I see you’ve got 007: Nightfire in that list, so let me raise you 007: Agent Under Fire. The single player is not as good as Nightfire, but the multiplayer is spectacular, as it lets you turn on fun modifiers like moon gravity and use gadgets like the Q Claw on any surface instead of just preset spots. They probably toned down the multiplayer in Nightfire because Agent Under Fire’s didn’t feel very Bond-esque, but Bond or not, it was a ton of fun. The multiplayer is up to 4 players split-screen on Gamecube, but I can’t tell if it still retains that on PS2; often times, back then, PS2 games only had 2 player support while Gamecube and Xbox had 4. This was because the PS2 was weaker and also required an extra peripheral called a Multi Tap to hook up more than 2 controllers. Find some friends and play some deathmatch, if you find yourself in a situation where you can dock your Steam Deck or otherwise play on another computer.
There’s also Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, a third person shooter where you play a robot who can take over other robots. It’s quite challenging, it’s got a sense of humor, and it’s probably one of the best games of that era to not get remastered in a modern port. Once again, we’ve got the multiplayer issue rearing its head, but I’d strongly recommend the single player for this one, too. I also played this on Gamecube back in the day, so just play whichever version is rated best for compatibility in your emulator of choice.
You might also want a Burnout game in your library. Most people seem to prefer Burnout 3: Takedown, but my Burnout of choice was Burnout Revenge. Both great. I wish we got more racing games like these today. Local multiplayer is a dying breed in this genre.
You’ve got Tony Hawk’s Underground in that list, but for my money, the best game in the series is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3.
The first three Ratchet & Clank games on PS2 have not been topped by their later entries, as far as I’m concerned. Ever since the fourth game, Deadlocked, the best they’ve been able to do was to remix ideas they’ve already used.
God Hand is probably the most underrated game on the platform. Dont let the visuals or the crass humor turn you off. It’s made by Clover (the same devs behind Okami and Viewtiful Joe) and is mechanically deep to an absurd degree. Easily the best beat-em-up on the console.
Final Fantasy X. Hands down the best entry of the franchise (fight me)
I never finished X, it felt like it was dragging on and there were too many unskippable scenes.
I actually preferred XIII, which I nearly 100%'d (I think I was one or 2 combats away from 100%) and even XIII-2 which I enjoyed, tho I thought the “post-game” was too heavy with loading screens. I never played XIII-3 (Lightning Returns).
In any case, FF VI is actually the best entry in the franchise. I know that because I played and beat it as a child. (/s)
(I was really hoping FF XV [?; road trip with the boy band] would be good, but I played about 10 hours and had nothing good to say about it.)
FF7 was my entry into the franchise, and I went back to play 4-6 after 8 left me disappointed. I ended up (regretfully) skipping 9 until revisiting it much later. I’m saying this specifically to point out that I am not biased because FFX was my first.
I skipped XI as MMORPGs didn’t hold any interest to me at the time - but WoW would change that, and cause me to skip XII altogether!
I didn’t like the combat of XIII, it was too much of a departure of what came before (variants of ATB and general turn-based combat) - and I did not find the plot engaging enough to persevere much beyond I think the ~10hr mark?
I haven’t bothered to revisit the newer entries since, even though I have added XII, XIII, XIII-2 & Lightning Returns to my retro collection. Perhaps one day?
I thought I wasn’t going to like the combat of XIII, but I ended up really quite enjoying it most of the time. I thought the support roles AI was quite good, and eventually I figured out a rhythm of switching roles that felt really good.
But, I probably should go back and play some of the 7-9, maybe even X again. I picked up 2, 3, and 5 (and the portable Nintendo consoles to play them) and never made the time to play them.
I know some are on Steam, but I’m on Linux and I don’t know how well the Proton/SteamPlay works with them. (Plus, I need to finish up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 before I buy yet another JRPG.)
According to protondb.com the entire Final Fantasy catalogue is pretty much flagged as either Gold or Platinum so you shouldn’t have issues.
For what it’s worth, the console versions also run great through EmuDeck and RetroDeck on my Steam Deck too!
I need to get around to playing Clair Obscur - I’ve seen and heard great things about it, but with a 2yo running around the house - I just don’t have the bandwidth currently to invest in new games… 😅
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 was pretty close to the peak of the series if you ask me, and the PS2 version was the superior one. THPS4 also came out on the Playstation 2. I see you already have Underground on there.
If you’d like something you can handily use to consume the rest of your entire life, Disgaea and/or its sequel will probably do you.
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are also legendary. I haven’t tried in ages, I have no idea if modern emulators can get the latter to run at a non-crap frame rate. It’d be a lot nicer if so.
Odin Sphere is an often overlooked 2D action sidescrolling fighting thing wherein you Norse In The North and beat the shit out of absolutely everyone. Its sequel, Muramasa: The Demon Blade is much the same thing except therein you Ninja In The Night instead. The latter stayed locked to the Wii to my knowledge but the former was on the PS2.
The PS2’s library is quite vast. I’m not going to go looking this up to prove it right now, but I’m pretty sure it’s got the most titles ever released for a home video game console (i.e. not the PC) in history. Even just trying out unknown games at complete random, it’s likely to be able to keep you entertained in one way or another basically forever.
I’d just start reading at the top and play some that look fun. Sales are a fair proxy for “good” games. I’m sure there are ratings lists too, if you feel so inclined.
(You can probably skip all the sports games, though.)
You have to… No, You NEED to Play Downhill Domination. There is NO WAY you won’t have fun playing that, trust me.
Oh! And Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3! You don’t have to be a DBZ fan to have fun with that, is amazing and so chaotic!
Also, have you consider trying Devil May Cry 3? (Don’t worry about the number, it’s a precule). It’s kinda hard but so fun and satisfying.
No Final Fantasy because I’m not even sure where to start!
I had the same problem too, but after trying to play them chronologically (and failing), I learned that you can play any FF game at any time, cuz they are very unique and don’t actually relate one another.
Final Fantasy X is a great pick, for example, it helped me overcome my despise for Turn-base combat RPG.
And, if you’re up to some Big Robot Fight mayhem anime style, Zone of The Enders is Amazing.
edit: AND YAKUZA! HOW COULD I FORGOT YAKUZA!!?? YOU HAVE TO PLAY THE FIRST YAKUZA ASAP!!
(unless you want to play / already played the kiwami version, which may be a better experience)
I’m a big fan of the R-Type series, and R-Type Final plays very well on the Deck.
Also:
Katamari Damacy - Really weird concept for a surprisingly fun game. Roll up the world!
Devil May Cry - The high-speed brawler that launched a genre.
Tales of the Abyss - A good RPG with likeable characters and some great twists.
Bunch of good Shmups on the PS2, Gradius V, gradius 3 and 4. Darius gaiden and G darius are on a taito collection. Bunch of cave stuff, the Dodonpachi DOJ port is good. Bit psyiko stuff too I think it has Dragon blaze.
NBA Street Vol 2 or V3. Never found another sports game that’s as much fun.
Games only last a few minutes and there’s no concept of seasons or anything. It’s just casual streetball where no rules matter - including the rules of physics.
I pirated the RDR remaster and felt very entitled to because I bought it way back on xbox360 with the Undead Nightmare mode, but that whole DLC is broken even though they still sold it to me on the Xbox store. So I pirated to new remaster and when I went to play Undead Nightmare, it’s still broken lol
I strongly recommend Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2. DC2, to my memory, could have aged well, but DC1 might be a rough play if you’re not in the headspace for a game of that era. I haven’t played them in an age, though.
Otherwise, I find that Kingdom Hearts (and KH2 in particular) aged very well. KH2 just feels really good to play.
As for Final Fantasy, if you have a wild hair to play just one, you’ll get a dozen different opinions. However, since essentially every game plays with new universes and new gameplay mechanics, you really do get a fresh start with each one.
DC2 is absolutely a must play. Its a ridiculously big game though, be warned. You’ll be deep into the latter chapters with the game still throwing new mechanics at you like “omg, I have to play golf in dungeons now too, and fishing, and base building, and photography, and and and and”
I kind of do reccomend a guide for it as there’s some permanent misables.
From my memory, the misable stuff isn’t the important, but it is frustrating to not be able to get. I would say if you aren’t worried about missing a few unlocks, just accept that you’ll miss stuff and don’t stress about it.
If you’re the type of person (like me) who finds out they missed something and feel compelled to restart, even if you were never planning on 100% the game, then yeah, use a guide. I wouldn’t use a guide for everything, but I’m certain there are guides that say when misable stuff is coming and how to get them.
I’m not too surprised; it’s been a long time since I’ve played it, and I suspected my fond memories might not reflect reality. Did you give the sequel a shot?
I remember it being a great game! Moreso than DC1; I think the former appealed to me so much because it was the first game I played with a base-building gameplay loop like that. If you’re looking for a game to play, consider giving it a shot. I remember being reeled in pretty quickly, so you ought to be able to make up your mind early on (although more and more interesting systems get introduced the longer you play, of course).
DC2 is still fairly similar with the dungeons (though much less grindy, and far less annoying with running out of water or whatever, from my memory). 2 adds a ton of other things to do though. If you’re tired of grinding dungeons, go fishing, breed your fish for races and events, go golfing, find things to take pictures of for inventing, progress your town for more unlocks, advance NPC quests to add them to your group, etc. 1 is fairly linear with one way to progress. 2 has probably a dozen different activities to progress in, so you can do whatever you want in the moment.
I love the ps2 era of games! Here are some suggestions:
ICO: Minimalist game about a cursed boy & a girl with mysterious powers trying to escape a castle together. An absolute classic.
Shadow of the Colossus: Another Team ICO game, this one you’ve probably heard of. You play as a young man who sets out for the Forbidden Lands, finding and slaying 16 colossi to resurrect his deceased love.
Silent Hill 2: One of the greatest survival horror games ever made. Introspective, tackles mature themes, and deeply chilling. A game I truly feel is haunted.
Persona 4: High schoolers solving a murder mystery in a rural Japanese town. I prefer the vanilla ps2 version to the revised Golden edition, it graphically preserves the fog & spookier ambience - with better pacing from less bloat.
For some more obscure games:
The Adventures of Cookie & Cream: A brutal co-op/singleplayer puzzle game developed by Fromsoft. Has a fun art style & interesting levels.
Tak 3 - the Great Juju Challenge: Works best in co-op but still a blast in single-player. 3D platformer with varied levels & a fantastic voice cast (Patrick Warburton as Lok is the highlight).
Btw if you’re playing mgs3 on the ps2 make sure it’s the Subsistence edition! It has a 3D camera that works way better than the top-down the og game shipped with.
Regarding your second spoiler: that colossus kill definitely felt personal after that. I mean… It’s not even their fault, but I was determined afterwards.
That fight is so incredible, I could gush about it all day. The ambience, the visuals, the environmental storytelling, just amazing.
Spoiler for 16th colossusThe only colossus to feel so direct in its attacks towards you, you can feel its anger at watching its fellow colossi die. Especially since when you reach the top you realize the 16th faces out from the bottom of the map, so it saw every colossus be slain one after another. Also holy shit having to snipe its hands/shoulders then jump onto it was so exciting, even if it was a bit jank.
Yes absolutely! Inspired Dark Souls, future zelda games, & basically every indie game to come out afterwards.
I started The Last Guardian, still need to go back & finish it. I liked a lot of what it was bringing to the table, but the pacing dragged a bit in the middle imo.
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