I’ve owned a PSP since the system was released in 2004. Not just the North American release, but the Japanese release. Yes, I eBay’d a PSP Fatty and I even enjoyed the modest online rape that is part of the eBay purchasing process. The PSP was going to be a revolution and I wanted in from the ground floor. Any price was a reasonable price for the last handheld I would ever need.

Oh how wrong we all were.

Flash forward 5 years and while the PSP is still alive and kicking, it didn’t exactly set the world on fire. No sir, that firestarter was the Nintendo DS. However, in the last 5 years the PSP has managed to carve out a nice niche for itself; one that includes lousy PS2 ports and pirated games.

Now it’s October 2009 and we’re finally at the start of what is hopefully the PSP’s rebirth. At E3 Sony promised that 2009, and especially fall of 09’, would see a resurgence in not only Sony’s support of the platform, but also that of the 3rd parties that had largely abandoned the PSP long ago. And while the simultaneous launch of the PSP Go and GT-PSP are probably as close to an official re-launch as you can get, I actually would like to think that rebuilding of the platform started a few months earlier.

In my opinion, the rebirth of the PSP as a platform started with Square’s remarkable Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy was released in Japan in December of last year. After the customary 6 month wait that we still get to suffer through, the game was released in the U.S. this past August. I considered getting the game at release, but at the time I still wasn’t sold on the idea of investing more money into the PSP. Up until now my PSP was very much like my Wii; I purchased 1, maybe 2, games a year for it and generally forgot about it the rest of the time.

The storyline for Dissidia actually has a lot in common with last years Mortal Kombat vs. DC. Yes, you read that correctly. Both games feature a mix of iconic characters from different universes crossing over into a “middle” dimension to take on an Ultimate Evil (Chaos in Dissidia, Dark Khan in MK vs. DC) that is threatening to destroy the entire galaxy. Dissidia actually breaks to story down into 10 smaller storylines; one for each playable character. In story mode, you choose a hero who will gain level as you play through their story arc. Depending on the character, some individual arcs are more interesting than others, but overall, they’re all adequate and give you some motivation to keep going.

Gameplay for Dissidia is equal parts fighting game, action game, and RPG. The fighting game influence has to do with each character getting a specific move set with many moves based on that character’s iconic attacks from their respective game. A bit of strategy comes into play because the characters each have more abilities than can be assigned at one time so you’re forced to choose which attacks you would like access to during a fight.

The action game influences can be seen in the character’s ability to move freely within a 3-D space. It’s obvious that one of Square’s prime objectives for the game was to mimic some of the style and intensity that is often seen in the CG cutscenes that have become standard in Square-Enix games. If you’ve seen FF7: Advent Children, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what they were trying to reproduce. Dissidia includes the ability to save a replay of your fights, and then export that replay onto the PSP as an AVI file. The video below shows a fight between my low-level Terra, (which explains the lack of variety in her moves) and another one of the game’s heroes. What you see in the video is actual gameplay with no changes to the camera at all. The only difference is that I’ve removed the status bars and HUD so you can have a clearer look at the craziness.

Looks pretty awesome right? It can be a little hard to follow at times, but overall it works surprisingly well. You’re free to move anywhere within the space and every character has the ability to quickly dash around or get airborne. Since each fighter is limited in their moveset, you spend more time trying to find the correct time and distance to unleash an attack, instead of trying to remember which attacks you can actually do.

One thing to note is that the game does not solely use a life bar system. In addition to worrying about your life bar and HP, you also need to look after something new called Bravery. Your Bravery is represented by a number and governs how much damage you’ll do when you hit the other person. The higher your character’s Bravery, the more damage you’ll do with an attack. As a result, every character works with 2 groups of attacks; moves that add to your Bravery, and moves that deplete your opponents hit points. The crux of the game is the art of balancing your defense and maintaining a high Bravery, while also pressing an offensive to whittle away at your opponents HP. A little hard to explain, but relatively easy to grasp after you have completed a few matches.

Finally, Dissidia also includes a ton of RPG elements that add a layer of depth which I don’t think has ever been attempted in a fighting game to this extent. While fighting you earn 3 different currencies – XP, Gil, and PP. Anyone who’s played an RPG will instantly know what XP is for. Each character can be leveled up to 100 with new abilities unlocking along the way. Gil, the currency of Final Fantasy, also works just like you think it would and allows you to purchase new armor, weapons, and items that will help strengthen your character. Lastly, PP is what you’ll need to unlock the game’s bonus content and additional characters. With PP, you can purchase the villains to play with in versus and arcade mode or you can buy alternate costumes for the fighters you’ve already unlocked.

I must admit that Dissidia: Final Fantasy is probably one of my biggest surprises of the year. I had briefly played the game at E3, but because I didn’t understand what I was doing, I came aware unimpressed and a bit let down. The excellent reviews for the game (89 on Metacritic), made me think I should give the game a second look, and then an Amazon Deal of the Day made me go ahead and take the plunge.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is an amazing effort from Square-Enix. It’s an excellent mashup of different genres brought together into something that feels completely fresh and is a blast to play. And if that wasn’t enough, the game is incredibly deep with its RPG features. Then through unlocks you can basically double to the games roster of playable characters. Add to that the possibility of going online through the PS3 (you can get online with the Japanese adhoc-party software. It’s a little convoluted, but there are some good guides online) and you have a game won’t let you take it out of your PSP for quite some time. I know I won’t be.

-Steve