Phantasy Star 0 thoughts

[FantasiaWHT]

Well I've played for about two hours now. Started a fonewearl, played for an hour and a half. For reasons I'll get into shortly, started over as a... forgot the name, but the male human ranger.

Overall so far not very happy.

Positives:

1) Great animated cutscenes, animated conversations.
2) Weapons now have special attacks triggered by holding down the attack button for a little variety
3) New weapon customization abilities, apparently, although I haven't been able to use them yet. More than just grinding +1
4) Some destructible environmental pieces (fences, so far) that yield materials
5) Different races have different beginning sequences, and it -seems- that the storylines will be different. As a newman, I crashed in some kind of invasion pod and was commanded to go and mix with the humans. As a human, I'm following my mentor to join the hunter's guild.

Negatives:

1) Techniques have been SEVERELY GIMPED. Foi, Barta, and Zan are now all identical in all forms with the only distinction being what element enemies are weak against. Horrible, simply horrible. The fun of being a force in PS games is each technique, AND each variant of the technique (basic, gi- and ra-) has a different area of effect, so casting can be highly challenging. Now it's just a single target or hold down the button for a "fan" for all spells. Horrible. Takes all the fun out of being a caster, which is why I switched to a ranger.
2) I couldn't kill the first boss as a force, even after burning through a fortune of healing items. It's the very first "mission" so it should not be so difficult - it's not like PSO where the first boss came after several missions.
3) Your AI companions have bad AI, even after fiddling with the various settings.
4) Gameplay graphics are pretty ugly. I wish, given the DS's limited capacity, they had gone with a simpler, cel-shaded kind of look.
5) For some reason, although you can use the touchscreen to access some functions (map and chatting), the rest of the functions, even though they are displayed visually as BUTTONS, cannot be tapped. Inexplicable why you would create something that looks like a button to be tapped but can't be tapped, when other things that look like buttons can be tapped.
6) Still. Six. Actions. How can this not have been updated since PSO came out almost 10 years ago? Could easily have had 8 by using X, or 9 by having 3 banks instead of 2.
7) Although the rolling evade is interesting, the camera and targeting systems are clunky so by the time you turn around and get the camera facing the enemy you just rolled past, they are attacking you again. You essentially have to roll twice to get enough space to recover.

What's everyone else think?

[FantasiaWHT]

A negative I missed:

8) Load times. The game has LOAD TIMES IN CONVERSATIONS. When you walk up and talk to someone, the game pauses for a minute while it loads up. Wow. Also, in the combat field, every "room" (back to more discreet rooms than in more recent PS games) has to be loaded. Or maybe it wasn't every room, thinking back, but it loads frequently. Bizarre not to have smooth transitions from area to area

[kupomogli]

forgot the name, but the male human ranger.

RAmar

Anyways, I was going to pick this up, but since it seems the game sucks compared to the PSO games, I may just wait PS Portable 2. Not much of a fan of the Universe games compared to the Online games, but I like them enough to find some enjoyment to it. I was actually looking forward to this one and to hear it sucks, may as well wait for that price drop.

One thing. Are quests still in the game? So you can scroll down a list of quests that do nothing for the game if you wanted?

[vrikkgwj]

A negative I missed:

8) Load times. The game has LOAD TIMES IN CONVERSATIONS.

Sorry, PS0. You just made me not buy you.

[PentiumMMX]

This game has load times? Instant turn-off for me; load times on a cartridge brings back too many bad memories of Diddy Kong Racing DS...

[NayusDante]

Gahhhhh! Another release that snuck by me! If it's at least comparable to PSO, I'll probably pick it up. I haven't grabbed PSOP yet, but this seems more appealing for some reason.

How's the online? Is there a lobby or is it Nintendo Wi-Fi crap?

...and can I be a FOmar?

[Cloud121]

I love how it's called "Phantasy Star Zero" when it's in the PSO universe, and has no relation to the actual numbered classic games.

[NayusDante]

I love how it's called "Phantasy Star Zero" when it's in the PSO universe, and has no relation to the actual numbered classic games.

What has, in the years since PS4?

It might be a good thing in disguise, since so many other franchises suffer when they try to expand the continuity over the years. Since creative teams come and go, asking new people to expand someone else's universe isn't going to further their original vision.

I'm going through my change bucket right now, gonna pick this up today after class. Hooray for $19 in quarters...

[walrusmonger]

I played the japanese version with an old friend when it came out earlier in the year, I really enjoyed it! If you have friends to play multi with, it's a fun little game.

[FantasiaWHT]

Isn't Phantasy Star Online in the same vein as 1-4? I thought the escape ship that brought everyone to that planet was (a) the same type as those flying around in PS3, and (b) the same type as the one that you come across in PS4

[FantasiaWHT]

Hey, does anyone know if there's a hospital/inn? It seems that there's no way to heal yourself in town except with spells and items...

[NayusDante]

I nabbed the last sealed copy at the GameStop I passed after class. Well, last non-reserved copy, as the guy asked if I had preordered. Can't wait to play it.

I always associate PSO with Depeche Mode, not sure which album to throw on just yet.

[FantasiaWHT]

Ok I take back what I said about spells being identical. There's a little variety, but it's hard to see and use properly on the small screen. At least you can use barta to go through multiple enemies.

And there is no hospital, I learned =/ Weird.

[kupomogli]

Fantasia, did your thoughts about the game change yet or do you still not like it?

Atleast I can always wait for the game to drop to 19.99. I love the PSO games and even if this is a downgrade, so was the Universe series and I enjoy those, though I haven't picked up PS Portable, going to pick up PS Portable 2.

[NayusDante]

I normally play a FOmar, but they messed up their look in this one. No blue hair, no long robes, nothing that made me like FOmars in the first place. When I do make a Force, I'll probably be a FOnewm, they actually look kinda cool this time around. I rarely melee as a Force anyway...

I started off as a HUnewm, thinking I'd try to melee for once. Well, the attack combo timing is way off from PSO. I struggled with it for about two hours, and beat the octopus once. "I'm really not enjoying this," I think to myself. The game was fun, but it just felt kinda clunky compared to PSO. I loved the control in PSO, and it felt too rigid here. After that quest, I saved and quit.

Not really feeling completely tired of the game, I tried making a RAcast. I like how they still look like the original RAcasts, just not as fat. I always wanted to try a Ranger, but never really bothered.


*Five Minutes Later*

"Oh.... THAT works better!"

Playing with ranged weapons feels a LOT better than melee, given the controls. Fun, fun! I'm guessing Forces handle similarly, so I'll be enjoying the crap out of this game.


//The Good
+ It feels more like PSO than PSU did.
+ The music sounds like they made a soundfont from the original OST and wrote new songs with it.
+ Mags are back, not sure how well this plays out though. I like that you can feed five items at a time instead of three.
+ Charging weapons. ^_^
+ Ad-hoc multiplayer potential. That is, if any of my friends get it.
+ I keep saying to myself, "this really feels like PSO." PSU was based on PSO, but this really feels like it in so many respects.

//The Bad
- Yeah, there's no hospital. WTF... At least I usually have the cash for monomates.
- No analog control, not even with the touchpad. In fact, I don't think the game uses the touchpad AT ALL. That's kinda... stupid. At least make it an option.
- Movement seems to be trying to compensate for no analog control, but it still doesn't feel right.
- Weird timing on weapon combos
- I don't believe there's voice chat. Again, if it's there, why not use it?
- Character customization is horribly gimped, compared to PSO. No slider bars or scaling, just preset pieces to put together. Humans have more natural hair colors, which I really don't like.

//The Odd
? Photon Drops aren't that rare...
? There's a delay after picking up an item before you can grab another one...
? The sound effects seem intentionally retro. It doesn't really fit in well.
? You find the notes out of order, and I don't think they tell any kind of story. That makes me sad, because it was an important part of PSO's story.


How's this game selling? I'm curious about PSO's future potential here in the west...

[FantasiaWHT]

The gamefaqs board on it has people posting friend codes constantly, so it looks pretty hopping.

Timing is different yeah, but it's different for every weapon. And a few weapons can't be chained into 3-hit combos (shooting with gunblades and the bazookas, from what I've found so far).

I've always played rangers since PSO but they are awful here... my force of the same level (a) does about 1.5X as much ranged damage (with the ability to multi-hit with charged spells and barta), and (b) does about 2X as much melee damage as the ranger (and equal melee damage as the hunter...) Forces are really overpowered, and it takes a lot less skill to do a force than it used to.

The big overall minus is poor controls compared to previous PS's. They screwed up BIG time by not letting you use the stylus (except to draw pixelated smiley faces and pick tactics for AI parties). Unlike previous PS, when you pull up the menu to do things like changing weapons or using items or non-palleted techniques, you're frozen and completely vulnerable. (Also for some BIZARRE reason, you can't cast spells out of the menu, you have to put it on your palette first.) So no changing weapons mid-fight, hard to use your menu to use -mates and -fluids... just significantly worse UI overall.

If they had allowed you to navigate through the menus with the stylus while you moved around to dodge with the D-pad, major problems would have been avoided.

Going to try multiplayer when I'm home tomorrow.

[NayusDante]

Stuff about menus and controls

Agreed. The menus are starting to get to me, and it's going to be a pain to play a force with the quirks. I'm used to having the numpad hotkeys, from Blue Burst, which makes playing a force very enjoyable. It's SUCH a shame that they didn't just turn the bottom screen into a big action pallet! I'm still going to do a force, but it's going to be kinda rough only having six spell keys, and that's when my R button isn't being unresponsive (gotta open it up again to fix it, not fun >_<).

I don't see it being a big deal for a force's attacks to be stronger than a ranger's. Keep in mind that forces consume TP, while a ranger can shoot all day. Forces do a lot of damage, but they can't put it out at the same steady rate that a ranger can. It's the difference between a nuker and a damage dealer.

I got to the octopus with my RAcast. I probably wouldn't be getting pwned if my party could stop running into walls.

Think I'm going to do my characters like this:
-FOnewm
-RAcast
-HUmarl

I've always just focused on one force before, but the fact that different races have their own stories makes it interesting enough to do three characters.

[NayusDante]

My friend code is 0947 2385 1934, if anyone wants to play a bit this afternoon. I've got my RAcast to lv11.

[lagartija_nick]

I love how it's called "Phantasy Star Zero" when it's in the PSO universe, and has no relation to the actual numbered classic games.

The game is not actually titled "Phantasy Star Zero" Its "Phantasy Star 0".
It just occurred to me that its another way of saying "PSO".

Maybe Sega were trying to send some kind of subliminal message to those who hated PSU, that a return to PSO was at hand.

Certainly there are three distinct eras of Phantasy Star. Classic, PSO, and PSU.
It does not seem the three eras are related yet everygame has some version of Dark Falz as the main enemy. Witch makes it a bit confusing.
The exceptions being all the side games of the classic era, Phantasy Star Gaiden, Phantasy Star Adventure, and The Phantasy Star 2 text adventures.

I don't know where 0 fits in, but I must say the few minutes I have spent with it, I get the distinct feeling that artistically the game feels like they were trying to capture they style of Phantasy Star 1. Especially in the way the conversations are handled, character on screen change to portraits.

I wonder if Sega is trying to combine something from all the PS eras in this release?

[NayusDante]

I still type out Zero, because PS0 looks too much like PSO. Technically, it's "Phantasy Star Ø". I'm not looking up ASCII codes every time I want to differentiate PSØ from PSO.

Pokémon... Pokemon... Brütal Legend...