Thursday 9 September 2010

Phantasy star zero

gamespot score:6.5( fair)

my score: 7.0

(+)Pros:- nice visuals for a DS game, - fun with some real human help, - many variety of enemies to battle,- boss fights are fun

(-)cons:- repititive quests and dungeon crawling, - story mode party AI is horrendous,- gameplay is slow

gameplay time: 30-40 hours( above average)






Heres another DS game for the peeps. Phantasy star 0 is the 1st phantasy star game for DS, and well, it does impress. Striking visuals and good multiplayer co-op make for a good experience that will satisfy players of the game. Still even if you dont have anyone to play this with, dont be disheartened, it will still fare as a good experience since the main story isnt all that bad.



The story of phantasy star 0 is quite typically JRPG style. Anyway, the game satrts differently depending on whatever race you use, the 3 races being humans, cast, and newmans. A few examples are follows, when you start as a human it shows you walking into a city and then being greeted by kai, who then proceeds unto bestowing you into doing a quest, if you start as a cast you crash into a forest and is found by sarisa, then start finding a way out. But even if the start is different and the storyline will somehow stream differently for each of the races, the main story will still end up saving the world from an inevitable crisis.



Im not a huge fan of the phantasy star series and havent played any of thier games other than this and phantasy star portable for PSP, so I wont compare alot of gameplay. All I will say is that the gameplay is almost the same as phantasy star portable for PSP, you pick ur party, pick a quest, go to the field, kill some shit and advance from area to area, until you reach the boss, then you kill it, and the quest is done. Its like this ALL the time, and it gets repititive.


On the field this is where gameplay shines, during your explorations of the fields, you run into a variety of monsters, ranging from yetis to land fish and many more. These enemies come in different kinds, and add variety to the total monster type count. Also, they arent bad, in some cases, they look great, for a DS games, the graphics aint bad, the gameplay is pretty smooth too, no lags here and there. And if you've got some friends here, killing enemies is much more fun. At the end of every quest, theres also a boss. Bosses in this game are fun, much better than phantasy star portable, you have to scan and analyze thier attacks, then strike as you see fit. In phantasy star portable, all you do is hit,heal,hit,heal,hit,heal ....it gets lame.

As I said earlier the quests and dungeons of phantasy star zero get repititive as hell, you just keep doing the same thing over and over you will eventually lose momentum. Combat also feels slow, where attacks and strikes come out slowly, though they are supposed to be comboed into a chain, the pace in battle is so slow that it makes the player feel monotony.Whats more, in story mode, your part members' AI are useless as hell, only attacking or csasting skills as slow as snails, monsters are usually killed by you before they even get a chance to strike.
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Nothing else much to say here, phantasy star zero isnt a bad game, its around the same standard as phantasy star portable for the PSP, if enjoyed that, you will enjoy this, nuff said. Oh yes, and a little friends wont hurt.


Happy gaming.