The Grand Theft Auto franchise thrived on the PlayStation 2. Several of the best games in the franchise came out on that system, including GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas. Each of these landmark titles are still held in high regard by fans of the series to this day.
That being said, there are a handful of games that achieve masterpiece status in ways the GTA series will never touch, surpassing the franchise in many respects. That isn’t to diminish what Rockstar Games accomplished during the PlayStation 2 era, but to shine light on the other masterpieces of that era.
Final Fantasy X Was Another Epic Square Enix RPG
The entire party in Final Fantasy X, including Tidus, Auron, Wakka, Yuna, Kimahri, Lulu, and RikkuImage via Square-Enix
PlayStation was the home of several classic Final Fantasy games, including the universally lauded Final Fantasy VII. That legacy continued on the PlayStation 2 with Final Fantasy X, the first game for that console, and one that pushed many boundaries for the series. Thanks to the upgraded hardware, Final Fantasy X was able to leave the pre-rendered and top-down visuals of earlier games for fully 3D environments, allowing both its hero Titus and the world of Spira to top like never before.
But the game wasn’t just a visual marvel at the time, as it also shook up the gameplay in surprising ways. A new battle system, reworked summoning mechanics, and a more customizable way to level up party members made Final Fantasy X feel fresh. Grand Theft Auto has a lot of great qualities, but nothing can compare to the intricate worldbuilding and complex combat of the Final Fantasy games.
CBR Exclusive · Quiz WHICH FINAL FANTASY HERO ARE YOU? The Crystal Has Chosen You From the slums beneath Midgar to the shores of Spira, from the burning ruins of Vector to the edge of a godless future — Final Fantasy’s greatest heroes carry worlds on their shoulders. Each one is a different answer to the same question: who do you become when fate asks everything of you? Fifteen questions. One destiny.
FFVII Cloud Strife Ex-SOLDIER
FFVI Terra Branford Magitek Warrior
FFX Tidus Star Blitzball Player
FFXIII Lightning L’Cie Warrior
01
The party is falling apart before the final dungeon. You: Every hero faces the moment the mission starts to crack.
02
Your past is catching up with you. How do you carry it? In Final Fantasy, no hero escapes who they were.
03
What is the source of your greatest strength? Power in Final Fantasy always comes from somewhere real.
04
You must give something up to save everyone. You choose to sacrifice: The hardest choices reveal a hero’s true values.
05
Someone tells you to smile more. You: Small moments reveal the biggest personalities.
06
A prophecy names you the chosen one. Your reaction? Fate is Final Fantasy’s oldest weapon — and its greatest test.
07
Your battle style in a crisis is: The way you fight is the way you live.
08
The crack in your armor is: Even the legendary have a weakness in the stats screen.
09
An ally betrays the party. Your response: Trust is the most fragile currency in the Final Fantasy world.
10
The world is ending. What keeps you moving? Final Fantasy always asks this. The answer defines everything.
11
Strangers meeting you for the first time would say: First impressions in the overworld matter.
12
You discover everything you believed about yourself was a lie. You: Final Fantasy loves this moment. So does character.
13
What does the party mean to you? No hero wins alone. But why they need others varies.
14
The world that shaped you was: Every hero is a product of the world that broke them.
15
Standing before the final boss, you think: The last save point is behind you. This is what you’ve been building toward.
THE CRYSTAL HAS SPOKEN YOUR FINAL FANTASY HERO
Your scores appear below. The character with the highest number is your match — read their description to discover which legend of the Final Fantasy universe has always lived inside you.
FINAL FANTASY VII Cloud Strife
FINAL FANTASY VI Terra Branford
FINAL FANTASY X Tidus
FINAL FANTASY XIII Lightning
You are formidably capable and brutally self-contained. You built walls so high that even you sometimes forget there’s someone worth knowing on the other side of them. Your strength is real — but it was forged in grief, and part of you has never fully left that burning town. What makes you extraordinary isn’t the sword or the silence: it’s that underneath all the cold precision, you still care about people with an intensity that frightens you. The ones who earn your trust don’t just gain an ally. They gain someone who will walk into the end of the world for them, without ever saying a word about it.
You are extraordinary and don’t fully believe it yet. Something inside you — something ancient and luminous and untameable — has always been there, waiting. Others have tried to control it, define it, weaponize it. What they never understood is that your power isn’t the dangerous part: it’s your heart. The capacity to love that you spent so long being afraid of is your greatest strength. You are not a weapon. You are not what was done to you. You are what you choose to become — and that choice, made quietly, every day, is the most heroic act in the game.
You feel everything at full volume and refuse to apologize for it. Where others calculate, you leap. Where others grieve in silence, you cry out loud and then help everyone else back to their feet. You understand instinctively that love is not sentimental — it’s the most courageous thing a person can do. You walked into a journey you didn’t fully understand for people you had only just met, and you gave it everything you had. That isn’t naïveté. That’s the rarest kind of bravery: the kind that smiles on the way into the dark.
You are relentless in a way that unsettles people who don’t know you — and humbles the ones who do. You buried everything soft about yourself because the world required it, and you made yourself into something no fate, no god, and no system could stop. What people mistake for coldness is actually grief in armor: you loved someone so completely that losing them rewired everything. Underneath the discipline and the precision is a person who would unmake the laws of the universe for the people they love. And has. More than once.
God of War II Was Bigger and More Vengeful Than Its Predecessor
Kratos talks with someone in God of War 2Image via Santa Monica Studio
The PlayStation 2 was also the birthplace of the God of War series, giving players their first taste of Kratos’ violent path of vengeance against the Gods that took his family from him. After fulfilling his quest in the original game, another betrayal at the hands of Zeus sets Kratos on another bloody quest in God of War II.
All of the gory hack-and-slash gameplay of the previous game is back, with an even bigger number of bosses to fight that include several members of the Greek pantheon. There were also new puzzle and platforming sections added, as well as a bombastic story filled with tons of death and destruction, as well as some outrageous twists. Grand Theft Auto could never come close to the legacy that both Kratos and God of War II left behind.
The Sorrow prepares to battle Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.Image via Konami
Metal Gear is another franchise that excelled on the PlayStation 2 thanks to some fantastic follow-ups to the original PlayStation classic. After the controversial but still acclaimed Sons of Liberty, the third installment, Snake Eater, delivered yet another excellent stealth and action game.
New stealth mechanics like the camouflage system added new layers to the already impressive stealth gameplay. A new close quarters combat system and injury management mechanic also made sneaking through each of the game’s massive levels an even greater challenge. But nothing was more massive than the cinematic cutscenes, which were more visually impressive than ever before.
Like many games in the series, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater feels like a cinematic event that players get to experience hands on. It’s an event that many other PlayStation 2 games haven’t been able to match.
Shadow of the Colossus Was as Gorgeous as it Was Heartbreaking
Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2Image via Sony Computer Entertainment
Another PlayStation 2 game that was lauded for its cinematic presentation was Shadow of the Colossus. From the same developers as Ico, this epic fantasy adventure was a masterclass in minimalist storytelling while also delivering on fun gameplay.
The Forbidden Land that players explore is vast and filled with many different colossi to defeat, and each of the colossi requires different strategies to traverse and defeat. The gameplay is made even better by the presentation, with gorgeous cutscenes that tell an emotional story with very little dialogue. By the time the story reaches its climax, the player is left to question whether their mission to destroy the colossi was a good thing.
The storytelling of Grand Theft Auto has always been great, but it lacks the weight of Shadow of the Colossus. The fantasy game, and its 2018 remake, will stick with players for a long time.
Tony Hawk’s Underground Was Anything But a Grind
Tony Hawk’s Underground logoImage via Activision
Back when the Tony Hawk games were a yearly release, fans had gotten used to the typical gameplay structure of traveling to new locations and completing missions to earn cash and upgrade their stats. But the fifth entry in the series, Tony Hawk’s Underground, decided to do something completely different: it introduced the series’ first cinematic story mode.
Players create their own custom skater and go on a journey across the world in order to become the next great skateboarding legend. They compete in tournaments, meet other pro skaters, and have a falling out with their former best friend. Each chapter of the story takes place in expertly designed levels, featuring multiple trick lines that can lead to long combos and high scores. New tricks and techniques were introduced, including the ability to get off a skateboard and explore a level on foot.
With an extensive single-player campaign, a robust suite of customization options, great multiplayer modes, and an amazing soundtrack, Tony Hawk’s Underground is one of the best sports games to ever come to the PlayStation 2. And with Activision remaking older games in the series, there is a possibility that this classic could get an update.
