I'm not going to be picking it up, but from what I've heard: good ideas, subpar execution.

Final Fantasy Tactics? It's nothing like that. It's an mmorpg / rpg / hack an slash combat hybrid.

thecreechxxx

In the main Ragnarok games, yes. And on the Vita game, yes. But this is a strategy game for the PSP akin to the aforementioned Final Fantasy Tactics.

I know that this game is probably one of those "under the radar" games but if you love RPGs,

I highly, highly, HIGHLY Recommend the game Jeanne D'Arc.

Probably one of the best RPGs I have ever played on the psp, nope scratch that, in my life.:shock:

Yeah I said it.:cool:

You should check it out when you have the chance :)

pspitus

I would not recommend this. Since you've already played Tactics Ogre and FFT this would be a step backwards. For a beginner it would be okay. But it is simplistic and forgiving to a fault. It feels like a SRPG for dummies, to the point where it almost takes out the "s" standing for strategy. Then you are just left with an RPG with good production values, but characters and a story that are a bit lackluster in comparison to some of the psp's best offerings. I see praise for this game from some people, and I just don't get it. Unless a person has never played a srpg this game just doesn't cut it. It feels watered down, playing this would be a step backwards for those who have played Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Disgaea, Wild Arms, Yggdra Union, or others.

[QUOTE="chaosclown17"]Crisis Core looked a little to much on the action side for my tastes. I have never really played a MGS game. I think if I was going to get one it would be the collection for PS3. I am not so much in to racing games. I got NFS as a gift and it was fun enough. No aspirations to pick up another. Thanks for the reccomendations. Granpire

Yeah, I've heard from many people that Crisis Core has one of the best endings in video game history.

[QUOTE="dsrules13"]

There aren't any great dungeon crawls on the PSP that I know of, at least in the vein of Diablo. But if you're into a turn-based style dungeon crawl there are a couple options.

Probably the best action rpg game with loot on the PSP that I can think of is Ys. It's not dungeon based but the gameplay is similar. Many people like Seven, but the other most popular one is Oath in Felghana. I would go with that one over Seven as I didn't care for the switching of party members in Seven.

I see you've played a few excellent strategy RPGs like Tactics Ogre and FFT. Maybe give one of the two Disgaea games a go? They're not for everyone, but if you like strategy rpgs than I recommend them strongly.

chaosclown17

Yeah, Disgaea ditches the war style of games like Jeanne D'arc, Tactics Ogre, and FFT. It's a little more offbeat with its humor and type of world it takes place in, but if you like SRPGs it's incredibly deep.

What did you think about the possibility of Ys or a turn-based dungeon crawl?

There is one game I recommend you check into. It's called Z.H.P. It is a mix between a roguelike and a SRPG. I've never played it but I've seen things about it. Look it up on metacritic or youtube, it got some excellent reviews. It's metacritic score is an 81, which is superb.

There aren't any great dungeon crawls on the PSP that I know of, at least in the vein of Diablo. But if you're into a turn-based style dungeon crawl there are a couple options.

Probably the best action rpg game with loot on the PSP that I can think of is Ys. It's not dungeon based but the gameplay is similar. Many people like Seven, but the other most popular one is Oath in Felghana. I would go with that one over Seven as I didn't care for the switching of party members in Seven.

I see you've played a few excellent strategy RPGs like Tactics Ogre and FFT. Maybe give one of the two Disgaea games a go? They're not for everyone, but if you like strategy rpgs than I recommend them strongly.

[QUOTE="dsrules13"]

[QUOTE="LordTrexGuy"]

If you noticed, I said Rayman was far better than any JRPG and not bad at all. And LBP does have more work put into it than Persona. LBP is all 3D with a level creator and tons of levels online. Disgaea on the other hand is full 2D, and Persona is seemingly without any effort put into its combat. Turn-based combat is just an excuse for laziness of devs. It's lazy because all you do is stand there until you see a move with a fancy name. You select this name and a cheap animation of a guy thrusting his weapon into the air randomly plays. Then you see big numbers telling you how much dmg. you dealt with that unattached sword blow. Real time combat requires more thinking. Take MHFU for an example, where charging your greatsword at the correct angle and distance requires more strategy than selecting the move which is likely to deal most damage. And in real-time combat, anything can happen compared to animation locked fights.

LordTrexGuy

I did notice you said Rayman is good, but by your logic all 2D games are lazy and therefore Rayman is as well. But besides that, LBP does not have more work put in. You mentioned a level creator and online sharing. That is user created content, not dev created content. So the levels you get are not a product of work by the devs. And if you take that away you get some levels and a level creator. Woo-hoo.

To say that action rpgs take more strategy is simply laughable. Many are mindless hack and slash button mashers, with some obvious exceptions. To say Skyrim requires more thought than Disgaea or Tactics Ogre is wrong, they are "strategy rpgs". My little cousin can play Skyrim, its not that complex. He sure as heck can't play Disgaea. Just to clarify, thought, I did immensely enjoy Skyrim. Skyrim does have lots of good systems such as skill trees, and so to compare any game to it is unfair, whether a fellow ARPG or JRPG or SRPG. But its gameplay is still simplistic, in general I enjoy turn-based games more. Turn based games allow for more strategy and more complex systems. Sure turn-based games repeat animations, but so do action rpgs. You have the same slashing motion every time. And the same animation when you use a magic spell over and over. So its not all that different, 3D graphics just make it look fancy. And so it seems that your problem is rooted in the aesthetics, not the actual gameplay. It may come across as boring to you because it isn't frantic and high-paced, but it just a different style that allows for thought.

Skyrim does have terrible combat and doesn't set a high standard, but what about Monster Hunter? That series has amazing combat. There is also Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. There is a ton of other games with real time combat much better than Skyrim. If your cousin could play Skyrim easily, it's because that game has no combat strategy. I bet he, or you for that matter, won't be able to play Dark Souls, it requires a hell lot of more thinking than Disgaea or Persona. Even Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is tough for beginners, unlike turn-based games where you instantly know which move looks cool and does a lot of damage.

One more thing, have you ever played Castle Crashers? Are there any similar games on the PSP, with similar style and gameplay?

I have actually played Dark Souls and I did enjoy it, one of the most refreshing games this gen. I was surprised to see Demon Souls got a sequel. I really wanted to play the first but I don't have a PS3. I'm surprised how well it sold. I would think most people would just give up. So yes, I am able to play it. But I actually find it as an exception to rule, as its difficulty almost demands strategy. Whereas other action rpgs without that level of difficulty don't require nearly as much strategy. If you took away that factor it wouldn't be quite as strategic, but still more so than most.

I actually have played a lot of action rpgs on consoles, but I find them less than ideal on handhelds. I do enjoy the genre quite a bit, I do recognize the strategy involved with Dark Souls, but I think that in general turn-based games require more strategy. As I said there are exceptions, but in general APRGs are not as thought-provoking.

As far as Monster Hunter, the combat is pretty nice. I played I believe the second Freedom game. But because of the wonky camera and long missions that I don't find ideal for handheld games, I didn't see the game through very far. I haven't played Dragon's Dogma because the pawn system turned me off. I did play Kingdoms of Amalur and to my surprise, didn't like it. I found the combat to mainly just rely on flow and after a while I found it boring. And no, I haven't played Castle Crashers. I'm aware of what it is, but I don't play a lot of downloadable games.

Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days.

[QUOTE="dsrules13"][QUOTE="LordTrexGuy"]

I simply cannot understand why someone would like Persona. I never complained about sprites, isn't Super Mario Bros also a sprite-based game? I love it. But turn-based combat is something completely different. It's a lack of effort on the dev's part to create good combat. Most of these games have the same animation for almost every move, its just that the moves have different names. If it is so difficult for them to make good combat, they should rather stop making games or go pacifist. Talking about item levels in Disgaea, yes, you can see a number magically increasing next to an item and this number is the stage world, but in Skyrim, you can turn around an object to see it in full 3D and enchanting it gives it a unique shader too, which imo, is much more interesting than seeing an icon change. And lets compare it to a platformer. Disgaea may give you a million hours playtime, but I would rather love just an hour with something like LittleBigPlanet where more work has been put in. And if the JRPGs absolutely require to made in sprites, why don't the devs try to at least make them look good?

And Rayman Origins is by Ubisoft who are not Japanese. They put at least some effort in trying to polish their work, unlike JRPG devs, who just want quick cash from cheap games, using the same animations and recycling the same ideas over and over.

LordTrexGuy

If you noticed, I said Rayman was far better than any JRPG and not bad at all. And LBP does have more work put into it than Persona. LBP is all 3D with a level creator and tons of levels online. Disgaea on the other hand is full 2D, and Persona is seemingly without any effort put into its combat. Turn-based combat is just an excuse for laziness of devs. It's lazy because all you do is stand there until you see a move with a fancy name. You select this name and a cheap animation of a guy thrusting his weapon into the air randomly plays. Then you see big numbers telling you how much dmg. you dealt with that unattached sword blow. Real time combat requires more thinking. Take MHFU for an example, where charging your greatsword at the correct angle and distance requires more strategy than selecting the move which is likely to deal most damage. And in real-time combat, anything can happen compared to animation locked fights.

I did notice you said Rayman is good, but by your logic all 2D games are lazy and therefore Rayman is as well. But besides that, LBP does not have more work put in. You mentioned a level creator and online sharing. That is user created content, not dev created content. So the levels you get are not a product of work by the devs. And if you take that away you get some levels and a level creator. Woo-hoo.

To say that action rpgs take more strategy is simply laughable. Many are mindless hack and slash button mashers, with some obvious exceptions. To say Skyrim requires more thought than Disgaea or Tactics Ogre is wrong, they are "strategy rpgs". My little cousin can play Skyrim, its not that complex. He sure as heck can't play Disgaea. Just to clarify, thought, I did immensely enjoy Skyrim. Skyrim does have lots of good systems such as skill trees, and so to compare any game to it is unfair, whether a fellow ARPG or JRPG or SRPG. But its gameplay is still simplistic, in general I enjoy turn-based games more. Turn based games allow for more strategy and more complex systems. Sure turn-based games repeat animations, but so do action rpgs. You have the same slashing motion every time. And the same animation when you use a magic spell over and over. So its not all that different, 3D graphics just make it look fancy. And so it seems that your problem is rooted in the aesthetics, not the actual gameplay. It may come across as boring to you because it isn't frantic and high-paced, but it just a different style that allows for thought.

[QUOTE="dsrules13"]

[QUOTE="LordTrexGuy"]

I agree with you about WoW and COD being cheap, both developed to rip off customers of their money but about Capcom, even on-disc DLC beats anime games any time. The reason JRPGs are so cheap is because they are stale now. Nobody likes to see big-eyed, spike haired dudes (which according to Japan devs are handsome) going around a generic fantasy world killing dogs from hell and fight in turns. Mario and Pokemon, on the other hand are still expensive because they contain characters which the whole world loves. Seriously, I would rather flick channels to Animax and watch something there rather than pay $20 and play some boring sh!t. If you still do love turn-based sprite games, then it's time my friend that you moved on to something into which more effort has been poured.

LordTrexGuy

Just because you have a different taste doesn't mean mine or Ovirew's is wrong. And not all JRPGs are traditional, I have trouble getting through some of the more traditional offerings such as Dragon Quest IV. But games like Persona take a fresher take on the genre. I like the turn-based system. In a lot of games it takes strategic planning, unlike the hack-and-slash of action rpgs with the 3D graphics. And not just JRPGs have generic fantasy worlds. Look at Skyrim or Oblivion. Sure they have many unique things to them, but are very generic in the monsters, characters, architecture, items, etc.

Just because they have sprites doesn't mean they have less effort poured in then any other game, I don't understand why this is difficult to understand. They are a different style, not necessarily a worse style. JRPGs put stock in different aspects of the game. Think about everything that must be designed in an RPG. Then look at how long they are, often 30-40+ hours. I'll give you an example, Disgaea. It's a strategy rpg with sprites released on PS2 with mutiple sequels, two of them ported to the PSP. You can level up your characters to 9,999 if you want to, there are over 100 classes of characters to choose from, there are tons of unlockable stages and bosses piled on to the main storyline, and every single item in the game has something like a 100 stage world. I'll repeat that, every item in the game has a 100 stage world if you want to level it up. Plenty of people spend in excess of 250 hours with the game, but it offers almost infinite content. So if the game wants to use sprites, that shows no lack of effort to me.

Compare that to a platformer. Most will take you less than 10 hours. And you often have one or maybe two playable characters.

And speaking of sprite games and platformers, look at Rayman Origins. Some of the most beautiful animated sprites I've ever seen. And it is critically acclaimed, received extremely high scores and was praised for its graphics, praised.

I simply cannot understand why someone would like Persona. I never complained about sprites, isn't Super Mario Bros also a sprite-based game? I love it. But turn-based combat is something completely different. It's a lack of effort on the dev's part to create good combat. Most of these games have the same animation for almost every move, its just that the moves have different names. If it is so difficult for them to make good combat, they should rather stop making games or go pacifist. Talking about item levels in Disgaea, yes, you can see a number magically increasing next to an item and this number is the stage world, but in Skyrim, you can turn around an object to see it in full 3D and enchanting it gives it a unique shader too, which imo, is much more interesting than seeing an icon change. And lets compare it to a platformer. Disgaea may give you a million hours playtime, but I would rather love just an hour with something like LittleBigPlanet where more work has been put in. And if the JRPGs absolutely require to made in sprites, why don't the devs try to at least make them look good?

And Rayman Origins is by Ubisoft who are not Japanese. They put at least some effort in trying to polish their work, unlike JRPG devs, who just want quick cash from cheap games, using the same animations and recycling the same ideas over and over.