Top 5 PSP Roleplaying Games: Crisis Core and Valkyrie Profile Lenneth
RPGs or Action-Adventure RPGs?
There are few standard role-playing games available for Sony’s PSP console.The change to more action-oriented role-playing games is partly responsible for the lack. The ease of pirating software for the PSP console explains the small library of titles. Selecting the top five list becomes difficult because many of the role-playing games for the Playstation Portable really are not that much different from each other in terms of how they play and in their overall level of fun.
#1 Top PSP Role-playing Game: Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core
Crisis Core’s leveling system seems awkward. The player is led to believe that level increases are random. (The game does keep track of experience points earned.) The system becomes annoying. Nevertheless, the game gives players a chance to see how the events that will lead to Final Fantasy VII take shape, and you’ll get to see a few of the villains of the original start out the game as a good guy.
Crisis Core’s focus on the action-adventure elements sometimes ruin its feel as a role-playing game. A player should feel like he has more control over character development. The not-quite turn-based, not quite real-time battle system can be confusing to a player just starting out in the game. The designers were not sure whether they wanted to make an Action game or an adventure game.
#2. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
SquareEnix dominates the role-playing market on all of the Sony platforms, but Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is not an original for the system. It is a port of the original game. As the title suggests, the player takes on the role of the Valkyrie and must collect souls for Odin in order to build up her power before the game ends. She only has a limited amount of time to accomplish this. A wise player must use careful time management to complete Valkyrie Profile successfully.
#3. Phantasy Star Portable
Sega introduced gamers to the Phantasy Star universe. Phantasy Star II showed us a star system filled with anime themes and monster. Menaces in PS II included mad supercomputers, an ancient evil, monsters overrunning settlements, and non-threatening talking robots. Alfa Systems licensed the Sega name for the unrelated Phantasy Star Universe
Critics did not like the grinding required by Phantasy Star Portable. The unique weapon learning system provides different ways to play the game. Its class system lets you play through the same content in a different way, giving it increased replay value. The storyline may not be unique, but Alfa Systems got the feel of the setting right. All of the Phantasy Star games, with the exception of Phantasy Star III, are a must for a game player who is into anime.
#4. Top PSP Role Playing Game: Star Ocean Evolution
The box of this PSP role-playing game may trick the user into thinking it will be a standard science fiction offering. This hopeful illusion is soon shattered when a person reads the back of the box. After the ship the main character is on lands on a new world, the game switches to a more traditional fantasy mode.
While the idea of blending science fiction and fantasy this way comes from Anne Mcaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, the plot is carried off in an entertaining fashion and you end up caring about the fate of the characters. Star Ocaen: Second Evolution role playing game may not be at the top of a gamer’s wish list, but it is worth checking out.
#5. Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance seems more like a fighting game than a role-playing game. Characters do improve in Ultimate Alliance, but the improvement is a very small part of the game. Despite the label the developers gave to the genre, it would not be wrong to place this game in the fighting game genre.
Despite it being more of a fighting game, Ultimate Alliance should appeal to the type of gamer who enjoys console rpgs. Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance answer important questions like, “Can Wolverine Beat the Incredible Hulk?” (Tony Stark seems to be unable to invent a rage-reducing ray that will increase his chances against the big green guy, however.)
