MERCH!
Giant Bomb - a website about video games and the people that make them

PS1 Games That I Enjoyed As An Adult

by phanboy4

Attempting to revisit the PS1's back catalog as an adult without rose-colored glasses, now that I'm less patient and highly critical of gaming nostalgia.

What games still hold up in 2020 as things I want to play on their own merits?

What games do I like enough to want physical copies on my shelf?

What games do I like enough to actually stick with and finish as an adult without having to force myself?

Showing 1-9 of 9 items

Resident Evil 2

1. Resident Evil 2

I'd never played any RE games until now - given that I played this one for the first time in 2019 and it blew me away to the point where I played through it several times and it became a minor obsession, I think it's safe to say this one holds up.

Silent Hill

2. Silent Hill

Despite being a late-in-life convert to OG Resident Evil, I did not expect to like this game - I'd seen friends play bits of it and while it had atmosphere I thought it would be tedious to play, decades out from its initial release. Man alive, this game is special. It's head and shoulders above everything else that was happening in games at the time. A once in a lifetime thing. I played it a month ago and I still think about it weekly.

G Darius

3. G Darius

King's Field II

4. King's Field II

Shadow Tower

5. Shadow Tower

I liked this obscure, off-putting From Software game so much I wrote a review explaining why it was unfairly ignored: https://www.giantbomb.com/shadow-tower/3030-22892/user-reviews/2200-31811/

Final Fantasy IX

6. Final Fantasy IX

This is one of the only JRPGs that I can say had a plot/ending that I enjoyed more as an adult than at the time. Just a really excellent, well-paced, lovingly made and good-natured game.

Resident Evil

7. Resident Evil

Breath of Fire IV

8. Breath of Fire IV

A late-era PS1 JRPG that stands up really well - reasonably well-paced, thoughtful plot, gorgeous graphics. Extremely solid, and the best in the series IMO.

Alundra

9. Alundra

Must be played with the fan patch that removes the broken difficulty changes made in the US version - with that in place Alundra is one of the best 2D Zelda games ever made - and that includes some of the 2D Zelda games.