6/26/10

[PSP] 真・女神転生 デビルサマナー


Megami Tensei is the stuff that legends are made of. Originally a book authored by Aya Nishitani, it told the story of a computer prodigy who created a program that can summon demons to exact revenge on his enemies, but ended up sacrificing a girl whom he had a familiar connection with. This very tale served as the backdrop of the role-playing franchise created by Atlus, which set it apart from the other RPGs of it's time because of the contemporary backdrop and fiendish mix of sorcery and technology.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner was the first official spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series that was released for the Sega Saturn in 1995, serving as a thematic change from the first few games. It was re-released for the PSP in 2005 to commemorate it's 10th year anniversary.

6/23/10

[PSP] Dead Or Alive Paradise


Fighting games never were my strong suit. I didn't really get into the discipline of undergoing rote memorization of timing and combo strings, plus I do not compete with anybody aside from the A.I. Even so, I have at least two fighting titles that I'm confident with. One is Shiritsu Justice Gakuen, and the other is Dead Or Alive. What do they have in common? Aside from an easy-to-learn fighting engine, they also featured fanservice. JG specialized in panchira, while DOA had healthy servings of oppai.

Dead Or Alive not only spawned several fighting game sequels to it's name, but also a handful of titles devoted to nothing more than pure bikini and oppai peep shows. It all began with DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the now-extinct vanilla Xbox, followed by DOA Xtreme 2 for the 360. Dead Or Alive Paradise serves as the third installment of these shameless DOA games, and is officially the first one ever released for a portable console.

6/20/10

[PSP] 東京鬼祓師 鴉乃杜學園奇譚


Atlus Japan always churns out the most innovative games out there. With their well-established Megami Tensei series (which later became Shin Megami Tensei), the company has gained a cult following among RPG fans in Japan, and overseas to a lesser extent. July 2006 gave Atlus mainstream exposure through Persona 3, which introduced fans to a concept that was unheard of prior: the melding of RPG and galge. It has since gone through a sequel and 2 revisions. They also introduced a female character in the PSP version to gain appeal with otome game fans as well.

Tokyo Mono Hara Shi: Karasunomori Gakuen Kitan is Atlus' recent RPG release that borrows a handful of elements from Megami Tensei, Devil Summoner and the Persona series while establishing it's own identity, making it unique but a bit inaccessible at first glance.