Recommend me a PS2 RPG

[Trotterwatch]

Thinking about getting a PS2 RPG game, at the moment I have:

Final Fantasy XII, Breath Of Fire 5, and Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2

The things I am looking for most are a fun game with plenty of longevity and some fun side tasks - the more the better (optional boss fights, collecting tasks etc).

Looking at:

Dragon Quest VIII
Dark Cloud 2
Rogue Galaxy
Disgaea 2 (I know this is more strat, but looks like fun)

Interested to know what you'd all recommend.

[MasterPhW]

Mmh...
I only have Dark Cloud and Dragon Quest VIII and I really can recommend it, because it's a great, old school styled RPG with nice characters, superb gfx and really wonderful sound and gameplay.

[JKKDARK]

Phantasy Star Universe
Grandia II
Grandia III
Grandia Xtreme
Shining Wind
Shining Force EXA
Dawn of Mana

[Allnatural]

The Disgaea games are probably tops when it comes to longevity. I put more than 90 hours into the first game and hardly touched the optional content. The item world alone could last you hundreds of hours.

Dragon Quest VIII is great too. Not as much optional stuff (other than a large, post-game dungeon), but the world is enormous and there are plenty of goodies to find out there (treasure chests, recruitable monsters). I spent more than 95 hours with this one.

[Agozer]

Dragon Quest VIII (play it now)
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (it's simply awesome)
Makai Kingdom
La Pucelle: Tactics
Phantom Brave (if you can stomach turn limits for phantoms)
Shadow Hearts: Covenant & Shadow Hearts: From the New World (always criminally overlooked by many; the Judgment Ring System owns you).
Wild ARMs 3/4
Magna Carta (Also very under-appreciated. If you can stomach the battle system, it's an excellent game.)
Suikoden V (Probably the best in the series)
Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity

Dark Cloud 2 is kind of a difficult choice. It looks great, it sounds great, the bosses are cool and it's nice to build villages and whatnot. But the dungeons grow old really fast, plus some of them are downright huge. Dungeons also turn out to be grinding hell as you have to constantly upgrade your gear. Associated Medal Challenges are are also ridiculously hard sometimes.

[Trotterwatch]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've opted for Disgaea 2 and Dragon Quest VIII. Will most likely get Shadow Hearts 1 & 2 after Xmas too. Will probably aim to pick most of the games recommended up at one point or another.

[revl8er]

Dragon Quest was pretty fun. You might also want to give Dot Hack a shot, those games were pretty good. I've also heard great things about Dark Cloud and Valkyrie Profile, but I haven't played those. And finally you can give Final Fantasy X a try, I really enjoyed that game.

[Cyberman]

DQ8 is fun BUT VP 2 is darn good too.

DQ8 is mostly full of somewhat deranged jokes to be honest (as in someone had a weird sense of humor).
Either way you can't loose

Cyb

[Agozer]

Forgot to mention a few:

Digital Devil saga 1/2

[Doomulation]

Disgaea 1 trumps Disgaea 2. The 2nd was simply a disappointment to me. Nevertheless, Disgaea 1 is a very fun game.