Developer: Alfa System
Publisher: Sega
Genre: JRPG, Action RPG
Format: Playstation Portable
Released: April 17th 2009
A true custom character story is in this one. It’s nice to be able to interact as your own avatar instead of filling in someone else’s shoes. This is well done but the dialogue does make it seem like your character is a little on the slow side. Needing 5 minutes to be able to structure a sentence which could consist of 2 words. Not a turn off for me just a little annoying when you see dots or a question mark appear after every line of dialogue instead of giving you a choice of reactionary quips. On the plus side the voice acting is pretty decent for most of the NPCs. Well except for poor Sheena, Jesus Christ they put her in for a joke. Most of the characters are pretty likeable including the womanising dialogue which you are used to if you played Phantasy Star Universe.
Speaking of, this game takes place in the Phantasy Star Universe…err universe. So you will see a bunch of familiar characters and gameplay which is a carbon copy of the PS2 games. Not that it’s a bad thing, it plays pretty well. Aiming with guns can be a little clunky but you will adjust pretty quick. The sheer variety of weapons is amazing as well, none seem to have been taken out to make up for the handheld limitations.
Weapon drops in this game are pretty generous so you won’t need to farm enemies too often to get a specific weapon. Switching between weapons is an easy transition thanks to the palette system, just bring up a drop down menu choose your weapon and away you go. This can also be done mid combo so there is minimal delay. I did notice some slow down however but this seems to be during busy areas and when the flashy skills are being used. There are a bunch of different enemies for you to slice, dice, smash and shoot. Some share similar patterns but aren’t just simple palette swaps which is a plus.
The boss designs are really cool as well, some look a lot more menacing than they are but you will get pounded by some of the mid to late game bosses. When not doing the story missions you can do free missions to get some new weapons and a bunch of experience. Again there’s not much grinding which is always a plus in RPGs. A neat little thing is you get graded in the free missions and once you finish you can roam the map in case you forgot to break a weapon box somewhere.
I mentioned that the game has a custom character creation and it’s pretty good. You have 4 different races to choose from and each have a lot of different features. The big thing missing is the different hairstyles consist of about 20 long hair styles and around 3 short hairstyles. You get to buy a bunch more later on in the game but it’s a similar story there too. There’s a lack of different clothes as well but again the further you progress the more variety as well.
Other things I enjoy is the partner system, you can create a party with all the characters you have met and do the free missions with them, so if you miss someone in the story at least you can hang out with them while attacking some helpless monsters. They also have random conversations with you when you journey on different worlds.
Overall I will give Phantasy Star Portable a solid 8.5/10 there are a few issues but it’s still a great experience. I highly recommend you pick this up.
Let Nav have a little squeeze - Mamushi
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