Phantasy Star Portable Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 17th July 2009

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This review heads for the stars.

Phantasy Star Portable Details:

	RPG
	PSP
	SEGA
	SEGA

12+

Out Now

1-4

I've never been a big fan of SEGA's Phantasy Star games, so in all honesty wasn't expecting an enjoyable experience playing this portable version of the series. But would this pint-sized version of the role-playing franchise manage to surprise me?

The story of Phantasy Star Portable takes place immediately before the events of 2007’s Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus. The SEED infestation, thought to have been cleansed has returned to the Gurhal system and it’s up to you in the role of a guardian to stop the infection and cleanse the affected planets before it gets out of control. The games story moves at a fairly good pace and you’ll soon find yourself in the thick of the action.

The game is highly action orientated and all missions really consist of, is you hacking and slashing your way through various different themed levels. Missions themselves fall in to one of two categories, mainly free or story. Story missions obviously progress the games storyline forward whilst the free missions allow you to earn additional experience and improve your characters abilities. As well as earn the in-game currency to enable you to by item upgrades such as new weapons and armour for use later on. As much as I enjoyed playing the action orientated aspects of Phantasy Star Portable however, I do feel the games equipment system swamps players and expects them to get more involved then the average handheld gamer is willing to. With various attributes assigned to each piece of equipment. For instance some armour is classed as Fire type and obviously offers good protection against fire attacks. Whilst you can get away with ignoring this aspect of the game in the early stages as you progress through the game you will have to pay closer attention to such details, which is something gamers may be willing to do on a home console but not so much on a handheld. This isn’t helped by the fact the games menus and text are pretty complex and difficult to read.

The games combat system has been implemented well and whilst all you do is essentially button mash there are a number of special moves at your disposal all of which are very easy to perform. The game also allows you to craft a fighting style that matches the way you play. This can be done with a variety of ranged and melee weapons that fit into slots and allow you to change weapons with ease.

Sadly though the games level design is somewhat limited and repetitive in nature and areas in which combat takes place tend to be very small, giving a somewhat claustrophobic feel to them. This is further confounded by the fact Phantasy Star Portable is a party based affair which means if you encounter just a few enemies the screen soon becomes cluttered leaving very little room for manoeuvring.

Challenge wise the game really isn’t too testing! Especially in the early stages as you will easily be able button mash your way through. However, as you progress enemies become tougher and more numerous. This will require you to utilise your skills and equipment properly. This is also a requirement for the game boss battles in the later stages, which are pretty epic making it rewarding when you beat but more importantly, fun!

Phantasy Star Portable features a multiplayer element for 1-4 players over the systems Wi-Fi connection. The story mode isn’t playable with a multiplayer option all though you can play through various missions. Whilst fans of the series may enjoy playing through these missions with friends, they do feel a little tacked on and for most will be an unused feature.

Visually the games not to bad, characters and animation are nice, and as you would expect from a Phantasy Star game it features some good looking special effects. However, the game is somewhat spoilt by the repetitive nature of the level design, with small pokey areas that lack any real variation.

The games audio does fair better however, voice acting is performed well and does a good job of getting across the various characters feelings and so on, whilst music is very fitting with the Phantasy Star universe.

Overall Phantasy Star Portable will only appeal to fans of the franchise. There’s simply not enough to entice most to play, mainly to its repetitive nature and the depth it requires to get the most out of the title. For those looking for a quick hack ‘n’ slash action fix it’s probably one to miss.