My videogame collection III: PlayStation Portable

And the last one of my portable consoles is the PSP.
I bought a white PSP-1000 in early 2007, anticipating the extra PSP game included in the PS2 version of Fate/stay night.
Except for 5 titles, all the games that I have are ports of previously released games.

Guilty Gear Judgement (2006). Guilty Gear is one of the few fighting game franchise that I like that is not by Capcom (I don't like most of the SNK games). This game features a somewhat crappy beat'em up (the "Justice" of the title) and as a "bonus" includes a full Guilty Gear XX game, in this case #Reload.

Guilty Gear Judgement (2006). The Japanese version of the previous one, that includes Guilty Gear XX Slash instead of #Reload, adding A.B.A. and Order Sol to the roaster.

Tekken Dark Resurrection (2006) An updated port of Tekken 5 adding Lili (a great addition), Dragunov and Armor King. I don't like the Tekken series that much, but is a nice port and was a budget title.

Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (2004) One of the PSP launch titles, is a port of Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service for the DreamCast that included all the fighting styles from the series. Darkstalkers/Vampire is my second favorite series from Capcom fighting games.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX (2006) The ultimate Street Fighter Alpha 3 version, adding Eagle, Maki, Yun and Ingrid, each with their own story modes.

Power Stone Collection (2006) Contains Power Stone 1 and 2, an underrated franchise by Capcom. I don't like the 3D fighting games that much... but is a Capcom fighting game after all.

Fate/tiger colosseum (2007) A fighting game featuring super deformed characters from Fate/stay night. The artwork for the game was made by Hirai Yukio (of Pixel Maritan fame) instead of Takeuchi. Gameplay-wise is similar to Power Stone 2 and the story modes are nice, but as a fighting game is really crappy.

Fate/tiger colosseum Upper (2008) An updated version including all the characters that didn't make the cut in the previous one (Avenger, Kiritsugu, Irisviel...) plus new ones from Tsukihime (Phantas Moon, Magical Amber, Neko Arc). The game is as crappy as the first one.

Fate/unlimited codes PORTABLE (2009). I did a lengthy entry about it here.

Tobidase! ToraBuru Hanafuda Douchuuki (2007) The translation is something like "Rush out! Trouble Hanafuda Journal Diary", with a pun in "trouble": Tora (Tiger) referring to Taiga and Buru(ma) (Bloomers) referring to Illya.
It was an extra in the limited edition of Fate/stay night [Réalta Nua] for PS2. Is a port of the hanafuda game included in Fate/hollow ataraxia, adding a Yukika-Kaede-Kane team.

Capcom Classics Collection Remixed (2006) A collection of 19 old Capcom games.

Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded (2006) A collection with 20 more games. Man, I really love old school Capcom...

THE iDOL@STER SP: Wandering Star, Perfect Sun & Missing Moon (2008) An enhanced port of the original arcade game but divided in three different versions, each featuring 3 idols. A raising sim/rhythm game with extremely likable characters. I did entries about it here and here.

Hatsune Miku Project DIVA (2009) Another rhythm game featuring vocaloid characters (well, mostly Miku, a very few songs with Rin/Len and the rest only as alternate skins). I did a brief entry here.

Final Fantasy (2007) The latest remake of the first FF game to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the saga. Graphics with higher resolutions than the Dawn of Souls version, still in 2D.

Final Fantasy II (2007) Same as above, but with the second game.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (2007) Another enhanced remake, this time of the great Final Fantasy Tactics for PSX. The new cel-shaded FMV are great, I wish all the new FF games where using that kind of videos instead of videos full of androgynous emo-bishounen jumping around like idiots.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007) As much as I like Nomura's characters designs (in juxtaposition with the ethereal designs by Amano), I really hate that now every character in FF world looks like an emo J-Pop star... heck, even Gackt appears as a character!
Well, I suppose the game is not really that bad, because unlike Kingdom Hearts 2 or Dissidia, I actually finished this one.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy (2008) This is the epitome of all the things that I dislike of the recent Final Fantasy games: classic characters now became fashion victims pretty kids plus a non-existent plot that is a mere excuse to show the characters doing flashy and acrobatic attacks.
I received it as a gift, so I can't complain, but most likely will be my last "modern" FF game.

Breath of Fire III (2005) Breath of Fire was the only RPG saga made by Capcom and this one was the last that was worthy. It's a shame.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (2006) I bought Disgaea for PS2, but never had the time to play it, so technically this was the first version I played. A good tactical RPG, with cool characters and funny plot.

Valkyria Chronicles

In PlayStation 3 there was only two games that I really wanted to play. One of them was Metal Gear Solid 4 and the other was Valkyria Chronicles.

My brother owns a PS3, but I didn't have a chance to play with it extensively because before my leave to Japan he was living on his own and had the PS3 with him, but now that he left the console in my house I have the chance to play with it.

He already had Metal Gear Solid 4, so at the beginning of November I purchased Valkyria Chronicles via eBay since is now discontinued.


Valkyria Chronicles was in my wishlist when was first released in Japan, because the character designer is Honjou Raita, most known only as RAITA from circle Zettai Shoujo.

RAITA's style is pretty characteristic. His most known trait is to draw extremely slender lolis (borderline anorexic), but he also draws stylized grown-up women with large breasts. He also likes to draw tanks, girls in uniform and hooded women.

Random image from his web.

Pretty much all of those traits were carried over to the game, and the watercolor style of the graphic engine fits perfectly with RAITA's style.

Selvaria and Alicia drawn by RAITA.

Is hard to expalin the gameplay without play it. Is turn-based, but you move the characters in real time and you can move them more than once during your turn.
You can control about 50 characters, and each of them is unique, each with his/her own special traits, likes and dislikes. Friends are foes are very likable characters.

Right now I'm almost over with the game (I'm missing to A rank some of the Hard skirmishes) and I can clearly say that is my favorite PS3 game by far, even surpassing MGS4. Is unfortunate that the overall sales of the game have been rather weak...

An anime was aired in spring (I didn't watched it so I can't give an opinion) and a sequel made for the PSP will be released in Japan next month, causing rage among the fans because the PSP is a step down compared with the PS3... It will be released in Europe, so is a compulsory purchase for me.

Omake: Miku with Alicia's outfit in Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA.

Kara no Kyoukai Boukyaku Rokuon and Hatsune Miku Project DIVA

Yesterday I received Kara no Kyoukai Boukyaku Rokuon Limited Edition DVD.

Definitely, Azaka is moe.

And ufotable must do a Mirai Fukuin movie, and not just a cruel April Fools joke.

Friday I went to Kawaramachi and purchased Hatsune Miku Project DIVA for PSP, a rhythm game featuring the Vocaloid characters. I didn't planned to buy it because the games that uses popular characters as the main charm are usually terribly bad, but the strong sales and the good critics convinced me. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

And on monday I went to OtaRoad, I will post about it later.