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What are the best PS Vita games?

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Dec 18, 2020

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18 Games Considered

Best PS Vita games	Price	Platforms	Genre
-- Persona 4 Golden	$19.99	PlayStation Vita	Role-Playing, Simulation, Dungeon Crawler
-- Killzone Mercenary	$26.00	-	-
-- Final Fantasy VII	$9.99	PlayStation 1, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, Windows	Role-Playing
-- Thomas Was Alone	$9.99	PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, Android, Xbox One, Wii U, iOS, macOS, Linux	Puzzle, Platformer
-- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony	$59.99	Windows, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4	Adventure, Visual Novel

Persona 4 Golden

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Top Con

Takes a long time to get going at the start

There's a good two or so hours of story exposition and tutorials that you have to sit through before the game picks up. It's a lot of reading and hand-holding, and explaining story concepts over and over again until you absolutely understand what's going on. If you decide to pick this up, be prepared to spend those first couple of hours on rails. See More

Top Pro

Intriguing story about helping your friends conquer their "Shadow" selves

With the supernatural murder mystery that overtakes the town of Inaba, the friends you make are each forced to face their dark sides, or their Shadows. These are the parts of their personalities that they don't want to accept, such as one character's disdain toward her friend for being more comfortable with boys, and another's fixation on her audience's voyeuristic obsession over her body as a sexual object. Some of the themes can get quite heavy, but they're all intriguing in their own ways, showing how the group of friends encourage each other to accept their dark sides and push forward as a unified group. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing, Simulation, Dungeon Crawler

Top Con

The murder mystery is repetitive

The story in Persona 4 boils down to a "flavor of the month" mystery, with each of them playing out mostly the same. You find out that a character is in danger of being murdered, so you go around town asking people for more information about the person to learn more about them. And then you go save them, fight a boss battle, the character faces their Shadow self, and then rinse and repeat with someone new. Things don't really switch up until later on in the game, which makes the story feel formulaic, especially if you don't care for the characters. See More

Top Pro

You get to collect and control many types of demons and angels as your Personas to fight in battle

Your Personas are demons and angels that you summon to use their spells and special abilities in battle. Fusing different Personas together lets you create stronger ones with better abilities. You can switch your Personas in and out of battle as needed to exploit enemy weaknesses you come across. And there are hundreds of different types of demons and angels with their own fitting designs and relevant mythological lore, ranging from familiar names like Shiva, Lilith, Valkyrie, Phoenix, Raphael, and many many more. See More

Top Con

The story gets weighed down by cheesy anime tropes

If you dislike anime because of the tropes, then Persona 4 may not be for you. You have your standard, blank slate main character who's loved by everyone just for listening to their problems like a reasonable person, a cast of characters who fit squarely into stereotypes, and a typical anime and JRPG plot where you defeat a god with the power of friendship. It's nice that this game has such a cheerful tone, and that the characters are likable for the most part, but a lot of it is pretty tropey and predictable: love it or hate it, basically. See More

Top Pro

Building friendships with characters through Social Links gives you an edge in battle

There are all sorts of characters to get to know and befriend through the Social Link system. You can make friends with your classmates, your party members, and a few other characters in the community of the city you live in. Spending time with them gives you a contained, and often touching story where you get to know them more and help them solve a personal struggle. After reaching the end of their Social Link, you're able to fuse special and powerful Personas that can help you tackle some of the game's hardest challenges. It's a neat system that gives you a gameplay incentive for building relationships. See More

Top Con

If your main character gets hit with an instant kill spell, it's game over

The most frustrating part about the combat is that there's a certain degree of unpredictability and randomness to it because of instant kill spells. There are light or dark spells that, if they hit any of your characters, there's a good chance that they will die in one shot. If they have resistances to light or dark, then they stand a better chance. But if your main character gets hit, and they die, it's an automatic game over, possibly throwing hours of progress down the drain. See More

Top Pro

Fun and rewarding turn-based combat that focuses on exploiting enemy weaknesses

The battles in Persona 4 Golden are fun, especially once you get the hang of the system. You fight with your Personas and your party members, who have their set Personas of their own, aiming to pinpoint your enemy's elemental weaknesses and exploit them. Once you find the weakness, you and your team are rewarded with an extra turn; if you keep landing the right attacks, then the game lets you chain a finite number of turns one after another. If you don't look up a guide, then finding weaknesses is a matter of trial and error. But this also applies to your enemies -- if they exploit your weaknesses, then they get extra turns instead. The bosses are pretty hard since they hit for a ton of damage, so you absolutely need to take advantage of gaining extra turns. And as you get farther along in the game, you get access to buffs to your party's attack, defense, evasion, and more, as well as debuffs to debilitate your foes. As you get better with the combat and earn some tough victories, the sense of satisfaction you get helps you to keep pushing forward. See More

Top Con

The new Persona 4 Golden character, Marie, is insufferable

It would have been better if the writers had left this new character out. Marie doesn't quite fit in Persona 4 Golden, with her personality that's constant angst and anger, all the time. She has her reasons for being like this, yes, but you won't learn these unless you complete her entire Social Link and the optional dungeon. Before you learn of her motivations, she seems one-note in a way that clashes with the game's happy themes. It's hard to find anything to like about her. See More

Top Pro

Cool and modern sense of style with the visuals and soundtrack

Everything in Persona 4 Golden is stylistically on-point. The recurring yellow in the eye-catching menus and UI, and text boxes gives the game a distinct aesthetic. The character designs are also really cool, with slender forms and a modern yet laid-back sense of fashion. And the trip-hop/hip-hop soundtrack blends classical, rock, pop, and synthwave sounds together in such a unique way that no other game really comes close to. Despite all the different ideas, it all comes together as a cool and cohesive look. See More

Top Pro

Features some nice bonus additions over the original Persona 4

Persona 4 Golden is the definitive edition of the game, with lots of great improvements. Aside from the slightly updated graphics, there are a ton of gameplay bonuses, with new Social Links, stronger Personas to collect, new ways to hang out with your friends, fun school events, an extra ending, and a new Golden epilogue that you earn from completing the optional dungeon. While going for the True Ending and/or Golden epilogue, you also get to play through an extra month and a half or so in the winter, with new music to go with the time of year. The quality of life improvements make gameplay smoother as well, making this an excellent option for both new players and longtime veterans. See More

Killzone Mercenary

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Top Con

Single player campaign is too short

Coming in at only 9 missions that may last around 5 hours, the single player story mode is pretty short. While there is a lot to do in the multiplayer gameplay, those looking for a single player shooter that will last them a good while may be disappointed. See More

Top Pro

Online multiplayer

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Prequel to other Killzone titles

For those interested in the story of Killzone, Mercenary is a prequel to all the previous released titles on PS3, which fleshes out some of what happened before those games took place. See More

Top Pro

Was not phoned in

Unlike Resistance or Call of Duty Killzone was not a quick cash in for the Vita. Mercenary plays as much like it's console brother and looks fantastic while doing it. See More

Final Fantasy VII

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Solid turn-based combat system with good character customization

The combat system is easy to get the hang of, even at higher levels of play with all the customization options. It starts off with the standard three characters who can attack, defend, and use magic or items one at a time. The game gradually introduces you to more systems, like how to get the most out of your magic and summon abilities to exploit enemy weaknesses. Every character starts off as a blank slate, so you can equip one person with a bunch of elemental magic and summons as your caster, another with special tools to learn monster abilities, and tons more. The system is simple, but intuitive enough for players of all skill levels to grasp. See More

Top Con

Blocky character models haven't aged well

The most jarring flaw the game has is the graphics, especially the character models. Since Final Fantasy VII first came out in 1997, it's a given that the graphics are dated, but the characters just look distracting. They're shaped in weird ways, with huge, bulky forearms, tiny elbows, and giant shoulders with huge heads. It's comical enough to where it might not bother you too much. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Memorable story that holds up well over time

Final Fantasy VII has an incredible story with a lot of thought and care put into it. Even with all the intrigue surrounding the environmentalist group named AVALANCHE fighting back against the evil Shinra Corporation who are destroying the planet, the narrative is still rooted in emotion. The characters you meet all come together for reasons that make sense, and the story affects each of them in ways that truly matter, especially the main protagonist, the mercenary Cloud Strife. The plot twists have weight in the way they challenge what's possible within the game's world, making for some truly stand-out moments. The story is one that stands the test of time and is still worth experiencing many years later. See More

Top Con

Battles are sometimes too easy

The downside of the accessible battle system is that it can be too simple. There are plenty of times where you only have to mash a single button to get through battles. Since the encounters are random, exploring areas can get boring when all you have to do is press one button to rush through the fights. Luckily, boss battles are more challenging and engaging, but you have to slog through the regular, repetitive fights first. See More

Top Pro

Diverse cast of characters from all walks of life

The many different characters you meet are all wonderful in their own ways. Cloud starts off aloof and uncaring, focused only on earning money from running missions with AVALANCHE, but he slowly begins to care about what the Shinra Corporation are doing to the planet. His childhood friend, Tifa, is much kinder and caring, encouraging him to change his ways and do what's right for the environment, even though she also has her own reasons for wanting him around. Their leader is Barret, the loud-mouthed and aggressive man with a machine gun grafted on his arm, who's actually a warm-hearted father who wants to do right by his young child and protect the planet. They meet so many other personalities, like a sorrowful man who sleeps in a coffin as he mourns for his mistakes in life, and a dog-like creature from an endangered species who speaks intelligently. Everyone has such different worldviews and experiences, but they all manage to come together in ways that feel right for the story. See More

Top Con

It's not always clear where you're supposed to go next

While playing through the story, you may get lost from time to time. There are instances where the characters only give vague directions as to where you have to go next. Other times, the game makes you deliberately wander around looking for something without any hints on how close you are. You might want to look up a guide for these things, since it can be way too frustrating to keep running around without much guidance. See More

Top Pro

Really great soundtrack

Final Fantasy VII has fantastic music. It's a beautiful collection of melodic sounds, from the simplicity of the opening prologue that plays when you boot up the game, to the more bombastic and orchestral themes that play during the iconic final boss. Each song fits the moments it plays in, adding even more humanity to a story about human greed and lusts for power leading to the near-destruction of the environment. See More

Top Pro

Tons of challenging optional content

When you're up for a challenge, there's a lot to seek out in Final Fantasy VII. Near the end of the game, before going after the final boss, that's when you can access all of the side content, like the optional superbosses and hunting for rare summons and magic spells. There are also some non-battle-related things to do that are still somewhat difficult, like earning the best prizes in the Gold Saucer, the game's theme park, and becoming the best jockeys in one of the mini-games there. You can easily spend dozens of hours just getting through these challenges and earning the best rewards to power up your characters. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of funny moments

There are some genuinely hilarious moments in the story. The game never takes itself too seriously, willing to be silly with comic mischief and ridiculousness for the sake of it. One of the best moments is a few hours into the story where Cloud goes on a rescue mission and has to go on a chain of quests to get prepared for the operation, finding himself in some seriously absurd situations that have become iconic over time. There are a lot of other funny scenes sprinkled throughout the game as well, keeping things entertaining to balance out some of the heavy themes that the story tackles. See More

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

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Eccentric cast of characters

The sixteen main characters in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony are all at the "ultimate" level of their specialties, such as the ultimate detective, the ultimate tennis-player-turned-convict, the ultimate artist, and many more. Their personalities shine through during debates as they argue their points of view, some with no shortage of pointed vulgarities, with other outright lying in order to keep the player on-edge. The localization's many pop culture references to "alternative facts" and misinformation campaigns helps the characters feel relevant and real. See More

Top Con

Polarizing ending

Love it or hate it, the ending is undoubtedly polarizing, with some fans enjoying the conclusion to the game's many twists and turns, with others left feeling disappointed or annoyed. Your experience will vary, so be prepared to fall on either end of the spectrum once you reach the end of your 30+ hour series of investigations. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Adventure, Visual Novel

Top Pro

Great music

DRV3's soundtrack encompasses many genres, allowing you to enjoy a wide variety of instruments, which includes guitars, drums, brass instruments, synths and many others. The end result is a gritty, futuristic soundtrack with punchy, energetic songs that make the proceedings feel action-packed while also making key story moments memorable. See More

Top Con

Questionable mid-story pacing

Unfortunately, things begin to drag on toward the middle of the story, where the plot begins to feel tedious and repetitive. These crimes in the middle are more tedious and repetitive than anything, lacking the finesse and enjoyment of other parts of the game. See More

Top Pro

Unique blend of different gameplay concepts

Filled with heated debates, character bonding and relationships, whodunit murder mysteries, along with mini-games and dungeon-crawling, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is a blend of ideas and mechanics that manage to work as an unexpected, yet cohesive package. This is a game that sounds impossible on paper, but everything fits together as a package surprisingly well. See More

Top Pro

Quirky storytelling

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is a mish-mash of a visual novel, an adventure game, a colorful cast of anime characters like talking bears with varied creepy designs and a host of high school characters solving a murder mystery, all packed together as a competition of wits to investigate each crime scene and figure out what happened. Getting fellow classmates to believe the player's version of events involves stylish debates with text flying across the screen, where the other characters can be swayed by the correct answers or timely lies that risk the chance of perjury. See More

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster

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Strategic and proactive turn-based combat

Turn-based battles in Final Fantasy X give you great ways to plan out how to approach each fight instead of leaving you to mostly react in battle. On the right-hand side of the screen, you'll see a long column including the icons of each character in your main party and how many turns the boss or enemies will have. When you see that a boss is about to have three or more consecutive turns to attack, you can cast spells ahead of time to protect your party members. It's a neat mechanic that lets you see into the future to plan ahead proactively. You can also use the right-hand column to plan out how your party members can handle enemy weaknesses. When you see that a strong armored enemy is up to attack next, bringing in one of your heavy hitters like Auron with his huge, armor-piercing sword is pretty efficient. Or if there's another monster that's resistant to physical attacks, you can bring in Lulu instead with her powerful black magic spells. Learning everyone's strengths and weaknesses in battle will help you breeze through normal battles and better prepare you for the game's more difficult boss encounters. See More

Top Con

Extremely linear environments

The locations in Final Fantasy X are beautiful and detailed, and yet there are lots of invisible walls blocking you off from exploring those locations. More often than not there's only a single path in any given environment to follow. It's a lot like running down a single corridor from the start of the world to the end. The good news is that you'll rarely get lost, but you won't be able to run around outside of the incredibly limited boundaries in each level. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Thoughtful and grounded story

Final Fantasy X tells the story of the main character Tidus who one day finds himself in a faraway place 1,000 years in the future in a world full of death and suffering. A cleric-like summoner named Yuna embarks on a pilgrimage with Tidus and their other companions to destroy Sin: a gigantic whale-like monster that terrorizes the populace and causes countless, senseless deaths. As Tidus grows to care about Yuna, he questions the sacrifices that she has to make on her pilgrimage in order to defeat Sin, compelling him to take a stand against the status quo. It's a wonderful story that shows how far someone can go to protect the person that they care about most. See More

Top Con

Airship travel is limited to picking points on the world map

It's really disheartening to unlock the airship in Final Fantasy X later in the game, only to discover that all you can do is pick a location and go to it automatically. You can't maneuver it through the skies like in older Final Fantasy games. It would have been nice to have the freedom to explore and see the world of Spira from high up. See More

Top Pro

Incredible music that fits the game's mood and tone

Final Fantasy X has an amazing soundtrack with a range of iconic tracks that are still beloved to this day, fitting well in each scene and situation they play in. "To Zanarkand" is a moving piano song that plays in the opening cutscene and again later on in the story, matching the game's overall thoughtfulness and retrospection. "Servants of the Mountain" is a really melodic and memorable song that plays in the game's snowy mountain level, with hard-hitting violins that mimic how tough and challenging it is to traverse the mountain itself. "Challenge" is a great boss theme that initially plays when you fight against one of the hardest bosses in the game, changing things up with some cool guitar riffs and fantastic-sounding drums that help pump you up for the fight's difficulty. There's a variety of sounds here that all come together as a cohesive whole, staying true to the game's atmosphere all the way through. See More

Top Con

Severe difficulty spike partway through the game

As you go through the game, you'll probably feel comfortable with the difficulty up until a certain point. There's one boss in particular that's notorious for how hard it is to beat compared to the previous ones. You'll more than likely have to spend hours grinding enemies in the area right before the boss to train. And even when you do defeat the boss, the ones after it are also quite challenging. It can be really confusing for newcomers if you aren't prepared. See More

Top Pro

Addictive underwater sports mini-game called Blitzball

Blizball is an addictive mini-game in Final Fantasy X that's great to play as a respite from the main game. It's like a mix of soccer and rugby played underwater, where you pass a ball around the sphere-like field, trying to score goals while the opposing team tackles and kicks to try and stop you. Playing matches can be quite intense as you navigate your players across the field with the ball, surviving the onslaught of tackles and kicks from the other team long enough to get close to the goal and score. If you're inspired to go back to Blizball on your own after the mandatory games in the story, you can get addicted to it, since it's so well-developed and fleshed out with lots of strategies and different team members that you can recruit. See More

Final Fantasy IX

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Dozens of hours of gameplay

This game has a bare-minimum of 40 hours of play in it, but that can easily be doubled. See More

Top Con

It can be slow to get started

Despite throwing you into battle within the first few minutes, the game is actually quite slow to start, particularly if you're the type to go around exploring and completing all the immediate sub-quests. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

A legitimately breathtaking world

The graphics of this game hold up quite well when compared to most older games. The abilites, characters, and environment are all incredibly well done. See More

Top Pro

You can customize the way your characters battle with the item-ability system

In most games, characters come with set abilities, gaining them at particular levels, or after defeating enemies, etc. In Final Fantasy IX, your abilities are tied to your items, making it possible to customize your character's skillset. In addition, if you wear some items long enough (meaning you've participated in enough battles), you'll permanently learn the skill and be able to use it regardless of what you've got equipped. See More

Top Pro

One of the most plot-driven games ever created

While the story is the central focus in every RPG, Final Fantasy IX takes that to the next level. The plot often switches focus between different characters or parties. One particularly exciting sequence on the second disc features two separate parties trying to escape a sticky situation. The game cuts between the two parties and builds an incredible sense of tension. Moreover, changing circumstances force characters to switch from one party to the other, which creates a real sense of dynamic teamwork. These sorts of events are what have driven the masses to calling Final Fantasy IX one of the greatest stories ever told. See More

Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster

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Fun turn-based combat with a cool job system

Final Fantasy X-2 has an exciting turn-based system where you can change jobs on-the-fly. During the fast-paced battles, you can choose to switch jobs to handle different enemy types and situations. When you change your main character Yuna from a gunner to a songstress, she can sing tunes that can debilitate enemies or buff the party for the duration of her song. Character models update to the new job costumes in real-time with special animations, like how Yuna will have a spotlight on her as she poses with a microphone when she changes to her songstress job. It's a fun and unique system that with the way you can swap jobs at any time to handle whatever your enemy throws at you. See More

Top Con

Blitzball is automated with no player control

Blizball in Final Fantasy X is fun and addictive because of how in-depth it is, but all of that depth goes out the window in Final Fantasy X-2's version. The mini-game is like a mix of soccer and rugby played underwater, where the players pass a ball around the sphere-like field, trying to score goals while the opposing team tackles and kicks to try and stop you. In this game, you can't manually control the characters, turning you more into a manager with access to player stats and rosters and little else. It's more like a spectator mode, watered-down from the exciting matches in Final Fantasy X. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Heartfelt and thoughtful story

Set two years after Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 is much lighter in tone, featuring Yuna as the main character as she searches for treasure across Spira with her friends. Although the story seems overly positive and campy at first, almost like a cheesy movie with silly one-liners and hammed-up humor, there's much more depth to the story that reveals itself as you play through the game. As a world leader, Yuna tries to do what's expected of her by fixing the power struggle between Spira's two ruling factions, but she's also deeply upset by her love interest's absence. She questions if it's possible to find him with so much mystery surrounding his disappearance. It's an emotional experience watching Yuna struggle with her obligations to maintain peace in the world, and going after what she personally wants for her own happiness and fulfillment. See More

Top Con

Extremely linear environments

The locations in Final Fantasy X-2 are beautiful and detailed, and yet there are lots of invisible walls blocking you off from exploring those locations. More often than not there's only a single path in any given environment to follow. It's a lot like running down a single corridor from the start of the world to the end. The good part is that you'll rarely get lost, but you won't be able to run around outside of the incredibly limited boundaries in each level. See More

Top Pro

Great soundtrack with a nice blend of different genres

Final Fantasy X-2's soundtrack is filled with energetic pop songs, pensive ballads, and an overall jazz and rock-inspired sound that matches the game's fun and adventurous themes. "Real Emotion" is an infectiously catchy pop song that would fit right in with the Top 40s charts in real life. "Yuna's Ballad" is much more thought-provoking and emotional, with pianos that sound a lot like how Yuna's sorrow and conflicting emotions would be in musical form. The normal battle theme has a great rock sound to it, mixing in violins to keep things interesting, and it doesn't get old no matter how many times you hear it during normal encounters. The soundtrack is amazing with the way it experiments with different genres that all manage to blend well together. See More

Top Con

Airship travel is limited to picking points on the world map

It's really disheartening to have the airship available near the start of the game, only to discover that all you can do is pick a location and go to it automatically. You can't maneuver it through the skies like in older Final Fantasy games. It would have been nice to have the freedom to explore and see the world of Spira from high up. See More

Top Pro

Risky but fresh change in tone from Final Fantasy X to X-2

Final Fantasy X-2 does a complete 180 from Final Fantasy X's more grounded themes of life, death, and corruption, showing the world after the darkness passes, and featuring an all-female cast of party members. The themes here are much more fun and upbeat, showing Yuna as more on an overall light-hearted journey with her troupe of treasure hunters, although the story does have its moments of seriousness and melancholy. Even the opening CGI cutscene is of Yuna performing a pop song at a concert. It's a risky, but bold and fresh move that you'll either love or hate depending on your tastes. See More

Dragon's Crown

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Good selection of characters to choose from

There are six different classes in the game that the player can choose to play with. Each with their own skill tree that allows for growth of skills through playing the game. The characters found in each class all have their own unique looks and strategies as well. Some may be slow brutes while others are quick and nimble magicians. This way each feels different from the other but also allows for a good amount of growth. See More

Top Con

Boring repetitive story

The story found within can become quite repetitive and is a bit contrived. While it is not the main focus of the game and does not detract from the gameplay too much, it can be tough to feel any reason to complete the game when it comes to finishing the story. See More

LittleBigPlanet

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Top Con

Building levels is complicated

While there are 67 tutorials to help in this area, they do not cover some of the cooler things that can be done, which means the player will be left guessing or searching out online tutorials. This also means that there is a high learning curve to creation, which is going to hold a lot of people back from experimenting with it. See More

Top Pro

Varying level of challenge

Depending on if the player wants to breeze through the game or play as a completionist changes how difficult the game can be. LBP is pretty easy to breeze through if one is not worried about getting a perfect in each level, but for those that do the difficulty is greatly ramped up. See More

Tearaway

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It displays the Vita's features well

Tearaway uses a lot of the Vita's features, from the camera to the rear touch pad to get you through the story, but it's not so much that it gets tedious. See More

Top Con

Combat is not that refined

The combat in the game could be tighter and the mechanics used in order to defeat enemies is often a bit too convoluted. At certain points enemies need to be picked up and then thrown at other ones, this is an issue as the timing can often not feel that precise, which leads to mistakes being made too easily. See More

Top Pro

Art design are phenomenal

The games graphical look is quite unique in that is resembles paper craft. The whole theme of the game is to create a world for the player to play in that looks as though it was created out of construction paper. See More

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

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Utilizes touch screen in fun ways

The puzzle elements found in the game allow for the use of the rear touch screen on the Vita. For instance there are items that can have dust brushed off of them in order to get a clear look at what they have written on them. There are also 3D objects that can be interacted with by spinning and turning the object around. This all makes for a more immersive experience due to how you are actually interacting with the game more so than a regular button would allow. See More

Top Con

Too easy

Compared to its console cousin, the portable game is a bit on the easy side. This can be an issue for those looking for a challenge as there is little to be found with Golden Abyss. See More

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable

Top Pro

Well-written dark and mature story about finding hope in impossible situations

The story here deals with a lot of death, darkness, and suffering, but there's always a light at the end of the tunnel if you're willing to look for it. You start off as a regular high school student who transfers to a new school in the city, assigned to live in a dorm with a group of other students. There's a supernatural phenomenon that happens at midnight known as the Dark Hour where Shadows turn up on the streets and cause all kinds of trouble in the city. You and the group of students in the dorm are among the few who are lucid during the Dark Hour, so it's up to you to stop the Shadows every night at midnight and the full moon. Things can get quite dark with the way the plot explores human sin and how our own vices can corrupt us. Some of the symbolism of what the Shadows represent can be pretty grim. But the main protagonist always has his group of friends to fall back on -- a theme that shines through the hopelessness and despair without getting heavy-handed or cheesy. It's a full, well-written story from start to finish that stays with you for a long time. See More

Top Con

The main dungeon, Tartarus, is an insanely repetitive grind

Tartarus is an impossibly high tower that only shows up during the Dark Hour, filled with Shadows and strong bosses. Outside of story sequences during the full moon, Tartarus is the only place you get to go for dungeon crawling. The randomly-generated rooms mostly look the same from floor to floor, save for some color swaps after you beat a boss and unlock the next section of the tower. All you do is look for the next set of stairs up in between fighting against Shadows over and over and over again for the entire game. It's really, really repetitive, and unless you adore this kind of grinding, you will have to push yourself through this somehow to continue on with the story. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing, Visual Novel, Dungeon Crawler, Simulation

Top Pro

You get to collect and control many types of demons and angels as your Personas to fight in battle

Your Personas are demons and angels that you summon to use their spells and special abilities in battle. Fusing different Personas together lets you create stronger ones with better abilities. You can switch your Personas in and out of battle as needed to exploit enemy weaknesses you come across. And there are hundreds of different types of demons and angels with their own fitting designs and relevant mythological lore, ranging from familiar names like Shiva, Lilith, Valkyrie, Phoenix, Raphael, and many many more. See More

Top Con

The combat is hard -- especially boss battles

Persona 3 is a challenging game with tough difficulty spikes during boss fights. Once you get a hang of the elemental weaknesses and earning extra turns, there's still the issue with bosses overwhelming you with tons of damage and/or boosted defenses. Grinding for levels is an option, but you want to always prioritize fusing better Personas with stronger and more useful abilities such as buffs and debuffs. As long as you do that, you should be fine. See More

Top Pro

Challenging yet rewarding turn-based combat

The battles in Persona 3 are tough, yet once you get the hang of the system, it's quite engaging. You fight with your Personas and your party members, who have their set Personas of their own, aiming to pinpoint your enemy's elemental weaknesses and exploit them. Once you find the weakness, you and your team are rewarded with an extra turn; if you keep landing the right attacks, then the game lets you chain a finite number of turns one after another. If you don't look up a guide, then finding weaknesses is a matter of trial and error. But this also applies to your enemies -- if they exploit your weaknesses, then they get extra turns instead. The bosses are pretty hard since they hit for a ton of damage, so you absolutely need to take advantage of gaining extra turns. And as you get farther along in the game, you get access to buffs to your party's attack, defense, evasion, and more, as well as debuffs to debilitate your foes. As you get better with the combat and earn some tough victories, the sense of satisfaction you get helps you to keep pushing forward. See More

Top Con

Persona 3 Portable is pared down compared to Persona 3 FES

While Persona 3 Portable does offer some nice bonuses and a change of pace with the female protagonist, there are also a number of drawbacks. The game plays more like a visual novel than anything, taking away your 3D space to explore environments. It doesn't come with The Answer, either, which is the expansion in Persona 3 FES that adds more battle content with a lengthy story. This is still a good choice for those looking to play Persona 3, but if you want the full experience, you should pick up the FES version as well. See More

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Building friendships with characters through Social Links gives you an edge in battle

There are all sorts of characters to get to know and befriend through the Social Link system. You can make friends with your classmates, your party members, and a few other characters in the community of the city you live in. Spending time with them gives you a contained, and often touching story where you get to know them more and help them solve a personal struggle. After reaching the end of their Social Link, you're able to fuse special and powerful Personas that can help you tackle some of the game's hardest challenges. It's a neat system that gives you a gameplay incentive for building relationships. See More

Top Con

Long stretches of in-game days with no story progression

For a large chunk of the story, you're stuck waiting until the next full moon. This is when the most powerful Shadows show up in the form of a boss fight, letting you progress the story. But there are times when you have absolutely no other cutscenes during an entire moon cycle. Your party members just tell you to wait and hang in there until the next segment. All you can do is go to school or the mall or maybe hang out with any available Social Links, and it feels pretty monotonous when you're stuck waiting like this. See More

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Persona 3 Portable has a few bonuses, like playing as a female main character

The most notable addition in this version is getting to choose the female protagonist or the regular Persona 3 male protagonist. There's also a big plus in getting to control all of your party members during battle, a key mechanic that the original Persona 3 sorely lacks. Playing as the FeMC, as she's known in the Persona community, opens up Social Links for all of your party members. This is great since you could only have Social Links with your female party members as the male protagonist, and you were limited to romances with them instead of platonic friendships. Some of FeMC's Social Links are much better than the male protagonist's options, making them worth checking out. See More

Top Pro

Cool and modern sense of style with the visuals and soundtrack

Everything in Persona 3 is stylistically on-point. The recurring cool blue or warm pink in the eye-catching menus and UI, text boxes, and even the protagonist's features gives the game a distinct aesthetic. The character designs are also really cool, with slender forms and a modern yet laid-back sense of fashion. And the trip-hop/hip-hop soundtrack blends classical, rock, pop, and synthwave sounds together in such a unique way that no other game really comes close to. Despite all the different ideas, it all comes together as a cool and cohesive look. See More

Top Pro

Memorable final boss that fits the game thematically

Without spoiling anything, Persona 3's last boss is one to remember. It's a grueling fight with an incredible accompanying music track. The challenge surrounding the boss fits right with the theme's of tackling impossible situations when all hope seems lost. It's a standout fight among JRPGs, period. See More

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

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Fascinating premise of pitting characters against each other to break them psychologically

Danganronpa 2 has a wacky but intriguing setup: stranding a dozen or so students in an island together, and forcing them to kill each other in order to be allowed to leave. The twist is that the murderer can only leave if they are not discovered during a class trial. It's really messed up to watch the lengths the school's "headmaster" goes to in their efforts to drive the students insane and force them to kill their friends. At the same time, you get to know a lot about these individuals in seeing just how far they go to scheme and murder each other, all while attempting to cover up their tracks so as to not get found out. See More

Top Con

Story isn't as compelling as the first Danganronpa, Trigger Happy Havoc

Even though Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair's story is quite entertaining and intriguing, it's not as interesting as the first game. Most of this has to do with how the setups in both games are similar: a group of outlandish students playing a killing game in order to escape, which means you have a general idea of what to expect this time around. Both stories are still solid in their own right, though. See More

Specs

Genre:Horror, Visual Novel, Point-and-Click Adventure

Top Pro

Engaging murder investigations and class trials

Once a group of students discovers a dead body, the "headmaster" declares that it's time for the investigation period. This leads you to a series of events where you search around the crime scene and any other relevant locations in a point-and-click style to find clues about the murder. After collecting all of the evidence, you then move to a courtroom where you have to sort through your classmates' lies and biases to solve the mystery. Every phrase your classmates say show up on the screen as text, and it's up to you to use your "truth bullets", meaning your clues from the investigation, to shoot down anyone's lies or falsehoods to move the trial forward. There are also a few other mini-games that help you figure out the facts, like a cool rhythm game where you have to shoot someone's lies on-screen in-time with the beat. Once you figure out the correct culprit, you then get to watch as the murderer gets punished in a creative and twisted way. But if you get it wrong, it's game over for you. See More

Top Con

Some of the characters' over-the-top personalities can get exhausting

While the cast of characters never seem to run out of energy, their non-stop bickering and strangeness can wear you down over the course of the game. Not everyone is a chatterbox, but the ones who are never seem to shut up, and can end up turning you off after a while. You may even find yourself feeling relieved once a particularly annoying character gets killed off. See More

Top Pro

Diverse cast of crazy but entertaining characters

There's a great variety of characters here, each with their own quirks and specialties. Every student is a prodigy, or an Ultimate something, such as the Ultimate Team Manager, the Ultimate Yakuza, the Ultimate Chef, the Ultimate Swordswoman, the Ultimate Gamer, and plenty more. You can get to know the students as your friends by hanging out with them on your free time and giving them gifts. A lot of them have over-the-top, outrageous personalities that make them fun to be around, and their banter during cutscenes can be pretty hilarious sometimes with the way they argue and snipe at each other. Their specialties tie into the murder mysteries in interesting ways as well, so it's worth it to keep track of what everyone's best at. See More

Top Con

Spoils the first Danganronpa game right at the start

Be careful if you decide to play this game before Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the first installment. There are spoilers right off the bat, mostly involving certain characters from the first game. This technically is a standalone game since you don't need to know any information from Trigger Happy Havoc, but just in case you end up liking the series, it helps to start fresh from the first entry. See More

Top Pro

Stylish visuals

Right from the title screen, all the artful details in the game really pop out at you. The colorful UI, the style of text during class trials, and the quirky but interesting character designs are all unique and pleasing to the eye. The cast all have such different hair and eye colors, helping you tell everyone apart and remember who they are. Everything looks amazing and quite impressive. See More

Top Con

Not for players who want more involved gameplay

Since this is a visual novel, that means there's more reading than actual gameplay. There are some adventure aspects, like getting to roam around the school during free time and investigations. The bulk of the gameplay involves talking to characters, point-and-click investigations, and getting through the class trials. If you're looking for something with more complex controls, this might not be the game for you. See More

Top Pro

Catchy music with an experimental sound

The soundtrack is addictive to listen to and doesn't get old. It's a good mix of different sounds, like pop, rock, trip-hop, and electronica, put together to make songs that don't really sound like any single genre. Even though it doesn't sound all that familiar, the tracks somehow manage to fit every single situation quite well. You won't hear anything like it outside of this game series. See More

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

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Top Pro

Fascinating premise of pitting characters against each other to break them psychologically

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has a wacky but intriguing setup: locking a dozen or so students in a school together, and forcing them to kill each other in order to be allowed to leave. The twist is that the murderer can only leave if they are not discovered during a class trial. It's really messed up to watch the lengths the school's "headmaster" goes to in their efforts to drive the students insane and force them to kill their friends. At the same time, you get to know a lot about these individuals in seeing just how far they go to scheme and murder each other, all while attempting to cover up their tracks so as to not get found out. See More

Top Con

Relies too much on red herrings for entertainment

The murder mysteries start to fall apart once you realize that there's always some red herring used to create more drama. Looking through the clues on your own, you can usually come to your own conclusion about the culprit based on a hunch, but the other characters take every chance to sway your thinking in certain directions. In the beginning, this is okay, but it can grate on you as this technique pop up again and again. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Horror, Visual Novel, Point-and-Click Adventure

Top Pro

Engaging murder investigations and class trials

Once a group of students discovers a dead body, the "headmaster" declares that it's time for the investigation period. This leads you to a series of events where you search around the crime scene and any other relevant locations in a point-and-click style to find clues about the murder. After collecting all of the evidence, you then move to a courtroom where you have to sort through your classmates' lies and biases to solve the mystery. Every phrase your classmates say show up on the screen as text, and it's up to you to use your "truth bullets", meaning your clues from the investigation, to shoot down anyone's lies or falsehoods to move the trial forward. There are also a few other mini-games that help you figure out the facts, like a cool rhythm game where you have to shoot someone's lies on-screen in-time with the beat. Your closing argument has you put together the missing pieces of a comic book that shows the whole murder and cover-up, from start to finish, using pieces of evidence you uncovered, letting you see everything that used to be unclear. You then get to watch as the murderer gets punished in a creative and twisted way. See More

Top Con

Some of the characters' over-the-top personalities can get exhausting

While the cast of characters never seem to run out of energy, their non-stop bickering and strangeness can wear you down over the course of the game. Not everyone is a chatterbox, but the ones who are never seem to shut up, and can end up turning you off after a while. You may even find yourself feeling relieved once a particularly annoying character gets killed off. See More

Top Pro

Diverse cast of crazy but entertaining characters

There's a great variety of characters here, each with their own quirks and specialties. Every student is a prodigy, or an Ultimate something, such as the Ultimate Programmer, the Ultimate Fashionista, the Ultimate Clairvoyant, the Ultimate Affluent Prodigy, and plenty more. And the so-called headmaster is a talking stuffed bear named Monokuma who delights in driving the students crazy enough to murder each other. You can get to know the students as your friends by hanging out with them on your free time and giving them gifts. A lot of them have over-the-top, outrageous personalities that make them fun to be around, and their banter during cutscenes can be pretty hilarious sometimes with the way they argue and snipe at each other. Their specialties tie into the murder mysteries in interesting ways as well, so it's worth it to keep track of what everyone's best at. See More

Top Con

The class trials tend to hold your hand to help you solve the murders

During the trials, there's one specific character who tries to steer your thinking in the right direction. There are plot-related reasons for why it is always this character, but their efforts tend to undermine whatever thinking you arrive to on your own. What's worse, the investigation period before the trials doesn't allow you to draw any definite, evidence-based conclusions about who the culprit(s) is/are on your own. This means that you have to rely on this particular character to guide you to the right answer during the trial itself. See More

Top Pro

Stylish visuals

Right from the title screen, all the artful details in the game really pop out at you. The colorful UI, the style of text during class trials, and the quirky but interesting character designs are all unique and pleasing to the eye. The cast all have such different hair and eye colors, helping you tell everyone apart and remember who they are. Everything looks amazing and quite impressive. See More

Top Con

Not for players who want more involved gameplay

Since this is a visual novel, that means there's more reading than actual gameplay. There are some adventure aspects, like getting to roam around the school during free time and investigations. The bulk of the gameplay involves talking to characters, point-and-click investigations, and getting through the class trials. If you're looking for something with more complex controls, this might not be the game for you. See More

Top Pro

Catchy music with an experimental sound

The soundtrack is addictive to listen to and doesn't get old. It's a good mix of different sounds, like pop, rock, trip-hop, and electronica, put together to make songs that don't really sound like any single genre. Even though it doesn't sound all that familiar, the tracks somehow manage to fit every single situation quite well. You won't hear anything like it outside of this game series. See More

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