Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Revolutionary"

Phantom Dust is truely one of the best video games on the Xbox hands down, and is completely under-apprechiated.
First of all, it has over 300 differnet skills for U to scramble through as U TRY to make the perfect arsenal. This includes the 5 skill types: Psycho (skills that use telekinesis to move objects for both offensive and defensive abilities), Optical (skills that use and manipulate light to the benefit of the player), Nature (skills that use nature and the environment for attacks and defense), Ki (skills that rely on psychological effects to protect the player and weaken their foe), and Faith (skills that often consume part of the player's own life and aura for larger offensive and defensive benefits from the other schools). You'll find yourself constantly editing and perfecting your arsenal for hours on end before trying a new mission.
The gameplay seems complicated, but is truely not. There are four attacks U can asign to the four buttons on your controller (X, B, Y, and A). But skills constantly appear in the matches as U run around using and reserving them (you'll find yourself doing this a lot). The story is enough to keep U interested 'til U complete it, but the actuall game itself can already do that and more.
The enemies in Phantom Dust are highly intelligent and always pack a puch. I've never seen an enemy nor ally stand idle or get stuck.
Certain environments are well destructable for its time.
There are plenty of missions for U to complete constantly. Especially the boss fights which are quite challanging and take a few tries to figure out.
The ending is almost tear worthy and highly respectable--that was the last thing I'd think was going on. If U love good stories, endings, and interesting gameplay then this is the game for U.
I believe that this game shoud be kept in legend and never forgotten. But shamefully some gamers have; I am not one of them.