The Best PSP RPGs

Loosely inspired by the historical Joan of Arc, Jeanne D'arc is a turn-based, strategy RPG with a fantasy setting that includes dragons, ogres, and magic. Combat is grid-based and tactical. Players can expect over 40 hours of gameplay.

Collect multiple characters throughout the adventure and utilize up to seven at a time within each battle in strategic combinations. Customize your characters and your team with 150 skills and abilities.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII begins seven years before Final Fantasy VII. The Shinra Company is quickly becoming a monopoly in mako energy and military power. An elite group of combat operatives, known as SOLDIER 1st Class, are idolized by the people.

The storyline:

Our protagonist, Zack, is a young SOLDIER 2nd Class who dreams of becoming one of those elites. When a large number of SOLDIER members under the leadership of 1st Class operative Genisis disappear, Shinra executives send another group of SOLDIER operatives in hope of finding out what happened. Zack and two 1st Class operatives: his mentor Angeal and Sephiroth, are on that team. Unravel the mystery and discover what secrets bind the three 1st Class operatives.

Combat is real time.

This excellent Final Fantasy RPG offers role-playing gamers and Final Fantasy fans over 30 hours of adventure.

Brave Story: New Traveler is a beautiful 3D RPG with turn-based combat.

The storyline:

On an ordinary day, two friends are enjoying a peaceful afternoon. Suddenly, the young girl falls to a mysterious illness and shows no sign of waking. The boy, Tatsuya, hears a voice offering him a way to save his friend. And thus he steps into the world of Vision.

The storyline is interesting and engaging as it begins to flesh out. The gameplay, too, offers some unusual spins on cooperative skills, special abilities, and the upgrade/crafting system.

From the product features:

Friendship - Form bonds with party members to create new, cooperative skills.
Courage - Use "brave power" (BP) to unleash powerful special abilities.
Growth - The hero's weapon will evolve as he collects gemstones. New accessories can be forged by collecting and combining materials. Each character can also unlock a one-of-a-kind innate ability.

Product features excerpt from: Brave Story: New Traveler on Amazon.com.

Star Ocean: Second Evolution is a rebuilt, upgraded version of Star Ocean: The Second Story.

This remake features improvements in character design, game engine, and the real-time battle system, with the addition of new playable characters, facial expression changes, voiced dialogue, private actions, and cut-scenes.

Storyline:

Twenty years after the events on planet Roak in the original game of the series, the son of the Hero of the Terran Alliance is accidentally transported to an uncharted planet. He soon finds himself on a hero's journey of his own. Titled the Hero of Light, as foretold in prophecy, he undertakes an epic quest to save the planet and its people.

Product features info from: Star Ocean: Second Evolution on Amazon.com.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable offers the persona rpg gameplay gamers know and love with improved playability. Persona 3 Portable features almost all of the content from Persona 3 along with aspects of Persona 3 FES. Skill cards, part time jobs, and the ability to control your team mates in battle are among the new improvements over earlier games. Also new: the ability to play as a female character, giving the story and social interactions a new perspective.

If that's all greek to you, know that you, as the pc, are a new transfer to Gekkoukan High School. Before long, you are attacked by shadowy monsters that feed on the minds of their victims.The attack reveals that you share a special ability with the other students. In the Dark Hour, a hidden time between one day and the next, Shadows swarm. Joining with your fellow students, you use your abilities to fight this evil.

Product features info from: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable on Amazon.com.

Lenneth is a Valkyrie, an epic being from Norse myth who can hear the thoughts of the dead and dying. She is tasked with collecting the souls of worthy warriors among the dead, to train them for a war between the gods.

This is a port of a classic and beloved Playstation title. On the PSP Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth offers enhancements such as new CG cut scenes and a battle system that allows you to control four heroes at once.

Product features info from: Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth on Amazon.com.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is a port of the PS2 game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. This turn-based, tactical rpg has a rebuilt story offering a new experience and new ending. Other enhancements include new multiplayer modes: Battle, Defeat the Leader & Capture the Flag.

Storyline: As the player character, you are Laharl, Prince of the Underworld. You've just taken a Rip Van Winkle style nap lasting two years. You awake to find your father, the King, dead, and the question of who will succeed him is undecided. You must regain control of the Netherworld while dealing with inept assassins, indifferent underlings, and hilarious parodies.

Product features info from: Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness on Amazon.com.

Crimson Gem Saga is a turn-based Japanese RPG with beautiful sprite-based, 2-D artwork, offering 30+ hours of gameplay.

The storyline is a classic fantasy tale of adventure and heroism, which, while not groundbreaking, delivers a satisfying experience for old-school RPG gamers. Your character, Killian, keeps coming in second. Nothing seems to be going his way. But tricky Fate, she has something up her sleeve....

One of the things I love finding in an RPG are witty comments about the different objects and people your player character can interact with in-game. That sort of writing makes me want to run around talking to everyone and trying to interact with everything. Crimson Gem Saga is one of those games.

Product features info from: Crimson Gem Saga on Amazon.com.