3 Obscure RPGs are "Greatest," and "Hits"

I don't know how I feel about "Greatest Hits" (or "Player's Choice" or "Platinum Collection" or "The Best" or any such thing), as my feeling is that a truly best-selling game shouldn't need crappy re-packaging and an artificial price reduction in order to sell itself. Re-prints of hard to find games? Good idea. Ugly packaging to sell games that have supposedly already sold a ton of copies? Bad idea.

But, regardless of my feelings towards such things, it is certainly nice to see some rare gems getting more mainstream attention.

Starting early next month, 3 rather obscure PlayStation 2 RPGs are getting the "Greatest Hits" treatment, and so should provide you with a good opportunity to check them out, should you have foolishly skipped them.

First, and least surprising, is Nippon Ichi and Atlus' Disgaea: The Hour of Darkness. Basically the trigger that got Nippon Ichi to start its very own North American branch (NIS America for those of you who haven't yet made the connection), Disgaea has become something of a cult phenomenon. It was incredibly rare after its initial printing, and would regularly fetch eBay bids of near $100 before it received several reprints.

Disgaea is a quirky SRPG set in the Netherworld, where Laharl, the Prince of Darkness, awakens to discover that his father has been killed and his Evil Realm has been taken over by various demons claiming to be the true Dark Lord. Though it does a few interesting things with the genre, the game plays very much like a standard SRPG, and its biggest draw is arguably its comic appeal.

Next is Vanillaware and Atlus' Odin Sphere. The spiritual successor to the Dreamcast's Princess Crown, Odin Sphere was released almost simultaneously in Japan and North America to high critical acclaim. However, as with most of Atlus' projects, it flew clear under most people's radars. Thus, the Greatest Hits treatment seems more like another shot at mainstream attention than an actual indication of huge sales.

Odin Sphere is a 2D side-scrolling action RPG that tells one story from 5 different people's perspectives. Everything from the game's beautiful hand-crafted 2D artwork, its gorgeous soundtrack, emotional story, and clear attention to detail in every aspect sets it up as one of the finest pieces of independant development ever to grace a console, and should have a home in any JRPG fan's collection. It made my 10 favorite PS2 RPGs, and if you haven't played it, I strongly suggest you pick it up at this reprint.

The final entry into the Greatest Hits club is Clover Studio and Capcom's Okami. Winner of several Best of the Year awards at its release, Okami is another artistic triumph of RPGaming that has been sadly overlooked by far too many.

Following the story of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, Okami places players into the role of a white wolf goddess with the ability to drive out darkness and revive nature in ancient Japan using a celestial paint brush. Though the game is completely 3D, its heavy cell-shading and absolutely brilliant art direction makes the game look like a moving painting. Like Odin Sphere, there is a level of detail acheived in virtually every aspect of Okami that few games even come close to achieving (even with many times the budget to work with). Again, if you don't have this game in your PS2 or Wii collection, go buy it when it goes greatest hits. I'm serious.

Despite my distaste for Greatest Hits, I hope that this reprinting and lower price tag will allow many to experience these fantastic games.

Now, I hope all the comments on this article will tell me that you already have and love these games, and if you don't, that you will repent and buy them when they go Greatest Hits. If I get even one "meh," I'm totally going to beat you up. You've been warned.