Need some good JRPGs for PS2

[Oppius]

As a PS2 gamer it is hard to accept that 2009 may be the last year for JRPGs, as well as for PS2 in general too. If I had PS3 right now I might playing Resident Evil 5 and Killzone 2. I also beat Persona 4 three times straight and I hope Atlus will make an expansion for it just like what they did for Persona 3: FES. I know new Devil Summoner is on the way but the genre felt pretty dead already in PS2. Maybe I should ask anyone here to know what are good old JRPGs for PS2 that I can find.

Games that I played:

*=Finished

1. Persona 3*
2. Persona 3: FES*
3. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness*
4. Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories*
5. Phantom Brave*
6. Makai Kingdom*
7. Soul Nomad & World Eaters
8. Grandia 2*
9. Grandia 3*
10. Eternal Poison
11. Final Fantasy X*
12. Final Fantasy X-2*
13. Final Fantasy XII*

[SeijiSensei]

I'm a big fan of the Shadow Hearts series, particularly the first and second games. The scripts are quite humorous, and the battle system rather innovative. The best game is the second, SH: Covenant. It has some continuity with the original game, but you don't need to play them in order (I didn't). The third game has more fan service (though the first two aren't weak in that department either), but it lacks the strong characters that make the first two games so great.

It's not a PS2 game, but if you've never played Chrono Cross, I'd recommend that as well. Don't listen to the people who whined about how it wasn't a worthy successor to Chrono Trigger. Cross is an excellent game on its own, and one that pushes the PS1 to its graphical limits.

The Xenosaga series isn't bad, either, especially the first and third installments. It does suffer from the story compression that was required when it was decided there would be only three games in the series rather than the originally-planned seven. This shows up especially in the final installment where a lot of the story is recounted rather than played out.

[Statonxyb]

Tales of the Abyss

Without a doubt my favorite RPG of all-time after FFIX.

[TubZzz]

Kingdom Hearts

[Daniel E.]

Eventhough it has a few flaws, I still think that Suikoden 3 is worth playing.

I hated Suikoden 4 with a passion, but many people tell me that Suikoden 5 goes back to the basics that made the first 3 games good in the first place.

[itisjustme]

I like rpgs with gameplay:

Valkyrie Profile 2: Gorgeous graphics, addictive combat system once you figure it out, Norse mythology, some platform elements in dungeons. Skill system is needlessly complicated but overall the game is awesome.

Tales of the Abyss: Possibly the best in the series, combat, characters and story are all great, Star Ocean 3 wishes it were half that good.

Suikoden 5: IMO the best of the series as well, a few mini wargames in it, combat is pretty dynamic although it's the old random encounter anytime you walk on the map (apart from cities), some pretty charismatic characters, good story flow, etc.

Those are my top 3 jrpgs on the PS2, in that order.

Shadow Hearts 1 and 2 are very good too, and not your usual medieval setting, semi-original judgement ring system.

If you'd like a rpg with gameplay out of the eighties you have Dragon Quest 8 with designs by Toriyama.

If you don't mind 2D then Mana Khemia is pretty fun, dynamic combat system, funny characters, not much of a story but the game is all about alchemy. My favorite out of the Atelier Iris series, recommended.

Radiata Stories doesn't have much depth and combat is mindless button mashing after a while, and it steals the host of characters idea from Suikoden, but it still manages to be rather entertaining. Nothing orgasmic but a 7/10 probably. In the same vein, Rogue Galaxy is pretty derivative and overly long but can still entertain if you're bored.

If you're a fan of old Gundams then MS Saga: A New Dawn is actually decent, you won't see any gundam storyline/character though, just the mechs.

Not always my cup of tea but if you like Action-RPGs there's Dark Cloud 2, Kingdom Hearts 1&2, Odin Shpere, etc

I'm probably forgetting some but those are the ones I liked on the PS2, and I think I at least tried about 80% of rpgs available in english on that system. =P

Of course if you can play japanse games then there's the super robot wars series (even if you don't know much japanese) or older Tales games, etc.

[Bandersnatch]

Suikoden 5 is a must play. Give it a few hours to get started though, it is incredibly story heavy early on, but it is really a fantastic game. A bit on the easy side however.

Shadow Hearts - The first game was better than Covenant imo, but they are both pretty good. I played them back to back, epic.

Valkyrie Profile 2 - Incredibly addicting, I love this series. New DS game in 2 days yay.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - My favorite RPG battle system, very fun, though lacking story

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 - My second favorite after Suikoden 5, same battle system as Nocturne, better story and characters.

Dark Cloud 2 - This game is crack...

And if you are looking for some niche hardcore RPGs:

Baroque - Roguelike. Definitely research before you commit to buying. I loved it.

Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land - A Japanese take on a Western franchise. Always kept me coming back for more.

King's Field: The Ancient City - Slow paced, very atmospheric first person RPG. Death is frequent. The developers just released Demon's Souls for PS3, my import copy should be coming soon!!

[Louki]

Seeing that most of those games you played are rather liked for their gameplay than for their story etc., I'd suggest the Star Ocean series, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time being the PS2 installment and the 3rd game of the series. You don't need any knowledge of its predecessors; you might even enjoy the game much more because you don't know them.
Story and characters aren't exactly original. However, they are not that bad either, most likely you'll be interested enough to play the game to its end. One important point: while the series is set in the far future, you'll spend half of the game on a so called "underdeveloped planet" killing dragons with swords instead of cruising through space with your spaceship. Just keep that in mind.
So what's the selling point of this game? As hinted above, the gameplay, especially the combat system. Combat is real time action esque and has many unique features. While pretty deep, you will learn it fast and most of the enemies at the beginning of the game are easy, while the late game fights are quite challenging.
The length is medium or long. The main story is most likely finished after 30-40 hours of playing, however item creation, battle trophies and 3 rather large and challenging bonus dungeons and 2 unlockable difficulties might hook you for over 100 hours.

While mentioned before I'd also suggest the Xenosaga series. It's pretty much the exact opposite of Star Ocean: the gameplay is rather weak while story and characters are very interesting. This series is pretty much hit and miss, so I advise you to rent the first game before buying it. The feeling is more one of watching a movie with some playable dungeons and fights in-between than that of an usual JRPG. A bit understanding of philosophy and religion are not bad either as philosophic themes are spread throughout the game.
One positive point about the gameplay is that most fights require some sort of tactic to beat. So if you like challenging/tactical fights and a very good story, try it.
The playing time should be around 30 hours per game, slightly more if you do side quests.

Last but not least, a very niche series. It has quite some errors and only appeals to a very specific audience: Ar tonelico. Currently 2 games are released for the PS2. Developed by Gust it features 2D sprite graphics, repetive dungeons and cliché characters. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it quite a lot and it's definitely something you have not seen before. The whole series is very unique, the second part more so than its prequel.
However, the English localization is terrible. Sometimes the dialogues are attributed to the wrong person or genders are changed (Yes, they refer to a guy with "she" and "her"). Last but not least one non-optional fight features a nice freezing bug after its third turn. There is an unofficial fix available, however using it would require you to have a chipped or otherwise modified console. I have heard it's also fixable by codes, never tested it though.
Try it, it only appeals to very few people but if it does to you, you'll enjoy it quite a bit.

[Nosauz]

Earthbound + Mother 3, best jrpgs ever to grace the Super Nintendo, and the united states(only applicable to Earthbound)

[Jan-Poo]

Xenosaga III is one of best RPG i ever played and it's got one of the best OST of all time. It's Yuki Kajiura at her best, more than 100 different musics.
The story is certainly the main point of this series and ep3 is its apex. The problem is ep1 and ep2 have a somewhat weak gameplay, ep1 is 70% FMVs and 30% actual game, this is why it got several negative reviews. ep2 is more balanced however it has one of the worst battle systems i have seen in a RPG. Well actually no, i've seen worse, but still the combo system is really annoying. With EP3 they finally did it right, there isn't any real problem in the game play, it isn't just a lot of FMV like ep1 and as i said the story and the musics are awesome.

[Nochgo]

I'm surprised Odin Sphere wasn't mentioned yet. It is one of my favorite RPG with great storyline, eye candy graphics, and has japanese audio track to boot. The only downfall is that its a bit short compared to other RPGs.

The RPGs already mentioned that I want to second are
Valkyria Profile 2 - renovating battle system, and beautiful graphics. The story isn't so bad either. A Must
Kingdom Hearts - Though it is a mix of disney characters (which wasn't so bad, cause, who didn't like disney as a kid?) and final fantasy, there is a rather deep storyline if you can manage to grasp it, and the battle mechanism is pretty addicting.
Star Ocean 3: Till End of Time - This is also a decent rpg with good graphics and battle system, and the battle trophy system will have you at it for many, many hours.

[TubZzz]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

Earthbound + Mother 3, best jrpgs ever to grace the Super Nintendo, and the united states(only applicable to Earthbound)

Mother 2 i.e. Earthbound is on the SNES and Mother 3 on the GBA... worth a look though Mother 3 is too addictive... pretty deep story too

[Sylphic]

This thread needs more Ar tonelico love.

I also loved the titles that the OP said he finished, and I absolutely loved Ar Tonelico II. Ar Tonelico I was good but flawed. As long as you can get over the dated ish 2D graphics, the Ar Tonelico series is definitely worth your time.

[ACGalaga]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Xenosaga III is one of best RPG i ever played and it's got one of the best OST of all time. It's Yuki Kajiura at her best, more than 100 different musics.

I highly agree with the music! I listen to that Soundtrack quite often as well as the Soundtrack from part 2 (love Jr. theme!!).

Unfortunately I've never played those games... really want to. But my current PS2 is region 2 and my games are region 1. Boooo!

[HayashiTakara]

Ar Tonelico, thats all you need

[Sides]

La Pucelle, Ring of Red, Wild Arms (3, 4, 5 were PS2 and 1,2 were PS), FFT, Front Mission 4, i stop here there is too much on the PS2 to remember. I suggest that you jog down to a store and see what they have still left, get some paper and pen and write it down, go back home search online or post here again and ask for opinions.

[Aquillion]

Since you're a big Nippon Ichi fan, I recommend Chaos Wars, which is not by them but is very, very clearly inspired by their style and shares their sense of humor. It's a massive strategy-RPG crossover between characters from different RPGs... you don't have to know all the various games they're from, but if you're going to play Growlancer or Shadow Hearts, play those first so you'll recognize the characters when they appear in Chaos Wars. Oh, or Gungrave. Or the Shinsengumi (yes, really.) It is rather hilarious having Soji Okita, Princess Anastasia (the Shadow Hearts version), and Grave from Gungrave beat up on an enemy from a random JRPG.

Of course, if you just want RPGs, the Growlancer series isn't bad, and the Shadow Hearts series is very good. And, um, did you leave Suikoden off by accident? Suikoden III and IV weren't as good as the rest of the series (play I and II for the PSX if you haven't), but Suikoden V is quite good. You might also like Ar Tonelico...

[ACGalaga]

Originally Posted by Nochgo

I'm surprised Odin Sphere wasn't mentioned yet.

I second that mention. Odin Sphere is an awesome game!!