10 Huge PS2 Games We Never Got In the West

Generally speaking, the gaming industry is a lot better these days at ensuring games and consoles from all over the world are shared with everyone, instead of games being locked to specific regions. Of course, that wasn’t always the case, with the PlayStation 2 in particular boasting many games that were available in Japan but not the rest of the world, including these following ten games. Some of them were excellent, others not so much, but there’s nothing more desirable than that thing you can’t have.

 

1. Metal Slug 3D

SNK is mostly known for their fighting game work, like The King Of Fighters, Garou and Samurai Shodown, but their incredible shoot ‘em up series Metal Slug should never be overlooked. A series that’s as brutally hard as Contra, but with 200% more comedy, whimsy and silly shenanigans, Metal Slug remains an incredibly popular part of SNK’s library of titles. Even the strategy spin-off, Metal Slug Tactics, is perhaps one of the most anticipated games on the horizon at the time of writing. With notoriety like that, SNK naturally decided that they’d give a 3D version of Metal Slug a whirl, and the results were–well, they weren’t that great actually.

The aptly named Metal Slug 3D transitioned the shoot ‘em up gameplay into the third dimension, which naturally reduced a lot of the traditional difficulty you’d expect from the Metal Slug series. SNK did try to make up for that by focusing more on upgrades and customization, but the end result was a series of poor reviews that made SNK reconsider releasing Metal Slug 3D in the West.

Despite that though, the majority of Metal Slug 3D features English text and voice acting, so if you can manage to get hold of a copy (or more likely, sail the high seas to “legally obtain” a copy), you should still be able to enjoy Metal Slug 3D without having to deal with that psychotic Duolingo bird.

 

2. Tales Of Destiny: Director’s Cut (and its sequel)

The Tales Of Destiny section of the “Tales Of” series is pretty weird, at least in terms of releases and localization. The first game launched on the PS1 in Japan and North America, but the sequel, which launched on PS2 in 2002, never made it out of Japan. There was a Tales Of Destiny II that did launch in North America on PS1 in 2001, but that was actually known as Tales of Eternia in other regions. If that’s not weird enough for you, the first Tales Of Destiny game was remade for the PS2 in 2006, which never saw a release outside of Japan, only for Namco Bandai to follow up two years later with a Director’s Cut version that added even more content.

Tales Of Destiny follows the young adventurer Stahn, who manages to find a talking sword and become embroiled in a battle for ancient and powerful artifacts. The remade version included full 3D environments, redrawn sprites for every character and fully voice acting for all the key cutscenes, while the Director’s Cut added a mode to see events from another character’s perspective, among other things. The PS2 versions also introduced Active Party Window, where the party members would interact with each other during the adventure, something that’s become a Tales Of staple in future entries.

With Tales Of Arise perhaps being the most popular entry in the series, and Bandai releasing remasters of games like Vesperia and Symphonia, maybe the time is now to see the PS2 version of Tales Of Destiny (and its sequel) released from its region lock jail.

 

3. Code Age Commanders: Tsugu Mono Tsugareru Mono

You might think that Square Enix titles like Kingdom Hearts and Nier are a bit too ridiculous when it comes to spreading their stories across multiple outlets, like mobile games, anime and, in the case of Nier, an actual orchestra performance. It’s become a bit of a Square Enix tradition over the years, but it’s certain;y not the first time it’s happened, as one multimedia experiment that never made it outside of Japan was the Code Age franchise, which consisted of a mobile game, a manga series and the subject of this list, the action RPG Code Age Commanders: Tsugu Mono Tsugareru Mono.

Conceptually, Code Ages is a lot to wrap your head around, with the setting based in a world that looks like a Dyson Sphere, multiple factions at war with each other, and enemy creatures called Otellos that can give people strange powers and mutations. Oh, and the whole civilization is under threat of annihilation. Anyway, Code Age Commanders follows the perspective of four different characters, each with their own perspectives and motivations. The game was decently well received, but because Code Ages was never officially released outside of Japan, it’s fallen into relative obscurity in the years since. At least the ideas have lived on in Square Enix’s other franchises.

 

4. Fist of the North Star: Shinpan no Sōsōsei Kengō Retsuden

Some of the most common game types that were never released outside of Japan are fighting games, with the majority of those games falling under the category of “kusoge”. If you’re wondering what “kusoge” means, think stinky doodoo games and you’re about there, as the games are often characterized by busted mechanics, easy to perform infinites and exploitable bugs. While it sounds like a derisory term, kusoge games are generally treated with a genuine love and affection, as the sheer lunacy is often a stark contrast to constant nerfs, buffs and focus on competitive integrity that modern competitive fighting games deal with. All of this is to say that there’s a king of kusoge, and it’s Hokuto no Ken.

Known over in the West as Fist of the North Star, the 2005 fighting game from SEGA and Arc System Works was originally released in the arcades, which did make their way over to America, but the PS2 port was never released outside of Japan. This lack of accessibility has led Fist of the North Star to become somewhat of an underground legend in the fighting game scene, until videos started emerging of the ridiculous infinite combos for EVERY character that resembled a basketball being dribbled by the Harlem Globetrotters.

Seriously, the combos are so ridiculous that during a tournament, one player tried to bribe another into dropping their combo. The west really missed out when Fist of the North Star didn’t get a PS2 port.

 

5. Initial D: Special Stage

The byword on anime and manga about dudes driving cars fast and doing sick drifts, Initial D has definitely become more popular and widely recognizable as the years have gone on. Perhaps that’s aided by the fact that the songs Deja Vu and Gas Gas Gas are absolute bangers and have been memed to death all over the internet, but the point still remains. Since it’s a series about driving, SEGA were easily able to create a series of arcade games based on the franchise, with most of those seeing a release Japan and other regions, but the three console ports that have been made, Special Stage (PS2), Street Stage (PSP) and Extreme Stage (PS3), were never released outside of Asia.

Based on the Initial D Arcade Stage Ver. 2 release, Special Stage for the PS2 retained much of the same features and content as the arcade release, though one mode called Bunta’s Challenge was removed from the overall package. Despite that, the PS2 release included a brand new story mode not seen in the arcades, which allowed players to experience moments from the manga up until volume 25.

It was the first home console release for the Initial D series, and Special Stage definitely set the bar in terms of what an anime game should offer its fans, though the graphical downgrade from arcade to PS2 wasn’t exactly the best.

 

6. Garōden Breakblow: Fist or Twist

Keisuke Itagaki might be more celebrated these days, thanks to the huge resurgence of popularity in the Baki The Grappler series (thanks, Netflix), but Baki isn’t the only martial arts property that Itagaki has worked on. In between writing and illustrating for the Baki manga in the 90s, Itagaki also worked on a manga adaptation of Garōden, a series of martial arts novels written by Baku Yumemakura. While it wasn’t the first Garōden adaptation, it was the most successful, running for 14 years and spawning both a prequel manga and two PS2 games, the best one being Garōden Breakblow: Fist or Twist. If that’s not the most metal name for a fighting game ever, I don’t know what is.

As you’d expect from a manga adaptation video game, Garōden Breakblow: Fist or Twist includes a few dozen characters from the series, along with a story mode that allows you to revisit key moments and fights. The gameplay features a mix of striking and grappling, similar to early UFC games, but the real winning gimmick is the momentum system, which forces players to stay on the offensive in order to secure wins. Players only unlock their supers when they’re on the backfoot though, allowing fights to have epic swings back and forth.

Throw in the fact that Baki’s dad, Yujiro Hanma, is included as a secret unlockable character, and you’ve got all the basics here for a theoretical Baki fighting game. Coming never to Netflix Games, probably.

 

7. ChainDive

The PS2 (and its console generation as a whole) was really on the frontier of a genre we’d like to refer to as “cool dude does badass shit, usually with a massive sword”, with Onimusha and Devil May Cry being two of the most notable examples. In fairness, most games that followed that pattern tended to originate from Japan, so it’s no surprise that Japan had a few extra games that we in the West weren’t privy to.

One such game is ChainDive, which you know fits into this genre because the main character is called Shark. That’s it, sold. We’ll take 10 dozen copies if anyone decides to remaster and localize this one, thanks. Sony did publish it as well, so it’s not exactly impossible, just extremely unlikely.

As Shark (what a name though, honestly), you wield a sword called Unbreakable, and must defend the planet Elm from a variety of hostile invaders. It’s a 2.5D game, with Shark moving along a horizontal axis while exploring 3D environments, but what makes ChainDive compelling is its combat. Shark also has access to a grappling hook called a plasma chain, which can be used to fling yourself around levels, while Shark’s sword doesn’t damage enemies; it just freezes them so you can grapple towards them. This is all just a long winded way of saying “you move fast and look cool doing it”, and really, what more could you want from a video game?

 

8. King Of Colosseum II

Any wrestling game fan worth their salt will know of Fire Pro Wrestling, the legendary 2D wrestling series that accurately depicts the art of Japanese “puroresu,” with 2017’s Fire Pro Wrestling World being considered among the best wrestling games ever made. What some might not know however is that Spike Chunsoft had a rather brief dalliance with the third dimension in a series known as King of Colosseum. Both games in this spin-off series aimed at replicating the Fire Pro gameplay but in 3D, and while the first game was considered a solid if unspectacular effort, it’s the sequel that earned a lot more critical acclaim. You know, despite not launching in the West.

Aside from the 3D, what separated King Of Colosseum from the Fire Pro series was the fact that Spike Chunsoft actually managed to work a deal with the various Japanese wrestling promotions. King of Colosseum II included wrestlers from promotions such as New Japan, All Japan, Pro Wrestling NOAH, Zero-One and World Japan. It’s notable because in the past, Fire Pro games featured aesthetically similar yet legally distinct versions of popular wrestlers, though King of Colosseum II also boasted those wrestlers too if your tastes were a bit more WWE inclined.

Chuck in modes like Survival Road, which actually encouraged players to structure a proper wrestling match instead of just battering your opponent in two minutes, and King of Colosseum II deserves a place among the best wrestling games ever made.

 

9. Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō

Do you remember that part in Berserk when Han Solo and Chewbecca rocked up and tried to start a fight with Guts? Yeah, us neither, but that’s maybe because the Millennium Falcon arc of the Berserk series actually has nothing to do with the Star Wars ship it shares a name with.

Berserk Millennium Falcon Arc: Chapter of the Holy Demon War, to give the game its full English translated name, is actually the second game based on Berserk to be released, with the first game being Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage for the Dreamcast. That game did receive a worldwide release, but for some reason, Berserk Millennium Falcon Arc never made it to the West. Shame.

While the first game was a non-canon adventure set between volumes 22 and 23 of the manga, Berserk Millennium Falcon Arc: Chapter of the Holy Demon War is an adaptation of events from volumes 22 to 27, with Guts on a quest to help Casca by traveling to Elfheim. Saying anymore would be spoiling the sheer depravity and ugliness of the world and story that Berserk never shies away from, so consider that your warning if you’ve never read or watched Berserk before. As for the gameplay, the sequel boasts much of the same sword slashing combat you’d expect, only with bigger maps, better graphics and the addition of voice acting from the cast of the original TV series.

10. Sengoku Basara (plus its sequel/expansion and spin-off)

The Sengoku Basara series was at one point a huge part of Capcom’s portfolio, at least in Japan. Loosely based on the actual events of the Sengoku period of Japan’s history, Sengoku Basara has seen over a dozen games, multiple anime and manga adaptations, a live action drama series, a musical and a stage play crossover with Devil May Cry. It’s a pretty big series, basically, and while the series did make it to Western shores by 2010, it nearly never happened. This is because Capcom made the weird decision to change everything about the first game’s aesthetic, characters and story to create a dark fantasy game that’d “appeal to the West”. The result was a game called Devil Kings, which attempted to court players by basically copying Devil May Cry’s whole vibe and even font.

The gameplay itself was solid enough, as Sengoku Basara offered the same kind of basic “1 vs all” thrill you’d get from playing Dynasty Warriors. However, by trying to appeal to Western audiences, Capcom essentially tied the noose around their own neck, as Devil Kings was a huge flop for the PS2, meaning the West missed out on everything Sengoku Basara for a good number of years. The sequel, Sengoku Basara 2, added more characters, stories and content, and there was even an expansion release, Heroes, which offered even more for players. Meanwhile, Capcom also collaborated with Arc System Works to create a fighting game, Sengoku Basara X.

All of these skipped the rest of the world, and we can probably thank the pretty poor reception to Devil Kings for that. This is the opposite of king shit.

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