Current RPGs

[AaronChance]

Dark Cloud 2 is the only one of these I've played besides SOA and I think it suffers a little of too much / too long. Right now I'm on the seaside dungeon with a ton of rooms left to clear and little to no motivation to do so, especially when I need to kill special monsters to level up my weapons now and I won't even see those monsters for at least two chapters.

The invention thing is a nice idea, but in practice it seems like 90% of the picture combinations yield nothing. Golf is fun, but you can only do it after you clear a level and because it's random some times the shots are either impossible or way too easy. I also keep getting stamina drinks for prizes instead of something useful. Fishing is okay once and a while, but catching fish is gets dull quick and I don't care enough to try breeding them.

I'd like to do something other than dungeon crawling, but the way the game is set up that's the only thing I can do at the moment. Off to the shame pile it goes, though it brought me at least 20 hours of fun.

I've abandoned it in favor of Atelier Lillie, which being more simplistic in some ways, at least never restricts me to doing one thing. It doesn't have dungeons that take forever to clear either.

[Thief Silver]

Right now I'm playing Suikoden III, which I'm finding very enjoyable, and from what I hear I need to play I and II.

I say you should try Granstream Saga >.>, nice little RPG long forgotten, I don't know how people feel about it, but it's well worth 5 dollars.

Kartia for a nice Strategy RPG >.>, well worth 10 bucks.

FFX yes, it's good the first time, but due to unskippable cut scenes, I'll never play through it again.

I still need to stry Shadow Hearts >.>, ever since Despair has constantly ranted on about it, I've wanted to play it.

Grandia 2 had a great battle system, great music, decent story, low difficulty, and semi-annoying voices. I personally loved it, though as every game could be, it needed some tweaks. It also needed a harder/less fruitier boss.

Kingdom Hearts, I found to be great, and I anticipate Kingdom Hearts2 whatever it comes to be known as. The battle system was fun, the A.I. needed a few tweaks, but it got better. The only thing is, the first time through I pretty much got everything, (I played it on Expert first time through as well) So it's a bit too easy.

A lot of good RPGs are coming to the GBA, Megaman Battle Network series are a set of good RPGs. Golden Sun, is some of the Best RPGs I've ever played on a Handheld, and overall. Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are probably good as the others were, assuming you have patience, and care for Pokemon games. Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced is probably a great strategy RPG for the GBA, though I still need to get it. I can't recall many others, Phantasy Star Collection is nice and all, though it's missing Phantasy Star 4 which is overall the best of the series.

Anyways those are some of my random impresions.

[Kidnemo]

Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Grandia 2 looks okay from what I have seen.

Grandia 2 was decent, but the cardboard story/characters were a big part of me not finishing it. About 15-20 hours in I just turned it off and haven't played it since.

Suikoden 3 very much interests me since I loved the first two but many people say it's not as good as the PS1 games.

I couldn't stand Suikoden 3. I'm going to give it another try one of these days, but there is no way it compares to the first two games. Check my Suikoden 3 thread if you want to see my rants about it.

Final Fantasy X seems quite good from the demo. I have always enjoyed FF games(including VIII) so I'm sure I will like this one.

FFX is my favorite non-snes FF game by a mile. It's just such an enjoyable game. Awesome battle system, enjoyable characters (wakka!), and really well design locales. I can't see how you wouldn't like it especially if you were down with FF8.

Xenosaga is must-play for me since I loved Xenogears although it sounds like it didn't quite live up to expectations.

I'm excited to try saga, but I've been reading some of the same comments about a snails pace in saga that were prevelant in xenogears. I'll pick it up, just not super high on ye olde list.

The demos of...Wild Arms 3 were okay but I don't have interest in buying the games.

Wild Arms had a lot of great things going for it. A very repetive story (going to town, to to temple, repeat for 15 hours) and battles that didn't have a good vareity of enemies shelved this about 15 hours.

Then there's .hack and Breath of Fire...too many RPGs to keep track of.

I was probably about the most excited that you could be about .hack without importing it. .hack being a dungeon crawler at its heart, you'd think it would have a solid battle system. Sadly that's not the truth. One of the few games I've returned in the last five years.

BoFV looks like it is going to be great. BoF4 is one of my fave rpgs of all time, but for the last couple of months I've been in a "video game funk", so I haven't been playing much of anything. As soon as I get back into the 'groove' BoFV will be the first thing I start playing.

You might also want to check out Dark Cloud 2, I never played the first game, but the demo seemed really good.

[xS]

Originally posted by soundwave
I remember those halcyon days of 2000 when I played Chrono Cross, FF9, Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, Grandia II all within the same 2 month period and for me Skies came out on top.

Valkrie Profile and Eternal Punishment were also released back then.....

Anyways my thoughts on the recent rpg's....

Grandia 2: Genuinely fun to play, lacking in story.
Skies: lackluster and uninspired
FFXoop
Okage: shallow, but funny
BOFQ: It's a love/hate game... it's very forward thinking and all, but it can be very frustarating at the same time.
Xenosaga: so far it's a very good prequel/remake..... IMO Namco should have brought tales of destiny 2 instead.
Suikoden 3: Not as good as 2, but better than the original. Best RPG in this generation.

Sayuiki JW and Tales of Destiny 2(us) were released very recently, I'd recommend that you check them out.

[Tojo]

I think I'm gonna give Shadow Hearts a try. Thanks Despair.