Best playstation one game

Suidoken II features both standard turn-based party battles in the vein of Final Fantasy as well as large-scale, strategic engagements on a grid more reminiscent of Fire Emblem. The Secret of Mana series grew up alongside Final Fantasy in the 8- and bit eras.

It generally takes a slightly lighter tone and substitutes turn-based battles with more open, action RPG gameplay. Legend of Mana is the fourth entry following the fantastic Seiken Densestsu 3 for SNES, which is still not officially localized in the west. Players accomplish this quest by literally placing parts of the land — which were previously sealed in artifacts — on the map. Their relative placement affects the world. Instead, the studio filled it to the brim with lush, beautiful 2D graphics.

The game is universally praised for rembling an animated film and aging exceptionally well. In its prime, Secret of Mana received criticism for making the story feel too diffuse. In retrospect, its nonlinear, system-rich approach now feels ahead of its time. Set in the world of Filgaia, you play a scrappy band of wandering adventurers called Dream Chasers. Using both 2D sprites for exploration, and 3D rendered battle sequences, Wild Arms was an interesting transitional game between the and bit eras.

It mostly stands out for its compelling setting, however, fusing science and magic in a way reminiscent of — but also completely distinct from — Final Fantasy VI. In typical genre fashion, he assembles a motley crew for a quest that spirals up to defeating a world-ending god of destruction. The story is standard genre fare.

You assume the role of a martial artist from a village at the edge of the world that sets out on a quest to beat back the Mist. It consumed the surface and spawned countless monsters, pushing humanity to the brink.

Legaia stood out for its combat system, which is turn-based but also heavily derives from fighting games. Legaia added a tactical richness to combat that few of its peers could match, and is a franchise worth re-examining. Adapted from a popular, contemporary Japanese novel of the same name, Parasite Eve is a bit of a genre hybrid from developer Square. Equal parts action RPG and survival horror, it follows a New York City cop trying to stop an entity named Eve from destroying humanity through spontaneous combustion.

In retrospect, its infusion of RPG progression systems into a survival horror framework can be seen reflected in more modern games such as The Evil Within , though its pausable real-time combat has been less explored subsequently.

Several years before the original Call of Duty game kicked off the now-oversaturated WW2 first-person shooter genre, Medal of Honor set the bar. Steven Spielberg developed the story, working with the same historical military consultants he collaborated with on Saving Private Ryan.

Critics and fans also praised its gameplay as one of the most generally refined shooters released to date. The original Tony Hawk Pro Skater was an enormous success when it launched in , but the follow-up a year later truly cemented it as one of the most beloved skateboarding games of all time.

The action centers around arcade-style gameplay, with the player flipping and grinding over open levels to rack up as many points as possible from tricks and combos within two minutes. Collectibles and level-specific objectives keep it spicy, and the addition of level- and skater-creation tools give it a ton of replayability.

The series continued through the ill-received Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 in , but for many, the second remains the definitive entry and still one of the most highly rated sports games of all time. Final Fantasy Tactics , however, opened up into a much richer, isometric, grid-based encounter reminiscent of X-COM , with an elaborate job system allowing for deep, strategic party customization.

Set in the world of Ivalice which was featured in later entries like FF12 , it tells a mature tale of competing noble families, warring nations, and the intersection of church and state. Spin-off sequels for the Game Boy Advance were solid, but none ever quite captured the magic of the original. Like the first game, Resident Evil 2 features two protagonists, puzzles, exploration, and limited resources for ammo and saving the game, forcing careful and strategic play. Resident Evil 2 also received a stellar remake in Where the early Resident Evil games rely more on jump scares and zombie movie tropes, Silent Hill takes a decidedly more psychological and surreal approach.

You play as Harry Mason, whose daughter goes missing in the creepy town of Silent Hill as they pass through on vacation. Still, this fog gives the game a memorably menacing atmosphere, particularly when played alone and late at night.

Drawing from an interesting range of influences like Lewis Carroll and David Lynch, Silent Hill is seminal in establishing the subtler and more artistically interesting strain of psychological horror in video games. Resident Evil established the now-standard genre gameplay of careful exploration, puzzle-solving, and resource management. Players remember this Resident Evil game most fondly for the creepy atmosphere and unsettling presentation.

It made clever and efficient use of the hardware with 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds to achieve unprecedented immersion. Much of the same team — including Mikami himself — also developed Dino Crisis , a survival horror game that happens to be set in a secret island research facility. As the name suggests, you encounter genetically-revived dinosaurs running rampant. While this sounds remarkably similar to the Jurassic Park films, the similarities end with the basic premise.

Dino Crisis takes a serious and notable departure from the arguably hokey premise of JP in many ways. Dino Crisis boasts commendable, real-time 3D backgrounds, in contrast to the pre-rendered gamescapes of its ancestors. Even though the Raptors are the smartest predators and highest risk, there are plenty of species to fight. Tenchu: The Stealth Assassins With their long-held mystique both within and beyond Japan, ninjas became a prominent figure in the early days of video games.

Capcom canceled the third Legends installment during its development. Tekken 3 Street Fighter set the bar for the best fighting games in the early 90s, but Tekken focused on brawling in 3D instead. Street Fighter Alpha 3 While Tekken and Bushido Blade blazed new paths for fighting games in 3D, Capcom stuck to its roots with Street Fighter , the fighting franchise that started it all. Jumping Flash! Ape Escape In this third-person platformer you play Spike, a boy tasked with traveling through time and using a variety of gadgets to capture hyper-intelligent apes that meddle with history.

Puzzle I. Racing Gran Turismo 2 Hyper-realistic driving sims are flourishing , but Gran Turismo was the cream of the crop for virtual gearheads in the PS1 era. Driver: You are the Wheelman While most driving games in the PS1 era framed the action around races, Driver instead sought to recreate the feeling of the 60s and 70s car chase movies, like Bullitt or Driver.

Vib-Ribbon Although Vib-Ribbon is one of the most visually primitive games ever released for the original PlayStation, ironically it could now most easily be mistaken for a contemporary indie title. Suidoken II i s about as epic as you can get on the PlayStation. Parasite Eve Adapted from a popular, contemporary Japanese novel of the same name, Parasite Eve is a bit of a genre hybrid from developer Square.

Shooters Medal of Honor Several years before the original Call of Duty game kicked off the now-oversaturated WW2 first-person shooter genre, Medal of Honor set the bar. Sports Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 The original Tony Hawk Pro Skater was an enormous success when it launched in , but the follow-up a year later truly cemented it as one of the most beloved skateboarding games of all time. Madden NFL 98 saw the Madden football franchise take its first stab at 3D with Madden Football 64 , but for our money, the best sports game of the year was the less ambitious and far more refined Madden NFL Microsoft Surface Pro 8 vs.

With solid RPG gameplay that allows deep customization of every charming and well-developed character, this will keep you hooked. It also offers a turn-based battle system with real-time elements, and great amount of extra content, and really just a fun experience through it all. Grandia is an adventure that will stick with you for so long that no wall will ever stop your adventuring spirit. Coming of age stories probably reached their peak in , making for great material for a great remake!

A young boy named Alex ventures out into the world together with his childhood friend Luna, meeting a charming cast of characters on the way. And they end up having to take on a great evil to achieve legendary status as the new Dragonmaster seems pretty typical RPG here. The game does show its age with its clunky inventory system, and a progression that requires a bit of grinding.

But if you let these small flaws stop you, you would be missing one of the most charming stories from a classic JRPG title. Like most RPGs it has some great gameplay mechanics, like the ability to negotiate with demons in battle. The slow turn-based battle system does feel dated, but everything else is on a whole other level. Making Persona 2: Eternal Punishment a much better game, in some regards, than the rest of the series. Front Mission 3 is a massive tactical role-playing game featuring an intricate, political-focused story set in the near future.

You can easily customize them with different parts and weaponry, and unleash hell on your enemies at every turn. These mechs may not shoot missiles from their fingers or laser beams from their eyes. But they are still a force to be reckoned with. While certainly not iconic as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross is an excellent role-playing game that does not deserve to be as underappreciated as it is.

But the main cast is memorable. And the story expands the universe introduced in Chrono Trigger in some very interesting ways, all without falling into the usual trappings of inconsistent time traveling. With a unique growth system and experimental turn-based combat, Chrono Cross has every right to be considered as a worthy successor to Chrono Trigger. Oh, how wrong you are.

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together tackles some the most mature themes ever seen in a tactical role-playing game. And it develops them in the best possible way : if you have to deal with warring kingdoms that use ethnic cleansing as an excuse, you have no choice but to do things right.

These choices not only influence the story moving forward, but they also challenge your convictions. This is the gaming equivalent of a real page-turner. Vagrant Story almost feels like a Metal Gear Solid game with a fantasy setting.

The city is the haven of dragons, undead, and a plethora of dangerous creatures that you have to fight in a highly strategic way.

And with the combat system this will become second nature. You can even stop time to target specific body parts! Vagrant Story is not exactly an accessible game. Star Ocean: The Second Story moved the series forward considerably with more outer space travel and underdeveloped planets action.

Not to mention an improved battle system where characters are controlled in real-time to unleash special attacks and spells. And the unique Private Action system, which allows players to complete side quests centered on specific party members. These side-quests almost feel like a staple in the game.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is about as close to a perfect video game as you can get, one that is still being copied and iterated on by modern developers.

No one had ever seen anything quite like it when it launched on the original PlayStation in The dark, sci-fi storyline and incredibly of-the-times character design took a whimsical fantasy franchise, and brought it to an international audience in a way that neither Sony or Square could have possibly predicted. Long before we had the intricate sandbox of The Phantom Pain, and before the twisting plots of The Patriots or bloated diatribes on the complex political realities of war, the third entry in Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear series cardboard-box-crawled its way onto the PS1 and things were never the same again.

All of these exceptional elements, plus some truly unforgettable breaks in the fourth wall, combined to create a gaming experience that still holds up as one of the best to this day. In consideration of that, we wanted to give some shoutouts to the following games which are also quite excellent:.

PaRappa the Rapper. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Crash Bandicoot 2. Final Fantasy VII. Celebrating the power of the original PlayStation. YES NO. The Best Resident Evil Bosses. Was this article informative? In This Article. Parappa the Rapper is about a rapping dog named PaRappa and his friends. PaRappa will need to rhyme to the beat as he goes through several rites of passage -- learning courage, getting a driving license, and going on dates.

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