lost odyssey was pretty cool, but for me i liked the story the immortals had, although they were pretty depressing it instigates some good abstract thought
i dont understand the whole rpg on ps2 thing, i guess its just that generation, but i think the best rpg's were on the snes and the ps1, around ps2 the rpgs began to seem pretty cookie cutter, (kind of like the books i read from dan brown, although at least his content is pretty interesting), but it seemed the majority of rpg's became:
1.meet the hero
2.omg crazy stuff is happening
3.answer is at next town
4.grind until able to make it to next town
5.find boss and kill him only to find there is another problem
6.repeat steps 3-5 until credits roll
not all of them, just most of them