As new generations of consoles are released, there tends to be the unfortunate circumstances of games from the past being left behind on older hardware. Game preservation has become a huge talking point across the industry and there is an effort to try to keep as many video games alive today, even if they are stuck on early consoles.
One of the consoles that will soon be left in the past is the PlayStation 3, whose store remains open but was almost closed in 2021. There are a handful of games that can only be played on the system and have not been brought forward, including a handful of solid RPGs.
7 Trinity Universe
Games with crossovers in them can be cool and strange all at the same time. Sometimes this happens between two properties that a company owns, and other times it involves two companies working together. The latter took place when the people behind the Atelier series and the Disgaea series teamed up to make an RPG called Trinity Universe exclusively for PS3.
The story revolves around Kanata, who initially refuses his responsibility to protect the world from space debris and escapes to a new life. However, he begins to feel the weight of that decision and decides to change the fate of humanity. The game includes some original characters, but also features some crossover characters from the developers' other series as well.
6 White Knight Chronicles
In the beginning of this century, Level-5 established itself under the Sony umbrella with the release of Dark Cloud. Since then, the developers have continued to crank out RPGs that have varying degrees of popularity. One of the lesser known entries by the team is White Knight Chronicles.
Co-developed with Japan Studio, this game focuses on Leonard, a winery employee who is tasked with delivering wine to a banquet that the Princess of Balandor is having. However, things take a turn when the king is killed and the princess is kidnapped by the Magi, an evil organization. The game revolves around completing quests in different areas and a real-time battle system.
5 Legasista
A lot of the games that are stuck on the PlayStation 3 are stuck on the store digitally. One of these games is Legasista, which was only physically released in Japan, but later released on the PlayStation Network in the west.
This dungeon crawling RPG revolves around Alto, a boy living in a world where technology is not at the forefront. With his sister under a curse, he decides to enter the Ivy Tower, where he hopes to seek an ancient weapon that could break it. However, when he finds the weapon, it is actually a young girl who does not remember how to break the curse.
4 Sorcery
Part of the reason that games don't get ported to newer consoles is that they may rely on a specific piece of technology associated with the original console. This can make it a much more difficult task to port it to another console, or even a new generation of the same console. A PlayStation 3 RPG that had this issue is Sorcery.
Players take on the role of Finn, and must hone in on his magic skills to fight back against the minions of the Nightmare Queen, who threatens to force the world into an endless night. Players use the Playstation Move to cast the different magic spells. The game revolves around taking down enemies and solving puzzles as they journey to stop the queen.
3 The Guided Fate Paradox
Nippon Ichi Software, the same developers behind the hit RPG series Disgaea, decided that they wanted to make a video game based on the fictional multiverse that they set up through that series. The product was a roguelike RPG called The Guided Fate Paradox.
The game follows Renya, who lucks his way into becoming God. He is tasked with helping grant wishes to the people who pray to him. To do this, he must go through dungeons in a mirror universe and fight Aberrations, where his progress can influence what happens in the real world.
2 3D Dot Game Heroes
There is not really a PlayStation equivalent of The Legend of Zelda series, but there have been a few attempts at something like it in the past. One notable homage was a PlayStation 3 game developed by Silicon Studio called 3D Dot Game Heroes. It has a blocky aesthetic with a top-down viewpoint as players go from screen to screen exploring.
The premise revolves around the grandchild of a hero who once sealed an evil king away for stealing six magical orbs and descending the kingdom into darkness. However, Dark Bishop Fuelle has stolen the orb that the hero sealed the evil king within, and it is up to the grandchild to stop him before more chaos ensues.
1 Tales Of Xillia
Another popular RPG franchise is the Tales series from Bandai Namco. Revived in 2021 after a five-year absence, the franchise has a total of 17 main installments a long with a handful of different spin-offs. The thirteenth installment in the franchise, Tales of Xillia, is stuck on the PlayStation 3.
The story of this game is set in the world of Rieze Maxia. Players step into the shoes of Jude Mathis as he and ally Milla Maxwell go on an adventure to confront the king. This ruler has endorsed a super weapon called the Lance of Kresnik, which completely absorbed Jude's professor along with Milla's spirit companions. Tales of Xillia has players explore, while participating in a rework of the linear motion battle system.
