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Hey Folks,
I'm looking for a new game or two. The wife are a little behind the times and we're just about finishing up "Final Fantasy XII" on the Playstation 2. Yep, you heard right...

Anywho, I'm looking for our next game. We've really liked FF XII for it's moderate difficulty (if you take your time and level up), pacing, relatively open world and overall beauty of the setting.

Anywho, we're open to suggestions, but as a few guidelines:
-Most importantly, it has to run on a PS2 or a 4 year old MacBook Pro.
-Not looking for an MMORPG. We prefer to game at our own place and have no interest in having our gaming interact with other people.
-A fantasy RPG would be ideal, but we're open to other suggestions
-Nothing insanely difficult please. We're not harcore video gamers
-As pretty or better-looking than FF XII
-An open, non-linear format. FF XII is alot of fun, but FF X was NOT to our liking.
-I"ll be loading Steam my Mac shortly, so that's one option for acquisition.

Thanks for taking the time to consider our request. I look forward to the suggestions.

Pillars of eternity, old school rpg but with a modern twist, amazing game.

 Formosa wrote:
Pillars of eternity, old school rpg but with a modern twist, amazing game.

Looks awesome, but I'm a bit shy of the required hardware. Anything similar from 2013?

Fallout 3 is good, and New Vegas is amazing. You should be able to run those pretty nicely. Add in a few mods and they'll be some of the best games you'll ever play

I might suggest Persona 3/4. They meet most your requirements save being "Fantasy" in the traditional sense. Not MMOs. They have an easy setting (use it!), and while the main story is linear you can explore all the side content at your own pace and you aren't forced right into the main content either. Basically you've got a number of in-game days to tackle a particular story mission but you're free to spend that time working towards it or doing anything else you want. They're good looking too, provided you're into the whole cell-shaded thing. They're certainly some of the best RPGs on available on the PS2. That said they've got modern setting literally taking place in 2009 and 2011 on earth albeit with magical bs thrown in.

The settings are somewhat cramped compared to something like FF12 as they take place in a single town/city each. However those spaces fairly well populated and since everything takes in-game time there is more content to do than you're likely to get to though for a single play-through. If I had to reccomend one over the other I'd say Persona 4, which is just more refined and playable than it's predecessor and they stand alone so you'll miss minor references by skipping. That said they're both worth playing and you can get them for under $20 new on amazon.

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I'll check those out tomorrow.
Keep 'em coming!

Honestly, if you really want a good selection of fantasy based RPG's, you'd be best to invest in a 3DS...

Between older DS games, up to the newer 3DS platform, you've got the likes of:
- Dragon Quest 4 Chapters of the Chosen
- Dragon Quest 5 Hand of the Heavenly Bride
- Dragon Quest 6 Realms of Reverie (awesome story line that moves between two very different worlds)
- Dragon Quest 9 Sentinels of the Starry Skies (absolutely amazing game that has near endless playability + multi-player aspect!!)
- Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2

- Golden Sun Dark Dawn

- Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds
- LoZ Triforce Heroes (honestly, it's meant as multi-player game)
- Plus numerous other Zelda titles...

- Fire Emblem Awakening (easier than typical FE games, much more character customisation, marriage/children story aspect, easy to level OP characters)

- Final Fantasy III (20+ classes to play around with)
- Final Fantasy IV (original Japanese difficulty, so the spikes can get somewhat insane!)
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Grimoire of the Rifts (can get a bit repetitive, but more tactical than typical FF games)

- Fantasy Life (open world, super easy story mode, multi-player ability, can craft your own gear, fish, mine, etc... again, it's really, really hard to put it down!!)

- Rune Factory 4 (similar to Fantasy Life, though way more indepth.)

- Monster Hunter 3 & 4 (a bit similar to Fantasy Life, but more quest focused, lots of customisable wargear.)

Plus, the new year is seeing for the 3DS:
Jan - Final Fantasy Explorers
Feb - Fire Emblem Fates
March - Hyrule Warriors Legends (hack & slash fun times, Zelda style! Again, it's addictive as hell and the various Adventure Mode maps will add 300-400+ hours of content!)
Fall 2016 - Dragon Quest VII (said to be the single best DQ game story wise)

And there's also confirmation of Dragon Quest VIII being dubbed for release outside of Japan.


Really, Nintendo is where classic fantasy RPG games are at now!
The only downside is that it's pretty much impossible to unlock certain features on the older DS titles, as Nintendo has shut down the old DS servers. Still, you don't really miss out on much, as most of the 'bonus content' from the DS era was typically based on simply completing the main game and saving a 'Game Clear' file.

Thanks for the great info Experiment262, but unfortunatley we're not looking for a new console. I think that the PS2 might be the last console we own for a while.

Chongara,
Persona looks very interesting and unique. The setting is definitely not something my wife would be into, but I may pick it up for myself.

Overlord Thraka,
Fallout looks great, but as far as I can tell, it's only on PC and newer consoles.

Everyone,
What do folks think of the first Witcher game? I can get it on Steam for Mac and it looks like it will run just fine. Witcher 3 is beyond my requirements and Witcher 2 is less than optimal.

As before, keep the suggestions coming. I really appreciate it!

The entire Witcher series is great, though the first one (being the first in the series and the first major outing of the development team) is a bit rough. However, if you like Game of Thrones, or just grim fantasy in general, you will like the Witcher. It is a very adult RPG, placing you in the role of the White Wolf, Geralt of Rivia, mutant and professional monster-slayer.

It is a game where there are rarely any black-and-white morality questions to answer. Just about everything is shades of grey, and you are most-often tasked with resolving issues on incomplete, sometimes erroneous, data-sets, or deciding the fates of people in the face of larger issues such as religious persecution, systemic racism and economic inequality (did I mention that this game is grim? It's fething *grim*.). It's also got lots of sex in it. Lots. Romances, casual hook-ups, prostitutes on nearly every street-corner... people are randy.

It also has some of the best character work done for all the major players in the game. Geralt, of course, is fully voice-acted, with a background spanning the first... I want to say four novels in the series at the point this game was written... but all of the major NPCs, and even most of the minor ones, are excellently voiced and animated.

It is set in a sort of fantasy Europe, analogous to the High Medieval period, with many of the creatures you will face based on various European folktales and myths. If you like your fantasy bloody, muddy, and as grim as anything in the Warhammer series, then the Witcher series really can't be beat.

 Eilif wrote:
Thanks for the great info Experiment262, but unfortunatley we're not looking for a new console. I think that the PS2 might be the last console we own for a while.


What do folks think of the first Witcher game? I can get it on Steam for Mac and it looks like it will run just fine. Witcher 3 is beyond my requirements and Witcher 2 is less than optimal.

I fething hope you fething like it when pricks fething talk like fething this all the fething time.You better fething like pricks too because every fething gak head in that game is a fething gak donkey-cave that'd feth over their own momma for two fething cents and make their gak bastard watch for another.


I mean basically if you like "Dark Fantasy" worlds where everyone swears all the time, every NPC is an donkey-cave, nothing can ever turn out OK, with tons of kind poorly executed fantastic racism it's a safe bet. I quite liked the game systems in terms of combat, stat management and items etc.. It's super solid from a gameplay perspective if you're like me and enjoy stat micromanagement. However I had to quit somewhere halfway through the 2nd chapter because I just couldn't stand the setting or the tone of the whole game.

To be fair, it's only Thaler that drops f-bombs every other word... it's his most-endearing quality.

Well, I just bought Witcher 1. At a buck eighty, if I get sick of the flavor I've got no problem dropping it.

Thanks for the warning though. My threshold for that sort of thing isn't too low, but there are shows, movies and games that I've quit before.

I grabbed Arkham city and The Talos principle (she loved Portal) but I'm still looking for another RPG since I don't think Witcher will be to her liking.

Not fantasy genre but what about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic?

Set thousands of years before the films, covering the war between the Sith (led by a jedi who fell to the dark side after the mandalorian wars) and the old Republic. Really good game if you're a fan of the Star Wars universe and a good game even if you're not as it doesn't really depend on any prior knowledge as it is set before any of the previously released stuff. Loads of quests on different planets (which you can travel between at any time once you get your own ship), minigames (a card game called pazaak and pod racing-esque racing), great cast of characters (especially HK-47), loads of force powers from the light side, dark side and in between etc.

It's available for Mac on Steam and is currently in the Steam sale so it's really cheap.

I would recommend Star Ocean Til The End of Time. It's really good if you like the Sci-fi genre.

PS2: get Champions of Norrath and X-Men Legends II. They're action-RPGs, but loads of fun. DC heroes is also good fun, and made by the same people who made Champions of Norrath, if you end up liking it.

Knights of the Old Republic.

If you can stomach isometric CRPG's with oudated 90's graphics and clunky as feth controls then try out the original Fallout 1 and 2.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Knights of the Old Republic.

If you can stomach isometric CRPG's with oudated 90's graphics and clunky as feth controls then try out the original Fallout 1 and 2.

On the subject of old CRPGs, what about Baldurs Gate 2? Isn't super pretty but still a hell of a lot of fun.

 Eilif wrote:


Overlord Thraka,
Fallout looks great, but as far as I can tell, it's only on PC and newer consoles.

Oh really? I know 3 has Games for windows live on it (Not that it does anything more than blink up and vanish again on PC), but New Vegas I thought would be fine for Mac. Sorry you gotta miss out then, New Vegas is my all time favorite game

It's a shame you don't list wii-u as a possibility. The new xenoblade game that just came out a few weeks ago is fantastic as far as beautiful wide open world exploration goes. (Also xenoblade combat is pretty similar to ff-12.)
If you know someone with a wii-u, see if you can demo the game at their place or something. It is a great way to happily burn hours away.

Last remnant can be found on steam, and while it has the "go into an encounter" style combat, they give it a very nice twist by making the battles huge. You can end up with 18 party members in battle at once and you could easily be outnumbered by enemies if you got that many into the fight. (It's one of those where you can see and avoid/dive towards the monsters out of battle.)

I have a ton of ps2 rpg's, but as most are linear, I can't really suggest a lot of them. Suikoden 3 is one of the best on the console though, and the typical jrpg linearity is somewhat diluted by having you switch across multiple main character viewpoints who are in different sections of he game world for different reasons at the same time.

Other than those I can't think of too much without being at home looking in my cabinet.

Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Dark souls 2.

what are u? casual?
Git gud!

Seconding Knights of the Old Republic, it also has two successor games. Good RPG, good writing, nice mix of fantasy and sci-fi.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Seconding Knights of the Old Republic, it also has two successor games. Good RPG, good writing, nice mix of fantasy and sci-fi.

Wait, two? Which one's the one that's not KotOR II?

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
Seconding Knights of the Old Republic, it also has two successor games. Good RPG, good writing, nice mix of fantasy and sci-fi.

Wait, two? Which one's the one that's not KotOR II?

Old Republic technically is the successor to KotOR II as it continues its story line and references the events in KotOR I and II.

Do they have KOTOR on the playstation? If they do play both of those!

 SickSix wrote:
Do they have KOTOR on the playstation? If they do play both of those!

Nope.

Xbox
Windows
Mac OS X
iPad
iPhone / iPod Touch
Android

I've got it on my Kindle 7. If you have an up to date tablet, it'll probably run fine. Do you have any iPads?

Suikoden and Suikoden 2 are both stellar rpgs as well.

Ignore Chongara. The Witcher is an amazing series.

The first one doesn't hold up well. I think "It's mostly functional!" is about the best praise you can give it these days. The second one still holds on, but I don't think that's PS2 era.

Thanks folks,
Witcher 1 is currently downloading. It might not be the best, but then, my standards are low, so we'll see.

KoToR 1 and 2 are great games. I'd forgotten about them. I've played them both on the PC back some time ago. I don't think I beat either one. Maybe I'll get them on Steam if they're available for Mac.

I'll check out Bauldours gate and some of the other suggestions. Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it, and of course keep em coming if you all have more worthy of mention.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Ignore Chongara. The Witcher is an amazing series.

The first one doesn't hold up well. I think "It's mostly functional!" is about the best praise you can give it these days. The second one still holds on, but I don't think that's PS2 era.

Thats why I haven't got round to playing the Witcher series. I've got 1 and 2 on Steam (Steam sales) but the first game was so clunky and the combat so horrible that i just gave up.

Dragon Age: Origins ought to be playable on a 4-year old MacBook as well, and that's a great fantasy RPG IMO.