Quick PSP Impressions #3

Here is the last batch of impressions from the glut of PSP games that I got a chance to play somewhat recently.

Z. H. P.
This was a game I wanted to pick up after seeing the trailers for it, since I love NIS.  The plot is funny, but a little too much "let's make fun of this poor sap you play as" for my taste.  The writing is good, though.  The game is a dungeon crawler, similar to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.  The power up grid was big and I could see lots of potential min/maxing there, but it also seemed a bit more complicated that it should be.  It was kinda fun, but I never had enough money (especially for my Prinny wife), and the weapons ran out of durability too quickly for me.  I would pick it up if the download went on sale for $5 or so, but I was a little disappointed in it, to be honest.

Cladun x2
Like Z.H.P. above, this is a mystery dungeon style game.  I actually enjoyed it a bit more, though.  The movement is free roam (as opposed to Z.H.P.'s grid based) and feels more fluid.  The combat was faster, the player can dash and slide while running around.  An added plus was that you can customize your character when you start, and fully customize them later.  Party members and magic circles was almost too confusing, but I understood it pretty quick.  I was looking to pick this one up sooner rather than later, but I ended up picking up Legasista for PS3 instead.  It is basically the PS3 version of Cladun with high-res graphics.  I'll see how I feel after I beat that game before revisiting the idea of picking this up.  Also, I read that transferring the character creation data to the Vita is a pain in the rear.

Last and least is a game called Venus and Braves.  I really didn't like it, which is sad because the PS2 one looked great.  The PSP one was supposed to have Tales characters thrown in too, but I'm not going to get that far.  It took too long to get to a save point, the battle system seems needlessly complicated and...well, I just didn't have fun in the 30 mins I played.

If you would like more in-depth impressions of any of these titles, let me know in the comments and I can write them up, time permitting.  Thanks.