Action RPG? Well dammit, now I'm interested. Just tell me: does it play at all like King's Field? As in, is there a lot of exploring, real-time combat, and magic weapons? If it's anything like King's Field, I might just get Dark Cloud 2 and Suikoden III (I don't mind getting both at once, it only pisses me off when both are traditional RPGs ). If you by chance haven't played any King's Field game and you like action RPGs, definitely go pick up King's Field 2 for the PS1. Or, if you can't stand the crappy graphics, get King's Field: Ancient City for PS2. Those are two are some of my all-time faves (so you'd understand why I want to know if Dark Cloud is anything like them).
The Dark Cloud 2 battle system is somewhat like Zelda with random dungeons. You can lock onto monsters with the circle button, melee attack with the X button, and range attack with the L1 + X buttons. You block with the R1 button, and R1 + X will let you pick up and throw objects (including some enemies), and square will let you throw items. There are no magic spells. In between fighting in the dugeons you have to restore/build towns with geostones and items collected in the dungeons. I haven't played any of the King's Field games, so I hope this is enough info for you. B
Star Ocean 2 for PS1 is one that I consider a must buy. Starts out kinda slow, but the game is massive and just really good. A fun battle system with a slew of extra things to do. Vagrant story is alright, but a rental, I think.
Yeah, I've had Star Ocean: Second Story mentioned to me a bunch of times. However, the last three RPGs I played were FF1, Xenogears, and Radical Dreamers, so I want to play something with modern graphics. I might get Star Ocean: SS sometime down the line, but probably not now. I subscribe to Gamespot.com, and they have this nice "game tracker" that makes it easy to remind myself what games I mean to buy. Unfortunately it's been accumulating over about 5 years, so the list is real long... I've got like 20 games on my list, and half of those are RPGs. So yeah, I think I'll just leave Vagrant Story alone, as good as some people claim it to be. I got too many other games to try, and I'll never get to them all as it is.
Come on man, flashy graphics are the least important thing in an RPG... I mean, SNES RPGs are pretty much nothing to look at, and I'd rather play those more than any new crap that comes out.
Oh believe me, I know. Graphics make not the RPG, in fact I think even music matters more. But I just need kind of a breath of fresh air before I dive back into the pile of older RPGs I mean to play. Like I said, I just played FF1, Xenogears, and Radical Dreamers, and actually FF2 before those now that I think about it. Let's look at the graphics in these games: 1. RD really has no graphics, it's all text with a few still pictures. 2. FF1 & FF2 are all sprites, and movement is limited to four directions. 3. XG has polygons, but the characters are still sprite-based. Now, that stuff's fine for awhile, but it just starts to wear on me after awhile, you know?
