PSP still rocks. I've been playing Phantasy Star Portable (edit: it abbreviates to PSP, oh my god were they doing a Sony equivalent of the DS thing? brilliant!) for the past two weeks and it's really scratching an itch. Solid 7/10 game, excited to check out 2 Infinity (there's a fan patch).

This article is a lot about the hardware itself, but I'd just like to take a moment to talk about old portable games from the 3DS/Vita eras and prior, they're still very much worth your time. It's before DLC and a lot of gacha/roguelike/gambling mechanics really set in, they're designed to be both lean due to processing and battery constraints as well as set down at a moment's notice because of the implied nature of portable gaming. Instead of purposefully hammering your attention and engagement, they expect that you could put them on pause at any moment to pop the device in your pocket and get on with your life. It's seriously helped heal some of the fatigue I've been feeling.

On one hand, Etrian Odyssey can be a difficult and grindy game, but there's something soothing about playing it on a little portable device while I casually watch a show in the background vs. fucking Wizardry Variants Daphne where even a bronze sword now has upgrades and star ratings and several different modifiers applied to it (do I want more attack or hit?) and can be used at the blacksmith as upgrade material for the next sword, etc. etc.

I'm straight fucking fatigued, bro. I don't have ADHD, I have burnout from everything following the same dark patterns. Do you know how cool it is to play an old school RPG and open a chest and get legit excited for a silver sword again because of the simple, satisfying, understandable, and immediate upgrade it represents for your party?

... anyways, give it a try, yeah? What's some of your old school favorites from PSP or other?