Last week, Square Enix officially released  their english version of  “The 3rd Birthday”. The game itself is a standalone continuation of Aya Brea, a gorgeously rendered character derived from the Parasite Eve serie. In Japan this game was released back December last year and became an instant hit wonder with many PSP owners.  The US-version released only last week is a voice-dubbed and subtitled edition of the JAP version.

I actually didn’t own a PSP, but bought one a couple of weeks before this game launched in Japan. Graphics are so impressive and pixel-perfect that you will end up asking yourself how this game gets so much out of a handheld console which isn’t exactly running on new GPU technology. Story wise the 3rd birthday immerses you into the virtual world of Aya Brea and her companions to tell her story and fight against the monsters who turned New York into ruins.

The game is actually so good that Hajime Tabata, Director at Square Enix told the press that he thinks releasing this game only for PSP might have been not such a wise choice,  since the PSP isn’t as popular  as the Playstation 3 platform in the European & American market.

Because the game has some major graphical prowess under the bonnet, Tabata also said that at some point in the development they felt they had opted for the wrong platform. In the end the team decided to stick to the PSP platform, yet they were convinced the game has the qualities to make it the bigger screen (on PS3 or XBOX 360) due to its feature rich gameplay and stunning graphics. He hinted that there may be a possibility to move this to home consoles in the future, yet the man himself did not want to confirm that this particular Aya Brea sequel will be converted to the big screen counterpart.

The main reason for the team to stick to PSP during development of this game was the size,  it was originally intended for mobile devices. Unfortunately most mobile devices lack the graphical output so the PSP’s memory was just about  right for what they wanted to establish. Square Enix said they are hoping to see this franchise market grow in the near future, which is good news for all of us who enjoyed countless hours on this game.

If you haven’t picked this game up yet, we strongly recommend you to do so. It is AMAZING!