I wanna get into non Nintendo stuff. What are some good PSP games in generals.
Pretty open to genres
Mainly action games, also open to RPG games and shooter games
Any genre really
In no particular order:
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Half minute hero: quirky, quick, hilarious, and a bit stressful at times. It’s a perfect mobile title.
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Disgaea: infinitely scaling/playable strategy rpg. You can power through the game pretty quickly, or take your time and slowly become a god so strong that even friendly healing spells miss you.
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Patapon (2 and 3): rhythm based game about using drum commands to get your little dudes to complete missions.
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Dj max (any/all):dance dance revolution for your thumbs. Korean game featuring Korean artists. One of my favorite continuing series.
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Monster hunter (freedom through portable 3rd): action rpg all about them boss fights. Kill monsters, use their parts to hunt tougher monsters in a game all about incremental progression, inventory management, and learning movement patterns to git gud.
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Patchwork hero: do you like the dig dug stages where you slice off bits of the land to drop enemies into the water? This is that except they are airships and you must defend your homeland
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Lumines (1 and 2): musical game about matching colors and making combos in a tetris-esque style game. The devs went on to make tetris effect.
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Cladun 2: so I heard you like action rpgs, infinite scaling, pixel art, and enough grindy systems that even my power tools get jealous. Enter Cladun.
I’m wondering if I missed any I spent a disproportionate amount of time on… But these were the first ones to pop into my head.
Edit: I am finally home so I can look over my games… and I definitely forgot a couple.
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LOCO ROCO! It’s a very simple platformer in which you guide your little dudes through stages by using the L and R to tilt the stage. You collect fruits to increase your dude into a larger dude, or several dudes, depending on the situation.
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N+ Be a platforming Ninja, die a lot… like a lot a lot. It’s… simple and hard and so satisfying to clear one set of 4 stages at a time. You can even make your own stages if you’re feeling up to the challenge.
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The PSP was a fantastic system for racing games, despite the lack of an analog throttle. If you want to get into this genre, this console is a great starting point:
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Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast: Perhaps the best version of Outrun to date and an ideal game for people not that used to the genre. Easy to learn, hard to master. It’s gorgeous to look at, the arcade-style gameplay loop is perfect for a portable system and so much fun that you don’t really mind if you lose.
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FlatOut: Head On: A very different take on the arcade racing genre. This one blends challenging stock car racing with over the top minigames that involve drivers being used as virtual bowling balls. It all makes sense, just try it out, if you don’t mind the generally high difficulty. Head On is a near 1:1 port of Flatout 2/Ultimate Carnage, just slightly simplified visually to run on the system.
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Colin McRae Rally 2005 Plus: As the name implies, this is an ever so slightly reworked port of the PC and console game. It’s near 1:1, with only some modest visual downgrades. This is where Codemasters’ rally games peaked prior to Dirt Rally - and unlike Dirt Rally, which is a bonafide racing horror game, this title is accessible to players of all skill levels, with only players who are really into simulations being miffed about the lack of per-tire simulation. Career progression from modest FWD cars to spicy Group B monsters is absolutely exemplary and tracks are a delight, both visually and in terms of design.
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WipeOut Pure: This might just be the best game in the series. Perfect controls, perfect track design, perfect career mode. The only flaw is that on original hardware, the frame rate isn’t always stable. I would highly recommend Pure as an entry into the series.
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MotorStorm: Arctic Edge: One of those “concession games” for older systems as the new generation was already out, releasing for PS2 and PSP - but it’s actually more fun than the mainline games, at least in my opinion. It makes perfect use of the hardware, the vastly different vehicle classes and their strengths and weaknesses are tons of fun, just like in the mainline series, and the track design is wonderfully vertical. It also looks magnificent, which seems to be a trend among PSP racing games, now that I think of it. The developers were so confident in the tech of this title that they included a photo mode, which I don’t think all that many PSP games have.
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Gran Turismo: Everyone expected this to be a mobile port of Gran Turismo 4, but it’s not. While it retains the presentation, large roster of licensed cars, real-world and fictional tracks and highly refined simcade driving physics, there is no conventional campaign. Instead, you create your own racing events and can only buy from a small selection of cars each virtual day. It’s an interesting concept. Do try it out just for the wow-factor of having a game this photorealistic on the PSP and perhaps stay for the fun you can create yourself. If you lack the creativity, people have created random event generators: https://sites.google.com/site/gtpspcampaigngenerator/ Gran Turismo is also to this day - and someone correct me if I’m wrong - the only mobile racing game that features a full 1:1 recreation of the iconic Nürburging, which alone makes it worth playing.
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Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition: Classic Midnight Club on the go, but this time with customization. What’s not to love? Controls are so accurate, every other arcade racer will feel sluggish by comparison, it looks great (again), the cities are huge, there’s tons to do, it has just the right difficulty, challenging without being unfair and it perfectly encompasses this bygone era of early to mid 2000s street racing, even better than any Need for Speed of the time, in my opinion. Like all of the Midnight Club games, this one is also great for just randomly driving around without any goals in mind.
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Test Drive Unlimited: Speaking of randomly driving around, this game represents perhaps the very peak of this idea. Shrinking down the entire island of Oahu at 1:1 scale with its real-world street layout (and some creative liberty in regards to buildings), this one is truly a miracle of optimization. The result may not be the prettiest racing game on the system, but the bouncy, responsive driving physics - which so closely mimic that of Gran Turismo 2 that I’m convinced they straight-up copied them - more than make up for any visual shortcomings. This also means that this cut down version of the 360/PS3/PC game (visuals, some vehicles and customization) is more fun to play than the big version, which has comparatively flat driving physics that straddle the line between arcade and simulation nowhere near as well. If you like the idea of living the idea of living the life on a Hawaiian island, buying homes and cars to fill their garages with, racing down long coastal straights and maneuvering through twisty mountain roads, then this might be right up your alley.
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METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER
Seconding. It’s rather easy since the levels have to be so small for the PSP, but goddamn it it’s a fun game.
Throwing in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (has an English patch), Rengoku 2 (sort of action looter dungeon crawler where youre a robot and the loot replaces your arms and head and shit with weapons).
SOCOM tactical strike is one I rather enjoy, the Armored Core games as well.
I wanna get into metal gear, where do I start?
Big metal gear fan here, prepare for what might be a bit much:
There are a couple of good startig points depending on what you as a gamer want, and I’ll try to explain them without spoiling things because figuring out MGS is part of the fun (I’m quite proud that I have an encyclopedic level knowledge of this stupid series)
Metal Gear 1 (MSX) - Either grab an emulator or a copy of MGS3 remake and you can play the very first game in the series. It’d get reconned massively but playing it still gives you the info you need to understand basically all the background story. But, tbh, it’s not a very fun game and if you don’t want to play it having someone like me explain the story to you would work just as well
Metal Gear Solid (PSX) - The first 3D game in the series (solid) and where a lot of us started. Probably the most common starting point and I would likely recommend it as the best. Won’t say too much cuz it’s better to go in blind.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - The earliest game in the timeline, so starting here with Naked Snake (big boss) would let you see the series unfold chronologically, but you’ll also have plot points from later games spoiled and explained before you get to them, ruining the effect somewhat I’d say.
MGS1 is likely the best bet. MG1 is good if you can handle what it is, worth giving it a shot at least. MGS3 is good, too, if you’re more concerned than the one 5about understanding the series without needing to replay the games after beating them all so you can see how shit connected.
As for which games you need to play, some aren’t canon, so just avoid: MG1&2 on the NES, Twin Snakes remake on GC, the GBA game, and Acid! The details of Portable Ops aren’t canon, but the general story is, that one is up to you if you wanna play it, I think peace walker is so much better that it’s a skip, personally.
Always down to answer questions or discuss MGS if you need it, shits amazing
Which platform is the first one, the only mg game I played is the GBC one, and well, its either very hard or I suck at it
I listed the consoles next to the games (forgot MGS3, which is PS2 originally)
MSX is an old Japanese computer, and why I recommended emulation or the copy that comes with MGS3s remakes
PSX is the original PlayStation
If you found the GBC one hard then the very first Metal Gear on MSX will be even worse. MGS1 shouldn’t be too bad, though.
Yea, prolly wind bother with msx
You’re not missing much. I would honestly just stick with the order in which they were released, starting with Metal Gear Solid 1 on the ps1. It holds up well.
I personally disliked mgs2 a lot, but found 3 to be fantastic. 4 I also disliked for story which just draaaags, and 5 has the most fluid gameplay, which I did find fun, but the story was pretty meh on that one, and it ends pretty jarringly since they fired the creator mid production.
If you want just the highlights, play 1, 3, and 5.
The two PSP games are chronologically after mgs3, so I’d recommend playing that first to get the most out of them.
Mgs5 is basically a direct sequel to peacewalker on the PSP.
I also recommend Metal Gear Solid 1, it’s a fantastic game and it works well on PSP!
Patapon
The soundtrack to that game got burned in my head forever…
Pata pata pata pon. Dunka dunka dunka don. Pon pon pata pon.
Same for me, I have only beaten the first title, and I struggled a lot, I think the latter titles are even harder… Oh boy.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is an obvious one.
I should play ff
This is a beautiful game, kind of sad that my attention typically lost around Chapter 2.
Daxter and MediEvil Resurrection are two of my favorites.
Sir Daniel Fortescue back from the dead once agaaaiun.
Your mean resident evil? Never heard of MediEvil
It’s a remake of an older Playstation 1 game. It gets a lot of hate but I honestly think it’s very charming.
K
Weird that nobody mentioned the GTA games on PSP
Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories are absolutely awesome GTA games somehow squeezed onto the PSP
They have a crisp cubish feel which was fun, I remember playing around with mods
Downloaded vice stories, is there an order to play them
they’re just prequels really, I can’t remember anything groundbreaking. It’d /maybe/ be better to play 3 and vice city first, but it’s mostly just callbacks. Liberty city stories protag is just a quest giver. Neither super spoils the other but I might be wrong.
K
I enjoyed Metal Gear Ac!d games which were a sort of card game / turn based spin off in the metal gear world.
I’m currently playing Persona 3 Portable so if you are into those kind of games it is pretty great.
I think someone else mentioned it but Valkyria Chronicles is worth checking out, another turn based delight.
Persona is a series I’d like to get into, where do I start?
Personally, if platform doesn’t matter Id say 4 golden, 3 Reload, then 5 Royal. Purely from a mechanical and dungeon standpoint I think you will progress the most naturally from worst to best from there
4 Golden is now the oldest “modern” Persona game, I personally feel that 1 and 2 are just a little too old for you to get as much out of them as 3 forward, but that’s my take, if you’re very tolerant of older games you may wanna start older. Each entry has an independent story and characters, so I don’t think that order matters as much as the progression of quality of life and dungeon mechanics.
I haven’t played 1 or 2 personally but would echo what is being said here for the rest.
I played p4g first and fell in love with it. P3P is pretty similar really but with slightly less QoL things going on but I don’t find it too much of a downgrade to be honest.
Either way each one has its own story then with similarities like in spell names and the like, similar to how final fantasy is.
K, so it’s a start anywhere series? That helps :3
I’d say so, my order was 4, 5, 3, and I love it all the same
Making a new comment off my other reply because I have more niche recommendations: Carnage Hearts EXA, you program robots to fight each other, actually quite in depth.
Good RPGs: Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, Legend of Mana (originally PS1)
Phantasy Star Portable 2: pretty decent PSP version of the phantasy Star online game.
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, kind of a weird “fighting” game, very unique mechanics, but really fun, lots of fan service, and tons of really really excellent music from across the final fantasy series
SoulCalibur Broken Destiny: solid entry in the series even on portable
And Castlevania Symphony of the Night (originally PS1)
The Parasite Eve game on the PSP was pretty good. Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man Powered Up were both good too.
Every PSP I own must have the following games ready to go at any time:
-Lumines
-Rock Band Unplugged
-Patapon 2
-WipEout Pulse
-Final Fantasy: Crystal Defenders (gorgeous small tower defense game, but with enough strategy behind it for hours of play)What are the others? What’s lumines?
So a Tetris like puzzle game? Sounds nice
It’s a pretty great game. Really good music and one of those gameplay loops that is easy to pick up and difficult to master. If you like Tetris and the like, Lumines is worth your attention.
I’m not one for tetris like puzzle games, but I eventually got sucked in and spent 60 hours with the game. It’s really good!
It’s really about the music.
Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?
It’s not amazing, but as far as side-scrolling platformers go, it was fairly compelling.
Also the PSP can play PS1 games, so you have access to a pretty big library of classics.
Cool :3
I don’t know if I could call it good, exactly, but one unique concept that I haven’t really seen captured anywhere else was the Dungeon Maker series on PSP, that allowed you to build dungeons that you would then explore/fight/loot, to give yourself funds to build out further/deeper, ad infinitum. It was clunky, controlled pretty stiffly and basic as ARPGs go, and after a certain point you kind of went on autopilot, but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi to it that I really quite enjoyed, especially if you planned out your builds. I think a similar title was released on the DS but it was turn-based and not particularly well-executed.
Maybe not your speed genre-wise, but Final Fantasy Tactics has a version for the PSP. Goated game.
Are action RPGs okay? If so, Ys: Oath in Felghana. It’s a remake of Ys III, which is also available on other platforms. However! The PSP version has features that other platforms do not, the main two being voice acting (other ports just have beeps when text is displayed) and a whole new mechanic, which is reminiscent of Final Fantasy’s Limit Breaks.
One potential caveat, though: this is probably the hardest entry in the series. Fights are hard, but never cheap. If you’re okay with that, you should have a good time.
Sounds fun :3
Aaaa choice paralysis
