Summary
PlayStation consoles and portables have had a bevy of prequels. One of the most notable ones for the PS2 wasMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It was the firstMetal Geargame to focus on Big Bossduring the 1960s. It was a revolutionary game on the PS2 and it went on to inspire Hideo Kojima and his crew to make more Big Boss games.
On the PSP, fans got to playCrisis Core: Final Fantasy 7which was the origin story of Zack. Both of those games are great but the franchises are not owned by Sony. These other series are and they do have some notable prequels to go over.
6White Knight Chronicles: Origins
An RPG 10,000 Years In The Making
White Knight Chronicles: Originsis a major prequel in that it takes place 10,000 years before the events of the first game. There is little to tie this PSP prequel to the two PS3 games besides the titular White Knight mech and the overall land, but that’s a good thing just like Uncharted: Golden Abyss.The developer, Level-5,didn’t have to tie it into their major story thread and could instead focus on a new character who was a blank slate for players.
Players could customize their character and then go on smaller adventures in the world or in dungeons. It was never released in North America, but it was released in Europe besides Japan. Meaning that there is an English version out there that is more easily accessible than not.
inFamous First Light was a piece of standalone DLC that was released to tie intoinFamous Second Son. In the main game, the hero, Delsin, can absorb powers from other gifted people kind of likeRogue from the X-Men. In his journey, he takes Fetch’s powers who can control light to some degree. It’s a cool power-up in the game, butinFamous First Lightmakes these powers look even cooler.
In the prequel DLC, Fetch begins in prison, being trained on how to use her powers. Eventually, she breaks free and can explore a small section of Seattle from the main game. Her control of light and neon powers are incredibly diverse from flash dodging to shooting rays, it looked incredible on the PS4 and even more so on the PS5. It was nice to see how Fetch fit into Delsin’s overall story and why she turned out the way she did thanks to her jail time.
Uncharted: Golden Abysswas a launch game for the PS Vita. It is set before the first game,Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, but it is not a significant leap back in time. Nathan is slightly younger, a little wet behind the ears, but still capable of great adventures. It didn’t answer any burning questions that prequels usually try to do but that’s okay. Not every prequel has to do that and in fact, it can be damaging to the lore if not handled well like with theStar Warsprequels.
It was a good excuse for Sony to publish another adventure in Drake’s life without having to worry about continuity. It controlled moderately well on the PS Vita as far as the platforming and shooting were concerned. The coolest thing was the touchscreen implementations as players could rub down a map to reveal secrets, for example.
A Better Protagonist And Perspective Than Resistance: Fall Of Man
TheResistanceseries began in Europe, set during analternate World War 2 scenario. Instead of Nazis, players fought aliens, the Chimera, who came to invade Earth. Players fought as Nathan Hale, who got spliced with Chimera DNA and could do things like heal. The second game took the fight to the United States and also featured Nathan as the protagonist.Resistance: Retributionfits in-between the first and second games while the war was still going on in Europe.
Players assumed the role of a British officer, Lt. Grayson, in his ongoing mission to help the resistance fight against the Chimera. His missions crossed over slightly with familiar events of the original but the story overall didn’t really fill in any gaps with Nathan’s story. Instead, it was another look into the theater of war with the Chimera which was fine enough. The perspective changed from first-person to third-person, which worked out better as it was a PSP game.
Daxterwas a PSP spinoff in the seriesstarring Jak’s wisecracking sidekick from the games, Daxter. At the beginning ofJak 2, Jak and Daxter go through a portal and then Jak gets caught. The game then skips ahead two years until Daxter can spring him free.Daxter, the game, fills in the gaps to what Daxter was doing in all that time.
He was establishing a place in the underground of the city like with a local rebellion. There’s some platforming, weapon gathering, and plenty of mini-games. The standouts were Daxter’s dreams wherein he would recreate famous scenes from media likeThe Matrixfor a level. The prequel didn’t fill in any major story gaps fans were dying to see but it was fun to follow around Daxter once more for all of his jokes and the gameplay itself was solid for a PSP game.
God of War: Chains of Olympuswas the first prequel in the seriesbut there would be two more. It was for the PSP along with its sequel,God of War: Ghost of Sparta.God of War: Ascensionis the furthest game back in the timeline, but as far as scores go, God of War: Chains of Olympus has received the highest praise.
It takes place in a window of time whenKratos was serving the godsfor about ten years. It’s less fantastical than the mainline games as Kratos isn’t maiming famous gods but he still gets some cool powers via weapons and items. He does interact with plenty of gods though with his famous cold-hearted demeanor. For a PSP game, it played just as well as the PS2 games. The prequel was also valuable to see how Kratos became so jaded with the gods which led to his rebellion in the first game.
