Board 8 > Which RPGs trapped on the PS1 are worth getting?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Vagrant Story isn't all that great. I couldn't get past the battle system, and the story wasn't enough to compensate for it.

Now Brave Fencer Musashi that's a game

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Actually this reminds me; do we have a precedent yet for an online download shop closing down not just purchases, but downloads of owned games? (Maybe the Wii?) I figure theyll do this eventually, but I dont know if the expectation is another year or another 10 years.

Im kinda hesitant to buy anything else if I dont have enough storage on my PS3 for everything and Im not planning on playing the games imminently.

I can't see this happening too quickly, because then you'll get into legal battles of "But I own this product and have paid for it but have no way to access it at all!"

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Leonhart4 posted...

Now Brave Fencer Musashi that's a game

I had a look and Musashi doesn't appear to be on the PSN store!

Going by pure number of recs here, Suikoden is a top priority. It's hard to decide between all the JRPGs though!

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Thanks for this topic. I think I'll go check around later and pick up some of the RPGs I've been on the fence about, especially those that are expensive to get physically.

I did play Arc the Lad 2 awhile ago. The difficulty curve at the end spikes up considerably. There is a way to cheese it using a specific character and specific piece of equipment (which might be missable - don't remember). I did that rather than grinding, though I'm pretty sure the final boss literally took 4 hours or so using this. At least I knew I wasn't in danger of dying as long as I kept to the strategy. It's probably not a popular opinion but I liked Arc the Lad 1 better. It's shorter and more streamlined, though honestly it just seemed more balanced. Arc the Lad 2 was pretty good though, and worth playing for those that link SRPGs. The other downside about it is if you revisit the same room while exploring, you can retrigger some of the same battles, and they can take 10-20 minutes to complete, which can make exploring a little more annoying if you lose your way like I do sometimes.

If anyone has PS2 recommendations, those would be appreciated too.

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I don't know what happened in Vagrant Story, but at one point the difficulty seemed to spike extremely high out of nowhere. All of a sudden I wasn't doing any damage. Maybe I just didn't understand the battle system, but I had been having a pretty fun time until then, so I don't think that's it.

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Put all the recs together to see what is the most recommended- it's Suikoden II, then Chrono Cross, then Parasite Eve, Wild Arms and Xenogears, then Suikoden. I'll look into all of the ones mentioned to see what looks like my kind of thing, but that seems like a nice mix at least. Thanks again!

Also you can put money on the first one I buy immediately getting a remake announced.

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andylt posted...

Also you can put money on the first one I buy immediately getting a remake announced.

I'm not sure if I want you to buy Suikoden first the most or (given the current state of Konami) the least.

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andylt posted...

Put all the recs together to see what is the most recommended- it's Suikoden II, then Chrono Cross, then Parasite Eve, Wild Arms and Xenogears, then Suikoden. I'll look into all of the ones mentioned to see what looks like my kind of thing, but that seems like a nice mix at least. Thanks again!

Definitely a quality list. I will say that if you play Suikoden II, you absolutely need to beat Suikoden first--not as much for the story, but if you unlock all 108 characters in the first game, you get a special character in the second. And it's super satisfying.

I didn't even know Suikoden was Konami. That explains why the series doesn't exist now, as far as I know.

ChainLTTP posted...

Definitely a quality list. I will say that if you play Suikoden II, you absolutely need to beat Suikoden first--not as much for the story, but if you unlock all 108 characters in the first game, you get a special character in the second. And it's super satisfying.

If there's any kind of benefit there then yeah I'll play 1 first, I don't like jumping in with the sequels first unless they're entirely disconnected.

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Suikoden 1 and 2 are fairly well connected and share several of the same characters. If you plan to play through both, definitely do 1 first. IMO, Suikoden 1 is kind of average as far as RPGs go, though still not too bad and not terribly long too from what I remember. Suikoden 2 is very good.

The other Suikoden games are more loosely connected, and you could moreso play them out of order, though they do have some of the same characters too.

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Just be prepared for the graphics and quality of life in Suikoden 1 - the world map in particular is ugly as sin. You'll gradually come to love the aesthetic (maybe) but even for its time period it's way behind.

Absolutely 100% required for Suikoden 2 though

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A chrono cross remake would be hilarious as hell

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pjbasis posted...

A chrono cross remake would be hilarious as hell

two words

voice acting

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redrocket posted...

two words

voice actingCHA

Fixed that for you

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can I report a post for being triggering? cause that's triggering.

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but also, I, colliding, have a dream

of remaking chrono cross to have an 8 player party with a fully fleshed out narrative and a battle system with more double/triple techs and no element grid

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I was searching on the (US) Vita store just now and I don't see Chrono Cross or Suikoden 2 come up, even when I searched for them. That may not necessarily mean that they are gone from the PS3, or other region stores yet. But you probably shouldn't wait too much longer on buying things if you intend to.

Fiop posted...

If anyone has PS2 recommendations, those would be appreciated too.

Well, you probably don't have as many options compared to ps1 games since a lot of the major ones opted to go the HD remake route I guess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_Classics_for_PlayStation_3

I guess the main ones would be the SMT games.

There's God Hand, and Contra Shattered Soldier I guess. (Haven't played much of either though). If you like survival horror I guess there's the Fatal Frame games and Siren (though I haven't played the latter; note that there's a PS3 remake of it too). If you like shmup games there's Gradius 5 and Castle Shikigami 2 (the latter of which is almost worth it just for the legendarily bad translation/voice acting)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVOZai8cFRI

After that you're kind of getting more into more unpopular or possibly even disliked games. Like there's Suikoden 3 and 4 (ok, 4's the one that's widely disliked. 3 probably has its own fans so it's more mixed). There's La Pucelle, which got overshadowed by the latter Disgaea series (and maybe it will get ported to another platform eventually, since Soul Nomad is soon). There's Grim Grimoire which is Vanillaware but probably their weakest effort and generally I've seem people just say play it for story. There's Grandia 3, which is generally considered worse than 1 and 2. There's Growlanser 5, which is pretty hated and probably not the game that you should play if you want to play the series (particularly since it's just part 1 of a duology). And there's Stella Deus, which I haven't played (actually the only ones of these I've played are La Pucelle, Grim Grimoire and Growlanser 5).


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Having looked into things more, I'm still not sure what to get!

Alundra seems decent (and the music sounds rad), but multiple places have talked about how difficult it is, and I'm not sure about the combat. Front Mission 3 seems cool and I like SRPGs so Arc the Lad is an option too but that seems like a big time investment for its 'decent' reviews.

Chrono Cross is beloved but also hated by a lot of people, and I can't tell which way I'd land on it. Vagrant Story seems like it's in the same boat, some people love it but others are completely 'eh' towards it.

I really dig Parasite Eve's vibe but a lot of the tank control survival horror-ish games from that era play pretty poorly these days (I don't know if this game has tank controls but it looked like that kinda game from the bits of gameplay I've seen).

Saiyuki: Journey West looks very reminiscent of FFT but it only reviewed ok, and Wild Arms has a lot of recs here but the 3D graphics look... pretty bad and idk there's already so many JRPGs to consider!

I was going to get Xenogears and Suikoden 1+2 already but then I saw people elsewhere hoping for a 'farewell' sale for the PS3, not sure how likely that is but I'm not in a rush and I don't think they'll cut games off the store until the end now, so hmm...

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Grab the first Grandia too!

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andylt posted...

then I saw people elsewhere hoping for a 'farewell' sale for the PS3

Is there evidence they'd do this? I'm not sure it would make a lot of sense from a business perspective. It's already the last chance to buy so that's already going to grab headlines and motivate people to buy. Clearly they want people to buy from PS4/PS5 stores anyway. I'm not even sure if PS3 and PSP have really been included in any recent sales anyway, at least the last times I've checked (someone feel free to correct me if this has happened).

I'd think buying sooner would make more sense, in case some publisher decides to remove a game early for no reason, or if there are technical issues or something. At least for the games where physical copies are really expensive.

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most_games_r_ok posted...

Grab the first Grandia too!

Grandia is on Switch too so it's not a priority, but I wasn't aware until I looked it up just now so thanks!

Fiop posted...

Is there evidence they'd do this? I'm not sure it would make a lot of sense from a business perspective. It's already the last chance to buy so that's already going to grab headlines and motivate people to buy. Clearly they want people to buy from PS4/PS5 stores anyway. I'm not even sure if PS3 and PSP have really been included in any recent sales anyway, at least the last times I've checked (someone feel free to correct me if this has happened).

Yeah I doubt it but figured it'd probably be fine to wait, I checked and the last sale that these PS1 games were in was Feb 2020 or so. IDK, maybe I'll get some of them early like you say to be safe.

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Parasite Eve has 3D controls, but the sequel has tank controls.

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Alundra isn't really any more difficult than a zelda game in terms of puzzles, outside of one puzzle that's hard enough to gain a degree of notoriety. Though it does have more focus on timing based obstacles and platforming than a zelda game would have.

I guess I should mention that you forgot Shadow Tower and Vanguard Bandits. Although I guess the former's mostly only interesting if you're interested in the history of From's games, and the latter is another srpg that was localized by Working Designs although I haven't played it.

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I'd highly recommend Parasite Eve. I just beat it back in November and thought it aged pretty well. Gameplay is unique and the story is quite good. Also, there are NO tank controls.

I'm in the minority here, but I think Suikoden 1 is better than 2. I played Suikoden 1 for the first time in 2011 and found it fun and well-paced. Suikoden 2 dragged by comparision when I played it in 2015.

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