I Need a New RPG

Just as the title says, I'm looking for a new RPG to play. I don't want any shooters, I don't want a sandbox game, I want an RPG. I also don't want one with a really complicated system like Disgaea, or like the skill system with Suikoden. I loved the .Hack series, so something similar would be nice. Most Final Fantasies I've played through way too many times, now, though, so they're not really an option, but something like them would still be welcome. Mostly, though, I'm looking for a good story, a steady game progression, and likable characters.

Edit: PS1, PS2, or PC please.

Have you played through the star ocean series at all?

Yeah, I've finished 1-3. Hmm, lemme update my signature, and you guys can just look there for all the RPG like games I've finished.

Try PC RPG's. They're more Western in nature, but you can't go wrong with the Baldur's Gate games, Fallout 1 and 2, Morrowind, etc.

Plus they're very compliacted and ubercheap.

There, I updated my sig for all the games I've finished, but really I'm not in the mood for the typical western RPG, either. Usually the stories for western RPGs are pretty bad. Besides, eastern ones tend to have a better feel to them, with more compelling characters and areas, and a more immersive story. I may have played and beaten some Western RPGs, but I never enjoyed them nearly as much as the Eastern ones.

Lost Odyssey is a good game. You might like Chaos World or Dark Lord for the NES as well. Bahamut Lagoon, Live a Live and Treasure of the Rudra are all pretty unique RPGs for the SNES from Square. Check 'em out.

Oh, I forgot to mention. I need one for PS1, PS2, or PC. My other systems are out of commission right now.

Baldur's Gate II has one of the best RPG plots and scripts ever. It's really Eastern-like in many ways.

EDIT: Really, it's quite unlike most Western RPG's due to its focus on plot and characters. There are about 20 characters who can join your party, each with different motivations, alignments, and personalities. Some are crazy, others are noble, others are evil. They will generate conversations with the party based on who is in it and their actions. You can have a party of the exact same characters and still have different dynamics. Your created character is very deep and has a flexible personality, changing his/her role in the plot and ending.

The quests are very open-ended, too. The way you complete them changes the way the world an characters respond to you. Will the good characters leave your party by engaging in the slave trade, having you be shunned by society? Will the evil characters look kindly towards your dismantling of an evil cult?

The plot is downright creepy but excellent. It is related to the first game by a bit, but the game does and excellent job of informing you of the events of the first. Your created is very much the star of the plot, and his/her personality and role in it is entirely up to you. I have never seen a game that rewards actual role-playing so much more.

The game is also more complex than many of its peers. One thing that I wish eastern RPG's would better incorporate is more statistical flexibility, and BGII does this well without making it feel like a chore. Seriously, BGII trumps almost every RPG, eastern or western, in its sheer size, scope, complexity, and flavor.

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Originally Posted by FFIX Choco Boy

Oh, I forgot to mention. I need one for PS1, PS2, or PC. My other systems are out of commission right now.

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All the games I mentioned were Japan only, so you'd need an emulator to play them in English anyway. :p (Besides Lost Odyssey, obviously)

Anyway, how about Vagrant Story? It's pretty nice.

Breath of Fire III is awesome. It has a lot of likable characters (even a few of the villains are likable in some way) and the story is pretty decent and forgoes much of the traditional "world destruction" story, especially in the beginning.

In the beginning of the game, (much like the other BoF games) you play as a character named Ryu who has dragon powers. In 3 you meet him in a rather surprising way which I will not spoil. He makes friends with two punks named Rei and Teepo. They go around town causing trouble a few times more than what they should and that's when the real story begins.

There are random battles but instead of the flashy camera pans and such of other RPGs you simply meet the enemies right where you stand. What makes this game stand out above some of the other ones are the Master system where you can make your characters apprentices under masters and level up to gain new skills. The fairy colony is another great feature that can't be utilized until later but gives you all sorts of rewards. The fishing minigame is back too and more fun than before. That also gives you some really good items if you play it enough.

The other awesome thing about the battle system is that along the way you get different genes to transform into different dragons (15 in all) but you can combine up to three of them to make a better dragon form.

The setting is much darker than in BoF1 (and BoF2 if you're playing the English versions) but there's plenty of lighthearted moments as well.

Some people say you have to grind levels to beat the game but it's not entirely true. You really just need good equipment and good skills and you'll do fine. The second time I played I beat the game in the low 30s. BoF3 is around 30 to 40 hours unless you do any of the side stuff for a long time.

I'll second Breath of Fire series overall, with II-V getting my highest approval. I'll also second Vagrant Story if you can get your hands on it as well as one of my personal fave titles Xenogears. The problem is, many of these titles are difficult to find nowadays for the original PS1.

So I'll default to Persona 3: FES and Persona 4. Very excellent characters and story and snazzy battle systems.

You also sound like you really like action style RPGs with .Hack and Star Ocean under your belt so I'll suggest the Tales series since they are pretty much the kings of the sub-genre at the moment.

You already shot down Suikoden so I won't mention that... Xenosaga is not too bad if you can get past the half hour cutscenes. :D

Yeah BoFIV is pretty cool too, and I think I should have suggested he play that first before 3 since the general opinion is that 3>>>>>>4 (although I like both about equally).

BoFV is polarizing but it's pretty fun, save system and length aside.

Can't believe I forgot Persona 3 and 4. I'm wondering if I should mention Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2? They're both reasonably challenging but not too overly complicated.

Atelier Iris series is a good choice, but be warned the second one kinda drags in certain points because when you play as Viese she is really only used to gather items to give to Felt.

Grandia is great too (and my next favorite RPG series after BoF). The entire Grandia series outside of Parallel Trippers and Digital Museum can be had on PS1/PS2, but the port of Grandia 2 on PS2 is pretty bad. Grandia Xtreme has IMO the best battle system but the story is severely lacking. Grandia 1 has maybe the best story in the whole series and a very endearing cast (the graphics, music, and gameplay are no slouch either).

I'll be honest and say I'm not a fan of Grandia 3. Too much Squenix influence IMO. However I'm in the minority, so.....

Knights of the Old Republic I and II. They're freakin' amazing.

warriors orochi 2

>>> Valkyrie Profile..:luca:

http://forums.eyesonff.com/[IMG]http...u:/15n87f9.jpg[/IMG]Shadow Hearts 1 on PS2 is a gooden. It has a final fantasy battle system with a skill meter to decide strength and accuracy of attacks. You also visit real places like Paris London etc. It also has a take on summons aswell. Could probably buy it for a few £ or $ nowadays.

There is also a shadow hearts 2 which iliked but never got near to completion.

It also has a lottery mini game where you can win great items or soggy used tissues:|.

They're good games and well worth a try.

http://forums.eyesonff.com/[IMG]http...u:/15n87f9.jpg[/IMG]

I suggest Xenogears and Xeonsaga. They have verry deep philosophical plots and great combat systems.

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Originally Posted by Laddy

Xeonsaga... great combat systems.

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Huh?

Don't listen to this guy, at least not about Xenosaga which is the only one I've played. Combat was an utter bore.

It was really complex, with a combo system, "boosting" system, a cool if somewhat unnecessary giant mech system, and AP system, it was very complex and engaging.

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Originally Posted by Laddy

It was really complex, with a combo system, "boosting" system, a cool if somewhat unnecessary giant mech system, and AP system, it was very complex and engaging.

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From what I recall, it really wasn't as complex as you're making it out to be. In fact, I seem to remember most battles being a fairly straight forward afair. I don't remember making a whole lot of meaningful decisions in battle. It generally amounted to spam an enemies weakness until you win.

Sadly it's been years since I played it so I'm foggy on details, but it was easily one of the worse battle systems I've played. Very slow, low difficulty (except for a few battles I recall that were difficult solely because my levels weren't nearly high enough on the first attempt), and not a whole lot of real meaningful choices to be made in battle. The fact that it also made giant mechs not only pointless but boring didn't win me over either.

Not that I haven't enjoyed a lot of RPG's with mediocre battle systems before (I'm looking at you FFVI), but the glacial pace of Xenosaga's, as well as the poor pace of the story as a whole really wore on me more than others. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend the series unless someone comes in and tells you the later entries are orders of magnitude better and recap the story so that playing the first is unnecessary.

Actually there was quite a bit of strategy in Xenosaga 1's system. There was a special bar that fluctuated between special effects for each characters turn (including bad guys) and you used the Boost system to keep enemies from getting stuff like Critical hit bonuses or you could use boost to makes sure you land on the turn that gave XP/AP/Money bonuses. The combat system itself is not a far cry from Chrono Cross and Xenogears system, where you built up action points with small attacks in a skill tree to eventually utilize powerful deathblows you equip on your characters.

Random encounter combat was pretty straightforward but not as slow as you are making it out to be (that would be Episode 2) and boss fights got pretty chaotic. Hell, Xenosaga had much harder fights than most JRPGs at the time (Cathedral Ship and Ecephalon Dive Bosses anyone?) and it had a pretty rich customization system where you can use points to raise stats, teach accessory skills to characters, and learn ether(magic) skills and eventually teach them to other characters.

The AGWS system is useless for all but the early parts of the game and some later boss fights but it was still fun tinkering and customizing them. Technically they would be useful throughout if the game didn't have some bad exploitation elements in the customization system. Still, they are excellent damage dealers and more importantly, they can take a hit far better than your party would so they still work as temp shields.

I can agree the plot is definetly slow but I feel Eps.1 did better with building atmosphere and narrative than its direct sequel did, which pretty much stripped away everything from Eps 1, replaced combat with a lousy early predecessor to some mechanics SE will steal and use for FFXIII and created a story that has not only been mostly retconned but often felt like you needed a story cheat sheet to make sense of everything.

Episode 3 is easily the best entry in the series because it brought back some elements from Episode 1and for your benefit it does contain a huge summary of the first two games and most of the supplement titles so you can understand the whole Xenosaga universe. It even through in more blatant nods to Xenogears such as the optional super boss in the game being Id's Red Gear. :cool:

The "Tales of" games are pretty fun!

Fair enough Wolf. I haven't played it since it came out which was what? About eight years ago? Never could bring myself to touch it again after I completed it, largely because I'm a lot less forgiving of ridiculously long cut scenes now than I was then. I do remember finding combat to be not that difficult, and really slow though. I can't for the life of me say why, though I have the vague feeling that a lot of battles dragged on longer than I felt was necessary. Perhaps I'm just remembering some of the worse boss battles or something though.

And I'll fully admit that I rarely find games in general to be legitimately difficult, and there are maybe a handful of RPG's I'd say could be described as such without being difficult just because they were grind heavy or had sudden spikes in enemy power levels. So me finding Xenosaga pretty easy wouldn't really be a surprise. I think it was mainly the overall pace of the game that turned me off of the experience as a whole.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

Fair enough Wolf. I haven't played it since it came out which was what? About eight years ago? Never could bring myself to touch it again after I completed it, largely because I'm a lot less forgiving of ridiculously long cut scenes now than I was then. I do remember finding combat to be not that difficult, and really slow though. I can't for the life of me say why, though I have the vague feeling that a lot of battles dragged on longer than I felt was necessary. Perhaps I'm just remembering some of the worse boss battles or something though.

And I'll fully admit that I rarely find games in general to be legitimately difficult, and there are maybe a handful of RPG's I'd say could be described as such without being difficult just because they were grind heavy or had sudden spikes in enemy power levels. So me finding Xenosaga pretty easy wouldn't really be a surprise. I think it was mainly the overall pace of the game that turned me off of the experience as a whole.

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I'm just trying to jog your memory. Random fights are not that difficult, especially once you get the Tech attacks that hit everything making random combat ridiculously fast. Besides the boss battles, the rest of the game is pretty easy which is a bit off putting at times cause the difficulty would fluctuate as you strolled through a dungeon only to get curbed stomp by the boss, but I've come to learn I tend to like this model so its not like I'm not bias. ;)

My other issue here is that Episode 2 was such a bad game that any complaints I may have had about Episode 1 quickly disappeared because they were nothing compared to the sequels problems which is why I usually tell people to skip Episode 2 (especially since a chunk of it got retcon anyway)and just go straight to Episode 3, which is very good game that was ruined by its lukewarm previous installments making everyone lose interest.

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Originally Posted by FFwarden

Shadow Hearts 1 on PS2 is a gooden

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Also; Shadow Hearts: Covenant, it's sequel.

I'll third the Breath Of Fire games and definitely third the Vagrant Story suggestion. For the record. Vagrant Story was the first game I ever got properly, properly stuck on. The fact that weapons develop affinities for their targets but can only have certain affinities or they lose comparability with other targets means you find yourself using a variety of different weapons from spears to crossbows to swords. You can also upgrade Ashley's equipment and combine your equipment so that you can keep some of the affinity that you've earned with a weapon as it becomes stronger. All in all it was the first game in Japan to be given a maximum rating by the top Japanese Gaming magazine which at 5am I can't remember the name of. Still slightly pissed at Square for not doing Vagrant Story 2 yet.

I'll also mention Dark Cloud and it's sequel Dark Crystal. They're action RPGs for the ps2 with a dungeon crawler theme where every time you play the dungeon even if it's a re-run will be different due to the random dungeon generation. I recommend playing them in order, of Dark Cloud first because Crystal is better and will ruin playing Cloud (which was a very good game)

Front Mission 3, this is a strategy rpg for the ps1. Imagine an alternative ending to ww2, the outcome of which means that by the year 2000 humans have walking bi-pedal mechs 50ft tall called Wanzers which can be used in battle as well as in heavy lifting roles. Now, the game provides 2 different main story lines to play through either the Emir (Emma) or the Aliana (Alice) story and the way you differentiate between them can be missed in the blink of an eye. I wish I was kidding but it's one of those if you didn't know it was there, you might never discover the other story line in the game moments. In combat you control just 4 pilots at once, and each pilot will learn skills and abilities depending on what weapon type they have equipped and what body parts their Wanzer is made of. That being said by purchasing or else by forcing enemies to surrender (or by killing the pilot without completely destroying their machine) in combat you can obtain new Wanzers allowing you to shake up your party some. One of the coolest parts of Front Mission 3 is that you can completely customize the Wanzers by giving them new body parts, new legs/hover units etc and all these changes however slight are reflected on the unit. This leads to being able to create many, many new combinations (I am sure considering how many different Wanzers there are in the game, not all combinations have been tried out even now) and for levelling up between fights (which can prove essential since it becomes insanely hard towards the end when you sometimes fight 6 - 12 enemies with just 4 pilots) you have a simulator which can get new levels from an in game internet complete with in game hacking to access hidden areas of the net which can provide either new parts/programs/story information. All in all if you like SRPGs you'd seriously be going wrong without this on your collection shelf.

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Originally Posted by FFwarden

http://forums.eyesonff.com/[IMG]http...u:/15n87f9.jpg[/IMG]Shadow Hearts 1 on PS2 is a gooden. It has a final fantasy battle system with a skill meter to decide strength and accuracy of attacks. You also visit real places like Paris London etc. It also has a take on summons aswell. Could probably buy it for a few £ or $ nowadays.

There is also a shadow hearts 2 which iliked but never got near to completion.

It also has a lottery mini game where you can win great items or soggy used tissues:|.

They're good games and well worth a try.

http://forums.eyesonff.com/[IMG]http...u:/15n87f9.jpg[/IMG]

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Originally Posted by Larahl

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Originally Posted by FFwarden

Shadow Hearts 1 on PS2 is a gooden

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Also; Shadow Hearts: Covenant, it's sequel.

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Shadow Hearts 2 = Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Also the Tissues are not soggy, and they are actually essential to get Seraphic Radiance, why? because without them you will never get the Air Grave stone, no Air Grave stone no level 3 Air Fusion no SR.

monster hunter

Try Grandia! It's cheesy, adorable and has a fun plot and battle system.

The original Grandia was a great game, but I never liked the system for leveling magic, it seemed really broken to me.

You should most definitly play Wild Arms. Im surprised with all those RPG's you have yet to experience Wild Arms. Wild arms 1 and 2 for ps1 and wild arms 3 for ps2. They are my biggest reccomendations to you right now.

Wild Arms 2 is amazing in every sense of the word, and while I did like 3, that game is riddled with so many problems. It's really not very good on a whole. 4 and 5 however are both excelent.

Legend of Mana is an awesome game. Easy to find online as well

Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.

Xenogears

Parasite Eve

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

Wild Arms 2 is amazing in every sense of the word, and while I did like 3, that game is riddled with so many problems. It's really not very good on a whole. 4 and 5 however are both excelent.

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Ugh... you say 3 (which being a good game) is the worst of the bunch... its the only one I have ever played lol.

I didn't read through all the replys so I'm sure some of these may have been mentioned earlier. From the PS2 era of gaming the games that come to mind are Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts Covenant,Grandia, Grandia 2, Persona 3, and Tales of the Abyss. I'm probably forgetting some... hope one of them catches your eye.
Also if you're really that RPG starved and willing to try something new I was shocked how much Dragon Age Origins managed to keep my attention after finally convincing myself to try it. It's different from JRPGs but it's so well done that you just can't help but enjoy it. It should be playable on most PCs by now as its getting a little older.
I also really loved Ys: The Ark of Naphishtim. It's more of an adventure game and has a very old school Zelda like feel.The voice acting is dated and comparable to say Star Ocean 2. But it's a lot of fun.

edit: I have to toss in some more praise for Xenogears as well.