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I bought a new PSP! So where are all these great RPGs people are talking about?

Danny Dudekisser

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
I finally convinced myself to buy a PSP 3000, mostly because I need to play Persona 2 IS when it comes out. But I keep hearing about all the great RPGs the system supposedly has, and I'm wondering what they are. I'm one of those people who really likes old school RPGs with interesting characters, good pacing, and with as few anime tropes as possible. I hate NIS and wish they didn't exist. As far as PSP RPGs I've played, here's a rundown:

Crisis Core - really liked it
Persona 3 - really liked it on ps2
Star Ocean - fucking hate it
Tales of Eternia - was okay... Way too generic
Persona - Was the RPG equivalent of Boris Yeltsin taking a diarrhea shit in your mouth after eating Indian food. Hated it in 97, hate it now. Too repetitive.
Breath of Fire 3 - it's fuckin... Alright
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth - port sucked... And I hate tri ace.
Jeanne D'Arc - I like sayin the title cuz I feel sophisticated, but this was just FFT: Boring Edition to me.
Disgaea - Boring anime-infused version of FFT. I got to the item world, saw the stupid number of enemies on the map, said "fuck this shit" and never touched it again.
Final Fantasy IV Complete - Really liked it (well... FFIV proper, that is. Didn't try the other parts)
Ys Seven - Fucking awesome

Uhhh... So I've played more crap than anything, I guess.

So what RPGs are out there that I really need to look into? Don't let me down, GAF!
 
tactics_ogre_let_us_cling_together_frontcover_large_71HXOUOuIOb1Qrp.jpg
 
I really liked Brave Story and Jeanne D'arc.

Isn't there also lots of Ys and a Brandish remake coming out? Get those too.
 
Is BoF3 on PSN Store (under normal circumstances)? Was wanting to go back and play that..

In August 2005, the game was ported to the PlayStation Portable handheld system in Japan, with an English release exclusively in Europe in February 2006.
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oh come on
 
Well these aren't old school RPGs but Kingdom Hearts BBS and Valkyria Chronicles ll are two of the best games on any handheld.
 
I know plenty of people say all the good JRPGs went to PSP/DS, but I say it is a lie, the JRPGs on PSP/DS do not match the great JRPGs of PS1/PS2. Many of the JRPGs are wither ports/remakes of games already on the old consoles or just not as good (I have tried many and just didn't find them fun like Tale of Eternia, Lunar, and etc). There are exceptions though.

Here is the list of decent JRPGs that are on PSP/DS
Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky
Tactics Ogre
Valkyria Chronicles II
Radiant Historia
Chrono Trigger DS
Dragon Quest IX

And thats it, I feel all the other games are either average or terrible, sorry OP that you fell for it, I too fell for it and thought the JRPG aswesomeness from SNES/PS1/PS2 generations went to handhelds but I was wrong.
 
Cladun/Classic Dungeon (System Prisma) and Z.H.P./Absolute Hero Modification Project stand up to anything and are "hardcore."

There's 1 Shiren port.

I think Half-Minute Hero/Hero 30 is a strategy game, but it pretends to have role-playing mechanics and it's my favorite PSP game.

Takao said:
I'm thinking of getting Gurumin. It looks great.
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R.P.G.? It's messy fun that doesn't take itself seriously. It's 2nd tier, but 2nd tier worth playing.
 
Whats the one with the boy that gos through a portal or something and meets a wizard with loads of funny little birds.. There is an anime movie about it. Cant think of the name but that was a good one.

Disgaea®: Afternoon of Darkness is probably my second fav PSP game after Monster hunter and probably one of my top 10 rpgs to be fair.

Edit: was Brave Story: New Traveller. its pretty typical rpg but I enjoyed it and its pretty nice to look at.
 
Einbroch said:
Best not be talkin' 'bout Second Evolution, boy.
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I'm talking especially about SO2. Sorry :(.

Those games fucking piss me off. You start in a futuristic setting and I'm like "oh, cool!". But then you crash land in generic RPG land and I'm like "ahhhh fuck this shit.". Every time.

Oh, forgot to mention I didnt like Jeanne d arc either. Too slow and dull in every aspect and I hated the visuals. I'm more of an fft fan
 
Chacranajxy said:
Too slow and dull in every aspect and I hated the visuals.
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Let me emphasize my choices, then (not that the others posted weren't appropriate). Speed, tension, aesthetics, and rock-solid mechanics are basically what makes them enticing.
 
GhaleonQ said:
Let me emphasize my choices, then (not that the others posted weren't appropriate). Speed, tension, aesthetics, and rock-solid mechanics are basically what makes them enticing.
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Interesting. What's the Shiren game you mentioned called?
 
Oh, and sorry to hijack my own thread with this only marginally relayed nonsense, but is there any disadvantage to picking up PSP games on psn instead of on umd? I know some stuff isn't available, but for games that are, it'd be nice to just have all that shit ready to go without dealing with discs... But not if the digital versions have say... Downsampled audio or anything like that.
 
Chacranajxy said:
Oh, and sorry to hijack my own thread with this only marginally relayed nonsense, but is there any disadvantage to picking up PSP games on psn instead of on umd? I know some stuff isn't available, but for games that are, it'd be nice to just have all that shit ready to go without dealing with discs... But not if the digital versions have say... Downsampled audio or anything like that.
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They load quicker than UMD games.

The only issue is that some games are compressed poorly on PSN (though the only ones that have any issues that I'm aware of are the GTA Stories games).
 
Takao said:
They load quicker than UMD games.

The only issue is that some games are compressed poorly on PSN (though the only ones that have any issues that I'm aware of are the GTA Stories games).
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Hmmm the games are all compressed or...? Fuck, I'm confused kind of.
 
Chacranajxy said:
Oh, and sorry to hijack my own thread with this only marginally relayed nonsense, but is there any disadvantage to picking up PSP games on psn instead of on umd? I know some stuff isn't available, but for games that are, it'd be nice to just have all that shit ready to go without dealing with discs... But not if the digital versions have say... Downsampled audio or anything like that.
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There's no difference that I've noticed. PSN copies will work on the NGP too, if you ever decide to get one.
 
Proposed Law said:
They are going to be playable in HD on your PS3
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You wish.

OP: If you don't want a majority of those on the go, then the PSP isn't for you. PSP is a port and JRPG port machine, but that's why it's so good. Disagea 1 grinding on the go? DO WANT.
 
Speaking of JRPG's... whatever happened to the Last Ranker? Did Capcom say it was never coming to the US? Is there a fantranslation started on it? I really wanted to play it as it had the Breath of Fire 3-4 team behind it and I really enjoyed BoF3 and... nothing outside of the Japanese release. :/
 
Chacranajxy said:
Hmmm the games are all compressed or...? Fuck, I'm confused kind of.
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They may be, but outside of GTA there are no noticeable negative issues with the games. I've had no problems with the games I own (outside of GTA), and much rather take the decrease in load times, and NGP compatibility over the disc versions.
 
TheSeks said:
Speaking of JRPG's... whatever happened to the Last Ranker? Did Capcom say it was never coming to the US? Is there a fantranslation started on it? I really wanted to play it as it had the Breath of Fire 3-4 team behind it and I really enjoyed BoF3 and... nothing outside of the Japanese release. :/
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.
 
The Monster Hunter series are action-RPGs of a sort. Definitely worth trying if you can find them cheap or borrow one from a friend.
 
TheSeks said:
Speaking of JRPG's... whatever happened to the Last Ranker? Did Capcom say it was never coming to the US? Is there a fantranslation started on it? I really wanted to play it as it had the Breath of Fire 3-4 team behind it and I really enjoyed BoF3 and... nothing outside of the Japanese release. :/
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I'm about 99% certain it'll forever be Japan-only at this point.
 
OP hates anime, tri-Ace, Star Ocean, Disgaea and NIS.

Damn, we would totally not be Bros IRL. Considering the origin of the genre, it might not be for you.
 
Orayn said:
The Monster Hunter series are action-RPGs of a sort. Definitely worth trying if you can find them cheap or borrow one from a friend.
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I tried both Monster Hunter Portable 1-2, and couldn't get into them. On one hand: the terrible camera/lack of a right-stick controlled camera was hard. On the other, audio cues for preparing meat for someone disabled like me, killed the aspect of the game. I don't mind not having the audio cues for the animals and getting my ass kicked and learning from that, but having a two second window for "well-done" meat was stupid and made me give up on the series.

Takao said:
I'm about 99% certain it'll forever be Japan-only at this point.
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That's what I'm afraid of. :( Is any group going to attempt to translate it? It and Miles Edgeworth 2 are the only two Capcom games I give a damn about anymore. :(
 
TheSeks said:
I tried both Monster Hunter Portable 1-2, and couldn't get into them. On one hand: the terrible camera/lack of a right-stick controlled camera was hard. On the other, audio cues for preparing meat for someone disabled like me, killed the aspect of the game. I don't mind not having the audio cues for the animals and getting my ass kicked and learning from that, but having a two second window for "well-done" meat was stupid and made me give up on the series.
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You do know you can make the cats cook your meat for you right?
 
Takao said:
They may be, but outside of GTA there are no noticeable negative issues with the games. I've had no problems with the games I own (outside of GTA), and much rather take the decrease in load times, and NGP compatibility over the disc versions.
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Hmmm alright. I would think it's just the umd, ripped and thrown online... I wonder if the loading is improved solely cuz the game is on flash memory or if they coded out some of the loading...
 
Negator said:
OP hates anime, tri-Ace, Star Ocean, Disgaea and NIS.

Damn, we would totally not be Bros IRL. Considering the origin of the genre, it might not be for you.
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I like anime, but bad RPGs tend to take all of anime's worst traits and feature them prominently. The NIS effect.
 
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