6 Of The Most Gorgeous 2D PlayStation Games

I’m not sure - I’ve not got much of a green finger - but I’m not sure if this grass is very healthy… Personality! Popular opinion has it that the PlayStation was the console for 3D games and the Saturn the one for 2D sprite-based titles. There’s a hell of a lot of truth in that, thanks in no small part to the Saturn’s 4-meg RAM expansion cart and all the joy that brought with it.

X-Men vs Street Fighter on PS1 vs Saturn is one of the best examples of this, with the PS1 version looking like the gif version of the Saturn’s original video footage. So yeah, it’s a reputation the PS1 earned. But it’s not 100% true: there were plenty of great-looking 2D-based titles on the PlayStation.

So I thought I’d sift through and find a handful-plus-one of the nicest looking, most gorgeously lovely 2D games on PS1. Coming in hot with this one: not only one of the best games ever released on PS1, not only one of the best games ever made, apparently I’ve never played it properly, but also one of the prettiest of the games.

Before the PlayStation came out there was a boastful marketing video for it boasting boastily the machine could wap out “More than 260,000 sprites per second”. Why does that matter here? It doesn’t, I just wanted to mention it because I watch the video and sharing is caring.

Symphony of the Night might not have needed all 260,000 sprites per second, genuinely it might not have, I don’t know, but it did get some silky smooth, detailed and gorgeous animations throughout. I mean, it’s pretty key to a game that requires more skill than I have when playing it here that you’re able to know what your character is doing at any given point - such detailed, careful animation means you’ve always got the information feeding back.

It’s not just pretty, it’s useful. And pretty. Very pretty. Plus segmented mega-sprite bosses are always super-cool. What a pretty game. Not a great game, really. Not really. Cam annn, not really. But! Saga Frontier 2 is a drop dead… can I say dead or will the algorithm kick me out? A drop… unalive gorgeous game, containing some fine approximations of watercolour painted scenes making up the plentiful backdrops throughout your adventure to… save the world, probably, I don’t know.

And when I say approximations, what I mean is - as far as I can ascertain - literal watercolour paintings that were done in real life on canvas before being scanned into the computomatrons at Square and digitised to be used as game assets. It wasn’t just the backgrounds either - the character sprites got the hand-and-brush-and-scan treatment too.

What it all leads to is a stunning game - absolutely gorgeous to look at, and one that will definitely draw you in and make you want to trundle around to see as much of it as you can, to admire the artwork and the effort put into it… at least until you realise you’re a bit bored, because it might be pretty but Saga Frontier 2 is not a hell of a lot of fun.

Still: what a pretty game. Mega Man 8 ended up a good example of, pretty much, what some people feared would happen with the PlayStation generation: games from the past would be released on it in a new form, but the only thing that would change would be the graphics.

That happened here, with Mega Man 8 basically just being the old games, again, but prettier. Thing is, it was really pretty. I’m sure folks would argue something like Mega Man X4 looks better - that’s a fair shout, because it does look phenomenal - but I’m going with Mega Man 8 here because I love the first boss so much.

That’s about it. That’s all I have here. Let’s just stare a while. What a pretty game. No, I did not buy Valkyrie Profile to record this, because I am not literally made of money, nor am I figuratively made of money. Also, money has to be spent on adult things like new floors, rather than niche PS1 RPGs with a striking visual style.

Though now I look at it, I could get the Japanese version for a few quid, but then I a) wouldn’t be able to understand what’s going on, and 2) wouldn’t be able to make loads of money from it - which as we all know if the only reason to buy desirable games.

At least, that’s what the internet’s taught me over the years. Right, so I’m just waffling on so I can put a bit more footage of the game in the back here, because Valkyrie Profile is - what with it being on this video and all - one of the PS1’s most gorgeous games.

It’s really good too, which is a nice bonus, but that’s not what we’re focused on here. No, for once it’s the graphics that are all-important, and Valkyrie’s knock it right into Valhalla. What a pretty game. Things don’t have to be vibrant and upbeat to be good looking, and it’s Breath of Fire IV that proves that fact on the PS1.

At first glance it might seem muddy and dull, but when you really squeeze your peepers you see it for what it is: autumnal. Autumnal, and very pretty, and home to some fabulously characterful animations that really make the whole thing pop from the screen in a way polygons just couldn’t have managed 20 years ago.

They still struggle to now, let’s be honest. I’m well aware Breath of Fire IV is quite a 3D-heavy game, by the way, and I’m well aware there are plenty of 3D aspects to a few games on this list, but - and again, I’m just talking more to fill space so we can stare at the game a bit more - none of the games are strictly 3D, so I’m counting them as 2D.

Boom, logicked that one away. So yeah, Breath of Fire IV is a solid entry to the series - not the best, but a good one and still worth a play today - but it’s also one of the best looking games on PlayStation. Because it’s autumnal. Vibrancy be damned - what a pretty game.

Legend of Mana boasts what may be the most impressive two-dimensional graphics ever to grace an RPG. The backgrounds are very highly detailed. The graphics are bright and colorful in most areas, yet dark and moody where appropri...ah wait sorry I’m just reading an old RPG Gamer… RP Gamer? review, those aren’t my words.

No, my words would be: Legend of Mana is one of the prettiest games ever made; absolutely gorgeous, full of life, bright and vibrant, an absolute joy to just look at. The game itself might only be pretty good - some love it, some don’t, basically - but Legend of Mana is still gorgeous regardless of how it plays.

The exquisitely shaded sprites and 2D backgrounds possess a kind of beauty that will die with this generation of video games. It's sad, but it's true - the last honest 2D system is already long gone, and the PlayStation will join the Saturn soon enou...no sorry that’s IGN’s review, not my words.

Why do I keep doing this? At least that was spot-on, as we all know two-dimensional games died post-PlayStation and we never saw a sprite again. And at least it did go out on a high, because Legend of Mana was, I’d say, the prettiest game on the console.