Darlings! Good to be back. Now it's time for the PS2 Gems Part 2.
So for this one, we have a couple of series on here so I'll go into the first games and then just basic plot for the sequels if made.
1) Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army and Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon: Another member of the Shin Megami Tensei series, Raidou Kuzunoha is a devil summoning detective of the Raidou Kuzunoha clan of devil summoners chosen by ability rather than decent lineage. He must solve mysteries while fighting in an arena with other demons like Ukobach, Parvati, Kudan, and others whether they are mainstays of the overall SMT series or new demons made only for the Raidou Kuzunoha series. It's a fun RPG but it is seriously difficult. Also, it's fun exploring Tokyo in Pre-WW1 era Japan.
The game is a real-time RPG so you'll be commanding your demons to do their abilities but you can also let them go crazy at your own risk. I personally enjoyed the mystery of Raidou Kuzunoha. Though it can be a little difficult to follow, if you ever pick it up and forget where to go, the detective agency you go to has files of all the things you did up to current events and your friend, Detective Shouhei Narumi will tell you what to do next as well as your talking cat Gotou.
Also the sequels main Saving Grace is the new mechanics. It's pretty much the same Tokyo to explore but with more demons, the ability to summon two at a time, the alignment system of the mainstream SMT series, and the Luck System (which is the main theme and issue of problems [plot and gameplay-wise]) in Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon. Good luck gets you bonuses and an easier game, and bad luck makes it a bitch to survive. Both games are for PS2 but you can download them on the PS3 if you own one.
2) Shadow Hearts 1,2, and For the New World: Ok, this one is a triple threat so I'll just go and talk about them in order since they all are chronologically like that.
Shadow Hearts 1 is an RPG from the defunct Sacnoth Gaming Company, meant to be a rival to the Square Enix company, which never worked out since before FTNW the company declared bankruptcy and the weird part is all 3 games were published to the outside market by other gaming companies. (The first two were published by Midway of Original Mortal Kombat fame and the third by XSEED Games known for ... I don't really know. I don't play many XSEED games to know or remember.) But weirdly enough, it's understandable why this RPG didn't do so well due to being truly hidden. But now to the game. Shadow Hearts runs on a graphics engine similar to Final Fantasies VII through IX. It would've worked out if FFX didn't make an appearance in the same year. (Brutal Right?)
So the story is focused upon a rude hero (it actually calls the guy "Rude Hero" before you go and save the "Girl in Danger") named Yuri Hyuga who saves "Girl in Danger" Alice Elliot. The two walk their way through China to find out more about the evil Warlock Roger Bacon and his plans to reincarnate the universe. You travel with 4 other characters and all 6 have some pretty interesting and sometimes funny conversations depending on who you choose to accompany you at times.
Just know that Yuri is your main guy so can't switch him out for the "He's the Protagonist" tropes and rules of RPGs. However, Yuri is a Harmonixer, a man who can absorb demons powers and transform into them. And every character has their own style of attacks with some ranging more with certain magical or physical attacks but Yuri is generally the well-rounded guy thanks to the demons. And the turned based style doesn't get boring with the quick time event Judgement Ring. This device in the game allows you to do your abilities but you have to time it on the colored spaced correctly to advance. Sadly, the coloration is very difficult to see, but luckily the spinner line is colored so you can fill in your work. Oh, and if you fail, you won't be able to use certain abilities or attack only so much.
The main highlight of the game is the atmosphere. It's dark, enemies are grotesque monsters from Cthulu Mythos, in fact, the series is loosely inspired by such stories. (Just remember kiddies, you can't beat Cthulu because he's simply the fear of the unknown and there is no way to beat the unknown. It's indifferent to you.) Also, exploring Europe and China is fun with an overworld map with specific locations to be lead to so you won't feel lost with the flow of this RPG. Oh, and you might want to take your time in China because you can't return back from their in the second half of the game. But this alternate history, RPG is fun.
Shadow Hearts 2 improves on the system and the graphics and voice acting (the first one doesn't have much) is great and enjoyable. The sidequests you do for all the characters makes it awesome for it levels ups your abilities for them from collecting Oils for synthesis potions and Tarot Cards for Luck effects, finding compositions of Wagner's Operas to improve sword fighting, photo shooting enemies to summon their abilities, and fighting wolves in competition for Best Wolf makes the interactions funny in the generic anime style and also the cool bonus dungeons in post-game are pretty cool. The plot focuses on an international secret society's plans for evil and also Yuri is back after the tragic death of Alice from the first game. With new allies Blanca the Wolf, Gepetto the Puppeteer (and Alice's Uncle), Karen the German Lieutenant in WWI escaping as a fugitive of war, and others. All of them team together, traveling through Europe and Japan while also fighting against some of the evilest demons summoned by the secret society, Sapientes Gladio.
Shadow Hearts 3 takes SH2's system and just tweaks it a little to make it somewhat unique. This plot focuses instead on Johnny Garland as he is a detective finding out what happened to one of his clients subject of interest as he is killed by a monster coming from a mysterious portal. Along the way, two Native Americans, one a harmonixer and the other, a specialist in Gun-Fu (I'm not making this up. It's how quirky Shadow Hearts is) ask Detective Garland to help them hunt down Prof. Gilbert, a former client of Johnny's. Along the way, even more, weird characters like a Brazillian Ninja, a Vampire who eats positive and negative calories to change fighting styles, a fat Cat who fights with Drunken Fist, and a Mariachi with a flamethrower in his guitar make up for another cast of weirdos. (But Weirdos in a good way.) There isn't much to say due to gameplay being familiar already and I would say it has the weakest story due to not focusing on the original cast of Shadow Hearts but it doesn't mean it's unenjoyable. I especially like the Cthulean style more with the enemies you fight making the slight horror aspects show from the game.
All 3 games are available for PS2 only sadly.
3) Haunting Ground: I mentioned this one for my Halloween list of video games but I didn't go deep into plot and horror as well as gameplay. Haunting Ground is a survivor horror game with its origins in the parent game Clock Tower. Basically, you are a young girl, Fiona Belli, and she is mysteriously kidnapped to a castle where she meets four residents that have their own mysterious agendas. Each of them stalks the poor girl but she has made a new friend. Hewie the Dog can be made to attack enemies and find items but this game is mostly focused on sneaking. So with that, you can be quite a tricky sneaky player but there are four different endings depending on certain situations. I'll let you guys figure it out. Also, I nearly forgot to mention that there is an alchemy lab for you to make all sorts of items to help in your journey so it'll make it easier. Haunting Ground is sadly only for PS2.
4) Psychonauts: Before Inside-Out Happened, this game got you inside people's heads literally. This cult classic Tim Shafer game lets you play Rasputin, a young psychic wishing to be a psychic agent to put his powers to potential against his anti-psychic father's wishes. You have an arsenal of psychic powers from Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, and others to fight off mental issues and training grounds to power yourself against an unknown threat. Each of the level designs is very clever from expressing certain characters' personality to expressive environments showing some NCP's mental health issues. This is also one of those games that tries to be funny, yet it works and it's a hilarious game. I have to stop sometimes so I can enjoy the jokes that come into the game. And in 2019, we'll be getting a sequel. Psychonauts is available on PS2, PS3, PS4, XBOX, XBOX 360, and PC.
5) Okage: Shadow King: The reason I put this very hidden gem on here was for finding on The PS2 for PS4 games at the PS Store. This game has a very Tim Burtonesque style and aesthetic and also features some pretty funny dialogue. The story focuses that the main character's shadow has been taken over by Evil King Stan but upon learning he's not the only evil King, he has taken revenge on our protagonist to hunt down all the fake evil kings. The game is very funny with dialogue choices the protagonist can make and plays like the standard RPG from early FF games and don't let your MC die or it's game over. If you like Tim Burton, this game will be up your alley. But it plays like a standard RPG with the aesthetics and humor being saving grace. There is no voice acting other than a cheesy narrator. This game is for PS2 and PS4.
So here are 5 games to Enjoy. Sorry I haven't posted much due to working on paying my rent. But hopefully, once I pay it off this month, I can write more articles with some political and some gaming news/suggestions.
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