If you want a wacky, unique rhythm game: Gitaroo Man
For the PS2 entry into one of the best shoot em up series of all time: Gradius V
For a fun, anime themed, voice acted tactical RPG that you can just literally play forever because it seemingly invented the “looping, start over but with better base stats” mechanic that idle games use these days: Disgaea
(As a bonus, the original PS2 version of Disgaea has a different voice for one of the characters than it does in other releases because they lost the rights or some thing like that, so you get to experience it in a slightly different manner than most other people.)
Absolutely amazing game. Just Cause kind of captured some of the same energy, but never quite there. There’s nothing quite like being able to deploy cluster bomb strikes at will.
I loved it, and don’t take this as a dig because tons of games had this problem. It was one of the first games in played where environments were fully destructible. Trees? Nah. Trees are invulnerable to everything, including literal bunker buster bombs.
I recently went through a ps2 games phase. Some already mentioned but the lesser known standouts for me were;
God hand (probably the best game on ps2 and released really late in the life of the PS2 so many people missed it),
Odin sphere (best looking game on the system and really fun),
urban reign,
steam bot chronicles (robot action rpg really satisfying game play)
robot alchemical drive (ride on the shoulders of huge gundam style robots, really unique game)
champions of norrath, (action rpg based on EverQuest universe, really fun)
psi ops, (fps like game with stars wars style force powers, crazy fun)
Drakan: Ancient gates, (action rpg, fly on a dragon, one of the best magic systems ever where you have to trace the pattern to cast. The reason I started my ps2 phase was to replay this game, loved it as a kid and still holds up)
If you’ve never played the genre before, I’d throw dynasty warriors at you. Pick whichever was the highest number available, because quality of life improved so much for each one. It’s an endless sea of mooks that you smash through until you come up against the wall that is… LU BU!!!
Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Destroy All Humans! Shadow of the Colossus, The Matrix: Path of Neo, Psi Ops: The Mind Gate Conspiracy, Burnout Revenge, Gitaroo Man, God Hand.
I’m sure there’s more but that’s off the top of my head. Also some of these can definitely be found in newer versions or ports, but they started on PS2 so I listed them anyways.
They’re both fun, but I think Path of Neo is probably more what people were hoping to get out of a Matrix video game.
Enter The Matrix was cool, but it suffers a bit from some awkward earlier dual stick controls that Path of Neo had corrected. Plus you’re stuck within the timeframe of the second movie only really.
One of my favorite eras to live through and emulate!
Aside from Dark Cloud 2, mentioned already, I also really love:
Katamari, but on Deck the native version is better and includes the sequel.
The Jak and Daxter trilogy, simply amazing games! The first or the second are usually the favs. 1 is a solid mascot platformer. 2 also is, kind of, but adds guns and cars and a slightly GTA inspired open world. 3 is also fun but leans harder into vehicles and generally isn’t regarded as highly.
Odin Sphere. All the VanillaWare games are great, but OS is one of the most beautiful games ever drawn, and has really fun brawler\rpg combat. GrimGrimoire is another of theirs, also good, kind of a side scrolling RTS.
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 are both a lot of fun, especially if you love Disney or SquareEnix games. If not, they’re still pretty fun and have an… interesting, if convoluted, lore. I probably wouldn’t recommend if you dont care for Disney though. Probably worth playing Final Fantasy 7 first as well. It’s referenced quite reverently and is a great standalone game (and PS1 still counts I think, haha).
Devil May Cry 1 and 3. You can skip 2, even the fans and creators don’t care about it, and 3 is a prequel. DMC1 is a landmark game, and is required playing in my opinion for being both important and incredibly fun. It can be quite hard though. 3 is arguably the best in the whole series, and holds up really well near the top of the genre to this day.
God of War 1, 2, and 3. They’re fantastic action games, and pretty influential still. I dont like them as much as DMC, but they’re still pretty fun.
There were actually a lot of pretty mediocre DMC clones on PS2, like Gungrave or Bujingai. If you love the genre, they’re neat and OK fun. God Hand is quite funny and kind of unique, probably the best of the 3 listed here.
I see Okami in there and I approve! Although I think the remasters released on other platform more recently are a better way to play. I also preferred the Wii version back in the day.
The Sly Cooper games and the Ratchet and Clank games are also both really excellent series. I liked Jak more, but they’re distinct games with their own neat elements. Sly’s particularly unique as a mascot stealth game.
Metal Gear Solid series and the Tony Hawk games are obviously excellent, but you’ve got so many other ways to play those I’m not sure they’re worth emulating.
Zone of the Enders, 1 and 2. ZoE 1 is infamous as being the game that came with the first MGS2 demo on it. The game is fine but short, and mostly serves to set up ZoE2, which fucking rules! You pilot a badass mecha and it just has a really fun plot, great music, and good action. An underrated gem!
Not your jam I’m sure, but I’d be remiss if I didnt mention the many hours I spent playing Capcom vs SNK 2. Still one of my favorite fighting games, legendary roster and soundtrack.
If you’d like a roguelike, I’d suggest Baroque or (PS1) Azure Dreams. Both pretty fun, quite long games with lots of replay value. Baroque is uh… well titled, kind of challenging to get into.
Ah, there were so many good games in that era. Truly one of the most stacked console lineups ever.
Good catch, my bad, I thought it was just the trilogy collection on PS3. It’s probably been since it first came out that i played it.
I went general on MGS because I couldn’t remember which game premiered on which console generation without looking it up either, but it’s 2 and 3 for PS2 (and 1 from PSX).
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