At the start of this year, I wrote an article that went against the grain of the doom and gloom for Vita we’d been seeing for years – it was an optimistic look at 11 brilliant Vita games that were (supposed to be) landing in 2018. It proved to be one of the most popular pieces I’d written in a while getting thousands of views and still seeing 10-20 per day at present, showing just how dedicated the Vita fanbase is at searching out new content.

Yet by coincidence, nearly all of the games included in that list released in the first half of the year (aside from Drifter and Drift Stage which are still MIA) which meant that anyone viewing this list now might be led to think that “Vita has no games” (or at least, no more upcoming games) which simply isn’t true – despite being in its twilight years, it still has a spree of amazing titles to look forward to.

So in this article, I’m going to re-examine the subject and look at 11 more upcoming Vita games I’m really anticipating that are due to land in the latter half of this year (at least according to the information out there, since solid Vita release dates are getting harder to come by). Pickings may be slimmer than they were a few years ago, but there are still stand-out titles coming that I’m sure will be absolutely worth playing on the handheld through 2018 and beyond, making sure that the end of its life is definitely going out with a bang.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Kickstarter has been an incredibly mixed bag for Vita (in fact I’ve written a whole article about the subject), but I feel it’s mostly been worth it because for every project that’s disappeared without a trace (coughMightyNo9) there’s another that’s made the handheld’s library just that bit better by delivering a quality experience. Bloodstained is looking more and more like a project that will actually happen (the prequel Curse of the Moon landed on Vita in May and the devs recently re-confirmed their plans) and the game itself may actually live up to the hype too.

Created by Koji Igarashi of Castlevania fame (aka the father of the genre), Bloodstained is a sprawling adventure title that casts you as Miriam, a demonically-enhanced hunter exploring an ancient castle with more than a few nods to Symphony of the Night along the way. The pedigree behind it is all there, early backer impressions are positive and the Vita port is being handled by Armature (the studio behind the Metal Gear Solid Collection) meaning all the pieces are in place for it to be one of the standout titles on Vita for the latter half of 2018.

Bullet Girls Phantasia

Vita doesn’t get many third-person shooters these days (although there are more available on the platform than you’d think), with the support that’s left on the platform tending to be Japanese in origin. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that what is likely to be the final TPS on the handheld is a Japan-made game loaded with female characters and lewd elements that looks to be an insane amount of silly, over-the-top fun.

Bullet Girls is a series that was born and flourished on Vita and while Phantasia is also coming to PS4, it still feels like a handheld game at heart. Pitting you as one of a number of student at an all-girls military academy who get sucked into an alternate dimension full of orcs and mythical creatures, you’ll have to gun (and for the first time, stab) your way through hordes of enemies to escape. Previous entries were seen as fairly cheap and trashy, although a lot of players noticed some major improvements in the second entry which made it somewhat of a guilty pleasure. It’s the first time the series is available in English too, meaning importers won’t have to struggle with guides and Google translate anymore.

Chasm

Sometimes, waiting can be a good thing. In the case of Chasm, PS4 demo booths after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014 gave the promise of a clever and engrossing 2D adventure platformer, but things went oddly silent following this until it resurfaced earlier this year with a Vita port added – thanks in no small part to the positive reception and sales of the publicist’s previous game (Axiom Verge) on the handheld. It’s absolutely lovely to see developers adding Vita versions of their games in 2018, against all odds.

But is the game itself going to be worth our time? Well, you play as a knight sent to investigate a mining village where strange happenings have begun to occur. You can expect to make your way through a series of gorgeous 2D areas (the makeup of which the developers promise will be different for every player) and explore, fight supernatural creatures and solve puzzles to get to the bottom of the mystery – all the pieces are there to make a brilliant final product, so it’s easy to get excited about this one.. It shouldn’t be long until we’re able to play it either – the game is targeting a summer release across all platforms.

Fate/Extella Link

There perhaps aren’t quite as many Vita localizations scheduled for the latter half of 2018 as I’d expect, let down by most Atlus titles being pushed to 2019 and NISA skipping things like Coven, Metal Max and The Princess Guide. One company who stepped up to the mark are XSEED, who despite my reservations over their future on the handheld took to announce the latest Fate title for Vita just before E3, surprising a lot of fans including myself who thought they’d abandoned the console altogether.

Link appeals to me as one of the few bigger-budget titles left on Vita – a colourful musou that has you hacking through hordes of enemies as various characters from the Fate universe in an expanded sequel to 2017’s Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star. It also continues the twisting and bonkers storyline from PSP’s Fate/Extra showing just how at home the franchise has been on Sony’s handhelds – it’ll be nice to play one final title on Vita in this universe which by all accounts appears to be as impressive as ever.

London Detective Mysteria

Aksys have been absolutely hammering otome games on Vita in recent years, with 2018 alone seeing four released in the first half of the year and a fandisc planned for 2019. Other publishers haven’t been as forthcoming though – only Idea Factory International have dabbled in the genre (which is surprising given how Aksys are clearly seeing success) but the common theme between both their efforts is that they’ve been from the same Japanese label – Otomate. While this is no bad thing (the titles are generally high-quality), I’ve always thought it would be interesting to see another developer’s take on the genre.

Enter London Detective Mysteria, finally coming to the west via XSEED Games after a colossal wait (it was originally teased for release in the 2013 new year’s card from the company). Developed by Karin Entertainment, the game follows the mysteries of 19th century London through the eyes of heiress Lady Whiteley – which has more than a hint of Code:Realize about it from the setting alone. It’s receiving a digital-only release this fall and although the lack of physical is disappointing, I’m just happy to have the game at all at this point.

Pato Box

Longtime readers of my content will be aware that I’m not particularly a fan of sporting games unless they’re of the ‘extreme’ variety (think SSX), so including a game based on boxing in this list seems a bit odd. Yet when Pato Box came along on Kickstarter it caught my eye thanks to the stylish black & white graphics, quirky main character and focus on providing a Punch-Out style story and adventure mode which meant you aren’t just fighting in rings. The developers ended up getting me to pledge to the project once a Vita port was revealed in the plans, despite my natural wariness towards the funding site due to the spree of failures we’ve seen.

The game is already available on Steam where it has received great reviews and while the devs have revealed that they need a little longer to get the Vita port ready, they seem dedicated to the cause of ensuring it releases (latest estimates are pegging it for some time around August) – which means it shouldn’t be long until we can give it a try. Incidentally, there’s another boxing game planned for Vita in the future (Glass: A Boxing Story) which goes for a more realistic aesthetic and will be one to keep an eye on as more details are revealed, although I’m not sure it’ll hit the planned 2018 release date.

Punch Line

Vita has been home to many different things – fighting games, indie platformers, Japanese RPG’s etc., but two areas it has particularly excelled in (especially later in its life) are lewd games and visual novels. At the forefront of the latter is Kotaro Uchikoshi, creator of the revered Nonary Games series including 999, Zero Escape and Zero Time Dilemma, who took some time away from game development in 2015 to work on the Punch Line anime – a bizarre series that follows a boy who becomes a spirit and subsequently protects his ex-housemates from danger, the twist being that if he sees their panties, the earth will be destroyed. Fascinatingly this was converted into a game by 5pb in 2016 and it’s finally finding its way to the west courtesy of PQube in 2018.

I won’t pretend that I’m expecting Punch Line to be a particularly high-brow game, but like PQube’s previous release Gal*Gun: Double Peace, I’m expecting to find a fun and addictive time that’s worth checking out. Amusingly, the scenario of controlling a ghost and using him to possess objects reminds me of the PS2 classic Ghost Master as well as Vita games such as Haunt the House or Poltergeist, although here it plays out like a point ‘n’ click adventure. Either way, we’ll be playing Punch Line for the bonkers story and funny fanservice and it looks like it’s going to deliver on both those counts.

Russian Subway Dogs

Sometimes, an idea is enough to sell you on a game. That’s very much the case with Russian Subway Dogs from developer Spooky Squid, which follows the titular canines through a title where you will (among other things) juggle bottles of vodka, set fire to bears and chase high scores while frantically staying alive fighting for scraps of food in the Russian subway. It sounds bonkers, but that just makes it all the more compelling.

The developers (creators of the well received They Bleed Pixels) have been keen to show off their product and impressions from PlayStation Experience in 2017 seemed extremely positive, which bodes well. A series of polls on Twitter have been taking suggestions for what other playable creatures will be in the game and we already have a variety of confirmed guest animals including the goat from Guacamelee and the dogs from VA-11 HALL-A, which should be fun additions. I’m not expecting this to be game of the year material, but I am hopeful it’ll be an enjoyable time water with an irrelevant and unique sense of humour.

Seraphim

When I interviewed Studio Ravenheart about Seraphim – the upcoming twin-stick shooter with a twist – I discovered a passionate developer with aspirations of creating something truly different in the gaming world. The focus on defensive rather than offensive play, the vibrant and impressionist-esque graphics and arcade high-score chasing might not seem like they all mesh, but I have faith in the creator to pull it all off judging by some of the addictive footage we’ve seen so far.

Sadly things have been all quiet on the development front for a little while and it’s been some time since we’ve had any major updates (although the dev is still active on Twitter), but as far as I’m aware it’s still on track for a 2018 release on Vita and PSTV – which should make a nice end-of-year treat for twin-stick fans. With any luck we’ll also be able to get a physical copy through someone like eastasiasoft too, but for now I’m just itching to get my hands on the game itself.

Shakedown Hawaii

Just like with Chasm, Shakedown Hawaii has been a long time coming. The follow up to 2012’s Retro City Rampage – the uber successful 8-bit open-world crime sim by solo developer Brian Provinciano that found a brilliant home on Vita – has been in development for what seems like an eternity but seems to finally be nearing completion and targeting a 2018 release on Sony’s handheld (as well as other consoles).

Promising 16-bit graphics this time around and shifting the setting to the lush palm tree-laden waterfronts of Hawaii, the game also introduces new ideas such as a business management metagame (I’m hoping not dissimilar to that in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories) and a story commentary on mega corporations and white-collar crime. You can still expect the same bombastic action and destruction sprees that Retro City Rampage was known for alongside a gorgeous open-world to explore (a rarity on Vita these days), making this one to keep a close eye on this year.

Sharin no Kuni

If Kickstarter hasn’t been kind to Vita in general, then it’s been particularly disappointing in the realm of visual novels where much was promised and very little delivered, with projects like Dies Irae and in particular a variety of titles from Sekai Project completely missing in action. When Muv-Luv released last month a glimmer of hope came through for others – hopefully Sharin no Kuni being among them, which was a similarly well-managed project that provides regular updates.

The first thing that stands out to me about the game is the beautiful artwork – character designs capture that traditional anime style on a sea of gorgeous backdrops. The story too is intriguing – a bishoujo set in a dystopian future where a young man meets a three girls bound by various “Duties” that he decides to investigate. It still seems on track for later this year and the Twitter account recently re-affirmed plans for a physical release through Limited Run Games – meaning it should join the sea of classic visual novels in Vita’s western library.

Conclusion

If you’d have told me at the end of 2012 that I’d be making two lists of upcoming Vita games to look forward to in 2018, I’d have highly doubted it as the handheld hadn’t been reborn as a haven for indie developers and localizers of Japanese games that it became later in its life. But it’s thanks to this that Vita’s having such a healthy year – the AAA development community and Sony themselves may have moved on ages ago, but the publishers who have stuck around are continuing to find success thanks to the dedicated buying audience.

Of course, there’s still plenty of stuff coming that I haven’t included here too – among missing titles include Death Mark, the well-reviewed horror VN from Aksys and Experience Inc.; Deathbase 900,000,00, a fun-looking twin-stick shooter from Son of Scoregasm creator Charlie Knight; Spacejacked, a fast-paced tower-defence game and World End Economica, an economy-themed visual novel from Sekai Project that’ll hopefully finally come to fruition. It does make me sad that I’m not able to include games like Labyrinth of Refrain; Metal Max Xeno and The Princess Guide due to the NIS America choosing to omit Vita versions from their overseas plans, but that’s another story.

I’d like to end this article on the same note I finished my previous one on – by stressing the importance of buying any of the titles on this list that you’re interested in when they come out, as the only reason we’re getting Vita games in 2018 at all is thanks to the dedicated Vita fanbase who keep buying software, making it worthwhile for publishers to keep supporting Sony’s ignored handheld.