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Persona 3, Tactics Ogre, and other PSP RPGs that will live on my Vita
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs have to offer. A PlayStation Vita will be arriving on my doorstep some time on Thursday. It will be arriving courtesy of Amazon rather than Sony, in case you're wondering, so I did in fact spend money on the thing. I do not, however, plan to purchase any games for it. At least not yet.As I perused the list of PSP games available for download, I realized that I already had quite a few titles to choose from. So rather than try to justify spending money on Lumines or Uncharted -- both fine games but not my cup of tea -- I decided I would revisit some of my favorite PSP RPGs on the Vita's big, beautiful screen.It's really a pity the PSP never experienced the renaissance over here that it did in Japan, since it means quality RPGs like Valkyria Chronicles 3 may never be localized. It's only thanks to XSEED that Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky ever saw the light of day in the US, as well as Vanillaware's coming North American launch for Grand Knights History. A select few have made it stateside, and I'm happy to see them available on PSN. Here are the ones that will be making their way to my Vita, and to yours as well, I hope.
Knights in the Nightmare arriving on Nov. 9, bringing Yggdra Union along
Atlus has good news and bad news for players looking forward to Knights in the Nightmare, the upcoming strategy RPG-slash-bullet hell shooter getting ported to the PSP. We'll give you the bad news first, since that's usually the way to go: The game isn't coming out on October 19 as planned. Instead, you'll have to wait a few more weeks, as the release date has been moved back to November 9. We know, that probably ruins your pre-Halloween plans, but wait for the good news. The good news is that Atlus is including a digital copy of Yggdra Union with the purchase of "each and every launch copy" of Knights in the Nightmare. You may not know all about the Dept. Heaven series, so keep in mind that these are the two episodes of the series continuing where Riviera: The Promised Land started out, all produced by Sting Entertainment. In essence, you'll get two obscure Japanese genre mashups for the price of just one. Aren't you glad we told you the bad news first?
Yggdra Unison trailer: welcome back to Dept. Heaven
Atlus released a trailer for the latest game in Sting's Dept. Heaven series, Yggdra Unison. The most notable, and weird, aspect of the trailer? The seemingly random number-writing. Rather than relating to the amount of damage your characters dish out, it's an odd holdout from the game's first life on mobile phones. Basically, each of your units is marked with a number, and on the phone version, you'd type that number to trigger that unit's part of the Unison Attack. For the DS version, the keypad is gone, but the numbers are still there. Of course, it has a long way to go before it can out-odd Knights in the Nightmare, a game in which you, as a ghost, take control of your units by possessing them.
Atlus porting Yggdra Union spinoff to DS
Most handheld strategy fans probably know about three "Dept. Heaven" games from Sting: Yggdra Union, Riviera, and the recent Knights in the Nightmare. However, there was another game in the series, called Yggdra Unison: Beat Out Our Obstacle, that was only released on phones in Japan. Now, Atlus has announced that it is releasing Yggdra Unison on the DS in Japan this December.According to 1UP, the spinoff title is a real-time strategy game with a "mixture of Western-style unit deployment and Japan-style RPG tactics," in which eleven armies fight to claim territory. It features the same card system found in Yggdra Union. Since the thing was just announced just now there's no word on localization, but Atlus has released all the other the Yggdra games here so far.
Deal: Yggdra Union and R-Type Command for cheap
Atlus games are on sale at amazon.com right now. That means two PSP games are available on the cheap. You can pick up the addictive SRPG Yggdra Union for only $20 -- that's 50% off retail price. There's also another strategy game, R-Type Command, which is on sale for only $10.[Via CAG]
PSP Fanboy review: Yggdra Union
This used to be a GBA game? That's what you'll think to yourself after only a few hours with Yggdra Union. While the map sprites are taken directly from the GBA original, everything else about this PSP remake shows incredible polish. The redrawn high-res sprites used in battle and story sequences look sharp on the PSP screen. But what really steals the show, on a technical level, is the impressive amount of voice acting. Nearly every important story sequence is voiced in both English and Japanese, which makes for a really immersive experience.Of course, a game needs to do more than look and sound pretty to be good -- and thankfully, Yggdra Union offers tons of gameplay. In fact, it may offer too much with an adventure that clocks in at about 30 hours. The lengthy story is far from original, but a growing cast of likable characters and a few nice plot twists make it an enjoyable adventure that kept me chugging through the lengthy story.At its heart, Yggdra Union is an epic about underdogs that overthrow an empire. Your starting cast of a group of bandits and an exiled princess is severely outnumbered in an obviously one-sided battle. As such, players shouldn't expect a cakewalk through the game. Yggdra Union can be a relentless difficult game at times, so much so to the point of frustration. However, the challenge only emphasizes how important a solid strategy is when approaching each situation. Players must understand the importance of character placement and card selection -- a single error can lead to game over. However, the game's greatest hook comes from the exuberant ability to seize victory in a rather dire situation. Each battle is hard fought and incredibly rewarding.%Gallery-24722%
PSP Fanboy hands-on: Yggdra Union
Wow, Yggdra Union is tough. That's probably the first thing you'll say after getting through a few matches of Atlus' upcoming PSP SRPG. It'll take a few battles to wrap your head around the unique mechanics of the card game, and although the game does an excellent job of holding your hand, don't expect an easy romp, even in the second battle in the game.Yggdra Union is a tactical card RPG that will test your tactical capabilities through and through -- there's no grinding here to be found. Battles are typically multi-tiered: just when you think you're done with a level, a new set of increasingly difficult reinforcements appear. However, because your character's morale (essentially, their HP) carries over from battle to battle, across every level, each battle is decisive. If you make too many mistakes with one character, you'll notice that they'll be at a serious disadvantage in upcoming battles. And don't think about grinding to level up your characters: you can't. The story moves at such a brisk pace that your success depends solely on your ability to choose the right cards, and decide exactly how to move your characters through the map.The basics of battle are easy to explain, but the full ramifications won't truly make sense until you get the game in your hands. Before each conflict, players can choose a certain number of cards. Cards will grant players special abilities, but also have important stats like number of spaces players can move, card strength and weapon affinity. Quite possibly the most important thing to pay attention to is the weapon affinity: certain weapons are stronger than others, and these will be one of the primary factors of a battle's success. For example, swords are stronger than axes, but axes are stronger than spears. Spears, on the other hand, are stronger than swords. This circle gets more complicated with the introduction of magic users and archers.%Gallery-24722%
Pre-order Yggdra Union, get a soundtrack CD
Atlus' upcoming Yggdra Union is revamping the cult classic GBA SRPG for Sony's handheld. For those that can't wait for some more card-battling action, we heed you to pre-order the game at Gamestop. As usual, Atlus has cooked up another cool pre-order gift. This time, Yggdra Union comes with a free soundtrack CD which contains 56 tracks of music from the game. For those that were already interested in picking up the unique SRPG, this is certainly a nice bonus.%Gallery-24722%
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New Yggdra Union screens are your business
Atlus' upcoming PSP-exclusive remake of the GBA classic Yggdra Union is looking quite sharp. The sprites look wonderful, and will seemingly pop out of the PSP screen. Multiple endings, dual language tracks, and classic card-based RPG action. What more can we ask for? Watch for it on September 16th.%Gallery-24722%
Busy new screenshots of Yggdra Union
To be honest, we have no idea how Yggdra Union must've played back on the Game Boy Advance. The upcoming enhanced PSP remake features so much visual information on the screen that we can't imagine how cluttered the interface must've been on the GBA screen. Yggdra Union is proud to take advantage of PSP's widescreen aspect ratio. But we have to admit, after looking at these screens, we feel like we may be overwhelmed by even the most basic battles.Check out our updated gallery:%Gallery-24722%
Atlus officially announces Yggdra Union [Update]
Atlus is sending more love to PSP on September 16th, as it releases the PSP version of Yggdra Union. Originally released on Game Boy Advance, the PSP version adds completely remastered audio and visuals, featuring the art of Satoko Kiyuzuki. Fully voice dialogue in both Japanese and English, widescreen support, additional difficulty settings and new unlockable content are all added for the American PSP release of this RPG. This looks to be quite a remarkable localization, we must admit.Check out the first screenshots in our brand new gallery, and stay tuned for more in the coming months. Update: Okay, so not everything is fully voiced. Atlus' Aram Jabbari noted that "there is some in-battle dialogue that is not voiced." We're not complaining, Aram! Things sound good.%Gallery-24722%
Yggdra Union likely coming to the States via Atlus
Atlus looks to be bringing even more love to PSP. After the release of R-Type Command, it looks like they have their eyes set on the RPG, Yggdra Union. The Atlus front page was updated with the image (above), and the cards on display look incredibly similar to the ones featured on Sting's official Yggdra Union website. Check out Siliconera to see the evidence.The reveal will happen on June 9th, so stay tuned to see if Spencer's sharp eyes are correct on this one. We're pretty certain that he is.
Knights in a Box with Yggdra Union
Sting is offering a special limited-edition package of their DS strategy game Knights in the Nightmare that honors the game's history, and (sort of) serves fans of the Dept. Heaven series to which the game belongs. We say "sort of" because the Knights in the Nightmare Dept. Heaven Episodes Series Special Pack includes the new DS game (Episode IV in the Dept. Heaven series) and the Game Boy Advance Yggdra Union (Episode II). There has yet to be an Episode III, and Episode I (Riviera: the Promised Land) isn't included.If you're a fan of Sting's series of tactical RPGs, chances are you have Yggdra Union. And if you're willing to pay 8,190 yen ($79) for a new DS strategy game, you're already a fan. Which means a bunch of Japanese collectors are going to end up with extra copies of Yggdra Union that will never come out of the package.
Worldwide PSP releases for the week of Jan. 20
After a few weeks without nary a release in any region, we're back to seeing the normal flow of games. While Rainbow Islands Evolution may not be the big-name release that some of you have hoped for, we're sure a few people out there have been anticipating its release.North America Games Rainbow Islands Evolution Europe Games No new releases Asia Games Lumines II (The Best Collection) Winning Eleven Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone If importing is in your nature, you might want to check out Yggdra Union, which is a remake of the GBA version released in 2006. It's a tactical RPG, so if you've already beaten Jeanne d'Arc and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, this could be right up your alley.
Yggdra Union trailer, filled with epic 2D fights
So you finished Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics (how did you manage that?!). And now you want something more. Yggdra Union is hitting Japan very soon, and will offer PSP fans yet another opportunity at tactical RPG action. This remake of the GBA original features brand new cutscenes and widescreen presentation. It goes to show that good 2D will always look good.
Confirmed: Yggdra Union intro is pretty
Before, we could only presume that Yggdra Union's anime intro was going to be pretty. Now, we can confirm that it is. This PSP remake of the cult GBA RPG features high-quality anime cinematics that expands the game's universe far from its humble GBA origins. But that's not all! There's more videos to be discovered at Sting's official website. [Via PSPHyper]
It's too pretty: the Yggdra intro
The upcoming PSP remake of Yggdra Union is getting a brand new opening cinematic. And like most anime introductions, it's stunning. Yukio Takatsu, director of animation for Persona 3, will also be helming work for this intro.Go to Gpara for more screens from the game. If this much effort is being put into the cinematics, we're hoping the rest of the game will look just as vibrant.[Via PSPHyper]
Yggdra Union remade for PSP
The cult Game Boy Advance RPG Yggdra Union is being remade for the PSP, according to the latest issue of Famitsu [via IGN]. The hard-to-pronounce game plays similarly to the Fire Emblem games. The PSP version will feature enhancements, such as new characters, voice acting, and a new widescreen presentation -- but won't be available in Japan until January 2008. There's a lot of time to add new content before then.
