Phantasy Star Universe
- October 23, 2006 00:00 AM PST
Sega's Phantasy Star Universe ships tomorrow, and we're here with our last-minute impressions to help you decide...
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Originally announced in 2004, Phantasy Star Universe has been under wraps for several years, and we finally got a chance to play around with this long awaited role-player. While the most recent (and arguably greatest) installments have experienced tremendous success by focusing on online multiplayer community gaming, Phantasy Star Universe offers a more balanced experience with a full-size solo adventure.
And for you RPGers that just can't fully commit to MMO PvP, this might be right up your alley.
We just spent a ton of time with Phantasy Star Universe's single-player and Xbox 360 online demo, and are here with our 11th-hour impressions before the game ships tomorrow.
Phantasy Star Universe's single-player saga casts you as a punky youth named Ethan, who lives in a massive, multi-storied space station metropolis, which serves as the games central hub. When an evil alien race suddenly attacks the city, his little sister needs rescuing, so Ethan joins forces with the law-enforcing Guardians and commences his interstellar ass-whipping. As the game progresses, more is uncovered about the mysterious attackers, called the Seed, and their connection to a powerful ancient civilization. The story doesn't connect to any of the previous games, so series newbies can hop right into the silly sci-fi action.
Star Wars
The basic single-player story mode is divided into strict linear chapters that divide the story into shorter missions. With the Guardian space colony as your base of operations, you begin each chapter with a mission objective on a different planet, where you'll perform straightforward tasks (like rescue missions, defeating monster bosses, and hunting for rare items) before finally returning home to close the chapter. So far, the mission types didn't show a great deal of variety and the tasks were fairly simple, but this might change as the game progresses. The lack of any open-ended structure seems antiquated by modern RPG standards, but it is obvious that PSU still has plenty to offer in terms of exploration, with an entire system of planets at its core.
The real-time fighting uses a pleasantly simple arcadey combat system that allows for success with either unbridled button mashing or skilled combo execution. The latter uses special "photon arts" attacks that draw on the power of your equipped weapons to create powerful attacks. Equipping and selecting gear and weapons can be done on the fly via the action palette, which lets you swap and use items in the heat of combat to better adjust to changing circumstances.
While fighting off a hoard of marauding monsters, we easily alternated between close-quarters combat with our sword and stepping out of the fray to pick off enemies with laser blasts. The basic hack-and-slash gameplay will probably go over well with novice players, but seasoned vets might find the stiff, three-hit combo formula a bit too remedial for their tastes.
Phinal Phantasy
As you might imagine, leveling up by defeating enemies will improve your character's personal statistics, but Phantasy Star Universe also allows you to level up your character's class. Similar to the job system in the Final Fantasy series, PSU offers three distinct classes (that you can switch throughout the game) with a different set of offensive and defensive attributes for each. Hunters rely on brute force physical attacks, while Forces act like magicians by casting various "technics", and Rangers serve as the most balanced class. Also new to the series are synthesis shops spread around the planets where you can combine goods and gadgets you've earned in your adventures to create new, rare and sellable items.
