Kitase on Emotion Engine for PS2: “PS2 really was a very high performance graphics machine”

Ken Kutaragi is the main man behind PlayStation. He was the one who developed PlayStation 1 to 3. He is known for his crazy ambitions and talks in technology. His hardware customizations were always ahead of their time but also difficult to work with.

Yoshinori Kitase in a recent interview explains the issues that they faced during the porting of Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation VITA, giving us an insight on how a complicated hardware setup can make porting difficult.

[HighResHero]

It was and powerful enough to create timeless classics that will be played for decades. I'll have to check out this article later.

[aCasualGamer]

Considering this is a machine that came out in 2000, it's amazing the level of detail in God of War 2 and Resident Evil 4.

Amazing machine.

[HighResHero]

Exactly.
I will probably always have a PS2 or many of its' games in my collection.

[Venoxn4g]

dont forget mgs3

[3-4-5]

And to think, it was the least powerful of the 3 gaming machines of that gen. Oddly, the Gamecube was the most powerful, there just weren't enough good games made for it.

PS2 has so many good games I missed out on.

[HighResHero]

I missed out on a lot myself but started buying the best of them in the last year or so. Trust me when I say that the gems are still worth playing. I have Okami, Persona, Onimusha, etc. It's nice to have them in the collection.
Gamecube had a lot of great games but not quite as many.

[Unlimax]

Shadow of the colossus , GOW2 and other titles proves that the PS2 is a legendary machine.

[chrissx]

The Ps2 was the peak of gaming. It will never be forgotten. I think Ps4 is a reincarnation of Ps2 :3

[N4GCB]

The PS4 is actually the PS2-2nd.

The name was just shortened so it'd be easier to say.

[minimur12]

Its the PS2: Second Son :D

[DarkLordMalik]

PS2^2 = PS4

[Rodent85]

best console all the time, many legendary tittle came from this machine

still playing rougue galxy on this bad boy

[C L O U D]

I remember seeing Tekken Tag and Ridge Racer V for the first time...felt like the best graphics ever

[WitWolfy]

No shit... Saying it was powerful is like saying an old 386 computer was powerful for its time too.

[DOMination-]

Except in comparison to the cube and xbox, the hardware wasn't that good at all.

[Kaiou]

Since i owned the PlayStation 2 , GameCube and the Xbox i can say that NO the ps2 graphics was not as good at all and it was the weakest of the three, the games on it usually looked worse than the other two(especially Xbox and by a big margin) . But when it comes to the quantity AND quality of the games i think it's unmatched in the history of gaming, many of the greatest franchise ever were born on the ps2: persona 3&4 , god of war , final fantasy 10 , metal gear 2&3 , Dragon Quest VIII , Kingdom hearts , GTA3 ... and many many others . So in short : Good graphics ? Note really , Great Console : Hell Yes.

[Ghostbob]

PS2 has so many grate games that i still haven't played yet, the catalog of games is huge.

[FlyingFoxy]

Considering Dreamcast came out like a year before PS2, DC was ahead of its time, it matched up to PS2 graphics easily & had better than arcade perfect ports like Soul Calibur and Crazy Taxi, it was only like 10% of titles that showed better graphics later on with the PS2.

Too bad developers gave up for the hype of PS2, i'm sure the DC could've given the PS2 a longer run for its money.

[MasterCornholio]

Didn't Sony destroy the dream cast when they announced the price of the PS2?

I believe that the strong sucess of the PlayStation and the lower price of the PS2 is what sent Sega to the grave as a hardware maker. Pretty sad how Sega screwed up and its a shame because I had several consoles from them ( Megadrive 2 and Genesis).

Anyways in the end the PS2 deserved the hype because it ended up having the best library of games something that the Xbox One and GameCube didn't have.

Nexus 7 2013

[MrBuffalo]

My thoughts at the time exactly. The Dreamcast was already in its stride by the time the PS2 came out. I got the ps2 on jap import using quite a bit of my student loan at the time and I remember putting it on back at my student digs and thinking it doesn't blow the DC away like i'd expected. Soul Caliber, Powerstone were already out on DC and those are just two titles that can hold their heads high against anything on PS2. But of course over the run of its life it produced some great games. For me the playstation was THE ONE. Turning on Ridge Racer for the first time was mindblowing. A smooth consistent 3d engine on console whilst not arcade perfect, it was enough. Only thing to come close was Mario 64 for 'wow! gaming has moved on!' moment.

[AnteCash]

DC cant compare to PS2 in power, only thing DC has over ps2 is vram 8mb to 4mb,its 1.5y hardware diff. in PS2

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[thejigisup]

I want kitase and cerny to have a techbaby for the next console generation.

[TristanPR77]

The PS3, even with all the problems it had, managed to surpass the xbox 360 worldwide. It was Sony at their weakest point. Now, You have to wonder, with the PS4, that represents Sony at their best, what it will manage to accomplish.

I think a second PS2 golden era is coming.

[Picnic]

The PS2 and PS3, as difficult as they were to program for, have proven to be complete successes, both artistically and, in the end, sales wise, at creating the kinds of exclusive games that Sony wanted to show off.

Dreamcast was a beauty, with elegant and sharp visuals, but it has to be remembered that the riches that it had were still sometimes for a relative niche (at the time) of players - Shenmue aside, generally people who like arcade-style games. It was like some of its games offered little depth and some offered TOO much depth. There wasn't a great range in the middle ground which is why its sales are actually understandable. Even with Sonic on there, the last Sonic game many people will have tried was on the Megadrive (not so many having playing Sonic CD) and the Sonic games had descended in quality on there. The Saturn had the effect of rendering Sega's market in to a hardcore willing to pay big money on what, by past form, was not likely to last many years in terms of big releases. All the innovation in the world couldn't help most people regarding the Dreamcast as slightly otherwordly, almost not real and in its own time frame, a ghost from Sega's future, a great innocent, funky, burst of creativity that has attained legendary status with the likes of Jet Set Radio.

[imXify]

So maybe that's why PS2 psn downloads are impossible on both PS3 and Vita.