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Phantasy Star Portable
Release Date: March 3, 2009 (North America), April 3, 2009 (Europe), July 31, 2008 (Japan)
Reviewed On: PlayStation Portable
Developer: Sonic Team, Alfa System
Publisher: Sega
ESRB Rating: Teen - Fantasy Violence
PEGI Rating: 12+ - Violence
OFLC Rating: M - Violence
Intro:
Is this a dream? Have I been transported back to 1999 where the Dreamcast was still alive and well? I must have stepped into the Wayback Machine, because I could swear I’ve seen this all before. Sega goes so far as to bring us something that deserved to be remade and rehashed for the singular purpose of allowing us to waste time efficiently. What could be more efficient than killing slews of monsters, gathering up credits and working our way towards the greater good in the world of Phantasy Star Portable? The answer is nothing. Except maybe Phantasy Star Universe, the game Portable is obviously modeled after.
Storyline:
I must begin with a bad note in regards to the painfully linear, and ultimately time-wasting storyline that plagues an otherwise perfect freeform game. SEGA attempts to alleviate the aimlessness of this listless storyline with a sense of control by giving us a multitude of simple two answer dialogue sequences to questions that are asked every five seconds by the huge (and I mean huge!) supporting cast of characters. The whole purpose of these questions is to directly affect how your main companion, Vivienne a recently created prototype CAST with the uncanny ability to feel, will see the world you’re trying to save from various SEED based ne’er-do-wells who attack settlements, space stations and more. SEED is essentially the Phantasy Star equivalent to Toxic Waste with an attitude, mutating otherwise harmless beasts into massive killing machines hell-bent on bringing the downfall of civilization. As a member of the Gurhal System’s GUARDIAN agency, it’s up to you to investigate into the origin of SEED, as well as why SEED is still in existence despite the fact that it supposedly was exterminated many years ago. Needless to say a mysterious force is behind the sudden resurgence. In the end, our reactions in the game’s dialogue will affect the important decisions made by Vivienne at the end, but beyond that, the side-missions we get to embark on have virtually no effect beyond giving us a new location to go dungeon crawling in, giving the story-line that, “led-by-the-nose storybook” feeling in a game historically known to play out more like a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG, than a Japanese RPG.
Meet Vivienne, an android otherwise known as a CAST.
Graphics:
Phantasy Star has quite solid graphics for a game on the Playstation Portable. The Three Dimensional Models that Sega gives us while we explore the actual stages of the game are extremely pleasant on the eyes. Of course, the 3D models that we get come with a price. Often when you have more than one person in your party, you’ll find your game struggling to load up both your team mate and your enemy character models long after you’ve already delved deep into the stages. This can actually become a serious problem later on in the game when you have loads of enemies filling your screen at any given time, or when you’re facing off against a gigantic enemy that takes up the entire screen. Eventually you’ll lose sight of an enemy due to this oversight, yet they’ll still be able to attack you even if they haven’t loaded properly yet. If this wasn’t bad enough, maybe the erratic camera angle changes will help you find an early grave in the middle of a major boss-fight. I find that the camera angle problem is made even worse by the fact that we’re expected to control the camera with the directional pad which is difficult at the best of times, let alone during the higher levels of gameplay.
Anyhow, the backgrounds of every stage are quite reminiscent to the old stages we used to see back on the Dreamcast. After a while, they can become very bland with so little variation, especially as you chug your way through the story-line only to find yourself having to play through in the same location two or three times in a row. Props such as the floating keys and terminals also appear in odd places such as an open field in the middle of a farm. This is enough to make one wonder if people from the future are actually deterred by laser fences that can easily be avoided by simply going up a hill’s slight incline. If so, then I weep for future generations.
Outside of the battlefield we have generic maps that are filled to the brim with circles that supposedly represent people. Clicking on any one of those circles initiates dialogue. Upon initiating dialogue with these people we’re given a JRPG stylized anime picture with a text-box underneath. The actual artwork and diversity of each and every character is quite astounding given the lack of variety among the rest of the game’s graphics.
This Balrog ripoff is one of the many bosses you'll face in Phantasy Star Portable.
Audio:
Every now and then we get an RPG that goes out of its way to do more than to simply barrage us with bleeps and bloops. Phantasy Star Portable is one of those games, opting instead to give us unique Voice-overs both in battle, as well as throughout the story-events. What makes this really amazing is the fact that the Voice-overs are extremely well done, both in expression and depth. This game doesn’t just have three or four unique characters with decent Voice-overs. Rather, it features an entire cast ranging in the dozens; all with particularly memorable dialogue and voice acting.
Still, this doesn’t dissuade from the fact that hidden beyond the musings of each character’s yelling mid-battle, we have to put up with generic sword clashing noises, even if we’re using a blunt instrument as our main weapon. The guns in this game each have somewhat unique noises, but in the end it comes down to pew-pew’s reminiscent to the monotone sound from the Sega Master System.
She looks a little cranky, doesn't she?
Controls:
Having been such a fan of Phantasy Star Universe, I have to admit one of the greatest changes made can be found in the non-interactive out-of-battle menu system I spoke of before. Doing away with the clunky lobby system speeds up the gameplay exponentially, giving us more time to wade through legions of enemies rather than running back and forth between spaceports and battle zones. We’re also treated to an equally easy to use user interface menus featuring spreadsheets of data for each weapon or piece of armor that comes our way.
Much like every other Phantasy Star Online game, the special attacks that we’re granted by our weapons and classes are easy to map through the use of the right and left shoulder buttons for quick-access during the heat of battle.
Finally, actual battle is played out with a traditional action-RPG hack and slash feel to it. Simply press the targeting button to determine which creature you’ll be attacking, and then with a simple push of any one of the four main buttons, (square, triangle, circle, x,) you’ll be lunging head first into battle without any major gripes. Occasionally you may over-extend yourself when using some of the more long-winded special attacks, completely throwing the cameras out of whack, and putting yourself in serious danger (it’s almost impossible to attack what you can’t see in this game), but with some familiarity of the special maneuvers, this can be avoided.
It doesn't take long at all to reach level 50.
Gameplay:
In spite of the linear storyline, from the moment we create our character, we’re expected to pave our own way through the game. While every character archetype has its own special abilities, for the most part this is a non-linear advancement game, allowing us to truly choose our own path to the very end much like an MMORPG would allow. There are an unlimited amount of possibilities that will determine exactly how effect your character is in melee, gun usage, or tech usage, with a multitude of races, weapon ranks and job classes that can either gimp you, or put you on the path to godhood. Considering how easy it is to level in this game, you will feel like a god with the weakly balanced story-missions. I can almost guarantee that you will spend the mass majority of your time in the side-missions, if only for a sense of challenge and sport.
Actual combat was simple due to the easy to map controls, and the targeting system. Much like every other Phantasy Star game in the series, melee is nothing more than the traditional hack n’ slash you can expect from an action-RPG, gun usage is kiting a monster to keep a distance while plastering him from afar, and tech is the more advanced of the three styles of game-play requiring more strategizing and preparation to be effective.
Another truly spectacular feat that Phantasy Star Portable pulls off is its hundreds if not thousands of different weapons, armors, and items to be equipped and used throughout the game. Of course, with so much variety, comes that ever so painful need to minimize/maximize. I spent more time sorting through the weapons trying to determine which would suit me better, than I did actually killing enemies.
Multi-mode provided a minor amount of amusement that quickly fell short the moment my friends lost interest in the grind to nowhere. They were all fans at one point too, but this revolutionary way to game back from the turn of the millennium is nothing more than worn out here at 2009. This game badly needs a truly online mode for any sense of longevity. Although I have to admit, it's pretty fun to go back every now and then, just to randomly grind merely for the sake of leveling. Phantasy Star Portable does combat so well that it's perfect to pass the time during a long car or train ride.
Mr. Bloatfish frowns up your shenanigans.
Summary:
Phantasy Star Portable unlike its predecessors suffers greatly from a lack of longevity. Playing through the storyline took only ten hours, and once it was completed there was nothing left to do except to hunt for rare items or level grind considering Multi-Mode ended up being nothing more than a poor-man’s version of the online game-play that we once enjoyed in the other versions of the series. Perhaps if there was some way to make this game online, Phantasy Star Portable could’ve been the classic RPG that the PSP has desperately been searching for to draw people to the console’s market. Unfortunately, Multi-Mode falls short, and this game that plays out like an MMORPG that is anything but massive. This game is a rental, unless you’re an absolute die-hard fan in need of a grinding fix.
Story: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 9/10
Controls: 9/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Total Gaming Network Rating: 7.4/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 9/10
Controls: 9/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Total Gaming Network Rating: 7.4/10
~Dairuka Sutain