In my quest to stay totally up-to-date with 2006, I recently purchased a PSP. This of course fell immediately after the announcement of the new PS Vita, but that actually did not influence my decision. I suspect that I’ll get a Vita sometime well into next year, but the PSP was just too essential to pass up at this point.
There are a number of UMD and download games I want to try, but for the time being I’ve acquired only three – Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Fate/Unlimited Codes, and Nanoha A’s Battle of Aces. I’ve always been partial to fighting games, and I love Fate/Stay Night and Nanoha. I have been playing Magical Battle Arena on and off for quite a while, so I figured it would be worth it to support the Nanoha franchise with the official PSP fighting game. As for Unlimited Codes, well, who doesn’t love Saber Lily?
Tactics is nicely redone, and indeed for the US$9.96 I paid for it, it’s more than worth owning. Naturally it would be nice if there were a Japanese language track, but oh well.
I’ve managed to unlock just about everything in Unlimited Codes so far. The combo system is pretty robust and responsive without being overwhelming. There’s enough variety to feel like each character requires a degree of mastery as well. Overall, it was well worth the US$19.99 from the Playstation Store. If you like FSN and have not gotten it, you should do so.
I have not had much time to play Nanoha yet, but the battle system has been fun so far. I’ll be charging into the story mode this weekend most likely. From what I have seen so far, I am likely going to be preordering the sequel, Gears of Destiny. It comes with a shower curtain.
A shower curtain!
The other thing I got this week was a component cable for the PSP. Playing with simple output to the TV is nice, something I wish that the DS had been able to do. Perhaps the Wii U will be able to do it. As far as TV-out goes, the quality is nice and the cable is long enough for comfort on the couch. Battery life has been a non-issue so far as well.
Overall, if you’re a longtime holdout (or committed DS fan!) like me, getting a PSP these days is a pretty good idea. It has that end-of-life low-cost huge library of games, with inexpensive hardware probably waiting for another price drop. No region coding (for games anyway) and lots of homebrew dev work means that there really has never been a better time to get one.
Living in the past in terms of console purchases can be an advantage of sorts. Good selection and low cost, cheap accessories (relatively speaking) and a gradually increasing library of download games as well. PSP’s a pretty good buy!
For myself, I’ll be playing the new Nanoha A’s game come the end of December on my PSP even as the Vita comes out in stores. While I will definitely get a 3G Vita eventually, I’ll still be living in the past when I get it. Just maybe not 4-6 years in the past ^^;;