Poor old PSP. You've had a hard life. Unappreciated in your own lifetime, it seems that you're actually home to some truly brilliant games, particularly if your user happens to be a fan of JRPGs like I am.
I've owned two PSPs over the years. Both have been somewhat underused. My first had a dinky memory stick that was far too small to download anything on to, but then this was in the days long before PlayStation Network anyway, so it wasn't an issue. I recall spending many long hours playing Lumines and Untold Legend: Brotherhood of the Blade on it when it first came out, being rather impressed at the large, bright screen and then-impressive visuals for a handheld; being rather less impressed at the amount of "ghosting" which occurred whenever anything moved or scrolled and the dead pixel just to the right of the centre of the screen.
Then I put it down for a bit and didn't pick it up again for a long time, except for on one memorable occasion when I was guesting on an Internet radio show with my friends Mike and Simon and "someone" had loaded porn onto the memory stick in question in order to distract the person who was talking at the time. (It worked.) Besides that, I didn't take much time to explore the growing library of games out there — I played Loco Roco briefly, for example, and very much appreciated its charming aesthetic, but never quite thought it was worth the money to pick up a copy myself.
I got poor, and ended up selling the PSP and its games to help pay a gas bill or something. I regretted it a bit, but then figured that I really wasn't using it that much.
I got a Nintendo DS and found a bunch of games on there that I took to — Ace Attorney, Hotel Dusk and numerous others captured my attention so much that my DS was, for a brief period, my most-used games system. I didn't think about the PSP for quite a long time, until I went to visit my friends Mark and Lynette in Canada, and Mark was talking about the bizarre Atlus strategy game based on R-Type, and I found myself desiring a PSP once again. I took a trip to my Canadian friends' friendly local game store and scored myself a cheap PSP-3000 with a copy of Ratchet and Clank (which I, err, still haven't played) and 1 GB memory card.
All was well for a little while. I picked up a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions and played that for a while, and R-Type Command proved interesting, though I didn't finish either of them. (I had previously finished Final Fantasy Tactics on PS1, I should add at this point, back when the translation meant the plot made even less sense than it does now.) Eventually, it got set aside once again in favour of Big Exciting Things on Xbox 360, PS3 and iPhone, which was just starting to hit its stride with awesome games by this point.
I held onto it this time, though. And I'm glad I did, because I can't help feeling that the device is enjoying something of a renaissance thanks, as it happens, to its offspring, the recently-released PlayStation Vita. Vita's connectivity means that it's dead easy to get online and download games to play — something which Sony got terribly wrong with the rather disastrous performance of the PSP Go, but which they seem to have a better grasp on now. Even better, the Vita plays the vast majority of the PSP back catalogue, though lacking a UMD drive, it's unable to play games on physical media.
As such, the PSP library has been enjoying renewed scrutiny, and it's becoming abundantly clear to many people that the PSP, a system often passed over and at times even ridiculed, is home to some fine games. Just one such example that I've blogged about recently is Corpse Party, and I have several other titles lined up to play in the near future.
I was tempted to pick up a Vita, but there's not really anything on it right now that interests me enough to blow a few hundred quid on it. (When Phantasy Star Online 2 and Persona 4: The Golden come out, however, things will be very different.) So instead I bought a 32GB memory stick for my PSP. That 1GB stick I had was fine for save games, but wasn't big enough to contemplate downloading games from PSN to, so I'd never really investigated in great detail. I figured it was time I took a look, though, so that's what I've been doing.
I'm glad I did. I'm finally getting the chance to discover the roots of the Persona series, for example. P3 and 4 are probably my favourite games of all time, so to see where the series came from with the PSP remakes of the PS1 originals is interesting — it helps that they're still decent games, too, though from my relatively limited experience with Persona 1 so far, not a patch on their PS2 descendants.
Then there's all manner of other great titles just waiting for me, too. The portable versions of Disgaea, for example. Tactics Ogre. Trails in the Sky (aka "TitS", which makes me giggle childishly every time I remember). The PS1 Final Fantasy games in my pocket. Ridge Racer Type 4 (which is still awesome). And all manner of other stuff, too.
It's for this reason that I really don't feel like I'm missing out by not playing Mass Effect 3. Because there's a very deep library of unexplored classics just waiting for me to dive in, and I intend to do so with aplomb over the course of the next few months. Couple that with a pile of PC and PS2 titles that I'm finally going to get around to playing thanks to our "Pile of Shame" challenge, and my immediate gaming future looks both rosy and cheap. Which is nice.
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Going backwards is underrated.
I love discovering "oldies but goodies"; my Wii oddly enough has been a fountain of pleasure when it comes to finding something you missed before or of the quirky variety. I don't think in terms of tech anymore, I'm often content with any game so long as it's entertaining.
Thanks for you ode to the PSP, it reminds me that I'm not alone who loves digging in the closet and finding a hidden gem. Even the ones who's acronym is TitS.
Hey Pete! Just wanted you to know that I saw the movie FINAL FANTASY – THE SPIRIT WITHIN on TV yesterday and it was WOW!!!! Fully animated 3D CG characters – not 3D so you have to wear glasses – just real the way CG characters are. I was rapt. It reminded me of AVATAR quite a bit and I wasn't surprised to see the Japanese connections nor the George Lucas one in the Credits. There certainly was a lot of shooting – but I could see how it was warranted. So I imagine that the FINAL FANTASY Games are the same – and I gather they are RPGs? Now I am just wondering if I might after all have a look at one – maybe I can pick one up at one of the Game Shop 50%off sales. Can you play them using your Mouse? Mouse and Keyboard combo? Or do you need a Joystick/Console to play them?
The Spirits Within is a fascinating movie. It totally tanked at the box office, but I believe DVD etc sales have helped make up for that since. It's certainly impressive to watch.
In terms of its connection to the Final Fantasy game series, it's more thematic than anything else. In the earlier games in particular, there's a lot of takes on various mythologies, stuff like Gaia Theory and all manner of other things. They're typically very strong in story, but they also involve a lot of fighting. This takes the form of "turn-based" battles, though, where your reflexes are less important than your strategy and being able to react to situations. There tends to be less action-packed shooting in a Final Fantasy game, and often a greater focus on stylish swordplay, pyrotechnic magic effects and ludicrously over the top special attacks. They're usually something of a spectacle — my girlfriend enjoys watching them despite having no desire to play them!
So far as trying one for yourself, you'd need a games console to do that. The entire series spans from the Nintendo Entertainment System from the 1980s right up to the current-generation PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Obviously the early ones are somewhat limited by the technology, but from about the fourth game onwards they started to show many people that telling a compelling, lengthy story in a game was possible.
The series did briefly make an appearance on PC in the late '90s — both Final Fantasy VII and VIII were released for Windows computers — but these titles are incredibly difficult to find now. People are holding out for a rerelease over on popular retrogaming site Good Old Games — who have an agreement with the publisher Square Enix — but nothing, as yet, has surfaced. Avoid Final Fantasy XI and XIV — both of these are available for PC, but they're online games rather than the story-centric titles the franchise is more traditionally known for.
The series is one of those "mainstays" of gaming. It's endured through five generations of console hardware, and not many other series can boast that. It's moved with the times and has never been afraid to reinvent itself as time passes. These reinventions haven't always been for the better — the most recent two entries in the series have been relatively poorly received compared to the older titles, for example — but it's one we'll likely see for a good while yet.
WOW Thanks for that Pete. You really take the time to give valuable responses and it is much appreciated – for all my kidding around on my other comments today. If it is a console game – then maybe it is available on Wii – I'll check it out with my EBGames shop mate. I don't suppose if they do that it would be the FF VII or FF VIII. But I will see what I can find.
There is a Game Playing Cafe/Club/Shop/Premises kind of place near on e of the big shop ctres that I poked my nose into recently. I still thinking it might be the way to 'have a try' at joining in online gaming(?) At least I might learn the ropes there – plus see if I actually like it. Mind you I don't know when the hell I'll have time to fit it in. I have trouble fitting in writing the damn blogs – got heaps of notes for them on heaps of games I've tested but getting them written, set-up, plus pics, n published twice all takes time. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!
The pain in the upper back from sitting n typing just adds to the whole experience. No wonder I keep putting it off! Full marks to you for managing to blog EVERY DAY!