Sony’s PlayStation consoles have come a long way since their introduction in 1994. Featuring some of the best-selling home gaming systems of all time, and playing host to some of the most classic video games ever created, the PS family has become one of the most important brands not just in gaming, but in media in general.
8 Hardest PS5 Games Published By Sony, Ranked
Sony has published a lot of games for its PS5 platform, and while some are family-friendly, these games offer a stiff challenge to their players.
That said, every console has a defining game, the one that will be forever associated with its launch system and serve as the console’s selling point for years to come. These are the titles that gamers would show off to their non-PlayStation friends to make them jealous, the games that made them proud to own a PS console, and in a few cases, they’re some of the most iconic games ever made.
PlayStation: Final Fantasy 7
The Most Sought-After Game On The Planet
- Honorable Mentions: Gran Turismo 2, Metal Gear Solid
Back in the 90s, we didn’t hear about upcoming video games during live-streamed events or by reading about them on GameRant. Typically, any gaming news reached us through magazines, with the occasional game boasting a budget that bought it some marketing on TV. Final Fantasy 7 was an example of the latter. That, coupled with being the first mainline FF game released in Europe, turned it into a worldwide phenomenon.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
FF7 was heavily marketed, displayed some of the most impressive 3D graphics ever seen, and was, for many, their first RPG. Above all else, it was also a fantastic game, and it was exclusive to the PlayStation. Before long, Final Fantasy 7 was the main reason to own a PS1, and the one game that non-PS1 owners coveted above all else, even if there were plenty of quality titles already on the system.
PlayStation 2: God Of War 2
The Ultimate Swan Song
- Honorable Mentions: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Silent Hill 2
Oftentimes, a console-defining game only comes around late in a system’s life cycle. By that point, developers have a strong grasp of the system hardware, and technology has surpassed it enough that they can now push that hardware as far as it can go. This is often when games bridge the gap between generations, acting as a strong sendoff for one system while simultaneously demonstrating what the new system can accomplish. For the PlayStation 2, that sendoff was God of War 2.
Kratos’ first Greek adventure was already one of the most beloved games on the PS2, but with God of War 2 releasing several months after the PS3’s launch, but still being a PS2 exclusive, it really was the last hurrah of Sony’s sixth-gen console. Even more impressive was that, from a visual and gameplay perspective, it rivaled what the PS3 was doing at launch. God of War 2 was one final statement for Sony’s best-selling console ever, and it paved the way for things to come.
A Full-Scale Metal Gear Game In The Palm Of Your Hand
- Honorable Mentions: Persona 3 Portable, God of War: Ghost of Sparta
The PlayStation Portable was a pretty cool system, with its weird “disc-in-a-cartridge” games and single, scratchy thumbstick, but it could never shake the image of being the weird cousin to the PS2 and PS3. It never really shed that perception, but the game that nearly pushed it onto level playing ground with Sony’s home consoles was Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Alongside Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, this was the second mainline Metal Gear game on the system, and was by far the best game of the two (not that Portable Ops was bad, either).
Sure, the visuals are remarkable for a PSP game, but there’s so much more to it than that. It boasts a 20-hour main campaign with over 100 optional missions to take on as side challenges. There’s also a ton of customization options, soldiers to recruit to MSF, along with a ton of impressive and addictive distractions during the missions themselves. At the time, it was one of the deepest Metal Gear games ever made, running on a system many people saw as inferior. If that’s not console-defining, what is?
PlayStation 3: The Last Of Us
A Mic-Drop Moment For Video Game Narratives
- Honorable Mentions: InFAMOUS 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
We all know that video game storytelling at its best can rival any other medium, but outside the gaming community, that has long been considered a niche opinion. In the last 15 years, that conversation has started to shift, and a major catalyst for that change was Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece The Last of Us. From a studio known for its dramatic action games and over-the-top spectacle came one of the most stunning narratives of the century, proving what gamers had always known: video games can’t just tell good stories; they can tell unforgettable ones.
Iconic Last of Us Scene Recreated in LEGO
A talented The Last of Us fan recreated one of the game’s most heartwarming scenes with incredible accuracy using LEGO bricks.
Calling The Last of Us just a console-defining game isn’t giving it enough credit. This was a “change the direction of the industry” kind of game. Just look at God of War (2018) or Days Gone, and you can see the influence this game has had in the ensuing years. The PlayStation 3 was an underrated console, often considered inferior to the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, but The Last of Us is Sony’s seventh-gen legacy. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime game that is perfect from front to back and inseparable from the PS3, even with the numerous remakes and re-releases.
PlayStation Vita: Persona 4 Golden
A Home Console-Quality Game On A Portable System
- Honorable Mentions: Velocity 2X, Gravity Rush
Persona 4 was a very, very good PS2 game, doing things that many other games wouldn’t catch up to for the next five years, but Persona 4 Golden on the PlayStation Vita is an entirely different beast. Well, okay, it’s a very similar beast, but upgraded wholesale in every category you can imagine while running on a portable console, especially one that, frankly, didn’t have a ton of top-tier exclusive games to boast about in its lifetime.
If you liked Persona 5, this is effectively the same thing, but slightly less stylish. This series is the poster boy for quality and consistency, and from its high school social sim to its turn-based combat to its Persona-collecting mini game (which is guaranteed to become an obsession shortly after you start), Persona 4 Golden has all the best features of the Persona franchise, along with being the first entry to present in full HD graphics.
PlayStation 4: Ghost Of Tsushima
Pushing The Tech To Its Limits
- Honorable Mentions: The Last of Us Part 2, Bloodborne
The end of the PlayStation 4 era came at a weird time. The PS5 launched smack in the middle of the COVID pandemic, where gaming as a hobby was at an all-time high, and the world was still obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Last of Us Part 2. While the latter game threw down the gauntlet on the PS4’s last year, Ghost of Tsushima came along and proved that the console still had plenty of guts to push to its breaking point.
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Sucker Punch knocked it out of the park with Ghost of Tsushima, and the groundwork laid there could be used for a slew of other Sucker Punch games.
This is not to make a statement about which of the two games is better; The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the most impressive video games ever made. However, looking at it on the level of an all-around achievement, Ghost of Tsushima was a revelation. It felt like a game that couldn’t possibly run on current-gen hardware. Even while playing, it was unbelievable that a game could look this good. Then there’s the pitch-perfect combat, excellent narrative, and some of the most immersive open-world quest design ever produced. It’s the ultimate PS4 experience, showing exactly what the console was capable of at its peak.
PlayStation 5 (So Far): Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
A Master At Work
- Honorable Mentions: Returnal, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
This may be a bit premature, given that we probably still have at least two and a half years of PlayStation 5 exclusives to come, but it’ll be a fun retrospective to look back on at the launch of the PS6. As it stands, the PS5 has had an up-and-down lifespan, in many ways due to the destabilizing effect of the pandemic. However, momentum has started to pick up in the last two years, and nowhere is that more obvious than with Hideo Kojima’s latest masterpiece, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.
If the first Death Stranding was a unique but messy proof-of-concept, Death Stranding 2 is the complete realization of that concept. Absolutely stuffed with unlockable content, with a stunning world to explore in both its realism and its surrealism, and still one of the most interesting concepts for a video game ever made, there’s really nothing that compares. The PS5’s highs have been really high, but in terms of exclusives, Kojima’s most recent project is currently the console’s calling card, demonstrating what PlayStation fans have that no one else can compete with.
PlayStation’s Masterpiece Series That Will Never Get Another Game
Sony has left behind some PlayStation franchises that helped put the console brand on the map. These legends will likely never ride again.
