The Fruits of My Labors - Finally got a new handheld

[Steve]

That eighty hours of OT I put in during October was good for something.

BTW, anyone know if these things can be set up to record videos of gameplay and export them to a comp or something?

[Losonti Tokash]

My sympathies for the lapse of judgment that caused you to buy this thing.

[Stark]

You want to record videos from a PSP? ???

[Steve]

Was curious. Wondered if I could make videos of cool parts from FFIV and such.

[DaveJB]

You can get A/V cables and record videos from it that way, but you'd have to make sure it's a PSP-2000 or 3000 model. The earliest versions of the PSP didn't support any form of video output, so if you've got one of those, you're borked.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I hope you didn't purchase that PSP used, since they're so cheap to come by new nowadays.

[UCBooties]

Good call on the PSP if you are (obviously) a jrpg fan. At this point in the life cycle there are a ton of great games for the system. Aside from the Final Fantasy and Kindgom Hearts stuff you have picked up I can recommend Tactics Ogre and the 2 Disgaea ports. Both Disgaea ports added a huge amount of features over their original PS2 versions and the PSP's sleep mode makes it much easier to get through the item worlds because you don't have to devote hours at a time to getting through them.

If you like Monster Hunter type games there are a few out on PSP. Freedom Unite probably has the largest following but I also had a lot of fun with Gods Eater Burst. Lord of Arcana is an interesting mash up between monster hunter and God of War (QTEs and more combo based fighting) but lacks the polish of the Monster Hunter franchise.

All of Sting's US releases have been ported to the PSP by Atlus. They are each pretty different and I think Riviera and Knights in the Nightmare are favorite. Riviera is essentially a visual novel with a turn based RPG combat system thrown in. The combat system is entirely item based and ends up being pretty deep as the game goes on. The art is wonderful but check your tolerence for Harem Anime shenanigans before you pick it up. Knights in the Nightmare is a strategy RPG/bullet hell mash up and it works much better than it sounds. Tone wise, it is much more serious and over all pretty dark. Sting's other two games, Ygdra Union and Hexyz Force (card based strategy game and traditional RPG respectively) are both enjoyable but much more generic and less memorable. Thanks to the large, crisp screen, all 4 games show off Sting's distinct art style better than the DS versions.

If you like action games, both God of War games are quite good. These were recently ported over to the PS3 for HD so that might be the way to go if you have the PS3. If not, the games are very polished and a lot of fun. They are shorter than the console entries in the series but at this point you should be able to find them quite cheap.

Unfortunately shooters on the system are pretty hit or miss due to the lack of a second analog stick. I'd avoid first person shooters entirely, but a few 3rd person shooters have managed quite well. Both Syphon Filter games were a lot of fun and the Resistance title was made by the same developer. I have not played that but heard that it was also good. Finally, 3rd Birthday is pretty great and rewards multiple playthroughs. It does have a lot of fan service and melodrama though so be warned going in.

[Steve]

I hope you didn't purchase that PSP used, since they're so cheap to come by new nowadays.

Nope. It's new. I didn't see a point in a used one since it was just ten bucks cheaper at GameStop. Fresh, out of the box PSP 3000.

Aside from Justice League Heroes and Final Fantasy II I'm not sure what else I'll buy for it right now.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Aside from Justice League Heroes and Final Fantasy II I'm not sure what else I'll buy for it right now.

Well if you like JRPGs there's Persona 3 Portable.

[HeadCreeps]

Aside from Justice League Heroes and Final Fantasy II I'm not sure what else I'll buy for it right now.

Well if you like JRPGs there's Persona 3 Portable.

Seconded. Persona 3 on the PS2 was one of the better jRPGs out there on any console. P3P can have terrible sound effects and dramatically worse visuals and still be an excellent buy, and I'm not saying it has any of that. P3P has high enough ratings that the port is almost certainly a good one.

I played P3FES but not P3P.

[XaLEv]

No Final Fantasy Tactics?

[Steve]

FFT is also on the list of potentials. I've never played it before, certainly, but the PSP port has one thing going for it over the PS1 version: Balthier is a lot cooler than Cloud.

[HeadCreeps]

Cloud is slightly trolled upon in FFT because he has one of the most useless skill sets.

The original FFT has probably the most replay value out of any of the FF games. Quite a lot of gameplay depth is there for stat nerds like me to digest and it's easily moddable because of fan projects (though the PS1 version is much easier to mod than the PSP version afaik). It's got one of those medieval storylines like FF12, but unlike 12, the storyline actually goes somewhere and feels fleshed out, although it suffers from too many characters.

[Steve]

Hey! I liked FFXII's story.

And I picked up a pre-owned copy of FFT on PSP yesterday.

[HeadCreeps]

I didn't say the story was specifically bad. In my opinion, the middle to end stages were flat, as if the director hadn't finished that before he left the development team prematurely. After Matsuno left, they made the executive producer the main guy behind the laughably bad SaGa series. (ftr, I liked SaGa Frontier, but it's still laughably bad) Anyway, this is why I say it didn't go anywhere - the story has a beginning, but the middle to end stages look as if they were only glanced at before they went into production. The end events feel forced because most of the characters who show up in the end were poorly portrayed during the middle stages.

I'm surprised you would buy a preowned copy of FFT. Aren't new copies still $10 USD? Well whatever, hopefully your compulsion to disagree with the idiot on the internet calling FF12's story bad doesn't make you hate the story of FFT!

[Steve]

If they are I will be very unhappy, since I paid $15 for the pre-owned.

And given all I've heard good about FFT, don't worry, you haven't prejudiced me against it.

[HeadCreeps]

Well, I just checked Wal-Mart's website and it says FFT is 9 bucks and Crisis Core is at $10. Possibly others. That FFT case would be the greatest hits version.

I'm amazed to see FFX (ten! a what? 10 year old game?) on the PS2 is still for sale on their website.

[Steve]

WHen I checked Wal-Mart they didn't have any FFT titles.

And they still don't.

[HeadCreeps]

Well, they most certainly do have it.

It isn't as if saving a few dollars is a big deal, though.

[Steve]

Unfortunately, it's now listed as Not Available. Which is probably why it didn't come up in my use of the Wal-Mart search.

Anyway, completed FFIV again today. Zeromus took his ass-kicking as he usually does: Rydia nuking his ass repeatedly with Bahamut and a side order of Jump attacks, Thrown weapons, and the occasional slicing by Cecil's Ragnarok sword. Will have to try the new possible combinations of characters, though. Wonder if it'd make him even easier if I had Porom and Rosa on the team for double healing fun (and the occasional Holy). Also just finished the Interlude that was added to FFIV: Complete Collection. Wasn't a bad little side story, and both Edge and Rydia got to have Big Damn Heroes moments. And then the bad guy got Bahamut-spammed.

[Steve]

Finished KH BBS today (well, sans running it in Proud Mode to get the secret video... which I've already seen anyway). Dammit, I actually feel down, and I knew the ending was a Downer Ending and let myself get emotionally invested anyway.

Now, all I can say is... Dammit, SquareEnix, stop dicking around with that stupid Final Fantasy XIII tie-in and get working on Kingdom Hearts III!