Although the seemingly ever-rising cost of modern releases makes it easy to romanticise the cost of games of the past, it’s no secret that retro gaming comes with its own (sometimes extortionate) costs. Out-of-print games, abandonware, and a lack of preservation lead to skyrocketing prices, with the PlayStation 2 era being no exception to this.
I was wondering if I was sitting on a goldmine in my collection, so I spent some time going through PriceCharting.com to check out what the most expensive and rarest PS2 games are in the NTSC region. For accuracy, I compared the Complete prices, instead of New or Graded prices, to focus on the value of the game over its condition.
I also filtered multipacks out of my search, as their cost isn’t reflective of a single title’s value. That means that the so-called $1,000 SEGA Fun Pack featuring Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Mega Collection Plus was exempt. Sorry, Shadow, your game just isn’t usually that valuable. Similarly, the cryptically titled special edition of Super Fighter featuring Goku, Ryu, and Kung Lao isn’t included either, despite its steep price tag of $426.
10
Blood Will Tell
$385.44
Kicking things off is Blood Will Tell: SEGA’s PS2 adaptation of the notable manga Dororo. This slightly convoluted fantasy-action take on Osamu Tezuka’s celebrated series strikes a chord not only with fans but also with retro game collectors, with it regularly raking in a few hundred dollars on eBay.
Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu’s Dororo was a PS2 exclusive, and Dororo’s only game adaptation. That means that if you’re hoping to own a physical copy of the Father of Manga’s video game, you’d best be ready to keep a close watch on resellers and fork out the big bucks.
9
God of War II – Retailer Kit
$400.00
God of War II’s rare promotional retailer kit is a seriously hot item. Make no mistake, any old copy of God of War II isn’t especially rare or valuable. You can normally pick it up for anywhere between $12 and $40, depending on condition and completeness.
What sets the retailer kit apart from other copies is the rather impressive tri-fold case, which opens up to reveal a diorama-style artwork of Kratos himself. Alongside the swish packaging, the complete edition comes with a promotional copy of the disc, as shown by a different label, and a press release sharing everything journalists would need to know ahead of the game’s launch.
For the most part, press kits weren’t produced on any kind of large scale, making them rare and valuable collector’s items today. Considering how much PR is now done digitally, they’re also somewhat novel to see – especially if you weren’t in the industry.
8
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
$407.50
Long before there was any talk of Bloober Team remaking Silent Hill 1, Climax Studios had already developed their own reimagining of the franchise’s inaugural entry. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a haunting rework with a catch. The story’s events are shaped by a ‘psychological profiling’ of the player’s fears, as revealed in an interactable “therapy session” at the start of the game.
While the psychological mindbender was critically well-received, it didn’t sell that well at the time, and hasn’t since been ported to modern consoles or preserved on a platform like GOG.com. Consequently, it’s tough to get your hands on a copy, and rather expensive to do so.
Shattered Memories is far from the only Silent Hill title that piques collectors’ interests. Silent Hill 2, 3, 4, and Origins all narrowly missed out on being on this list, each selling for hundreds of dollars in new condition.
7
Obscure
$410.34
Obscure is a much-beloved paranormal horror for the PS2, which for a long time, was unavailable to play on any modern systems. Until it was re-released on Steam in 2025, you would have to have a lot of cash washing around if you were looking to find out the secrets of Leafmore High School.
The combination of Obscure’s followership and lack of availability created the ideal conditions for its prices to skyrocket. Even though you can now pick it up on Steam (for a reasonable sum of a few dollars, no less), original PS2 copies remain rare and valuable. Should you happen to have a graded copy lying around, you could be ready to bag yourself $1,800.
Despite its fairly ‘obscure’ status, it garnered a huge voice cast featuring the likes of Stephanie Sheh and Tara Platt, and received a sequel in 2007. In case you were wondering, Obscure II is worth around $80 on PS2.
6
Haunting Ground
$429.63
Haunting Ground is one of Capcom’s lesser-known IPs. Following in the wake of the success of other horror franchises created by the developer, like Resident Evil and Clock Tower, Haunting Ground is sometimes glossed over – outside of its high resale value, that is.
Those of us hoping to help Fiona Belli and her alsatian, Hewie, escape a horrible fate are going to have to fork out a lot to do so. Haunting Ground runs for anywhere between $260 without a box, right the way up to $1,223.75 for a graded copy.
Just for comparison’s sake, a whole PS2 cost around $500 back when it was released, accounting for inflation. That’s including a controller.
5
Bully – Collector’s Edition
$435.43
Rockstar’s Bully is one of those games that feels like a fever dream. The price tag attached to the PS2 Collector’s Edition is no different.
In case you’re unfamiliar, the general premise of the action open-worlder is “Grand Theft Auto: Boarding School Edition”. You spend most of your days running around town as Jimmy Bullworth, terrorising the locals, throwing rocks through windows, and kissing anyone who’ll agree to. Or, if you were like me in the 2000s, you’ll spend it trying to make the weird Wiimote mappings play nice. It was certainly always full of surprises.
The value of a Collector’s Edition is just as surprising. With Bully’s standard release for PS2 having sold more than 1.5 million copies by early 2008, it’s not usually hard to come by, meaning you can pick up a used copy for just a few dollars. But, as you might expect, the Collector’s Edition – which comes pre-stuffed inside its own locker – is another story altogether. A Near Mint copy sold for just shy of $2,000 back in 2022.
4
Xenosaga: Episode III – Lenticular Cover
$474.99
The third installment of the Xenosaga series is definitely an expensive one to get your hands on – and it’s not entirely because of its nice, shiny cover.
Complete copies of Xenosaga 3 featuring a reflective lenticular of Shion can run for eye-watering figures, with graded copies costing more than $3,000. The regular edition with a plain cover carries a similarly hefty price tag, ranging between $200 and $400 depending on its condition.
But, it’s definitely the cover that kicks the costs up. Just the box on its own is considered rare and sells for nearly $200.
3
Rule of Rose
$776.63
Assuming you’re not one of the lucky few who randomly found this in a second-hand store for less than $10, if you’ve spent any amount of time in retro gaming circles online, then you probably already know what kind of reputation Rule of Rose has these days.
Rule of Rose was a rather controversial survival horror take on fairytales and fables, with its gory gameplay and violent content leading to a lot of pearl-clutching. Thanks to this, it was cancelled on some markets, playing a part in its rarity.
As a result, it’s rare and, of course, expensive. If you’re lucky, you might just about be able to bag it loose for $550, but you’d need to spend a lot more for a complete edition.
2
God of War – Retailer Kit
$1,000.00
Much like its sequel, God of War for PS2 isn’t that valuable on its own, even in fantastic condition. In fact, you can generally only expect to spend around $10 to $15 on it. Any more than that for anything short of a first print edition and you’ve been duped.
The retailer kit, though, is a different beast altogether. It’s a promotional copy from E3, complete with press materials, a special case, and guides.
Because it was made for promotional distribution, there weren’t that many copies made. Courtesy of its scarcity, along with all the extra materials it comes with, it’s a big-ticket item now. Just the manual alone is estimated to value $250.
1
Kuon
$1,302.01
With another survival horror joining the ranks of rare games, cult favourite Kuon tops the list as the most expensive PS2 game.
Arriving among FromSoftware’s raft of releases from the mid-2000s, Kuon is an eerie period piece that has gained notoriety among retro gamers. It takes a historic ghost storytelling tradition called Kaidan, which was once a popular part of parlour games in the Edo period, and translates it into a creepy, low-poly setting. Compared to Kaidan’s roots, that probably seemed positively high-tech.
Despite being both a somewhat lesser-known entry to the genre, and obviously being one of the Elden Ring developer’s less famous efforts, Kuon is still a massively sought-after title for the PS2. Factory-sealed editions in almost-perfect condition sell for as much as $2,500. That’s about 15 and a half years of PS Plus at its current annual price.
