Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle in EU) and Legaia 2:Duel Saga are my go to ps2 games.

Future Tactics: The Uprising

its a turn based shooter.

Beyond Good & Evil. Legendary, Ubisoft firing on all cylinders. Weird and French and beautiful. HD remaster is also a fine option but I like it on PS2.

Ace Combat 4, 5, and Zero are great. The music in zero is legendary.

SSX tricky

Timesplitters

Final Fantasy X unless you want to do the HD remaster, which is a great way to play tbh.

Devil May Cry holds up incredibly well and IMO is a must-play.

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

LOTR games are good fun.

Armored Core 3 is pretty great if you’re into the series as a whole.

GTA Vice City/San Andreas. 3 is fine but VC is better.

Shadow of the Colossus obviously

Star Wars: Racer Revenge is probably the best racing game I’ve played to-date. It’s very similar to, and often confused with, the N64 podracing game, but it’s way more polished, and the driving physics are chef’s-kiss perfect. Like, the N64 game, the pod and two engines all move together as one unit; basically a car racing game with a pod racer skin. The PS2’s Racer Revenge actually feels like you’re in a pod that’s being pulled by two distinct engines.

Try playing in 1st-person view and set the controls (if you have a PS2 controller) so the left joystick controls the left pod and right joystick controls the right pod - so to turn left for example, you’d pull back on the left stick to brake the left pod, and push forward on the right to accelerate the right pod; since they’re tethered together, the right one arches around the left a bit, and it pulls the pod to the left. It’s harder to play that way vs the usual ‘press X to accelerate’ mechanic, but after the first couple laps you’ll have the hang of it, and it feels so satisfying.

Unfortunately, the last time I tried to run a rom of this game, it did NOT emulate well, to the point of being unplayable. That was probably at least 10 years ago though, so hopefully advancements since then mean it won’t be an issue for you; but heads up.

All the GTA games (GTA III, GTA VC, GTA SA, GTA LCS, GTA VCS). There are some good Need for Speed games too, and a bunch of great Tony Hawk games. TimeSplitters, SOCOM, and Red Faction are great too.

Some good ones that are not yet mentioned

• Ribbit King is Golf game with frogs for balls which get strategically shot around a map littered with bonuses and obstacles. Players alternate shots and try to have the most points after both players reach the hole. It’s extremely cute and great local multi-player fodder
• Stuntman is tough as nails. You are a Hollywood stuntman pulling off increasingly complex stunts for movies being filmed. At the end of each shoot you get to see the movie trailer filled with clips of your own driving.
• Black is a big dumb loud shooter, and it has zero reservations or shame in that. That’s what makes it so much fun to play
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is excellent 3D brawling. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is excellent 3D brawling with co-op
• Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is a 3rd person shooter where you have guns and psychic powers you use in and out of combat.

Try Steambot Chronicles! It’s my favorite game of all time by a wide margin, but it’s been forgotten by time. It’s a really cool adventure game with a ton of different things to do, from piloting a giant robot to playing different musical instruments in a band, to decorating your own little apartment, and a bunch of other stuff! There’s a lot of dialogue choices to make too that can affect how people treat you, and lead to a few different endings, including being a hero vs a villain. The graphics and soundtrack are great, too! I can’t recommend it enough!

Another one for Jak & Daxter. I’ve got OpenGOAL and PCSX2, and between them both I have the full Jak series. I was playing Jak 3 when I had a crash, but then I had been playing it like all day.

I’ve also been making my way through the first three Sly Cooper games (loved the series as a kid, but only ever got to play the third one for myself) and they’ve been running flawlessly.

My plan is to play through the Ratchet & Clank PS2 games as I never really got a chance to play them when they were fresh or otherwise. I’m excited for those.

Then I might go and play through the Spyro PS2 era games, minus the original trilogy as I have Reignited already.

Aside from those I have a bunch of other classics I’ve played and loved/wanted to play like the Tak games, Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, Batman: Vengeance, and others.

I would also be open to suggestions. I’m very into 3D platformers and action RPGs.

One of the weirdest games I’ve ever played: Okage: Shadow King.

Think Final Fantasy gameplay + Zelda: Majora’s Mask level of being genuinely bizarre as all hell.

Fair warning, the music will be stuck in your head for the rest of your life.

Shadow of the Collossus

Downhill Domination is… honestly stupid as all hell, but by design: it’s a lot of fun :P

It’s a downhill mountain bike racing game with a combat system, and it’s ridiculous. You start being able to punch the bicyclists next to you; once you knock enough of them off their bikes you upgrade to being able to kick; then iirc you eventually get a stick or something lol. Otherwise, it’s just another get-from-point-A-to-B-as-fast-as-possible game that doesn’t require a lot of thought.

…so grain of salt, cuz the name of this one doesn’t sound right, but the screenshots look correct: Gradius V?

Side scroller arcade-y jet fighter - I remember it being good.

I just don’t remember it being called Gradius >_<

Any of the Suikoden games really. Legend of legaia 2

Ephemeral Fantasia for an extremely underrated gem.

How is XIII via emulation? Would love to try that on my Steam Deck.

Try out Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2. It’s one of those JRPG games with a lot of mysteries and loose threads and every single one of them end up solved by the end.