Played about ten hours now with two different character classes. Wanted to
post some impression of Phantasy Star Zero while they're fresh in my head.
Phantasy Star Portable on the PSP was a fun game marred by two glaring
problems. Tying all play to predefined missions with concrete goals was
something that translated well from Phantasy Star Universe, but which
required players to sit and play for an hour at a time without being able
to save or pause. And while the solo game was very well presented, the ad
hoc local multiplayer wireless mode had trouble synchronizing more than
two systems. Still, at the time it was the closest thing to a portable
Phantasy Star Online that we had.
With Phantasy Star Zero for the DS on the market, all the previous dreams
have been realized. Lowering the polygon count for everything makes for a
slightly ugly game, but makes it very easy to coordinate all four players
(although I've only ever seen it with two.) And returning to the
teleporter/field model of PSO means that the ability to do an area run is
back, where the player defines the goal. You can grind, gather loot, or
just kill monsters with no particular end goal in mind.
A lot of other good PSO qualities are back as well. Mags are back to being
a true partner machine that's fed and levelled up, rather than a weapon
option that ties up an inventory slot. Forces can cast spells barehanded
again for the speed bonus, or use a wand or cane for the additional power.
Wands and canes also get their melee strike option back. Something carried
forward from PSU is the ability to strafe by holding down the left
trigger, so you can lob bullets or spells while backing up or dodging.
Speaking of which, all classes get a new palette command for active
evasion, so you can roll out of the way quickly. That's something we
haven't seen previously in any iteration of the new Phantasy Star games.
Sadly, we lose the beast character options in PS Zero as we go back to the
Human/CAST/Neuman trio of races. Also, we're apparently in a completely
new continuity now that's set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, and there's no
initial mention of Algol, Ragol, or Gurhal in any of the story dialogue so
far. I'm still married to the idea that Gurhal is built on the ruins of
Algol and that somehow PSU is the far future of the original Phantasy Star
world, so I'm sure at some point I'll be able to fanwank PS Zero into the
continuity too.
So the readership of RGVS and AGPS is down to like a single digit worth of
people. Anybody else play yet?
-KKC, arranging for dentistry.
--
--"Feel sensational thrills! Don't miss | kendrick |
out on the enjoyment of a lifetime!" | @ io.com |
http://www.io.com/~kkc
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