Okami. Seriously.
Okami Okami Okami. It is THE BEST game of the entire lifespan of the Playstation 2. My friend SOLD his PS2 after playing that game because he knew there was never going to be anything better for it. Which he now regrets, because he gets the urge to play the game over again. It's a nice little action platformer with some RPG elements to it, all set in a beautiful cell-shaded world that looks like it sprouted out of a sumi-e painting. The characters are well written, your actually really really useful sidekick has a HILARIOUS fascination for boobies even though he's only an inch tall, and the story is PURE GOLD. I mean, really, you will shed at least one tear by the end of this game because of the story. AND IF YOU DON'T THEN YOU HAVE A WITHERED HEART MADE OF STONE.
And the best part? It's only 20 bucks. AND THAT IS BRAND SPANKING NEW. And don't get the Wii version, I hear that the Wii version is a lot harder than the PS2 version AND it's more expensive.
Also, any Shin Megami Tensei game is underappreciated in any place outside of Japan. SMT is a much better JRPG game franchise than, oh, let's say, Final Fantasy.