10 Worst PSP RPG Dungeons - PlayStation Portable Edition

[@davidvinc]

Like this page and what I do here? Consider supporting me on patreon! www.patreon.com/davidvinc [​0:48] - 10) Hawk Talon - Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch [​1:44] - 9) Creedmore Prison - Wild Arms XF [2:47] - 8) Saving Magnus and Pamela - Growlanswer: Wayfarer of Time [3:39] - 7) Forest of Temptation - Tales of Eternia [4:24] - 6) The Monolith - Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner [​5:14] - 5) The Aureole - Trails in the Sky [6:30] - 4) All the Rescue Missions - Tactics Ogre [7:31] - 3) Forest of Souls - Mimana Iyar Chronicles [​8:32​] - 2) The Azure Tree - Trails of Azure [9:25] - 1) The Snow Queen Quest - Persona

[@0Fyrebrand0]

5:03 When you're in a huge, labyrinthine dungeon where all the rooms look the same, and you step on a floor switch. And the game is just like "Something moved somewhere." *ಠ_ಠ*

[@BlinJe]

Yo David, I'm glad you included the Snow Queen dungeons from Persona! Dunno whether you read my suggestion before or had it in mind anyway but it's cool to see either way! That treetop/bridge dungeon looks horrific also o_o

[@davidvinc]

It was all your suggestion! Thank you so much!

[@BlinJe]

@@davidvinc No worries man, Keep up the good work =]

[@Demiurge7th]

@@davidvinc what's worse is that it's fps, gladly the sequels are orbital or bird's eye view XD

[@thebossthusiast1960]

Dude, I thought "Dorter Trade City" and then you said it! That was awesome.

[@MiamiSunrise]

I can't even tell you how many times I got defeated by Dorter Trade City. That can be such a brutal fight....at near the BEGINNING of the game!

[@oguzhangungor9117]

I will hard disagree with that trails in the sky one. The enemies in the dungeon can all be skipped via clock and haze. And while the chest enemies are really hard, its only the first tier that has the art canceling assholes and even then you can confuse their friends or use agate and joshua s-crafts to get rid of them easily. I won't lie it is one of the lower points when it comes to final dungeons in trails but it is still good imo. The music is fantastic too. Azure tree? No sorry but that place is a place to behold. The fact that you can easily return to your ship and/or just exit the place is a very convinient bonus too. I don't know about the bug, never happened to me. Each of the dungeons has a satisfying boss at the end of them too. Keep in mind I am also saying this as a nightmare only player, so I have to deal with the most buffed enemies but even then these 2 dungeons are not something I would call "Worst PSP dungeons".

[@Brahmsonite]

For sure. To be honest I thought most of the dungeons were too short and straightforward in that game. I loved the story so it was nice to have a real dungeon at the end.

[@DippoMagoo]

@@Brahmsonite I do find the last dungeon of FC a tad annoying, to the point where I had to use a guide to figure out the map, because it was just too confusing otherwise. I still wouldn't consider it a worst of all time, or anywhere, close, but I've played barely any PSP games (I actually played that series on PC.) But yeah, the Azure Tree is downright incredible, imo, and one of my favorites in the series, so I completely disagree with that one.

[@Shippo89]

Went through the Trails in the Sky final dungeon confusing everything. Eventually got tired of treasure hunting and just went for the end. Love the ending, but the final dungeon lost its appeal pretty early in.

[@Terranigma23]

Agree with you I found the Azure tree so beautiful!

[@tcaz]

I get where he's coming from with the final dungeon of FC, but yeah I just cannot agree with the Azure Tree even being on the list. It was by far the best dungeon in Azure.

[@neogamer6461]

The sealed area in FC is pretty mazy and has you fighting the same enemies over and over again but fortunately isn't that long. The Azure tree on the other hand is extremely long with 4 inner dungeons leading to each of the final bosses each with their own puzzles. They're not hard to get through but it is such a long ride to get to the end. Also, I remember that segment on the ship in Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch. That part was very boring.

[@boitahaki]

This channel make me feel like a total dummy about JRPGs

[@MiamiSunrise]

One of the worst dungeon or battle issues to have is certainly centered around ESCORT or RESCUE missions. I put those in capital letters because while they can end up fruitful they can make you get close to Rage quitting! Wow do you need to expect to restart a battle or expect to lose and have to restart over and over and sometimes...over again!! You mentioned in another video the Rafa and Malak battle in FFT and that is a perfect example. Character AI in games can really let you down in surprising ways. A point in this video that made me cringe a little was when you described that final Trails in the Sky dungeon where EVERY chest is a fight. I don't know about you but that seems like a great way to get to throw a controller, especially since you say its so long. That's a game I'm still waiting to get to, and can't wait to do so but I won't forget you said that haha! Additionally I'd like to point out that any game where you spend over an hour in a dungeon that just pulls the life out of you and you finally get to a save point and it is bugged so that you could lose all your progress, has to be one of if not the most cruel of things you can do to a JRPG player. What a terrible thing for the developers to get wrong lol! Thanks David!

[@patsg1146]

Great top 10, David. It's hard to avoid the remakes on that one! Tales of Eternia and Tactics Ogre were also on the PS1 and the SNES, but great list nonetheless!

[@therpglordrpglover2421]

lets not forget that if you want all the Ultimate Personas for the Snow Queen Quest, *you have to do Thanatos Tower first... then the Nemesis Tower, then finally Hypnos Tower...* Yeah, you have to do the hardest dungeons first, then the easy ones last. what the fuck, Atlas?

[@indigowendigo8165]

... How many games have you played man? RPGs anyway... you've played like all the hidden gem ones I've played, and then some, literally so many more games I've never heard of in my life. o.O

[@doha057]

This top 10 could almost be mistaken for top RPG games of PSP, but thankfully you prioritized dungeon tediousness than the game itself once again. Glad to see Monster Kingdom Monolith got a place as I suggested, forgot about Growlanser too, btw there are few more gems I think you could make a part 2 of this video.

[@davidvinc]

Thank you for the suggestion! I also have a Top 10 PSP RPGs video already if you haven't checked that out.

[@doha057]

@@davidvinc No no, I meant tedious dungeon part 2 lol and I have already watched that video, entire series actually.

[@RikusonOne]

I would agree that the dungeons in the Trails games and debatably overstay their welcome especially ESPECIALLY if you are getting to the end of hime game and you are ready to check out/be done with the because their final dungeons will make that final push a long and painful one if you expecting it to be shorter than it actually is. The only time i felt this way in a Trails game is in SC. But like you said the conclusion is always worth it so i usually deem it as forgivable if that's the case.

[@asmodeus58XX]

You made it feel like the Azure Tree would be at least four hours. It isn't. It's two hours and a half, about the same as the final dungeon in most Tales games (Tales and Trails really are brothers from different mothers, aren't they? Even their names are similar in English). Destiny DC's Dycroft, on the other hand, is three hours full of frequent encounters, scarce save points and PAIN. Did I mention my PS2 froze on Miktran EX and I forgot to save beforehand?

[@Mattandthejaysmusic]

Love seeing Tales of Eternia in one of your vids ! ! ! One of my favs

[@KitsuneYojimbo]

That one quest in Jeanne D'Arc where you have to lead the Dauphin to the palace to become the Prince as Liane. That mission actually was the reason I rage quit the game and never touched it again. The braindead Dauphin runs off right into the line of enemy attack and because he always moves before you, you have almost no time to react before something cuts the moron down to size in about 2 hits.

[@ultraness]

Hmm, can't say I agree about the Azure Tree, not that I'm really qualified to comment on PSP RPGs, since the Trails games are pretty much the only ones I've played on that system (aside from ones that got ported from or to different consoles). The Azure Tree is really long, but I didn't find any parts of it too confusing or challenging, and it makes up for its length by having a bunch of solid story sections after each boss fight. The only Trails game to really piss me off with its final dungeon was the first Sky, as those chest battles are both frustrating and eventually tedious, as they require the player to just do the same strategy over and over again, to the point that it becomes mindless.

[@kyleshadow416]

The Azure tree took me 3 days to get through. I was finishing the game at lightning speed and then I got there and every time I finished a boss I just stopped for the day as thats all I could handle lol.

[@isenokami7810]

Ooh, Trails. While I haven’t reached the Aureole myself (despite playing through three fifths of it on Steam), the section for it here makes me expect and dread Lair of the Great Shadow from Cold Steel. Lair of the Great Shadow honestly isn’t too long (it is long, but not horribly so). The real problem is just how much the enemies will absolutely destroy you with every encounter. I actually had a funny in hindsight moment where I rage quit the level...exactly one screen before I reached the boss at the end.

[@unofficialSummer]

I'm not sure if you did one for the 3DS yet, but Popolocrois story of seasons, has a whole bunch of "wannabe procedural" (not actually) dungeons that are really bad, I mean they're basically trial and error labyrinths accompanied by random encounters.

[@acesuper5674]

Almost all tactic games.. I think, you don't really like tactics game because it's strategy game.

[@n.b.2164]

I thought Legend of Heroes 2 was boring overall. I quit Wild Arms XF because of that prisoner stage. I will get back to it. I still love the PSP.

[@davidvinc]

XF is one of my favorite Wild Arms games and it has the best villain ever conceived! Just get by that awful stage and you're in for a great ride!

[@OmiShinobi]

Thank you! I enjoy your vids, they totally give me the "nostalgic feels". And I may be crushing on you! ;) Keep the awesome vids coming!

[@Ghalion666]

I dont mind the final dungeon in TiTS FC. But yeah its annoying that enemies have such high physical defense when Estelle is kind of meh at both physical attack and artes. Their defense isnt so high that joshua and Zin cant be useful as a physical attacker, but its just high enough that Estelle cant do it well. The dungeon itself was ok for me though. The azure tree on the other hand I completely agree. Not only is it long as heck, but alot of the battles are super annoying gimmick fights with vanish mechanics. Dealing with vanish isnt hard or challenging, its just annoying, and a whole big huge dungeon full of it made me skip every fight I could before long

[@asmodeus58XX]

My only problem was with those suicide enemies that rob a character of HP, EP, CP and, of course, EXP.

[@Ghalion666]

@@asmodeus58XX thats what vanish does. They were the hardest vanish using enemies to.avoid but others had the same annoying mechanic

[@asmodeus58XX]

@@Ghalion666 Up until that point, Vanish was temporary and only drained a member's CP or EP, never both and never HP.

[@Ghalion666]

@@asmodeus58XX really? My bad. The annoyance of that dungeon's trash was too stonk and traumatized me I guess.

[@bluecoin3771]

I’ve heard of Growlancer. The artist is infamous for art that, em, grows one’s lance 😏.

[@Aliceeyes]

ahh the teachers who steal psp's, when i was in school so many psp's were taken by teachers never to return they tried to take mine once, long story short, they didnt get it

[@krimzonstriker7534]

Tactics Ogre counts as a final dungeon? Bring on the Fire Emblem games now! :D

[@davidvinc]

If only there wasn't perma-death in those games. I know the new ones got rid of it, but having it in the old games just ruins it for me.

[@raina1848]

I remember the forest of temptation and being confused at first.

[@orderofshadow]

Before pay to win games we have pay to lose shitty games 😂😂😂

[@TheKabuto90]

While I absolutely adore Persona 2, Innocent Sin at least as I haven't played Eternal Punishment, I absolutely hate everything about the first Persona, even its remake. And the final dungeons for every route just make me despise it so much more than I could have possibly imagined. The story isn't even good and all of the dungeons are annoying to some degree, and then they pull off one of the worst finales in rpg history. Frankly it's baffling to think of how Atlus could not only make one of the worst games ever, but then immediately follow it up with a masterpiece.

[@staysharp2453]

8:25 i played this game recently and yes, this was a hell. This game has other bs dungeons. You can hold circle to reduce encounter rate AND walk slowly, tho. Better than nothing i guess Also, i replayed Final Fantasy 1 determined to complete the GBA content, this time on the psp version and you could totally count the optional dungeons with bosses from FF5 and FF6. Almost dropped these optional stuff halfway, not hard, but too much stress. Then i finished and find out there is exclusive psp dungeon for FF1, but i dropped for the sake of my sanity.

[@almightycinder]

I never beat that damned Wild Arms level.

[@bradyp634]

I’ve never done the snow queen route in persona 1... looking forward to enduring the BS that will ensue!

[@mazinrobox2546]

I actually liked the Azure Tree a lot.

[@ignacywinski192]

Aureole was to long, but I was crushing archaisms with Zin and his S-Craft pretty quickly. Playing Zero now, and in my opinion final duengons in SC and 3rd were great. Liberl Ark has a tone of lore and great, personal bossfights, and Phantasma is epic becouse of using all characters. But Gehenna in 3rd was to long.

[@porqueue]

I actually liked Forest of temptation in Eternia

[@r.a.fgattaiguy845]

just finished Trails in the Sky 1, and indeed the last dungeon was a pain in the ass, not really hard at all but those chest battles took so long also you were right, the end of the game was amazing and made everything worth it

[@martuulema5137]

Do you know where to get Ao No Kiseki? i want to play it on psp 1000 instead of ppsspp... thanks!

[@Brahmsonite]

I was really disappointed with the pre Trails Legend of Heroes games' localizations. I knew they'd be primitive but I was not expecting the writing to be such crap.

[@oguzhangungor9117]

Wait what, the sky games? or are you talking about the ones before FC?

[@ignacywinski192]

Trails in the Sky is 6 entry in Legend of Heroes franchaise

[@Brahmsonite]

Legend of Heroes actually has a very complicated history. The first two were actually Dragon Slayer: the Legend of Heroes. Then they dropped the Dragon Slayer name and the next 3 happened in the same world of Gargarav and judging from the one that was number 10 in this list they are awful. Everything from Trails in the Sky, which is Legend of Heroes 6, onwards has had Trails in the name and takes place in the same world. The Trails franchise is now nine games in three arcs. In an interview somebody at Falcom said the series is "more than 60% complete"...

[@bugmom3879]

Imagine calling this the aureole.

[@ShadowWolfRising]

'7' Man........That reminds me of that one Dungeon from Legend of Mana.

[@xellis8434]

This video has THREE Legend of Heroes games. Falcom really should shorten their dungeons a bit. Also agree with Tales of Eternia, I walked though this forest with guide, and it still was boring as hell. It is, probably, the worst dungeon in entire Tales series, with exception of Ymir forest from Symphonia, of course.

[@isenokami7810]

And if you thought Trails had it bad on this list, I am fully expecting Lair of the Great Shadow from Cold Steel on the Vita list.

[@Shippo89]

@@isenokami7810 I feel part of the problem is just there's no indicator of how far you have left to go (in Star Ocean: TtEoT, Sphere 211 has you go through most but not all of the 211 floors. But that's the thing, you know there are only 211). I ended up saving and leaving the game for a week or so before coming back to finish it. Turns out the ending was pretty much right around the corner.

[@isenokami7810]

Heal n Peel Length seems to be a major problem with RPG final levels in general. Sure, there are examples of final levels with perfect length, like Sin in FFX or Hod in Tales of the Abyss, but most of them are long slogs (though even with Cold Steel the issue is less the dungeon length and more the insane difficulty spike in the normal encounters). In my opinion, every final level from the classic NES and SNES Final Fantasies are among the worst in this regard. Say what you will about FFII’s broken leveling system, but it made the Jade Passage/Hell Palace the ONLY one of these dungeons that wasn’t stupid and FFII the ONLY one of these classics I beat. (Can’t quite speak for Kefka’s Tower; I couldn’t get into FFVI for a very embarrassing reason.)

[@jaiber8799]

The azure tree Not found it Help

[@seanscarborough4023]

Man I wish I could play trails to azure without working with a fan translation patch, I'm not good with stuff like that, here's to hoping for a switch port or any port really.

[@davidvinc]

I have an LP of it on my channel, that could be the next best thing.

[@NotAFakeName1]

Hey the Aureole is great. Probably one of the highlights of SC.

[@ultraness]

He was talking about the dungeon from the first game, yo.

[@NotAFakeName1]

@@ultraness ha you right. Don't know why he called it the aureole in that case.

[@geromelobo5970]

I am not call them worst without trying to play them before you rate.

[@darkbladetri]

He is aware tactics ogre appeared on Ps1 first

[@wimpieyuwono2550]

Actually Wild Arms is not too bad at all.

[@onodasakamichi4709]

Wild arms games series are pure puzzle if you play wild arms 2 and wild arms 3 and wild arms alter code f without walk-through you gonna get trigger why this game for 100 IQ

[@legionofAlexander]

Im a simple man, I see tactics ogre and I click.

[@Dracowinges]

7:25 The only times i had to do the 'save the character ' weren't that many only: Cerya? in the 4th mission, Hobirym, Ravness possibly and CODA Lanselot

[@Parallelepiped2]

Love this series! Another great entry!

[@Chelaxim]

Ugh that forest.🤮🌲

[@isidorodaviddoro1920]

Mimana iyar Chronicle has the worst dungeon everything looks the same and there isn't any map plus many random encounters This game sucks ass

[@NotRealGio]

This guy reminds me of guptill89

[@EdgyEmoLoliconBoy]

I agree... azure tree

[@doomerang1438]

I dunno I like good long dungeon romps

[@sartenquemada1101]

so, have you reached the nirvana? xD

[@ionivanuta6346]

You are right

[@dmkrodan]

Some entries in this lsit make me think you are vehemently against Etrian Odyssey, lol.

[@davidvinc]

Why's that? EO is on the DS, not the PSP.

[@dmkrodan]

@@davidvinc I was not speaking in context to what console it was on (I figured the only relevance that held was the criteria for your list for any specific episode) I was just saying that some of your dislike for certain aspects like map making seemed as if you disliked games like Etrian Odyssey. Mind you I am just speaking from the impression given, not accusing you of anything sir, haha. (I understand completely if you love EO on the ds but not on other consoles though, I am actually very worried about the future of the series now that Nexus is out and that is the last 3ds title, as EO was just perfect on the 3/DS in my opinion, easily my favorite rpg series on the DS- with the 3rd title being the closest to my heart. Not saying it will not work on a console like the Switch, just that I am a grumpy stubborn ass that dislikes change lmao)

[@ralphcoronado1548]

That's why Walkthroughs are made. Talk about challenging dungeons. This reviewer wants the shortcut way. tsk

[@zhangcheho5735]

Boring list