Pretty straightforward question I guess. Maybe as a sort of guide in terms of my tastes I really enjoyed Final Fantasy X, Dragon Quest VII, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance but didn't really enjoy Final Fantasy XII or Eternal Sonata and to be honest haven't played much beyond those games.

You'll enjoy your first Disgaea game, whichever it is. After that they kind of grow stale.

Valkyria Chronicles. It's sort of like an evolution of grid-based, but it's awesome and one of the best looking games this generation.

@YI_Orange said:

Valkyria Chronicles. It's sort of like an evolution of grid-based, but it's awesome and one of the best looking games this generation.

Yeah Valkyria Chronicles is a great game. A shame that the sequels are on psp and 1 of them isn't released in the states.

@Nottle said:

@YI_Orange said:

Valkyria Chronicles. It's sort of like an evolution of grid-based, but it's awesome and one of the best looking games this generation.

Yeah Valkyria Chronicles is a great game. A shame that the sequels are on psp and 1 of them isn't released in the states.

I've been wanting to try out that game for a really long time but I was never too sold on the story aspect of it. What's it about, what kind of themes does it deal with and how's the voice acting/translation?

@Brodehouse said:

You'll enjoy your first Disgaea game, whichever it is. After that they kind of grow stale.

There's one on the PS3, right? I heard the gameplay is quite similar to FF Tactics but the style of the game is maaaaad Japanese, right?

@hardcorebunni93: It's about a militia squad during a war mostly. I really liked the story and found the characters to be enjoyable. It seems kind of cartoony at first, but don't let that scare you off. The voice acting and translation is fine, I never had a problem with any of it.

@YI_Orange said:

Valkyria Chronicles. It's sort of like an evolution of grid-based, but it's awesome and one of the best looking games this generation.

Yeah, I came here to say this as well. Valkyria is excellent, though not a traditional JRPG in a lot of ways.

I'd like to second the recommendation for Valkyria Chronicles. It sounds like I have similar taste to the TC, and Valkyria Chronicles is one of my favorite games of this generation. I also enjoy the Disgaea games, but I would recommend Valkyria Chronicles over that. As far as story goes, it's basically a World War II allegory set in a fictional setting that's heavily inspired by the real life setting of the European theater of World War II. It deals with a lot of similar themes as your favorite World War II movies as well as themes involving family, love, and running bread shops.

It's also a very interesting game mechanically if you enjoy methodical, turn based combat and strategy games. There's some real time elements to the combat, but only when carrying out a turn. There's no real time element while planning in between each character's individual movement.

Valkyria Chronicles is a great one. There are a lot of parallels to World War 2 in it which I found pretty cool. The combat, which was turn based yet real time as well was amazing. The story and voice acting didn't detract from the game to me. I love cel shaded graphics, so of course I love the way the game looks. Overall this is one of the best games on the PS3.

Valkyria Chronicles is indeed one of the better ones. 
I also really enjoyed the PS3 version of Eternal Sonata.

Damn, that's a lot of love for Valkyria Chronicles, sounds like my next purchase especially since it's actually quite cheap at my local video game store. In regards to Disgaea, I just read a few reviews and saw a few vids and it seems mad in a whole lot of ways, many of which seem to turn me off quite a lot. Btw, did anyone here play Folklore? It was one of the earliest RPG's on the PS3 and I remember hearing some good stuff about it but I can't seem to find much about it online.

@hardcorebunni93 said:

@Brodehouse said:

You'll enjoy your first Disgaea game, whichever it is. After that they kind of grow stale.

There's one on the PS3, right? I heard the gameplay is quite similar to FF Tactics but the style of the game is maaaaad Japanese, right?

Yeah, game is pretty freaking insane, level your dudes up to 9999, level your items up by completing levels in them, bunch of secrets that the games does reward, and in a bunch of cases, punishes for going with trial and error (for example, throw an enemy into another enemy only to find out they combine and become stronger, OH NOES!), eventually do millions of damage, and in a lot of cases the levels are pretty puzzle-y. I honestly love them and own 1-4, but it really boils down to whether or not the game, from an art, gameplay, and story aspect, click with you. You can toss hundreds of hours in these game if you choose, but if it doesn't click you won't be interested in the grind at all (and yes, the games are pretty grindy).

I just finished Tales of Graces F a few days ago. The combat alone makes it my favorite Tales game.

Yes. Valkyria Chronicles. Loving it.

@hardcorebunni93: If you prefer RPG's with a lighter story element and a heavier emphasis on combat, like Disgae or Final Fantasy Tactics (I see you liked the advanced version) then I cannot recommend Resonance of Fate strongly enough!

@hardcorebunni93 said:

@Nottle said:

@YI_Orange said:

Valkyria Chronicles. It's sort of like an evolution of grid-based, but it's awesome and one of the best looking games this generation.

Yeah Valkyria Chronicles is a great game. A shame that the sequels are on psp and 1 of them isn't released in the states.

I've been wanting to try out that game for a really long time but I was never too sold on the story aspect of it. What's it about, what kind of themes does it deal with and how's the voice acting/translation?

Thematically you get a fair amount of typical anime like tropes. Many of the dudes are handsom young men, all the women are probably a bit too cute to be at war. Your main character has little quirks like he really likes nature. It reminds me of a Fire Emblem game though because instead of expendable units your squad is made up of people that have personalities, likes, dislikes, and back stories that you can read about in a journal. They can die, Though it is more this real time turn based hybrid rather than something like Advanced wars, FF tactics, or Fire Emblem. Look up some gameplay.

ANYWAYS, the story does take place in fake WW2. It can be highly whimsical and light hearted, (During the middle of the war you have a beach vacation where you eat watermelon because anime, also you have a pet pig) it does cover issues like racism.

The first time you meet your new team one is kind of bitchy to your adoptive sister because she is a darcsen, which is basically a stand in for jewish people. The game certainly isn't bleak, but you may reload a save if a squad member you like dies in battle ( like Jann). Maybe the game doesn't handle war with the weight it should, maybe the game is just plurr, but really so few WW2 games even touch the idea of racism that went on then.

Even if the story isn't your thing, the game does look really nice with its manga art style. The combat is pretty fun and can be a challenge. It's probably worth it because it is different from most games out there.

Valkyria Chronicles is definitely a must-play. 
 
Also, try Nier. It's probably one of the weirdest and saddest games on the PS3.

I'm also going to throw my hat in for Valkyria Chronicles. Easily one of my favorite games this generation.

I really want to play VK so I can't give a recommendation on that since I haven't played it yet...

But it's a shame that no one mentioned Demon's or Dark Souls. I personally prefer Dark, but Demon's is undoubtedly a fantastic game as well. Play them both and love them both.

I'm currently playing through Graces f and it's badass. The combat and development is the best in the Tales series (that I've played so far), although the characters aren't as good as Vesperia's.

Also, White Knight Chronicles is a really fun game. The sequel is out now too and it comes with WKC1 on the disc. It's different but I really like it.

Then there's also Resonance of Fate and Nier...

I'm gonna hop on the Valkyria Chronicles love train (love Marmota?) as well and add that three of the four DLC packs are fantastic. Behind her Blue Flame is good to play when you are the end, Hard EX mode is really only for when you have maxed level characters, Chalenge of the Edy Detachment is good for late and post game challenges and Enter the Edy Detachment is kind of weak. It has only one mission and no rewards. It is possible to do it with lower levels though.

Persona 4 FES

Star Ocean for the PS3 is pretty good, plus it has japanese/english VO's.

Nier

Damn, that's a lot of love for Valkyria Chronicles, sounds like my next purchase especially since it's actually quite cheap at my local video game store. In regards to Disgaea, I just read a few reviews and saw a few vids and it seems mad in a whole lot of ways, many of which seem to turn me off quite a lot. Btw, did anyone here play Folklore? It was one of the earliest RPG's on the PS3 and I remember hearing some good stuff about it but I can't seem to find much about it online.

@hardcorebunni93 said:

Damn, that's a lot of love for Valkyria Chronicles, sounds like my next purchase especially since it's actually quite cheap at my local video game store. In regards to Disgaea, I just read a few reviews and saw a few vids and it seems mad in a whole lot of ways, many of which seem to turn me off quite a lot. Btw, did anyone here play Folklore? It was one of the earliest RPG's on the PS3 and I remember hearing some good stuff about it but I can't seem to find much about it online.

Valkyria Chronicles is really good. Also, there is a demo for Folklore on the PS store, if you want to check that out.

Don't know what your primary preferences in the genre are but there are a good number of options if you have an open mind, a few of my recommendations are:

Resonance of Fate, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Nier, Demon/Dark Souls, Folklore + PSN classics as well.

tales of grace f, eternal sonata, resonance of fate

Persona 3 FES is pretty good and so is eternal sonata. I actually really liked enchanted arms(My first PS3 game) as well. I just finished P3:FES yesterday, only real issue is not being able to control AI. Made it almost impossible to finish last boss. As far as valkyria chronicles the combat in that, which is a HUGE part of that game, was way from strategy. Because of that I just see it as a strategy game. Still fun though.

Nier is mad cheap (<$10), has enjoyable combat and systems, and a really good story that GREATLY rewards multiple playthroughs. Sure some of the twists are really obvious and a lot of the side quests are fucking tedious and boring, but at its core Nier is highly enjoyable. Oh and the boss fights are, for the most part, easy bullet hell levels which is pretty fucking cool and unique. I recommend playing it on hard or else the game is stupid easy.

Mandatory: P3:FES, Nier, Valkyria Chronicles, Resonance of Fate.

@Nottle said:

@hardcorebunni93 said:

@Nottle said:

@YI_Orange said:

Valkyria Chronicles. It's sort of like an evolution of grid-based, but it's awesome and one of the best looking games this generation.

Yeah Valkyria Chronicles is a great game. A shame that the sequels are on psp and 1 of them isn't released in the states.

I've been wanting to try out that game for a really long time but I was never too sold on the story aspect of it. What's it about, what kind of themes does it deal with and how's the voice acting/translation?

Thematically you get a fair amount of typical anime like tropes. Many of the dudes are handsom young men, all the women are probably a bit too cute to be at war. Your main character has little quirks like he really likes nature. It reminds me of a Fire Emblem game though because instead of expendable units your squad is made up of people that have personalities, likes, dislikes, and back stories that you can read about in a journal. They can die, Though it is more this real time turn based hybrid rather than something like Advanced wars, FF tactics, or Fire Emblem. Look up some gameplay.

ANYWAYS, the story does take place in fake WW2. It can be highly whimsical and light hearted, (During the middle of the war you have a beach vacation where you eat watermelon because anime, also you have a pet pig) it does cover issues like racism.

The first time you meet your new team one is kind of bitchy to your adoptive sister because she is a darcsen, which is basically a stand in for jewish people. The game certainly isn't bleak, but you may reload a save if a squad member you like dies in battle ( like Jann). Maybe the game doesn't handle war with the weight it should, maybe the game is just plurr, but really so few WW2 games even touch the idea of racism that went on then.

Even if the story isn't your thing, the game does look really nice with its manga art style. The combat is pretty fun and can be a challenge. It's probably worth it because it is different from most games out there.

Thanks for taking the time to really delving into what's the story about. The story doesn't excite me tremendously(although this "instead of expendable units your squad is made up of people that have personalities, likes, dislikes, and back stories that you can read about in a journal. They can die but I think I will buy it" does) but I think I will check it out.

Someone hear mentioned PSn Classics. What games are there for a guy who never played any RPG's on the original PlayStation that are worth playing?

The shadow hearts series has always been one of my favorites. Except for Covenant you be able to pick them for a song. If your looking for ps3 rpgs I really liked Resonance of Fate. If you can find it Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is awesome! Also on PSN the whole Arc The Lad trilogy is pretty choice.

360 really only has Lost Odyssey and that unfinished version of Tales of Vesperia, so yeah I would go for the PS3. Check out Valkyria Chronicles, Resonance of Fate, Nier, Folklore, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Tales of Grace f, and Japanese Vesperia.

@hardcorebunni93: Original PS1 RPG's I would recommend grandia first.

If you are a big fan of anime I suggest checking out Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2. If you aren't a big fan of anime then you probably wouldn't like it and whatever you do stay away from the first game.

If you don't mind going back a ways Suikoden 1 is available on PSN and is a fantastic game.

Way of the Samurai 3 has some rough edges, but is an amazing game if you can look past that. And number 4 comes out next week (download only)

Neir, the two souls games, Vesperia, the game everyone in the thread has mentioned, resonance of fate is good too. Really though that's about it. At least off the top of my head anyway. JRPGs have been pretty few and far between this gen, good ones anyway.

Is Valkyria a JRPG or a tactics game? I remember playing it a long time ago..

@hardcorebunni93 If you like JRPGs, you should FOR SURE check out Rainbow Moon. It's on the PSN Store for $15. From your OP it looks like you have near the same tastes in strategy RPGs that i do, except I loved Final Fantasy XII (the Gambits system was kinda like a pseudo-strategy system itself imo). I was a FF Tactics nut for a long time, I played the first Disgaea quite a bit, but I just got sick of the anime style storytelling. I think they're up to #4 in the Disgaea series now, but I've only played the first (not an anime guy, at all).

Here is a link to the Rainbow Moon site ---> www.rainbowmoongame.com

I highly recommend it to any SRPG / JRPG fan out there. Best $15.00 I ever spent on PSN.

I just wanted to say that though I've never played Valkyria, I have a friend who is a Master (of economics) and he says that it's the best.

I just played through Persona 3: FES on my PS3 (off the PSN) and it was pretty amazing.

If you don't mind dealing with a little jank Atelier Rorona: Alchemist of Arland , Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland and Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland are all good JRPG's with more of a focus on Alchemy than actually fighting which is a neat twist.

It's not out until early next year, but Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is looking pretty sharp in spite of its idiotic name.
  

@hardcorebunni93: Nier, go play it twice and cry

Yakuza 3 & 4 are games that have great combat and a compelling story.