PlayStation 2: From A to Z – The Letters “X, Y, and Z”

The From A to Z series lets our editors go back and take a look at games from past generations that are classics, overlooked gems, or just titles they remember fondly. The idea behind this is to pick five games from each letter of the alphabet, once a week to showcase. This delivers 26 weeks and 130 games to talk about. Hopefully it sparks some conversation, and of course plenty of memories.

Our second series will focus on Sony’s sophomore entry into the console business, the PlayStation 2.

Let’s continue with the letters “X, Y, and Z”.


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Xenosaga Series

Spanning across three full games, this series developed by Monolith Soft tells a story of political strife, ancient beings, new technology, and so much more. It is One any JRPG fan would enjoy and on that has a legacy from the PS1 era and even now on the Wii U with Xenoblade Chronicles X.


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XIII

Since the first article, I kept hinting at another David Duchovny game on this list. Well, here it is. While not the greatest FPS in the world, XIII had an interesting story and an art style that wasn’t very popular at the time. It stuck out for me, and the bonus of playing as Mulder was icing on the cake.


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X-Men Legends

An isometric action RPG where players take on the role of the mutants of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, X-Men Legends gave off that Champions of Norrath vibe and has a fun, although simple combat system.


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Yakuza

Wrongfully touted as a “Japanese Grand Theft Auto”, Yakuza was more of an action brawler game with some very small RPG elements sprinkled in. With a crazy story of mob families, insane characters, and revenge, this game was its own beast and a really fun one at that. Also, you can’t find a bigger badass that Kazuma Kiryu.


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Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

While everyone knows most people bought the first Zone of the Enders for the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo, I bought ZOE2 because it was actually really great. Kojima and company took what he had set up in the first game and improved on it. A fast-paced mech game where it really feels like one of those “Japanese animes.”


Tune in next week for the next collection of titles.

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Drew is the Community Manager here at ZTGD and his accent simply woos the ladies. His rage is only surpassed by the great one himself and no one should stand between him and his Twizzlers.