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Now approaching its 23rd birthday, the PlayStation 2 is firmly sitting in retro territory. And with that status comes the issue of supply and demand. Fortunately, the vast majority of the console’s library is extremely affordable, ensuring players have easy access to classics such as Shadow of the Colossus, Ratchet & Clank, and Grand Theft Auto 3. But then there’s the others – those games that for whatever reason didn’t sell particularly well but now have more collector interest than copies in existence. Those are the releases we’re looking at today.
Here’s how the list was compiled. We sorted North American PlayStation 2 games from high to low on PriceCharting (it’s an imperfect system; we are well aware) by complete price, not including label variants. These may change in the future, so this ranking is based on the publication date only. With that said, here they are…the most expensive PlayStation 2 games:
.hack//Quarantine Part 4: The Final Chapter ($232.00 complete | $ 228.85 loose)
2003 marked the release of .hack//Quarantine Part 4: The Final Chapter, an action-adventure title wrapping up a four-part series that began three years prior. It allows players to pick up right where the previous left off, using their save data and all. Published by Bandai, the games are a pillar of the .hack (pronounced “dot hack”) multimedia franchise that also includes anime, novels, and manga. But if fans want to get their hands on this piece of merchandise, it will come at a high price.
Haunting Ground ($350.29 complete | $ 248.93 loose)
Released in 2005, Capcom released Haunting Ground as a spiritual successor to its Clock Tower series. Known as Demento in Japan, it’s a survival horror game that centers around a young woman who finds herself in a castle after an automobile accident. Critics praised its visual presentation but criticized it for being predictable and repetitive. Ultimately, most fans stayed away at the time but are coming around it in recent years.
Blood Will Tell ($354.21 complete | $249.60 loose)
2005’s Blood Will Tell is based on the manga series Dororo, which also serves as the game’s title in Japan. Released by Sega, the action-adventure title is split into eight chapters. The story follows a chosen hero who must battle evil demons and “fiends” who stole his limbs as an infant and left him to live his life with prosthetics. Weird, huh?
Rule of Rose ($677.62 complete | $ 414.45 loose)
Blending visuals inspired by Silent Hill games with lore influenced by the dark fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, 2006’s Rule of Rose is a survival horror game from developer Punchline that is far from your standard fare. It follows a young woman in 1930 England as she encounters and battles demonic enemies linked to traumatic memories of her past. The game was published by Sony in Japan, while Atlus released in North America, and 505 Games handled the European market. Its relative obscurity and its arrival near the end of the PS2’s lifespan resulted in a small production run, making it a grail among collectors today.
Kuon ($747.80 complete | $454.23 loose)
In 2004, FromSoftware released Kuon for the PlayStation 2. Although the its mechanics are far from groundbreaking, the survival horror title (are you noticing a theme?) has layers of emotional depth that peel away as the player progresses. Unfavorable reviews may to blame for the lack of sales, and the game is quite the rarity these days. However, with strangely surreal elements and strange plot too deep to explain here, it’s become a cult classic.
