and my girlfriend loves Persona, the entire fucking series. I kid you not, she won't stop about it.
But seriously: The Wild Arms series is so underrated ):
I just stopped in a little independent game shop today that carries a bunch of old school games (so I immediately love it more than any other chain - I miss being able to buy Dreamcast games) and I happened to pick up Wild Arms 3.
Along with Valkyrie Profile 2 and Heavy Rain. ^^
Travis: Glad you're liking Persona 4, it's such an amazing game and only gets better.
So jealous D: We have none here in Montreal that I could find.
On May 30 2011 07:47 Torte de Lini wrote: Wild Arms 3 Oh and my girlfriend loves Persona, the entire fucking series. I kid you not, she won't stop about it.
But seriously: The Wild Arms series is so underrated ):
I just stopped in a little independent game shop today that carries a bunch of old school games (so I immediately love it more than any other chain - I miss being able to buy Dreamcast games) and I happened to pick up Wild Arms 3.
Along with Valkyrie Profile 2 and Heavy Rain. ^^
Travis: Glad you're liking Persona 4, it's such an amazing game and only gets better.
So jealous D: We have none here in Montreal that I could find.
Yeah, Vegas is pretty barren too when it comes to small independent shops. Maybe 10 years ago we had a fairly cool chain store called Funco (I think) which was certainly better than the competitors in both pricing and selection, then EB bought them out and it just went downhill from there. When GameCrazy closed, GameStop was pretty much the only dedicated store we had left in town, and I hate GameStop with a passion.
Was pleasantly surprised to find this little store near my new house. They're reasonably priced on a lot of items and a little overpriced on others, but I'll happily eat the difference if it's only a couple of bucks to support the store. Biggest draw for me is that they actually seem to prize collector-ish items; almost all disc based games are still in the original cases and every game I've purchased so far has had the manual (though the Wild Arms 3 and Valkyrie Profile 2 manual are written in/cut up a bit.) They have a fair amount of rare titles I'd pick up at a reasonable price if I were more in a collection mood at the moment. Needless to say I'm very happy to have the shop nearby.
On May 30 2011 07:47 Torte de Lini wrote: Wild Arms 3 Oh and my girlfriend loves Persona, the entire fucking series. I kid you not, she won't stop about it.
But seriously: The Wild Arms series is so underrated ):
I just stopped in a little independent game shop today that carries a bunch of old school games (so I immediately love it more than any other chain - I miss being able to buy Dreamcast games) and I happened to pick up Wild Arms 3.
Along with Valkyrie Profile 2 and Heavy Rain. ^^
Travis: Glad you're liking Persona 4, it's such an amazing game and only gets better.
So jealous D: We have none here in Montreal that I could find.
Yeah, Vegas is pretty barren too when it comes to small independent shops. Maybe 10 years ago we had a fairly cool chain store called Funco (I think) which was certainly better than the competitors in both pricing and selection, then EB bought them out and it just went downhill from there. When GameCrazy closed, GameStop was pretty much the only dedicated store we had left in town, and I hate GameStop with a passion.
Was pleasantly surprised to find this little store near my new house. They're reasonably priced on a lot of items and a little overpriced on others, but I'll happily eat the difference if it's only a couple of bucks to support the store. Biggest draw for me is that they actually seem to prize collector-ish items; almost all disc based games are still in the original cases and every game I've purchased so far has had the manual (though the Wild Arms 3 and Valkyrie Profile 2 manual are written in/cut up a bit.) They have a fair amount of rare titles I'd pick up at a reasonable price if I were more in a collection mood at the moment. Needless to say I'm very happy to have the shop nearby.
Yeah, back in Jersey, we had a store called Funcoland, sold a lot of great oldies that I regret never taking advantage of now D:
I hate Gamestop, I hate most gaming stores, but I hate electronic stores more, sigh...