Hades Hotgun
Banned
One of my favorite PS2 games. A great battle system with an unexpectedly good story.
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PS2 Hidden gems
- Thread starter bomblord1
- Start date
One of my favorite PS2 games. A great battle system with an unexpectedly good story.
nobodyshero
Banned
To this day, I look at the PS Store update and hope this is added as a PS2 classic.
FrontalMonk
Banned
Hell yes, bujingai. Didn't care that it starred Gackt, it was stylin' as hell.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
It's not super unknown, but it's criminally underrated - Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is easily one of the best RPG of all-time. It's this amazing mix of careful level design, roguelike influences, tactical combat, and fantastic music (Hitoshi Sakimoto - FFT and a whole lot more) set in an imaginative underground steampunk world with a touching story. Got a bad rap because people didn't know what to think of it at the time (roguelikes were still very niche & the previous BoF games had been fairly standard JRPGs) & the difficulty is higher than normal.
Chaindive (JP only).
Not necessarily a great game, but great art design.
PensivePen
Member
Shadow Tower: Abyss is Japanese only, but has a fan translation patch. It's a fantastic Dark Fantasy game by FromSoft, similar to the King's Field games but with a really interesting setting and much more refined gameplay mechanics. Make sure you switch the control type if you play it.
Cheeseman Battitude
Member
AKA Bumpy Trot.
It's not super unknown, but it's criminally underrated - Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is easily one of the best RPG of all-time. It's this amazing mix of careful level design, roguelike influences, tactical combat, and fantastic music (Hitoshi Sakimoto - FFT and a whole lot more) set in an imaginative underground steampunk world with a touching story. Got a bad rap because people didn't know what to think of it at the time (roguelikes were still very niche & the previous BoF games had been fairly standard JRPGs) & the difficulty is higher than normal.
Even a minor HD rerelease that fixed some of the emulation bugs would do really, really well in a market where Spelunky, FTL, and Rogue Legacy are hits. Rogulites are big now!
Stairouais
Member
Reeeeally odd survival horror.
Spehornoob
Member
Dunno how popular or unpopular it is, but there was a fun little action RPG called Radiata Stories that was pretty damn good. Damn I wish the PS4 had backwards compatibility. Would so vastly increase it's library.
Can't believe I forgot about this.
I wholeheartedly recommend it as well.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
An enhanced HD port of BoF
Q is one of my dream games (ideally on the Vita so it'd be portable), but unfortunately, I believe it sold badly at the time so it's pretty unlikely.
Lactose_Intolerant
Member
My man, this game is so crazy. I like how you start in black and white until you get your eye back.
I wish I'd paid more attention to Rule Of Rose at the time. A second-hand European copy turned up in the U.K. Gamestation I worked in and I didn't realise how rare it was. I just looked at it, thought "Oh, that's quirky, I'll see about grabbing it when I've got some money spare". It still scanned through the system and got sold for probably no more than £20.
Now the only available copies on Amazon and eBay are around five times that.
Now the only available copies on Amazon and eBay are around five times that.
I think a dick was the first thing everyone made. It was difficult to make anything that didn't look vaguely like a penis with the limited options you start with.
To this day, I look at the PS Store update and hope this is added as a PS2 classic.
One of the greatest PS2 games I've ever played, never had the full game though, just a demo disc I got from the Unofficial PlayStation Magazine.
So this thread has me thinking, why were developers and publishers so keen on localizing niche Japanese titles for the PS2 but hardly if ever have done it this generation? Was the PS2 just that much easier and cheaper to develop for that a localization was just easy money?
An enhanced HD port of BoF
Honestly, and I know it's an unpopular opinion- It's probably the best BoF game ever made.
Combat was amazing.
Agreed.
darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
Shadow Hearts.
Covenant was the best JRPG on the system IMO. So damn good.
Covenant was the best JRPG on the system IMO. So damn good.
afternoon delight
Member
Game of the Generation behind Silent Hill 2 for me, I mean, it was just so much fun.
Like fighting combos? Like RPGs? Play this. A bit cliche on many counts, but that can be considered part of its charm. Not to mention that the soundtrack was composed by Mitsuda, the same man who did Chrono Trigger.
These two games sadly didn't get as much attention as the first game, at least outside of Japan. Each installment adds more variety to your monkey-catching prowess, and the third game actually gives you several different forms with abilities for catching some apes. And the music is killer in each game.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
One of my favorite PS2 games. A great battle system with an unexpectedly good story.
Is that a screenshot from the game because it doesn't look like it. I'm thinking that's End of Darkness.
Thank you so much! I think I actually have that in my Steam Library... Never played it though.
I'll definitely try it now. Much appreciated.
Begaria
Member
It was not that hidden but still during my childhood, it was an hidden gem for me and I think that game deserved to be played from those who love RPG.
It's not super unknown, but it's criminally underrated - Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is easily one of the best RPG of all-time. It's this amazing mix of careful level design, roguelike influences, tactical combat, and fantastic music (Hitoshi Sakimoto - FFT and a whole lot more) set in an imaginative underground steampunk world with a touching story. Got a bad rap because people didn't know what to think of it at the time (roguelikes were still very niche & the previous BoF games had been fairly standard JRPGs) & the difficulty is higher than normal.
You guys are awesome. All good picks. I'll double down on Shadow Hearts: Covenant for my pick. Because of these (forgive the fullscreen prints, I played it on PCSX2):
Play Shadow Hearts: Covenant, dammit.Sarcastic badass protagonist!
Gay porn for dresses to power up a party member!
Sexual innuendo!
Fart jokes!
A party member uses large weird bludgeoned objects as a weapon. Yes, this is a weapon.
Metal Gear Wolf
One of the NPCs in a sidequest for a party member is an Alien Dog that speaks only in Japanese emoticons
sixteen-bit
Member
Earth Defense Force 2
Been a while, since I last saw my PS2 library, but from what I remember my favorites that could be considered hidden gems are:
and
It's a 2D fighter with a decent amount of depth and variety due to almost every character having the ability to transform mid-battle between three forms. Add the wacky random battle events (e.g. Phantommon chasing and killing the nearest players, everyone in the fight swapping bodies with another player) and you've got yourself a great party game.
and
Tons of content (a couple full episodes of the original cartoon iirc), lots of fun mini-con powers to mess around with.
Awesome game. Basically a mature Zelda where you get to fly around on a dragon in an open world.
This came out fairly late in the PS2 years but it was great. It's by the Onimusha team and they do a great job creating a unique atmosphere. One of my favorite games from Capcom, it's a shame that it didn't get a sequel.
This came out fairly late in the PS2 years but it was great. It's by the Onimusha team and they do a great job creating a unique atmosphere. One of my favorite games from Capcom, it's a shame that it didn't get a sequel.
drtomoe123
Member
GAF has some great taste. There are a lot of really great games mentioned in this thread.
Do yourself a favor and pick up MS Saga and RAD.
Do yourself a favor and pick up MS Saga and RAD.
Oh man, I was so hyped for Legaia 2 after the first one and it was such a huge letdown in comparison. Still hoping Sony brings it back someday.
SlasherJPC
Banned
Before Batman came:
Such an awesome and different FPS game.
Such an awesome and different FPS game.
Yup. Love this game and I always recommend it in threads like these.Good, Blood Will Tell/Dororo already covered.
Shadow Of Rome then.
The stealth bits are rubbish, but the arena fighting is great.
Dead Rising started out as a sequel to this.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Anyway my contribution
Reeeeally odd survival horror.
Neither of these came out in NA, Gregory Horror Show in particular is hard to find. Still, I should import them.
My contribution are the ones I have imported so far:
NipplesAndToes23
Member
I was going to say this too, but I don't remember enough of that game. That was so many years ago.
Fbh
Member
It has been 13 days since I've posted about Robot Alchemic Drive.
Lol, just saw a review of this and it looks amazing.
Interesting concept with dialog and voice acting that's so bad it's good.
I'll have to check it out at some point
This gem rarely gets mentioned. Think of it as Majora's Mask meets murder mystery. You basically travel through time in order to solve/prevent your own death.
It also stars Charles Martinet in one of his creepiest roles ever.
It also got a competent enough port to PC. I miss the early PS2 era of games that actually tried to accomplish something new and fresh.
PassiveObserver
Member
Never had a chance to play it, but this title caught my eye. It's Crimson Sea 2 by Koei. Was described as Smash TV in 3D. Anyone played this? Makes me want to buy a PS2 again and check out some of these gems.
]
NightRunner99
Neo Member
striferser
Huge Nickleback Fan
aka disaster report or SOS final escape said:
A game about surviving natural disaster.
Graphic kinda suck, the voice acting is hilarious.
But damn the gameplay, setting, and theme is really good. There's not many game where we play as regular joe stuck in natural disaster. The sequel is also good, and even more ridiculous than the first one.
