Help me out here (game suggestions)

So, I recently finished watching GiantBomb's Endurance Run of Persona 4.

I'm glad I watched it, rather than played it, or else I wouldn't think so favorably of it. The game is riddled with designed choices that range from archaic (monotonous grid layout of dungeons, turn-based combat) to existing solely to pad out the games length (the scarcity of SP recovery items, S. Link restrictions, end-game drags on). In spite of theses problems, the cast and plot are endearing, which is a rarity for JRPGs (for me at least). Even the character I hated the most (Yukiko), I didn't hate all that much, and the characters (combined with the running commentary of the players) was enough to keep me going through the 155 episodes of the Endurance Run, but I couldnt' say they would be enough to keep me actually playing it.

Where am I going with this? Well, I'm in the mood to play a good RPG now. I've had my fill of shooting, kicking, and stabbing dudes in the face. The reason for the above paragraph is so you can get a feel for how I stand on certain design choices.

Basically, I'm looking for a good RPG (J or otherwise), preferably on the PS2 (since they are cheaper, among other reasons). I guess this is the quickest and best way to sum up my tastes on RPGs.

Like	Hate
Star Ocean (3/4)	Radiata Stories
Shadow Hearts (series)	Oblivion
Valkyrie Profile (series)	Final Fantasy (X-2/13)
Final Fantasy (7/8/10)	Mass Effect
	Fallout 3

The quicker you get the suggestions in the better, as I will be in the vicinity of my local game store Wednesday (2 days).

Tales of the Abyss! *is shot*

But seriously, I'd say try it out. I don't know if you know, but team that does Star Ocean and the team that does the Tales games all used to be the same team, so the two series' share quite a few elements. You'd have to ask someone who plays both for the specifics, but I'd at least try it out since you already like Star Ocean.

If you're not feeling bold, here's a few other suggestions:
Xenosaga
Kingdom Hearts

I'll get Tales of the Abyss if it's there, provided I don't get any other/better suggestions.

However, I'm coming for you if I hate it. I would be coming for epeire, but the only reason I played FF13 was because she said it had a strong yuri component and that pricked my interest. The gameplay was not discussed, so I can't hold that against her. Plus, I didn't pay to play FF13. I'm buying this one.

As for your other 2 suggestions; I've played KH 1 & 2 and they were ok. I didn't regret playing them. Xenosaga made me want to claw out my eyeballs.

Abyss has subtext between Tear and Natalia if you look hard enough while you're wearing yuri goggles. I also think there's a sidequest involved, but it's been a while so I don't quite remember. The combat system is not as evolved as the one in Tales of Vesperia, but IMO the story more than makes up for it. Tales of the Abyss has really wonderful characters. I don't really think there's a character I dislike. If you do the sidequests it will flesh them out even more. Natalia's I think is one of the more interesting stories. And Jade has the best lines in any video game, ever. ^_^

I've heard Lost Odyssey for the 360 is an awesome game, but I haven't played it myself so I can't confirm that.

I'd suggest older games.
Why? because older games where simply better, especially RPG's

Legend of the Dragoon
Legend of Mana
Secret of Mana
Terranigma
Luffia I + II
The Legend of Zelda series (yes - RPG's no matter how many times people try to prove otherwise...)
Crono Trigger
Bahamut Lagoon (lawl)
Secret of Time /Gaia
Okami
The Witcher
Fable (2nd sucks)
Parasite Eve 1 + 2 (Horror / RPG from Squaresoft - epic PSX game ~)
Guardians Crusade
Wild arms series
Breath of Fire series
Grandia (2nd sucks)
Jade Cocon
Skies of Arcadia: Legends
Suikoden series

... and tons more - dunno how many of them you've already played ~

My most played genre is RPG and I really can't recommend any of the new games these days - mostly played or at least tested them all but they're all "meh saw it years ago in game XXX..."

I actually own a handful of those games.

I've played Legend of Dragoon and Mana to death. I didn't realize that there were other people besides me that liked them.

I have Parasite Eve 1 & 2 along with Chrono Trigger. I could never really get into them. What I played of Parasite Eve was good, but for some reason I didn't keep at it.

I hear Wild Arms brought up a lot, especially 4. I might give that a look.

The Legend of Dragoon is an awesome game - played it a lot and still do today.
Legend of Mana is a game I always played with a friend in coop mode - just awesome ~

Chrono Trigger is one of the best RPG's IMHO - it had story, graphics, characters and atmosphere back then.

Parasite Eve 2 on the other hand isn't fully RPG but Horror & RPG mixed and I liked that mix - wish there'd be more games like that.

Star Ocean & Shadow hearts are also one of my fav games, especially the Shadow Hearts series - god those transmutations were so damn ugly but still epic in some way (especially those from Yuri in the 1st game) ~
And it had some horrorelements which was nice (just remember the village with all the corpses and blood).

Wild Arms is pretty good IMHO - still the first & 2nd are my favs (yay PSX ~).

If you want to play a nearly unbeatable game try Blaze & Blade.
You can play it in co-op. It's a nice game with decent graphics but the 2nd boss is already unbeatable. I have the theory they made him invincible and forgot to take out that glitch before they sold the games.
We played as an experiencet team with 4 players. I was a ranger, my friend played as warrior & 2 others had a healer & a... hunter or so.
We fought against the dragon for ~ 2 hours without beating it. Our level was way higher than that of the normal monsters (we trained to get level ups). Still he couldn't be beaten - dunno if the 2nd boss had 1.000.000 HP or just was invincible.
We gave up on it after a few trys which is sad cause it's a good game overall.

What I also liked was Dragon Quest - overall a good series but the Ps2 game (journy of the cursed king or so) was way too hard cause you had to fight hours just to beat a boss cause the level system was totally imbalanced and even normal monster could wipe your party which sucked big time.

I also liked Legend of Legaia - a bit simple and easy but oh well, still good ~

... and god how I hate Final Fantasy XIII. Good graphics, O.K. but not too thrilling story and the most aweful battlesystem I've ever seen in a FF game (yes, even worse than this of FF XII).

Well, GameStop didn't have Tales of the Abyss, so keep the suggestions coming. In the mean time, I'm guess I'm going to dig into SO3 again.