Heh heh, glad your not as bitter-sounding as you were in your last post. I remember people saying that the red door in the Woglinde can’t be found again. I doubt that though because, uh, there’s something that change that. Also, there’s someone you can talk to in the Woglinde is supposed to set up for the rest of the game where you can get KOS-MOS some new weapons. Of course, if you didn’t talk to him when you walking down that sterilized hospital of a spaceship, you never get another chance I heard. I could care less. That single part of the game shaked the very foundations of my resolve to get through it. I’ll be darned if I go through it again just to talk to some random dude.
Nope. One good thing about Xenosaga is the Encephalon Dive. You can go back to any dungeon you want, regardless of whether it still exists or not. And you can get some very real items from it.
And Xenosaga did not suck. It was at least, a better game than most crap that’s out there these days. I have yet to play a PS2 RPG that I thought was better than Xenosaga.
Charl: It’s “Wonderful life” with a few tweaks, like being able to keep on playing even after the deadline, marrying Lumina and other stuff that I can’t remember, still with the male farmboy. Not that much improvement but since I didn’t play the original WF, might as well wait for this one.
Of all people. I’m surprised YOU didn’t mention an interest in Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Well, you won’t escape a reccomendation from me; easily the best PS2 RPG currently. Other than that, hmm.
The Shadow Hearts series is surprisingly good. I don’t think you’d be dissapointed.
If you enjoy Tactics RPGs, I’d strongly reccomend Growlanser Generations. 2 is a fun, challenging game with a lot of replayability, and 3, while on the easy side, is a very solid game in every other aspect which makes up for it.
I got to agree about Dark Cloud. Reminds me of the Soul Blazer series (seriously, Square Enix needs to make a new one like NOW). One of the few games I’ve actually played to completion, and I’m notorious for half-beating a ton of games at once. Good graphics, and excellent music. System of leveling weapons is nice, but it kinda sucks that your weapons (except each character’s initial weapons) will be destroyed if you use them too much without using a repair item. As well as the dungeon floors that make you use certain characters (I didn’t really want to level the last two characters, once I got the genie character. Her magic-casting ring was strong, AND could attack from a distance. :hyperven: )
Bosses seem impossible at first, but very easy once you find their weakness.
Can’t even remember the games I paid for to get DC free in some bulk used-game buying offer.
Hah, I knew I was forgetting BoF5. It’ll be a pain in the ass to get it here but I’ll give it a shot.
Right now I only have Xenosaga I and II, but my next purchase will most likely be FFX (Might as well play it already). I also forgot to mention Soul Reaver 2… is Blood Omen 2 available for PS2?
Yes, but watch out: it’s neither BO reborn nor anything like SR. I think a different team made it. You should rent it. And Legacy of Kain: Defiance is available too, if you like the series like I do (rhyme not intended). Don’t worry, LoKD is t3h best of the series.
I agree about KOS-MOS being the coolest female ever. They picked the perfect person to do her voice. She isn’t just that strong in the cut scenes. I’m at the Cathedral Ship and she can kill these wolf type gnosis in one hit in one distance- R-Cannon attack. The only one who can almost catch up with her is Shion with a distance- Spell Ray. Everybody else does about half that at similar levels.
Don’t worry, eventually you will be able to do something called the Enviromental Simulator which will allow you to go to previous dungeons.
Yeah, I already got the E.V.S. I think KOS-MOS’ VA might be the same that did Freya for Valkyrie Profile and Jr. is the same as Brave Fencer Musashi. So far the voice acting has been pretty good save for a few cases in which they sound a bit forced.
I just finished going trough the U-TIC spaceship with Jr. Is it me or is he just a slightly altered Billy Lee Black?
Listen, I would have made that recommendation, but the line about being $15 new and how it’s a crime not to get it when it’s that price just didn’t fit in this situation. Anyway, so, yeah.
Arc the Lad series: 3 good (though a bit easy) strategy rpgs on PS1, with a crappy so called sequel on PS2. Working Designs made the US version of the first 3 in one nice boxset.
Grandia 2: Really only notable for it’s battle system. The plot is a rather generic the church has been lying to you affair. It is often said that the Dreamcast version had better graphics, and the PS2 version has some goofy graphics glitches that turn up from time to time in combat (I’ve seen it decide to stop rendering textures on player characters many a time). The battle system is one of the better time based systems out there, and actions in battle can have significant effects on how often foes’ turns come up.
Actually, there are a lot of good things about Grandia 2; probably the most dissapointing aspect was the combat engine.
Graphically, very amazing. Good 3D graphics, lots of details present, including shadowing, and it even uses a movie engine for its spell animations (Some spells are even short little anime flicks; how neat!). I don’t know how it’s like on PS2 or PC, though.
Musically…amazing. Noriyuki Iwadare is an amazing composer. A lot of exotic sounds and percussion. Amazing battle themes, the whole deal. It’s like the tracks wrote themselves.
Story is cliche, very, very cliche. Such is the truth with all Game Arts games (Lunar, anyone?). But, like other Game Arts games, one thing that sticks out is character development and character interaction. It is top notch; character interaction is a thing glossed over by WAY too many RPGs, but Grandia 2 does the trick, here.
Gameplay is pretty cool. The battle system is a great idea; your dudes vs. other dudes on a 3D field in psuedo real time. The only thing that sucks about it is that it’s waaaaaaaay too easy. Other than that, the travelling can get a bit boring; you’ll wonder why the game couldn’t have been maybe 4-5 hours shorter, cos it begins to get a bit tedious, unless you’re like, in LOVE with the battle system I guess.
Overall, very nice game. Worth it to play through at least once.
Some of the movies are a bit grainy. Well at least on the DC some are. I’m thinking specifically the gondola scene. However, I have heard of the PS2 having some graphical glitches such as the bottom half of movies cutting off, etc.
Musically…amazing. Noriyuki Iwadare is an amazing composer. A lot of exotic sounds and percussion. Amazing battle themes, the whole deal. It’s like the tracks wrote themselves.
Ticking Clocks, SG. Ticking clocks.
Gameplay is pretty cool. The battle system is a great idea; your dudes vs. other dudes on a 3D field in psuedo real time. The only thing that sucks about it is that it’s waaaaaaaay too easy. Other than that, the travelling can get a bit boring; you’ll wonder why the game couldn’t have been maybe 4-5 hours shorter, cos it begins to get a bit tedious, unless you’re like, in LOVE with the battle system I guess.
One of my main beefs with the game was that I thought it was too short. Parts of the game seem rushed.
Yeah, the graphics aren’t that amazing on the PS2 version, but it’s nothing to make you dislike the game (I had bigger lagging problems with MMX7 that were much more frustrating). There are glitches in battles (it slows down sometimes) and in some scenes, there’s a lack of transparency and various other little problems. Deathstryke and 984 already said it anyway, but I never saw the bottom half of movies being cut off.
Even if it’s easy and linear, it’s a generally enjoyable game, at least worth to try. I’d be more enthusiastic about it, but I don’t know… You should visit the shrine just because it’s soooo awesome.
Anyway, so, yeah.