Every March, we at PlayStation Lifestyle celebrate an important milestone. On March 4, 2000, the PlayStation 2 was born. Sure, the 19th anniversary isn’t the sexiest time to celebrate, but we’re doing it for the Lifestyle, as it were. This time, I’ve taken it upon myself to offer up a fun, little listicle for the darker corners of the PlayStation 2’s history. When you’re dealing with one of the best-selling systems of all time, it’s hard to go through and pick out things like obscure games, because as long as the game was good, chances are there was a relatively healthy niche for it.
You’re not going to see something like a Shin Megami Tensei title on this list, nor will you see something like God Hand that still gets hella props today, despite not doing well. Instead, I opted to choose games I almost never hear about, despite having fond memories of them myself. In some cases, they aren’t games I’ve played personally, but have always been fascinated by (such is the curse of never having enough time to play games).
The following ten games are titles that either have merit as totally good video games you should play because they’re great or have ideas that didn’t quite land for various reasons but are still historically fascinating and worth checking out. These are games that, in their own way, defined the PS2 (or the “PS2 era” in the case of multiplatform titles). For many of these, you’ll probably never see a game like them again. For others, well, just play ’em, okay? They’re neat. I promise.
10 Overlooked PS2 Games March 2019
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10 Overlooked PS2 Games March 2019 #1
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Darkwatch
Darkwatch is one of those games that could have only existed during the PS2 era. It was a weird game and a new IP, but at the same time leaned heavily on AAA trends of its time. It borrowed liberally from Halo, but did so with a wild west horror theme, and a protagonist who had vampiric superpowers. Developer High Moon Studios moved on to licensed games and assistance on Call of Duty and Destiny, so its sole original IP has largely been lost to time.
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Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter largely tanked with both critics and fans back when it launched. It was not only an oddity as a game, but it also felt like a massive betrayal to fans of the series. Today, quirky roguelikes are all kinds of popular, so I wonder if it would be more well-received now.
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Haunting Ground
While Resident Evil remains Capcom's flagship horror franchise, the developer tried to expand its horror IP stable at various times. Haunting Ground is one such attempt, one that wasn't a huge hit but does a lot of interesting things. It does tackle some intense subject matter, so make sure to read up on it a little first just in case. There's also a dog friend, which makes it a must play by default.
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Metal Saga
While the Metal Max series has had several releases in Japan, Metal Saga was the first time a localization was published. The emergence of this strange, open-ended, post-apocalyptic, and very budget RPG landed quietly, but it's absolutely worth playing. A more recent entry was localized last year as well, and it's also all of those descriptors I used.
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MS Saga: A New Dawn
You wouldn't know it scrolling through a list of PS2 games, but MS Saga: A New Dawn is actually a turn-based JRPG based on the Mobile Suit Gundam property. It's a totally original story too, and the Gundams are just sort of there in the background and in combat. It's strange, but collecting and kitting out the various mobile suits is awesome.
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Mystic Heroes
Originally released on the GameCube, Mystic Heroes is, for lack of a better description, a kid-friendly take on the Musou thing. It was re-released for the PS2 later with new content and is totally a weird idea that never really went anywhere for Koei. But diehard Musou fans should definitely check it out for the sake of history.
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Robot Alchemic Drive
These days, we know Sandlot as the mad geniuses behind the Earth Defense Force series. But before that, the studio made a game called Robot Alchemic Drive, which was published by Enix before the Squaresoft merger. That's a lot of history in one sentence! This game, also known as RAD, is a giant mech game that sees the player operating as a human on the ground, controlling a giant mech with a remote device. While most mech action games are inspired by more modern, serious anime, this game is inspired by the genre's more whimsical past, such as Tetsujin 28. Sandlot would go on to make an actual, licensed Tetsujin 28 game after this, which is some pretty rad payoff.
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Rule of Rose
Rule of Rose is another relatively obscure PS2 horror game with a dog friend. This one is interesting historically, as it was the subject of a pretty big moral panic in the UK, causing it to be banned in the country despite the charges against it being completely fabricated. It's also one of the most expensive PS2 games to buy secondhand due to its limited print run.
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Sakua Wars: So Long, My Love
Sakura Wars is another long-running Japanese series that finally saw localization several entries in. This was the fifth game in the series, and was actually the last until a new title was announced by Sega for 2019. In Sakura Wars, heroes posing as acting troupes battle the forces of evil in mecha, and the gameplay is a hybrid of tactical RPG combat and dating sim-like storytelling. Sakura Wars was doing the visual novel mashup thing before it was cool.
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Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
This entry is a little cheesy, but I love this game. Licensed games were a dime a dozen on the PS2, and several developers tried and failed to make decent superhero games. DC Comics especially had a rough time of it, but eventually Ubisoft just said "screw it" and made a 90s-style beat 'em up based on the popular The New Batman Adventures cartoon series. You could play as Batman, Robin, Nightwing, or Batgirl and punch the crap out of some baddies. An original villain was created for the game in Sin Tzu, and he was kind of boring, but still, this game was one of the few times a 3D beat 'em up turned out pretty solid.
