Now for the record, I own both systems and I like both of them. What I am NOT saying with this post is that the 3DS is a shitty system. I know in most gaming spaces the idea of liking 2 "opposing" things is an impossibility but I don't roll like that. The 3DS had Shin Megami Tensei 4 and Persona Q for fucks sake, I'm not just going to write it off. That said though, the Vita feels like a system that was almost made entirely for me and my weird tastes as well as my unusual situation at the time that I got it and therefore got significantly more play time.
The first reason for the preference, the big one, was that the Vita was region free. I bought my 3DS from a friend while at University in England and with it I got a handful of games which was very cool. However shortly after making this purchase I moved to Japan where I was basically locked out of buying more software for the thing. I WANTED to give Nintendo my money for new games and they said "what's that? you're an British expat in Japan? well why don't you go fuck yourself, eh?" and thus no new games were ever bought. Well almost no new games, I bought a copy of Persona Q and by "I bought" I mean I had my mother buy for me and send to me here in Japan which was unfair to her, making her go to game stores looking for weebshit and was a pain in the ass for me in wait times, potential package theft and subsequent repaying of game price. I didn't even play Shin Megami Tensei 4 on my own 3DS, I borrowed a friends American 3DS with a copy of the game downloaded to it off the e-shop. I couldn't use the e-shop because the British e-shop wouldn't accept my Japanese credit card and I didn't own a British one so even the digital path was blocked off to me. And I know there's some fucking gimp reading this post going "jUsT hAcK iT" to which I say that you can go fuck yourself. I can't be bothered with that and its not something I should HAVE to do just to play new games.
The Vita on the other hand was more than willing to accomodate my multi-region needs at the time. Bought for my by my wife in Japan, then taken to Sweden, England and America for various reasons and I bought games in all of these countries and just popped them in and had a grand old time. Not to mention that my PS+ subscription was giving me 2 Vita games a month for free as well as 2 PS4 so I had quite the collection of games and I didn't even have to spend all that much to get it.
Speaking of the games, that's the other reason I like the Vita so much. I don't care all that much about the 3DS library. Bravely Default was pretty good and SMT4 and 4A were fun but I can't recall much that really stands out in my mind. Even flagship titles like A Link Between Worlds, while not shitty, were unmemorable and not the kind of games I'm ever going to rush back and play. Hell, as I wrote this post I went to go dig out my little box of 30 or so 3DS carts just to make sure there wasn't something amazing that had slipped my mind but all I got was disappointment. I had middling amounts of fun with the 3DS when playing it, but nothing that stuck out.
The Vita on the other hand seemed to be made EXACTLY for me. I bought it with a copy of Project Diva F and anyone who watches my streams knows how much of a sucker I am for my weird vocaloid rhythm games. At the time, the Vita was also the only way to play Persona 4 Golden so that got a great many hours put into it too. But most of all, the Vita seems to have a large supply of what I like to call "Windows Screensaver Games". They are usually known as "first person dungeon crawlers" but "dungeon crawler" has been co-opted by idiots who put things like Diablo and Baldurs Gate in the category as well so I like my name better. Dungeon Travelers, Wizardry, Zanki Zero, Mary Skelter, Labyrinth of Galleria are just a few of the more obvious ones but my Vita's memory card is full to BURSTING with these fucking things. Tons of obscure Japan only dungeon crawls for me to satiate my weird niche interest that I can just slide into my jacket pocket and play anywhere I want? Actual gaming heaven. Hell, about a week before writing this post I JUST bought Meikyuu Cross Blood off Amazon for the Vita, its fucking 2024 and I'm still discovering new dungeon crawls to enjoy for the bloody thing. So between the rhythm games and the catering to a niche genre that only I and a few others care for, the Vita got the majority of my love and attention.
Not that it was a perfect system. The 3DS certainly had better portibility, the Vita's design is sort of similar to the Switch and Steam Deck but JUST small enough to not be a pain in the cock, but only just. Also the 3DS let you slam any old SD card into it for memory but the Vita had these absurdly expensive Sony memory cards the largers versions of which were as much as 2 or 3 games in terms of price. Sony can really lick my balls on that one, worst part of its design by a lot. Also the Vita has this stupid back touch screen which I don't think I've ever used once personally and I only know 1 game off the top of my head that uses it at all.
I can fully understand why the 3DS greatly outlasted the Vita and why it enjoyed significantly more popularity from general audiences. However, the Vita, for me, seemed so attuned to my weird tastes for grid based weebshit that there's no way Nintendo ever stood a chance in my household.
God bless you, PS Vita, I don't think there will ever be a system with a library quite like yours ever again.
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