Exclusive US RPG`s (and other titles)

[delb3k]

Hi there,

Recently got myself a US PS2 and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good selection of US RPG`s that cant be gotten in the UK and where to get them from. I`mespecially looking for Xenosaga although i cant find it anywhere at this point! So any other title recommendations most welcome.

Any other games that are also worht a shot that are exclusive feel free to suggest them as i`m looking to catch up on what i missed! (And tips on best place to get them)

[Jusatsushi]

Get Okami... not an RPG per se, but an incredible game.

Other decent games not out yet/coming out:
Grandia III: Average to good plot/amazing combat.
Disgaea 2: If you liked the first, you'll love this.
Radiata Stories: Decent game. Looks lovely, plays a bit like Star Ocean.
Shadow Hearts: From the new World. Not played it, but if you enjoyed the others in the series it may be worth a lookie.
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Summoner 2: Not my cup of tea this series, but others swear by it.
Valkyrie Profile 2: High up on my wants list; just been released.
Wild Arms 4. I've heard great things about this game.
Xenosaga III: One was ok, two was ****, three is supposed to be a return to Xenogears form.

Thats all I can think of right now. Videogames Plus and Tronix come reccomended for getting hold of em. Hope that helped.

[Champloo]

Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner should be out soon and Persona 3 if you like Megaten. Not sure if Kingdom Hearts 2 is out here yet either.

And don't forget that some RPG's that were released here have been pretty poor PAL conversions. Digital Devil Saga 1, for example, doesn't support 60hz from what I hear so you might want to go for the US version. FF X was supposed to be a bit of a botch job as well, go for the US version.

As for Xenosaga Ep. 1, it's a top RPG (still nothing compared to Xenogears) but be prepared for a big dissapointment with episode II, it really will make you cringe. As for Ep. III I havn't tried it, hopefully it's as good as Ep. 1.

[toythatkills]

Radiata Stories

No, no, no! That's a horrible game! Wild Arms 4, however, is amazing. Although that gets a PAL release in a couple of weeks. Grandia 3 I second.

There's actually surprisingly few AAA RPGs that I can think of that haven't had PAL releases. It's certainly nowhere NEAR as bad as the PSone days (there's hundreds of those). Even Suikoden V was out last week. SMT: DDS2 will probably get a PAL release from Ghostlight at some point, as they've released the first.

Growlanser Generations (which is Growlanser 2 + 3) is fairly good.

As was said though, US versions are pretty regularly superior!

[Champloo]

Forgot to say that Suikoden III didn't get a PAL release, I havn't tried it myself, but Suikoden I & II were great so i'm sure it's worth a look.

[NekoFever]

They're not exclusives, but Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts had appalling PAL conversions. Get the US ones and play them in nice full screen 60Hz 8)

[sj33]

Grandia III is a must own. Plot sucks, but the game is so fun to play you won't care.

Got ignored on release because people were too busy comparing it to DQ8 to enjoy it.

[Jusatsushi]

No, no, no! [Radiata Stories is] a horrible game!

Ahh, it's alright. Poorly signposted maybe, but not awful. I only really included it as I was struggling to think of stuff. As you said, we get most of the good RPG's these days, but only after a bloody long wait and usually botched 50hz jobs.

Any road up, it's a good time to have a US machine as now you only have a month to wait for Final Fantasy 12 and Rogue Galaxy goodness rather than the 6+ odd months before it finally comes out in Europe.

[gossi the dog]

In addition to the games already mentioned the following were all released in the US and aren't available in Europe:

Tales of Legendia
Shining Force Neo
Shining Tears
Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
Wild Arms Alter Code F
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness
Romancing Saga
Front Mission 4
Grandia Xtreme

I haven't played most of them so I can't really tell you if they're any good, but from what I can gather if you do miss them you won't miss much. However I would have to recommend Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, whilst it's a step back from the PS1 game with a lot less to do it's graphically gorgeous with lovely cell shaded graphics.

In addition there's also at least one if not two Full Metal Alchemist games and Virtua Quest which are more RPG lite and to be honest not very good.

Re: Suikoden III

It's nowhere near as good as the first two. Probably better than IV and worse than V. If you haven't played it yet V is a much better game and is only about ?20, whilst III is relatively expensive.

Shakey Jake

I can't really see how you can compare Grandia III with DQ. they're both quite different. Anyhow I found Grandia III to be quite mediocre. There's just too much battling against the same enemies whereby you use the same techniques against them over and over. Which in itself isn't a bad thing, but when the battles last for ages it quickly becomes a chore. If you haven't played Grandia II I would play that before this.

[sj33]

Shakey Jake

I can't really see how you can compare Grandia III with DQ. they're both quite different. Anyhow I found Grandia III to be quite mediocre. There's just too much battling against the same enemies whereby you use the same techniques against them over and over. Which in itself isn't a bad thing, but when the battles last for ages it quickly becomes a chore. If you haven't played Grandia II I would play that before this.

Each to their own I suppose - never once did I get bored of the battling, which I usually do with most RPG's eventually.
If you liked the previous Grandia games, you'll like this as it's more of the same.

That said, Xenosaga never really grabbed me.

[Champloo]

In addition to the games already mentioned the following were all released in the US and aren't available in Europe:

Tales of Legendia
Shining Force Neo
Shining Tears
Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
Wild Arms Alter Code F
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness
Romancing Saga
Front Mission 4
Grandia Xtreme

I haven't played most of them so I can't really tell you if they're any good, but from what I can gather if you do miss them you won't miss much.

Well you would be missing a good game if you didn't give Romancing SaGa a spin, it's got lovely visuals and a pretty addictive battle system. Havn't played Legendia enough to judge, but considering the quality of the rest of the Tales series, I imagine it's up there with some of the best RPG's released on the PS2.

[toythatkills]

It's not, Legendia is bad. Tales of the Abyss is out soon, that looks promising.