Just bought a PSP because I’m going to be doing a lot of traveling soon, and I was curious as to game recommendations. I’m pretty much open to any genre, but I prefer RPG and Strategy, as well as realistic military shooters. I tend to prefer deep games with some good content and longevity also. I’ve been eyeing Peace Walker lately, but I’m a little hesitant cause I’m typically not a fan of previous MGS games due to their wacky stories.
I purchased Persona 3 and GTA: Liberty City Stories to come with it, and so far I have to say I’m disappointed a little in each. I made it up to about level 15 of Tatarus in Persona 3, and it really started getting repetitive to me. Liberty City Stories feels sorta generic, about the only word I can use to describe it. Makes me feel like I should be playing it on a console instead, where it would be more fleshed out.
Fortunately for you, I just made a list of games worth playing on the PSP earlier this morning.
[ol]
[li]Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. You don’t have to be a huge fan of VII to like Crisis Core. I promise![/li][li]Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. The best turn-based strategy game ever (on the Playstation or PSP)![/li][li]Jeanne D’Arc. The gameplay of the above, but with the First English Lizardman Army. DID YOU KNOW: Joan of Arc regularly fought minotaurs?[/li][li]Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. This is one that’s been spoken of highly to me, but not one I’ve played.[/li][li]Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. This is a damn good game, with three heroes who all play differently, some awesome callouts to both the series and the movies, LEONARD GODDAMN NIMOY and also MARK FUCKING HAMILL, and a whole bunch of Stitch.[/li][li]Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Plus the sequel in two months! A fanservice-laden Final Fantasy fighting game with free-roaming over-the-top battles, and a surprisingly deep stat and combat system.[/li][li]Harvest Moon. WHAT.[/li][li]Patapon! Pata-pon. Pata-pon. Pata-pata-pata-pon. I DON’T EVEN OWN IT AND IT’S STUCK IN MY HEAD.[/li][li]Persona 3 Portable. One of the top five JRPGs of all time. Keep playing![/li][li]Tactics Ogre. TACTICS OGRE! It’s FF: Tactics, and that’s all I know, but I can’t wait.[/li][li]Ys. I played my first Ys game a few months ago, Ys VII. They’re action RPGs, not Diablo-likes but isometric free-running crazy slashing. Surprisingly fun! Story’s fairly simple, but that’s fine, and the music is absolutely stellar. They’re basically salad RPGs. Not a main course by themselves, but great to have before digging into something big.[/li][/ol]
There are other games, like Cladun and ZHT (I think?), but I haven’t played them. Someone else can chime in about what makes them awesome.
Based on your preferences here are some of my most memorable games.
Half Minute Hero - very unique and awesome JRPG experience.
Syphon Filter 1 & 2 - excellent modern spy / shooter.
Resistance Retribution - Same developers as Syphon Filter but with more forgiving controls.
Peace Walker - This game is a lot less batshit crazy then other MGS games with a lot less cutscenes. The only trouble may be the controls. Otherwise it is an amazing PSP game.
Crush - phenomenal puzzle game
Patapon 1-3 - Rhythm based action game with RPG elements. Very addicting and fun.
edit: Forgot the Square games Matt mentioned. Those are very good IMO.
Thanks for the recommendations guys, gonna give a few of these a shot!
Matt, I’m curious, let me pick your brain about Persona 3. Does it open up some mechanic that I haven’t seen yet so far in the game that makes it more compelling? So far, it just seems like each day is go to school, get asked a random question by the teacher, leave school, either go to Tatarus, or go out on the town, rinse, repeat. Tatarus also seems heavily repetitive to me thus far. The story in between isn’t doing much for me either, for example, the social links and making friends seems kinda fake and cheesy.
Some that might suit your tastes, sound a bit PC gamerish to me, would include:
Sid Meier’s Pirates!, Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars (top down like old school GTAs and it works much, much, better) and you should give Peace Walker a shot. I haven’t played it but I did like Portable Ops quite a bit, I think it was the squad building/soldier collecting angle that hooked me. But it is both sneaky and shooterish. Not too much time spent on the story element. Mostly gameplay.
There are others I liked but I have reservations about recommending them for you. Valkyria Chronicles 2, for example, appealed to me in the RPG department and the tactics were fun (if not remotely realistic) but the story and much of the characterization had me wanting to claw my face off.
What has happened thus far in your game? I don’t want to spoil anything.
For me, Persona was two games. The first game was the dungeon-crawler, where I gathered my party and ventured forth into this random-layout dungeons, fighting weird enemies and learning how to exploit their weaknesses while protecting mine. Once Demon Fusion happened, then it became managing my main character’s Personas, fusing stronger ones to attack weaknesses directly, tailoring my party for the challenges ahead. And always hoping to see what the next freaky thing ahead was, 'cause man, the monster designs are crazy!
The second game was the social game, and completely driven by the characters. Yukari and Junpei are my all-time favorite party members in any RPG I’ve ever played, and I’ve played a whole lot of RPGs. The core five (protag, Yukari, Junpei, Mitsuru, Akihiko) are just phenomenal characters, and expertly acted by their respective voice actors. I loved exploring the social links and learning the stories of the people I met, I loved how the game was a slice of life in Japan, I love how it was never Americanized so I would understand it better (I was Googling stuff just to learn what it was, which hardly ever happens for me)… there is very, very little about Persona 3 that I did not immediately fall in love with.
If you like strategy and RPGs, I’d definitely point you to this when it comes out. The FFT re-release is quite good as well, though the dialogue is atrocious at times with its pseudo-middle english affectations.
Cave Story. It’s free and it’s better than any PSP game you can pay for.
Pirates! It’s a mostly pretty solid port of the PC game. I really enjoyed it.
Half Minute Hero. Whether you normally like JRPGs or not, this is fun, funny, and not at all boring except for half of the game modes.
Cladun: This is an RPG. It’s one of those fiddly character system games, and I ended up getting lost in all my options, much like in Phantom Brave. I did enjoy it, though.
Symphony of the Night. Yeah, it’s really old, but it’s also really awesome, and you’re probably due for another playthrough of it anyway.
There are a bunch of other games that Tom likes, including some giant robot game with parachutes and an SRPG that I think is based on the new hit NBC series The Cape, but I can’t really vouch for those.
I recommend Lumines, very fun puzzle type game. I have Patapon and I really want to like it but I guess I have no rhythm since I’m stuck on one of the tutorial levels and I have given up on every passing that point. I have tried for hours upon hours but it’s a no go for me. Might want to try the demo on that first in cause you’re like me and have no rhythm.
