Phantasy Star Universe
The long awaited new title in the beloved Phantasy Star series is on its way! Phantasy Star Universe delivers a rich, ever evolving world and will provide hours of entertainment to both online and offline RPG enthusiasts. Single-player fans will embark on an offline quest as Ethan Waber, a 17-year old cadet intent on saving his sister from an invasion of mysterious life forces called THE SEED. While online players will create their own characters from a range of races, and then set off to explore all three planets in the Gurhal solar system. Fans will travel with a squad of other adventurers, enter urban sprawls teeming with hundreds of other players, and build their avatars into powerful warriors.
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I got the game recently it has like 12 levels where you can get to travel to three different worlds [I forgot their funny names, I remember now, Parum, Mootab...i forgot the other]. So far I’m on 7th quest and each quest last roughly 30 minutes [Some I finish under 20] so overall the game is pretty quick offline. But there is an online mode which you can play online with other users; I haven’t tried it out so I can’t fill you in the details. There’s also an “Extra Mode” which you can unlock after you do a certain amount of quests. Extra Mode is basically you get to be another “Guardian”, other than the main character, Ethan [I know what kind of RPG name is thaT!!], and take on the quests you already completed with the Ethan. Unlike “Story Mode” which is the original mode you play with Ethan, Extra Mode never ends until you end it yourself. Extra mode is pretty nifty because you can create your own character from the hair to the clothes and even the voice is customizable.
Even though, the game is pretty fun and has a somewhat good replay value, I would suggest renting it first. I haven’t played the rest of Phantasy Star sagas, so this one is my first so I can’t tell you the differences and similarities
Cons:
-the buttons commands were hard to get use to
-too short
-stupid AI, stand around doing nothing, and when you leave to kill the enemy, they yell “where’s Ethan!!”
-When the character’s have conversations, the bubbles take up a good portion of the screen making it hard to see
-No pause button!! So if you left your game, let say to go the bathroom you have to make sure you clear out the area because can get attack and die [trust me on this on]
-Not much to explore in the planets, unless you prefer not to have a bunch of places that don’t serve a purpose
-When you beat one of the 12 chapters they show the same cut scene from the beginning act over and over…it’s pretty annoying
Pros:
-Big area maps w/ pretty scenery
-A lot is customizable; include Rank, such as Hunter, can buy clothes and change into them
-You can use almost any type of weapon you want and change it easily
-Nice cut scenes
-Nice futuristic look but as great as Star Ocean
-They put extra characters but the ones who you can’t talk to disappear
-”The Buddy System”, you can get to pick which characters you want to go with you on your side quests
-The three planets you get different distinctive shops, they don’t sell you the same thing as the others
-Earn money pretty quick and spend it quickly
-Pretty easy to gain levels
-Enemies offer a good challenge, they don’t die to easily and they aren’t too defeat
-A lot of treasure to be found
-The made the chapters look like an anime or TV show, having a introduction on what the chapter is about before you play it, can be interesting for some or just a spoiler for some
-Synthesis ability, even though you have to find the boards before you can synthesis item and each board has a limit to how much you can synthesis
-When an ally is dead they resurrect themselves in some time
[That's all I can think of on the top of my head]
Overall I would say the game is good, but too short [But the online & Extra mode seems to show some promise]. I recommend people who haven’t played the rest of the phantasy star sagas to rent it before, instead of regretting spending $60 on a game they didn’t like. Great way of just spending time killing enemies, saving the world without much of hassle of needing a walkthrough
If you’re looking for the next World of Warcraft breaker game, this definately wont be it. What Phantasy Star Universe DOES give you though is a decent offline story, but a grind-fest for online play.
Offline mode is where most people who are starving for another RPG besides Oblivion for the 360 will want to look. I personally didn’t finish the story but got about 30 hours into it. The characters in the story are paper thin, but give you an accurate portrayal of how the online mode universe will be when you head into it. The combat system is exactly the same offline as it is online. Attack move, attack again till death, clear the area of mobs, get the key for the door, move to the next area. Your teammates AI is pretty decent, and provides adequate cover in areas. Sometimes they get swamped and killed really quickly, but this can be taken care of with a raise spell. The mobs are dreadfully slow and are easy to run from, so don’t fret about being overwhelmed unless you back yourself into a corner.
Online mode is exactly like Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst. You pick a mission to do, you go into an instance to fight the mobs, and when you’re done, you collect your money and sell your items. What do you do after that? You go right back in and do another one. Rinse and repeat until your at the max level of 200.
In online mode, you will run into single instance over and over to finish a different objective. You CANNOT go in and finish multiple objectives, only the ones on the conditions set. This got really boring, as I would walk into an area I just cleared just to clear it again, and maybe go to the second or third level of the map, which looks exactly the same as the first level, only with more mobs to kill. After doing this repetitive motion for 30+ hours in offline mode, I wasn’t willing to build up another character online in the same way.
Whats worse is in order to play online, you have to pay 10 dollars up front. You don’t get a 30 day trial period to see if you like it. Thankfully Microsoft has a demo version of the online mode you can play for free, and I tried my online mode that way.
The community I saw in the online version was very limited. You had a few characters that were high level but weren’t responding to tells for help, and those around my level had a serious issue with not using their xbox communicator to speak. I don’t know what it is with people playing online MMOs and not wanting to use mics to talk, but would rather type.
This game is rapidly dropping in price, so if you feel you need an offline RPG to tide you over till Fable or another Oblivion expansion, this may be worth picking up for 30 bucks. If you’re looking for an online game that will knock your socks off and replace online giants like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars, I encourage you to play the free online demo version of this game on xbox live before you buy. This is a change of pace though if you’re used to playing other MMOs, and I can say I semi-enjoyed the experience and simplicity of gameplay. It never held my attention though beyond a few weeks though.