Gamertell

The PSP just doesn’t get the love or respect that it deserves. It is the Jan of handheld video game systems. At least it is until the new NGage comes out. Then it might get to be Cindy for a while. The worst part is that this tendency towards it seems to be fairly universal.

Japan does offer a little more love for the system than other countries, so there at least a few extra games which never made it here. There happens to be two inconveniences to deal with when importing these games, and they are language and peer assistance. Most Japanese PSP games are text heavy. This results in very few import PSP games with user-created guides.

At that point, it is almost easier to search online for some of the free Japanese game demos released by Sony of Japan.

If you are really dedicated and willing to expend some effort, then there are quite a few titles out there worth looking at. In fact, I couldn’t distinguish between the two runner-up games today, because both are so fantastic and fun in their own ways. So if you love your PSP, pull up a chair and discover the Must Import PSP game.

Runner-up #2 - Princess Maker 4 Portable

The Princess Maker games have been around for a while in Japan, and have a fairly large fanbase. The games all have the same basic premise. You are the father (you may or may not be a warrior), the time period is possibly medieval and you have been charged with raising a 10 year old girl and making her into a princess. You also most likely have a demon butler named Cube, whose appearance never changes. You train the girl and raise her until she’s 18, sending her to work, school, festivals and around town. Based on her statistics at the end and the events she has been through, she ends up with one of about 30 different jobs and six different husbands.

Princess Maker 4 Portable follows the old routine pretty closely. It is a port of the PC game Princess Maker 4, with some extra additions. There are three possible princes (human, dragon and demon) and about 32 different endings available for her. There are a few tweaks though, such as new ways to unlock classes and jobs, best friend endings and the whole portable format. Its a fun simulator with lots of replay value. There’s a lot of text, but there are guides are available online and a few menu buttons in-game are in English. It will cost you around $49 online.

Runner-up #1 - Genso Suikoden I&II

Suikoden is a phenomenal series and this PSP game, Genso Suikoden I&II, combines the PSOne games that started the series off. Suikoden II was one of the best RPGs on the PSOne, and is the second best entry in the Suikoden series. This game is a direct port of the first two games, which works extra well since Suikoden II can be considered a direct sequel to Suikoden I. The heroes are different, but many of the 108 stars are the same in the second game.

Like all Suikoden games, each involves a random person gaining the power of one of the true runes and then gathering up the 108 Stars of Destiny to fight back against an oppressive force. These two games are classics, as they set the standard for the following games. Plus Suikoden II is one of my absolute favorite PSOne games. If anything, get this collection for Suikoden II alone, as it possesses a phenomenal and heartfelt story.

There is only one thing that mars the perfection of this game, the language barrier. There is a lot of text in both games, and in some cases the player must enter conversations with prospective recruits. Fans of the series who really want this game could probably get by with a guide written for the original games from Gamefaqs, but I doubt they’d get a complete ending. This one is a little more expensive than your average import game, so you’ll probably find it online for around $53.

Must Import PSP game - DJ Max Portable 2

DJ Max Portable 2 is by far the best import PSP game currently available. This music game from Pentavision features 60 songs. Players choose from four, five, six or eight button modes, and then presses those buttons when indicated by on-screen cues to play the songs. If you do well, then you enter Fever mode, which speeds up the notes and doubles, triples and quadruples your score. If your fingers get exhausted from playing, you can sit back, relax and listen to the game’s soundtrack on your PSP.

The best part about DJ Max Portable 2 is that there is no language barrier. The game has English, Korean and Japanese as language options, and when you start the game for the first time it asks what language you want. Also, many of the 60 songs are also in English. There is absolutely no reason to avoid importing this game. If you still are unsure, there is an official demo version of the game floating around online. You can download it, put it on your PSP and sample a five button mode song to see if the game is to your liking. This game can be found for around $50 online.

COMING NEXT WEEK: We’ll look at some of the strange DS peripherals that have popped up so far in Japan.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables covered the Must Import DS game.

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