Looking for PS2/older PC ARPG's that can run on my very old laptop
Looking for PS2 and/or older PC games (my laptop is trash and struggles to even emulate PSP games occasionally, no dedicated graphics, i3, 6gb ram. Yay being poor lol)
But yeah anything action rpg with a satisfying combat system and at least mild customization. I've been watching streams of people playing FF7 Remake, Nier, Soulsborne games etc. I know that nothing will come close to that level but anything remotely like these games would be much appreciated. (I would play older FF titles but I really don't like turn based combat unfortunately or I would.) I've got a list of the best ARPG's on PS2 but there may be some underrated gems I missed or older PC titles that I can actually run with my toaster specs. I really enjoyed Final Fantasy Dissidia and Gundam Next Plus but those are essentially fighting games with very minimal story elements, however the combat is smooth, fast paced and absolutely fantastic which is my main sticking point. I also played Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep with my daughter and it's decent but not my favorite, I don't know if the combat on the PS2 titles is better. Oh and I'm good with any setting/time period too, samurai/ninja, western, sci-fi, modern, fantasy, etc. Like I said, I'll try anything with fun and smooth/satisfying/fast paced combat. Thanks guys!
Edit: just want to add that I tried Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and while everything else was super cool, the combat was just tedious and not fun to me. God Eater Burst was more my speed because the combat is faster paced and the crafting/customization was still good. I've only played PSP titles recently but I've pretty much exhausted that console which is why I'm asking for PS2/PC. I don't think my PC could handle emulating PS3 or Wii unfortunately.
Edit: also just as a bonus any good stealth games would be cool too, I haven't played a good one in awhile. Maybe the metal gear series? I don't know if those games have turn based combat or not, I think I remember reading that
Posted Jul 13, 2022, 6:46 PM UTC · edited
PC:
PS2:
Also, have you tried running PSP emulation via OpenGL? It's much more CPU-dependent, so it might result in better performance on your computer. I'm asking cause I find it odd that you're struggling when I could get them running @1080p on much worse hardware. And yes, OpenGL was the magical solution.
Thanks for the recs! And that's interesting I'll give OpenGL a shot. For clarification there isn't anything that just completely won't run, but I often have to disable all graphic improvements and run at 1x resolution. But that's with Direct 9, maybe it'll be different with OpenGL. Also my computer is very junked up with lots of programs I used for music production and very little (less than 15-20gb) of hdd space left. I don't have my laptop with me at the moment but it's often using at least 30% of cpu/ram just idling with no software running, maybe more if I'm not mistaken. I've been meaning to do a full backup/wipe/windows re-install but with a 4 year old it's hard to find time for that stuff, when I get the chance I mostly just want to boot up a game and go bc it's not often I can sit down to play
Yeah, there's your answer. I'm assuming you're using PPSSPP? That emulator's Direct3D support is borked. Games would often have terrible performance and even go as far as crashing my GPU's drivers, causing a bluescreen, when I was running them under Direct3D.
Yeah PPSSPP. And damn that's crazy! What cpu are you running? I'm assuming, like me, you don't have a dedicated GPU?
I actually do have a dedicated GPU, but it ain't exactly the best. Here are my specs:
If you're interested in Metal Gear, I'd go for MGS3 on the PS2. Unlike MGS 1 and 2, it actually has proper stealth instead of just pretending to be a stealth game. Not to mention, it's chronologically the earliest game in the series, so that makes it a good starting point, too. Just prepare for the storytelling to get weird. If you go into that game expecting it to be deadpan serious and grounded, you're in for a bad time.
Oh, and be sure to get Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. It's a re-release of the game, that changed the camera angle to regular third person, as opposed to bird's eye view, like in the original version.
Sweet! And yeah I recently watched moistkritical's playthrough of MG Rising and I loved how over the top it was. Good to know the MGS 3 is chronologically first and had an updated version! I'll definitely check it out, I know it's one of the all time greats, at least from what I've heard