It took me a while to create this list. The PS1/PSX library is massive, and I kept thinking I was leaving something out. This was the first console I bought with my own money, and the console I spent the most time playing growing up.
The first game I bought for this console was Breath of Fire III. I still remember one kid I knew being confused that I only had one game. He couldn’t understand why I had to wait for my birthday and Christmas to get more games.
I have many more stories about playing games on the PS1. Like many kids I went to school with, I wanted to play Final Fantasy VII. I eventually got it, but there is so much more to the PS1 than the Final Fantasy games.
This is a list of the 25 games that I like the most. They might not be for everyone, but I have many memories of playing them. Here is my list of my favorite games on the PS1.
Bottom Line up Front: My 25 favorite games on the PlayStation 1.
Saiyuki: Journey West
Developer: Koei
Genre: Tactical RPG
Review Score: 73/100 (Metacritic)
This is a wonderful game. It is inspired by one of the great Chinese stories about a monk traveling from China to India. Koei does a great job of adapting these stories into video games.
Like most RPGs, you’re trying to save the world. Along the way, you recruit a group of colorful characters. The main character sometimes feels a little out of place because they are a regular human, and the rest of your party are godlike creatures. The shapeshifting mechanic makes this game stand out from a crowded field of Tactical RPGs.
This story has been used as a backdrop for many games over the years. Some have been faithful adaptations, while others have placed the story in other settings. For me, this is one of the better adaptations of the story.
Tales of Destiny
Developer: Namco
Genre: RPG
Review Score: 73/100 (GameRankings)
This was the first Tales game I played. My friend Drew introduced me to it, and I eventually got it and played through it. It wasn’t as hard as I remember it being, which was very surprising to me.
This RPG plays like an Action RPG when you get into a battle. The story is really good, but I thought it was weird when the game started over halfway through. You beat the game, and another bad guy shows up, and the game starts again. I still like the game, but it felt like two games were mashed together.
Going back to play this game made me want to try the other Tales games I missed. At some point, I’ll have to sit down and play through one or two of them. Tales of Destiny is a wonderful game, and I’m looking forward to playing some of the other games in the series.
Tail of the Sun
Developer: Artdink
Genre: Adventure
Review Score: 61/100 (GameRankings)
This is probably an odd choice for a list like this. Tail of the Sun is a bizarre game that doesn’t always make sense. It can take a while to get into, and the game can make you laugh at how strange it is.
You play as a group of cavemen or some other type of primitive humans. The game’s goal is to build a tower of mammoth bones so you can grab the tail of the sun. It sounds easy, but building yourself up to kill a mammoth takes some time. You’ll die a lot in this game, but don’t worry because you have a seemingly endless population of villagers.
This is one of the games that made me wish I was on drugs when I first played it. Tail of the Sun is so strange and cryptic that it can easily cause a person to quit. The game doesn’t take itself seriously, and neither should you. Just play and laugh at how ridiculous it is.
G Darius
Developer: Taito
Genre: Shoot’em Up
Review Score: 79/100 (GameRankings)
You play as a ship, and you’re fighting fish robots! I love the Darius series, and this is one of the better games in the series. I think I played it on the Sega Saturn, but I could be wrong.
There is this whole story about what is happening in the game, but who cares about all that? It is a great shoot’em up and everything you should expect from an arcade shooter. I had so much fun with this game.
There are many games in the Darius series. I like Darius Twin more, but this is an awesome game. The graphics and gameplay are okay.
Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together
Developer: Quest
Genre: Tactical RPG
Review Score: 81/100 (GameRankings)
This is one of my favorite RPGs of all time. I love the Ogre Battle series, and it is a shame that we won’t get a conclusion to it. This is a Tactical RPG with an awesome story that unfolds based on your choices.
Tactics Ogre takes place on a small island in the Ogre Battle Saga world. A war is going on, similar to the one that broke out after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The story follows a group of freedom fighters navigating the conflict’s politics. The ending changes depending on the choices you make.
I have the most memories of this version of the game. Tactics Ogre has been released a few times, the most recent being Tactics Ogre Reborn. I still prefer the PS1 version, even if the latest release is more accessible and easier to get ahold of.
Parasite Eve
Developer: Squaresoft
Genre: Action RPG
Review Score: 77/100 (GameRankings)
This is one of the games I received as a Christmas Gift. Parasite Eve is a horror RPG that takes place around the winter holidays, and is one of the better RPGs on the PS1, or at least it is one of my favorites. The graphics were very good for the time, and I remember going back to it several times over the years.
You play as Ava, and you’re trying to stop Eva from destroying humanity. I have to say, she’s doing a crap job of achieving her goal since she spends most of her time putzing around New York City. Most of the people get evacuated, and then she gets taken down by one person, after awakening that person’s superpowers. Whatever her plan was, she executed it stupidly.
I have a lot of nostalgia for this game. My friend Drew and I played this game quite a few times before I left for the Navy. When I started collecting games again, this was one of the first games I went after.
Kartia: The World of Fate
Developer: Atlus
Genre: Tactical RPG
Review Score: 75/100 (GameRankings)
Kartia is a Tactical RPG with a very interesting mechanic. You summon monsters using cards, which you use to fight your battles. Weapons and Armor can be crafted for your monsters, and they carry over from mission to mission, assuming that they don’t die.
The story is told over two campaigns. To get the full account, you may need to play the game twice. The gameplay is similar to that of other Tactical RPGs, such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre.
I first rented this game from a Blockbuster in the late 1990s. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I found it to be one of the better Tactical RPGs on the system. It is a lot of fun, looks great, and has a good story.
SmackDown 2: Know Your Role
Developer: Yuke’s
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 90/100 (Metacritic)
This is my favorite wrestling game on the PS1, and one of my favorite games of all time. I have a lot of nostalgia for this series. SmackDown 2 is a wonderful wrestling game and is the best one that the PS1 has to offer.
While later versions of the game have passed this game up, I still love this one. The graphics and controls were very good for the time, and the career mode was the best out of all the wrestling games on the PS1. This was such an easy game to learn, and it made everything much more fun than the other wrestling games for the console.
This is one of the games I remember playing with my friend Drew. We were big fans of the WWF, and it was fun to take our favorite wrestlers at the time and redo their careers. When I went back to play this, I was thinking about who I would choose today as opposed to back in the early 2000s.
Resident Evil II
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Survival Horror
Review Score: 93/100 (GameRankings)
I like this game more than the other Resident Evil games on the PS1. This is also one of the games I rented a few times when it came out. My best memory of this game is when my friend Drew and I rented and beat it in one night.
This game picks up shortly after the first game and has the player dealing with a zombie outbreak in Raccoon City. You can play as one of two characters, and the story differs slightly depending on who you choose. This is more of an action game than Silent Hill is.
While there is more of a focus on guns in this game, you still need to conserve your ammunition. This is all about managing your inventory of guns, bullets, and healing items. There are also ink ribbons, which you need to use to save the game. This is one of the best games on the system, and I have a lot of memories with it.
Thousand Arms
Developer: Tose
Genre: RPG
Review Score: 77/100 (GameRankings)
This is one of my favorite RPGs. Thousand Arms manages to combine an RPG with a dating simulator. It has a very good story, graphics, and gameplay!
This is a very funny RPG. It tries to be serious, especially at the end, but it has more than a few funny moments. The gameplay is fairly unique for a game like this. The battles take place in one-on-one fights while your two party members act independently as support units.
For some reason, I thought this game was related to the Wild Arms series. It isn’t, but that doesn’t take away from how great it is. Thousand Arms is one of the hidden gems on the PS1, and I wish it were easier for people to play this game.
Silent Hill
Developer: Konami
Genre: Survival Horror
Review Score: 86/100 (Metacritic)
This wasn’t the first survival horror game that relied on atmosphere instead of action, but Silent Hill is one of the better ones. This was a creepy game back in the late 1990s. It is still a fun game that is a nice alternative to the Resident Evil games.
Silent Hill is less action-packed than the other survival games in the genre. It focuses more on being creepy and scaring people with imagery and atmosphere. This is more of my type of game.
I like focusing on the stories of games when they aren’t RPGs. Silent Hill has a great story and very good gameplay. I also like having several endings, so I have a reason to come back and play it again.
Kagero: Deception II
Developer: Tecmo
Genre: Action RPG
Review Score: 7.3/10 (MobyGames)
I’m sure everyone has a group of games that they like more than most people. Kagero: Deception II is one of those games for me. It is a horror adventure game where you use traps to kill people.
One thing that I found fascinating about this game is how the character you play as has little to no involvement in the plot aside from killing off the villains. Millenia, the game’s main character, was abducted as a child and trained to make and use traps. She fights random groups of enemies, resulting in her killing off all the villains and potential heroes.
This is a strange game with an odd story. That’s part of the reason why I like it. The Deception series has a bizarre continuity in North America, as most of the stories were butchered in translation. I love the gameplay in the series, and Kagero is the best of the five games in the series.
Soul Edge
Developer: Namco
Genre: Fighting
Review Score: 91/100 (GameRankings)
This is one of the few fighting games I enjoy. My brother borrowed it from a friend; it was all he played for a few months. I’m not sure why he wanted to play it, but I’m glad he did, as I also got into it. It is one of the few fighting games that I can competently play.
In the game, you’re trying to find the Soul Edge. Many of the characters from the first Soul Caliber games are here, and it is a well-made game. It is a short game, but it is a lot of fun.
This started the Soul Caliber series. It is an easy fighting game to pick up and play. It is one of the few fighting games that teaches you how to play during the single-player mode. I really love it!
Jade Cocoon
Developer: Genki
Genre: RPG
Review Score: 73/100 (GameRankings)
Unfortunately, this game was released around the same time as Pokémon Red and Blue. Because of this, Jade Cocoon gets labeled as a Pokémon clone. There are a number of similarities, mostly due to both games taking inspiration from bug collecting.
Jade Cocoon takes place in a strange world where several forests surround a small village. The player has to go into each forest to discover the secrets behind what is happening to the people of this world. The game has an amazing story full of lore, but you have to go out of your way to learn it.
The gameplay centers on fighting monsters, capturing them, and merging them to create stronger ones. This is where the similarities with Pokémon begin and end. What Jade Cocoon does differently is let the main character fight and have a more adult and elaborate story.
Armored Core
Developer: FromSoftware
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Review Score: 75/100 (GameRankings)
The first game I played in this series was Armored Core 2 on the PS2. That game made me want to go back and try the other Armored Core games. It is a very fun game on the PS1, and I quickly fell in love with this series as I played most of the releases.
In Armored Core, you pilot a giant customizable robot and fight against other giant robots. There’s no way this could possibly be bad. You play as a Raven, one of the mercenaries on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Throughout the game, you take on missions for the corporations that are battling for supremacy.
While this isn’t my favorite game in the series, it is one of my favorite third-person shooters. It’s a genre that I don’t normally play, but there is something about the Armored Core games that I love. The graphics in this game are decent, the gameplay is good, but the story and the setting are the things that got me obsessed with this series for a few years.
Final Fantasy VII
Developer: Square
Genre: RPG
Review Score: 8.4/10 (MobyGames)
I’m not sure what else I can say about this game. Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite RPGs on the PS1. I like the gameplay and the graphics more than the story.
There is a lot of great stuff in this game. The Materia system is a vast improvement on a similar system introduced in Final Fantasy VI, most of the characters are very good, and the cutscenes still look excellent. There isn’t anything in this game that I dislike.
This is my second favorite game in the series, and my favorite on the PS1. I had so much fun discovering all that this game had to offer over the years. Playing it has been a very rewarding experience. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve probably overanalyzed the story too much.
Vandal Hearts
Developer: Konami
Genre: Tactical RPG
Review Score: 75/100 (GameRankings)
Vandal Hearts is a game that I played recently. I remember playing it as a kid, but I didn’t remember much about it. Now that I’ve played the game, I can see that I would’ve loved it.
This game has a very good story, and the gameplay is excellent. The graphics really stood out to me. There is a griminess to everything in this game that I find very compelling. I also like how chunky pixels of blood erupt from characters when they get hit.
The story does get a little convoluted as it deals with time travel, but overall it is very good. It felt like a fictional retelling of the French Revolution as it deals with the aftermath of a peasant revolution against the royalty, and the eventual return to monarchy. There are a few twists and turns, but it all ends quite well.
Xenogears
Developer: Square
Genre: RPG
Review Score: 8.3/10 (MobyGames)
This is an RPG that has you fight using giant robots. There is way more to it, but you fight using giant robots, and that is something I had to play when it first came out. Xenogears was one of the games I got as a Christmas present.
In some ways, this game reminds me of Battle Angel Alita. There is a conflict between the surface dwellers and those living in floating cities. A lot is going on in the plot and with the main characters. It is too much to go over here, and I’ll eventually make a video on this game.
This is one of the RPGs I played with my friend Drew. Many of the games on this list were played with him when they came out. Watching him beat the game was cool, then trying to do the same thing. We would share information about the games we played, especially if we got stuck.
Breath of Fire III
Developer: Capcom
Genre: RPG
Review Score: 74/100 (GameRankings)
This was the first game I bought for the PS1. I saved up my money, and randomly, my Dad took me to Best Buy so I could buy the console and one game. For whatever reason, I chose Breath of Fire III. My big brother came with us for some reason. I’m guessing he thought it was for both of us, but the real reason is lost to time, as I doubt that after thirty years, he remembers why he went with us. I knew nothing about Breath of Fire but fell in love with the series after playing this game.
In this game, you play as an orphan who happens to be a dragon. Like the other games in the series, you can turn into a dragon. Other characters have transformations, which add something special to the gameplay. The graphics are also quite nice.
I’m not sure where this game falls on the list of great PS1 RPGs, but it has a special place on my list. It has a great story, and it is a very fun game. This is a game that I should make a video on at some point.
Theme Hospital
Developer: Krisalis Software (PS1 Developer)
Genre: Simulation
Review Score: 7/10 (IGN)
Now for something weird. Theme Hospital is a comedic hospital simulation game where you treat fictional illnesses with strange machines. It is strange, and it is a lot of fun.
There isn’t much of a story to this game; it is more of a collection of scenarios that drip-feed the player the game’s features. Plenty of games like this follow the same formula, but there is something fun about Theme Hospital. It is a very comedic game with decent graphics.
This was one of the games I rented back in the 1990s. I rarely knew anything about the games I would rent, and I often relied on my friend Drew to know anything about the games. He suggested this one, which turned out to be one of my favorite games in the long run.
Dynasty Warriors
Developer: Omega Force
Genre: Tournament Fighter
Review Score: 78/100 (GameRankings)
I managed to get another fighting game on this list. Much like Armored Core, I got into this series on the PS2 with the sequel. I wanted to go back and see what the first Dynasty Warriors was like, and it turned out to be a fighting game. I won’t pretend I know anything about fighting games, but I do know that I like this one.
Dynasty Warriors is a retelling of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Instead of being a beat’em up, this is a fighting game with weapons. I would almost compare this to Samurai Showdown because it uses weapons, but that isn’t a great comparison. Just think of a fighting game that uses weapons, but doesn’t have blood, and that is what you have here.
I tend to enjoy anything related to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. That is the major reason I like this game. It might not be the best fighting game on the PS1, but much like Soul Blade, it is one of my favorite games.
Final Fantasy Tactics
Developer: Square
Genre: Tactical RPG
Review Score: 83/100 (GameRankings)
Final Fantasy Tactics is my second favorite Tactical RPG. I like it as much as Tactics Ogre in terms of gameplay, but the story isn’t as good. The graphics and gameplay are very good, and I like having control over Final Fantasy characters.
The story of this game is similar to the War of the Roses that took place in England. It’s a very good story that you find yourself caught in the middle of. The ending is very similar to the endings of the Ogre Battle games, where things don’t necessarily have a happy ending. It’s nice to see something like this from a video game, even if it isn’t what some people would want.
This game was made by the person behind the Ogre Battle series, which is part of the reason I like it. There is also the familiarity with the Final Fantasy series by having the same character classes in it. The game is very good, but I enjoy Tactics Ogre a little more.
Monster Rancher 2
Developer: Tecmo
Genre: Monster Fighting
Review Score: 83/100 (Metacritic)
I like this game a little more than the first game in the series. Monster Rancher 2 was the first game I played in the series, and it is one of the reasons I have so many random PS1 games in my collection. It’s all down to a very simple game mechanic that encourages you to collect and use PS1 games to spawn monsters.
This game has a story, but it isn’t all that important. You have to train a monster until it reaches S rank and win the four S rank tournaments. Doing so is how you “win the game,” but it is much more fun to see what monsters happen to be unlocked by putting PS1 games and music CDs into your console.
That is the fun part of the game. Every CD made before Monster Rancher 2’s release has a monster on it. The console reads the metadata on the CD and uses it to create a monster for you to raise and fight. Much like Jade Cocoon, Monster Rancher draws a lot of comparisons to Pokémon.
Front Mission III
Developer: Square
Genre: Tactical RPG
Review Score: 84/100 (GameRankings)
The post Final Fantasy VII landscape for RPGs was very interesting. Contrary to what some people on the internet believe, RPGs weren’t all that popular in North America in the 1990s. Of course, people played them, but they weren’t popular. After Final Fantasy VII, everything changed, and Square started releasing everything they had. This is how we got Front Mission III.
This is a great tactical RPG where you move giant robots around. We missed a lot of backstory by not having the previous games in the series released in North America, but each game can be seen as a standalone tale. This is a nice entry point for the series.
The graphics and gameplay are very good. There are two branches to this story, and quite a few characters to recruit. There are also some customization options for your mechs. Front Mission III is a wonderful Tactical RPG.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Developer: Silicon Knights
Genre: Action-Adventure
Review Score: 83/100 (GameRankings)
The Legacy of Kain series is a little strange. As the series goes on, things get overly complicated, but this first entry is fairly straightforward and does a lot of world-building. It introduces you to a strange land with gods, vampires, and a very delicate system keeping everything together. In the opening cutscene, someone breaks that delicate system.
You play as Kain, he’s a noble, and someone hires people to kill him. Once he’s dead, Kain becomes a vampire and starts a quest for revenge. Along the way, Kain narrates everything for the play and explains what this world is all about.
This is one of the few games I got for my birthday, and the only game I got from my extended family. I had never rented the game, and my family had never heard of it before. When I played it, I found it to be very fun, and I got lost in the story and world that the developers built.
Conclusion
I’ve played several PS1 games, but with a library of over 2,500 games, there are more games to play and discover. The 25 games on this list are the best of the fraction of the PS1 games that I’ve played. At some point in the future, I’ll have to update this list.
Out of all the games on this list, my favorites are the Tactical RPGs. They’re more fun than any other game that I’ve played. I’m sure that I’ve missed a few, and I know there are other RPGs on the system that are great games.
I kept this game to the ones I’ve played for my YouTube channel and reviewed on my blog. That is why some of the games that I like but haven’t reviewed aren’t on this list. It gives me a good reason to return to this list later.
I have a lot of memories of playing these games. Some were rentals with my friends, and others were more recent. It is always great to discover a game that I missed out on when I was younger. It’s never too late to go back and try something new.
If you liked this post, please check out my other posts, suck as My Favorite NES Games or My Favorite Retro RPGs.