Poll: PS1 library or PS2 library?

gsilver

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Just looking over Game Rankings with the criteria "Good games that are also still fun", the PS2's library is ridiculously better than the PS1, even though there are still some PS1 games that I still consider "Essential" like:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Spyro 1-3
Final Fantasy Tactics
Silhouette Mirage (Just play the import of this; Thankfully, it's easily available on PSN for the PS3)
Grandia
Suikoden 1-2
Metal Gear Solid
Silent Hill
Xenogears

But, the PS2 had stuff like:
Ratchet & Clank 1-3

Ico
Shadow of the Colosssus
SSX Tricky
Burnout 3
God of War 1-3
Frequency
Sly Cooper
Amplitude/Frequency
Okami
Katamari Damashi
Jak & Daxter

Stuff that's now better experienced elsewhere(*cough*PC*cough*), but still great:
Silent Hill 2
GTA 3/Vice City/San Andreas
Rayman 2-3
Beyond Good & Evil
Psychonauts

+ it had those Street Fighter & Mega Man/X collections, which you'd still be hard pressed to see collected together anywhere else.

It's telling that I still have a PS2 hooked up after all these years. There's just so much good stuff on it.
 

remnant_phoenix

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PS2 voter here.

PS1 had a ton of JRPGs and a lot of ground-breaking titles, but most of what those ground-breaking PS1 titles did was refined greatly on the PS2. Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 make the first game feel like a tech demo (gameplay-wise; if you prefer the story of 1, that's fine, but that's not what I'm talking about.) In general, PS1 action games feel very slow, clunky, and dated.

The PS1 libary has more "legacy" I suppose, for having more ground-breaking and experimental titles, but in terms of timelessness? Only Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Abe's Oddysee stand out to me as games that have aged superbly. I think that Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics, Metal Gear Solid, Twisted Metal II, and Chrono Cross still hold up well, but only arguably so; many would consider them to have aged very poorly. So yeah, off the top of my head that's two timeless classics and eight games that arguably aged well?

The PS2 libary? Here's a top-of-the-head list of PS2 games that are still considered highly playable and well-made even by modern standards (many of which are considered timeless classics and/or works of art): Shadow of the Colossus, ICO, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and its two sequels, Kingdom Hearts I and II, Devil May Cry 1 and 3, Okami, Persona 3 and 4, God of War I and II, Psychonauts, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, GTA III/Vice City/San Andreas, a port of Half-Life...and all of these games would be technologically impossible on PS1. And the number of these games that have received HD remasters shows off how beloved and well-made they were, even by Gen-7 standards.

In the end, it's like the NES vs SNES argument. Metroid was the more ground-breaking, innovative title, and it demands respect for what it and when it did it, but Super Metroid is just a straight-up better game. Same goes for Mario (though I'd agree if someone said SMB3 was better than Super Mario World), Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Final Fantasy, Mega Man, and so on. And as for PS1 vs PS2, the same goes for the likes of GTA, Silent Hill, Persona, and action games in general. It gets a little more complicated when you go about comparing Final Fantasy VII to Final Fantasy X, or Metal Gear Solid to Metal Gear Solid 2, because story is a big part of those games appeal, and liking/disliking a story is a lot more subjective than more technical aspects of game design.

But, still, consider my lists above. The PS1 library has some undeniable gems, yes, but overall, in my mind, the PS2 library dominates it.
 

2HF

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The fact that the PS2 library included every game from the PS1 means the PS2 wins. What's next?
 

Saelune

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PS2 can play PS1 games, PS1 library thus is also part of PS2 library, PS2 wins.

Oh backwards compatibility...wish you were still a thing.

I know this technically isn't whats being argued, but I needed to put it out there.
 

Saelune

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2HF said:
The fact that the PS2 library included every game from the PS1 means the PS2 wins. What's next?
...Wow, beaten to the punch so freaking hard right now...
 

Dizchu

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I still maintain that the PS2 is the greatest video game console ever made, this coming from someone who plays exclusively on PC these days.

It was the epitome of console gaming as actual console gaming, not a watered-down PC or a collection of gimmicky peripherals that later consoles ended up being. The games also hit the sweet spot between old-school creativity and modern polish, with games that still look quite nice today but didn't require the extremely huge budgets today's games do.

Yeah there was a lot of shovelware but there was also a lot of great games, and as previously stated you could play PS1 games on it too. You could also play DVDs which was extremely useful in the early 2000s when DVD players weren't as ubiquitous.
 
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Dizchu said:
I still maintain that the PS2 is the greatest video game console ever made, this coming from someone who plays exclusively on PC these days.

It was the epitome of console gaming as actual console gaming, not a watered-down PC or a collection of gimmicky peripherals that later consoles ended up being. The games also hit the sweet spot between old-school creativity and modern polish, with games that still look quite nice today but didn't require the extremely huge budgets today's games do.

Yeah there was a lot of shovelware but there was also a lot of great games, and as previously stated you could play PS1 games on it too. You could also play DVDs which was extremely useful in the early 2000s when DVD players weren't as ubiquitous.
well fuck, I scroll to the bottom and someone puts word for word what I wanted to say, just fuckin better. so this.

My family had 3 ps2's in our house for a reason, the backwards compatibnility and dvd player bonus was hugeeeee at the time, and that's not even mentioning the pretty huge library it was boasting as well, battlefront 2 and socom 2 were my shit on that system.
 

Fox12

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Jun 6, 2013
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The PS3.

But if I had to choose, then the ps2 may win out by the width of a hair. They both had incredible libraries, but looking at my collection, I've probably kept more ps2 games then ps1. Furthermore, a lot of franchises that were created for the ps1 were perfected on the ps2. Just look at Silent Hill 2.

AccursedTheory said:
I can't recall a single notable 2-D game from the PS1 at the moment, with the exception of text box based RPGs (Many of which were bummed from the SNES). And I'm not exactly certain that particular, ancient sub-genre is something that makes a library 'better.'

Got any arguments besides old Final Fantasies?
The Megaman X series was always pretty solid. It had really tight, fluid combat starting with X4.

I'd say Resident Evil was at its best during this period as well. RE4 kind of killed it for me. Still, I can't deny that the PS1 was pretty much a Square Enix machine. It doesn't hurt that it came out at the beginning of their golden age.
 

WeepingAngels

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2HF said:
The fact that the PS2 library included every game from the PS1 means the PS2 wins. What's next?
The PS2 could play PS1 games but the PS1 library is not the PS2 library. I get it though, it's cool to miss the point.
 

2HF

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WeepingAngels said:
2HF said:
The fact that the PS2 library included every game from the PS1 means the PS2 wins. What's next?
The PS2 could play PS1 games but the PS1 library is not the PS2 library. I get it though, it's cool to miss the point.
It is though, in any sense that actually matters. As far as deciding which one is actually better, it doesn't. Why? Because nobody will have their mind changed by anything said here, and because even if it's determined in some empirical way it still won't matter because the PS2 library does in fact contain every PS1 game.
 

mardocOz

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I believe that I can be unbiased as I owned neither system... and I voted PS2.

I just feel like whilst the groundwork for a lot of what would become classic games was done on the PS1, it wasn't until the PS2 where these franchises really shined (I'm going to use GTA as an obvious example). Both consoles had a number of excellent games, but when I think of "must haves" or "games that I was jealous of my Playstation owning mates for" then the PS2 edges it.

Heck, the PS2 had Persona 3 and 4, so that puts it right up there for me. Plus, even putting graphical fidelity aside, the PS1 (and the N64) sit in that awkward phase in gaming history where the games don't quote feel "retro" solid like the 2D games of yore (thinking SNES and Megadrive/Genesis where they feel old, but still perfectly playable and well presented) but pale in comparison to games of the PS2/XBox/GameCube generation where everything was just a little bit smoother, faster and... I dunno... tighter? It's difficult to articulate what I mean but I hope that makes sense.

It doesn't help that I personally feel that some of the best examples of "quality" games on the PS1 were overrated (FFVII, GTA, Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot etc.)
 

Guitarmasterx7

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Ps2 by a longshot IMO. But full disclosure PS2 is my favorite console.
Jak, Ratchet, Sly, DMC, God of War, Kingdom Hearts, "the" Prince of Persia trilogy, Okami, Shadow of the Collosus, Spider-Man 2 (which fuck you I'm counting it because it's way better than it should have been and holds up bizarrely well.) A lot of franchises hitting their stride on PS2 as well like MGS3, GTA, Dragon Quest 8, FFX (yes I do honestly believe that fight me)

PS1/N64 was a pretty awkward era in general. I feel like it's aged the worst. Really the only PS1 games I could bear to play nowadays are the sprite based ones if we're being honest. My recent repurchase of Legend of the Dragoon and Uncharted 4's Crash Bandicoot easter egg have really reminded me how jank 3D used to look and feel.
 

WeepingAngels

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2HF said:
WeepingAngels said:
2HF said:
The fact that the PS2 library included every game from the PS1 means the PS2 wins. What's next?
The PS2 could play PS1 games but the PS1 library is not the PS2 library. I get it though, it's cool to miss the point.
It is though, in any sense that actually matters. As far as deciding which one is actually better, it doesn't. Why? Because nobody will have their mind changed by anything said here, and because even if it's determined in some empirical way it still won't matter because the PS2 library does in fact contain every PS1 game.
Well in that case the Wii U has an amazing library. Everything on the Wii, including VC and Wiiware titles and everything on the Wii U, including the unique VC titles.
 

2HF

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WeepingAngels said:
2HF said:
WeepingAngels said:
2HF said:
The fact that the PS2 library included every game from the PS1 means the PS2 wins. What's next?
The PS2 could play PS1 games but the PS1 library is not the PS2 library. I get it though, it's cool to miss the point.
It is though, in any sense that actually matters. As far as deciding which one is actually better, it doesn't. Why? Because nobody will have their mind changed by anything said here, and because even if it's determined in some empirical way it still won't matter because the PS2 library does in fact contain every PS1 game.
Well in that case the Wii U has an amazing library. Everything on the Wii, including VC and Wiiware titles and everything on the Wii U, including the unique VC titles.
Exactly! Now you're getting it! I'm glad you've seen reason and now agree with me.
 

aozgolo

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The PS1 was a much more experimental generation, it was the first really coming to terms with 3D and what kind of games you could do with it. There were more games sticking to the classic 2D formula on the console since it worked and with the extra processing power you could do more with it, so you saw way more 2D games than on the PS2.

The PS2 was more of a refinement period where the successes of the PS1 were built upon and taken a step up in terms of graphics at least, but there was less experimentation since the interface remained largely similar and 3D had already managed to claim a sizeable foothold on the game market.
 

Kae

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There are a lot of great games on the PS1 but just by sheer volume and variety the PS2 wins easily, it just has more, that's pretty much it, sure not everything was great but the sheer quantity that it offered was enough to have more good games than the PS1 and even it's contemporaries, and I'm saying that as a Gamecube owner that still uses it regularly, really just looking at the library for the PS2, it has so many good games that I've played and so many that I haven't but want to and even if I bought them all I'd probably never be able to play them all.

So yeah I think the PS2 wins, mostly because devs had already gotten the hang of how to make 3D games that looked and felt good but it also had a lot of niche experimental shit, that the PS1 also had but the PS2 had better versions of most of the PS1 classics too so yeah.
 

Kyrian007

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I couldn't decide. I'm primarily a Nintendo guy (console wise, primarily I'm a PC gamer) and even I who thinks that N64 and Gamecube were superior to PS1 and PS2 can't deny that both PS' had the best libraries of their generations... and frankly the best libraries to this day. Since they didn't actually compete against each other, I'm not sure that it's even that important to figure out "which was best." The actual answer is "they were and still are both the best."