Let's Look Back at the 7th Generation of Consoles

[Dragon Lord]

Ah yes, the PSP. Absolutely loved mine.

I remember I didn't even really pay attention to the PSP, until one say I was browsing around Walmart and saw that they had a Final Fantasy Tactics remaster/remake for it. That's when I knew I needed one! So I eventually got it + the game for... my birthday or Christmas that year, I forget which. Absolutely loved being able to play FFT on the go, and the newly added battles and voice-acted cutscenes were amazing. The only downside to that port was that there was a horrible slow down during spell/summoning animations due to the hardware limits of the PSP, and that really caused some battles to become a major slog.

Also had Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core for it, which I actually enjoyed. I liked the gameplay of it and learning more of Zack's background and his relationship with Aeris was pretty cool. Unfortunately the story caused the FFVII timeline to become even more convoluted than it already was, so that was a negative of the game. Ignoring that though, I thought the game itself was pretty fun.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep was also introduced on the PSP, which I actually hated and never finished until Kingdom Hearts 1.5 on PS3 come out with an HD version of it (which was the Final Mix version with more content, so that was a plus).

Oh, and I can't forget Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. It was my first dip into the Tactics Ogre series, and I absolutely LOVED it. It became on par with FFT for me as far a strategy RPGs go.

It's a huge shame that we never got any of the Monster Hunter PSP games though (not that I'm aware of, at least). I've heard countless times that's when the series was at its true peak.

PSP is also where I got my first taste of the very first Star Ocean game. Though I never actually finished the game until the PS4 port came out a year or two ago. I should break out my PSP again to play the second Star Ocean game though. I was waiting because I thought for sure we'd get the PS4/Vita ports of it, but we never did. Why Square Enix decided to bring SO1 and SO3 to the PS4 in the West, but skip SO2, I'll never know. It makes me very sad though.

But yeah, PSP was a great system for me. Not as good as the Vita eventually became, but I still absolutely adored my time with my PSP.

[Moonface]

I remember considering a PSP when it was around, but I never got one because any games released on it that I was interested in were still getting regular entries on the PS2, and because the latter looked better I just saw the PSP games to be inferior and didn't see why I would want to go out of my way to play those when I was getting more than enough of the same but better on my PS2. That feeling got cemented more when I actually (unknowingly) got a PS2 port of a Ratchet & Clank PSP game, and questioned why Insomniac wasn't shown as the developer and why the game was just really poor quality compared to the other PS2 Ratchet games (which were actually made for PS2). When I found out it was a port and that none of the PSP games were being made by the original developers, any remaining interest I had for PSP died right there. It's also why I didn't care for Vita; most games I was interested in were mostly toned down versions of their PS3 equivalents, and the few that did interest me weren't enough to justify purchasing one.

[Nightingale]

I had only ever owned one console from this generation, but it has brought endless joy into my life: the Sony PlayStation 3.

I remember how excited I was to finally play it, how blown away I was by the games I had and how much fun it was through and through... I actually ended up buying games for it, something I hadn't done since the SEGA Genesis's times.

Luv it.

[Dragon Lord]

I remember considering a PSP when it was around, but I never got one because any games released on it that I was interested in were still getting regular entries on the PS2, and because the latter looked better I just saw the PSP games to be inferior and didn't see why I would want to go out of my way to play those when I was getting more than enough of the same but better on my PS2. That feeling got cemented more when I actually (unknowingly) got a PS2 port of a Ratchet & Clank PSP game, and questioned why Insomniac wasn't shown as the developer and why the game was just really poor quality compared to the other PS2 Ratchet games (which were actually made for PS2). When I found out it was a port and that none of the PSP games were being made by the original developers, any remaining interest I had for PSP died right there. It's also why I didn't care for Vita; most games I was interested in were mostly toned down versions of their PS3 equivalents, and the few that did interest me weren't enough to justify purchasing one.

Yeah, PSP/Vita wasn't for everyone, but for me personally both of them offered a lot. Like I mentioned, at the time the PSP gave me a on-the-go port of the original Final Fantasy Tactics, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (exclusive until KH 1.5 on PS3), Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core, Star Ocean 1 and Star Ocean 2, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together -- just a bunch of RPGs that I absolutely loved. Granted it took me a long time to warm up to Birth By Sleep, and it wasn't until 1.5 that I actually got myself to play through all three stories. 

The Vita is the same way. It's not a system that was for everyone, but it offered so much for me personally. It offered so many RPGs that were exclusive to the system at the time. It's where my love of the Ys series was really able to kick off, with the release of Memories of Celceta (which was my very first Vita game, actually). It's also where I was able to start my love of the Neptunia series, with the release of Re;Birth 1 at the time. Didn't have a PS3 at that point, so I was never able to play the original releases of the Neptunia games. Then from there it just kept on going and going and going and now I have I don't know how many games for the Vita, and I've probably logged more hours on the Vita than I have any other system I've ever owned (though PS4 has to be close, maybe even more, too bad there's no way for me to ever know for sure). Though I guess talking about the Vita in this topic is going a bit off the rails, but oh well, haha. 

Just one of those of those situations where they offered you a lot and you loved them, or offered you nothing and you ignored them. Kind of like me with the Wii. A lot of people swear by the Wii as one of the greatest systems ever made, but it offered very little to nothing at all for me, and I never even considered buying one. I think the only game that ever released on the Wii that I wanted seriously was Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Which hopefully Nintendo will do the smart thing and do ports of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn for the Switch, since those games are impossible to get at a decent price now days.

[Monocle]

shiiiit. psp gave me a bunch of games

3rd birthday
jeanne d'arc
persona 3 portable
metal gear solid: peace walker
ys seven
ys: the oath in felghana

and obviously those that gary already mentioned. i completely forgot it was part of this generation. rip me

[Moonface]

I had only ever owned one console from this generation, but it has brought endless joy into my life: the Sony PlayStation 3.

I remember how excited I was to finally play it, how blown away I was by the games I had and how much fun it was through and through... I actually ended up buying games for it, something I hadn't done since the SEGA Genesis's times.

Luv it.

How many games did you get for it in the end?

Yeah, PSP/Vita wasn't for everyone, but for me personally both of them offered a lot.

The Vita is the same way. It's not a system that was for everyone, but it offered so much for me personally.

Just one of those of those situations where they offered you a lot and you loved them, or offered you nothing and you ignored them.

Yeah, it doesn't help that back when the PSP was around, I very rarely branched out of the circle of games I was in at that time, especially when it came to genres, so all I judged both systems on were games that fit into my established status quo. I should probably pull up a list of all the games those systems had at some point and see if anything on them that I originally ignored would actually be of interest to me now.

shiiiit. psp gave me a bunch of games
i completely forgot it was part of this generation. rip me

Same, but that's mostly because I find the handheld systems wouldn't come out in tandem with the home consoles, which are what most people probably use to distinguish when a generation starts and ends. 3DS and Vita are both 8th Gen, but because PS4 and XBO didn't come out for another two years after those handhelds launched, I associate them both more with the PS3 and Wii firstly because those were the home systems they launched alongside. Although Nintendo eventually messed with the time distinctions of home console releases with the Switch being a whole three years before PS5 and XSX. XD

[Nightingale]

I had only ever owned one console from this generation, but it has brought endless joy into my life: the Sony PlayStation 3.

I remember how excited I was to finally play it, how blown away I was by the games I had and how much fun it was through and through... I actually ended up buying games for it, something I hadn't done since the SEGA Genesis's times.

Luv it.

How many games did you get for it in the end?

Yeah, PSP/Vita wasn't for everyone, but for me personally both of them offered a lot.

The Vita is the same way. It's not a system that was for everyone, but it offered so much for me personally.

Just one of those of those situations where they offered you a lot and you loved them, or offered you nothing and you ignored them.

Yeah, it doesn't help that back when the PSP was around, I very rarely branched out of the circle of games I was in at that time, especially when it came to genres, so all I judged both systems on were games that fit into my established status quo. I should probably pull up a list of all the games those systems had at some point and see if anything on them that I originally ignored would actually be of interest to me now.

shiiiit. psp gave me a bunch of games
i completely forgot it was part of this generation. rip me

Same, but that's mostly because I find the handheld systems wouldn't come out in tandem with the home consoles, which are what most people probably use to distinguish when a generation starts and ends. 3DS and Vita are both 8th Gen, but because PS4 and XBO didn't come out for another two years after those handhelds launched, I associate them both more with the PS3 and Wii firstly because those were the home systems they launched alongside. Although Nintendo eventually messed with the time distinctions of home console releases with the Switch being a whole three years before PS5 and XSX. XD

I bought 19 (of which sixteen remain in my collection).

I also got several through PSN, such as Minecraft and Super Mega Baseball.

[Moonface]

Did you ever buy any that you regretted @Nightingale?

[Nightingale]

Did you ever buy any that you regretted @Nightingale?

Oh yes! The Gran Turismo one I bought was TERRIBLE. It honestly made me wonder if my controller was broken.

I also wasn't huge on Final Fantasy XIII.