Think of Fable, Just In A Sci-Fi Genre With Awesome Multiplayer
REVIEW: I loved Phantasy Star Online, and so did 200,000 other players, making this review tilted in the games favor. Everything that you wished you could do in PSO or anything you wanted to be changed, pretty much was, save for the funny feeling you got in your gut (the good one). The gameplay is smooth and easy to get into. It's very similar to the Fable style of gameplay. This is great, because unlike PSO, you don't have to be "Strong Enough" to kill your enemies to actually play, you can maneuver your way around the enemy, get them from behind, then move again. This is exactly what RPGs should be, not the nonsense of, "Well since I'm 5 levels higher than you, I'm gonna' kill you." Now it's about power AND skill, to which I say skill is way more important. The Value of the Game is moderate, but only if you have online capabilities. I say moderate 'cause they make you pay. You essentially get 2 games, a Story Driven Action RPG, and a Free-Roam Style Action RPG that you can play off or online. The graphics aren't what you'd expect, but the game was made cross-platform with the PS2, so it's understandable. Sound isn't all that great, making you listen to the same hack-and-slash sound effects pretty much the whole time, but the music is just as good as PSO's music. It doesn't take that much to master the controls for combat to the game, but everything else takes some time to get to understand it. Synthesising items is now what is required to make rare items. While some people gripe about this, I say it's one of the best features. "Hey, this little wolf-like thing I killed just dropped a whole piece of armor! That makes perfect sense!" This is kinda' how I feel when I play Diablo or WoW. Now you collect material to make items, so it makes more sense, but also makes it a bit of a pain because there is a chance that the item you are trying to make will fail, making all your efforts worthless. The weapons are all unique and special in their own way: Spears can hit multiple enemies in a line and has good power and speed, Swords can hit multiple enemies in a wide range in front of you and has high power, but it's slow, a Saber does good damage and a fast rate to one enemy at a time, and Daggers attack really fast to one enemy, but since you hit the target more times than a Saber, it does less damage. Every weapon is really cool, and it's fun just trying all of them. Another thing I noticed which I think is really cool is that different creatures are hurt by different weapons respectively, so I attacked a small rhino thing with Daggers and did a good bit of damage, then used my Knuckles and did more damage, even though the daggers have a higher attack power. All the weapons and creatures are like this, so to be as efficient as possible, it's actually better to carry a whole bunch of different weapons, which is absolutely innovative, but also a bit aggrivating. Same thing with the elements that you can add to your weapons. Ranged weapons actually play a lot different from Melee weapons, in that they have no special attack, but you can attach special elemental powers to them, and they even have an ammo count. Force weapons like Wands and Staffs are the same way in that they are completely different to play with. You attach different abilities to your weapon and use them as needed, so you usually see Forcers carrying 4 or 5 Wands and Staffs so they can have a wide range of Spells to attack, amplify, and heal with. Needless to say, it's all pretty complicated, but still cool. The different character classes are really different when playing online, making it very easy to pick a character class out, since Hunters are horrible at ranged combat ect. ect. Offline though, they left it a little more open, making it feel more like each class was essentially the same, each just modified your stats differently and each raised or dropped your weapon level. In other words, a Hunter could be running around with a Spear, a Rifle and a Wand, doing everything all the character classes to well, but they're simply better at Melee combat. Online is a lot more difficult and more narrow as far as weapon usage and stat points go. In the end, the game is great, and the $10 monthly fee for online play is more than a bargain for what you get. I'm extremely pleased with this game and plan to play it non-stop.... till Gears of War comes out, then I might get side-tracked, but till then, I'll be rockin' my HuCAST baby. Peace and Love.