The PS2 RPG Gallery
The deepest bench in the Library.
Between 2001 and 2008 the PlayStation 2 hosted the richest run of role-playing games any single console has held: Square's two flagships, Level-5's reinvention of Dragon Quest, Atlus's whole dark stable, a six part saga cut to three, and a tactical game that bet a company. This shelf holds the era the way this Library holds everything, cover first, with the histories and the documented questions behind each name.
Read the covers carefully, because the era's real story is regional. Japan's Dragon Quest VIII had no voices; America's gained an orchestra and a rival's demo disc. Japan's Nocturne had no Dante; the West's had nothing but. Final Fantasy XII's best version stayed in Japan for a decade. Where a regional cover is verified, it stands here. Where it is not, the tile says so. That honesty is the exhibit.
FINAL FANTASY X
Square · PlayStation 2 · 2001
America · 2001
Tidus in the water off Besaid, under Yoshitaka Amano's logo. The American box: ESRB Teen, Squaresoft in the corner.
Japan · 2001
The Japanese box is the opposite idea: white space and the Amano logo alone, no character at all. Shown from a small verified file; a larger scan is a swap-in upgrade.
FINAL FANTASY XII
Square Enix · PlayStation 2 · 2006
Japan and Europe · 2006 · The artwork
Yoshitaka Amano's Judge Gabranth, the watercolor painting the Japanese and European boxes carry. The American box, a cast montage, is not yet verified to this Library's standard.
The perfect score
The sixth 40 of 40 in Famitsu history, the first for a Final Fantasy, and the first for any PlayStation 2 game. Its director had already left the project.
DRAGON QUEST VIII
Level-5 · Square Enix · PlayStation 2 · 2004
America · 2005
Akira Toriyama's party on the American box. Read the badge in the corner: Playable Demo Inside, Final Fantasy XII. That demo is part of how this game broke through.
Japan · 2004 · Cover gap
The Japanese box is not yet verified to this Library's standard, so the record stands here instead: 2,167,072 copies in two days, three million in three days, the fastest selling PlayStation 2 game in Japanese history.
PERSONA 3
Atlus · PlayStation 2 · 2006
Japan · 2006
The Japanese box: the protagonist beneath Thanatos, chained and coffined, with the P3 mark over both. CERO B, Atlus in the corner.
America · 2007 · The deluxe box
The American edition shipped in a deluxe box with a 52 page art book and a soundtrack disc, and Atlus delayed the launch three weeks rather than ship it without the book. The American box art itself is not yet verified here.
PERSONA 4
Atlus · PlayStation 2 · 2008
Cover art · 2008
The original cover art: the Investigation Team in panels around the P4 mark, Teddie watching from a television screen. Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard.
The last classic of the PS2
Released two years after the PlayStation 3 launched, and named Metacritic's PS2 game of the year anyway. About 193,000 copies in its first Japanese week, then a long word of mouth afterlife.
SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI III: NOCTURNE
Atlus · PlayStation 2 · 2003
America · 2004 · Maniax
The American Maniax box: the Demi-fiend's tattooed face in red and black, ESRB M. This is the expanded edition, the one with Dante in it.
Japan · 2003 · The first edition
Japan's original 2003 release predates Maniax: no Dante, no Labyrinth of Amala. Its box is not yet verified here. Europe received the game in 2005 under a different name, Lucifer's Call.
XENOSAGA EPISODE I
Monolith Soft · Namco · PlayStation 2 · 2002Cover gap, named
No regional box for Episode I is verified to this Library's standard yet, so no image stands here. The exhibit is the plan itself: six episodes announced, three delivered, each named for a work of Nietzsche.
The anchor of a trilogy
Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, The Will to Power. Episodes II and III followed in 2004 and 2006; of the three, only Episode II was ever released in Europe.
DISGAEA: HOUR OF DARKNESS
Nippon Ichi Software · PlayStation 2 · 2003Cover gap, named
No regional box is verified to this Library's standard yet. In Japan the game is Makai Senki Disgaea; in the West it kept its name and gained a second printing when the first one sold through.
The bet the company game
Nippon Ichi's producer has said on the record that the team treated Disgaea as possibly the company's last game, and packed it with everything. Past 100,000 copies in Japan and in North America followed.
TALES OF THE ABYSS
Namco Tales Studio · PlayStation 2 · 2005The anniversary Tales
The Tales series' tenth anniversary title: Japan December 15, 2005, North America October 10, 2006, with character designs by Kousuke Fujishima. Shipments passed 734,000 by late 2007.
Cover gap, named
Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard. This section's history is being built by the second half of this shelf; the door below already points to it.
DARK CLOUD 2
Level-5 · PlayStation 2Level-5, before Dragon Quest
The invention and town building sequel from the studio that Dragon Quest VIII made famous two years later. In Europe it is titled Dark Chronicle.
Cover gap, named
Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard. The history door below is this section's exhibit while the second half of the shelf is built.
SHADOW HEARTS: COVENANT
PlayStation 2 · 2004The Judgment Ring
The alternate history sequel of 2004, Yuri's story continued through a Europe sliding toward war, and a battle system built on timing a spinning ring.
Cover gap, named
Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard. The history door below is this section's exhibit while the second half of the shelf is built.
STAR OCEAN: TILL THE END OF TIME
tri-Ace · PlayStation 2 · 2003The twist
The third Star Ocean, from tri-Ace, the studio behind this Library's Valkyrie Profile archive. Its late revelation about the series' universe is still argued about.
Cover gap, named
Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard. The history door below is this section's exhibit while the second half of the shelf is built.
ROGUE GALAXY
Level-5 · PlayStation 2Level-5 in space
The studio's own space opera, built between its Dark Cloud work and its Dragon Quest fame: a desert planet boy, a pirate ship, and whole planets to walk.
Cover gap, named
Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard. The history door below is this section's exhibit while the second half of the shelf is built.
SUIKODEN V
Konami · PlayStation 2 · 2006The return to form
The fifth Suikoden, a return to the series' classic shape after the fourth game's detour: a queendom, a civil war, and 108 Stars of Destiny to gather.
Cover gap, named
Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard. The history door below is this section's exhibit while the second half of the shelf is built.
CHAMPIONS OF NORRATH
PlayStation 2 · 2004The co-op door
The bench's action RPG: EverQuest's world rebuilt as a dungeon crawler for the couch and, unusually for 2004, for online play on the PS2.
Cover gap, named
Regional boxes are not yet verified to this Library's standard. The history door below is this section's exhibit while the second half of the shelf is built.
VALKYRIE PROFILE 2: SILMERIA
tri-Ace · Square Enix · PlayStation 2 · 2006The cross door
Silmeria's full treatment lives in this Library's Valkyrie Profile archive: its gallery, its history, and its sealstone question, with the Japanese and Western covers standing side by side.
Why it sits here too
A Japanese chart topper in its release week and IGN's Best Game No One Played: the era's documented cult RPG belongs on this shelf as well as its own.