You have one of, if not the best starting points for Final Fantasy in the whole series on this system with X. Just play it. There’s no mainline numbered Final Fantasy game that ties together. They’re all separate stories. A few share a common setting with Ivalice, but that’s about it. Hop on X now. I know there’s a PC version, and that’s probably the recommended way to experience that game at this point, but I don’t really care how you start it. If you ever wanna experience Final Fantasy, FFX is the one a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of people will say start with.
Radiata Stories - a looker even for a PS2 game.
NFL 2K5 - the greatest NFL game ever made.
Jak and Daxter - This console’s Crash Bandicoot.
Rachet and Clank - I actually have the same problem you have with Final Fantasy with this series. Just pick one.
Need For Speed Underground 2 - One of the best arcade racing games ever made.
Burnout 3 Takedown - Same as above except you crash the cars instead of pimp them out.
SSX3 - Some say Tricky is better, I like them both but usually give 3 the edge.
Soul Calibur II - Best Soul Calibur game IMO
Dragonball Z Budokai 3 - Played the shit out of both this and Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Probably the best list imo. I remember picking Radiata Stories up, at random, for my birthday. It blew me away. The story, combat and recruitment mechanic are different from everything else I experienced at the time.
And a few suggestions also:
Def Jam: Fight for NY. Lowkey my favorite fighting game, with 4-players simultaneously beating the crap of each other.
Battle Stadium D.O.N… Fighting/smash bros style game with the biggest jump stars at the time (Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto).
Dokapon Kingdom. Board/rpg game with a lot of fun mechanics.
Fuck yes, Fight for NY was amazing. I love the idea of a fighting game where you have to end the fight, not just knock the other guy’s health bar down to zero so he falls over. So satisfying to put your opponent down with a haymaker or chucking him in front of a subway train
Re: Final Fantasy games not tying together or having continuities.
Yes. Except, ironically, specifically Final Fantasy X, which had a direct sequel in X-2. Final Fantasy XIII also managed to have a direct sequel in Lightning Returns. Thankfully, if you care to think of it that way, it was crap and can be safely ignored.
Anyway, have an upvote for not blithely suggesting that everyone start with VII.
Yes and they’re all neatly contained in their numbered entry which is why I say no mainline numbered games tie together. And all the 2s are optional IMO. Especially X-2, which always seemed like a cash grab to capitalize off of X’s success to me. As much as I love, love, love X, I’ve never touched X-2 and probably never will.
Link special character was best special character… because… it was a great meming time when people realized there were what appeared to be the silhouette of his tower and bases visible during certain moves.
That’s the thing. PS2 at one time was the best selling system of all time. I forget if that record still holds up. I know the DS oversold it, but thats not a tv console.
Point is, with any console that had that big of an impact on gaming, it’s going to have a ton of bangers that still hold up 20+ years later.
And boy howdy if that ain’t true!
I’m honestly surprised there aren’t independant projects releasing new PS2 games today, in the same way you see occasional new releases for NES and Game Boy Color.
Jak and Daxter are better played via OpenGoal - a modern open source engine implementation that runs natively on Steam Deck and includes fixes, graphics improvements, proper widescreen, etc.
NFS Underground 1 is better than the sequel IMO. The open world is empty and tedious filler vs just loading directly into the tracks.
Best NFS on the PS2 is Hot Pursuit 2 however. Made by Black Box, it’s vastly superior in every way to the other console versions and the PC version made by a different company despite sharing assets.
No Final Fantasy because I'm not even sure where to start!
Final Fantasy is somewhat of an anthology: each major installment (just "Final Fantasy" plus a roman numeral, nothing else) takes place in an entirely different world and thus includes its own tutorial. You don't need to know anything before going into one of them. You can start anywhere, like Final Fantasy X, which was one of the most acclaimed FF releases and happened to be on the PS2.
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 (and go back and play 1 first, if you haven’t).
Only other thing that comes to mind is FFX. Just try to resist min/maxing too much. Very unsatisfying to spend tons of hours grinding your characters into unstoppable gods and then go one-shot the final boss.
I think that you’re going to likely get more-helpful suggestions if you list some games or genres that you like, something beyond “No Final Fantasy” and “No GTA”.
This Reddit post has a list of PS2 games that “still hold up”, without genre restrictions. There’s nothing there that I glance at and say “oh, I loved that and one needs to go back and play it”, but it’s probably a reasonable starting point. Like, I enjoyed Max Payne (which I recommend playing on the PC rather than console) when it came out, but I don’t know if I’d go back and play it as an FPS in 2025.
I can understand that, but having never owned any PS2, and only played some of what it offered by modern remakes…there’s really nothing I’m going to ignore. Not sure why I’d cull this down when I don’t want any suggestions culled down.
What I’m looking for is what people enjoyed playing themselves. Generally when someone loved a game, they’ll recommend it and explain why they did. Thanks anyway!
One point that someone does make in that thread where someone also brings up the “where to start with Final Fantasy” is that it doesn’t really matter that much, because the series isn’t in one universe — it’s a bunch of stand-alone games. It’s not quite like you’re starting on trying to read, say, Hellboy comics many decades into multiple series or something like that. The games did evolve in the technical sense, but you won’t ruin a game by playing others “out of order”.
Just thought I’d highlight that, since you said almost the same thing in your post.
I really enjoyed playing through it, mostly because I got to watch everything get shot down! I’ve kept it in my game library to occasionally shoot things when I feel the urge :)
It’s a lot of fun to play through. It’s nice having a game that supports multiple playthroughs and isn’t extremely long. Though, for people who don’t like multiple playthroughs i imagine such a short game hurts the experience
Oh for sure, when I’ve recommended it to people I mention “if you’re only gonna play once don’t bother”. I don’t think I’ve ever thought this about a game before, but this one needs more than one playthrough. At minimum at least 2 to understand the base general story.
I’ve been playing Ratchet & Clank (something-or-other-about-booty) via RPCS3 on my Steam Deck, and I’ve been loving that! Totally forgot R&C got their start on PS2. Thanks!
Give all players a pause limit. A certain number of minutes per game and per pause, and a number of pauses. Players can’t pause anymore after going over their time limit or pause count limit. The game resumes after a pause’s time limit is reached.
Pausing should happen after a delay of a certain number of seconds. So a player hits pause, countdown starts before actually pausing.
Resuming from a pause also has a timer.
Players’ pause stats are retained. People who take more pauses or spend more time pausing the game get matched with each other.
Sometimes day to day life sucks, we need to escape into games we like and look past all the privacy and annoying bullshit. But when nearly all games are this way, easy to step back and go “wait a minute…”
When (not if) enshittification takes over, I’ll pirate their shit.
You can't blatantly assume all games are like what AAA is. Indie development is the beacon that says that games can still be made simple, without all of the corporate fluff and shit jammed into it.
I truly hate to even consider this, but indie games have already started to turn, and will start to go more towards the same issues.
What valve did for gaming and capitalism in 2004, they need to undo or come up with a new solution or something, or maybe somebody else. I’m not sure if communism or anarchy or a new capitalism or a creative solution that fixes everything and makes everybody happy and is ethically sound and sustainable. But the amount of AI slop and desperation that current capitalism is fucking everybody with is only going to get worse.
The “indie games are our salvation, our guiding light” was ten years ago, and AI is here to stay, for whatever effects and changes it brings, because it’s affecting literally all aspects of our lives because we live in a capitalistic society where tech and information is utilized by and affects the entire planet and every single human being, plant, and animal.
There are only 3 developers I will preorder from whenever I find the game they are releasing interesting. Erin “Concerned Ape” (Stardew Valley); Bob the Bot (Survivalist); and Terry Cavanagh, the creator of VVVVVV.
They keep their games updated, they are pretty chill people, and they keep players informed during development.
For now, they are the only ones who have earned my trust.
For everything else, it’s full patientgamer mode for me. Wait until the whole game is released with a single price tag, 90% discount, no online requirements outside of multiplayer, and community fixes.
Only thing I’ve been running personally has been Reno DX, to add HDR while not departing from the original look. Nice to cleanup all the colour banding on the dynamic lights in dark areas, such as the constant spotlight on Hornet. And yes, it works just fine through Proton, although I had to install it with a prepped zip file from some Reddit thread.
Here’s my last judge fight if you want to see the results (note that YT only offers HDR output on HDR compatible displays).
I’ve been playing 7 remake a bit and I know a lot of additions were meant to flesh out the world in what’s actually a really small chunk of the original game. But I found a lot of the additions, though not all, to feel more like unnecessary padding than good fleshing out.
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