I Wish I Grew Up With the PlayStation 2. 

thanks for entertaining me and my long rambles. persona 2 video will probably be out late next month. patreon: www.patreon.com/bubbletea_

Insane to me that some people just didn’t grow up with a PS2. That was basically my entire childhood

"i was born in le wrong console generation"

The 6th generation of consoles is one of the 3 most important generation of consoles in history. Absolute magic for 5-7 years straight.

Ah, yes. The original KH2, DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi series, Sonic Riders, etc. those were the days.

I’ve always viewed the PS2 with this kind of mystic haze. I had a game boy advanced sp and a ds growing up and eventually my parents got a ps1 and then we jumped to a 360 when my parents made more money. Now that I have my own money and own a ps2, I can honestly say my expectations were exceeded by the games I have played on it

I got a used PS2 recently, and it's crazy to think that I'm experiencing it for the first time while others have memories of it from 20 years ago.

The 2000's was like the year of the gods. Everything from 00 to like 14 was INCREDIBLE music, movies, games everything was basically pure quality

I loved my ps2. Jak & Daxter and the first Kingdom hearts alone made me so happy.

I've said it before. Give a man a PlayStation 2 on the day of his birth and watch him never need another game console for the rest of his life.

My childhood was goated, had a ps2, played R&C, Sly and J&D. Couldn't really understand them though since I was 4-7 and English isn't my native tongue but man they were fun. I emulated Sly 1 again last year and had a blast

I used to play my ps2 in my basement. It had concrete floors and unfinished walls. The smell of chlorine from our pool imbedded in the wood beams. There was a massive bulb tv down there. I’d spend countless hours playing Jak 3 & KH2 down there. Both those games are some of my top 10 favorite games and strongly influenced me as a kid.

This video made me feel old. The NES: Original Zelda was what got me into video games at 6 years old in 1990.

Persona 3 on the PS2 is so underrated. People toss it to the side because of some design choices, but I was honestly pleasantly surprised by how little they affected my experience. The visuals aren't beautiful but they were weirdly immersive to me and really drew me in compared to the other games, and that may just be because of the story having a lot more uncertainty than the other games which made it easy for the game to make the player feel anxious but I think it's worth pointing out. Plus, those anime cutscenes were incredible. Reload is far from a bad remake but comparing the two's anime cutscenes, reload's are laughably weak in comparison. Yea persona 3 is really something.

These are my favorite type of videos. People telling personal stories about their love of video games and what impact it has (or has had) on them

"... best water exploration before FFX was Mario and Zelda...." Ecco the Dolphin exists

I’m a lucky one. My dad was on the right side of history for consoles that we had in the house we went from pc to N64 to Ps2 to 360.

I could live on the PS2 man, in a different world where I had nothing else. I swear, that rectangle had an aura to it: to the sound effects at the beginning, to the icons for the games on the save management, the UI overall, even before we get to the games. Persona 4 was my joint bro, favorite game of all time. Xbox 360 had some good on there, but definitely the PS2 is timeless.

The interesting thing is that there's a number of things on this list that I didn't play growing up even though I had a PS2 because I was too busy with other stuff on the list. I was so into Megaten back on the PS2 that I didn't actually play FFX or DQVIII.

I grew up the PS2, however I didn’t get to play the more mature titles, so one day I’m going to play through some of those titles.

I still have my PS2 today and love it.

*i was 10 when the ps3 came out. Omg what an era, still play it & love it.*

I was ranting about this very topic in VC with some friends when this shows up in my notifications wtf

The ps2 was so good. The og xbox had some good stuff too tho, morrowind kotor 1&2 halo 1&2 jade empire doa1-3 lots of others too. I had such good memories on xbox with friends over so sad you think you were robbed. The ps2 library was insane tho so i feel you

I grew up with the PS2 but mostly played platformers and anime games so i missed out till my teenage years that I picked up a few cult classics but then sold my PS2

Honestly i feel a similar way, when i was young my aunt had this ps2 at her house and it was always so interesting to me because the most i had played video games at that point was mario world on the gba and an n64 at this lady's house who used to babysit me. So seeing like this completely different console with like characters i had never seen before was so mesmerizing.

As someone who DID grow up with the PS2, its start screen still has a magical quality to me. Missing out on things because of a certain fateful choice? Happened to me once, though not for a console. I had a choice between Paper Mario Thousand Year Door and Metroid Prime 2. I chose Prime 2. Wonder if things had been different the other way, given TTYD's massive following. Guess I'll get to play it for real this year though. But in terms of consoles, I'm always annoyed I missed out on KH Birth by Sleep, Dissidia Final Fantasy and Persona 4 Golden due to not having a PSP or Vita. ...And all those except Dissidia got ports later lol. I also feel I would've liked Blue Dragon, but it's like... the ONLY Xbox exclusive I even vaguely cared for. lol I basically got my Sonic Mega Collection THIS YEAR, only it was on Switch and called Sonic Origins Plus. Glad I've FINALLY got to play these games. "Silver lining was I saved myself from getting the worst version of Sonic Heroes." Dang it that's the version I grew up with... I think the devs of Jak and Ratchet were friends, and were kinda repeating the friendly rivalry between Crash and Spyro they had on PS1. I'm glad Jak went darker and edgier in 2, Jak 1 didn't do much to stand out among other cartoon mascot platformers. Actually ooookay, looks like you only played the first games in these series. So Jak and Sly changed A LOT in their second entries, including how health works. Sly ditched the one-hit-death (copied from Crash Bandicoot) system (you have a health meter) but also moved to a more "kid-friendly GTA" style of gameplay with varied missions in each hub world that can be done in any order, with stealth becoming more important (you can one-hit-kill enemies from behind if undetected) and Bentley and Murray becoming playable with their own gimmicks. Jak 2, like I said, not only got darker but guns became your main form of combat and your health meter is bigger. It also moved to a more open world with missions style (a LOT of games tried to copy GTA back then), but Jak 2 retains a decent amount from 1 as you're stuck with only a short-range "shotgun" weapon for a long time, compared to Jak 3 where you have all the main guns from the start. Jak 2 is also very, very hard by PS2 platformer standards, and 3 reigned it in while not making it too easy. Ratchet, meanwhile, is the most consistent across all its installments. But 2 added levelling mechanics to both your health (instead of just buying upgrades at set points) and your weapons, which became part of its identity ever since. I only played Dragon Quest 8 via the 3DS remake, which made Red and Morrie playable and re-balanced the character speccing (apparently some skill branches were pretty useless on PS2) Still didn't finish it, one day maybe. Seeing FES footage after playing Reload and holy crap does Paulownia Mall look EMPTY on PS2 lol. Dante keeps getting snubbed lol. 23:07 Breath of the Wild NOT doing this is one of the reasons I disliked it. When everything is open to you from the start, exploration is less satisfying. Okay, Chulip sounds amazing. Glad you ended up enjoying these games, even without the childhood nostalgia. That's honestly the mark of something being good. I enjoyed this trip though recent memory lane.

i still struggle to remember that there's people who didn't grew up with a ps2

I never grew up with a ps2 but I can tell how much influence this system had. The closest console I had at that time was the PSP, and yet I was able to play my first videogames that came first on the ps2, such as ratchet and clank and the crash bandicoot games. I eventually discovered persona 5 and realize there's other persona games in that system (which i enjoyed so much). the ps2 was console of my childhood and college life, even if I never had one.

As someone who grew up in a developing country with not a lot of money to spare, I got a PS2 in like 2010, and honestly, I am happy I did. Enabling me to experience things like the SMT series, Persona, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Shadow of the Colossus, a whole host of underrated gems (my favorite being Steambot Chronicles), is something I feel really grateful for.

An unexpected banger to see pop up! PS1 and 2 were definitely my favourite era for gaming even if I am just being nostalgic excited to hear your opinions. And that 40k is looking any day now

I grew up with Playstation 2, my dad got me Mortal Kombat Shaolin monks and a few other Mortal Kombat games as well, I remember him playing it first time and trying to show me. There was alot of gore in those games lol. I didn't play the classics because I was in middle eastern country so not all the popular ones were ported over. But my favorites had to be Jackie Chan Adventures, MK Shaolin Monks, Ben 10 Games, and some of the Spiderman games like Spiderman ULTIMATE that one was really fun you got to play as venom

im glad the ps3 was too expensive for me to own as a kid, the ps2 library is the best for a console ever, the shining light of my childhood

PS1 & DVD compatibility, Jak, Sly, Ratchet, GTA, Shadow of the Collosas, Metal Gear, God of War

Having a PS2 as a teen was the best!

The PS2 introduced me to a lot of titles, Such as Grandia, Kingdom Hearts, Okami, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper, Persona. Just to name a few off the top of my head. I remember spending hours on this thing, we even take the console on trips and played it in the car. I would find it such a change to now, as everything you could get was in one disc, their wasn't any DLC to be purchased, only codes if you pre-bought the game. I remember getting Persona 4, on PS2 and never beating it. The reason being the thing always stopped working after a certain point. Would save the game turn off the system and wow the game isn't working anymore. Went and exchanged it 5 times, and nothing changed. Only beating the game when it became P4 Golden on the PS Vita. Kingdom Hearts, I just mashed the shit out of X, then stopped to heal, then returned to that. I beat the first and second game doing that, even with just playing with the kingdom key as the only one I had. Grandia 3 was such a weird thing to me as it was a 2 disc game. So big that it couldn't be contained on one disc. I was sad that the series never got popular afterwards cause it was a blast getting through it.

I grew up with PC and phone.I got my first console in 2020, the PS4. Honestly I wish I grew up with consoles instead of PC and phone since I saw lots of disturbing stuff on the internet during my childhood instead of having fun. I missed out so many fun games.

Hey man, I came here because of your Persona 3 videos, because I recently completed the reload version, but I am staying for the content. I really like your perspective on certain subjects and think you would make a great philosopher besides creating content 😂. Don't give up and thanks for the Trip down memory lane ❤!

This might be the one time that I can understand being nostalgic for a console you didn't have. PS2 was just *that* console. It's library is unmatched and I don't think anything comes close. It stands on its own, nostalgia aside. I've gone back and played many of the games of that generation that I missed and it's just absurd. I think the sheer size of it's library will always give it an edge. Everyone who I've ever talked about the PS2 with has a different favorite. It's simply that big. GTA Vice City, Tony Hawk, and Katamari were my games. It deserves it's crown and ring kisses that it always gets.

I used to boot up Kingdom Hearts just to play the intro section. I sent hours on that beach, such a nice vibe it had.

Dude you definitely got a taste of some of the greatest titles, some of which I never played when I was a teenager. I am 35 and my mom bought me a PS2 when I was 12 going on 13. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and Crash bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex were among my first that were Christmas gifts and soon into 2002 I got FFX that now makes me realize what a great time it was to experience the best of the PS2. I eventually got around to playing titles of demos I recalled and more I learned myself which on RU-vid nowadays makes that easy, such as with this video. The PS2 catalog still amazes me with games I never knew about, like Chulip. It was a different time, and I feel a time where video games had more passion behind them than modern day corporate driven AAA titles.

Man i used to spent hours reading the included comics back on mega collection plus. The soundscapes are etched into my brain, what a trip

Growing with snes and ps1 as a child and ps2,gamecube as a teen was so great

My dad didn’t let me because PlayStation had more M-rated games. He DID buy me an n64 and GameCube at least. My best friend had a ps2 and I always enjoyed him talking about GTA, sly cooper and such

i was unfortunately not able to grow up with a PS2, but i'm so grateful my older brother gave me his old consoles to experience what it's like to grow up and come home after school to play on the PS2. i'm glad that i get to grow up on it and get to replay games i love like persona 3, resident evil 4, fatal frame 2, final fantasy x, etc.

This was a fun watch! I’d love another video on this with god of war, metal gear, silent hill

The foundation games i had were Juiced, Shrek 2 & Crash Nitro Kart. My fav games on PS2 are Tekken 4, 5 & Tag, Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 & the whole Budokai Tenkaichi series, WWE Smackdown Shut Your Mouth & had to share with my 3 older sister Guitar Hero 2 & Singstar games. The Candyshop for games for me was Blockbuster (& if you were in NZ during the DVD store times, Amalgamated) I still have some games and my ps2 and still play it whenever my nephews play on my Nintendo Switch & PS5. Such a great time to be a gamer.

Awesome guide as always thank you so much. I use your guides all the time. Another Platinum for the collection 🏆👍

I grew up on PS1,PS2 and it was the best era of gaming and also best era of life in general.

I loved my ps2 as a kid been getting back into it as an adult at 19 years old and so many ps1,ps2,ps3 era games are so great I love going back to the original hardware and messing around although most of my modern gaming is done on pc since its just for superior to modern consoles and for the more expensive games i can turn to emulation

as a young person whose first console was the 360. same

I can't imagine a lifetime where I did not play Jak & Daxter. I feel like I would suck as a person if I didn't play Jak 1.

Grew up in that era with everything BUT a PS2. We had a gamecube, xbox and even a dreamcast, but never a ps2 😭

Sly 2 is still in my top 5 games of all time, it is absolutely incredible

the persona 3 intro is exactly as i remember it

Wild that I am recommended this video when I just busted out my old PS2 and games, reminiscing 😅

I technically grew up with a ps2 but any game I ever remember playing from my childhood was ps3 wii and xbox360. Had all three too

holy shit that persona 2 track at 3:30 threw me back to that game

Kids talking about the 6th Gen is always nice. I graduated high school in 2007 so it still feels surreal

I was a 90’s/00’s kid and man I can tell you it was amazing!

I honestly can't remember how my family got the ps2 and ds, since I was 7 at the time, but all I know is new super mario bros was the game I was fond of while the ps2 was a fun enjoyment from what I remember but very messy since I sucked at the time. At least now I played the remakes or sequels games I wanted to in ps5 so I'm somewhat satisfied with what I miss.

It's funny to hear you talk about how you struggle with platformers, because I feel the same way when you talk about RPGs. I grew up with the PS2 and Crash Bandicoot was the first video game I ever played. I only got into RPGs over the past year or two, and I don't really understand all the mechanics of them usually

Maaaaan, those were the days brother! Metal gear solid, silent hill, god of war, kingdom hearts, resident evil 4, hello kitty island adventure, whiplash…😫😭😭

Poor dude got his potential childhood console taken away bc of a best buy employee 😭

me personally a gamestop employee went on a whole tangent about how the 3ds ruins your eyes or whatever so i didn’t get one for my 7th birthday, i got a normal ds instead of

The moment you said sonic gems collection, it brought me to elementary school and coming home to hear the sonic heros trailer and play sonic spin ball (even tho I love Sonic 3)

"Something about running around and catching monkeys is addictive by nature" Dont know why i chuckled there lol.

Personal favorite console of all time for me, ratchet and clank jak dmc all the smt games theres so much to love. growing up with these games rlly helped influence me. fun fact about jak sly and ratchet, they all use the same engine which is why they play similar at times aswell as have references to eachother in several games

I wish you did as well. Growing up in this generation, was truly something special. Waiting in line on launch day is something I'll never forget

Hey, that's me! Thank you for mentioning my Chulip video! So cool to learn you found out about the game trough me! I've actually enjoyed a lot of your Persona videos in the past so this is very surreal.

I was a little late to my ps2z but I remember going over to my cousins who would always play smackdown vs raw

Kinda glad I grew up with the PS2. Even though I wasn't able to play a lot of the heavy hitters due to strict parenting, I was able to via family memebrs like my cousin. So many great memories. I still play my PS2 very often nowadays and probably the console I play the most since I been going back and checking out a lot of games I missed such as RPGs.

I guess this video is confirmation that I'm officially old... I was 5 or 6 back when the PS2 was still being promoted, and I can tell you that those days were magical. I played Sly 2, Whiplash, and Madagascar all in the same Walmart store. I also remember going to Sears and finding Wallace and Gromit: Project Zoo, which was locked behind glass. An employee overheard me and my brother obsessing over it and decided to bring his keys to let us play it. Not having to wait in line for once was a really big deal back in the day, especially because a lot of parents didn't bother with telling their kids that they should pass their controller after 10mins.

I'm 43, grew up playin' Arcades, Atari 2600 & NES.

Me and my brother bought the ps2 with our fist paycheck from our first job . We bought it along with MSG2 . I never enjoyed a console so much, besides our beloved Dreamcast . People were playing ps3 when it came out, and the end of its cycle we were still playing ps2 together and didn't miss a thing.

23:07 Yes, it's one of the main characteristic of the so called "Metroidvania" game design. It was first implemented in "Metroid" on the NES back in 1988 i think.

i didnt have a lot money growing up, many of my friends had a ps2 or a ps1 and it was so cool to me going to their houses and playing ape scape, crash or smth like that, the christmas i got my ps2 (my first console) i stayed up all night playing and i was so happy man, good times

As someone who grew up in this and the PS1 era. You're missing out, but that doesn't mean it is too late to still play these awesome games.

Play urban reign, its such a fun beat em up

I’m a Blockbuster PS2 Kid. About Chulip… Nobody in the US got to play this game back in the day even though it was released in the US. This was just a really weird game that was hard to find in the wild. Lol. Mind you, I was also into really weird crazy games. Always have been to the point that my older brother would laugh at some of the games I would get. I never heard of Chulip until it appeared on the PS3 PS2 classics store.

I grew up with the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360. I was a Nintendo gamer and a call of duty gamer on the 360 and some Minecraft. It was into during my teenage years like around 15~ where I started to know about other older consoles and such

I had a pretty similar experience growing up with the Xbox and Nintendo handhelds. Played stuff like sonic heroes, blinx, riders, tony hawk underground and tak 2. I’d play the ps2 at a family friends house so whenever we visited I’d get to try sly, pac man world 1 and the older Rayman games while I was playing Rayman 3 and Pac Man world 2 at home. This video makes me want to go back and check out these games I’m kinda estranged from even more. But if I didn’t grow up with jet set radio future I’d be a shell of who I am today tbh

Ps2 days, what a memory. My mom had busted ps1 slim cause my older brothers wouldn’t go to sleep playing NBA live 2000. We were in a video game drought for 3-4 yrs. Then one day my buddy got a bunch of $100 bills from his nephew and we sold out Pokemon, yugioh cards and toys to him. My brother quickly went out to buy the ps2 with ffx, drakengard and a few other games. Those were the days, unfortunately we paid back the money that was taken from the nephew since he was only a kid who didnt know any better and got into his dads stash of cash.

That title is so relatable holy moly

I did, and it ruled. Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry, RE4, Silent Hill, Budokai 3, FFX, Jack and Daxter, God of War, Katamari Damacy, San Andreas…. The list goes on. As much as I love some games from the PS3 and PS4 era, I think gaming was definitely at its peak back then. Everything is so homogenous today…

Just reading the title made me feel old. I grew up with the PS1 by my side

having PS2 and playing it was awesome ngl... best years of my life :)

I had Ape Escape 2 as a kid, put a lotta hours into that game. can confirm it's fuckin peak

I had a ps2 as a kid. Just never ended up getting the high profile exclusives. I still missed out.

great video man

Thanks for the video, that was fun. I had a PS2, but I always tried to link up with my friend who had an Xbox to get a turn on Shenmue II. That game alone made me with I had an Xbox, as well as Psychonauts.

The Sixth generation was such a golden era, no matter which system you chose. In fact, owning all three major sixth generation systems is the best way to appreciate the golden times offered from those three major gaming beasts.

I was lucky enough to have a childhood that started watching my brother play snes and ps1, I got ps2 when it came out (I was 8), played it all the way into high school. Thats all I ever knew and it was amazing

Probably the best overall game catalog of any single console. So much variety.

Final Fantasy IV is also My favorite, and FFX is My second favorite.

I got a PS2 as a 5th grader in November of 2002 after two years of begging. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. Though, I will say, getting a PS1 in ‘97 and using it up until that point was equally magical.

Looking back at this era, I do kinda feel a sense of nostalgia for this early era of playstation and the deluge of innovation it brought before it became so focused on movie-like games, CoD and yearly sport titles ... There were definitely quite a few games on ps1 and ps2 that I wished to play back then, but even so, I never would have traded the Gamecube for the PS2. The Gamecube was fkn lit

3:03 I love how you always have to write that it is not an actual pic of you

32 years old and I'm so glad I grew up with the PS1/PS2 and the N64/GameCube

The Xbox, PS2, and GameCube era was definitely a time to be alive!! Some of the best games were created in that generation that still lives on to this day!! HALO, GOD OF WAR, Jak& Dexter, Mario, etc..