I need some help to get initiated, lol.

[Summoner Yuna]

So, I recently completed Valkyrie Profile 2 and I loved it, but it was a very time consuming game (if you dedicate yourself to beat the Seraphic Gate fully), so now I'm looking for advice for which games could be worthy purchases in the following categories:

1) Strategy RPG: I've never played this subgenre before and I really want to try it. I want something simple, fun, that doesn't require massive amounts of grinding, basically something that's very pick up and play so I can play it between breaks from my intensive college study and at the same time so I can get acquainted with this type of game.

2) Action RPG: So I won't get burned out on turn-based gameplay, I want something with a little bit more action. I haven't played this subgenre before either. Again, I need something simple and fun to get acquainted and that I can play between breaks.

3) A Playstation 1 Classic RPG: I'm not a graphics whore so I can happily play a game with 2D sprites as long as it's good. I want a game that has a great story and memorable characters but that can be beaten in a relatively short amount of time.

4) A WRPG: Again, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've never played a WRPG before and I want to start. This game I'll reserve for vacations so I can fully commit to it, but I want to know what people would recommend.

You can recommend games in any of the following platforms: PS1, PS2, Gamecube, N64, Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS. I have a Steam account too if that helps.

Thank you so much in advance everybody for your replies.

[badsanta]

2.Ys Seven. (Or just about any other Ys game.)

3.Lunar: Silver Star Story. (And if you like that, check out Lunar: Eternal Blue.)

[MeshGearFox]

Strategy RPGs:
- The first three X-Com games. In particular UFO Defense and Apocalypse. Available on Steam and probably gog.
- Jagged Alliance 2. Again, p. sure you can buy this online readily.

Action RPGs:
- Terranigma
- Terranigma
- Terranigma
- Terranigma
- Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha v. King Abaddon
- Ookami.

PSX Classics:
I'd probably recommend SaGa Frontier, Chrono Cross, Arc the Lad 2, Lunar, and FFIX. Vagrant Story's supposed to be pretty good to tho I never played it much.

WRPG:
Freeware:
Quest for Glory 2 VGA: http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/qfg2/
Ifferimoon: http://www.scottgames.com/
Okay suddenly I'm drawing a major blank, I'll try to add more later.

Commercial (All of these are on GOG or Steam):
Planescape: Torment - Really story heavy. Really GOOD story. More puzzle solving and interaction than combat. GOG.com has it.

Gothic 2 - More open ended. Kind of tough combat that's very, very much player-skill oriented.

Fallout 1 - Comparatively I didn't like Fallout 2 at all. I'm probably alone on this.

Deus Ex - Liberty Island notwithstanding, this FPS/RPG/adventure hybrid is widely regarded as one of the best games ever and totally deserves it.

STALKER: Call of Pripyat - Open-ended FPS/RPG set in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Unlike everything else I listed this actually needs decent hardware.

Stuff you probably can't buy anywhere:

Ultima 7 - This is my favorite RPG that isn't SMT: Nocturne.

[badsanta]

A precaution, Yuna, if you try to play Arc the Lad II; it's one of my favorite RPG's, but it's long-a**, (especially with those sidequests...) so you might not want to play it anytime soon.

(Also, you might want to play Arc the Lad 1 before hand; it's not nearly as good, but it sets up for the sequel, and is just around 10 hours or so... whereas it's sequel took me approximately 68 hours to complete. Yup.)

[Aeolus]

Yeah, good luck trying to find a quick and easy PS1 era RPG that isn't also completely banal. Suikoden 1 is probably the quickest and easiest to get into and is fairly decent plot wise.

For SRPGs, Shining Force is pretty quick and dirty.

For ARPGs, I could list a dozen or more. Best stick with Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past and work your way from there (it's not all that challenging but neither is it piss easy like the later Zeldas tend to be).

For WRPGs, it's kinda hard to think of many that are both quick and easy. They mostly tend to be either very long or very hard. At best, some of the Might and Magic games are pretty simple and aren't completely out to spite you.

[Maxximum]

1) Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1)

2) Go to a shop that sells games, walk up to a shelf with PS3 titles, close your eyes, reach out and grab a random box. Congratulations! you have found an action RPG.
Seriously though,
Nier - I only just started playing, but the general opinion is that its a very good game.
The legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker (GC)

3) Suikoden (PS1)

4) Mass Effect or The Witcher (PC)

EDIT: My bad didn't notice the PS3 wasn't on your list.

[MeshGearFox]

Best stick with Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past and work your way from there (it's not all that challenging but neither is it piss easy like the later Zeldas tend to be).

I thought LttP's 'difficulty' mostly came from weird bullshit stuff (ice floors + excessive knockback, usw.), and not actually being challenging. I also thought it REALLY took a nose dive when you got access to the dark world. It has the most dungeons out of any zelda and the least variety between all of them. It's very much one of my least favorite zeldas, and I'd recommend the GBC Zeldas above it by a /huge/ margin if you want something with a similar gameplay style.

Suikoden 1's pretty fun if you want a game that you can beat by mashing auto-battle constantly. I wouldn't recommend it if you want a game that actually requires you to PLAY it though.

Also Fallout 1 is really short. Maybe like 10-15 hours, tops? Less if you skip a lot of the sidequests? PST is long but the relatively lack of combat makes it fairly easy.

[Der Jermeister]

I disagree, Link to the Past is my favorite Zelda, I think it's aged pretty well, I much prefer it over the 3-D Zelda games.

As for recommendations...

1. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume - I think it translates the Valkyrie Profile gameplay very well to a strategy RPG, and it's not too lengthy and you don't need to grind (you actually can't really grind aside from a select few optional battles, but the game's balanced enough where it's not necessary).

2. The Tales of... / Star Ocean games, which are two of my personal favorite series.

3. I definitely second the recommendation for the Suikoden games, though you probably can't find the second at a reasonable price.

4. If you have a Steam account you might be able to download/play the original Mass Effect, if your system requirements are good enough (mine were, though the second game's system requirements are much higher).

[Summoner Yuna]

Thank you everyone for your recommendations, everyone. I looked into the Lunar series, which some people recommended. They seem wonderful but they are exceedingly expensive on Amazon. On the flip side, I found Shining Force I & II really, really cheap on Steam. So, yay!

Another thing I should have mentioned, that I've played almost the entire Legend of Zelda series and the Suikoden series (including I and II).

Keep 'em coming people.

As for Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, that's great news. I just hope it isn't frustratingly hard even if it doesn't have massive amounts of grinding. I think it's a very strong candidate, along with the Shining Force games.

Another thing I was wondering is maybe if I should play the Kingdom Hearts series. I've heard that the first two games are great, but that all the spin-offs etc. have made the story into a convoluted mess. I don't know to which extent this is true. And I just wondering how well the Final Fantasy characters fit into the story.

[Parn]

You're going to have to be more specific if you're requesting recommendations for a WRPG.  The goldbox AD&D games have barebones strategy RPG mechanics as you see in games like Shining Force with its combat engine.  Torchlight is an actiony dungeon crawler.  Baldur's Gate is semi-realtime traditional RPGing.  Mass Effect is third person shooter/RPG hybrid with heavy emphasis on dialogue.  Fallout 3 is first person shooter/RPG hybrid with heavy emphasis on exploration.  What exactly are you looking for?

[Eusis]

I'm not a graphics whore so I can happily play a game with 2D sprites as long as it's good.

Man, it makes me sad whenever I see sprites spoken of like this. Not a problem with your stance so much as that there'll be people out there who'll play RPGs but fret over 2D sprites.

Anyways, my top recommendation is to look into a PSP when convenient, there are a lot of good recommendations there I'll make as secondary ones.

Strategy RPG - Shining Force is pretty great, but take a look at Final Fantasy Tactics and, if you can get a PSP, Tactics Ogre. It's not a big deal to play the PS1 version of FFT over the PSP version, it may have a weaker translation and be missing some of the extra additions but it runs faster without sound issues, and anyways the translation's mostly serviceable and those PSP extras aren't a big deal. Arc the Lad's worth looking into, moreso if you do take the PSP suggestion as you can just get them off the PSN for fairly cheap.

Action RPG - Ys games immediately jumped to mind for me, while most of the great ones are on PSP you can get Ys: The Ark of Napishtim for something like $10 used. Given that you've already played through Zelda you definitely should check out Okami, it tips a bit more into actually being an RPG and shouldn't be too expensive to get nowadays.

PS1 RPG - This actually doubles as a third suggestion for action RPG, but check out Vagrant Story. It doesn't take too long, the gameplay's great if you can get into it, and it has one of my more liked game stories. I also found the Wild Arms games fun, not really ones I'd suggest based on story though but maybe you'll find entertaining in that regard anyway, and Grandia's a lot of fun though the story kind of meanders during the latter half of the first disc. I have to repeat the PSP suggestion here though, beyond the PSN you can get a remake of Lunar: Silver Star Story, and while it's not an actual 32-bit RPG Trails in the Sky's evocative of the best of that period, namely Lunar and Grandia, and should satisfy your criteria anyway.

WRPG - Mass Effect if you don't mind it being shooter-y (especially the second game), and Oblivion's friendly to get into. The first suggestion that came to mind was the Witcher, and that is going to be released on GoG on May 10th and will be half price, selling at $5. Actually, just about any Bioware/Black Isle RPG that's on GOG is worth checking out, I can't speak on most of the other titles there but Septerra Core may be interesting as a western attempt at making a JRPG.

[Summoner Yuna]

You're going to have to be more specific if you're requesting recommendations for a WRPG.  The goldbox AD&D games have barebones strategy RPG mechanics as you see in games like Shining Force with its combat engine.  Torchlight is an actiony dungeon crawler.  Baldur's Gate is semi-realtime traditional RPGing.  Mass Effect is third person shooter/RPG hybrid with heavy emphasis on dialogue.  Fallout 3 is first person shooter/RPG hybrid with heavy emphasis on exploration.  What exactly are you looking for?

Actually, in the WRPG department, I'm looking for something with a high fantasy medieval setting (whatever game in this category that I end up playing, I'll play it on vacations when I'm free of responsibilities). I know that most WRPGs aren't a cakewalk but I don't want a WRPG that will make me want to pull my hair out and throw my computer through the window.

[Eusis]

For recent games you'll want Dragon Age and Oblivion, going a bit further back you'll want to follow the GoG suggestions. Witcher's darker and not quite high fantasy, but there's still plenty of monsters and a good amount of magic thrown around so that may still satisfy what you want, not to mention that at $5 it's a mind blowing bargain, so it's worth taking a chance regardless. I kind of think the Witcher's probably a good suggestion for JRPG fans anyway, those who'd rather have a largely pre-defined character, yet still dabble in making choices (and very weighty choices at that!).

[Aeolus]

Best stick with Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past and work your way from there (it's not all that challenging but neither is it piss easy like the later Zeldas tend to be).

I thought LttP's 'difficulty' mostly came from weird bullshit stuff (ice floors + excessive knockback, usw.), and not actually being challenging. I also thought it REALLY took a nose dive when you got access to the dark world. It has the most dungeons out of any zelda and the least variety between all of them. It's very much one of my least favorite zeldas, and I'd recommend the GBC Zeldas above it by a /huge/ margin if you want something with a similar gameplay style.

Suikoden 1's pretty fun if you want a game that you can beat by mashing auto-battle constantly. I wouldn't recommend it if you want a game that actually requires you to PLAY it though.

Also Fallout 1 is really short. Maybe like 10-15 hours, tops? Less if you skip a lot of the sidequests? PST is long but the relatively lack of combat makes it fairly easy.

LttP's difficulty also stems from the fact that enemies even early on in the game can hit pretty hard. Starting off in the dark world and you're already running into common enemies that can knock off 2 full hearts in a single hit, at which point a player isn't going to have more than 10 hearts (although 3 bottles still make this a non-issue). Besides it's more, in comparison to what came after it than it's own difficulty itself given OoT's barren overworld post timeskip, MM and it's Fierce Deity Mask with infinite magic and six bottles among other things, WW and it's dodge rolling circles around everything, and MC's you could run this game at three hearts and a bottle and not break a sweat until the final boss. The Oracle games are good but I can't really recommend them over LttP, Seasons maybe, Ages no, especially when it has anything to do with the Tokay or Goron Dancing.

As for Suikoden1, yeah its "get the main character and his master together and utterly wreck the rest of the game" win button among other things, but the plot's at least well above the average PSX era JRPGs'.

Although apparently none of this really matters either way.

Fallout's a good choice though. Didn't realize it was that short. He could also try stuff like Baldur's Gate, Diablo, or Torchlight. Covers ARPG and WRPG at the same time.

[Der Jermeister]

I personally wouldn't recommend some of the older WRPGs such as Elder Scrolls Arena, Baldur's Gate, and Fallout. I heard good things about them, but they just ended up really letting me down. I don't like having too much freedom to the point where I have to use a guide, let alone use a guide to make sense of a game. I'll take older JRPGs any day.