Phantasy Star Universe

On the first two counts, things don’t look good. Presentation is rudimentary, menus awkward to navigate, the graphics outdated to the extent that they look like an HD first-gen Xbox game (understandable as this game was designed primarily for the Japanese PS2 version - but Sonic Team have still clearly been lazy here for 360). Environments are linear, the map system several presentational leagues below Final Fantasy XII’s near identical functionality. Monsters are generic, central characters bland and the invention of a crowd generator - where cities look well-populated until you get near other pedestrians and they fade away like ghosts in a kind of reverse pop-up - utterly ridiculous.

If your first stop is the single player mode then these problems are exaggerated. The blandest of stories, pancake-thin characterisation and levels that are far too easy to get lost in create an overall wash of frustration that tempers any enjoyment the by numbers role-play might engender. The lack of lock-on makes combat a tussle of awkward cameras (despite the new strafe move) and hit-and-miss single button mashing (despite the dual wielding) just like it so often was in the original. The painful loading screen that interrupts every cut scene bursts the balloons of suspended disbelief quicker than you can inflate them and, the most convoluted save system we’ve seen on any system actually makes you think twice before bothering to save your game just because it’s such an ordeal. Knowing that everything you’re doing counts for nothing in terms of the MMORPG you bought the game to play leaves just the achievement points to drag you through the plot; a tragedy when we think back to the Megadrive single player Phantasy Stars that coloured our younger years so brightly. Indeed, if this were a standalone game or, if for some inconceivable reason you bought the game without an internet connection, you will be sorely, 4/10-style, disappointed.

But play the game as Naka intended and forgiveness for this world’s flaws is far freer flowing. That’s because, as an MMORPG, the game becomes a playground for friendship and questing. The simplicity and rudimentary presentation becomes a bonus as it makes it very quick and easy to dip into and out of games painlessly. The scenario of Japanese space robots with short skirts, photon blasters set against infinite oceans of space outside your room’s porthole becomes beguiling rather than sterile. Player costumes (ranging from underpants to full on Rappy outfits), customisable rooms and personal shops add depth and width to the original vision suckering you in quickly. The four basic character classes can later be mixed and hybridised to create more complex characters as the game progresses and, as such, the game has been expanded in many of the right places.

But, in many ways it’s also a regression. PSU, at the moment, costs £6.99 a month and, arguably scandalously, Sega are currently holding content ALREADY ON THE DISC back from players in order to release it to paying subscribers at a later date. Even if some areas of PSO were hard to unlock at least they were attainable right from the start with perseverance, here you are kept out of areas of the game online - areas you know are available on the disc because you can visit them all in the offline quest. It’s a shocking decision and we really, really hope that EA et al are currently too busy with something else to have noticed.

Also downgraded is the online sense of purpose. It’s devoid of story or narrative to draw you in; no drama links the lines of online play and even the most basic guild principals of PSO are here removed to promote the offline story. Remember when your character killed Falz in PSO and your avatar was put in flashing lights on the screen? There you were the hero. You visited the principal to gather clues; your missions were tied together by a narrative thread - no matter how simple your purpose was - you had a purpose. In PSU your online character is a mere statistic in the census of an online world; your character will never be master of this universe.