[PS3]RPG Suggestions

[Insanecyclone]

I actually haven't played the previous titles. Can I jump into the PS3 game without wondering wtf the story is?

It's actually a prequel to the first so...maybe. There are some things in it long time fans will notice.

[Necronus]

All these are judgement calls if you can handle a typical JRPG:
Cross Edge
Trinity Universe
Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel
Atelier games
Hyperdimension Neptunia
Record of Agarest War / Zero
Disgaea 3 & 4[Sept 6th NA]

This whole family of NIS/GUST/RED/Compile Heart/5pb/Idea Factory games are a strange bunch indeed. Test the waters with either Disgaea or Cross Edge to see how you like the companies styles. Get used to seeing 2-5 of these companies listed on each game, they love to work together.

Common Traits among these games:

They have HUGE amounts of grinding for completionists/trophy whores.
As above, they often have 100's of hours of even legit content. Disgaea is probably the most mindblowing.
They LOVE 2D low res sprites. This can be a big negative for some, considering some games have the crappy sprites on decent looking non-pixelaed backgrounds.
They LOVE unlockable artwork, mostly of women busting out of their clothes. Except NISA who uses the running joke of flat chested heroines.
They love to mix and match cameos across games from each others games. Often previous characters are DLC.
These games are often DLC NIGHTMARES. Some contain $30-$100 of DLC, most of which doesn't even add up to 1/10th of what you got in the full game. Luckily most is completely ignorable ... mostly vanity clothing (read: skimpy outfits) or cheat codes (I mean who doesn't want to start the game with 1,000,000 EXP, 10,000,000 gold, and a pile of godly weapons). Actual playable content like dungeons are often free, with some "scenario" stuff being pretty cheap.

I was interested in trying Hyperdimension Neptunia, to be honest, can anyone confirm the game's performance?

Horrible performance. I mean, the game is neat for a while, but eventually the loading into battles will drive you nuts and you even see graphic glitches / temporary lag/freeze as a battle starts. I've seen people on forums forcing the PS3 to stay in 720 just to help.

[Insanecyclone]

Neptunia mk2 is apparently going to fix those problems.

[Gokulo]

I actually haven't played the previous titles. Can I jump into the PS3 game without wondering wtf the story is?

Generally, while SO games happen in the same universe, you can jump play any of them w/o knowing the others, since they're mostly separate stories. Though, for a little spoilerish factor, leaving the 3rd as last might be a good idea

[Anakron]

I actually haven't played the previous titles. Can I jump into the PS3 game without wondering wtf the story is?

Yea, the stories aren't really connected, they just happen to be in the same game universe. Be warned, though, that the plots and voice acting of the series have always been pretty weak. The real-time battles, item synthesis system, and post-game dungeon are really what make the series stand out among others.

[DeathbySnoosnoo]

If you haven't played Demon souls, then that should be top of the list.
Dragon Age story was good but I found the combat and AI just terrible.
White Knight was sort of the opposite, I liked the combat but the story was the cheesiest and childlike i've played in a long time.
Disgaea is always good.
3d dot heroes is alot of fun if you were ever an old skool zelda fan.
I think they have the star ocean silver for DL, which was a great game as well.
Sadly Ps3 does lack some full out great rpgs
DEMONS SOULS!~ GET

[Jefe]

DS of course, the PvP should keep you occupied for a while.

[Julian]

Fuck SO4, play SO2

[hey]

One thing that bothered me about hyperdimension neptunia is the horrible voices and how horribly slow the game is (framerate, battle system). Does the game actually get better overtime? I'm thinking of gameflying it again if that's the case.

First thing you do when playing a jp game is check the options to change voices back to jp. A lot of games are including both language voices now, so we can get english text without the earcancer-inducing american VAs.

I never once had a problem with lag/glitches. Though i played it from my hdd, so maybe that allowed it to run faster?

Personally i thought the gameplay was decent (not bad at all, but other than the whole no manual potion usage (which was infuriating at times, but was fine for non-bosses), it wasn't a whole lot different than what we've seen for the last 15 years), and the story was genius, but if you didn't like it enough from the start (how far did you play into it?), then it probably isn't something you'll enjoy. I thought it was an amazing game, but it's definitely not something everyone will care about.

Demon's Souls is a very fun and challenging game if you get it, just don't be surprised if at times it makes you mad enough to put your foot through your TV! (It's not a forgiving game, but that is not at all a fault.)

At least for the first half of your first play through, at which point is becomes quite easy. Until the second time through, when the difficulty jumps from beginner to expert. After that though the difficulty doesn't change much each time you beat it, so it goes back to easymode. Still an amazing game that everyone needs to play though.

[miokomioko]

For simple yet corny JRPG fun, I would have to give a nod to White Knight Chronicles... Except for it's heavy focus on online play for "endgame" (not my cup of tea). I think I would actually suggest waiting the month or so for the sequel to come out if it comes with the original game for free since I imagine it will also improve upon what I didn't like about the game.

[Caiyuo]

What Isiolia said.

Also, maybe Resonance of Fate. It's a JRPG with guns. Combat is turn-based, you can customize your guns, art is steampunkish, you get to dress up your chars etc etc.

I'd check out a video of this just to see for yourself, the combat looks ridiculously fucking cool.

[Callisto]

Going to just go with 'not Eternal Sonata'

[Nitsuki]

(how far did you play into it?)

i pretty much got IF and played a small bit after, so pretty much the beginning. Is it true that the game runs faster forcing 720p on the game?

[sb]

Not sure if you are into srpg's, but you can download the PS1 version of FF Tactics off the PS Store for pretty cheep.

[miokomioko]

FF7/8/9/Tactics are all on PSN (PS3/PSP) for $10 a pop if one feels like being nostalgic. I had just started up 7 the other day and it was worth the $10 just to not have to fuck with discs ever again.

[Rokku]

I'd check out a video of this just to see for yourself, the combat looks ridiculously fucking cool.

Looks being around the point where it ends. You can build guns by about the third or fourth chapter that you can pretty much exploit the entire game with by running in a straight line and jumping over everything.

Don't get me wrong, Resonance of Fate isn't bad per se, it's interesting, just gets incredibly boring once you realize how easy it is to dominate the combat system.

[Tyrath]

Going to just go with 'not Eternal Sonata'

Better Eternal Sonata than White Knight Chronicles imo.

[Charismatic]

Fuck SO4, play SO2

imo, fuck SO4 and SO2. play SO3 and turn your brain off right when you think the story looks like it's getting good because... well, you know.
gameplay still awesome though.

[Julian]

I'm sorry, but Eternal Sonata is much better than over half the stuff mentioned on this thread, lol.

Also, eh, I preferred SO2 to 3, just liked the characters a lot better, also 4>3 (characters per party, not SO games lol). I really need to replay 3 soon though, really feel like playing it. D:

[Charismatic]

Man, I didn't read what was in the parenthesis at first and I was about to nerd rage all over you.