When I was in middle school, my younger sister and I were given a box of PlayStation 2 games along with a Silver Slim PS2 console. These games ended up playing a vital role in our shared love for gaming, very specifically Japanese Role Playing Games (JRPGs) and platformers. 

The box featured many classic PS2 games, like Final Fantasy X and X-2 or Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. However, unbeknownst to me at the time, it had many rarities as well. I’m very ashamed to admit that I, along with my little sister, ruined each game in the box from mistreatment and overuse.

Let’s start with the hard blow: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2000). Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes is the fourth installment of the Marvel vs. Capcom series and was initially released as a Japanese arcade game before being ported to various systems. It’s not really special gameplay-wise, but its worth is high due to it apparently being one of the rarest PS2 games ever made. Currently, the highest price for a copy is on J&L Game’s website for 899 dollars with a 77 dollar estimated tax. With that said, recently many clickbait articles spread the word of the rarity of the game, leading to the discovery of more copies. Because of this, copies now regularly sell between 50 and 300 dollars. It still hurts to know that I played this game to death.

Another set of games I played to death was the Xenosaga series. Not only did I own all three games in the series, but I actually had two copies of each. They all got ruined with time, which is really unfortunate because I adore that series. The Xenosaga games – Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (2002), Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse (2004), and Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra (2006) – form a futuristic sci-fi JRPG series that deals with topics such as grief, faith, and genocide. Altogether, the games currently sell on the market for around 600 dollars. So that’s 1,200 dollars worth of games I destroyed. With that said, those games totally made my sophomore year of high school bearable, so it was worth it.

I also owned the original .hack games – .hack//INFECTION (2002), .hack//MUTATION (2002), .hack//OUTBREAK (2002), and .hack//QUARANTINE (2003). The .hack series, which I’ve talked about in a previous article, is a universe of collected stories told through a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called “The World,” most of which revolve around players of the game falling into comas. With the exception of Infection, the .hack games range anywhere from 100 to 400 dollars each. Meanwhile, Infection only goes from 50 to 120 dollars. I actually owned two copies of Infection, both of which also got ruined. I played those games a lot and I still enjoy them to this day though.

Other rare games in the box included Ephemeral Fantasia (2000) which sells for 109 dollars on Play-Asia.com, Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (2003) which regularly sells for 50 to 60 dollars, Grandia II (2000) which sells for 118 dollars on electroeshop.com, Bujingai: The Forsaken City (2003) which sells for 83 dollars on VideoGameX.com, Dawn of Mana (2006) which sells for 30 to 65 dollars regularly, and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003), which sells for 65 dollars regularly.

There were more, but I honestly don’t remember most of them. I do remember ruining these games however and I’m still filled with regret. On the bright side, I now treat my games with love and respect; a lesson I learned too late.