Nova Mob vs. the Lords of Chaos

I managed to start out the New year with a whole new brace of games for the PSP.

• Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness
• The Simpsons Game
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
• Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus
• Warriors of the Lost Empire

As of now, the one I’m playing the most is Disgaea.  It provides a unique spin to RPGs with its ability-enhancing/diminishing Geo Panel grids as well as a nearly limitless power-up system.  Hardly a day passes in which I continually revisit the Netherworld where I help Lahari (and more recently, Etna)  continually power up.  More often than not lately (especially in the case of Lahari), I have the compulsion to push up my weapon levels by tens.  Not only does it strengthen my weapons’ attack powers and other capabilities,  I get to level up my army, especially my new recruits (I already have a Gremlin, a Dragon, a Ronin an Oakrot and even a Zombie).   In the case of Etna, been concentrating on beefing up my Prinnie army…as I continue leveling her up, I look forward to getting more soldiers (the required mana levels for recruitment in Etna mode are higher than that in Lahari).

Adding to the high replay value - aside from the growing choice of monsters available for each new one you defeat - is the wicked sense of humor.  The voice acting is also spot-on, though a bit OTT (but it’s understood - at least it’s carried out well unlike in Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner) . 

Another game that has fascinated me is Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.  As I eagerly (yes, eagerly) await the English-language rollout for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Mar.  25, 2008), FFT:WotL should satisfy me as of now.   Wonderful anime cut-scenes frame what is basically a port of the PS2 game to the portable system.   The camera can be problematic at times, and the challenge quite unforgiving, but the latter should give this title high replay value as you try to figure out where you gone wrong.

On the other hand, there is Warriors of the Lost Empire, an unimaginatively-retitled English translation of a game which has come out in Japan as Lost Regnum.  You are a gorgeously-rendered 3D warrior (natch) who’s being sent by a lovely-looking female field commander to investigate various dungeons around a city in Ancient Greece where mythological monsters lurk about.  As you progress through dungeons of increasing difficulty, you get to earn a good number of power-ups as well as skill upgrades; the system limitations are evident since you tend to look the same even as you get to upgrade your armor a number of times.  From the looks of it, replay seems limited for this baby…but this should bide the time while I eagerly await God Of War: Chains of Olympus (March 4, 2008).

As a longtime fan of the Simpsons (especially the film), I’m so happy that The Simpsons Game has come out for the PSP…however, one thing irks me here.  In the episode “Bartman Begins”, there’s a scene in the planetarium where I’m supposed to scare the hell out of school bully Jimbo in the flying saucer.  Once I climb on the simulated moon cliff, I have to switch over to Homer to activate the adjacent jet engines needed to boost me to the saucer.  Once the jets are on, I switch back to Bart and ”henshin” (change) to my ”Bartman”  guise.  As Bartman, I can then fly all the way to the saucer, the jets providing the wind beneath my wings (cue lame Bette Midler joke here).  Most of the time, I fail to attain the needed altitude…causing me mucho frustration on my part here.

As for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, I haven’t gone completely through the game.  Although I loved the gameplay of its predecessor, my FPS trigger finger seems to have been dulled considerably by my latent addiction to role players like Disgaea, Valhalla Knights (Valhalla Knights 2 due 2nd quarter of 2008 in Japan) and even Jeanne D’Arc.     

Just the same, I am also looking forward to these upcoming 2008 PSP releases (aside from the ones abovementioned)

• Mobile Suit Gundam Giren no Yabou - Axis no Kyoui (Feb. 7 JAP)  
• Patapon (Feb. 26);  from the creative team behind LocoRoco 
• Wild Arms XF (March 17); from Valhalla Knights developers XSEED games
• Echochrome (March 19 JAP); an addictive b&w puzzler guaranteed to make you go wtf!?!?!
• Hellboy: The Science of Evil (June)
• Beaterator (tba); with hip-hop uberproducer Timbaland on board, hopefully this should be better than TraxxPad
• Phantasy Star Portable (tba)