Shadow of Destiny Heading to PSP

One of the most overlooked Playstation 2 games is getting a second chance. Konami is porting Shadow of Destiny to the PSP.

Shadow of Destiny (also referred to as Shadow of Memories in some regions) was one of the first games on the Playstation 2. The adventure game offers an interesting premise in that the protagonist, Eike Kusch, dies at the beginning. Fortunately, he ended up being spared from the afterlife as he was mysterious granted powers to travel back in time to order to prevent his puzzling death.

Eike Kusch need to go through four different eras: 2001, 1980, 1902 and 1580 in order to solve the circumstances of his eventual murder. The gameplay in Shadow of Destiny is like an interactive choose-your-own adventure novel. The decisions you make has an effect on the story and ultimately the ending to the game. Shadow of Destiny features multiple endings that encouraged continuous replays.

The adventure game was released for the Playstation 2 on February 22, 2001 in Japan and March 5, 2001 in North America. Shadow of Destiny scored fairly well with the critics as it managed to rake in a 78 metascore at metacritic.com. Like most adventure games at that time, however, it didn't sell all that well.

The cult-hit Playstation 2 game eventually was eventually ported to other systems, including the Xbox in 2002 and PC in 2002/2003. The latest port would come 6 year after the last with the PSP.

Launching in North America on March 24, 2005, the PSP (or Playstation Portable) is the most advanced handheld gaming system on the market. The hardware power stands somewhere between the Playstation and Playstation 2. Being an early Playstation 2 game, Shadow of Destiny didn't really push the Playstation 2 in terms of visual fidelity. Since the PSP don't need to render the same resolution as a television screen, the handheld system should be able to successful replicate the original look of the Playstation 2 game.

Despite selling 50 million units worldwide, the PSP is struggling with software sales. For that reason, not many game companies were willing to take risks on developing original games. Instead, they resorted to remaking and porting old games to the PSP. Shadow of Destiny is the latest port to head to the handheld system. Although it may not generate any excitement, the PSP is getting a healthy dose of good quality titles nevertheless.

Shadow of Destiny is set to be released on October 1 in Japan. No dates were revealed in North America yet but it should follow shortly after the initial Japanese launch.