Summary
- The PS Vita had a great library of RPGs, both exclusives and games from home consoles, making it a hit among fans of the genre.
- Tokyo Xanadu, Mary Skelter: Nightmares, Dungeon Travelers 2, and Tales of Hearts are some of the standout RPGs on the PS Vita.
- While the PS Vita may no longer be supported, there are still many wonderful Vita games worth playing, including Dragon's Crown, Muramasa Rebirth, Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited, and Soul Sacrifice.
The PS Vita may not have been a huge success for Sony, but there are many fans who enjoyed the second attempt by the company to go handheld. Part of the reason for this was the great library of games that were available to play on the go. Those who enjoy the role-playing genre should be among the happiest with the line-up.
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The device had quite a collection of RPGs that included both exclusives and games put on home consoles as well. These weren't smaller, unknown games either, as many of the RPGs on the PS Vita could be considered among the greatest ever made.
Updated on October 8, 2023, by Chris Birsner: It has been years since Sony has had a handheld active in the market, as the PS Vita was the last one they released to have active support from many developers. This makes the announcement of the PlayStation Portal all the more interesting as it gives people a way to play their PlayStation 5 games in the palm of their hands, giving people the feeling of playing on a device like the PS Vita again. Meanwhile, while its library stays stagnant, there are so many wonderful Vita games that are worth playing. To be specific, there are some great PS Vita RPGs that hold up to this day.
20 Tokyo Xanadu
A spin-off of the old-school action RPG Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, Tokyo Xanadu takes place in an alternate reality Tokyo where the city has been recovering from an earthquake that happened ten years prior. The game surrounds Kou Tokisaka, a high school student who one night finds his classmate in a suspicious situation.
After following her, Kou gets pulled into the nightmare realm known as Eclipse. His classmate, Asuka Hiiragi, reveals that she and a group called Nemesis are looking to close the realm off. The game involves real-time combat.
19 Mary Skelter: Nightmares
Mary Skelter: Nightmares
- Developer(s)
- Compile Heart
- Platform(s)
- PS Vita
- Genre(s)
- Strategy
A first-person dungeon crawler is not something one may hear about every day, but the indie title Mary Skelter: Nightmares takes on the genre and sticks the landing. The game's protagonists, Jack and Alice, are freed from a jail cell by Blood Maidens, a group of girls with supernatural abilities.
However, they find out that the city they were in has been absorbed by this monster known as the Jail. The primary objective of the game is to guide the party through a dungeon to take on bosses known as Nightmares.
18 Dungeon Travelers 2
The origins of Dungeon Travelers 2 are unique as the game comes from a line of Japanese visual novels that were focused more on romance than anything else. While still having some suggestive themes to it, this game departs from the others as a dungeon crawler.
The Kingdom of Romulea has been invaded by monsters that seemingly came out of nowhere, and it is up to the player's party to stop them from continuing to wreak havoc. This is a classic turn-based RPG while also having key elements that fall under the dungeon crawler genre, such as getting treasure and exploring through winding pathways.
17 Tales of Hearts
Dating back to 1995, the Tales series has been around now for 26 years and through 16 mainline titles plus many spin-offs. The eleventh main game in the series is titled Tales of Hearts and was originally released for the Nintendo DS.
The story revolves around a boy named Kor Meteor who attempts to save a woman, Kohaku Hearts, from being fully infected by a monster. Unfortunately, he instead destroys her Spiria, with pieces ending up landing around the world. In the remake for the PS Vita, the action RPG has fully-rendered character models and 3D environments.
16 Freedom Wars
While there wasn't a ton of them, there were some Sony studios that were interested in making PS Vita RPGs. Japan Studio, in collaboration with development studios Shift and Dimps, decided to make a game in an entirely different world: Freedom Wars.
Society has been divided into Panopticons, underground civilizations where the people who live there must do some work for the city they live in to survive. Criminals are forced to go to war for these Panopticons, one of whom is the protagonist of the main campaign. While online servers are shut down now, players can still play locally with friends in co-op or competitive modes.
15 World of Final Fantasy
World Of Final Fantasy
One of the most prestigious RPG franchises out there is Final Fantasy, so it makes sense that the minds over at Square Enix made a game celebrating it. In World of Final Fantasy, many of the characters that span the franchise's long history come together in the world of Grymoire.
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Lann and Reynn are the two protagonists; siblings that have the power to tame monsters. World of Final Fantasy pulls gameplay from the early Final Fantasy entries that focused heavily on turn-based fights using the series-staple Active Time Battle system.
14 Dragon's Crown
Dragon's Crown
- Released
- August 6, 2013
- Developer(s)
- Vanillaware
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
It's always fun when a video game comes out that feels just like living in a world made in Dungeons & Dragons, and Dragon's Crown definitely fits that vibe. From Vanillaware, the beat 'em up is set in a 2D environment where players take on the role of an adventurer.
Pick between six different classes that will determine the overall approach to combat, and get ready to do a ton of dungeon crawling. The game also has a central hub town where adventurers can accept quests, keep track of certain collectibles, and upgrade their gear.
13 Muramasa Rebirth
Not often are there a ton of side-scrolling role-playing games, but Muramasa Rebirth is another one. The game was originally published for the Wii under the name Muramasa: The Demon Blade before being remastered a few years later for the PS Vita exclusively.
Set in the Edo period in Japan, the main campaign revolves around two protagonists and their relation to the Demon Blades, samurai swords that possess the individuals that wield them. Muramasa Rebirth also adds four separate stories based on Japanese folklore under the title Genroku Legends.
12 Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited
A company that has long been making RPGs is Nippon Ichi Software, usually abbreviated NIS. One of its well-known franchises is Disgaea, a tactical role-playing game that is approaching seven released entries in the series.
One of the best Vita RPGs from NIS was Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited. The setting is the Netherworld, and players take on the role of Valvatorez, a vampire looking to fight back against those in power, specifically President Hugo. While the game has its usual turn-based combat, it introduces an ability for characters to pick each other up and combine forces.
11 Soul Sacrifice
Games can sometimes fall into using the same formula as other titles, just under a different veil. Soul Sacrifice introduces a wild mechanic that makes it stand out in a deep role-playing game genre. In the game, players have been enslaved by an evil sorcerer named Magusar.
In order to defeat them, players must use a book called Librom to relive past fights between the sorcerer and other monsters. The mechanic that makes Soul Sacrifice interesting is the need to sacrifice parts of the player's body to become more powerful.