Phantasy Star Online is back, with greatly enhanced offline and online play - nearly two games in one!
I've encountered at least one other player who was turned off by the Interface and the Style. The Interface is awkward because it's a console interface brought over to the PC, so feels a bit kludgy until you get used to it. I've found that the keyboard interface is quite functional, but then I've a lot of console to PC interface experience from playing FFXI. The style is very much Sci-Fi Japanese Pop, with Robots, Chibi Cat Girls, Maids, Svelte Teen Heroes - you'll find them all here. It helps to have an appreciation for Anime or at least the Phantasy Star series before going into this game. If not, I hope you're open minded. I didn't have a problem with either the Interface or the style, so for the most part Phantasy Star Online was just pure good for me.
To simplify, I'll go into the individual reasons behind my scoring, and in doing so explain some of the core ups and downs of Phantasy Star Universe.
Gameplay - PSU is almost like getting two games in one: an episodic single player game and an open-ended up to six player multiplayer game with somewhat massively multiplayer lobbies in between the action. Aside from the online/offline distinction, there's two main aspects to consider the gameplay by: In combat and out of combat.
The combat of the Offline and Online player mode is similar differing mostly in difficulty and that you can play with players instead of AI while online. Being able to play with other player is a good thing because NPC AI is pretty poor. With extensive practice, I've found that I can play around its weaknesses, but NPCs still have a nasty habit of getting lost or sitting around and doing nothing. NPCs are available online and off, but you'll tend to play with more players online. The difficulty in the online mode is a bit stiffer, with more time to level and foes that hit harder and take more hits to bring down.
There are three approaches to combat: Melee attacks, Ranged attacks, and Force (Magic) attacks. Melee attacks involve performing strings of combos built of either normal attacks or powered up attacks that eat energy. Some of them look pretty extravagent. Most ranged attacks can either be shot "off the hip" or from a first person shooter view that leaves you immobile. Force attacks are spells thrown off wands and staves, which can all be lumped into either attacks of varying areas of effect or party support powers like healing, ressurecting, and buffing.
Unlke most online RPGs, a lot of emphasis goes towards watching enemies movements, avoiding their incoming attacks, and maneuvering to make your own. This makes Phantasy Star Universe combat play out somewhat more like an arcade game than a MMORPG. That's a good thing after playing too much autoattack based EverQuest clones.
Out of combat you get to spend time in cities shopping, synthesizing, socializing, and selecting missions. The offline story mode is particularly interesting because there's an extravagant 12 episode format story going on with Ethan (the main protagonist) and his friends. After that's done, you can play Extra mode offline, which is basically making your own character to play the side quests as much as you want, or you can play online. Sure, you're limited to 6 players per team while adventuring, but out of the adventure areas you interact with any one of the potentially thousands of players on the server, mostly trading items between them or socailizing.
Perhaps the most interesting of the Network mode features is the room you own. You can customize this with decorations you find (placed in certain allocated spots) and eventually open your own shop where you can sell things you synthesize on your robot assistant. Gameplay could potentially be improved with further depth and better AI, but it's a whole lot better than nothing, and still more involving than most MMORPGs out there, despite the limitation of 6 players at a time. No perfect 10 from me, but it earns an 8.
Graphics - The graphics in Phantasy Star Online are really pretty breathtaking, for the most part. My only critique would be that some of the textures are intended for lower resolutions, and you'll notice that if you pay close attention. The animations appear to be motion captured, which is good in terms of animation quality but appear a little strange to Western eyes sometimes. There's considerably more customization in the appearance of individual characters here than there was in the original game, and this includes clothing or, if you're playing a CAST (robot-like race), parts to customize your look further. Overall, I only see it necessary to ding the graphics short of a full 10 because of the low resolution textures.
Sound - The music might strike you as a bit repetitive, not to mention atonal in a creepy but uniquely Phantasy Star sort of way. Aside from that, I can't complain about the sound much, it gets the job done with minimal complaints. The sound effects are all so well synced with the action that it's hard to notice. The voice work is okay, but I qualify that with knowing it was an import. You'll hear better dialog on TV. Overall, I can't say I really felt humbled by the sound, it works but there could have been more done here, so I give it a 6.
Value - As I said once or twice already, Phantasy Star Universe is essentially two games in one. The offline Story mode is an extensive episodic adventure of about 26 hours of play, and Extra mode can make it last even longer. Online "network' mode costs $10/mo, but that isn't too much to pay for online play, and it's actually pretty robust even if it won't expand quite as much as a full fledged MMORPG due to limitations with the PS2 platform. So in calculating the value between the offline and the online experience, I'd throw it a value of 8/10.
Reviewer's Tilt: 8/10. It's a pretty solid game, I feel good about purchasing it. I recognize that not everybody will love it for the reasons I've outlined in the first three paragraphs of this review, but for those who aren't bothered by those problems I think they'll find it a worthy purchase. Especially if they like Sci-Fi.
In the end, the only thing I can really promise you is that if you enjoyed Phantasy Star Online you'll enjoy Phantasy Star Universe. It's essentially a streamlined, then improved upon, version of the original PSO. The story mode creates a whole new side to PSU, where PSO's single player was just a limited multiplayer version. The story also provides a great deal of background to the Phantasy Star story. I've yet to regret this purchase.