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Although most folks will rejoice when I say that the Wild Arms RPG franchise has finally arrived on PSP, hold on to your yippee-ki-yays for a moment, cowboy. The US Old West-themed fantasy series may now have a title on Sony’s handheld platform, but this PSP title is significantly different from the popular series that has done moderately well on PSone and PS2.

That’s because Wild Arms XF, developed as always by Media.Vision and published by XSeed is not your standard turn-based RPG, but has more in common with Final Fantasy Tactics than any previous Wild Arms installment. Given an all-new storyline and cast, Wild Arms XF is a full-on tactics-style RPG with all the benefits and drawbacks thereof.

One benefit is that the title introduces a job system into the Wild Arms universe for the first time; this allows for greater customization and skill acquisition than previous titles, but the trade-off is that the game has no world for you to wander around in and explore; it boasts only two modes – story sequences and battles.

Like FFT, Wild Arms XF doesn’t take it easy on newcomers; you must learn the game system fast or be crushed by superior opponents, some of whom are designed to be avoided at all costs, so pay attention to your actual mission objectives before entering into each new battle.

Of course, none of this is a problem for me; I love tactics RPGs and that makes this chapter of the Wild Arms saga a welcome change of pace. My wife, however, was not so kindly disposed toward the title, complaining that it was too hard too soon in the game, arguing that a game should offer a few more battles before ramping up the challenge level so quickly. (My wife prefers action-based RPGs.)

The story is one typical of the world of Filgaia. The game centers around a brother and sister, Clarissa and Filius, who start out exploring the world outside their home town, but who are eventually caught up into the political struggled of the day. There are hints dropped early on that Clarissa is either an exiled princess who doesn’t remember her past, or is a dead ringer for the dethroned debutante. Things just kind of snowball from there.

Wild Arms XF isn’t a title that breaks tons of new ground or revolutionizes the genre, but it is a game that’s entertaining, challenging, and possesses few flaws that will bug veterans of the tactics RPG genre. It also fits right into the universe established by previous games, and delivers a Filgaia-based game that you can take with you on the go. The only drawbacks are the steep learning curve for genre newcomers, and the fact that the jobs and skills system are a bit thinner than those found in Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lion. Then again, that’s setting the bar pretty high.

Wild Arms XF is one of the sharper-looking entries in this series, benefitting perhaps from the smaller screen the PSP offers. In the end, it all adds up to a niche RPG that will appeal to most fans of the series and fans of tactics RPGs, but likely won’t draw a lot of non-fans into the fold. Definitely a solid entry, though, and a good addition to any PSP-owning RPG lovers library. XSeed is doing all it can to support the title, too; I’m hoping they’ll offer up some logo pens as part of that effort!

When I heard the God of War franchise was moving from PS2 to the PSP for the Chains of Olympus chapter, I was skeptical at first. Sure, the PSP needs a solid action-adventure title as much as any other platform, but one of the main appeals of God of War as a series has been its larger than life sense of scale. How could the title maintain that appeal on the PSP’s rather smaller screen?

Well, I needn’t have worried. The game still looks sharp on the handheld platform and offers plenty of oversized opponents appropriate to the lineage of the series. Even my wife was impressed with the look of the game on the small screen; it was loaded with detail that only a few other PSP titles have come close to achieving and that makes the game a really fine showcase for the PSP platform.

Not a simple port, God of War: Chains of Olympus is an all-new adventure that serves as a prequel to the first God of War title released on PS2. Developed by SCEA-Santa Monica and Ready At Dawn Studios, the game allows up to five difficulty levels, although the last two have to be unlocked. The game casts you as Kratos in a situation where the gods have been rendered powerless, leaving Kratos with only one choice: he must square off against the most vicious of demonic creatures from Greek mythology. Gamers get to choose between saving his soul or the ancient world from imminent and total destruction, which affects the way the game ends.

The only main complaint with GoW:COO is the typical one; it’s relatively short length. My wife beat the game in under 10 hours and from what I’ve heard and read, some people might be able to even trim that down to under eight hours. While the action is fresh and fast, the load times sometimes get a bit cumbersome and slow down the pace just a bit. The battle system is relatively easy to master and immediately familiar to any fan of the series; and it’s been adapted well enough that you don’t often feel the loss of extra control options.

Despite the minor gripes, though, the game is everything you expect from a God of War title, with all the M-rated content, huge monsters and epic storyline most gamers can handle, and packed with enough action and drama that most folks will be left wanting more. While the extra difficulty levels are appreciated, it’s hard to get much more than one replay out of the game, as there are only two options in the storyline path that can be taken. It might have been more replayable if there was a slightly different storyline for each difficulty level, though that’s probably hoping for too much.

In the end, GoW:COO delivers the goods with surprising effectiveness on the PSP. With some of the best graphics available on any game currently released for the platform, as well as just under 10 hours of playing time, God of War: Chains of Olympus is one title most PSP owners will end up being embarrassed not to own – so go buy it already and avoid the blushing humiliation.