Okay, so, Sony stereotypes aside, September was likely a good month if you’re both a PSP owner and RPG lover such as myself. For four weeks straight, a new PSP RPG released that was able to catch my attention for each of those weeks. (Though one came after a second opinion.) This, to me, is a rare occurence, and really had me stretching my wallet for all of them.

So… what were the games that had me investing so much in the PSP recently?

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
For some, this would probably be “how typical.” For me, “how surprising.” I can humbly say that this is in fact the first time I had ever picked up a Kingdom Hearts game ever. (Except when I demoed Kingdom Hearts 2 very briefly at Disneyworld some four years ago now.) For a second, I have to forget about all of the rabid fanboys that this series produces and actually play a game. Since Birth By Sleep is a prequel to the entire series, I thought that it would be a good time to get into it. The game was already coming off of high player and editor reviews alike, and within an hour or so I could see why. The game, although not exactly like the other games in the series as I’ve been told, plays very well, has an interesting story, and looks pretty good for a PSP game. BBS has succeeded in making me want to try other games in the series… well… after hearing that 358/2 days was subpar, I will probably wait for the next Kingdom Hearts to hit on the 3DS

Phantasy Star Portable 2
Sharing the same abbreviation as the system is on, PSP2 could be overlooked if not just by the other games released before it, then also by the fact that Sega announced Phantasy Star Online 2 at TGS this year. That obviously didn’t stop me from picking it up. My friend had gotten me into the Phantasy Star series, starting with Online. Since then I had gone back and played the original turn-based games on the Master System and Genesis, but the Phantasy Star Universe games caught my eye, although it didn’t with some. Portable 2 expanded on a lot of the things that came out of Portable 1, all for the better. The game features online play, which seems like a rarity for PSP games nowadays, as well as bringing in some Universe traits as having a room you can customise and decorate. Also to the positive is the ability to block (if you have a shield) and having a single PP meter that regenerates, instead of having to manage PP for every weapon you’re using. It’s just fun all around.

Cladun: This is an RPG
What is Nippon Ichi without niche titles? Cladun is a 16-bit dungeon crawler-like game… with a twist. Aside from having your story character, you have the ability to create your own characters, right down to the pixel. Yes, you can create any character you like and even define the end boss. The game also features an very interesting powerup system, using the other characters you make to act as “shields” and power the main character up. This game can tend to be difficult at times, and can time some time getting used to, but all in all this game becomes an effective time waster.

Valkyria Chronicles II
How does the earliest game end up as my last game? I tried this out when the demo was first put up on PSN, hastily played it and couldn’t make any sense of anything. However, after reading about it quite a bit I decided to try it again, play it properly, and I ended up liking enough to buy it. Ever since then, I haven’t been able to put it down. Thing is, I’m not even that much into SRPGs, but Valkyria II just has so much going for it. It’s got warfare strategy. It’s got quirky characters that you’ll all get to know over time. It’s got… guns. (Okay, so guns doesn’t really mean much.) But really. It’s hard not to fall in love with the students that make up class G, and never have I played a game in where “grinding” (by repeating old missions) actually felt like I was doing something. You find ways to refine strategies, try different classes, see if you can try to beat each mission faster… It’s a rush. Although the story goes by month to month, you aren’t pressed for time, so it gives me all the reason to level up a bit, dive into each character’s story, and just keep me hooked. I think I might need help.

Probably the hardest thing out of all of these is balancing each of these titles. I don’t really put much time into my PSP at all, although Valkyria Chronicles II has changed that over the last couple of days, but a lot of the time I find myself wanting to play Birth By Sleep yet I know I’ve been neglecting Phantasy Star Portable 2. Always a problem when you’re a backlogger, I guess.

But who knows? Maybe I’ll end up getting through them all… some day.

Nintendo’s press conference was pretty much rattling off game after game after game, a lot of which the core gamer will enjoy.  There’s a full list of what they announced after the jump, but be warned, it’s LONG.

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii – Holiday 2009)
• Wii Fit Plus (Wii – Fall 2009)
• Wii Sports Resort with WiiMotionPlus (Wii – July 26th)
• PGA Tour 10 with WiiMotionPlus (Wii)
• Grand Slam Tennis with WiiMotionPlus (Wii)
• Virtua Tennis 2009 with WiiMotionPlus (Wii)
• Red Steel 2 (Wii) – Note that this game is going to be WiiMotionPlus exclusive.
• Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Wii)
• Some new Kingdom Hearts game that I wasn’t able to catch the name on. (DS)
• Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS – Fall 2009)
• Golden Sun DS (DS – 2010)
• Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion (DS)
• Cop: The Pursuit (DS)
• Style-Savvy (DS)
• Flipnote Studio a.k.a. Moving Memo (DSiWare – Summer 2009)
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (DSiWare – June 8th)
• WarioWare: Do It Yourself (DSiWare)
• DSi Camera Facebook functionality
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
• Wii Vitality Sensor (Wii)
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
• The Conduit (Wii – June)
• Resident Evil: The Dark Side Chronicles (Wii)
• Dead Space Extraction (Wii)
• Metroid: Other M (Wii)

The ones I’m personally excited about are bolded, but right now all that’s going through my mind right now is, “Holy shit it’s a new Golden Sun!” That’s definitely something I’ve been waiting for for a while.  The concept of four player co-op in New Super Mario Bros. Wii also looks really cool.  Although I didn’t really get into Super Mario Galaxy, I’ll probably give it another shot with Galaxy 2, and I nearly creamed myself when I saw the trailer for Metroid: Other M.

WarioWare:DIY is something I’m looking forward to, mainly because of the fact that the game is based upon your own creations. That should be really cool. Same goes with the new Mario vs. DK that’s going to be coming out on DSiWare this coming Monday.

But Nintendo seriously redeemed themselves after last year’s conference. Definitely a strong showing this year, and hopefully they will keep this up for years to come.

On a day where Canada is marking the one year countdown to the start of the opening ceremonies for the 2010 winter games, Sega decided to mark the occasion in their own way by uploading a teaser video on YouTube for their second Olympic-based game following their Mario and Sonic mashup of Beijing 2008, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.

A short video, it starts with a computer generated flyby starting with the stone “Inukshuk” (which in reality is prominently displayed on Whistler mountain) culminating with Mario, Sonic, Eggman, and Wario at the boardercross start on [which I would believe to be] Cypress Mountain.  There’s nothing special about the video other than the announcement about the game itself.

The press release on Sega’s website goes into greater detail:

Developed by SEGA of Japan, under the guidance of Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games will take players to lifelike Olympic venues where they can choose from a legendary cast of playable characters, including new faces to the series to be revealed later this year. Following the phenomenal worldwide popularity of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, this fresh gaming experience will feature completely new Olympic Winter Games events from the official competition schedule including Alpine Skiing and Speed Skating with more events announced throughout the year.

It then goes on to detail some of the new gameplay options, such as co-op play, (which I’m guessing would entail either speed skating relays, figure skating, curling, or hockey) and the ability to use the Wii balance board.

Now, I wasn’t to big on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games but even though I don’t think this game will be spectacular, I do get a warm feeling about this game; If not for the fact that this is Vancouver’s Olympics or my involvement in them that we’re talking about, then it’s more about the relation to winter sports and the fact that my main source of income involves hockey and that in the winter I ski on a weekly basis at one of the Olympic venues.  Even if this game isn’t all that great, you can probably expect me to be picking up both versions of this game.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is currently scheduled for release late this year on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

Sega’s been really busy with their long-running RPG franchise in the past while, first releasing this, Phantasy Star Portable, in Japan, and then Phantasy Star Zero on the DS, and then getting their localizations underway.  The demo for PSP, which takes you up to the first boss then leaves you to explore the multiplayer option as much as you choose, has been available for download on PSN for a good portion of the last week now.  With turn-based combat pushed aside a long time ago, being replaced with the real-time combat of MMO entries Phantasy Star Online and Universe, how does this fare on the handheld?

I do have to say that I’m impressed so far. To make me want to play a demo over and over again in anticipation of the release for the full game is quite a feat.  I’m definitely not all that experienced with the PSO-like systems since most of my experience has had to do with playing offline multiplayer at my friend’s house.  I do remember enough of PSO though to know that they’ve greatly improved things in the long run, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Phantasy Star Portable is like a Sequel to MMO Phantasy Star Universe, with the story picking up not long after it.  In this game you’re playing a new recruit to GUARDIAN, and in your first mission your task is to eliminate the cause of a number of robot malfunctions in a certain area of the GUARDIAN base, along with your mentor and a new CAST. (Cast being the name they give humanoid robots in the PSO timeline.)  In the demo you can only play story mode up to the first boss, but you already get quite the story progression as you come across mysterious woman that could be behind the malfunctions.

Most of the gameplay improvements aren’t new to you if you’ve been playing Phantasy Star Universe, but if you’re an old PSO player that hasn’t touched Universe than you’re bound to love some of the things they’ve done.  First off, moving around is much faster than in the first game, and for you ranger enthusiasts, you can now move and shoot at the same time. (Meaning no more getting ganged up on because you’re stuck shooting in one spot as you get surrounded.)  Targeting is done a bit differently; Where in the original targeting was automatic, holding down the L button will target the closest enemy in front of you and also tell you, in the form of a red reticule, when you are in range.  You can also strafe while targeting, which if you’re a ranger type person like me allows you to spread and hit multiple targets as well.

Along with your usual repitoire of spells you also now have photon arts that can be linked to certain types of equipment.  This gives your weapons special attacks and elemental attributes that can also inflict status ailments on your enemies as well.  The use of technique points has also been abolished in exchange for photon points, which works the same as TP except that it’s linked to your weapon instead. (In other words, each weapon has their own set amount of PP that gets used up as you use photon arts that you’ve linked to said weapon.)  Also new is that photon arts and techniques level up as you continue to use them, unlike in PSO where you had to buy or find a higher level disc and have a high enough mind strength stat.

Along with your base EXP. level now, you also have a class level. You now gain class EXP. whenever you complete a mission in both story and multi mode, which in turn will level your class. This gives you not only an additional stat boost but also raises your proficiency with weapons associated to that class. You are able to switch between the basic classes: Hunter, Ranger, and Force, and also advance to higher classes such as Fighmaster, (I kid you not, it’s listed as “Fighmaster” and not “Fightmaster”) and Gunmaster.  This is a welcome addition as now you are no longer committed to staying to a single class, and can advance to higher ones.

The action pallete from the first game has been improved as well.  Instead of just having six slots for various attacks, techs, and items, which are all assigned to a certain button, you now have six slots for items and six slots for weapon configuration. (You can now hold two weapons at once, although some weapons take up both hands. You can use your “left hand” weapon by holding down the R button)  Each weapon usually has a basic attack which is executed by pressing the square button, and its linked photon art is used with the triangle button.  You can change your weapons or use items on the fly by holding down the circle button, selecting the weapon set you want to switch to/selecting the item you want to use, and releasing circle.  Although in the heat of battle, it takes a bit more time to heal yourself with an item than it did with the one button press in PSO, I find this a lot better.

I only have two beefs with the game so far right now, one being the “city” areas being replaced with menus, which is something I’ve never been used to before.  The other is the fact that things get screwed up when you change weapons on the action pallete slot that you’re currently using. You’d think that if you changed a weapon in the pallete that you currently had equipped that it would automatically update it, right? But it doesn’t; You have to reselect it in order to use the new configuration, else you’re going in weaponless.

And that’s all I have to say so far.  I’m absolutely digging this right now, and if you’re an old PSO vet, or maybe you haven’t played any of them past Phantasy Star IV, I would highly suggest giving this a try if you have a PSP.  Go ahead and download the demo, as it will definitely keep you busy up until its release.

Phantasy Star Portable is developed by Sonic Team (They did something right for a change!) and Alfa System, (The same company that also brought you Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology and Radiant Mythology 2) and published by Sega.  PSP has been out in Japan since last July and is currently slated for release in North America on March 3rd.