Console: Handheld

Medieval (fantasy)
Self Published
2009

Console: Handheld is the third in a series of games intended to recreate the feeling of a CRPG, plus it’s a pocket game, and I’m on a bit of a micro game kick at the moment.
The interesting thing about Console: Handheld is that rather than just being a handheld game based on console RPGs, it a handheld game based on handheld console RPGs; seeming to take the bulk of its influence from the early SaGa—aka Final Fantasy Legend—series. Honestly the influence is so strong that I’m not sure if I should be considering this a SaGa fan game or not.

Character Creation: N/A
Players choose from one of four classes—Human, Esper, Monster, and Robot—which provide bonuses to the four attributes, starting equipment, and in some cases special abilities. Base attributes start at 1 and are always equal to character level.
Given that character creation only involves picking one of four classes, I’ve decided to treat this game as using pre-generated characters for rating purposes.

Mechanics: 2/5
The basic system is quite simple, but also unnecessarily complicated. In combat the attackers Attack or Magic stat is compared to the target’s Defense with damage dealt equal to the difference—in case you’re wondering, it is incredibly unlikely that the Defense stat would be higher. After a successful battle, characters gain a level—yes, after every battle.
Where things get a bit complicated is with items. Weapons, armor, and spells—excluding Espers’ two bonus spells that randomly change every level—are items, and each character can only carry four items total—eight total for humans. Items are also what provide the the largest bonus to your stats. Where things get complicated is that each level items’ stats decay by 1 after every combat—which paired with the +1 level increase after each combat does technically mean you don’t need to recalculate after every encounter. Or at least that’s how I think it works, there’s a bit of lack of clarity in regards to item levels mean—i.e. do they add to an item’s standard bonus—and is even more vague when it comes to spells, as they do not provide a stat bonus but have a very low cost per level which would suggest that level is what decays after each combat. This is one of those things that seems highly influenced by SaGa—weapons and spells were limited-use items—that probably could have been done better, or left out altogether.

Writing: 1/3
Overall the game does a good job of conveying the rules, excluding aforementioned issues, and the fact that robots are listed as being weak to lightning without actually specifying the mechanical effects of that weakness.

Presentation: 3/5
There’s an assortment of pixel art images strewn throughout the rules, but for the most part they’re just kinda thrown into margins or any random available space. But it is consistent and thematically-appropriate.  But I don’t want to talk about the art, I want to talk about the layout. Console: Handheld has a pretty dang clever layout to it, it’s intended to be printed onto both sides of a piece of paper and then folded into a little booklet, which I will now explain in depth. The folded page starts as a 2.75×4.25 inch booklet with the first page on the front and rear cover on the back, this opens up into two more 2.75×4.25 inch pages, and then unfolds into two 4.25×5.5 inch pages, and then unfolds to the final full page subdivided into four 4.25×5.5 inch pages. This may not be the most convenient format, but it’s definitely clever and novel, and I like clever and novel—I mean, I gave Xtraor 3/5 on character creation just for being novel. I do however have one issue: for the most part the final page—the least convenient to get to—contains primarily GM information—which makes sense—but it also contains the character sheet. It really seems like the character sheet should have been put on the back cover so that players could keep the rules folded up during play and only need to open them when looking something up. Also, the folded booklet would probably be easy to write on in situations where a table isn’t available.

Content: 1/3
Content is minimal, a few weapons, basic armor, and tn spells. Also one standard set of monster statistics and a few templates to modify them with. It’s not really lacking anything specifically, it just doesn't offer anything specifically noteworthy.

Final Remarks
This game isn’t great, but it’s compact and has some fun elements. It’s the sort of thing that would be good for situations where dice and big rule books would be inconvenient—like on a road trip, or between classes—but not really worth the time if you have access to something with more depth—so very much like the early SaGa games.

Base Points: 5
Character Creation: N/A, Mechanics: 2/5, Presentation: 3/5
Adjustments: −2
Setting: N/A, Writing: −1, Content: −1

Overall Score 30% (3/10 Points)
Good to play in the car, maybe not anywhere else though.