25 Best PSP RPGs

The world of Terresia is being eaten. A "devourer" is after its mana, so the World Tree uses the last of its power to create a defender, and that defender is the player's own character, woken up by a strange creature named Mormo. It is the only Tales of the World game that was ever translated into English. It came out in Asia in 2006 and reached North America in July 2007.

It's a Tales game built around a hero you made yourself, which makes it an odd and rather charming side road for the series. Two sequels followed, but neither left Japan, so this is the only one English players ever got to try. Expect a cheerful action brawler with RPG bookkeeping on top, not a long talky epic.

Gurumin started life as a Japanese PC game, and the PSP release is a port of it with the rhythm bar removed. It first came out on Windows in December 2004, and the PSP version reached North America in 2007. A girl named Parin rescues a creature that turns out to be a monster only children can see, and the adventure starts from there.

The little action RPG later had to be remade for the 3DS as Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure. It has full voice acting for its characters. Players recommend it in the same breath as the Ys games, which is good company to keep. Beginner mode removes environmental hazards.

The pitch fits on the box: "You have 00:30 seconds to save the world!" Each quest is an entire RPG squeezed into half a minute, with the timer ticking at the top of the map. Every mode runs on a time limit, normally 30 seconds as the title says. In one mode you play an Evil Lord who can only be outdoors for 30 seconds at a time.

It treats a genre known for its length like a microwave meal, and somehow that works. It was later re-released on Xbox Live Arcade, and a sequel followed in Japan in 2011. It is the quickest way to feel like you saved a kingdom. Over 100 levels add up to more than 20 hours of play, 30 seconds at a time.

God Eater is the first game in its series. The story follows the six members of the Far East Branch's 1st Unit, part of an anti-Aragami organization called Fenrir, through a single-player mode of more than 100 missions. The version English players got was Burst, published by D3 Publisher. You can bring up to three teammates over local ad hoc wireless, or let the AI fill in.

God Eaters are either old-type, stuck with a gun or a blade, or new-type, who can switch between the two. It lives on the same shelf as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and Lord of Arcana. Bring a few friends and the missions go from tough to a good time. A sequel, God Eater 2, came out in Japan in 2013.

Square Enix called The 3rd Birthday a "cinematic action RPG". Director Hajime Tabata tied the story and the play together through a new ability called "Overdive", which lets you jump into the body of a teammate and take control of them. It reached sixth place on the Japanese sales charts.

It is played over the shoulder like a shooter, but the levelling keeps it on this side of the RPG line. It is the third game in the Parasite Eve series, though it has only a loose connection to the earlier games. It started as an episodic game for mobile phones before it became a PSP exclusive. Aya earns a grade at the end of each mission, based on how she performed.

The Oath in Felghana is a 3D reimagining of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. It is an action RPG with real-time combat, interconnected areas, platforming and large boss fights, and it began as a PC game in 2005. Yukihiro Jindo rearranged the music from Ys III for it. The full soundtrack came out as a 2-CD set in 2005.

Players who love the PSP's Ys games tend to recommend the whole set rather than one of them. Pick this one if you want the series at its fastest and most hands-on. The big boss fights are the part that sticks. A later PC release added achievements and leaderboards.

Valkyria Chronicles III is a tactical RPG that Sega developed and published for the PSP, and it came out on January 27, 2011, only in Japan. An expanded Extra Edition followed later that year. A fan translation of the expanded edition came out in 2014.

It never got an official English release, and it still beat out games that did. The reason was weak sales of the previous game. One player called it "really good if you patch it". The story runs parallel to the first game. Character designer Raita Honjou and composer Hitoshi Sakimoto came back from the earlier games. It uses the blitz battle system, carried over from the earlier games.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 is the sequel to the PS3 tactical RPG, and it was made only for the PSP. It takes place two years after the first game, in a fictional Europe of the 1930s, where a group of young Gallian Military Academy cadets get dragged into a civil war when the Gallian Revolutionary Army stages a coup. New class types are added, and units can change class along a branching tree of upgrades.

Players put it next to Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics when they list the PSP's strategy RPGs. The Armored Tech class carries large shields that can deflect rifle and machine gun fire, and the soldiers behind them swing a hammer instead of a gun. The themes are school and war, as the cadets juggle lessons and battle.

Fate/Extra is a dungeon crawler set in a parallel universe to the visual novel Fate/stay night. You pick a male or female lead and one of three Servants, Saber, Archer or Caster, then spend each in-game week gathering clues about the enemy Servant before you fight it. Aksys Games brought it to North America in 2011.

That detective work between fights is what makes it stand out. It's a dungeon crawl where the homework matters as much as the swordplay. In the knockout tournament, your first opponent is a boy who was given the role of your best friend. Shaft made an anime of the first game in 2018. A follow-up called CCC takes an alternate route through the same story.

Phantasy Star Portable was the first time Sega's long-running RPG went handheld in North America. The story sits between Phantasy Star Universe and Ambition of the Illuminus, and you join a new character, Vivienne, to clear out an area contaminated by the alien SEED. Sega released it in Japan in 2008 and in other markets in 2009.

You can team up with up to three friends. It's an action RPG, and a big one. You build your character from a long list of options, from face and eyelashes to jacket and voice pitch. A sequel followed in 2009. It rewards friends who sit down together and grind for gear, which is half the fun.

Growlanser is a series of fantasy strategy RPGs, and the PSP got its own version of the fourth game, Wayfarer of Time, which reached North America on July 31, 2012. Career Soft develops the series, and the series is owned by Atlus and Sega.

When players name Growlanser on the PSP, Wayfarer of Time is the one they mean. A whole album of vocal songs from the game came out in Japan as a companion. It suits strategy fans who want a story with some anime flair. Working Designs published the second and third games together in North America as a package.

PoPoLoCrois is the heart-warming story of Pietro, prince of the PoPoLoCrois Kingdom, and his adventures to save his family and, while he's at it, the world. The series is aimed at a young Japanese audience. The PSP release remakes the first game and its sequel, with a brand-new scenario in between.

It looks like a storybook because it more or less is one. In battle you move along a small grid and attack enemies from four directions. The first game starts on the night of Pietro's 10th birthday, when he learns his mother, long thought dead, was found in a coma. The series also exists as a manga.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is Monster Hunter Portable 2G, Japan's most successful PSP game, renamed for Europe and the US. It promised over 500 hours of play across some 400 missions, plus monsters and weapons that had never been released before. It is an expanded version of Monster Hunter Freedom 2.

Monster Hunter was one of the highest-selling PSP series in Japan, and the PSP was arguably where the series really started to flourish. Being able to hunt on the go turned out to be the whole trick. Capcom opened a temporary Gathering Hall in London to push the series in the West. A free demo was on the PlayStation Network in 2009.

Crimson Gem Saga is about as classic as Japanese RPGs come: high-resolution 2D artwork and a colourful, catchy score wrapped around a tale of fantasy heroism, all made to show off the PSP's screen. It was made by the South Korean studio IRONNOS. Atlus released it in North America in 2009, and in Japan it was called Garnet Chronicle.

Players keep listing it next to the PSP's other home-grown RPGs, like Brave Story and Hexyz Force. Early reviews liked the writing. It reached Apple's App Store in 2010. Metacritic gave the PSP version 78 out of 100. That is a solid score for a game most people have never heard of.

Lord of Arcana is a brutal action RPG from Square Enix for the PSP, with multiplayer for up to four players. Its monsters were designed together with well-known illustrators from Japan and abroad, including some of Square Enix's own staff. It has cinematic kills and mini-games.

It plays like Square Enix's answer to Monster Hunter, and of course Square Enix put the art department in charge of the monsters. Hitoshi Sakimoto was the sound producer, and Nobuo Uematsu was one of the composers. It is a good pick if you want that hunting loop with a bit more flash. The story takes place in a world called Horodyn, where an ancient stone known only as "Arcana" holds great magical power.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 picks up three years after the Phantasy Star Universe saga and brings it to its conclusion, with you as a mercenary trying to save the Gurhal system. It also took the series back to its online roots with Infrastructure mode. The North American version arrived in September 2010.

The sequel added new combat moves and weapons on top of the first game, and it sits six places above it on this list. You can carry your character over from the first game. If you only want one of the two, make it this one. Photon Charges have been removed from the game.

Hexyz Force is a traditional RPG set in the world of Berge, which has a light side and a dark side. At the start you pick between two heroes, the shrine maiden Cecilia or the knight Leevan, and the whole story changes depending on who you choose. It came out in Japan in November 2009 and in North America in May 2010. It was published by Atlus.

players keep listing it among the PSP's own RPGs, the ones that never came from anywhere else. Some reviewers found it short on challenge, and others praised its sound effects. It is a good, gentle pick if you want a classic JRPG that does not demand much.

Trails in the Sky is the first game in the main Trails series and the start of the Liberl arc. Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua travel the country of Liberl, training to become senior Bracers, members of an organization that keeps the peace and protects civilians. It began on PC in Japan, but English players first got it on the PSP. Xseed Games did not release it in English until 2011, because of the sheer amount of text to translate.

The story is split into a prologue and four chapters. It reached English players late, but it has been a fixture of PSP recommendations ever since. A remake, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, came out in 2025.

Adol and Dogi arrive in the kingdom of Altago, get into a scuffle with the Dragon Knights while saving a local girl from one of their commanders, and end up arrested for espionage. The king then lets them out and asks them to investigate an ancient shrine uncovered by an earthquake. That's Adol's week, every week.

It was Falcom's first original Ys game built for the PSP. You control one of three party members and can switch between them at any time. Xseed Games released it in North America in 2010. It is the friendliest door into Ys on the PSP, and a fast one. Each dragon grants Adol part of its power.

Birth by Sleep is an action RPG built around the Command System: you build a Command Deck of techniques and abilities and use them at will. Attacks fill a gauge, and once it is full your character shifts into a Command Style that swaps the basic attack for the "Surge" command and its combos.

It is a prequel to the original Kingdom Hearts, set ten years before its events. Tetsuya Nomura directed it. Critics praised its gameplay and its music. It is the Kingdom Hearts game that made the PSP feel like a home console. It was released worldwide on UMD in 2010. Nomura has called it "Episode 0".

Star Ocean merges science fiction and fantasy, and the original came out on the Super Famicom in 1996. First Departure is the PSP remake. The original was tri-Ace's first game, but it never left Japan, because Enix closed its American branch shortly before it was finished.

That means for English-speaking players it was the first chance to play the game at all. English-speaking regions got the remake in October 2008. Players recommend it alongside Second Evolution, the PSP version of the sequel. The series now has six main games. The Super Famicom original had voice acting in its intro and in battle, which was rare on that system.

An 11-year-old boy's friend Miki collapses from an unknown illness, and a strange voice offers him a second chance: "Beyond the door you can change your destiny!" He leaves the real world for the world of Vision, where, as a novice "Traveler", he hopes to reach the Goddess of Fortune and have a single wish granted.

It keeps its systems simple, which makes it a good first RPG for someone new to the genre. It started life as a novel, and Gonzo made an animated film of it in 2006. Xseed Games released the game in North America in 2007. Players call it a simple, classic underdog that stays fun from start to finish.

This is a remake of the Super Famicom game, with new characters and events and a script that was translated again from scratch. Most importantly, it softens what happens when a character falls in battle, where the earlier releases eliminated them for good. It also adds crafting and gives experience to the whole party after a fight. Yasumi Matsuno, the creator of Ogre Battle, directed the original and wrote it.

With a myriad of improvements and additions, it has long been called the definitive version of the game. Matsuno went on to make Final Fantasy Tactics. Akihiko Yoshida designed the characters. The battles are chess-inspired. The Super Famicom original sold 500,000 units in Japan.

Jeanne d'Arc is a tactical RPG loosely based on Joan of Arc and the English occupation of France during the Hundred Years' War. It is reasonably faithful about its cast, many of them real allies of Joan, and then gives them magical armlets and suggests that King Henry VI of England was possessed by demons. It was Level-5's first role-playing game of this kind, and the studio's first for the PSP.

It was developed by Level-5, the studio behind Dark Cloud and Ni no Kuni, and it has been called one of the very best of the PSP's RPGs. Jeanne's first transformation raises her attack and gives her another turn right after she kills a foe. It was re-released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2024. History class was never like this.

Crisis Core was the finale of Square's Compilation of Final Fantasy VII project, and it stars First Class Soldier Zack Fair in the story that leads up to Final Fantasy VII. Its battles run on the D.M.W, the Digital Mind Wave, which can unleash special attacks or call in summons, and its CG cutscenes come with voice acting in 16:9 widescreen. Hajime Tabata directed it, with Tetsuya Nomura as creative producer and character designer.

Despite being a prequel, it felt like a full entry in the series, and it was the best received of all the Compilation pieces. It became one of the highest-selling games on the PSP. It sold over two million copies worldwide. Levelling up is based on luck rather than experience points. Line the reels up as "777" and Zack gains a level.