List of Best PS1/PSX Classics

After going through a number of people top lists, duder feedback, sales, and gameranking scores here is my list of PS1/PSX classics that I need to be play. This does not include any fighting or shooters (for the most part) because of my personal preferences. Also these are games that I never played just a list of games I should play (why Crash and THPS are not on here I have beat them). These are based on gameplay, story, and how they have stood up over time. Missing your favorites feel free to leave in the comments below.

• Metal Gear Solid
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
• Final Fantasy IX
• Final Fantasy VII
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Suikoden
• Suikoden II
• King's Field
• Final Fantasy Anthology
• Final Fantasy Origins
• King's Field II
• Persona
• Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• The Legend Dragoon
• Spyro series
• Tomba series
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
• Lunar Games Series
• Vagrant Story
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
• Soul Reaver
• Tenchu 2

Honorable Mentions

• ~ Grandia
• ~Mr. Driller
• ~GTA series
• ~Breath of Fire
• ~Xenogears
• ~ Silent Hill

Is Suikoden 2 available on PSN? I thought it was rumored to be at some point but holy shit if its out now than I gotta get on that!

The Legend of Dragoon

Resident Evil series

Dino Crisis

I tried playing Dino Crisis on Vita... game is hard.

Incredible Crisis

Parasite Eve

Mr. Driller

Super Puzzle Fighters II Turbo

NBA Hangtime (not showtime, hangtime)

Dragon Quest VII / Dragon Warrior VII

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

Diablo I

Ape Escape I

For a mix of genres:

Silent Hill

Skullmonkeys

Deception 1, 2, and 3

Wipeout XL

Twisted Metal 2

Are you looking for things which are available on PSN as PS1 Classics, or just PS1 games in general? I'd throw in Intelligent Qube but it's prohibitively expensive in North America (Qurashi is on PSN in Japan and I think Europe though).

If you haven't played Suikoden 2 that's definitely at the top of my list of recommendations. It's still at the top of my list of favorite RPGs ever. If you're up for it then playing Suikoden 1 first is recommended, since you get a nice bonus for having a Suikoden 1 save, but it's not a necessity. Suikoden 1 is pretty short though. It can easily be finished in like 10-15 hours.

Other PS1 favorites:

• Final Fantasy 9
• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
• Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
• The Legend of Dragoon
• Legend of Legaia
• Chrono Cross
• Wild ARMs 2

@bongchilla: it is not yet I heard the same rumors I will wait for it I mean not like I am going to beat all these games very fast lol

Tomba!

Tomba! 2

Brave Fencer Musashi

Front Mission III

Brave Fencer Mushashi

Parasite Eve 1 and 2

I know it's a fighting game, but you should definitely get Tekken 3, even just to own it. Symphony of the Night is my favourite game of all time, so that's a no-brainer, too. Good choice.

Ones that haven't been mentioned:

Vagrant Story

Tomb Raider

GTA, GTA2, and GTA London expansion.

Abe's Oddysee

Mickey's Wild Adventure - A pretty difficult platformer, but I loved its authenticity.

Ridge Racer

Die Hard Trilogy *giggles*

Soul Blade (fighting)

Silhouette Mirage

Bust-a-Move 4

Colony Wars: Vengeance

THPS 2 + 3

Jet Moto 2, Vangrant Story, Abe's Oddysee, Chrono Cross.

1) Those contain randomly triggered encounters

2) lol you listed the same game twice

3) Final Fantasy Tactics has a glitch where if you save in the middle of a multi-part battle there is no way to back out.

4) Jumping Flash is a PS1 classic

I really liked Alundra. It's basically a clone of old school Zelda and the localization was really well done. It also has multiple weapon types and jumping!

I second the Tomba 2 entry, though be forewarned, the PSN version is the japanese import. So if you can't read japanese and want to know what's going on, find a physical disc. I'm also a fan of the Spyro series, at least the first three. Oh, and Legend of Dragoon is pretty great.

Ape Escape, Parasite Eve, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2.

Lunar 1 & 2, Einhänder, Chocobo Racing, Valkyrie Profile, Wild Arms, Pocket Fighter

Breath of Fire 3 and Wild ARMS

@relkin: I second Breath of Fire 3, such a good game. Why do they only have 4 on PSN!?

Man the original Ape Escape was a truly defining game. I believe it was the first video game on any psx system to only specifically use the analog sticks. Best part of Ape Escape was spying on them while they were doing their thing and reading up on each apes bio.

Spyro the Dragon and Spyro 2 were pretty great to elementary school me. So was Mega Man X4 and 5, but even then I knew that 6 was kinda poop.

Chrono Cross, maybe.

Final Fantasy IV and VI, though there are better ways to play both of those.

Also, I still like Crash Bandicoot 2 and 3 quite a bit.

Legal issues. And this thread needs more Grandia.

Final Fantasy 9 is an amazing game and the only 3D game in the series worth playing.

You might also want to check out PS2 classics since they are the same price as the more popular PS1 games. Odin Sphere is one of the most beautiful games ever. Recently Atlus has been releasing every single PS2 game that got released in the west on PS2 classics so if you are interested in any of those it's far cheaper than getting a real copy.

My first PS game and I played it so much since it was the only game I had for some time. Only released in EU as far as I know and probably not nearly as good as my nostalgic mind remembers it but it was the game that defined the "next generation" in Playstation for me.

EDIT: I just watched a youtube clip and it ruined it...I remember the water as super realistic, but it is just a flat blue texture.

I recently bought and played Sonic Wings Special, it's a fun classic vertical shmups that features a dolphin as one of the characters.

As a shmup, it's not that hard of a game, but it has around 8 different type of planes to choose from, each with their own variation of projectiles and bombs.

I also find SNK's 2D fighting games age gracefully with time.

Surprised at the lack of Xenogears in your stack of PS1 JRPGs.

@jamin724: Persona 2 Innocent Sin is not a PS1 classic. It wasn't released in English until the PSP remake. Actually, the PSN version of Persona is also the PSP remake version and not the PS1 classic. They wouldn't put out the PS1 version because it has a worse translation and would have cannibalized sales of the newer remake.

The Resident Evil games, Hot Shots Golf 2 and Symphony of the Night hold up great and work well on Vita.

Vagrant Story

But play it last, otherwise it will ruin all the games you try after it.

Awesome games listed by everyone. What a great system. No wonder Playstation's got such a devoted following.

Alundra was one of my favourites, along with so many games listed here.

Jumping Flash

Oddworld: Abes Odysee/Abes Exodus

Crash Bandicoot series

Jade Cacoon

Final Fantasy 9

Pandemonium 2

Ridge Racer

Crash Team Racing

Parasite Eve

Tekken 2

Dino Crisis

Bushido Blade!

Vagrant Story is the notable I missed at the time but I'm not sure if I can go back to that one. Not that it's old. It's that it is an RPG and a pretty long one. It has been some time since I have been able to manage a long game of that sort. Perhaps next time I take a vacation I will see about it. Maybe plow through it in a week.

edit--- so I went to PSN on my PS3 just now to get Odin Sphere. That is one I missed during PS2 era and have not been able to find a reasonably priced copy on disc. Didn't know it was on PSN until today. So it's been about a month since I last turned on my PS3. System update I expected. 12 minutes to download and install that. Select the store. The fucking store tells me it needs its own 65mb update. So fine. 6 minutes later I launch the store. Store takes -i timed- one hundred and thirty-three full seconds to fucking load its own front page. So, 20 minutes from console turned on to me having access to the store's front page.

The whole business chugs just as bad as it did when this new version launched last year. Frame rate issues. On a store. Comprised solely of menus and static images. WTF? Does it run this bad on PS4 too?

Think it's improved considerably on the ps4, also I remember seeing there are some recommended fixes out there on improving the download speed on psn for ps3 on this site somewhere.

@dagas said:

My first PS game and I played it so much since it was the only game I had for some time. Only released in EU as far as I know and probably not nearly as good as my nostalgic mind remembers it but it was the game that defined the "next generation" in Playstation for me.

EDIT: I just watched a youtube clip and it ruined it...I remember the water as super realistic, but it is just a flat blue texture.

The number 1 rule when it comes to playstation one games, don't watch them on youtube..... they all look super janky*

*other than Naughty Dog Games, they seem to have aged incredibly well

is the Tenchu series any Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver good?

Anyone? Want to know if I should add these games to my list. I see Tenchu and Legacy of Kain on a lot of top PS1 lists.

Tenchu 2 and Soul Reaver are both great games, but I played Soul Reaver on Dreamcast and generally associate it with that platform.

I would recommend Syphon Filter 1 or 2 for some classic third-person shooting.

Ace Combat 2 is good if you want a solid arcade flight sim.