Yet, there is something to be said for the fact that The Third Age gave us a true Lord of the Rings RPG adventure at a time when the films were still the hottest thing in the world. On the one hand, I do feel kind of bad putting this game on the list above titles that are a little more critically acclaimed, a little more innovative, and, in some cases, perhaps simply better than what was essentially EA’s Lord of the Rings-themed take on Final Fantasy X.
You know what a couple of the games on this list will be, but a deeper look at the best PS2 RPGs will remind you just how deep this console’s roster of all-time great titles really was. The result was an elite group of developers finally getting the chance to watch their biggest dreams come to life in a way that was simply never possible up until that point. The PS2 represents this incredible moment in the evolution of the genre when we were both benefiting from the ambition of the PS1 generation as well as getting to enjoy the ways that PS2 technology made true 3D gaming so much more viable than it had ever been before.
However, there’s a strong argument to be made that the PS2 not only deserves to be in that conversation but could very well end up taking the crown. When we talk about the best RPG consoles, we typically focus on the SNES and the PS1 (and with good reason).