Roy Tang

I wrote some stuff about Vita vs 3DS in a Reddit post, I thought I’d expand on it here.

I have access to both a first-generation 3DS with ambassador status (this is actually my brother’s but he doesn’t use it much) and a PS Vita which is only a couple of months old. I use the Vita a lot more because reasons:

1. The screen is very very nice, especially compared to the 3DS screens. My eyes hurt a bit after a while of using the 3DS (even with 3D off). The Vita games also look a lot better compared to 3DS ones. The visuals are more crisp and colorful, especially for games like Persona 4 Golden or Disgaea 3.
2. I’m a Playstation Plus subscriber (and I have a PS3), which means my available Vita library gets bigger every month without me spending additional money. And with the PS4 support coming, it’s even better.
3. No online account for the 3DS means I’m not going to make digital purchases off the eShop, which limits my available library. I’m not interested in making eShop purchases that are tied to the machine; I’m worried about losing or breaking the system and losing access to all my purchases. This is a severe limitation of the 3DS in this age of digital downloads.
4. I just find that I like more games on the Vita. I like Mario and Zelda on the 3DS (I’ve finished NSMB, Mario 3D Land and Ocarina of Time; the new Legend of Zelda will probably be the next game I play on 3DS), but aside from that most of the library is meh for me. I played Tales of the Abyss and Paper Mario Sticker Star on the 3ds but both got boring for me after a while (I’m probably at around 80% of ToA and gave up on Sticker Star at the first boss). I might try out Fire Emblem, and if there’s a new Advance Wars I’d jump on that. Etrian Odyssey looks interesting but there are dungeon crawlers on the Vita too. On the Vita so far I’ve been playing P4G, Disgaea 3 and Gravity Rush, with some Street Fighter x Tekken thrown in every so often. As soon as I get a bigger memory card, I’m going to get into Blazblue Continuum Shift;  then there’s Uncharted and Final Fantasy Tactics and I heard Zero Escape was good, and I want to try Guacamelee, and one of these days I’m going to give in to impulse buying urges and get Xenogears off the store, oh and if LBP Vita went on sale I’d get that, etc. People who say the Vita doesn’t have games might just be uninformed; in terms of the number of games I’m interested the Vita is slightly ahead, and that whole PS1 classic back library puts it leagues ahead.
5. Achievements/Trophies. I realize a lot of people don’t care for them and don’t “get” people who like them and that’s fine, more power to you. But I do like them, though I’m not like a platinum hunter or anything like that.

The only real downside of the Vita as far as I can tell is that the memory cards are helluva expensive; but maybe that will change this week.

And… that’s it. Just thought I’d write some gaming stuff since E3 is happening in a few hours. 😀