Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions - PSP Review

When the first Final Fantasy Tactics released around fifteen years ago, I was beyond thrilled. I have been a huge fan of turn-based strategy games, dating back to my Sega Genesis days. It took about a decade, but Square Enix released... well, not a follow-up - but an updated version of the game on the PlayStation Portable that ranks today as one of my favorite titles for that handheld console.

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Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - PSP Review

You know how a good book, movie or game can just hit a soft spot with you no matter how long ago you last read/saw/played it? Lunar is one of those titles for me. The PSP does not get much love anymore, for it is still a great destination for older JRPG tiles, such as this one.

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Class of Heroes 2 - PSP Review

Class of Heroes 2 is a tough, traditional dungeon crawling JRPG experience. This is the type of game that does not appeal to everyone, but I for one am glad that MonkeyPaw Games and Gaijinworks brought this title over to the Sony PlayStation Store (it is a PSP title, but plays beautifully on my Vita as well), because I am its target audience.

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Corpse Party: Book of Shadows - PSP Review

I recently reviewed the original Corpse Party, which was basically an interactive story built out of an old RPG Maker interface. The story was interesting, though there were some frustrating design choices, like limited save points that meant replaying scenes over and over again - making the game feel unnecessarily padded.

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Corpse Party - PSP Review

The first corpse party caught my eye because it looked like an RPG with a horror theme when the first screenshots and text about it came out a few years ago. I had never heard of the series and did not know that it had in fact originated as an RPG Maker project. The PSP has played host to a lot of RPG games over the years, and given the visuals I made the mistake of thinking that this would be as well.

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7 Wonders - PSP Review

I'm going with one of those newer, lightweight reviews I have been using lately to talk about a game that my wife and I are quite divided on.  The title is 7 Wonders for the PSP, and it is one of the many puzzle games that use the 'match three' recipe that Columns and Bejeweled has been using for so long now.  What makes this game a bit different is the framework around it.  Instead of working within a rectangular space, you actually are trying to build 'shapes' like a pillar or a circle.  You are also pitted against a time and tasked with trying to lower cornerstones to the bottom of the screen where an animated worker will then diligently picked it up and and put it where it belongs as they build the shape.

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Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - PSP Review

This is another quick, light review of a title that has proven very popular with my household.  This is actually one of the first games we acquired for our PSP back when my wife got it for me for Christmas several years ago, and I wrote this review for it on another site, and thought I would share it on here.

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Capcom Classics Collection Remixed - PSP Review

I am a bit of a sucker for collection games, and they feel right at home for me on a portable unit like the PSP.  I think because they do not need to push any technical limits and tend to play just fine on the system, but they can house quite a few titles as well.  There are a lot of words packed into this game's title, but there are quite a few games as well.

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God of War: Chains of Olympus - PSP Review

I've been on a bloody good tear with video games of late, but perhaps none of them are bloodier than the exploits of Kratos in the God of War series. There's currently 2 PSP games in the series out there, and this is the earlier of the two, Chains of Olympus.

For those unfamiliar with this Sony exclusive series, these games are a mesh of combat, puzzle-solving and platforming in a 3D environment set in a fantasy version of ancient Greece. Chains of Olympus is actually a prequel to the original God of War game that came out on the PS2 some years ago.

Now, most of my PSP favorites are some form of action or strategy game. I just don't often feel comfortable playing action style games on the smaller screen, whether it's due to the controls, the smaller screen, weaker audio - whatever the combination of reasons are, I usually wind up disappointed. So, question is - how well does Kratos' prequel translate to the small screen?

Graphics - 10:

For the PSP, this game's visuals are absolutely amazing. Right on par for me with Crisis Core which I thought had some of the best cinema screens of any PSP game to date. God of War however, keeps the impressive presentation going right through the gameplay itself. There are moments of epic backdrops where you really just have to take in everything that's happening around you, and it's all brought in a tear and stutter free framerate that keeps the action moving along perfectly.

Sound & Graphics - 10:

The voice acting is generally good, the sound effects are varied and compliment what is happening on screen. The music in these games is amazing, and the PSP version does not disappoint on that front. A great sound track that really brings out the best in the action and atmosphere.

Gameplay - 9:

It's a tried and true formula that has been imitated a lot over the last several years, but this series still does the combat better than most. The RPG elements really keep you invested as well. As you topple more powerful enemies, you unlock new abilities and spells that can be leveled up through the red orbs you gather. On top of that, there are platforming and puzzle elements to help break up the action. Now, I will admit the platforming stuff sometimes got on my nerves, and this series for all of the things it does right, does sometimes struggle in that regard in my opinion. However, the PSP game did not often leave me feeling like I died cheaply and the controls actually work very well despite the fact there are fewer interface buttons than the ps3 controller.

Intangibles - 7:

It's a great game, but it is a bit on the short side - I think I beat it in about eight hours. The puzzles are good, and only once or two really had me annoyed. The storyline was interesting and there's plenty of things to unlock along the way. There are some bonus content as well, such as The Challenge of Hades which is a series of trials. You can unlock new costumes for other playthroughs and even some cool art and behind the scenes stuff as well.

Overall - 9:

The game is a bit light on replay value and there are no online modes of any kind. That said, if you enjoy these types of combat-oriented action games, then you will probably find a good deal to like here. It is a game that can be found pretty inexpensively as well - I've seen it at use game shops for around $8 and that is pretty hard to beat. Of note, this series is in no way appropriate for kids - I don't even let them go into my bedroom when I'm playing it, between the gore, language and nudity.

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Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony - PSP Review

I never played any of the prior Dungeon Siege games, but I have been at least somewhat curious about Dungeon Siege 3. That said, I did get Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony for my PSP some time ago, and only somewhat recently started to play it.

You pick one of three characters (I went warrior) to begin with and a companion to go with you (you generally want to compliment your main character's abilities - so for example I took a mage with ranged attacks). It is an action RPG game that offers a fair amount of customization as you level up.

Graphics - 7:

Characters are pretty well animated, but the backgrounds to me felt a bit... overused. Early on I felt like I was seeing forests, caves, caves in forests, forests surrounding caves... you get the idea. Eventually those assets branch out and you get more, but I would have liked a bit more variety overall.

Sound & Music - 8:

The voice work was pretty solid, and a game has enough variety in sound effects that they never grew monotonous to me. The music however, was very good. It was often well-suited to what was taking place in the game and it did an excellent job of helping to set the mood.

Gameplay - 6:

The menus are a bit confusing at first and the tutorials in-game were pretty limited. The gameplay was a good deal more simplified than I would have expected. For all of the background number crunching that goes on with collecting loot and leveling up stats, combat really just consists of walking up to creatures and mashing a couple of buttons. The loot system is rewarding and keeps you from getting too bored with the grind itself, but the combat mechanics did sort of bore me.

Intangibles - 6:

There's an online mode I never really tried to take advantage of. I've read it was decent, but it just did not interest me. The main quest was of okay length - around twenty hours. Not bad for a portable, but like the combat it just felt lightweight. I was more interested in my stat progression and loot pickups than the game itself, which is a bad sign. There are a number of quests, though they are pretty simple and most of them did little to engage me, though they did provide gold, loot and experience.

Overall - 6.75:

It was not a bad game, and it can be found pretty cheaply now. It did not engage me as much as I had hoped - I never really felt a connection to my character or the storyline and the combat was a bit too simple for my tastes. The most interesting part of the game was those rare loot drops, but I was always maxing out my carried items, which forced me to do a lot of on-the-fly inventory management, which bogged things down a bit for me as well.

The presentation itself was solid, and at a glance when Sony introduced Ruin for the Vita, that game really reminded me of this one, but with prettier graphics and hopefully some deeper game design.

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Marvel Trading Card Game - PSP Review

I grabbed this game awhile back on a whim - it was one of my first PSP games. I generally dig card-based games, Marvel's a fun property and it was pretty inexpensive at the time. Overall, I had some fun with it. The game is lacking in bells and whistles, but the card strategy elements are pretty sound. There is not a great deal of revolutionary gameplay to discover here, but it does provide a pretty decent diversion.

Graphics 4:

I mean, there's almost no animation to speak of here. The cards are not real easy to read, and the layouts get a bit claustrophobic at times. I understand that this is a card game, but it sort of feels like a missed opportunity given the Marvel property they had to work with.

Sound & Music - 5:

The music is pretty decent actually, but it repeats a lot. The sound effects are absolutely minimal. Again, it is a card game and with that comes this sort of stigma where good graphics and sound are not needed, and while that is true, it does not mean they need to be so badly neglected either.

Gameplay - 6:

There are some different modes, including an online mode that seemed to be getting a lot more traffic a couple of years ago when I first got the game than it has now. Still, the game mechanics are solid and mostly fun, though some of the winning requirements to the story mode in a handful of stages were frustrating. The deck building is a lot of fun though, and the way you get cards for your deck is pretty addictive.

Intangibles - 7:

There are a lot of cards to go through, and a lot of different strategies you can employ in deck building. I love that part of the game. Deck design is one of my favorite parts of games like this. Unlocking more cards is addictive as well. The actual story mode is not too bad, and gives you a good excuse to play through solo. Online used to be a lot more active before, it seemed pretty vacant when I was recently poking around. Still, if you like single player card games like this, it can be found pretty cheaply.

Overall - 5.5:

I actually enjoyed the game more than the score would indicate, and at the price it may be worth a pickup. This game has been out for some time - I believe 2006. I saw a copy of this at Disc Traders for $4 the other day. That said, you have to be a fan of this type of game. It is not going to resonate real well for people who prefer heavy action games, but I thought that it actually suited the portable nature of the PSP better than it would have on say, a PS3 or Xbox 360.

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Kingdom of Paradise - PSP review

There's been a bunch of good RPG games for the PSP over the last year or so, including Persona, a bunch of of Final Fantasy titles and Tactics Ogre - almost none of which I own or have had a chance to play yet unfortunately. Of my systems, I think my PSP gets neglected the most - but there's still some pretty good games for it. My wife picked me up Kingdom of Paradise quite some time ago, and it can be had used for a pretty good price as it has been out a few years now. It's an unusual RPG game, as it has action combat with RPG elements such as leveling and gaining new skills, all thrown against a sort of Eastern/martial arts backdrop.

Graphics - 7:

There's a lot to like here, whether it's how the attacks and spells animate and how good the overall backgrounds are. The actual character graphics seem a bit weak after playing games like Final Fantasy: Crisis Core though. Also it felt like a lot of the background assets were reused several times in different places, giving a feeling of 'been here and done that' a few times. There were a handful of times the camera got in my way/on my nerves as well, and is worth mentioning.

Sound & Music 9:

I actually liked this quite a bit. The music really fit the unique locale and helped set the mood for me much more effectively than the graphics did. There was also a surprisingly wide range of sound effects in both the combat and the surrounding environment that did a good job of keeping me engaged in what was happening.

Gameplay - 6:

I'm going to have to pick on it a bit here. The camera got on my nerves at times, as mentioned above, and while I could appreciate the unique style to combat, the control schemes were not to my liking. I also had a tough time with some of the intricacies of the various systems that were in place. There were some neat ones, like the elemental system - but there were times I thought that they could have been explained better. For me though, the biggest issue is the combat - things like blocking and attacking are handled with the same button (the PSP has a ton of buttons - couldn't they have figured out something different for that?) but attacking worked far better for me than defending did due to the timing and controls.

Intangibles -6:

There's some online stuff - but I didn't get to take much advantage of it. Where I was playing this game, I didn't have internet access until the very end. The main quest was engaging, but I think I beat the game in about 17 hours - which seems like a very short time for an RPG game. I also never really had much interest in another play through - once I had seen the story, it lacked the sort of variety in choices that games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect have that encourage you to play it a second time through for a different experience.

Overall - 7:

The game is being graded on something of a scale by me here. It's not as good as some of the newer RPG's out there, but like an Xbox Live or PSN game - Kingdom of Paradise can be had at a very low price (I saw it at Disc Traders in town for $3 used about a month ago). That's pretty good value if you're looking for a somewhat different type of RPG game and aren't too worried about getting more than 20 hours of play out of it. Still, from a pure quality standpoint, if price is not a factor, I preferred games like Crisis Core overall.

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Dissidia Final Fantasy game review for the PSP

So after beating Crisis Core for my PSP, I found myself wondering which game to play next. I admit that of my systems, my PSP is probably the most underutilized overall. We don’t travel a lot and I’ve got plenty of other good distractions around the house. However, I’ve recently been making an effort to pick it up and roll out a bit of playtime on it lately, and while Crisis Core certainly repaid me for my time (review here if you’re interested) – I had about a dozen unplayed options to consider. I wound up choosing Dissidia Final Fantasy next.

This was a game that like Crisis Core, was looking to do something a bit outside of the turn-based RPG realm that the Final Fantasy series was so well-known for. In fact, what Dissidia turns out to be is a one-on-one fighting game, using main heroes and villains from the first 10 Final Fantasy titles. This gave me a bit of pause, but then the experiment that was Crisis Core turned out quite well, so I thought this one merited a chance as well.

Graphics – 8:

Not as many great cut scenes as Crisis Core, but what was there sure looked good. The character models all look good. The game moves smoothly and I never noticed any slowdown or tearing from the visuals. All in all, the PSP acquits itself nicely on this game. My biggest complaint is actually the same one I had for Crisis Core in that the camera sometimes felt a bit clunky in its choice of angles.

Sound and Music – 8:

The sounds do the job, though there was not much amazing on that front. There was voice acting for all of the characters and cut scenes between levels. With so many characters the quality was bound to fluctuate with some of the characters being represented better than others. The music was a standout for me. Having played almost all of the prior games that inspired these characters and stadiums, there were a few fights in particular (Jecht, Sephiroth) that were just fun to hear.

Gamplay – 9:

The combat is not terribly complicated, but pulling off moves is easy and the large areas feel great – though some are more fun to navigate than others. The menu’s pretty overwhelming at first, but once you familiarize yourself with it, the interface is pretty solid. Combat is designed around an interesting mechanic – bravery and damage. Bravery is a sort of teeter-totter between you and your enemy. If you perform bravery attacks, your opponent’s goes down and yours goes up. However, the only way to win the fight is to do enough damage (hence, the damage attacks) to drain the opponent’s hitpoints. It is an odd sort of two-layered system, but essentially the bravery feeds your damage-dealing capability. It sounds more complicated than it is once you see it in action, and it adds an interesting layer of depth that really helps the game’s combat to succeed.

Intangibles – 9.5:

There is so much to do here. Loads of characters to take through storylines. A chess-like battlefield representing each level that begs to be replayed over and over (I generally go through each storyline 3 times before moving onto a new one), items to unlock and purchase, new skills to master, summons to find… and the game even has a constantly running calendar in the background that keeps track of the real date and time. Why? Because playing on certain games and in certain amounts can yield bonus to your experience, item, skill and gold earnings.

Overall – 9:

Probably my favorite PSP game to date, trumping Crisis Core by a bit. Crisis Core had a more engaging storyline, but there’s just so much to do in this game. And the battles in Dissidia remind me of the missions in Crisis Core – they’re short, bite-sized pieces of action perfect for the handheld medium in my opinion. Sure, with it’s callback to prior Final Fantasy games, Dissidia is a bit of a fan service game – but when it’s put together so well, I can’t find anything wrong with that.

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Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII review

I am an unabashed fan of Final Fantasy. I haven’t played all of them – but I’ve played and beaten quite a few of them over the years – starting with Final Fantasy on the old NES. I was one of the many who had a first day of release copy of Final Fantasy VII and like many thought it was the best game I had ever played at the time. Years later, it’s story and game mechanics are among my most fond gaming memories. So when I heard that a prequel was coming out, I was really excited. That excitement was a bit tempered however when I saw my traditional RPG turn-based systems turned into a more live action game during trailers. I’m happy to say those particular fears proved to be unfounded.

Graphics – 9:

The in-game engine is good, you don’t suffer any breakup and the full motion video scenes that the Final Fantasy series have become well-known for hold up beautifully on the small screen. Don’t let the fact that this is a PSP game fool you – it holds up very nicely in both artistic direction and execution.



Sound and Music – 8.5:

The voice acting was good, though many of the sounds were a bit repetitive after awhile. Final Fantasy games are known for their quality music and this one while not among the best from the series, is still pretty good. I found the combat theme to be surprisingly catchy.



Gameplay – 7:

Sometimes deaths feel cheap. The actual action-oriented combat works well; certainly better than I expected. My biggest complaint from this department though was the camera. Sometimes I just could not get it into a good position, especially in narrow spaces. Also, the combat was a bit predictable in terms of how it was triggered. In earlier games, most combat occurred at random while walking. In later Final Fantasy games you are on an active field with enemies you can engage or try to avoid. Here? It’s things like intersecting hallways that trigger the usually-random group of monsters you fight. You find yourself hugging the walls awkwardly, battling the camera angles if you’re in an area where you don’t want to fight. It’s not all bad though. The action comes in perfectly sized smaller chunks that fit with the handheld platform. I had played this game for nearly a year on and off. I’d just pick it up some days when I had fifteen minutes to kill and do a few missions. The PSP is not one of my primary systems, so its games tend to get neglected, but this one’s content felt just right for on-the-go gaming.



Intangibles – 9.5:

There is a ton to do. The main storyline itself is not terribly long, but there are a bunch of side options to chew up your time. There’s missions that unlock over time or when certain criteria are met. There’s a fusion system in place that lets you upgrade items and materia (think of them as magic, skills and stat boosts). You get emails throughout the game from characters as well. There’s a handful of mini-games tucked in there as well throughout the storyline. To top it all off? There’s a New Game+ mode as well – always a favorite discovery of mine.



Overall – 8.5:

To date this was probably my favorite PSP game. The characters and world were sentimental favorites of mine. The overall production values were high. All of this was expected. The unexpected? That the action-based combat would work so well. That using one character throughout the game instead of a party would feel so involving. That you don’t collect experience and level up in traditional fashion, but that levels, boosts and special attacks are all managed through a perpetually running slot-machine like system that augments the action itself. Last but not least? The ending is fantastic. After I beat the game, I was just really taken with the ending and did some searching on the topic online. I was not alone in my sentiments there. A lot of people out there list it as their favorite ending ever. Mine? Maybe not, but probably top 10 to date, and getting there was a blast.

More Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII News & Previews

Video courtesy of IGN

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