What's Your Favorite PlayStation 2 Game?
COMMUNITY QUESTION | Let's look back on our favorite PS2 games for the console's 20th anniversary.
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This week was the 20th anniversary for the PlayStation 2, a console that many hold up as the best console ever. It's also a console that formed the blueprint for what we see on modern consoles today, from its online experiments to how every modern blockbuster game is inspired at least a little bit by Grand Theft Auto 3 and San Andreas.
And everyone has a favorite PS2 game... or a dozen favorite PS2 games. For this week's Community Question, tell us about your own favorite game to grace the PlayStation 2 in the comments. You can find some of our own below.
Eric Van Allen, News Editor
I really don't know where to start. The PlayStation 2 was possibly the most formative console I owned growing up, apart from maybe my Nintendo handhelds. I've over-professed my love for Final Fantasy 10, and it had so many games I still remember fondly, like the Jak series.
My favorite memories with the system, though, are those I made with friends. It was a prime multiplayer console, even before we finally splurged on a multi-tap. One of my still-absolute favorites is Guitar Hero 2. I remember plunking away on Medium, feeling confident, and then going on a trip with friends who all played on Expert. They didn't want to swap the difficulty every time I got on, so I had to jump from Medium to Expert-level Guitar Hero play in the span of a weekend. It sounds tough, and it was, but it was so worth it. Within three months, I was nailing 100% runs on "Mother" by Danzig.
Caty McCarthy, Senior Editor
The PlayStation 2 is my favorite console. From Okami to Katamari Damacy to Shadow of the Colossus to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne to Dark Cloud 2 to Kingdom Hearts to Jak 2—most of my favorite games of all-time made the PS2 their home. My absolute favorite I've talked about many times before here, so I won't dwell for too long, but my favorite PS2 game is Persona 3 FES.
Everyone's first Persona is their favorite, judging from the Persona 4 faithfuls (booo!) and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment/Innocent Sin cultists (yay!), but Persona 3 FES to me is the platonic ideal of the Persona formula. It has the best social links of the series; the best party, the best music, the best color scheme. It's not just my favorite Persona, but my favorite game on the PS2. Now, please remake it with the finesse of Persona 5 and fix the Tartarus and combat, Atlus.