TwiddleGeek

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When Hour of Darkness first hit on the PS2, many hailed it as the best SRPG to date. It’s in-depth mechanics and practically unlimited room for character growth left many players absolutely addicted. For some reason however, the craze passed me over. Perhaps it was just the depth of the mechanics creating such a steep learning curve, but I just didn’t find myself hooked. Giving it another look on the PSP however, it’s clear I missed an incredible game.

First of all, Disgaea has a wonderful style, storyline, and humor. More than anything else, this alone really helped to draw me into the depth of the gameplay mechanics. It’s much easier to get hooked in a deep, extensive game if the basics are simply fun to begin with. While you don’t really have to spend much time in the item world or with the Dark Assembly in order to win, they’re there if you wish to use them. Sometimes I wanted to power up a rare equipment item just a bit, sometimes to improve a character, and sometimes I just wanted to explore. Learning to exploit things like totem throws, merging monsters, and +EXP geo-squares becomes part of the fun of getting to the end of the game. Disgaea loves to stack the odds against you and practically taunts you to figure out how to get around the rules.

My one complaint with the whole battle system is just that the only character to gain any EXP is the one who deals the killing blow, unless it’s a random -initiated team attack. I would be much happier if everyone fighting, or everyone who had dealt damage, or even everyone attacking in the final chain gained some exp. While current system is certainly not unworkable, I certainly found it to be annoying and a bit of a drag in leveling. Otherwise, Disgaea is an incredibly lengthy, enjoyable SRPG all around. The main quest took me a whopping 38 hours, and many will spend far more doing everything and completing the bonus stages. Even the PSP bonus Etna mode clocked in at an extra 10.5 hours for me. Perfectly suited to quick play sessions on the PSP, if you missed this the first time around there’s no reason not to pick it up now. If you’ve already played it out, Etna Mode probably isn’t enough reason to rebuy, though it was quite an enjoyable extra.

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Based on the 1993 Japanese classic Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Dracula X Chronicles is a remake for the PSP featuring updated graphics, voices, music, and so forth. An excellent remake all around, the new Rondo of Blood looks incredible on the PSP’s wide screen and plays equally well. So well in fact that I spent a little over four hours playing from start to Dracula in one sitting.

Getting there took a lot of good old-fashioned hand cramping, a good deal of retries (thank goodness for infinite continues), and a whole lot of patience. Even then I haven’t seen the real ending, and I haven’t yet explored each of the game’s alternate paths and hidden stages. What really adds the replay value however is the locked version of Symphony of the Night (Rondo’s sequel) included on the disc.

If you’re a Castlevania fan and enjoyed remakes like Mega Man Powered Up, you really ought to get this. Most people still haven’t played Rondo of Blood yet, and it’s a danged good Castlevania that shouldn’t be skipped. It’s been a long time since I’ve played a platformer that challenged me in a good way and kept me playing even after my thumbs started to give. It’s more classic style than the recent Metroid-like SoTN and DS showings, but if you enjoyed any of the previous era titles then you’ll love this.

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Brave Story is a fairly standard by the book RPG, but if you’re a fan of that kind of thing then it’s not too bad. Unlike most PSP RPGs it doesn’t just outright suck. There’s a passable, if cliche story that’s at least enough incentive to keep playing. The graphics are gorgeous by PSP standards, and the game even keeps the Japanese battle voices. There’s a nifty battle system technique where the more you fight together, the more “union” dual-techniques you learn. The battles are fast, but you’ll spend a lot of time rewatching the same animations.

Whoever designed the traveler’s swords for Brave Story has officially came up with the most gaudy weapons ever created. If you think things like a gunblade are ridiculous, you haven’t seen a 5 foot dragon sword. Character designs are a mixed bag, with Rei looking fairly mysterious and Tatsuya looking downright ridiculously childish through the whole adventure. Monsters and locations are generally fairly cool throughout, though dungeons tend to be endless generic mazes with random encounters every 5 steps. I’m terribly tired of random encounters these days.

I suppose many of my complaints with Brave Story are with the RPG genre itself, but Brave Story is so by the books and its story so dull that one can’t help but notice the base flaws in the genre. Unlike the Final Fantasy’s and other respectable larger RPGs, it doesn’t have the character strength or story to pull one’s attention away from the basic lather-rinse-repeat level grind. None the less, its respectable 18-20 hour length and great graphics warrant it a play-through by genre fans.