NintendosBooger
Member
The Playstation Vita is one of the finest video game consoles I've ever owned and for me is the most underrated system branded the Playstation name. Whatever notoriety it has stems from both its lack of support by its own producer and its prohibitive memory card costs, though above all else I think it should be remembered for its sleek hardware design, home console quality library, and for providing consumers portable accessibility to the budding indie scene.
Hardware-wise, the Vita hits all the notes Nintendo had failed to strike with its own portable offering dating all the way back to the Game Boy Micro. Unencumbered by a top screen and clamshell the Vita's display offers a wide uninterrupted vista of spacious viewing pleasure. While I think some games suffer for the lack of a second display like Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward and The Swapper, more exciting offerings like Killzone: Mercenary and Gravity Rush would have likely arrived as catastrophic failures under any other viewing format.
Software library on this one is hard to judge either qualitatively or quantitatively. It has a lot of great games if you know how and where to find them; then again it doesn't if you don't. As a mainstream device it's a complete failure, top and down, and I won't do its main competitor a disservice by comparing the two in that regard, though I will say it trumps the DS/3DS in one area here very important to me and that's its indie offerings.
Prior to the Vita, I never knew how much I would love indie games.
At first, I thought them to be cheap 8-bit cashgrabs developed crudely by industry rejects and failures, then I played Spelunky, followed by Frozen Synapse Prime, and then Hotline Miami. From that point, they became an essential part of my gaming diet and so I played with the Vita more and more, my 3DS less and less. Prior to the Nintendo Switch, I've wondered what repelled Nintendo to indie games and support and while I could have forgiven the 3DS/DS for the absence of "console quality" games I thought the lack of indie support was a big fucking oversight.
That said, my favorite games on the system.
5. Hotline Miami - I'm not into violent, obscene games. The last one I played through and through was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. I've tried the Resident Evils, the mainline Grand Theft Auto games, and even Doom. I'm not squeamish but they don't resonate with me at all, so I was hesitant to try out Hotline Miami. Having said that, this game exploits my one big weakness, one that transcends all of video games: my love for 80s style tunes and themes. If it looks 80s, feels 80s, or sounds 80s, it's a wrap for me. If Sony were to lace all of their games with 80s music, I'd change my GAF name to SonysBooger right then and there. In Hotline Miami, the fast-paced psychedelic and surreal vibe combined with the killer soundtrack propelled me past my reservations on the other things and I was able to finish the game in two sittings.
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4. Frozen Synapse Prime - I love dystopia. I love cyberpunk. Coupled with turn-based tactics, clean artwork, and nice rifts? The coolest part of the game is the ability to simulate a preview of the projected results of your actions, meaning once you decide on your troop placement and actions you can run a brief clip to see how all of that would play out before committing to it. Prior to this gem, my experience with tactic games was limited to SJRPGs like Fire Emblem and RTSs like Pikmin but now I'm a fan of this franchise and hope the fine folks at Mode 7 continue making games on dedicated gaming formats (hint, hint).
3. Killzone: Mercenary - Again, not very into violent shooters and this one seemed pretty visceral and gritty compared to the likes of Call of Duty, but every once in a while I'll purchase a system's high-water mark performance title and this one was visually impressive and overall fun despite my enjoyment being hampered somewhat by my lack of first-person shooter skills and reluctance to take advantage of its online features.
2. Steins;Gate - My love for visual novels began with Hotel Dusk. If you've never played it on the DS, it's one of those surreal experiences that make you wish you had never played it just to play it anew once more. Felt the same way about this one, though there was one very disturbing scene involving Okabe and Luka I took exception to and it almost ruined the whole experience for me. While the story starts out very slow - VERY SLOW - the plot eventually blossoms into a rich thriller filled with good suspense, twists, and drama. Outside of achieving the perfect ending there's no replayability here (for obvious reasons) but my first and only playthrough was enough to cement this as my favorite visual novel to date.
1. Soul Sacrifice Delta - Let me say that I hate hunting games. I hate Monster Hunter and all of its various spinoffs; I hate all the copycats; and even don't care much for the precursor to all of this in Phantasy Star Online. So what makes Sony's own place-holder for the then-departed Monster Hunter franchise so special for me? The lore. There are pages and pages of lore related to monsters, the realm, and the characters who woefully inhabit this fucked up fairytale universe. The rich voice-acting jives well with the storytelling narrative driving the game's pretty scant plot but as for the gameplay itself Soul Sacrifice is more accessible compared to the mainline MH series and less inventory-driven. We'll never see another Soul Sacrifice game again but this game left its mark with me for qualities not commonly associated with the monster hunting games and hopefully won't be forever absent in future offerings in the genre (I'm talking about you, MHW).
Honorable Mentions
- Natural Doctrine
- The Swapper
Vita games I didn't much care for:
Freedom Wars - Soul Sacrifice Delta's saving grace for me was its lore and storytelling, otherwise it's just an empty husk of a monster hunter clone which Freedom Wars turned out to be for me.
Natural Doctrine - I actually loved the combat mechanics of this sjrpg for they were intuitive and deep. Everything else about this game fell short, including the PSP graphics, lame story, awful characters, basic world, and generic enemies. Hard as nails and I beat it but that was nothing to gloat over.
Dead Nation - Found it to be an over-the-top violent twin-sticks zombie shooter lacking in charm or sustainable value. Great weapon selection and stages were richly atmospheric. Surprisingly I finished the game but it wasn't a memorable experience.
Persona 4 Golden - Apparently the game that goes hand-in-hand with the Vita like Tetris and Game Boy or Duck Hunt and the NES. It was obvious from the beginning of my adventure why the game is so critically praised. Personally, I hated the cast -- pretty much all of them. A couple of them were perverts and reminded me of Itaru in Steins;Gate whom I also despised for the same reasons. For a game like this, I think it's essential for the characters to click with the gamer but once that's lost then the whole experience goes sideways. The music didn't do much for me either. Mechanically, I found this to be a solid jRPG but the fan service was suffocating for someone accustomed to the jRPGs from yesteryear.
None of these games stained my experience with the Vita in any way.
Right now, I'm trying to grow my Vita's PS1 library since I missed most of the games from that generation. With the Vita and now the Switch, my future is a handheld one and I'm looking forward to enjoying more games from these systems.
