This has taken my spot for being the most impressive PS2 launch title. Framerate tanks aside, it still looks and sounds amazing. It expands upon Gen1 in very important ways that make me excited to explore the rest of the PS2 titles. It does still kinda suffer from some utterly tyrannical fights at times though, both arena and story. The final stretch is hellish if you're not built in a really specific way.

Oh also very strong contender for the best OST in the franchise.