PlayStation Essentials Sale Recommendations

Posted on by Trashlevania

This week’s PlayStation Essentials Sale on the NA storefront discounts quite a few games across the PS4, PS3, and Vita libraries. If you’re looking to save a buck, here are my recommendations.

Keep in mind that while the sale is open to everybody, the following prices include the additional discount that comes with the PlayStation Plus subscription. If you’re not a subscriber, your discount will be a tad smaller.

soma

PS4:

  • Don’t Starve Mega Pack – $6.47 (40% off)
  • Batman: The Telltale Series – $14.99 (40% off)
  • Batman: Return to Arkham (Asylum & City remasters) – $29.99 (40% off)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate – $22.49 (55% off)
  • SOMA – $8.99 (70% off)
  • Crypt of the NecroDancer – $4.49 (70% off, cross-buy w/ Vita)
  • Transistor – $5.99
  • Axiom Verge – $9.99 (50% off, cross-buy w/ Vita)
  • Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition – $4.49 (70% off)

I highly, HIGHLY recommend not sleeping on SOMA, Axiom Verge, and Transistor. All three are incredible games well worth their original asking price, with SOMA and Axiom Verge being my 2nd and 3rd favorite games of 2015.

Crypt of the NecroDancer is one of the best games you’ve never played. It’s a rhythm rogue-like dungeon crawler where you move along to the beat of the music while slaying monsters and discovering treasure. A truly unique experience.

danganronpa

Vita:

  • Adventures of Mana – $8.39 (40% off)
  • Crypt of the NecroDancer – $4.49 (70% off, cross-buy w/ PS4)
  • Axiom Verge – $9.99 (50% off, cross-buy w/ PS4)
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc – $14.99 (60% off)
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair – $23.99 (40% off)
  • Ys: Memories of Celceta – $11.99 (40% off)
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – $19.99 (50% off)

If you’re a Vita owner (we’re out there!) there’s some quality titles worth picking up this week, particularly for fans of RPGs. All of the games listed above are excellent.

I didn’t find anything noteworthy on the PS3 front, but there’s clearly a few discounts that shouldn’t go ignored on PS4 and Vita. Some of my favorite games on both consoles are up for grabs. For less than the cost of a new retail game, you could pick up a handful of digital steals this week and experience some of the best of the best over the last few years.

Picking anything up?

Published by Trashlevania

Bradley is an RPG, horror, shmup, beat em up, and fighting game scrublord from Baltimore, MD. His favorite console of all time is the Sega Saturn, with a deep love for Sega console gaming in general. He adorably thought everyone owned a TurboGrafx 16 as a kid just because he did. He also has a Bloodborne tattoo. Aside from that, he's super into metal, the wild (and dumb) world of professional wrestling, cooking, and mostly games on PS5 for modern stuff. Follow him on Twitter @Trashlevania.

40 thoughts on “PlayStation Essentials Sale Recommendations”

    1. The Vita is a hard sell because of its absurdly priced proprietary memory cards, but this late in its life cycle it’s definitely amassed quite the collection of games–particularly if you’re interested in indies, JRPGs, and visual novels.

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              1. I’m still working they amnesia: memories and hakuoki. I have a few on steam as well! I’ve heard great things about code: realize though. Next paycheck can’t get here soon enough-thinking about stopping by a GameStop n picking up a vita. Thoughts? GameStop vs. Amazon?

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                1. I went through GameStop because I wanted their exclusive blue model lol.

                  http://www.gamestop.com/ps-vita/consoles/playstation-vita-system-aqua-blue-only-at-gamestop/125335

                  It doesn’t seem like their website sells anything but pre-owned consoles now though, so if you want brand new you’ll probably have to go through Amazon. If you plan on buying digital games, I’d recommend getting nothing smaller than a 32gb memory card, which will probably run you $50-70 USD =\. I paid $104 for a 64gb about 2 years ago.

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                    1. You get some kind of return policy buying a used console at GameStop at least. I’ve only bought a used console once, a Wii, and it’s worked fine ever since. At least you can look at it there in the store before you buy it, I guess?

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    2. This is definitely the time to grab a Vita! I just wrote about this actually – my Vita game stack is officially larger than my 3DS one, and I’m thinking that the prices might start to climb as soon as people realize that they aren’t very easy to find anymore… Such a great selection of games though with very little filler and shovelware.

      Just.. the memory cards.. ugh.

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      1. I actually picked one up last night! At first I was disappointed by some of the scratches….but after I cleaned it up it was like non-existent. I picked up persona 4 last night alongside with it!! I’m stoked! I turned it on this morning. Design is great so is interface im surprised it wasn’t more popular. But with mobile gaming and consoles…

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        1. Mobile and portable are two totally different things in my mind, yet in the minds of executives, grandma Margaret playing Candy Crush on the iPhone her kids made her get is the exact same as Frank the 32 year old architect who commutes to work and wants to get engrossed in a good story.

          I’m hoping the Switch just absolutely kills it so companies realize there are more demographics that want solid games in a portable fashion! Part of my buying the Switch is to vote: Yes, I still want portable consoles.

          Good choice on P4G btw, from what I’ve heard it’s the quintessential Vita game!

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          1. It’s definitely the #1 game on Vita, in my opinion. Just an incredible experience overall. Freedom Wars, Axiom Verge, Danganronpa, there’s tons of great games on that little machine.

            There are tons of immersive, in-depth games on handhelds that offer just as good of an experience as their high-budgeted home console brethren, and I hope the Switch delivers on that.

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          2. Definitely, but I’m saying that with games becoming more accessible on a mobile platform, it seems like the phone is just a one stop shop. I personally don’t usually play games on my phone. I like the feeling of the handheld. I’ve been looking at the switch – but I haven’t played a lot of ninento games lately, I wouldn’t know where to even start.

            I’ve heard great things about P4G also, and the guy at the counter even told me good choice. lol. :)

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          1. Oh, will have to look into that! I was also told P4G was great! I was gamestop hopping today looking at games. I wasn’t able to find the ones I’m looking for yet..however there’s one gamestop by my house that I haven’t stopped to look at yet. So I’ll probably do that tomorrow. :)

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            1. It seems like half of the GameStops here carry used Vita games and the other half doesn’t, so I made a choice to go mostly digital and grabbed the biggest memory card available. I typically like collecting games, but I didn’t want to NOT play the games I bought the Vita to play because I was struggling to find them/didn’t want to overpay for them from eBay collectors.

              If you have some cash to throw around and you’re in NA, there’s a decent sale with Vita stuff going on right now at store.playstation.com. Axiom Verge, the first two Danganronpa games, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Adventures of Mana, Guacamelee.

              Severed is another high, high recommendation on Vita. Just released last year (won my Best Vita award) as a digital-only game.

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              1. Ah, I would totally buy the Danganronpa games, but I just bought them during the winter steam sale! T-T. I got an 8GB memory card for now. Will look into upgrading it at some point and going digital. :)

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  4. My Vita needs some attention, but RPGs buff my backlog too much. Be strong Ellen! You don’t have to buy anything just because it’s on sale… right?

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    1. Wrong. I mean, what?

      I’m grabbing Ys: Memories of Celceta, although my Vita backlog has no end in sight lol. But hell, I encourage ANYONE with a PS4 to check out Soma and Axiom Verge. So damn good, the both of them.

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