Recommendation for handheld with PSO?

Mad

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I think I want to give one of the PSO games for handhelds a try, but I don’t know which one.

My last handheld was the Game Boy, so I would have to buy the game as well as the handheld.

Which PSO game + handheld can you recommend?

Criteria:

  • I’d like the game to be similar (close in spirit etc.) to the PSO I know.

    I’ve played PSO ver. 1 and PSO ver. 2 on Dreamcast, PSO for PC, PSO Episode 1 & 2 on GameCube, and PSOBB. And I like all of them, but primarily Episode 1, so it’s mostly the same game anyway. (I also played PSO Episode 3, but it’s of course a different type of game.)

    PSU was nice, but too different (didn’t give me the PSO feel). And at least after watching some videos of PSO 2, it doesn’t give me the "PSO feel" either.


  • A still working online multi-player would be nice to have, but I’ll probably play solo most of the time (if not always), so I don’t especially care about that.


  • I’d like the handheld to be inexpensive (and I don’t want to buy a used one), because I won’t use it for any other game (at least I have no plans yet; a good gaming library would be a plus, of course).


  • A long battery life would be great.


  • I don’t care about graphic quality.
 
Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity is the best PS game in the entire PSO/PSU series (except perhaps the original PSO, of course). As long as you have a PSP and a decent sized memory stick, you can get it for free by putting CFW on the PSP, which requires no extras at all and is seamlessly done. The game boasts a huge amount of content, including quests, areas, weaponry, grinding (as in, levelling and stuff, max is 200), etc. etc. The gameplay is solid and satisfying, as it works in normals and PAs very well with its chain system.

While the game is based off the PSU engine (as opposed to PSO), the game is still easy to get into. It was my first game in the PSU series and I absolutely loved it, coming from a PSO background like yourself.

The closest handheld PS game to the PSO series is Phantasy Star Zero on the Nintendo DS though. While it is a solid game, I personally find it lacks in length and re-playability, with only 7 areas which are all randomly generated (so no plethora of unique quests with their own feels to give the same areas re-playability, etc.). There's 100 levels as well, and the gameplay is slightly clunky because there's no way to menu properly in that game, but it's still very fun until you feel like you are "done"

However, none of the handhelds have a working online multiplayer anymore. PSP2's servers were taken down last month, and PSZ's servers (WFC) were taken down a year or two ago, if I remember correctly. The "current" handheld PS game is Nova, which has no online functionality...

For PSP2, you can still play with people with online AdHoc software, I believe, and PSZ requires you to mod the game either through a .rom patch or AR code to connect to others servers, as otherwise it just connects to WFC by default which is down...
 
matt forgot to mention that psp2 infinity is in JP. deal breaker for me, same as pso2. (eng. patch or no). though, psp2(non-infinity) was def playable since you can get it in english. after playing psp1 and being introduced to the psu-type system with PAs n such, i found it pretty cool. you just have to find PA's you like with your weapon of choice.

kinda sucks because i went thru with getting a legit copy of psp2:infinity, but never learned enough jp to actually play it.
 
Oh right, I actually forgot about that because it's a non-issue for me.

Though for just gameplay, if you were learn to Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ), PSP2:I is extremely easy to navigate around and play, although you'd miss out on flavour text and understanding the story, naturally. I'd still recommend the English Vanilla game over PSZero though, I think. The JP DLC is compatible with the english version of PSP2 as well, so you won't be missing out on that (DLC will be in JP, but nothing you can do about that).

There is actually a translation patch for Infinity being worked on here, but it's got no ETA and is just being worked on when the creators feel like it.
 
Yup!

It's a shame too, because it's honestly one of the better PS games (miles better than PSO2) but it can only be played offline like the first Portable game.
 
I still wish Zero got more support and love, it was really neat for what it was. Too bad a hacking/modding scene for it will never exist because DS is very emulateable nowadays. It'd be neat to see it expanded by the fans.
 
I recommend playing Phantasy Star Zero if you want something close to pso. It has both pso and psu elements to it but the story is pretty good. The online mode however was shut down.
 
I'll second PSP2, I haven't played PSP2i but PSP2 was excellent and really made Phantasy Star Universe what it should have been from the start.
 
PSP2 and PSP2i are colletively the best handheld Phantasy Star games in my opinion, but I'm going to pitch my recommendation for PSZ. It aims to be a spiritual successor to PSO and does well for its system limitations, whereas PSP/2/i are set in the PSU style that you say you're not a fan of, and ditto for Nova to PSO2.

PSP2/i is what PSU should've been to begin with, and I still strongly recommend it if you can get past the hurdle of it being PSU's successor, but if you don't want to take a gamble, PSZ is the safer route. Especially given the DS has an actual game library.

Why am I replying to a thread from 3 months ago
 
Why am I replying to a thread from 3 months ago

I’ll appreciate all opinions and recommendations already given and those still to come (in my universe, threads are never too old). So far I just had no opportunity to concentrate on this topic.
 
Right, my bad. I noticed after I made the post that the thread was pretty old and wasn't sure if you were still seeking opinions. All's good, then.
 
Phantasy Star Zero on the DS is kind of fun, but I haven't touched it in a long time and I remember it generally being pretty tedious. I think I really only got it to scratch that PSO itch, which I guess it sort of did. I don't remember if it even has multiplayer or not, but being a regular DS title it probably didn't have anything but local, if that. Maybe I'll have to dust it off one of these days, but I basically never use my 3DS except for when I'm traveling.
 
PSZ had online multiplayer, but the servers went down alongside many other DS titles a few years ago. Pretty sure it's still possible to emulate the servers and play with other people but I never looked into it.
 
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