Highlights
- The PS1 revolutionized the console landscape with its disc-based system and larger game capacities, with some games even spanning multiple discs.
- The PS2 continued the trend of anime-based games and introduced more high-profile studios creating games based on anime, making it a global phenomenon.
- Several PS2 games, such as Blood Will Tell and Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked, showcased unique gameplay mechanics and adaptations of popular anime, offering engaging experiences for fans.
The PS1 changed the console landscape in a variety of ways. While it wasn’t the first disc-based system on the market, it used the capacities of discs well. Games were bigger and some games even had to be included on multiple discs because companies were pushing things to the boundaries further. Final Fantasy 7, for example, had to be held on three discs.
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Multiple discs started to taper off in the PS2 generation since memory was even better on DVDs. A lot of games also switched out anime and CG cutscenes to use in-game graphics instead. On the point of anime, more studios were creating high-profile games based on anime than ever before. The PS2 was a global phenomenon and it is still one of the best-selling consoles of all time. So, here’s just a small sampling of some of the best anime content on the system.
8 Blood Will Tell
Blood Will Tell is an obscure PS2 game that fans may not have even realized was based on an anime/manga. It’s called Dororo and it was another story by Osamu Tezuka who some might know from his Astro Boy series, which basically began the medium of both manga and anime.
Now, Blood Will Tell is more of a loose, modern interpretation of the more innocent creation from the 1960s. A samurai gets his body parts replaced to fight evil in his way. It’s as simple as that and it made for a decent action game at the time.
7 Gungrave
Technically, Gungrave is an original concept that was later turned into an anime after a year. However, Yasuhiro Nightow, the creator of Trigun, worked on the game which helped it feel like an anime even before the show launched. The game followed Grave, a stoic monster of a man who was fueled only to take down a local crime family that he once belonged to.
Players can think of the game as a more bullet-heavy version of Devil May Cry without the finesse of the melee combat. It was incredibly short, but that also meant it didn’t overstay its welcome. In other words, it was a good weekend rental back when there were more rental shops.
6 Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked
Samurai Champloo was the spiritual successor to Cowboy Bebop which Shinichiro Watanabe also directed. It did for the samurai anime genre what Cowboy Bebop did for the space opera anime genre and yet it is somehow not as well highlighted.
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The game adaption, Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked, as the name might suggest, is a side story. It was notably directed by Suda51 who most may know from No More Heroes. The gameplay added the hip-hop soundtrack of the anime to create a sort of rhythm-based action game using turn tables, which sounds more complicated than it is.
5 JoJo No Kimyo Na Boken: Ogon No Kaze
JoJo no Kimyo na Boken: Ogon no Kaze, roughly translated down to GioGio's Bizarre Adventure, is based on the Golden Wind arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. This arc followed Giorno who was trying to get into a local crime family which snowballed into a fight for his life against other Stand users.
It was made and published by Capcom and yet it was never released outside of Japan. Instead of most adaptations that were fighting games, this one was an action-adventure brawler. The game is a hard one to track down and even harder to play without a guide, but it’s still worth highlighting.
4 MS Saga: A New Dawn
There are a lot of Gundam games on PS2, but most of them are action games. MS Saga: A New Dawn is unique in several ways with the first being that it was an original creation not based on any direct anime. It’s also not an action game as battles were instead fought through turn-based combat.
The story follows orphans who stumble upon a pair of mech suits that they use to fight back against an invading oppressive army. It’s not the most original narrative for an RPG of this era, but it was engaging enough along with the turn-based gameplay to keep fans happy.
3 Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse Of The Crimson Elixir
Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir is the second in what would be a trilogy on the PS2. The first game, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, was a good proof of concept but this sequel kicked things up a notch. The action was more sound as Ed could transmute more objects to aid him in battle.
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The third game, Fullmetal Alchemist 3: The Girl Who Succeeds God, never left Japan so it is hard to say where it ranks among these three side stories based on Ed and Al’s journey to regain their original bodies. It should also be mentioned that the game was financed by Square Enix who owns a chunk of the IP overall as the manga was published in their Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine.
2 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai is the first in what would become a trilogy on the PS2. The trilogy would go in to get a remaster on PS3, but it is now one of the hardest games to track down physical copies for. Dozens of fighting games based on the classic anime were seemingly pumped out before this. While they have their fans, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai was the first game that felt like someone behind the reigns truly cared about the adaptation process.
The roster was large, the graphics made Goku and the others look good on PS2, the fighting mechanics made sense, and so on. This sub-series has now been dethroned by Dragon Ball FighterZ as the best fighting game adaptation but that shouldn’t diminish Dragon Ball Z: Budokai’s accomplishment.
1 .hack//Infection
.hack//Infection kicked off a multimedia event that Bandai began in 2002. There was this game which eventually became four parts, which also included an OVA series. There was a proper anime series as well, .hack//Sign, followed by novels, manga, and so much more.
The story of the game followed Kite who jumped into a new MMO called The World. After witnessing his friend “die” in the game, Kite gets a magic bracelet that lets him cut through glitches that are destroying the very fabric of The World. The faux MMO landscape was a nice backdrop to the hack-and-slash gameplay.