You take on the role of Shinbu, a young swordsman who’s fallen on a bit of hard times and bad standing with his superiors. Wanting to get back into the good graces of his clan, he sets off to investigate a series of murders involving his fellow disciples. You’ll start off traveling thru the country of Ouka, and make your way thru different regions as you uncover clues that further deepen the mystery of the murders. Along the way you’ll run into a pretty varied cast of characters, all fleshed out and voiced excellently. The story is fairly run of the mill, but the production value involved, especially for a portable RPG, is pretty high.

Once you hop into the game, you’ll find that the actual play mechanics are pretty deep, and they can be a bit difficult to get into. In particular, the combat system is really unique, but it’ll take a bit for you to get used to. Combat involves collecting scrolls and filling them out with tiles, the scrolls being called Bugei and the tiles being referred to as Kenpu. As you fight, your enemies will drop Kenpu, which you can add on to the Bugei scrolls and further develop combos to help you in combat. It’s a system that continuously rewards you and gives you new things to try, and once you get the hang of things it also becomes quite fun to play.

The actual animations involved in combat are spectacular, so much so in fact that you won’t feel like you’re playing any type of standard RPG. Shinbu moves across the screen with a certain grace to his steps, performing the combo’s strung out with flair and style. You’ll also be able to use the sword in long-range attacks and as a sort of finisher, combining your swordplay with the other combat aspect of chi attacks. Later on in the game you’ll tend to focus more on using Shinbu’s chi over his other moves, because the attacks really take on a superior role. That’s not to say that you can’t find interesting combo’s to perform involving his sword, but it would have been nicer to see both elements balanced better throughout the game.

Outside of the combat, the other elements of this RPG are all pretty standard to the genre. You’ll spend some time talking to villagers, running from place to place, doing errands or tasks for information or items, etc. There’s enough of the interesting combat thrown about to break up the otherwise mundane activities that make up the rest of the game. It would be nice to see a bit of time spent to these sections of gameplay in the future though, to try and make the experience as well rounded as possible. Also, some of your quest locations will be vague at times, and the world is large enough that this can become pretty aggravating. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, you’ll feel like you’re just treading water for a bit until you stumble on where you’re supposed to be.

As I mentioned earlier, Kingdom of Paradise looks incredibly beautiful on the PSP. It’s actually one of the better-looking titles I’ve played on the system, and it would have fit in quite nicely on the home consoles. The environments are lushly detailed, the character models are fleshed out and well animated, and there’s little to no slowdown to be had, even when facing off against multiple opponents on screen. The music manages to catch the theme and environment of the game as well, and provides the perfect atmosphere to help submerse yourself into the world you’ll be running around.

There are also a few special features to be had in the way of the PSP’s wi-fi system, such as trading Kenpu with a friend, or doing a short battle match with an online opponent. The battle arena will balance out the stats between you and your opponent, so you won’t have to worry about getting whooped by someone 10-15 levels ahead of you. If you lose, it’s because you suck, more or less. These are both minor features though, the vs. battles stuff won’t keep you interested for long, and the Kenpu trade isn’t all that helpful in the long run.

However, your final run time in KoP will easily be over 20 hours, and combined with the fantastic combat system, incredible visuals, and the lack of any really fantastic RPG on the PSP, well, it makes this game worth a purchase. If you’re jonesing for some role playing on the go, and you haven’t been able to get your fix, then this game should do it for you.