Phantasy Star Universe
Posted November 6, 2006
Originally released years ago for the SEGA Dreamcast, Phantasy Star Online quickly became a fan favorite with MMORPG hungry gamers looking for the same experience, but on a console. It was one of the first of its kind but after hitting the other consoles a sequel has come out for the 360. Phantasy Star Universe has been issued to rekindle the same experience of PSO. The single player story revolves around a young human named Ethan Weber who is destined for a much greater future than he realizes. Ethan's journey takes him to various, out-world planets and ultimately to the main source of the universe's nemesis, the Seed. This conglomerate of evil is most accurately a viral infection that roams the galaxy to infect the weak and strip planets of their resources. 
Gameplay:
At the outset, the game is divided into two modes: Story and Xbox Live. At a later point, an extra battle mode is unlocked to expand out the life of the title. The main story is broken into twelve missions, each seemingly episodic in nature. Each mission is broken into smaller sub-battlefields which usually have to be cleared before continuing to a new section. Boss fights are always at the tail end of a mission and occasionally an extra one is tossed into the middle. After completing an entire mission, the player is treated to several ending cut scenes as well as a teaser trailer for the next mission.
On each of those missions, enemies usually drop a variety of items including armor, weapons, health, charging items, raw materials, and piles of money. The money can be spent at the large number of stores that populate the various planets. Weaponry includes melee weapons (sabers, claws, swords, pikes, two-blades, etc.), ranged weapons (handguns, machine guns, two-handed firearms), and magic weapons which are based on the elements. Armor can be upgraded with a variety of slot based stat increases. Also, new items are released in stores approximately every two missions. If money is an issue, any item can be manufactured if you have the correct materials. Basically, you place a motherboard-like disc into a floating computer and out pops the item of choice. Manufactured items are often easier to upgrade as well as more powerful than their counterparts in the store.
Swinging around your custom sword is fairly simple. Most attacks are performed with the blue X button, including combo hits. Fortunately, a most powerful attack can be applied to the Yellow Y button. Essentially, this attack is learned at a store and can be assigned to any weapon of the same type for the rest of the game. This type of attack also levels along with your character. Higher level of attack usually equates to knockdown effects and higher accuracy. If enemies do manage to evade the attacks and send your character to an untimely death, there are a large number of save points along the way. There are only one or two sections late in the game that should have included more saving, but a few extra tires never hurt anyone.
The single player friendly A.I. borders on brain-dead while the enemy is exactly the opposite. I can't tell you how many times my cohorts would just stand around watching me get slaughtered. They will get stuck in walls, around corners, or just hang back 50 feet from the action. Occasionally, they will swing their swords around, but their attack skills dwarf the main player. The enemy A.I. always hones in on your position and chooses an attack wholly based on distance. Many times, a ranged enemy is much more dangerous than a close, melee baddie. In any case, the player is left defending themselves more often than not.
The achievements are assigned only to the story mode and awarded 1000 gamerscore for finishing eight tasks. Achievements are entirely based on killing a variety of bosses in a seemingly random selection of levels. With any slight proficiency with the combat system, the majority of gamers will knock out these points without blinking an eye. It's a shame Sega didn't apply any actual creativity to these achievements as the online mode seems more appropriate for unlocking goodies. It's also odd that Sega would forgo using a competent achievement structure to further their monthly payment extraction.
Online:
As I just alluded to, PSU requires a monthly payment of $9.99 to keep your stock of characters in their persistently online world. The fee is hefty, but the amount of features exponentially increases from the single player game. For instance, players are allowed to create their own storefronts that offer weapons, armor, etc. for a set price. Storefronts are also a character's domicile which can be decorated in any fashion.
As you load up the character customization screen, you will notice many options to customize the race, appearance, and clothing of your character. Each race has their strengths, but the human race is actually one of the weakest due to its generalities. Other races have access to powerful magic, superior firepower, or massive machinery, but the humans are left holding the short end of the stick. Also, the combination of certain non-human races, in terms of teamwork, is nearly unstoppable on the battlefield.
I found the community to be warmer than most MMORPG's I've played. Perhaps it was just dumb luck, but the majority of people I ran into offered their help to my inane, noobish questions. Beyond tips, many folks also offered small allotments of money to help get me rolling. The communication functions include voice communication within groups or shops and keyboard communication when in public. There is also an on-screen keyboard, but it's far too troublesome to use.
Missions are just as boring as the single player section, but teamwork with live players far exceeds any single player experience. Most live players will react appropriately to the most dangerous of situations. Groups are formed fairly simply and preferred players can be logged into memory as an inner friend's list. It's important to note that finding a friend for the first time is troublesome when each is on a separate server. PSU uses 10+ servers, most of which are empty. The first couple servers stay packed, but finding anyone on the rest is almost pointless. When mission grinding becomes tiresome, many players like to hang around and socialize at clubs or the main mall. There are a variety of poses, dances, and random animations that players will use to delight or annoy you, depending on your mood.
At the time of this review, the max level ceiling is set at 50. I only saw one level 50 running around, but tons of high 30's & low 40's. Seeing how the game has only been released for such a short time, I'm shocked there are that many folks climbing so quickly. I wonder how Sega plans to keep people continually paying for the game if the bar is set so low. Episodic content will have to be released on a continual basis to keep the attention of these gamers.
Graphics:
Unfortunately, the visuals in PSU border on horrific per Xbox 360 standards. Laced with an abundance of jaggies, the rough, unpolished appearance gives the game an extremely dated feel. It's as if the developers ported the Xbox engine from PSO and then fired the design team. Many of the environmental textures are repeated in each level, which appears very bland in nature. Also, the game suffers from a nasty frame rate issue, most prevalent late in the game. When a large number of enemies populate the screen or a variety of lighting effects are in play, the world chugs along and greatly interferes with the timing of button attack combos. The cut scenes actually appear the most polished within the game, but clash greatly with the adverse ugliness within the in-game world.
Audio:
The musical soundtrack is a midi-inspired mess of annoying rhythms and jingling chimes. It's also incredibly repetitive. Many tracks are repeated incessantly dependent on the situation; be it fighting, wandering, or talking. The sound effects aren't as bad, but they do tend to become grating after a few hours. Fortunately, they do help when determining a direction of enemy projectiles with a proper 5.1 system.
The voice actors aren't necessarily poor. It's the writing and horrible flow that kills the conversations. The actors do their best to create exciting line delivery, but the fake pauses for the canned animations within the main dialogue sections destroy any credence those actors bring to the table. Conversations take far too long and oddly contain those silly animations when lines aren't even spoken. Overall, the brutal butchery of the auditory qualities in PSU definitely made me reach for the mute button.
Conclusion:
The single player campaign will take approximately 18 hours to run through. While most skip the offline section to jump right in to the multiplayer, players new to the game will have a better understanding of PSU if they finish the single player. Sadly, the boring nature of the Story mode won't attract many to stay for the engrossing Xbox Live multiplayer. As for players who loved PSO on the Xbox, you won't find much new material in PSU nor will the online portion last very long for already experienced players. I recommend renting this title to give the online portion a whirl before leaping at your own retail copy.
Gameplay:
At the outset, the game is divided into two modes: Story and Xbox Live. At a later point, an extra battle mode is unlocked to expand out the life of the title. The main story is broken into twelve missions, each seemingly episodic in nature. Each mission is broken into smaller sub-battlefields which usually have to be cleared before continuing to a new section. Boss fights are always at the tail end of a mission and occasionally an extra one is tossed into the middle. After completing an entire mission, the player is treated to several ending cut scenes as well as a teaser trailer for the next mission.
On each of those missions, enemies usually drop a variety of items including armor, weapons, health, charging items, raw materials, and piles of money. The money can be spent at the large number of stores that populate the various planets. Weaponry includes melee weapons (sabers, claws, swords, pikes, two-blades, etc.), ranged weapons (handguns, machine guns, two-handed firearms), and magic weapons which are based on the elements. Armor can be upgraded with a variety of slot based stat increases. Also, new items are released in stores approximately every two missions. If money is an issue, any item can be manufactured if you have the correct materials. Basically, you place a motherboard-like disc into a floating computer and out pops the item of choice. Manufactured items are often easier to upgrade as well as more powerful than their counterparts in the store.
Swinging around your custom sword is fairly simple. Most attacks are performed with the blue X button, including combo hits. Fortunately, a most powerful attack can be applied to the Yellow Y button. Essentially, this attack is learned at a store and can be assigned to any weapon of the same type for the rest of the game. This type of attack also levels along with your character. Higher level of attack usually equates to knockdown effects and higher accuracy. If enemies do manage to evade the attacks and send your character to an untimely death, there are a large number of save points along the way. There are only one or two sections late in the game that should have included more saving, but a few extra tires never hurt anyone.
The single player friendly A.I. borders on brain-dead while the enemy is exactly the opposite. I can't tell you how many times my cohorts would just stand around watching me get slaughtered. They will get stuck in walls, around corners, or just hang back 50 feet from the action. Occasionally, they will swing their swords around, but their attack skills dwarf the main player. The enemy A.I. always hones in on your position and chooses an attack wholly based on distance. Many times, a ranged enemy is much more dangerous than a close, melee baddie. In any case, the player is left defending themselves more often than not.
The achievements are assigned only to the story mode and awarded 1000 gamerscore for finishing eight tasks. Achievements are entirely based on killing a variety of bosses in a seemingly random selection of levels. With any slight proficiency with the combat system, the majority of gamers will knock out these points without blinking an eye. It's a shame Sega didn't apply any actual creativity to these achievements as the online mode seems more appropriate for unlocking goodies. It's also odd that Sega would forgo using a competent achievement structure to further their monthly payment extraction.
Online:
As I just alluded to, PSU requires a monthly payment of $9.99 to keep your stock of characters in their persistently online world. The fee is hefty, but the amount of features exponentially increases from the single player game. For instance, players are allowed to create their own storefronts that offer weapons, armor, etc. for a set price. Storefronts are also a character's domicile which can be decorated in any fashion.
As you load up the character customization screen, you will notice many options to customize the race, appearance, and clothing of your character. Each race has their strengths, but the human race is actually one of the weakest due to its generalities. Other races have access to powerful magic, superior firepower, or massive machinery, but the humans are left holding the short end of the stick. Also, the combination of certain non-human races, in terms of teamwork, is nearly unstoppable on the battlefield.
I found the community to be warmer than most MMORPG's I've played. Perhaps it was just dumb luck, but the majority of people I ran into offered their help to my inane, noobish questions. Beyond tips, many folks also offered small allotments of money to help get me rolling. The communication functions include voice communication within groups or shops and keyboard communication when in public. There is also an on-screen keyboard, but it's far too troublesome to use.
Missions are just as boring as the single player section, but teamwork with live players far exceeds any single player experience. Most live players will react appropriately to the most dangerous of situations. Groups are formed fairly simply and preferred players can be logged into memory as an inner friend's list. It's important to note that finding a friend for the first time is troublesome when each is on a separate server. PSU uses 10+ servers, most of which are empty. The first couple servers stay packed, but finding anyone on the rest is almost pointless. When mission grinding becomes tiresome, many players like to hang around and socialize at clubs or the main mall. There are a variety of poses, dances, and random animations that players will use to delight or annoy you, depending on your mood.
At the time of this review, the max level ceiling is set at 50. I only saw one level 50 running around, but tons of high 30's & low 40's. Seeing how the game has only been released for such a short time, I'm shocked there are that many folks climbing so quickly. I wonder how Sega plans to keep people continually paying for the game if the bar is set so low. Episodic content will have to be released on a continual basis to keep the attention of these gamers.
Graphics:
Unfortunately, the visuals in PSU border on horrific per Xbox 360 standards. Laced with an abundance of jaggies, the rough, unpolished appearance gives the game an extremely dated feel. It's as if the developers ported the Xbox engine from PSO and then fired the design team. Many of the environmental textures are repeated in each level, which appears very bland in nature. Also, the game suffers from a nasty frame rate issue, most prevalent late in the game. When a large number of enemies populate the screen or a variety of lighting effects are in play, the world chugs along and greatly interferes with the timing of button attack combos. The cut scenes actually appear the most polished within the game, but clash greatly with the adverse ugliness within the in-game world.
Audio:
The musical soundtrack is a midi-inspired mess of annoying rhythms and jingling chimes. It's also incredibly repetitive. Many tracks are repeated incessantly dependent on the situation; be it fighting, wandering, or talking. The sound effects aren't as bad, but they do tend to become grating after a few hours. Fortunately, they do help when determining a direction of enemy projectiles with a proper 5.1 system.
The voice actors aren't necessarily poor. It's the writing and horrible flow that kills the conversations. The actors do their best to create exciting line delivery, but the fake pauses for the canned animations within the main dialogue sections destroy any credence those actors bring to the table. Conversations take far too long and oddly contain those silly animations when lines aren't even spoken. Overall, the brutal butchery of the auditory qualities in PSU definitely made me reach for the mute button.
Conclusion:
The single player campaign will take approximately 18 hours to run through. While most skip the offline section to jump right in to the multiplayer, players new to the game will have a better understanding of PSU if they finish the single player. Sadly, the boring nature of the Story mode won't attract many to stay for the engrossing Xbox Live multiplayer. As for players who loved PSO on the Xbox, you won't find much new material in PSU nor will the online portion last very long for already experienced players. I recommend renting this title to give the online portion a whirl before leaping at your own retail copy.