Summary
It’s hard to overstate the sheer immensity of thePlayStation 2, particularly for those who weren’t around during its heyday. Sony, the scrappy competitor to Nintendo, came out on top and dominated half a decade of gaming history by being a home to both AAA releases and beloved weird games, all under one umbrella. The PS2 may well have the best roster of video games ever assembled, which means there were a lot ofinfluential gamesfound on the console as well.
Whether it’s artistic masterpieces that would define the indie game landscape in the 2010s or horror masterpieces that would single-handedly change how horror video games were made, the PS2 was a crucible for great ideas, invention, and a hell of a lot of fun.
Though Japanese games in the modern day have a sterling reputation, it’s important to remember that, in the 2000s, a lot of Western fans considered Japanese games to be a bit weird and not ideal for English-speaking markets. That’s nonsense of course, but the attitude still prevailed.
Okamiis a big reason why that sentiment changed.Okamiwas a low-budget project that was never a commercial hit, but it demonstrated how the Japanese inventiveness in both game design and presentation could cohere into singularly unique gaming experiences that are universal in their specificity.Okamihas become a cult classic,and has no doubt inspired countless indie games in the years since its release.
Kingdom Heartsis one of those game ideas that has no right to be as good or as beloved as it is. The mad mash-up betweenFinal Fantasygames and the world of Disneysomehow cohered into one of the most strangely affecting games ever made, inspiring a decades-long franchise beloved by fans of its oblique strangeness andnear countless worlds inspired by JRPGs and Disney alike.
Kingdom Heartsalso demonstrated the adventurous spirit of the PS2 in general. This was a time when not every game needed to be a hit for studios to stay in business, meaning experimental strange games likeKingdom Heartscould come into being and foster a breeding ground for a whole franchise.Kingdom Heartsset the groundwork for this kind of experimentation and remains a testament to collaborative creativity.
In the modern day, it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of indie games every year be profound artistic statements that have something challenging to say about the world, or how people interact with video games. Back in the days of the PS2, that kind of game was very rare, butShadow of the Colossuspaved the way for the modern indie game to think reflectively about the medium of video games itself.
Of course,Shadow of the Colossuswasn’t the first game to think about the medium deeply, but it may have been the most popular up until that point, introducing vast audiences to new ideas about what it means to be a hero in an adventure story, and whether, by playing the game, the playeractually contributes to evil rather than solving it.It’s thought-provoking stuff that paved the way for many more to come.
While theShin Megami TenseiandPersonaseries were several entries strong by the timePersona 3arrived in 2006,Persona 3changed the trajectory of Atlus' output forever, marking an increased emphasis on thePersonafranchise and popularizing the life simulator for much wider audiences.
The influence of this popular revolution of JRPGs has been quiet but profound. These days, gamers don’t bat an eye at JRPGs that ruthlessly fuse different genres, or even the concept of a life simulator itself, butPersona 3paved the way to popularize the predominantly Japanese genre in the English-speaking world, and set out a path for a wider acceptance of JRPGs that lay outside the mainstream.
Mountains of ink have been spilled over the indelible influence ofSilent Hill 2, regularly considered to be one of the greatest horror games ever made due to its anxiety-filled atmosphere,terrifying monsters, and profound story with a twist so monumental that it defines the very meaning of the video game twist.
More importantly than that,Silent Hill 2demonstrated to horror fans worldwide that video games could profoundly interact with the horror genre in ways films simply cannot, influencing the psychological hellscapes that would come with the horror boom in the 2010s and continuing to hold massive influence over every horror game released today.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eateris quite possibly the greatest game Hideo Kojima ever made, which is saying something considering the man’s incredible library of creations. InMetal Gear Solid 3, Kojima put his movie-making ambitions to the test and showed how video games could actively compete with the big-screen cinema experience, delivering action films on a personal scale with stories to match anything Hollywood could achieve.
As a result,Metal Gear Solid 3is widely regarded as one of the best video game narratives ever made, and this ties in at every level to its fastidious game design. The game is like a Swiss watch withbrilliant and realistic enemy AI, where every part influences another, influencing AAA games ever after to aspire for greatness in both narrative and gameplay.
Recently, there’s a phenomenon where new players have revisited the originalResident Evil 4,particularly after its remake,and found it to be over-hyped. That’s understandable, because every action video game that came after it was in some way inspired by Shinji Mikami’s masterclass of third-person action gaming to the point whereResident Evil 4itself feels derivative when the exact opposite is true.
It’s difficult to overstate just how revolutionary the over-the-shoulder third-person action set-up with punchy melee and reactive enemies was, as it would come to dominate the gaming world.Gears of War, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto 5, and many, many, many more games would not look the same if it weren’t for the tremendous and long-lasting influence ofResident Evil 4.
In the modern gaming world, the open-world genre is king. It’s impossible to deny the sheer thrill of being able to go anywhere in a world of open-world games. Games likeGrand Theft Auto 5show just how dominant the format has become.
None of it would have happened withoutGrand Theft Auto 3. Though it looks pedestrian by today’s standards,Grand Theft Auto’sshift from top-down twin-stick action game to third-person open-world crime simulator was revolutionary for its time, providing an unprecedented level of immersion for the player, creatingsome of the foundational characters for the franchise, and single-handedly innovating key tenets of the open-world game that remain entrenched in the biggest AAA releases to this day.
