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Phantasy Star, the Universe only gets better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 21
Date: November 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Phantasy Star online Epieosdes 1 & 2 have always been close to my heart when it comes to online games and, although I felt they went off track with their card battle game, episode 3, it seems they've more then made up for it with their latest installment.

Phantasr Star Universe takes place in the Gurhal system in what appears to be, for lack of a better term, an alternate universe. There no Pioneer 2, no Ragol, no Dark Falz. But thats alright! Because the story to this game pulls you in even more. The Gurhal system consists of three planets, one for each race other then humans who accepted the title of the lowest of the races. The races have been at peice for hundreds of years untill the unknown creatures known as the "Seed" began attacking.

This is where you take place. As a guardian it's your job to take missions and stop the Seed. Guardians seem to work a lot like Hunters did on PSO, except it seems less bounty-hunter-ish and more like a structured command system. PSU is the first of the PSO games which has a detailed offline mode complete with a full story and characters you can actually relate too. I'd suggest beating the story before going online.

Although the lack of "Mags" dissapointed me the new and somewhat revamped combat system kept me to my seat. The mechanics work mostly the same in the way of combos and most of the weapons you should be familier with if you've played the earlier installments, but there are several obviouse differances. You can no longer cast spells all willy nilly, you have to have a staff or a wand equipped, the ability to dual equip weapons such as hand guns and sabers so you can use them at the same time, weapon switching on the fly via the "Pallet" system.

Mags have been replaced by partner machines,w hich stay in your room untill level 80 (level 30 offline) and then join you on missions. Partmer machines work a lot like mags in evolution. You feed them, their stats improve, ect. But they are no longer floating stat boosts with photon blasts, now they actually fight along side you and even help you make weapons and armor.

One of the things I love about all PSO games is there is no pointless leveling. If your killing something, or going through an area, you have a reason. If you go out on PSU, it's because you have a mission, even if it's only a free mission. It really takes away the tedium of leveling that most MMOs have. The new ability to switch classes mid game is appealing to some, but it seemed more bothersome then anything to me. A good idea, but it just didn't fit my taste. So...

Pros:
Good gameplay
Nice graphics
PC/PS2 gamers can play together
Multi-equipping
Weapon and item switching on the fly
Partner machines who fight by your side!
In-depth offline story mode
More weapon types!
More spells!
Gah, the pros just never end! Theres so much to this game! and it's only $9 a month!

Cons:
No more mags.
Some veteran players may dislike having to use staffs and wands to cast.
This games too awesome. It needs more suck.

Maybe online is better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Although this game has been associated with good online gameplay reviews I wanted to check out the single player mode. I have found that the action RPG aspect of the battle system falls short and the environments are extremely dry. Moves are very basic and it feels your walking in the same room/area over and over again. The overall style of the world tries to give the feel of being in the online universe but is over shadowed by the problems I mentioned. I will never play this online but maybe fighting with fellow gamers helps over come these factors. For those who want to play a single player action RPG with this type of feel I suggest Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. It is an older game but the best action RPG I have played for the PS2.

Single player is lacking

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well, I played the first two episodes of this on the Xbox back in the day and even enjoyed the little card game a few years back. However, I was somewhat disappointed at this one...

The first thing to note is that this series is meant for online play and PSU is a pseudo-MMO. That means all the players do not share one world, but instances of areas for each group with a central chat/lobby.

Although PSU has a very comprehensive character creation process online, in single player, you get stuck with some guy in a hoodie who thumbs his nose like Cid from Kingdom Hearts (or rather he tries to dislocate his nose with his knuckles)... The gameplay becomes repetitive with only boss monsters offering a different style of combat for players. Unfortunately, there are only about a dozen of those around.

The controls also leave a lot to be desired. The entire d-pad is unused on the main screen as well as L2/R2 buttons. You can't create custom key mappings to actually link useful commands to them like switching with the next weapon down the list or use a monomate. This is important because to navigate the palette, you have to use the d-pad which makes it difficult to dodge attacks when in combat. And chances are most of the times you need to heal is in combat with a boss where dodging is very important.

In conclusion, this is a great game if you plan on going online and paying the fee. If you're looking for single player action, you might want to look elsewhere.

repetive battles

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: February 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I tried to enjoy this game a lot since I used to play the old clasic rpg games of the same series but the repetive gameplay just made me anoyed.
Basicaly, about 90% of the gameplay involves going into a room with random monsters spawning. The monsters will be the same for a good 40 mins per map and the textures for the rooms never seem to change. You've got the basic grey metalic silver for high tech buildings and the old boring brown for caves and such. The battle also goes outdoor with open skys but then you'll just be running through green patches of grass with a boulder here and there.
The battles themselves are hardly anything to be thrilled about, consiting mostly of just an attack button and the ability to change your weapons during battle in real time.
The only thing that I realy enjoy about the game was that everything was real time. Meaning you cant pause a game during a fight to switch weapons or pick items because the monsters will still be in the background hitting you.
Anyway, play it just for kicks but I dont think most people will find this the best game ever.

An RPG that handles like a shooter. (Story Mode review)

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: September 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've only played this in 'story mode,' not the online version. I have no way to play it online, and after this, little desire to.

I bought this as my second game purchase, thinking it was a straight RPG. However, in handling, this game comes across as more of a shooter--that is, the characters move more like characters in a shooter game--swooping circular movement, camera angles, hyper-sensitive positioning. It even speaks of 'classes' and 'missions', things I hear more with action/shooter games than with RPGs.

Naviagtion-wise, while there's a small corner map, like in FFX, it's very very easy to get lost in the uniform enviornments. If you don't have a good spatial memory, you can end up going in circles.

Graphics-wise, I found it lacking. The characters don't look like they belong in the enviornments. The colors are garish--the character of Ethan did not win any love from me: the game designers made the eye-burning mistake of putting a redhead in bright green and orange. Other characters looked laughable--jutting ears that looked like they'd break off any second. Scene-loading is often delayed, broken up by black screens and a very annoying animated version of the game logo, much like those annoying pop-ups on TV that tell you every five minute what program/channel you're watching, and that there's a baseball game tomorrow.

The voices were adequate for the characters, but no-one really stood out. The story unfolded with a jerkiness, long (often boring) bouts of combat with random critters, for no apparent reason, followed by awkward info dumps of backstory. THe opening song is a sugary thing that seemed better suited to 'teen hero saves the world' mecha anime.

PSU seems to be trying to serve two masters: the online gamers who demand a certain level of action and freedom, and the at-home gamers, who demand a certain level of action and story. No-one seems to have been well-served.

co-op

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 9
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Me and a buddy of mine were looking into getting this game i was just wondering if it has a offline co-op option for the single player missions?

A nice mix of the Old and New

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As a owner and fan of the original Phantasy Star series, I was a little hesitant when PS Online came out. Not all of us can afford or have the hardware necessary for a MMPORPG. But when Phantasy Star Universe came out for the PS2 as a stand-alone game, I wanted to try and see if this new game had any of the charm from the old series.

Overall, I really enjoyed Phantasy Star Universe. Its certainly not the original series but that's okay. It takes off in its own unique direction while still being born from the same formula. Just like the classic series, there are three planets that just happen to have names and climates similar to the orginal. The races also contain some of the old favorites such as Numans and one of the central characters to the story looks very much like Nei from PS2.

So how does it all mesh together? Its obvious to see the online-roots of the game with the dungeons (if you can call them that) as many of them are quite repetitive in terms of scenery and instead of being a maze, its pretty much get from point A to point B without dying. Simple formula and although more variety or platforming would have been nice, its not totaly boring since the fighting is all hands on (no turn based system here) and you can really go wild with your weapons if you want to.

The storyline is nothing fancy so no surprises there. I also felt the game should have been longer but its not a major flaw. PSU makes up for some of this with having the option to create customized characters and flashy battle scenes of colored laser weapons that make it look like Star Wars on steriods. Maybe its not a totally original idea, but it works for this game.

So if you enjoyed the old Phantasy Star, this is worth a try. It has enough new elements while still paying homage to the series creators. If you've never played the series, its still a lot of fun, and you might just become hooked on the new generation.. which is still going strong with Phantasy Star Universe 2 due in November of 2007.

Fun but not as fun as PSO

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was fairly repeatative. After time it became boring as all you were doing was grinding for materials and such.

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