Since I enjoyed Shepherd’s Crossing 2 for the DS so much, I decided to make Shepherd’s Crossing the first game I played when I got my 
new PSP. Yes, I finally caved in and bought one. The release of Final Promise Story (Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari) made me sit down and take stock, and I realized there are over 75 games I’d like to play on the PSP. I’m too impatient to wait for a price drop when the NGP comes out, so I figured now was as good a time as ever to get one.
I needed something calming after my Tales of the Tempest experience, but I’m not sure Shepherd’s Crossing was really it. This is what happens when you play the sequel before the original and find the sequel has so many great improvements that the original sucks mightily in comparison. Don’t get me wrong. Shepherd’s Crossing
Firstly, I finally appreciate how much the clearly demarcated fields helped in Shepherd’s Crossing 2. It was still disorganized, but you could at least plan things: I’m going to fence my animals in here, I’m going to plant cabbages here, and tomatoes there and put a couple of trees there. This game is a complete mishmash, just a wide field with no clear markings at all. It’s so messy! There are many different types of fences, blocks and pickets you can use to pen your animals or fence your crops, but they’re SO hard to place correctly. And every time some animals show up to wreck your farm (which is often), your animals escape anyway and you have to round them up again.
Even worse there are so many things you can’t do in this game: you can’t chop down trees, you can’t explore your house, you can’t leave your farm except to go to the market, you can’t butcher your own animals, you can’t cook or process produce, you can’t get married or have kids, etc, etc. It’s far more limited than 2, especially since you can only hold 3 items at a time. And here I thought 5 items was bad.
You can hunt, though, which is a fun diversion from the main game. It’s a simple turn-based interface where you raise dogs and other attack animals, teach them some attacks and sic them on the local wildlife. Don’t worry, they deserve it. For your reward you get things like pelts and meat as well as points to trade in for items. It’s pretty fun, except they also give you these little statues that teach you stuff, and that you can’t get rid of even after learning the skills. They’re taking up space in my storehouse and it’s pissing me off! Oh wait, it looks like I can put them in the trash can. Just hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.
Back to the flaws, though, the biggest one for me is the non-existence of money. There’s a reason mankind moved from the barter system to a cash-based society pretty quickly, and that’s because bartering sucks. But at least in real life bartering is a bit flexible. In this game you can only trade specific items for specific other items, and forget about trading that item you have plenty of for that other item you really really need right now, it’s not going to happen. I’ve been forced to drag out my game a little longer because I need to grow wheat to proceed. Only the trading process to get wheat seed is so long (raise rabbits, grow cabbage, feed rabbit cabbage, get rabbit fur) and the wheat is so reluctant to grow that it all died the previous year and I’m having to start the process all over again. RRRGGGGH.
Oh, and my PSP screwed me royally last night. In a stunning incidence of poor design, the battery indicator is placed right under your right palm when you’re playing. In other words, unless you move your hand away frequently (and why would you do that?) you won’t notice when your battery is about to run out. Even if you do move your hand, the low-battery indicator is a slow green flash, so you won’t get the message without staring at it for a few seconds. Next thing you know, fwip. There goes your game and any progress you’ve made in the last couple of hours. I reckon I must have lost about 12 days of progress last night. RRRRRGHHH again. Wait… I just turned my PSP on and it looks like I didn’t lose anything. Phew, and yippee!
Anyway, I’m only two years into the game right now. If things pick up, I’ll let y’all know.
