What are some fun PS1/PS2 games man

[Jasede]

God Hand is the very best.
Probably too difficult for a plebeian like you though. :V

 

[Ash]

Possibly my favourite gaming machine after the PC is the PS1. The PS2 is also good, but many of the notable releases are available on the PC anyways. I'll list PS1 games only, at least for now.
Many overlook the PS1 out of nothing but ignorance. If you want to get into the machine, I'd say start with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a genuine classic still frequently discovered by many today. After that, your guard should be down and you'll be more susceptible to other potential gems.

I've tried to remain exclusives-only, versions that were best on the PS, or games that were originally PS exclusive but later saw ports.

(J)RPG

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (ARPG)
Koudelka (Turn-Based)
Numerous FF games (Turn-Based)
Vagrant Story (RTwP)
FFTactics (sRPG)

Action/Adventure

Medievil
Tomb Raider series
Blade
Silent Bomber
Nightmare Creatures
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Survival Horror

Resident Evil 1 & 3
Silent Hill
Parasite Eve 2
Martian Gothic

Platformers:

Spyro the Dragon (the first one only)
Crash Bandicoot series
Tomba

Stealth

Metal Gear Solid
Tenchu 1 & 2

Shooters

Shooters on the PS1 was essentially equivalent to playing keyboard-only shooters from the pre-mouselook days. If that doesn't bother you, then there's:

Duke Nukem: Time To kill
Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes
Alien Trilogy (probably better off playing the later-released PC version).
Syphon Filter 1 & 2
South Park (one of the weirdest shooters I've ever played)
Exhumed

The prime thing the N64 did better than the PS1 was shooters, namely Turok and Duke Nukem: Zero Hour. Many of the above wont hold up for most while those N64 shooters certainly do.

Strategy

Hogs of War
Worms Armageddon

Puzzle

Kula World
Abe's Oddesey

Other (Shoot Em Ups, Racing, Simulation, Beat Em Ups etc)

G-Darius
Vigilante 8 series
Grudge Warriors
Driver
Overboard
Bloodlines (not Vampire the Masquerade, but a pretty cool game nonetheless)
Tony Hawks Pro Skater series
SCARS
Einhander

A Word on Ports

An absolute crapton of PC games were ported to the PS1. Sometimes with big changes, sometimes with next to none. Many of these games can be worth experiencing, and many are not if you have the PC version available. An example of big is Doom's sound design, music and lighting changes. Doom ends up with a very heavy atmosphere as a result. This can be replicated with mods/wads on the PC version.

A word on emulation

Don't be a faggot by using save states, play the games as they were originally designed.
In the case of games that were originally designed too easy (this is rare, but Castlevania: SotN is one example), there are ROM hacks (mods) for certain PS games that increase difficulty, rebalance, and sometimes add worthwhile content as a bonus.

 

[Ash]

Onimusha 3

No. Ignore all Onimushas except the criminally overlooked Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.

 

[Siveon]

Worms Armageddon is on PC, and better due to mods, working online multiplayer, etc, etc. PowerSlave (Exhumd, not sure why you're bringing out the EU version) similarly has a better PC port called Powerslave EX.

Also the South Park game was just awful, man.

 

[hackncrazy]

Onimusha 3

No. Ignore all Onimushas except the criminally overlooked Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.

Finally. ONE person that agrees with me in terms of Onimusha series.

I couldn't stand any of the games on the series, but Dawn Of Dreams is a fucking masterpiece.

Everything that game does is absolutely amazing, and for me is even better than others much more celebrated hack n slash games from that era, like God of War, Ninja Gaiden Black, Devil May Cry etc.

 

[Ash]

Worms Armageddon is on PC, and better due to mods, working online multiplayer, etc, etc. PowerSlave (Exhumd, not sure why you're bringing out the EU version) similarly has a better PC port called Powerslave EX.

Sure. Don't expect me to get every versioning right. I never played the PC version of Worms, nor the port of Powerslave, only the original EU version.

Also the Duke console games and South Park were just awful, man.

South Park was not great, no, but an interesting experiment for FPS fans. It's such a weird game. It doesn't really belong in a recommended games list, so I'll give you that.

The nukem games, on the other hand? I highly doubt you know what you're talking about.

Zero Hour on the N64, All the design is precisely the classic Duke Nukem 3D format, just in third person. It's a good game.
Time to Kill and Land of the Babes have inadequate shooting, but classic old school level design, and are generally competent otherwise. Do you like the Tomb Raider games (which also have crap shooting)? They're essentially Tomb Raider clones using the Duke Nukem fiction. And only a faggot dislikes the classic Tomb Raiders.
Duke Nukem 3D PS port? You're way better off playing the PC version, with one exception: the music. Which is incredible. Thankfully, there is Hendricks' music mod for the PC version.

 

[hackncrazy]

Possibly my favourite gaming machine after the PC is the PS1. The PS2 is also good, but many of the notable releases are available on the PC anyways. I'll list PS1 games only, at least for now.
Many overlook the PS1 out of nothing but ignorance. If you want to get into the machine, I'd say start with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a genuine classic still frequently discovered by many today. After that, your guard should be down and you'll be more susceptible to other potential gems.

Even though I agree with SotN being a timeless classic and a must play for every human being, I'd not recommend for a "newbie" to start with it. I'd say go for a lighter 2d action game like Pandemonium or Klonoa, and after you get a gripe on them, go for SotN.

I say that because for a newcomer, starting with a 2d game that requires so much backtracking and has a lot of secrets (including the one that opens the second castle) might be too overwhelming and disencouraging.

A word on emulation

Don't be a faggot by using save states, play the games as they were originally designed.
In the case of games that were originally designed too easy (this is rare, but Castlevania: SotN is one example), there are ROM hacks (mods) for certain PS games that increase difficulty, rebalance, and sometimes add worthwhile content as a bonus.

I agree totally. The only ocasion where I think that a save-state MUST be used is when developers fuck up and place a 5 minute long cutscene before a hard boss fight that makes you watch it over and over again if you die. A save-state in this case can be a life and a "non-drop" saver.

And again, as for SotN, I strongly recommend a hard mode romhack, since the main game is ridiculously easy, sadly. It doesn't come even close to other Castlevanias in terms of difficulty.

 

[Ash]

Onimusha 3

No. Ignore all Onimushas except the criminally overlooked Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.

Finally. ONE person that agrees with me in terms of Onimusha series.

I couldn't stand any of the games on the series, but Dawn Of Dreams is a fucking masterpiece.

Everything that game does is absolutely amazing, and for me is even better than others much more celebrated hack n slash games from that era, like God of War, Ninja Gaiden Black, Devil May Cry etc.

Dawn of Dreams is good because of the RPG systems, multi-character puzzle elements and the like. Generally the deepest gameplay of the series. However DMC and Ninja Gaiden have merit elsewhere: platforming, core combat, art style etc. I wouldn't be able to pick and choose between these bunch of games, except to exclude God of War which I don't consider to be on their level (though it's not bad).

 

[janior]

i cri everytim

 

[Perkel]

PS1:

Silent Hill

PS2:

Silent Hill 2 and 3


and join us drinking over thinking that we won't get good SH game ever.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Onimusha 3

No. Ignore all Onimushas except the criminally overlooked Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.

I'm yet to play Dawn of Dreams, only played the original and the third game so far. I like the series, so I'll definitely pick it up.

 

[Ash]

I played most in the series. They were playable/good, but not classic or nearing classic status until DoD imo. But it depends what you want from your game too. For example, the gameplay in DoD is the best, but the story is like...well...it's very Japanese. That doesn't mean it's necessarily bad at all, but it meets some of the stereotypes. I still enjoyed the story on some level anyways. It's campy fun.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Koudelka (Turn-Based)

Good shit, totally forgot about it.

Here's a small addition in case you want more good shit for PS1:
Arc the Lad is a fun SRPG with good music and nice graphics.
Kartia is also a rather fun SRPG with artwork by Yoshitaka Amano and nice music.
D is an FMV adventure, but has nice atmosphere and it's less than 2 hours long.
Granstream Saga is a nice top-down RPG. The story is not very interesting and the combat system is kinda simple, but at least it offers nice music and graphics.
Summoner and Summoner II. PS2 version of both games is superior in many ways (better particle effects and shadows in original Summoner compared to PC (although you might want to play the PC version for mouse controls), Summoner II doesn't feature the retarded redesign of the protag from the GameCube version). The first game is a RTwP RPG, the second one is more action-focused, but both have nice atmosphere and quest design as well as interesting mechanics (investments in expeditions in Summoner II, etc).

 

[boot]

the libraries for these systems were huge, you should look on your own for something that suits your own taste.

Spoiler

Load times on Gladius PS2 version are horrific, GameCube version is supposed to be much faster, try it on dolphin

I recommend Colosseum Road to Freedom, and Eternal Eyes

I remember a Dragonball Z fighting game that was really cool. Budokai 3 I think

Strong agree on Chaos Legion and Armored Core

 

[Jacob]

A word on emulation

Don't be a faggot by using save states, play the games as they were originally designed.
In the case of games that were originally designed too easy (this is rare, but Castlevania: SotN is one example), there are ROM hacks (mods) for certain PS games that increase difficulty, rebalance, and sometimes add worthwhile content as a bonus.

In the first Castlevania, you can't save your game, yet you are allowed unlimited retries to the beginning of a stage. In this case a save state at the beginning of the stage seems fair.

Of course when we're talking about PS2 games there's no excuse, by this era there is no technical limitation on save system anymore.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

A word on emulation

Don't be a faggot by using save states, play the games as they were originally designed.
In the case of games that were originally designed too easy (this is rare, but Castlevania: SotN is one example), there are ROM hacks (mods) for certain PS games that increase difficulty, rebalance, and sometimes add worthwhile content as a bonus.

In the first Castlevania, you can't save your game, yet you are allowed unlimited retries to the beginning of a stage. In this case a save state at the beginning of the stage seems fair.

Of course when we're talking about PS2 games there's no excuse, by this era there is no technical limitation on save system anymore.

Using save states when you need to stop playing right now and would like to continue playing from the same spot (in case the ingame saving system is slow or limited) is okay in my book tho.

 

[Jasede]

Yeah, that's just like leaving the console on overnight.
I'm sure y'all did that once or twice as wee lads.

 

[Ash]

Yeah, agreed on both those exceptions. Imposing cutscenes and life interference. A third would also be to bypass genuinely rage-inducing design. idk like say Battletoads, or a segment of a game that is genuinely tedious and grindy. But no examples of the latter is coming to mind right now in any of these old classics. Generally most nailed difficulty and gameplay engagement. Old school challenging, but not rage-inducing brutal original Ghost and Goblins/Battletoads-tier. All this aside, follow those old save systems without compromise.

 

[Great Deceiver]

The PS1 had a great shmup library. A great exclusive that was only released in Japan is Harmful Park:



Another one of my favourites is Gradius Gaiden:

 

[laclongquan]

Suikoden 1, 2 , 3. I wont say 4-5 because I havent played it yet.

Each game has some interesting features. Collect 108 characters on a castle in the lake is the common features, and all games happened sequentially on a world, so later games can have some mention of previous game characters and events.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is best MK spin-off and best coop ever along with Ballon Fight, even better than both God of War gaems + it has propably greatest intro ever:

 

[hackncrazy]

The PS1 had a great shmup library. A great exclusive that was only released in Japan is Harmful Park:



Another one of my favourites is Gradius Gaiden:

Gradius Gaiden is amazing.

I feel that what it does for the Gradius series is what Symphony of The Night did for Castlevania.

 

[hackncrazy]

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is best MK spin-off and best coop ever along with Ballon Fight, even better than both God of War gaems + it has propably greatest intro ever:

I had forgot about this game entirely.

I just remember that I started playing with my brother but we dropped it after we got stuck in some part and both refused to search the answer on a faq.

I really need to try this.

I had good memories of the 2d platformer MK game on PSX (I think it was Mythologies Sub Zero or something like this), although I'm not sure if it stood the test of time.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

I had good memories of the 2d platformer MK game on PSX (I think it was Mythologies Sub Zero or something like this), although I'm not sure if it stood the test of time.

Definately worth, I've finished it countless times. It aged well, question is if you like digitized graphics of 2D MK games and gameplay which is bascially a mixture between Prince of Persia and MK3 combat control scheme (+additional button responsible for turning back since it's not done automatically). There're also some choices and consequences depending on

Spoiler

ripping or not ripping Scorpion's and Sareena's spines off

There's also a third spin-off game about Special Forces vs Black Dragon but it's utter terrible, ever worse than MK4/Gold.

 

[Rahdulan]

Possibly my favourite gaming machine after the PC is the PS1. The PS2 is also good, but many of the notable releases are available on the PC anyways. I'll list PS1 games only, at least for now.
Many overlook the PS1 out of nothing but ignorance. If you want to get into the machine, I'd say start with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a genuine classic still frequently discovered by many today. After that, your guard should be down and you'll be more susceptible to other potential gems.

Biggest "problem" PS1 tends to suffer from is that people usually and unjustly pigeon hole it as JRPG machine exclusively because that's one genre it absolutely slaughtered Nintendo 64 at and still causes PTSD to some people over the fact.