# Recommend good PS3 RPG games?



## Kzach (Dec 13, 2011)

Just bought a PS3 for my Sony Bravia and I'm looking to get some good games for it. I'm primarily interested in RPG titles. Of course, I know all the big ones like Skyrim, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc. I'm more looking for lesser known titles that still play well and that people have enjoyed. Other genre recommendations are welcome too.


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## Deset Gled (Dec 13, 2011)

Borderlands is a FPS with RPG elements.  You shoot things with guns like a normal FPS, but you get also experience, level up, specialize in weaponry, and choose skill paths like in an RPG.  There are also side quests that give you extra XP and money.

I cannot recommend Ico and Shadow of the Colossus enough.  They're originally for PS2, but have recently be re-released for PS3.  They're not RPGs, but they're pretty much the high point of the gaming fantasy genre.

Since I know you like deconstructing bad media as well as good, you might want to pick up a copy of Lair if you can find it cheap.  It is simply a beautiful disaster.  Luckily, it's also short enough that you can play through it in a weekend and get the full experience.

Out of the RPG and fantasy genre, you should get Katamari Forever.  Every Playstation is better with a little Katamari.


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## jshaft37 (Dec 13, 2011)

demon's souls and dark souls.  very challenging expansive dungeon crawls with an interesting multiplayer element.


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## frankthedm (Dec 14, 2011)

Kzach said:


> I'm more looking for lesser known titles that still play well and that people have enjoyed. Other genre recommendations are welcome too.



Well, What kind of RPGs? FPS interface, 3rd person interface, turn based,  Gridded tactical...etc?

Having the PS3 means you have access to a lot of JRPGs, which can be great, but often have certain... _idiosyncrasies_ which make them not for everybody and downright revolting to some folks. If you have a Gamestop near you, that store normally gives you a week to return a Pre-owned game, so you can try a used game for a week to see if you like it. Pick one out that doesn't look too much like a "Go Directly to Jail" card and try it for a few hours.

EDIT: Just heard about this game that is on the PSN, looks like the series hasn't changed much over the decades...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5xKt_M8zGQ[/ame]


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## Janx (Dec 14, 2011)

Hate to pee in your cheerios, but the PS3 is a lot weaker on RPGs than its predecessor.  Sony dropped the ball pretty bad on it.

My wife loves RPGs.  She loved our PS2.  She loves our X-Box 360.  She does not love our PS3 for the lack of RPGs.

While at this point there are more RPGs, overall the list is far shorter than the PS2 had.

Still there be some good titles. The PS3 version of Oblivion has better graphics rendering.  So even multi-platform titles may be better.


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## GreyLord (Dec 14, 2011)

Hmmm...here are smoe nice ones

Alpha Protocol
Enchanted Arms
Valkyria Chronicles
Resonance of Fate
White Knight Chronicles (I or II)
Star Ocean
Eternal Sonata

Decent ones
Agarest: Generations of War
Agarest: Zero
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (contains Sega Genesis RPGs: Phantasy Star II, III, IV [I believe you can unlock I], Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force I and II, Beyond Oasis.

Not so good

Final Fantasy XIII
Atelier Rorona
Atelier Totori
Disgaea 4
Cross Edge
Trinity Universe
Hyper Dimension Neptunia
Disgaia 3
Last Rebellion

And here's some GREAT ones but there's a twist

Final Fantasy I, II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Grandia, Lunar Silver Star, Lunar Eternal Blue.

Yes, if you can find Playstation I games, the PS3 is backwards compatible with them (but NOT with PS2 games, at least the current PS3 versions aren't compatible with PS2 games).


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## Kzach (Dec 14, 2011)

Janx said:


> Hate to pee in your cheerios, but the PS3 is a lot weaker on RPGs than its predecessor.




I don't eat Cheerios.


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## fba827 (Dec 15, 2011)

*IF* you like really really old turn-based RPGs, you could try "Sonics Ultimate Genesis Collection"
It has: Phantasy Star IV, Shining Force, Shining Force 2. -- those three games are worth it if you like that turn-based RPGs and don't mind the obviously old graphics.

(there are a bunch of other games on there too... some good for silliness, and some bad that are best just ignored....)


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## StreamOfTheSky (Dec 15, 2011)

Janx said:


> Hate to pee in your cheerios, but the PS3 is a lot weaker on RPGs than its predecessor.  Sony dropped the ball pretty bad on it.
> 
> My wife loves RPGs.  She loved our PS2.  She loves our X-Box 360.  She does not love our PS3 for the lack of RPGs.
> 
> ...




Just got a PS3 myself and am a huge fan of JRPGs (but not so much of any of the newer Final Fantasies), and...it sure seems dissapointing.  Just like PS2 was a step down from PS1 (SNES and PS1, man those were the golden years for RPGs...), PS3 seems to have regressed as well, except much much more so...

I'm not even sure I'll get an RPG for PS3, none of the available ones seem that great.  Never getting an Xbox, though.  In the future I may just have to go to portables, I guess.


Greylord, you've played the Altelier games?  Why are they not so good?


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## frankthedm (Dec 15, 2011)

StreamOfTheSky said:


> PS3 seems to have regressed as well, except much much more so...I?



My mistake, I have not been paying too much attention to the specific releases, so I was guessing the PS3 would have had a similar amount to the PS2.

Still I'm tempted to get the PS3 just for Wizardry:LOLS. I really wished i could have gotten a localized copy of the PS1 Wizardry: Dimguil and this looks like a _direct_ decedent in terms of gameplay. Loved Dimguil's creature designs, it seemed like a good chuck of the games monsters wandered out of the far realm. Like this cyclops...


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## Janx (Dec 15, 2011)

StreamOfTheSky said:


> Just got a PS3 myself and am a huge fan of JRPGs (but not so much of any of the newer Final Fantasies), and...it sure seems dissapointing.  Just like PS2 was a step down from PS1 (SNES and PS1, man those were the golden years for RPGs...), PS3 seems to have regressed as well, except much much more so...
> 
> I'm not even sure I'll get an RPG for PS3, none of the available ones seem that great.  Never getting an Xbox, though.  In the future I may just have to go to portables, I guess.
> 
> ...




There are a bunch of RPGs, some of them even good.  Elder Scrolls, Fallout for sure.  Dragon Age is pretty popular.

There's just not as many.  But after 4 years, there's more than zero.

My experience with the PS3 and 360 is thus:
PS3 =  better hardware
360 = better software  (updates are faster to DL, UI and features better)

Actual gamees, for the most part is equivalent.  There's enough cross-platform titles out there to have good games on both.  The nature of exclusive titles tends to be that you get one you wanted, and one you can't have.

I'm not sure the portables market is doing that well.  mobile smartphone games is where it is all shifting.  There are some very good RPGs on iThing that cost a heck of a lot less than on PSP for comparable.

why carry a cellphone and a PSP/gameboy when your smartphone does both.  That's what's killing the PSP and gameboy right now.


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## wolff96 (Dec 15, 2011)

jshaft37 said:


> demon's souls and dark souls.  very challenging expansive dungeon crawls with an interesting multiplayer element.




Dark Souls is one of my favorite games.  Ever. 

That said, do NOT underestimate jshaft37's 'very challenging' comment.  Dark Souls is a really rewarding game with some amazing graphics, a lot of fun replay value, and an incredible world.  Additionally, the game is hard.  DAMN hard.  Kill you, your family, and the family pet hard.  Distant relatives will wake up in the middle of the night and wonder why they're in pain.

It's a game where 90-ish percent of your time will be spent dying.  The other 10% will make you feel like you just conquered Mount Everest.  Barefoot and without oxygen.  When you finally kill some of the giant and ludicrously challenging bosses, your significant other may have to restrain you from doing victory laps around the neighborhood at 2am.  True story.


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## Traveon Wyvernspur (Dec 15, 2011)

I'd have to second the Fallout Games, they are a lot of fun even if they aren't in the typical "fantasy" genre. They are great games and have huge open worlds to explore.

I recently played Two Worlds II, it's a decent enough game, the voice acting is so bad it's funny (which I think it was meant to be). I liked it up until the very last battle, which sucked. The play-through was a lot of fun though, with a lot of cool options available, especially the magical options. I played through as a hack-n-slash warrior pretty much straight up with some thief skills to pick locks, but there are so many different ways you can go about creating and playing your character.

I've heard mixed reviews from Dungeon Siege III - which is a dungeon crawler and will probably end up picking it up soon.

I've heard good things about the White Knight Chronicles (if you get II, I is included so you don't have to buy both) - again I'll probably end up picking up II to get both games and check it out.

I personally love the Assassins Creed games: II, Brotherhood, & Revelations (the first one is like a huge demo and I've not been able to finish it, but the others I had a lot of fun with and finished all of them).

With a PS3, the God of War and Uncharted exclusive series are both must haves. 

I'm probably going to be picking up: Deus Ex: Human Revolution pretty soon, it has good reviews and looks like a fun game. I can't wait for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to come out in February of next year, one of the most anticipated games on my list since I've heard about it.


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## Kzach (Dec 15, 2011)

I've made one unobtanium-coated, irrefutable and inarguable conclusion about PS3 games that may whittle down the field a little: without a pause + aim feature, I have no hope.

Three days of playing through Mass Effect 2 on PS3, a game I've finished a dozen times on PC on Insanity difficulty, and I can BARELY manage getting through on Normal difficulty. The aiming and movement controls are atrocious. It wouldn't be so bad if I could just switch from using the joystick to the movement arrows but there isn't even an option for it.


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## Shemeska (Dec 16, 2011)

Disgaea 3 and 4 are awesome games.


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## GreyLord (Dec 16, 2011)

StreamOfTheSky said:


> Just got a PS3 myself and am a huge fan of JRPGs (but not so much of any of the newer Final Fantasies), and...it sure seems dissapointing.  Just like PS2 was a step down from PS1 (SNES and PS1, man those were the golden years for RPGs...), PS3 seems to have regressed as well, except much much more so...
> 
> I'm not even sure I'll get an RPG for PS3, none of the available ones seem that great.  Never getting an Xbox, though.  In the future I may just have to go to portables, I guess.
> 
> ...




I've never been a big fan of campy Japanese Comedy.  The Atelier games aren't as campy as some of the others (such as Cross Edge), but still have that campiness to them.  Definately not half as bad as Trinity Universe (which about drove me insane, I don't think they even know the idea of seriousness in that game...and Japanese comedy in that vein is just a bit tooo geeky for me).

Atelier is also a different type of RPG...or as I would put it, the Girls RPG.  It's not so much about going around getting more powerful, or going and defeating a bad guy, or even going around with combat or growing abilities...it's more about finding the right ingredients to make the next potion soup.

If you are into trying to find and collect things to make the next item, it's the perfect game for you.  To me it's more about finding things (and not in the explore the map type of way...just simply finding them) and then mixing them with just the right way to make the perfect result.

Sort of like cooking with supplies you have to find...but with RPG elements tossed in.

If you like cooking, this definately could appeal to you.

It also has a lot of Japanese Camp Comedy tossed in, but at least has seriousness enough to not be stupidly ridiculous like Trinity Universe.


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## Tharian (Dec 17, 2011)

Traveon Wyvernspur said:


> I've heard mixed reviews from Dungeon Siege III - which is a dungeon crawler and will probably end up picking it up soon.



My fiancee and I played through this one and had a good time with it.  For us, it was a good story told along with a fun co-op experience, which is our key deciding factor most often.

We're currently playing Hunted together and it's definitely not an RPG but is effectively a shooter with an interesting way of providing co-op play.  This is by the company that made the recent-ish Bard's Tale game for the PS2 among other systems.

We're also considering the LotR-setting game War in the North if we can find it again.  It makes me think of the PS2 game that came out about a group that ran parallel to the main story line but I won't know more until I can get a chance to play it.


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## Steel_Wind (Dec 17, 2011)

Strategy RPG - _Valkyria Chronicles_. Far and away my favorite PS3 game of all time. (And I don't even LIKE Anime)

Skyrim is very cool, but I still prefer _Valkyria Chronicles._


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## Kaodi (Dec 17, 2011)

frankthedm said:


> EDIT: Just heard about this game that is on the PSN, looks like the series hasn't changed much over the decades...




I do not know if I would say that. It looks like this game goes back to the way the old Wizardry games were. I own Wizardry 8, and it has a much more free form world, as opposed to being tile based like this new game. And you can actually see monsters, and move in combat, as opposed to them getting the jump on you and staying still.


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## Janx (Dec 18, 2011)

Kzach said:


> I've made one unobtanium-coated, irrefutable and inarguable conclusion about PS3 games that may whittle down the field a little: without a pause + aim feature, I have no hope.
> 
> Three days of playing through Mass Effect 2 on PS3, a game I've finished a dozen times on PC on Insanity difficulty, and I can BARELY manage getting through on Normal difficulty. The aiming and movement controls are atrocious. It wouldn't be so bad if I could just switch from using the joystick to the movement arrows but there isn't even an option for it.




You just need practice.

There's nothing wrong with the UI for FPS control on a console.  As proven by the zillion of people who kick my butt and I don't suck at it.

There's going to be a learning curve to build up muscle memory on how to move in the game.  I experienced it when I switched over, and when I again switched control layouts.

Don't give up on it.  Don't assume that because you're havng a problem, that the control UI is bad.  The problem is that its different than what you learned.  Everybody else coming in new is just fine with it.


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## Kzach (Dec 18, 2011)

Janx said:


> You just need practice.




No! Really?

On the upside, I just got my WDTV and next week will have my 750GB HDD to install in the PS3. My entertainment system is nearing completion. Soon, the galaxy shall be MINE!


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## Traveon Wyvernspur (Dec 19, 2011)

Tharian said:


> My fiancee and I played through this one and had a good time with it.  For us, it was a good story told along with a fun co-op experience, which is our key deciding factor most often.
> 
> We're currently playing Hunted together and it's definitely not an RPG but is effectively a shooter with an interesting way of providing co-op play.  This is by the company that made the recent-ish Bard's Tale game for the PS2 among other systems.
> 
> We're also considering the LotR-setting game War in the North if we can find it again.  It makes me think of the PS2 game that came out about a group that ran parallel to the main story line but I won't know more until I can get a chance to play it.




That's cool, the only game I could ever get my wife to play with me was the PS2 LOTR: The Third Age game. We played it and beat it together like 5 times. She liked it because it was a turn-based coop and allowed her time to figure out what to do, she won't play anything else unless "it's like that game." You'll have to let me know if the new LOTR game War in the North is like the old ps2 game. By the way is Dungeon Siege III anything like that as well or do you have any recommendations for ps3 games that are turn-based co-op? I picked up Eternal Sonata not too long ago and am going to check and see if that's anything close to what she'd like to try and play with me.


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## Tharian (Dec 21, 2011)

Traveon Wyvernspur said:


> That's cool, the only game I could ever get my wife to play with me was the PS2 LOTR: The Third Age game. We played it and beat it together like 5 times. She liked it because it was a turn-based coop and allowed her time to figure out what to do, she won't play anything else unless "it's like that game." You'll have to let me know if the new LOTR game War in the North is like the old ps2 game. By the way is Dungeon Siege III anything like that as well or do you have any recommendations for ps3 games that are turn-based co-op? I picked up Eternal Sonata not too long ago and am going to check and see if that's anything close to what she'd like to try and play with me.



I'll have to let you know after we pick it up.  It'll likely be the one we go for after we finish up Hunted now that we're into the final chapter.  Road-trip holidays are going to slow down progress in that game, though.

Dungeon Siege III is not a turn-based game.  It's definitely real-time, but the character interactions (among the PCs and with the NPCs) were a highlight for her.  I would more often let her choose the dialog paths instead of choosing myself.  The replay factor is there, too, since we still have a couple other characters to run through the game and learn their stories.

I own Eternal Sonata as well, but we haven't tried it as a multiplayer game in a while.  It shifts from turn-based to almost real-time as the game goes on in default so that might not appeal to your wife, but that might be a setting you can change.  I just don't recall off the top of my head.


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## Traveon Wyvernspur (Dec 21, 2011)

[MENTION=20334]Tharian[/MENTION] cool! Thanks for the heads up about Eternal Sonata, the info about DSIII, and yes, please let me know what you and your fiancee think about War in the North. I might have to go ahead and pick up hunted, even if she won't play it with me because I think it looks fun


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## Tharian (Feb 6, 2012)

A bit of a res for this post but I've been out of town for various reasons the past few weeks and am catching up on things.

We finished Hunted and really enjoyed that one.  My fiancee even commented that she enjoyed the storyline from that one and was hoping to try other things with the game to go for more of the trophies.  This one caught me off-guard since she hasn't shown much interest in the trophies the various games provide.

We received Sacred 2 for Christmas as a gift and looked to try that one next.  Right off the bat, neither one of us got into the feel of the system.  We initially said we'd give it another shot, but we haven't taken it out of the case since then.  I think that tells me all I need to know right there.

Still haven't purchased War in the North yet but will likely do that soon since Sacred 2 doesn't look likely to pan out.


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