I purchased a new game system today! The PSP, the poor stepchild of the handheld world (well, except for the N-Gage, who the hell had one of those.) Not for a particularly good reason, but because I knew that I would need one eventually, when the updated release of Persona 3 hits the PSP in the States, and I’m already digging my purchase. I don’t know why I didn’t consider it before I heard of P3P, because it’s a beautiful, elegant machine, much nicer than the DS in turns of performance and usability. I guess it just got drowned out by the mass appeal, and the games suffer for it.
But it is also the better system for RPGs, in my opinion, after a couple of hours of trying it out. The controls mirror a handheld controller better than a DS does, and it’ll be easier to use in public for sure, without having to get out a stylus or be willing to blow into my machine like a moron. Not to mention that I can download Final Fantasy VII off the network. Exciting.
Anyway, I picked up a few titles so that I have something to do while I wait until July. One is Persona, the first game in the series that I love so damn much. I got through about 15 minutes of that to get a general feel, only to get a bit bored. The movies are fantastic, very surreal and crisp, but the actual gameplay looks like it came from, well, 1996. I’ll play more in the future, I’m sure, my attention span for the new shiny just couldn’t muscle through the thick RPG plotting.
Something that could hold my attention was 30 Second Hero, mainly because the game lasts less than a minute. It’s a quick RPG in which you have a really fast timer in order to complete the objectives, moving quickly across the field to get to the dark lord crypt and kill him before time runs out. It’s a clever concept, although I imagine I’m going to get really bored of the credits here soon, as they roll them after the end of each adventure. It also has a tendency to zoom in on the sprite-inspired graphics, which looks kinda stupid.The guys who sold me the system also handed me a card for a free browser game, Legends of Zork. I figured, why the hell not, it’s not like there are a couple other browser games that are eating up my time. So I sign up, and enter the special code they give me, and then start playing only to realize that I’ve played this game before! I don’t remember what it was, but the playstyle was identical to a piece of shit browser game I played a while ago. Every encounter you roll a percentile dice to try and get above a number, and you have to keep upgrading equipment in order to be effective. There’s no skill involved, no reasonable strategy, no choice. Just hoping you get the best rolls, and pay the people money whenever you want to do better. Ick. But, a chance to get a bunch of free games, so I’ll play for a bit.
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