7 Vita Games to Look Forward to This Year as Sony’s Handheld Putters Out

The Vita may be coming to the end of its lifecycle but there's still some fight left in the machine yet.
The Vita may be coming to the end of its lifecycle but there's still some fight left in the machine yet.

Despite having a great opening year in 2012 and selling well in Japan for several years there after, the Vita never saw the same success in the West. With its sales completely eclipsed in all regions by the Nintendo 3DS as well as tablet devices that were cheaper and technologically better than Sony's offering, the support for the machine soon started faltering. The machine lost app support in the way of maps and perhaps more prominently YouTube.

The PSVita was granted some extra life when Sony introduced remote play on the PlayStation 3, and later more reliably on the PlayStation 4. But even then it was promoted more like it was an accessory rather than a gaming machine, and was even bundled together with some PS4 deals.

Through Sony's main focus on getting remote play working on PC's, the company is slowly moving away from the PSVita and as a result it looks likely it will become part of Sony's legacy systems.

While it wasn't the runaway success that Sony had hoped for, the PSVita still had access to some fantastic and niche titles you didn't see anywhere else, especially those that were coming out of Japan that may not have seen the light of day in the West at the time.

The Vita still has some life in it yet and has quite a few titles still due for a release this year. Here I have picked 7 of the best upcoming PlayStation Vita games for 2017.

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Super Robot Wars V

Release date: February 23, 2017

Super Robot Wars V is a 25th anniversary release for the series and is a game that has crossovers featuring anime mech characters from series such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Evangelion, Invincible Super Man and more.

It's a tactical RPG with a story based after the destruction of earth and several other colonised planets by the Gamillia. Humans have one year left to survive until a few decide to try and fight back for the sake of humanity.


Toukiden 2

Release date: March 21, 2017

Toukiden 2 is an action RPG set after the events of Toukiden: Kiwami. Where you play the role of a Slayer tasked with hunting dangerous creatures and defending mankind against a demonic threat. The game has an all new narrative and a near endless bestiary of demons and monsters to defeat.

The gameplay of Toukiden is very reminiscent of the Monster Hunter series offering up a great albeit darker alternative to that long standing series.


God Wars: Future Past

Release date: March 28, 2017

God Wars is a tactical RPG that blends Japanese legend with traditional stories of Japanese origins.

The tactical combat is traditional take on the genre while adding new layers to the gameplay to help truly immerse the player in the game's mechanics. Characters get stat boosts by making offerings at shrines before the combat begins -- naturally making the right choices can lead to victory.


Ys Origin

Release date: May 30, 2017

Falcom's Ys Origin is a Japanese action rpg that was originally released on Steam and now it is finally getting a release on both the Vita and PS4 as downloadable title from the PSN store.

Played through the perspective of the three protagonists that offer unique stories, the game is set 700 years prior to the events of the first Ys game. It provides a backstory for Ys, Darm Tower, the Black Pearl, the twin goddesses, and the six priests. So the game serves not only as a great starting point for newcomers to the series but offers fans a great deal of depth adding more to the lore of the long running series.


Berserk and the Band of the Hawk

Release date: February 21, 2017

Based on the manga series of the same name, the game faithfully retells the story from its Golden Age arc that depicts the meeting and relationship between The Black Swordsman Guts and the Band Of The Hawks leader Griffith, through to the huge and violent battles of the Millennium Empire story arc.

The game features the hack and slash mechanics that were previously seen Koei Tecmos Warriors series only this time with far more brutal and bloody battles than previously seen from past titles.


Valkyria:Revolution

Release date: TBA 2017

Valkyria: Revolution is a follow up to the excellent but criminally overlooked PS3 title Valkyria Chronicles, and features an all new alternate timeline set during the European Industrial era as well as a new real-time and tactical hybrid combat system.

The combat system consists of preparing your strategies at the base before battle, then carrying out your objectives on the field. One big theme in this game is the feature of permadeath for major characters in the game's story thus affecting how the story unfolds in the presence or absence of such characters.


Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

Release date: Fall, 2017

The second Ys title on this list Lacrimosa of Dana is a new installment in the series and received a score of 34/40 on Famitsu praising the game's improved story and the pace of its battle system.

The story focuses once again on the red haired lead character Adol, who while on a journey to the continent of Eresia has his ship attacked and sunk by a giant sea monster. Adol later wakes up realizing he is on a cursed land known as Seiren Island.

Fans of the series will be familiar with its fast based real-time combat system, where skills are activated by pressing certain button combinations. Attack types are classified in three groups known as slash, strike and pierce, and it is up to the gamer figure out what enemies are weak or resistant to the groups of attacks they have at at their disposal.

Which Vita game are you most looking forward to in 2017? Have I missed any off this list? Let me know in the comments below!

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Author
Michael Llewellyn
I got my start at Gameskinny now I run my own website https://games2entertainment.com