Is it a stretch to say that the PS2 enjoyed the greatest longevity of any console ever? Year after year, the system saw revolutionary games that would change the industry. Comparing the earliest PS2 games to the latest shows an incredible technical leap you wouldn’t expect from tech as old as that cursed D&D movie. But even as we moved into the HD era, the PS2 was still getting games, some of them good, some of them weird, and some of them you just have to wonder what they were thinking.
The Tairyou Jigoku (February 22, 2007)
In an industry where ballooning budgets and unrealistic expectations have become the norm, you might be surprised to hear that D3 Publisher built an entire brand of low budget games sold at low prices. It’s right there in the name: the Simple 2000 games for the PS2 all cost 2000 yen each at launch. These titles are hit-and-miss in terms of quality, but developers being able to experiment means some of them ended up as secret hideaways for interesting ideas.
Volume 113 is one such example. The Tairyou Jigoku (or “The Overwhelming Hell” in English) is one part bizarre take on Alice in Wonderland, and one part survival horror game.
The premise is simple: schoolgirl Erika has forgotten her cellphone at school, and on returning to retrieve it, sees a white rabbit take it away. When she follows it into a portal, she ends up in another world, one filled with horrors.
From there, The Tairyou Jigoku takes a stage-based approach. Erika must enter a portal to hell, sneak past or struggle against swarms of insects, rats, spirits, or other creatures, and track down the rabbit to find letters that unveil the game’s story, as well as keys that unlock access to boss fights.
The game may have been constrained by low budgets and a fast turnaround time, but it stands apart due to its unique premise — which kind of resembles A Plague Tale a full decade before that game and its rats took the industry by swarm.
Chaos Wars (June 3, 2008)
As games like Super Robot Wars, Namco X Capcom, and Project X Zone will show you, the strategy RPG genre is a popular canvas for crossovers. Developer Idea Factory tried their hand at this as well, throwing franchises like Shadow Hearts, Growlanser, Gungrave, and Spectral Souls into a blender to create their own SRPG.
Chaos Wars presents a pretty neat twist on the usual SRPG proceedings. Rather than use grid-based movement and positioning, characters can freely move as many times as they wish within a certain range, as long as they have movement value remaining — with spent movement being added to the delay until their next turn.
It’s a nice and flexible system, and when combined with a mechanic that allows allies to join in with follow-up attacks, makes for a decently entertaining strategy game.
But that’s not why we’re here today. If you’re allergic to bad voice acting, then chances are, you cringed when we mentioned the name “Chaos Wars”. What would have otherwise been a decent, forgotten crossover SRPG was made infamous thanks to a horrifically bad English dub. The rushed and unpolished localization didn’t help, but this story gets truly wild if you closely examine the game’s manual.
You see, western publisher O~3 Entertainment’s CEO is named Chris Jelinek. And in the manual’s voice acting credits and special thanks section, you’ll see several people who share that last name — implying that Jelinek brought in family members to voice the game instead of hiring professional actors.
The result was certainly chaotic, if nothing else.
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (October 21, 2008)
In the mid to late 2000s, video game ports were often like a box of chocolates (or symbiotes in this case?); you’d never know what you’d get.
Case in point: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. While the PC and seventh gen consoles all received the same open world adventure, the PS2 and PSP release — the Amazing Allies Edition — is a 2.5D side-scrolling brawler. And while all releases of the game feature moral choices in a story revolving around a symbiote invasion of Manhattan, this version diverges dramatically in its actual plot.
Web of Shadows on PS2 features relatively simple beat ‘em up combat, and builds on that foundation with a power-ups system that allows you to equip abilities and summonable allies prior to beginning a mission.
While out on the field, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will gain skill points from beating down enemies, and reputation points from interacting with citizens and events. The skill points you earn and the reputation points you earn for the red or black suits determine what skills you can buy, incentivizing a bit of thought for what kind of fighter you want to be.
Though all versions of Web of Shadows released to mixed reviews, the game still has its fans, and at least one review cites the Amazing Allies Edition as being truer to Spider-Man’s character.
Let’s leave the streets of Manhattan behind and fly off to space for this next one.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 (April 21, 2009)
Despite complaints of repetition, the allure of the Dynasty Warriors franchise has endured for over two decades. It’s the ultimate power fantasy: putting you into the shoes of a warrior that can mow down entire armies by themselves. The template has proven popular enough to land over a dozen crossovers with different franchises — one of which happens to be the iconic Gundam franchise.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam and its two sequels are perhaps the ultimate combination of anime power fantasies: being a lone hero who can fend off thousands of enemies, and doing it all while piloting a giant mecha. This actually gives these games an interesting twist: player characters consist of both a pilot and a Gundam, and mixing and matching the two can give rise to a variety of combinations with different effects.
And as you’d expect from futuristic giant mecha, these games offer more flexibility in combat and movement than other Dynasty Warriors titles, with more ranged options, as well as the ability to dash or fly.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 iterates on this formula by improving enemy AI, adding quick time events, and giving players a much larger roster. And while there are some compromises, like less enemies on screen at a time, the PS2 version — which released simultaneously with its next-gen counterparts — is still able to hold its own as a viable version of the game.
As with many other Dynasty Warriors games, despite the poor critical reception, the game has developed its own dedicated fan following that appreciates what it was able to achieve.
Indian Exclusive Variety Hour (2009-2013)
While Japan, Europe, and the U.S are dominant forces in game development, that hasn’t stopped other countries, like India, from throwing their hats into the ring. Unfortunately for the Indian studios who tried their hand, a lack of experience and budget means that none of these games are good.
First up on the list is Hanuman: Boy Warrior, a third-person action game starring the titular deity. Developed by Aurona in only ten months, this 2009 release is India’s first PS2 game — which makes it all the more unfortunate that its visuals and gameplay are far outstripped by even the system’s launch titles nearly a decade prior.
The combat is a bland and broken mess, and the camera is your biggest obstacle in platforming sequences. The story won’t save the experience either, because it’s marred by horrendous voice acting in both English and Hindu.
Another Indian game released in 2009 was Chandragupta: Warrior Prince, a Prince of Persia-esque 2.5D platformer that first appeared on the PSP before coming to PS2 in 2011. Chandragupta does have some interesting ideas, such as ranged attacks that can strike enemies in the background or foreground, and RPG elements.
Unfortunately, this game also falls apart where it really matters. The game balancing makes most good gear too expensive to buy, and the level design is both punishing and outright deceptive.
Last up is Don 2, which, like the other two games, was published by Sony Computer Entertainment, making it a first-party title. Its 2013 release date makes it the final first party release for the PS2 — but unlike its source material — it fails to go out with a bang. On starting the game, you’re presented with low budget and sloppy comic book style cutscenes, before the game abruptly drops you into its world.
As with the other two India exclusives, Don 2’s visuals are far below the standard you’d expect from a late PS2 game, with environments being composed of bland and blurry textures. Shootouts are clunky, with your opponents being unintelligent AI.
Despite these games’ faults, we still hope Indian studios continue to try their hand at game development, thanks to the unique perspectives and culture they bring to the table.
Secret Agent Clank (May 26, 2009)
While Insomniac Games had already moved onto the PS3 back in 2006, the iconic Lombax and robot duo they created still had a couple more outings (thanks to High Impact Games) on the PSP, with PS2 ports. Secret Agent Clank — a game based on an in-universe TV show — also marks the final Ratchet & Clank game released for the PS2.
Clank’s gameplay segments in the mainline titles are typically brief, puzzle-orientated segments designed to break up the pace, but Secret Agent Clank gives the tiny robot melee combos and a selection of gadgets, bringing his playstyle more in line with his Lombax counterpart.
As befitting the game’s spy theme, though, Clank will have to channel his inner James Bond from time to time, using quick time events to perform stealth takedowns and a Holo-Monocle to disguise himself as his enemies.
Unfortunately, even in its concise runtime of less than ten hours, Secret Agent Clank is bogged down by segments featuring Ratchet and Captain Qwark. While Ratchet’s portions are at least relevant — he’s been framed for a crime and Clank is trying to clear his name — both characters drag the experience down and take attention away from Clank’s spy-themed antics.
Though not an awful game by any means, it’s still a rare misstep in an otherwise fantastic series of platformers.
Summon Night Granthese: Horobi no Tsurugi to Yakusoku no Kishi (March 11, 2010)
Spend enough time immersed into any one genre, and you’re bound to start coming across the more niche stuff. Hidden among the many strategy RPGs you’ll find in the wild is the Summon Night series, an SRPG franchise with visual novel elements that’s been mostly trapped in Japan.
Despite the obscurity, Summon Night as a series has done well enough for itself to warrant a host of spinoffs, one of which we’ve covered in the past. Unfortunately, just like Swordcraft Story 2, Summon Night Granthese released long after the ship sailed for next gen consoles, being a PS2 game released in 2010.
Not only did Summon Night Granthese never leave Japan, it’s obscure even within its home country, with little in the way of significant media coverage. And that’s a shame, because the few people who were actually exposed to it found it to be a decent, if not groundbreaking action RPG.
The combat is fun, albeit lacking in depth. The presentation is a bit bland and underwhelming for a 2010 PS2 game, but the soundtrack is solid, and, surprisingly enough, the pleasing character art was drawn by none other than Katsumi Enami, whose style you might recognize from the Star Ocean and Trails series.
Given the positive reception as a whole to the few Summon Night games that did make it west, the series deserves more western releases. Who knows, maybe a future mainline game will break into the mainstream, and then we’ll get remasters of the spinoffs, including this forgotten action RPG curio.
Sakura Wars: So Long My Love (March 30, 2010)
Among the more forgotten parts of Sega’s catalogue of IPs is the Sakura Wars franchise. Conceived by Teruhisa “Oji” Hiroi from Red Entertainment, the series is set in an alternate 1920s period where Japan has created a military unit of giant mecha to fight back against demons.
The Sakura Wars series built its entire identity around the blend of love and war: on the battlefield, you’ll engage in turn-based strategy battles with a host of mecha, and in your downtime, you’ll be spending time with the heroines who pilot them.
The series’ Live & Interactive Picture system adds more pressure than what’s in your typical romance visual novel, with quick time events, time limits for dialogue choices, and the ability to hear characters’ internal monologues. Your relationships with the ladies also directly affects their performance in battle, and vice versa.
So Long My Love, the fifth entry, takes the action to 1928 New York, as greenhorn Shinjiro Taiga is sent there by his uncle to help lead the Star Division, and is forced to prove himself when demons attack.
As far as late era PS2 games go, it was well-received, but unfortunately sold poorly. It’s also got an interesting quirk: while dual-audio is featured, the English and Japanese voice tracks are on entirely different discs, and save files are incompatible between them.
While the Sakura Wars series received another entry in 2019, that game shifted towards action RPG gameplay instead — leaving SRPG fans with this game as the last one in the series that stays true to its roots.
Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow (June 2, 2010)
Before they gave us Days Gone, Bend Studio were the stewards of Syphon Filter, a third-person shooter where you play as an agent out to stop terrorists. While there’s certainly stealth in this series, there’s also a lot more room for a guns blazing approach.
Our mission target for today is Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, the sixth and final installment of this series, and direct sequel to Dark Mirror. Released in 2007 for the PSP, the game would eventually make its way to the PS2 in mid-2010.
Logan’s Shadow begins when a new terrorist group, al-Jamil, attacks the USS Mt. St. Helens, with our hero Gabe Logan being sent out to intercept and prevent them from getting access to classified information.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror laid the groundwork in pushing for a more character-centric story, and as the finale to the series, Logan’s Shadow follows that trend, thanks to the help of graphic novel writer Greg Rucka. Logan’s Shadow also iterated on the series’ gameplay foundations by improving cover, melee combat, and adding underwater skirmishes. Going by the game’s reviews, it was able to stick the landing as the final title in the series.
The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest (September 14, 2010)
Some long running franchises mature with their audiences, targeting older players with darker themes. The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, however, takes the exact opposite approach, cramming the entire plot of the film trilogy into one game, and making it more kid-friendly in the process.
It’s framed as a literal retelling, too — fifteen years after the fall of Sauron, Samwise Gamgee recounts the adventures of Aragorn to his children. And as with many games of this era, certain consoles received an entirely different experience.
On the Wii and PS3, Aragorn’s Quest is a traditional action adventure game. The PS2, PSP, and DS, on the other hand, received a linear isometric action RPG, complete with stats and EXP. Contrary to most games of the genre, though, Aragorn’s Quest on the PS2 has neither the thought involved in RPG gameplay, nor the skill and reflexes that action games demand.
Aragorn’s Quest is a repetitive button masher, and the RPG systems make the game far too easy in its later stages. That the PS2 (and PSP) version appears to be a port of the DS version is quite telling of the level of care that was afforded to its release, as it follows the DS version’s game balancing — only a few enemies can be on screen at once due to hardware limitations. It makes the PS2 version — which could have handled something more intensive — feel empty to look at.
Regardless of platform, however, the reviews for Aragorn’s Quest indicate that it isn’t, in fact, the one game to rule them all.
READ NEXT: Video Game Spin Offs That Killed The Main Series
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