Tactics Ogre (PSX port)
A predecessor of the “tactics” games.
no there were plenty of tactic games on nes before ogre tactics even came out. like fire emblem, and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. sd gundam. most of them were japanese only, though u can dl them in english.
The story gets somewhere…kinda, but it’s not exactly gonna blow you away. The only fun I had in that game was mixing dragon genes. BoF games are good in terms of length though, not too long.
Anyone else play the SaGa Frontier games for PSX?
SaGa frontier 1 and 2 are great.
I think Evargnug was talking about 3/4 perspective SRPGs before FFT made them popular.
Secret of Evermore is worth playing. The game got a lot of hate, but very little of that hate is justified. Plus you get to hear Jeremy Soule’s first soundtrack.
I really, really, really wanted to like Tales of Vesperia, but it falls into the trap too many Tales games fall into: interesting premise and great characters destroyed by ridiculous out-of-nowhere plot elements (did Vesperia really need an Eldritch Abomination? really?) and questionable (at best) gameplay development decisions. If I had to suggest a Tales game, try Eternia, which you can import from Europe on the PSP (in English) and find on the PS1 (under the title Tales of Destiny II, which has nothing to do with Tales of Destiny 2 for the PS2).
Did Black Sigil come out yet? Is it any good? I want to see a North American take on a CT-stylized game, and Black Sigil has been looking like one for a while.
Dr. B is always level 100 in any RPG he plays, unless it’s Disgaea, which he doesn’t play because Dr. B doesn’t play shitty J-games that are in love with their whole J-ness.
Disgaea is one of the best RPGs around. You broke my heart a little bit with that statement.
Watching my brother play it, I get the impression of a series where its writers try WAY too hard to be funny with mixed results and where insane levels of grinding are encouraged (kinda like an MMO, but single player). Your mileage may vary, of course, but I wouldn’t call it the “best” anything.
Dr. B can beat level 9999 characters while at level 1.
^ who the heck is this dr. b guy anyways the end of every post is like a “chuck norris fact” about him 
tales of vesperia has a lot of flaws but it’s a good game. theres a LOT of content (titles, costumes, sidequests) and the game does a good job of presenting the player with different challenges. the voice acting is good and the world/characters are decently fleshed out. weaknesses are story (the story events by themselves are interesting enough, but for some reason the overall plot feels “standard”) and too much “traffic” between point A and point B. its definitely worth playing though, and since its only $30 you get a lot of gameplay hours per $.
has persona 2: eternal punishment been mentioned yet? imo everything about the game is awesome (especially the music) except for 2 things which make me unable to finish it. first, its too way grindy for me and second there is too much traffic to the point where the “no random encounter” skill is almost a necessity. its definitely worth checking out though, especially if you have some tolerance for repetitiveness.
It seems like a whole lot of grinding at first, and the first few hundred levels are. There are lots of ways to increase the amount of XP you get from monsters and certain places to just smash your way through a horde of enemies and get a couple hundred levels each pass. To beat the actual game you only need to be around level 200 or so.
Disgea is great because the levels have a random puzzle aspect that is always new. I think the game needs more weapons and items considering how long you can potentially play it, but there are all kinds of classes to explore and make. The only disappointing part about the game to me is that it takes way too much time to beat the “real” boss. I remember being in awe at my buddies 70+ hr FF7 data’s. Disgea gets into the 400’s.
Dr.B only levels up to spare other people’s feelings. He can beat any rpg at the title screen.
rpgs in general have never been that popular, cause americans are idiots that like anything shiny.
What the fuck man, I beat it at level 60 or so Laharl + Ronin and everyone else about 20 levels lower.
However, grinding is grinding, regardless of how fast it is. I’d rather have a strategic/tactical change take precedence over the sheer, raw power of grinding.
Really? I could have sworn the last boss was like level 170ish? Maybe I’m thinking of a different game.
Didnt read whole thread, but the Shadow Hearts franchise is criminally underated. Great story, engaging battle system, great music, creative setting by rpg standards, and its absolutly hilarious. I’ve never seen humour in a video game done so well.
(2 is by far the best too)
I loved disgaea for PSP.
Pretty sure the final boss was level 100. I think the second last boss was like level 80 or something.
Then the next set of bosses are waaaaaaaay higher levelled than that.
I think Shadow Hearts is overrated by people that have played it. Maybe they just really really really like praising it, I dunno.
Wow, some people dissed the soundtrack for Xenogears? That is just wrong. Yasunori Mitsuda did great soundtracks for both Chrono’s, Xenogears, XS Ep1, and some others I can’t remember now. He is doing the soundtrack for the new Wii RPG Arc Rise Fantasia too.
Anyway, here are some RPG I would recommend:
Grandia:
The game is very enjoyable with decent characters and good story, good music, and great battle system. Could somewhat customize the characters with whatever elements and gain new attacks. Unfortunately, I only finished this game with gameshark. I do want to find this game again though, since the first time I only rented.
Grandia 2:
Probably one of my favorite RPGs every and my favorite one on the Dreamcast. Characters and story are pretty good and entertaining, music is great, and battle system is once again great. The mana egg is different in this game, since they contain preset skills to learn. However, it still works and you can give your characters some customization.
Persona 3 FES:
I’ve been playing this one for a couple weeks now, and it is great. The battle system is simple, but hard to master. Since the game is more dependant on elemental strengths and weaknesses. The game rewords both players and enemies for successfully exploiting any weaknesses. This game is perfect imo for those that want to get into the SMT series.
Xenogears:
The game’s battle system is good, music is excellant, and the characters and story are really great. It is cool that the graphics are a mix of 2D and 3D, but feels a little rough. The only other thing that is bad in this game is the direction on disk 2. Overall, the game is great, and it is better to read PW to understand everything in XG.
Final Fantasy VII:
I won’t say much about this title that is already said. However, it has decent graphics, great music (nothing less from Nobuo Uematsu), pretty good story and characters, and great battle system.
Final Fantasy IX:
This is probably one of my favorite FF game, even though I still need to beat Necros the final boss. The graphics are very solid with good animation, music is great (again Uematsu), very entertaining story and characters, and good battle system. The only negative with this game that I view is that there is not as much customization as some other games.
Final Fantasy X:
This was my first FF game I played. The graphics are good, music is excellant, and characters and story are pretty good. The battle system might be turn based, but it is better overall. I love the fact the Sphere Grid system is not a traditional leveling up system. You could also not us it. The only real I had was that travelling the world of Spira is ftmp linear w/ no ship travel till much later. Otherwise, it is a solid game.
Baten Kaitos:
I really love the presentation for this game, that of a story book or something like that. The graphics are solid and colorful w/ good animation, music is great (done by another of my favorite music composers, Motoi Sakuraba), great story and characters, and the battle system is great and interesting. Another thing that is interesting is that you don’t level up in battle. It is up to the player to decide if they want to level up or not.
The menu for the battle is displayed with cards instead. The battle system uses a modified form of Poker, w/ a huge importance of elemental strengths/weaknesses. Take that into consideration along w/ different hand rewards will change the number for damage/defending/healing/etc. So if you have a general grasp at Poker, you should do just fine. Overall, Baten Kaitos is solid RPG anyone should check out.
Baten Kaitos Origins:
Alot of the things that I liked in the last game apply here too. The battle system is different though, but still uses cards. The battle system is run on an ATB type system. All three characters share the exact same deck, but you can make more than 1 deck and use for different occasions. Managing the cards in your hand is far better in this game than the last. The system no longer uses the modified Poker system from the last game. Instead it uses a more combo focused system, with Magna Burst and Relay Combo mechanics to held enforce that change. Overall, Origins is another great fun game and this is the one you might want to check out first before the first game.
Quest 64 is one game I am playing as well and am close to finishing. The game does have potential with its battle system. However, the game is really imcomplete. One, there are some places which are unexcessable. Two, the camera is terrible. It is ok when not in battle, but in battle it is terrible. For the difficulty, that is dependant on what element or elements the player focuses on. I believe from easiest to hardest it goes like: water, earth, wind, fire. Give or take. I would rent it at least and give it a shoot.
Legend of Legaia is a great game, I never finished it though. I was so stupid in selling the game and its sequal (which wasn’t as good). If I find it again, I’m going to seek it out.
Can some of you guys help in finding a Tales of game that is good? I tried my best to really like Symphonia, but I really don’t like that game. The battle system is great, since it is like a fighting game or something like that. However, the music somewhat annoyed me and the story and characters not really good.
Disgaea was awful.
the lack of lots of golden sun mentions in this thread is disheartening. It was THE rpg to get on the GBA, and hopefully it’ll be THE go to RPG on the DS (announced today!) It was the perfect game to take with you, and i still play it on my ds (god, the backlite makes the game go from looking awesome to looking beautiful).
Now, if you played one pokemon then you’ve played them all, but if i had to recommend one, the new Heart Gold and Soul Silver games would be it, it’s the best pokemon adventure remade.
Other RPG’s that i think you should check out (or are worth playing)
-At least one of the more modern tales games (Abyss or Vesperia)
-FF4 is a great game to play if you want to get raped (no really, normal enemies are beast)
-FF6 is probably THE definitive final fantasy that should be played. Most games that came after only hold a fraction of awesome 6 had.
-Super Mario RPG. I’m surprised this hasn’t been rereleased outside of Virtual Console. everything good you hear about it is true, everything bad is false.