Tommy Vercetti, a member of the Forelli Crime Family, has just been released from prison. While he is happy to be back out Liberty City after such a long time away, his freedom is cut short when his boss, Sonny Forelli, sends him down to Vice City due to Sonny being worried about what Tommy's reappearance means for the family. Tommy is sent with fellow mafia members Harry and Lee to scope out Vice City for the Forelli Family. Tommy's mission while in Vice city is to take advantage the growing market of narcotics in the city. Tommy decides to make the most of his situation and must battle against the police, gangs, rival mafia families, and even his own to ensure he makes it out on top.

The soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City features some of the most iconic music from the 80's and 90's. The various radio stations in the game each contain a different genre of music giving the player an endless supply of different songs to listen to. With a combination of famous bands like Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, and Kool & the Gang and the game's fictional bands like Love Fist, the soundtrack gives everybody a little something they can enjoy. Vice City's soundtrack stands out amongst the many games on the PlayStation 2 due to the variety and copious amount of songs on genres seen throughout the game. Although many of the songs on the soundtrack are great, the lack of original songs created for the game keeps it from being higher on the list.

Okami follows the story of the sun goddess Amaterasu in her quest to protect the land of Nippon. The story beings as the swordsman Susano accidentally releases the eight-headed demon Orochi while trying to disprove the legend of his ancestor Nagi, who was said to have defeated Orochi alongside the white wolf Shiranui. Due to the reappearance of Orochi, the guardian of Kamiki Village, Sakuya summons Amaterasu who is known to the villagers as the reincarnation of the white wolf Shiranui. Amaterasu sets out with Issun, a miniature creature known as a Poncle, to defeat Orochi and the evil forces that have taken over the land. Along the way, Amaterasu encounters the Celestial Brush gods and gains various powers that help her on her journey.

No other soundtrack on this list matches the style of its game as the Okami soundtrack does. The soundtrack for Okami is largely centered around traditional Japanese styles and instruments perfectly matching the tone and style of the game. While the Japanese style is the most prevalent aspect of the music, songs like Shinshu Plains add a western flair to give different areas of the game a distinct feel. Okami features a soundtrack that covers a variety of emotions and tempos while keeping its core style intact. Songs like Dragon Palace are calm and relaxing while songs like Exorcising Evil are fast-paced and intense, but both songs feature the elements of the traditional style. The strength of the soundtrack comes from the game's variety of emotions the songs cover and the number of high-quality songs on its nearly 6-hour long OST.

Ico is a young boy who was born with horns, which his village considers to be a bad omen. After his twelfth birthday, Ico is taken by a group of villagers to a remote castle and through him inside of a coffin as a sacrifice. Luckily for Ico, a tremor knocks the coffin over, allowing Ico to escape. Ico begins to search around the castle for a way out. While exploring the castle, Ico meets a young girl named Yorda who speaks a language he cannot understand. Ico brings Yorda along as they search for a way out while also battling against the shadowy monsters that appear before them.

Ico’s OST is short, only containing 16 songs and about 30 minutes of listening time. Although the OST may be lacking in the number of songs, it makes up for it in the overall quality of the songs. The slow-paced, and often melancholic music creates are the perfect songs to pair with the adventure through the dark a gloomy castle Ico finds himself in. The ambiance that the OST helps create is second to none. While many of the songs have a darker style to them, the OST also includes songs like Heal that are a little more upbeat. The OST's strongest song is the ending theme, You were there, which includes high key vocals with the regular ambient style heard throughout the game to serve as a great close to the player's journey.

One year after Sora's adventure in Castle Oblivion, a boy named Roxas is enjoying his summer vacation with his friends in Twilight Town. Roxas begins to encounter strange creatures and gains the power to wield the keyblade. With all the mysterious things happening around town, Roxas begins to investigate and beings to learn things about Sora. Roxas eventually comes to find Sora trapped in the basement of a mansion in Twilight Town and sets him free. After being set free from their year-long slumber, Sora, Donald, and Goofy set out in hopes of finding Riku and King Mickey who were trapped in the Realm of Darkness.

Kingdom Hearts II combines some famous music from Disney movies, with original music composed by Yoko Shimomura with arrangements by Kaoru Wada. The songs Shimomura created perfectly represented the magical worlds, the battles, and the emotions of the game. A majority of the OST is upbeat and makes the player feel good, but there are also songs that cover a variety of different emotions like A Fight to the Death and Hikari. The OST also features an opening and ending theme called Passion and performed by Utada Hikaru. Passion takes all of the emotions seen throughout the story and bundles it together in a song that matches the game with its lyrics and musical style, serving as the perfect song to accompany the end of Sora's journey. Despite all of the great music, Kingdom Hearts II does feature a few duds on its OST and doesn't change enough of the songs from its predecessor to get it higher on the list.

Shadow of the Colossus opens with Wander and his horse Agro as they travel to the Forbidden Lands. Wander arrives at the Shrine of Worship and places a body wrapped in a cloak on the altar. The body is that of a young girl named Mono who has just recently died. After Wander fights off a group of monsters using an ancient sword, a strange being known as Dormin makes a deal with Wander and agrees to bring Mono back to life if Wander uses the sword to defeat the colossi found throughout the world. Wander agrees and sets out with Agro to defeat the sixteen colossi found around the Forbidden Lands.

Much like its predecessor Ico, Shadow of the Colossus features an OST filled with slow-paced melancholic songs that pair well with the dark journey that Wander is going on. The greatness of the OST is seen in the atmosphere and immersion that the songs help create. The soundtrack is split into two types much like the game itself. While the player is exploring the desolate landscape of Shadow of the Colossus, the music is calm and filled with acoustic guitars and woodwinds. When the player reaches a battle with one of the colossi, the music changes into intense orchestral arrangements. The use of the different styles gives the sections of the game unique feelings and helps add to the enjoyment of the game.

The new God of War Kratos is still haunted by the memories of his past and has been shunned by the other gods due to his destructive nature. Although warned of the impending danger by Athena, Kratos participates in the Spartan's attack on Rhodes. During the battle, a giant eagle drains Kratos of most of his powers and uses them to power up the Colossus of Rhodes. Zeus appears and grants Kratos a weapon that can defeat the Colossus but Kratos would have to infuse the rest of his powers into the weapon ultimately making him mortal. After winning the fight, Kratos learns that Zeus had planned the whole thing is killed by Zeus after refusing to obey him. While being taken to the underworld, Kratos is saved by the Titan Gaia who tells him how he can go back and get his revenge on Zeus. Kratos sets out to defeat Zeus and any other god who may stand in his way while proving once and for all who the strongest god really is.

God of War 2 most excels at showing off the dark and dreary nature of the world while also featuring many epic orchestral pieces that accompany the game's fights. Unlike many games on the list, God of War 2 doesn't feature any tracks that deviate from the usual style. The game makes use of heavy orchestrated pieces that are often accompanied by vocal tracks. Tracks like Exploring the Isle are intense and almost creepy music that plays during the games exploration scenes. Despite the lack of diversity in the musical styles, the music does what it intends to do perfectly and captures the epicness of Kratos and his battles with gods and other mythical creatures.

Taking place in an alternate earth in the 20th century, all of the world powers end all conflicts and send their nuclear weapons out into the atmosphere and destroying them. All air travel is stopped and internet access stopped to counter terrorism, pandemic disease, and cyberterrorism. After two hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles are fired at Japan, the US government contracts the killer7 to eliminate Toru Fukushima, the head of the UN Party. Killer7 follows the story of Harman Smith and his split personalities battling against the terrorist group Smile.

Composed by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda, Killer7's OST is crazy and all over the place. Featuring upbeat and fast-paced techno music, acoustic guitar tracks, and even some smooth jazz, Killer7 has a little bit of everything. Despite the game using many different musical styles and techniques, the whole soundtrack just seems to work together and blend well. No matter what the song is, it manages to fit the area and character currently being played. The variety of the tracks is both the OSTs biggest strength and its biggest weakness. No matter who you are, there will be many songs on the from the game's OST that you will enjoy, but there will also be a number of songs that you will find less enjoyable.

Two years after the incident on Shadow Moses Island, Snake finds himself tracking down a new type of Metal Gear said to be on an oil tanker traveling the Hudson River. While aboard the tanker, things go wrong when Snake runs into Russian mercenaries. After the events on the ship, the tanker sinks and Snake has been declared dead and is branded a terrorist. The game picks up two years later as new FOXHOUND operative Raiden infiltrated a ship taken over by the terrorist group, Sons of Liberty, who have captured over 30 Americans, including the president. The story of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty follows Raiden as he takes on Sons of Liberty and learns the truth behind the incident with Solid Snake

Metal Gear Solid 2, features new versions of some of the best tracks from the first game, while also adding in some great new tracks that. The music in the first game was intended to sound the same as a big blockbuster movie and it managed to accomplish that, but director Hideo Kojima decided to kick it up a notch by bringing in British Hollywood composer, Harry Gregson-Williams to help with the music. The OST combines electronic beats and orchestration to give the game a unique dark and futuristic sound. Opening Infiltration is the best example for the blending of styles and the Hollywood feel to the music. Metal Gear Solid 2 has one of the most unique OSTs on the list and it improves on everything the first game did in the music department. What keeps Metal Gear Solid 2 from being higher on the list is that despite the long list of songs on the OST, there isn't enough variety causing a few of the songs to be forgettable.

After an encounter with a monster known as Sin, the famous Blitzball player Tidus, finds himself taken from his home in Zanarkand and stranded in a strange world known as Spira. The new world Tidus finds himself in seems primitive to the sprawling metropolis he came from. After the second encounter with Sin, Tidus ends up on Besaid Island where he meets Wakka, a fellow Blitzball player who takes him to the village. There he meets the summoner Yuna, who is just starting out on her pilgrimage to beat Sin. Tidus decides to travel with Wakka, Yuna, and Yuna’s guardians Lulu and Kimahri, in hopes of learning about how he can return home. Along the way, Tidus learns more about the world, Sin, and how his world connects him to Spira.

Final Fantasy X was the first Final Fantasy on the PlayStation 2 and it deviated from the usual style seen in the previous entries in the series. The OST was composed by series veteran Nobuo Uematsu along Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano. Many of the songs from the soundtrack are made using the elements of one of three songs, To Zanarkand, Suteki da ne, and Song of Prayer sere as the basis and share many of the songs progressions and melodies. The songs take various amounts of stylistic choices from the songs and at times have sections that sound almost identical. Despite the lack of originality for much of the OST, the songs are all fantastic and are able to stand out on their own and are very memorable. There are also a number of underappreciated tracks that are completely original like the flute filled and tribal inspired Guadosalam. While it may not be the most original or creative OST on the list, Final Fantasy X is filled with amazing and memorable songs that add to the depressing nature of the journey the player takes part in.

Persona 3 tells the story of a group of high schoolers who join the "Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad" in order to investigate the mysteries of a phenomenon known as the Dark Hour. Dark Hours is a period of time that exists between one day and the next serving as the 25th hour of the day. The events take place in a Japanese city named Iwatodai, which was built and funded by the Kirijo Corporation. Several experiments carried out ten years ago created the Dark Hour. As the nameless protagonist and other members of SEES continue to explore the mysteries of Dark Hour, they use the powers of their Personas to battle against the shadows they encounter.

Coming out after the PlayStation 3 had released, Persona 3 had to not only compete with all of the PlayStation 2 games that were coming out before it, but also games that made use of the increased sound quality in the PlayStation 3. Persona 3 delivered, providing gamers with one of the best OSTs ever heard in a video game. The OST was unique and separated itself from other RPGs including the previous two games in the series. Composer Shoji Meguro used a hip-hop style for the game's music and used vocal tracks in many of the game's songs. Many of the songs are laid back everything from the area themes, to the battle music being fairly calm and enjoyable to listen to. Persona 3 is one of the more underrated games and soundtracks on the PlayStation 2, with a unique musical style that would become a staple of the series, great battle music, and a large list of songs that are all great, Persona 3 earns itself the top spot on this list.