The Playstation Vita Catch-All

Persona 4 Golden does a lot of things very differently to the other JRPGs you mentioned, so you might like it. It's more a visual novel for the most part.

Other Vita games I love:
Soul Sacrifice Delta. (Dark, Occult based Monster Hunter genre)
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir. (Norse Mythology Hack n' Slash. Might just be titled Odin Sphere, not sure)
Dragon's Crown. (Also a Hack n' Slash. Spiritually akin to Golden Axe)
The Sly Cooper Collection. (Haven't played these on Vita, but I love the PS2 games)

It depends, almost all JRPGs play great on vita due to its sleep function, being able to walk away from a game with no progress loss at any time is great. Here's some of my favs from past years.
Modnation (arcade racer, not as good as PS3 version, but still alot of fun)
Sonic Racing Allstars (very solid racing game)
Ys Memories of Celceta (action RPG with good exploration and combat)
Legend of Heroes games (very good JRPGs, but very long so may not be your cup of tea)
Hot Shots Golf (one of the best golf games on any console)
Lumines (I don't know how to describe this)
Severed (first person dungeon crawler that using vita's touch screen to its fullest, don't let that scare you its excellent)
Wipeout 2048 (very good racing game if you don't have access to PS4 version)

Lumines is great. Geometry Wars 3 and Super Stardust Delta are outstanding twin stick shmups that work great on Vita. Shiren is an incredible rogue-like but, if that's not your thing then maybe you should just sell it. Rogue Legacy was a lot of fun. Pixel Junk Monsters for tower defense.

It's also a great platform for PSP or PS1 classics.

I also bought and hacked a Vita Slim earlier this year.
Over the last month it proved to be a loyal partner while chilling by the lake.
So I put an SNES Emulator on it and finished FF6 and A Link to the Past on it. Now I'm looking into the Metal Gear Series.
After abandoning my PSP I was a bit worried if I really would fall in love with the Vita but I did.

Also great Games are Guacamelee and Steam World Dig. Especially the last one is perfect because of the short gameloop.

Brand new Vita (well, sorta) owner here, bought it exclusively as a portable Spelunky machine... but I suppose I should check out other things that the console has to offer.

This is my initial list for Vita:

Gravity Rush
MGS HD Collection
Odin Sphere Leifthraiser
Tearaway
Lost Dimension

I wish I had bought Odin Sphere for Vita instead of PS4. I know I would have played it more.

Yay for Odin Sphere getting more play!
Some additional titles you should check out:

Dragon Crown
Persona 4 Golden
Soul Sacrifice Delta

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Lumines is great. Geometry Wars 3 and Super Stardust Delta are outstanding twin stick shmups that work great on Vita. Shiren is an incredible rogue-like but, if that's not your thing then maybe you should just sell it. Rogue Legacy was a lot of fun. Pixel Junk Monsters for tower defense.

It's also a great platform for PSP or PS1 classics.

I'll just quote myself :).

I got very excited to see Bloodstained in the PlayStation Store and bought it immediately, having heard enough press about the game to know it's probably up my alley even though not everyone had sung its praise.

...except, it's NOT the Bloodstained I expected! I played about 2 hours thinking, surely, the real game would reveal itself, but it just kept trudging through its 16-bit mediocrity. Something was off.

Turns out it's a Kickstarter stretch goal that got released for Vita, while the proper Vita game got cancelled! Needless to say, I'm very disappointed. I feel hoodwinked. Definitely not worth the $10 I plunked down for it.

Taharka wrote:

Yay for Odin Sphere getting more play!
Some additional titles you should check out:

Dragon Crown
Persona 4 Golden
Soul Sacrifice Delta

Nice, I'll add 'em to the list!

Ahh, yeah. The proper Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is out for Switch, but I understand it needs work.
What you played is Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, which is a prequel of sorts.

Curse of the Moon is pretty good and worth $10 in my opinion but I can understand the disappointment if you were expecting SotN and got Castlevania 3.

Various outlets are reporting that download support for the PS3, Vita, and PSP will be shut down later this summer. Allegedly July for the PS3 and PSP; August for the Vita. The online store has been inaccessible through the web interface since the redesign in October, but this will shut down all purchases even from on the platforms themselves. It's not known yet how this will affect being able to re-download past purchases.

Long story short: if there's a digital game from one of those platforms that you've wanted, now is the time to get it and get it downloaded.

I have several PS+ titles that I kept meaning to play on the PSTV. Guess they need to go to the top of the pile now, huh.

I'm really worried about the re-download part. Do I need to go back to buying physical games on Switch? Is the same thing going to happen to the Switch?

Eventually, yes, which is why there's a bunch of folks who pay for physical.

Sounds like I need to make sure I back up all my digital Vita games to my PC... And that I hack my PS3 in order to do the same...

The writing was on the wall when they pretty much nuked the PC web stores for PS3/VIta/PSP. I've put CFW on all 3 of those systems now and "backed up" the essential games. And I certainly haven't spent a cent on anything since that time (I don't think there's been any new releases but I still had quite a few Vita games wishlisted). I would like to think that they can take down the transactional part of the store and basically keep the download list available for existing purchased content but it seems unlikely that is the case.

I'm kind of mad but not surprised. Sony has been behind MS in terms of BC and curating their older games. But this still sucks.

If you are interested in CFW for Vita/PSP there are some nice perks. Playing UMD only games off memory cards on PSP, SD card support for Vita, translation patches, and overclocking for smoother frame rates.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

If you are interested in CFW for Vita/PSP there are some nice perks. Playing UMD only games off memory cards on PSP, SD card support for Vita, translation patches, and overclocking for smoother frame rates.

Good point. I have been doing CFW for PSP for some time now, but I left my Vita alone because I didn’t want to break the store functionality. Now I have no excuse.

So as this is happening I'll be needing some expert gwj advice please.

I still play my vita. I only have a 16gb Sony card and have always just rotated games on and off. It's been annoying but accepted, didn't want to hack anything as no experience in that and didn't want to bodge it up.

Now though what are my options if I can't rotate downloads from the store when it gets shut down? With PS+ games included I must have 100gb or more of games available to me.

Also what happens to those PS+ games when all this kicks in? Do you just keep them forever regardless of being a subscriber or do they just become unavailable beyond the store closing. I guess you only get to keep what you have downloaded already if the store is closed like any other game?

There's time to sort it, but the vita has been the one console went full digital on and so don't want to lose access to majority of my library.

It's weird. The vita and now the PS4 (in part because of that awful noisy disc drive) have just naturally crept into download only for me. However on Switch wherever possible it's felt just as natural to buy physical. Maybe it's a cartridge Vs disc thing, a nostalgia to it, silent... Big part is because aware Nintendo stuff holds its value for trades, but it's not just that... Somehow it just feels right.

Sony have managed to draw me deep into their download ecosystem without really foreseeing the consequences further down the line. The vita and to a much larger extent the PS4 l have built up a whopper digital library, more than I'll ever get to play, my son too... It does now feel like I'm stuck with them and onto the ps5 to retain all that investment.

I've gone off on a random tangent, not entirely related... Just something been thinking about.

If the stores stop allowing downloads you should be able to return your games.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

So as this is happening I'll be needing some expert gwj advice please.
I still play my vita. I only have a 16gb Sony card and have always just rotated games on and off. It's been annoying but accepted, didn't want to hack anything as no experience in that and didn't want to bodge it up.

Now though what are my options if I can't rotate downloads from the store when it gets shut down? With PS+ games included I must have 100gb or more of games available to me.

Once you have CFW installed, you need to buy an SD card adapter. It actually goes in the Vita game cart slot, not the memory card slot. So, you can use both memory card types simultaneously. There are a couple of steps to migrate existing installations over to the SD card. Either way that should give you 16GB + whatever SD card you choose to buy.

Alternatively, CFW allows you to backup your installed games to your PC or wherever. You could also just download installable packages for the games (you legally have access to) from *ahem* places, frankly it can be faster and more convenient to do so. I won't go into any more detail here.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Also what happens to those PS+ games when all this kicks in? Do you just keep them forever regardless of being a subscriber or do they just become unavailable beyond the store closing. I guess you only get to keep what you have downloaded already if the store is closed like any other game?

With regard to PS+ games, they should have an expiration date attached to them even if you're not connected to PSN. That date should be whenever your PS+ is due to run out. I presume that date should at least still update whenever you renew PS+ as long as there is still basic PSN connectivity for Vita but who knows.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

There's time to sort it, but the vita has been the one console went full digital on and so don't want to lose access to majority of my library.

Same.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Various outlets are reporting that download support for the PS3, Vita, and PSP will be shut down later this summer. Allegedly July for the PS3 and PSP; August for the Vita. The online store has been inaccessible through the web interface since the redesign in October, but this will shut down all purchases even from on the platforms themselves. It's not known yet how this will affect being able to re-download past purchases.

Long story short: if there's a digital game from one of those platforms that you've wanted, now is the time to get it and get it downloaded.

Thanks for the heads up, ClockworkHouse.

Sony's decision seems fair enough. According to Eurogamer.

By that point, the PSP store will have been active for over 16 years, with the PlayStation 3 and Vita stores making it to 15 and ten years respectively.

I'm actually surprised that the PSP store was still up. I thought PSP and PS Vita games had been pruned a few years ago.

I'll have to get on there later today, and make some purchases. I've got a few physical games for both handhelds that cost me enough that I'm reluctant to open them. I guess I'll need to upgrade to much large memory card for my Vita. I've currently got a 64GB, but I'll want more if I'm going to create an archive machine.

Is it possible to use non-Sony ones in Vita's now? If so, can someone point me to a brand?

Nope and 64GB is the largest size. You’ll need to go the SD route if you want more.

One thing that shocked me recently is that new Vita hardware now goes for at least ¥30,000 on Amazon, that’s a ¥10,000 markup on retail. I dropped mine a few weeks back on hard concrete, glad it was ok.

I'd better redownload Persona 4 gold I guess.

Damn. One of the best handhelds ever made.

Cheers Mr GT Chris, lots to look into there. I'm not too fussed about the PS+ stuff as most of the games I want to keep would have purchased outright. I did just wonder though how this would affect that side of things if there wasn't that connectivity.

I guess there's no real way of avoiding using CFW to back stuff up (Earlier I had to look up what CFW stood for... I have that little experience in that side of things!)

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Nope and 64GB is the largest size. You’ll need to go the SD route if you want more.

Just looked out of interest on eBay at what the 64gb cards sell for pre-owned right now...

Roughly average last couple months sold for about £80.

The prices of Vita-related products are stratospheric now. My go-to site is Play Asia. A 'new' Vita is over $550. And a 64GB card is $299. Supply and demand I guess.

I remember the same thing happening with the PS3, when I belatedly thought of getting a spare. The going rate on ebay appears to be £300-£500.

On the plus side, my Vita tells me that I've still got 60GB of space left, so I can probably fit another dozen or so games on it.

I'd welcome advice on what I should buy before the online stores close. I'm not one for platforming games.
I've got a couple of JRPGs, but I am open to trying more of them. And I do like puzzlers. And I've got a fair few of the murder mystery , Danganronpa.

I'll be honest, I'm more inclined to jailbreak my Vita than I am to try and find a larger card.

64GB is ¥20,000 on Amazon so 80 pounds doesn’t sound too bad!

The CFW process wasn’t so hard, easier than PS3 and 3DS which I did around the same time.

Yeah there are adapters that let you put microSD cards in the cartridge slot. But the system has to be hacked. I'm tempted, but I dunno.

For the record, you can have 10 backups of your vita on your PC. Make sure it's not a fat32 hard drive else you can only have 4gb backup files. I'm going to start messing with it this weekend.