Review—Phantasy Star Zero

I’ve been a long fan of Phantasy Star Online.  While I didn’t come from the days of it on Dreamcast, I put many hours of my life into the GameCube version.  A few years later, I no longer have a GameCube, and the game that I once was borrowing is now gone.  Never really got the chance to play Phantasy Star Universe either, but you could probably imagine my joy once I found out about Phantasy Star Zero on the DS.  Hit the link to find out my thoughts on the newest game into the Phantasy Star series.

Phantasy Star Zero (PSZ from now on) brings another chapter of dungeon crawler, hack and slash, tech fantasy into its midst.  It features a few different modes to play, but they all boil down to the same thing.  When players first start, they’ll make a character out of 14 different race/class combinations.  While gender is preset for them, each one will level up in a different way.  For example, a male hunter is well balanced while a female hunter has less HP and attack power, but more magic capability.

PSZ takes place a Space Western kind of setting.  Most of the western element comes from the way that humans dress and live, evident by the fact that the human ranger looks like a cowboy.  Along with humans, there are also the Casts, which are the token robots/droids of the series.  Finally, there are the Newmans, resembling elves, although story elements cause them not to interact with the other two.

A group setting out for some killin’.

Depending on which race the player chose, certain events will act out in different ways.  All paths lead to the main hub city.  Not overly complex, the city only contains three “rooms.”  Obviously the more important aspects of merchants, storage, and quests are here, but the game can feel a bit lonely with the lack of NPCs in the city.  Computer controlled partners will accompany players on story based quests, and they’re optional when just accessing the fields.  The partners you get are pretty cool, and are likable, but don’t expect them to do anything more than to act as meatshields.  Although, considering the game’s difficulty, that makes them wanted for most anything.

Considering it’s on the DS, Sega had to sacrifice a few things for the game.  Customizing the appearance of characters takes a few scant moments with the lack of options cut to a head, different colors, and one of eight different voices.  The models are at least good looking for a DS game, and most color schemes are decent to look at.  Humans get a bit screwed with their colors though, considering at least two out of the five for each class I would count as eye blight.

Graphics are rather good for it.  All of the weapons, Mags (floating creatures that boost your stats), and bosses being the things that made me go “ooooh that’s neat.”  The spells and traps leave a bit to be desired for special effects.  While I admit that I haven’t seen many spells, considering I didn’t make a spell caster, the ones I’ve seen have been kind of meh looking.  I suppose it really doesn’t matter whenever it’s just as effective as a rifle or giant sword.  Cut scenes are played out in an anime style manner, rather than going with text boxes and the standard graphics.

Now the sound on the other hand…is something that is rather lackluster about the game.  The music is the same techno like stuff from Phantasy Star past, but the monster sounds leave a lot to be desired.  I’m fairly certain I’ve heard better dragon sounds on an SNES game before.  This is offset by the fact that anything the player does is met with the expected sound.  Like I said, Sega had to make some compromises, so this is forgiven.

The limited character options at work.

The game can be played offline, online in a free mode where you are randomly paired with other players, a Friend Mode, and then a solo online mode where you can access online only quests and play exclusive levels.  The Wi-Fi mode is easy to grasp and amazingly runs very smoothly, unless of course you have a horrid connection.  Players can communicate through a kind of PictoChat mode.  With unknown partners, you’re limited to pre-set phrases, while playing with friends gives you the ability to write freely.  Up to 20 short cuts can also be made and saved for quick access.  The only issue I see with the PictoChat is that writing with the stylus sucks something fierce, so my words are usually atrocious to look at on it.

PSZ introduces two new classes and weapon classes.  The Newman now have access to the Hunter class, where before they were limited to only choosing a Force (the spellcaster of Phantasy Star).  Obviously going with the still casting route, their hunters are geared toward using spells as well as melee.  New weapons consist of shields and gunblades.  The shield is used to smack enemies around, while holding the L trigger lets the player block some attacks at the cost of PP (I just call it mana).  Gunblades are melee weapons for Rangers where holding L lets them fire a three way spread shot.  The downfall to that being it’s only really useful at point blank range, but three shots for the price of one is pretty win.

After making an installment on consoles and then downgrading to the DS, Sega did rather good job with PSZ.  Compromises had to be made, but overall it works out to bring a solid RPG title to the DS.  If you’re looking for a GOOD dungeon crawling kinda game to play with your friends, look to Phantasy Star Zero.  The bosses are a bit soul crushing, but it is well worth the grind and fun you can have.  PSZ gets a solid four out of five.

Tags: DS Phantasy Star Reviews Tyler R.