Sly Cooper trilogy. The second game is the best, but the third has its strong points too. The first game feels like a tech demo in comparison to the second.
Final Fantasy X (though I’d actually recommend playing it on PC with the Untitled Project X mod)
Ratchet and Clank. The second and third games are the best. Deadlocked is divisive for many fans.
Jak and Daxter trilogy. 2 and 3 are very different from the first game.
GTA San Andreas.
Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. Ideally you should actually play these on the PS4/PS5/PC, because those are the directors cut (Final Mix) versions of the games. You can’t skip Chain of Memories either, which was originally only available on the GameBoy Advance; Look up a plot summary if you don’t want to play CoM, because the gameplay is very different from KH1 and 2.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Persona 3FES, and Persona 4. Nocturne is from the mainline SMT series, while the Persona games are a spin-off. All three are available on other systems as well, (P3FES recently got a remake, for instance).
Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening. It’s a prequel, so you don’t need to play DMC 1 or 2 first.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It’s also a prequel, so you don’t need to play MGS 1 or 2 first. MGS Subsistence is the director’s cut version of the game, with some added gameplay improvements.
Okami. If you like Zelda games, you’ll enjoy this. The combat is more akin to a DMC/God of War hack-n-slash, but the dungeons feel like Zelda dungeons.
Resident Evil 4. The recent remake is also stellar.
Shadow of the Colossus. Don’t read anything about it beforehand. Go in blind.
Odin Sphere. A hand-drawn side scroller, with a great story.
Viewtiful Joe. Same devs as Okami, also cell shaded but with a very different art style. Stylish, fast paced side scroller.
Psychonauts. 3D platformer with a wild setting.
God of War trilogy. See where the series started, because the recent games are very different while still maintaining a lot of the same.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 5 hours ago

Primal is one that you don't see mentioned a lot. Got a lot of attention at the time.

Fantavision was a fireworks based game. Quite chill, and one of things like Lumines that you just zen into one day and sail through, and then the next you struggle again.

GTA Vice City was superior to San Andreas in my opinion.

Kuri Kuri Mix is a cutesy top down co-op game. It's no Split Fiction, but it's by FromSoft so expect some difficulty spikes.

[–] propitiouspanda@lemmy.cafe 4 points 1 day ago

This is honestly the list.

Play through a good deal of these and I'd wager you'll have a greater appreciation of video games as a whole.

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You mention SMT but NOT Digital Devil Saga. A pox upon ye, villain.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I never actually played DDS. I was really more of a Devil Survivor fan, personally… But those weren’t on the PS2.

[–] dzsimbo@lemm.ee 1 points 20 hours ago

Did you miss out on Katamari Damacy or just forgot to list it?