The Playstation Portable has experienced a shortage of good RPG’s these past few months. PSP owners and RPG buffs will experience three major roleplaying games being released this spring. One actually isn’t strictly an RPG, the other is a first-person dungeon-crawler, and the last is an impressive looking online multiplayer game.
Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?: is the one that isn’t strictly an RPG. It’s actually an action game starring a penguin-looking Prinny wearing a red scarf that can deflect up to three attacks. However, it’s a game that ties into the SRPG (Strategy Roleplaying Game) world of Disgaea, as players take on the role of one of the many Prinnies. Just because you’re playing a blue penguin doesn’t mean this game isn’t tough. And it is. Enemies come hard and fast, and you have a set time limit to complete all of the game’s levels and beat the game. And remember, your scarf only protects you from three attacks. Fortunately, however, the game awards you 1000 lives at the beginning. Be careful to watch them, though. In this type of game even 1000 lives can be used up fast. It’s that intense.
Class Of Heroes: is the first-person dungeon crawler. But it isn’t just any. When creating a character, there are three things to take into account: gender, race, and alignment(good, neutral, evil). And that’s even before we get to the classes, which include everything from Clerics to Ninjas. In all, there are hundreds of combinations, and each character should be carefully chosen in order to construct a good team of six fighters. Let the dungeon-crawling begin.
Phantasy Star Portable: is the online multiplayer game. You could say it’s alot like Phantasy Star’s big comeback since Phantasy Star Universe. Though it may be an underwhelming online experience when compared to that of massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft and GuildWars, as an online RPG experience on the PSP it should be unprecedented. It features indepth character customization, satisfying combat, and lots to see and do. Phantasy Star Online fans won’t hesitate to give it a shot I’m sure, and they would be the better for it. Handheld games featuring online play are becoming more and more the norm, but this may be the closest thing to a handheld MMO yet.
