The Best Way to Play Final Fantasy on the Go

This will be a run-down of every unique Final Fantasy title that is playable on the PSP.

We begin with the games of the main series, re-mastered and released specifically for PSP.

• Final Fantasy I

• Final Fantasy II

• Final Fantasy III

• Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection

That’s it for the re-mastered main series. Now we need to go to the playstation store and see what Playstation One games are playable on PSP via backwards compatibility.

• Final Fantasy V

• Final Fantasy VI

• Final Fantasy VII

• Final Fantasy VIII

• Final Fantasy IX

That is where the main series ends for PSP. But we’re definitely not done here yet.

Final Fantasy tactics was re-mastered for PSP:

• Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

And PSP boasts two tremendous, completely exclusive games:

• Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core

• Final Fantasy: Type 0 (released only in Japan BUT there is a fan-made translation patch available)

And it even has two exclusive Final Fantasy fighting games

• Final Fantasy: Dissidia

• Final Fantasy: Dissidia Duodecim 012

(It is also worth looking into the Dissidia modding scene, which has brought new characters into the game, including Kimahri Ronso from FFX)

Now let’s get into full-on emulation territory, in which custom firmware is required.

Disclaimer: I am not endorsing piracy. For that reason, I am not providing links to bios files or custom firmware.

There are two homebrew emulators needed here. One is a SNES emulator called Snes 9x Euphoria, created by Zack. The other is a Game Boy emulator by Brunni called Masterboy 2.02. There are tons of other emulators available but we will stick to these, as these are the only ones needed to experience every Final Fantasy game on PSP. Here are the games playable with these two respective emulators:

• Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (Snes)

• Final Fantasy Legend I (Gameboy)

• Final Fantasy Legend II (Gameboy)

• Final Fantasy Legend III (Gameboy)

• Final Fantasy Adventure (Gameboy)

Now, I am only including one version of each game, so I am disregarding any re-releases, re-masters, re-packages or “Advance” versions of any titles to ensure there are no duplicates in this list. Furthermore I am only including “playable” versions, so the laggy DS emulations don’t count. However I’m going to be a bit more lenient in the criteria here to include Kingdom Hearts simply because the games feature prominent Final Fantasy crossover elements.

So we have one Game Boy Advance game, playable on Exophase’s GPSP emulator:

• Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

And one excellent PSP exclusive:

• Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

Although I relaxed the rules a bit, I won’t relax them so much to include such games like the Chocobo spin-offs. Although it’s worth noting there are a load of those, and tons of aforementioned re-releases. Excluding those, let’s total all the Final Fantasy games, including KH games and Dissidia…

The grand total comes to a whopping 21 UNIQUE FINAL FANTASY EXPERIENCES ON PSP!

So it is with certainty that I assure you that the PSP is your best friend for Final Fantasy gaming on the go. It might be a last-generation handheld but believe me, it is still relevant, and I think the fairly recent re-release of PSP’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and very recently, the re-release of Final Fantasy: Type 0, go a long way to show that. You can emulate a load of the above games, including the PSP’s exclusives, on most quad-core smartphones these days, however bugs and frame-rate issues are far more common. Plus, unlike your smart phones, the PSP has physical controls; triggers, directional buttons, face buttons and an analog nub/stick. Plus the battery life is decent, and carrying around a separate device for gaming will mitigate the chance of having a phone with a dead battery when you are lost at night in a dark, empty street in the middle of nowhere, terrified for your life, unable to call a taxi, wanting to avoid a random encounter. These are all reasons why PSP may be the ideal option. For final fantasy and for your own safety!

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For those interested, here are a bunch of Chocobo spin-offs playable on PSP:

• Chocobo’s Dungeon 2 (PSX) (the first game:“Mysterious Dungeon” was not localized)

• Chocobo Racing (PSX)

• Chocobo Collection (PSX)

• Chocobo Land: A Game of Dice (Gameboy)

Credit for the images: FF: Crisis Core screenshot #1 by jediyoshi, #2 by ThatFunkyMan, FF: Type 0 screenshot #1 by Wazzim, #2 by threelights