3 Greatest PS2 Games Nobody Ever Talks About

Published Sep 13, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

The PlayStation 2 era was a golden age for gaming. It seemed like a new all-time classic dropped every month back then. Franchises like Ratchet & Clank, Kingdom Hearts, God of War, Onimusha, and Grand Theft Auto combined with one-off successes like Bully to bring gaming culture into the mainstream after the turn of the century. It was a nonstop flurry of new releases.

The console (and its contemporaries) gave us banger after banger for years. In fact, it gave us so many good games that tons of them have effectively been forgotten in the broader gaming conversation. These three picks might not have left the industry-shaking impact of a GTA title or Resident Evil 4, but they're still worth remembering, if only because of how much fun they were despite the flaws that left them a little behind their Hall of Fame competition.

3 Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Trying to quickly summarize the story of Shadow Hearts: Covenant would be an exercise in futility. This alternate history JRPG is one of the PS2's grandest adventures, combining over-the-top action with odd cosmic horror, and while you'd need to play the original Shadow Hearts to capture all the nuance, it's still worth a play for newcomers to the series. In a fun rejection of the status quo, Covenant is a direct sequel that followed up the bad ending of its predecessor. Yuri, the main protagonist, is especially haunted by his previous failures, and his trauma shaped the game's narrative. So much of the story is about grief and how to move on when people you love are no longer around.

All the gut-wrenching story beats sit in striking contrast to the strange array of allies around Yuri and the other main protagonist, Karrin. As the story unfolds, wackier and wackier companions become available to add to your team. There's the puppet master Gepetto, Anastasia Nikolaevna, a wrestling superfan named Joachim, and Kurando Inugami, a Japanese swordsman. That motley crew is just the tip of the iceberg for how weird Covenant (and the entire Shadow Hearts franchise) manages to be from start to finish. There's espionage and action alike across a convoluted but thoroughly enjoyable trip through a strange otherworldly version of the 20th century.

Gameplay wise, this game's turn-based system is surprisingly refreshing for an older title. If you've played one turn-based RPG, it can feel like you've played them all, but the addition of the Judgment Ring — a spinning dial mechanic that impacts the effect of your abilities — is pretty unique. It can wear out its welcome a little bit by the end, but at least it's something different than your standard fare. It also occurs when dealing with merchants and turns your usual passive shopping trips into a lightly-involved process where choosing the right timing can save you some cash. In short, it's just another weird thing that makes this game worth playing, if only to experience it for yourself.

2 Gungrave

When it comes to stylish, punchy video games, you can't do any better than Gungrave. This game is a monument to every idea teenagers thought could be cool in the early 2000s. The main character, Beyond The Grave, dons a trench coat and an array of weapons—and also carries a coffin on his back as he blows through waves of enemies on a mission all about vengeance. It's a product of its era, to be sure, but it has also aged spectacularly. Critics weren't blown away by the visuals in 2002, but the highly-stylized art has only appreciated in value. It is one of the best-looking games across its entire gaming generation.

It's also one of the shortest games on the entire PS2, but don't let that deter you. Doing everything there is to do in Gungrave takes less than four hours, while a straightforward run through the main story can be finished in roughly half that time. That means the game simply doesn't have time to waste, and, for the most part, it never does. There are no bloated side activities or unnecessary detours. Everything happens at breakneck speed. That's what makes it compelling. You don't have time to slow down and wonder if there should be more meat on the bone. You simply rocket through a handful of stylish environments and then roll credits just in time to want to do it all again.

Unfortunately, the other Gungrave games to-date have not quite lived up to the incredible potential left behind by the original. It's really only worth playing them if you love the first game as much as the cult following who has kept it alive all these many years later.

1 Rogue Galaxy

Level 5 has no shortage of stunning achievements in gaming. From Dark Cloud to Dragon Quest VIII to the Professor Layton franchise, its history is full of great games that have all had their moment in the sun. Unfortunately, Rogue Galaxy never quite managed to ascend to those same heights despite being a very good game. The core premise is simple. Take Dark Cloud, mix in some George Lucas inspiration, place your Luke Skywalker stand-in at the heart of a story about space pirates, and give players one very wild ride.

Now, it's fair to say Rogue Galaxy has comparatively aged the worst on this list, but it was truly innovative in its day. Very few games had companions that would interact with each other in the background of your exploration back then. That's commonplace enough now, but Rogue Galaxy dropped in 2005. Every minute in the game felt so immersive because of this one little detail. It was so easy to sink into Jaster Rogue's story and fall in love with the companions aboard the pirate vessel, Dorgenark. Their adventure is simple and largely predictable, but that opens up a lot of space to invest in the moment-to-moment character interactions rather than the greater narrative at large.

Real-time combat with a complex weapon upgrade/unlock system is the true highlight of the game. Each character has their own progression, making all of your extra grinding a genuinely rewarding experience. The Revelation Flow system (similar to Final Fantasy X's sphere grid) requires specific items to be placed inside to unlock new abilities for a given hero. It's a bit clunky in retrospect, but also showcases exactly how far Level 5 was trying to push the envelope with this game. The weapon synthesis system, on the other hand, is a nearly-flawless improvement to the versions found in Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle, and gives the game so much character as a result.

Not everything comes together perfectly, but very few games have ever swung for the fences quite like this one. Despite falling a little short of other all-time great RPGs from its era, it's still an awesome game and deserves a little more love than it gets online.