Rare PS2 games?

[Harrison]

On the original Playstation a number of games quickly become quite rare and are still commanding quite high prices on ebay. Titles like Tactics Ogre for example.

Does anyone know if any Playstation 2 games have now become as rare and are starting to fetch high prices?

[Teho]

I know the first edition of ICO can fetch a really good price among collectors. That's the one with a cardboard cover, not a standard plastic DVD case. The later re-release had a standard cover like that, and is far easier to find so isn't anything special. Other than a good game, of course. The game itself is the same in both editions, but you know how collectors are. ;)

[Sharingan]

Heh. I actually have the cardboard edition of ICO. It was a birthday present from my brother. Never even heard of the game at the time.

[J T]

Damn I was just about to say ICO and it's been said many times already.

Rez is relatively quite rare now I believe (could be wrong though).

[Harrison]

I think you could be right. Rez didn't get much advertising on release which meant it didn't sell that well, and it always ends up being those games that become the collectable rarities later on.

[Sharingan]

Hey, I got Rez too :)

Only played the first level though. Guess it didn't hold my interest back then.

Did anyone beside me ever get Fantavision? It's one of the launch games. Doesn't seem to be garnering much attention on Ebay, so I suppose it's only rare because only a few copies were sold!

[Harrison]

Wasn't that the firework puzzle game? If it is I remember it. I think most copies only ended up owned because it was bundled with many launch PS2s.

[J T]

Hey, I got Rez too :)

Only played the first level though. Guess it didn't hold my interest back then.


Because it was a bit shit, and you were unsure if you were actually playing a game or just clicking on stuff and every now and then would get a bit of a headache and die (for the slow witted: headache in the real, dying in the game world).

Mad props for the crazy Rez Trance Vibrator accessory though, crazy folks.

[AlexJ]

I've also got both Rez and Fantavision (bought mainly because past experience says that these are the kind of games that may become rare and collectable and I've kicked myself for not buying such games in the past when opportunities have arisen). Both are OK to play once every now and again.

I think it's the Dreamcast version of Rez that's considered quite rare at the moment. There are still plenty of copies of the PS2 game around.

[Harrison]

The DC version is definitely rare and sort after. And many other DC games are now getting harder to find, with American buyers especially looking for many games as towards the end of the DC's life games were only released in Europe and Japan and not in the US.

[Puni/Void]

I think the games in the Gradius-series on the Playstation 2 are both rare and expensive. After what I've seen of Gradius on this platform, it looks simply amazing if one enjoyes shooters of this kind.

[Harrison]

This is resurrecting a very old thread. I bet there must be a lot more PS2 titles now becoming harder to find and pushing their price up. Will have to have a look on ebay and see what has lots of bids.

Gradius is definitely a great shoot 'em up series, with Gradius V on the PS2 being especially good. Still using mostly a 2D playfield, but rendered on 3D, it uses some nice location transitions by rotating and moving the camera with the 3D environment. Such 3D effects in a 2D Shoot 'em up were first seem in the famous shooter Ikaruga. And have you noticed how the Amiga game Project-X stole the power-up system from Gradius? The power-up bar that moves up through the options as you collect power-ups until it reaches the one you want to activate.

[Harrison]

Having a quick look on ebay, some PS2 games look like they have become quite collectable. Although some of the sellers might just be over optimistic! :dry::eyebrow::hmmm:

Not that many PS2 games detching that high a price though. But quite a few still selling equal to, or slightly more than their original retail value.

PS1 games are however still a lot more collectable and sort after, as reflected in the list I've posted below the PS2 one.

Hyper Street Fighter II anniversary edition - £149.99
Spiderman 3 - £100
Disgaea Hour of Darkness (NTSC) - £99.99
Streatfighter EX 3 - £99.99
Star Wars Battlefront II - £99.98 (I don't believe this is that rare)
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood Deluxe Box Set (NTSC) - £69.99
Dark Cloud - £69.99
Dark Cloud 2 - £69.99
Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence - £55
Disgaea 2 - £54.99
Shadow of the Colossus - £49.99
Champions of Norrath - £49.99
Phantom Brave - £49.99
Magna Carta (PAL) - £47.95
ICO - £43.78
Rule of Rose - £44.99
Rez - £39.99
Unlimited Saga - £39.99
Star ocean - Till the end of time - £39.99
SNK vs Capcom - £39.99
Suikoden IV - £39.99
Suikoden V - £39.99
Final Fantasy X - £35.99
Naruto Ultimate Ninja - £37
Hitman 2 Trilogy - £34.99

Rare PS1 games I also noticed still sort after:

Legend of Legaia - £90.00
Vandal Hearts - £79.99
Ogre Battle - £69.99
Alundra 2 - £49.99 - 59.99
Broken Sword/Myth/Road Rash (Charity compilation) - £59.99
Darkstalkers - £59.99
Dino Crisis 2 - £59.99
Dragon Valor - £59.99
Kurushi Final - £59.99
Sega Frontier 2 - £59.99
The Legend of the Dragoon - £59.99
Discworld 2 - £54.99 - 49.99
Resident Evil 2 (sealed) - £51.99 - 49.99
Ballistic - £49.99
Broken Sword 2 - £49.99
Castlevania Chronicles - £49.99
Dynasty Warriors - £49.99
Evil Zone - £49.99
Panzer General - £49.99
Ridge Racer - £49.99
Street Fighter Alpha 3 - £49.99 (DC version is a lot rarer so should be worth more!)
Tekken 2 - £49.99
Wipeout - £49.99
Suikoden - £49.99
Star Ocean The Second Story - £49.99
Final Fantasy Origins - £46.99
Metal Gear Solid - £45
G-Police - £44.99
GunGage - £44.99
Metal Slug X - £44.99
Star Gladiator - £44.99
Tekken 3 - £44.99
Tekken - £44.99
Kula World - £44.99
Discworld - £44.99
Tombraider - £44.99
Thousand Arms (NTSC) - £42.50
Alien Resurrection - £39.99
Atari Anniversary - £39.99
Bomberman - £39.99
Bust-A-Move (all versions) - £39.99 - 35.00
Colin McRae Rally 1 or 2 - £39.99
Gran Turismo 2 - £39.99
Star Wars - Masters of Teras Kasi - £39.99
Syndicate Wars - £39.99
Theme Park - £39.99
Tobal No.1 - £39.99
Soulblade - £39.99
Magic the gathering battlemage - £37.99
Streetfighter EX Plus - £37.99
Tombraider 2 - £37.99
Capcom vs SNK - £34.99
Deathtrap Dungeon - £34.99
DieHard Trilogy - £34.99
Jade Cocoon - £34.99
Koudelka - £34.99
Dino Crisis - £34.99
Final Fantasy IX - £34.99
Vagrant Story - £34.99
Final Fantasy VIII - £34.99
Chocobo Racing - £34.99
Final Fantasy Anthology - £34.99
V-Rally 2 - £34.99
Gran Turismo - £32.50
Ridge Racer Revolution - £32.99

Interesting to see that for both PS2 and PS1 games, RPGs and Beat 'em ups are still the 2 most popular genres, as has been the case for collectors for a long time.

[Demon Cleaner]

I know that Xenogears for PSX always sells for very high.

[Harrison]

Actually I was surprised by Xenogears. Back when it came out in the US and wasn't available in the UK it was very sort after and collectable and would often sell for over £50. And a couple of years later if started to sell for around £100. However, looking on ebay now, you can find it selling for around £10, although that is an auction with 4 days left and not a BIN. I'm going to watch that one and see where it ends.

Although someone is currently selling the complete series of Xenogears, plus all 3 episodes of Xenosaga for $299 US (£196) BIN, or starting at $119.99 US (£79).

[Demon Cleaner]

I still have an original Final Fantasy VII in french, maybe I should sell that at the french eBay.

[Harrison]

The English version of Final Fantasy VII also doesn't sell for very much these days. There are copies for less than £10 at the moment on ebay.

I think with FFVII it was the game in the Final Fantasy series that made the series famous. It was the first game to really show what could be achieved on the original Playstation, and every PSX owner I knew bought the game, so a lot of copies are out there. A lot of buyers didn't actually play the game that far into the story, but were just buying it for the technical amazement of the game. It was single handedly responsible for getting a lot more people interested in the RPG genre, and I was surprised by the number of my friends who did actually complete it, or get a long way through the game. Many of them not playing RPGs that much before it, or playing that many games for very long. Equally I knew a lot of people that never got beyond the first disc, and maybe only got as far as the initial Chocobo farming, if that.

I do remember a friend being quite annoyed because every time he got home from university and wanted to play it some more to progress he would find his girlfriend was already playing the game and had progressed further than he had. :lol:

[Demon Cleaner]

I do remember a friend being quite annoyed because every time he got home from university and wanted to play it some more to progress he would find his girlfriend was already playing the game and had progressed further than he had. :lol:Ha, that's funny, can imagine how frustrating that was :)

I have the french original from a friend, he played it for 30 minutes, then stopped, he really is the RPG hater, but only because he doesn't like the turn based stuff at all. He wants action on the screen, whether FPS or racing games.

As you know it was also my first JRPG I played, and I played it on the PC, as I didn't own any console yet. After that, I still played FFVIII on the PC, before then finally buying a PSX because I saw how many of these style RPGs were already out. After that, I wanted to own every existing RPG, which I eventually did.

[Harrison]

The PC version of FFVII seems to be more sort after now than the PSX one. Think it is a lot rarer, plus also harder to get working on current OS's, although there are a set of patches to help, plus in Windows 7 Ultimate or Pro you have the XP mode to help further.

[Demon Cleaner]

I remember there was a patch, which I had to use straight away, when using a 3dfx Voodoo card, the screen was upside down.