A GAME FOR EACH OF THE VITA’S TEN YEARS – PART 2

PART 1
PART 3

For the people it was lost on last time, this is the OFFICIAL Vita promo art that yesterday’s header was based on. 2012, was apparently a simpler time.

In part one we explored the first three years of the Vita’s life. We had huge releases like Persona 4 Golden (though I recommend a different visual novel), numerous award winning indies and PlayStation 2 remasters and classics. These were huge years at the beginning of the consoles life, but as we know this is also when Sony started to withdraw its support for its own handheld.

Despite Sony trying its best to smother the Vita and pretend that it never existed, some amazing games still continued to be released on the portable powerhouse, and here are just a few of my favourites.

Lost Dimension (2015)

My heart broke as I wrote this title and I actually deleted and retyped it over and over. We have tempting visual novels like Steins; Gate and Code Realize, great rhythm games like Persona 4 Dancing and Taiko no Tatsujin, complex fighters, action and shooters such as Skull Girls, God Eater 2 and Darius Burst, and of course lashings of indies including my favourite game of all time Shovel Knight. 2015, is possibly the Vita’s greatest year, and for it I have chose the greatest game you’ve never played Lost Dimension.

Lost Dimension transcends so many genres and pulls them all together beautifully. RPG, visual novel, choices matter, strategy, puzzle and action. It has a solid cast of characters who you interact with and befriend, and heart-breaking decisions to eliminate players you care about for the good of the mission, or let them live on knowing they will turn against you. That is if you can even figure out the ever changing imposter. Play Lost Dimension. You will never regret it.

Severed (2016)

2016, didn’t go quite as hard as 2015 but there were still a number of stand out titles which I could easily recommend. Yomawari is one of the most atmospheric horror games I’ve ever played, Vanillaware released one of the most popular of their gorgeous action titles Odinsphere, Shantae: Half Genie Hero is a stunning metroidvania and Crypt Of The Necrodancer is an amazing rogue-like rhythm game. There are also sequels to other previously mentioned titles but I chose Severed as a title built specifically for the Vita.

Severed is the first Vita game I played from start to finish without putting the console down. I became obsessed, I blistered my fingers swiping them rapidly over the screen. In this RPG, you roam the world severing parts off the beasts in your path to level up. The story is as beautiful and well thought out as the combat, and the controls so unique I was enthralled. When thinking of why the Vita is so special Severed encompasses many of those reasons.

Deemo (2017)

2017 brought us Undertale, it brought us Rabi Ribi, then there is Papers Please, VA-11 HALL-A and Lichtspeer. In fact 2017 brought the Vita one of the greatest indie games of all time Salt and Sanctuary, amongst a number of new franchise entries Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, The Nonary Games, Danganronpa V3, and Chaos; Child. While Deemo is not the greatest in this list of absolute bangers, it is in my opinion the greatest rhythm game on the Vita.

Rhythm is a genre which the Vita does incredibly well, but Deemo sets itself apart with its style. It has interwoven a story between the hundreds of songs with an art style absolutely dripping in gorgeous. The Vita’s touch screen compliments the play style for the piano music as you feel yourself a concert pianist. The piano music of Deemo crosses so many genres and yet maintains the quality. On a console which has music games in abundance Deemo stands out.

Find out my final recommendations for the Vita’s final years in my last part.