Phantasy Star Universe (Xbox 360) Review
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 03.27.2007
Let’s fighting love!
Have you ever purchased a Japanese animation series DVD? Have you ever downloaded an entire series of episodes from the internet? Have you ever argued with your friends and family that even though the show you love is clearly designed for children, its ok to watch it because the subtitled version is more adulterated than the dubbed version shown on network television? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, boy has Sega got a game for you.
Phantasy Star Universe is an anime series trapped in a video game’s body. I specifically use the word series, because I mean it literally. The single player version of Phantasy Star Universe is broken up into 12 chapters, and each of these has its own title theme music, credit theme music, and voice over preview of the next episode. As for the content of the game itself, literally ever anime cliché is covered here. Rash heroic orphan? Check. Cocky rival? Check. Cutesy non-human comic relief? Check. Anyone who has ever seen more than one episode of Inuyasha or Sailor Moon will pretty much be able map out the game’s entire plot by the third stage.
Over the years, the Phantasy Star series has seen its share of good times and bad. Though originally praised for its futuristic sci-fi approach to the traditional RPG system and firm look at racism themes, the series has suffered a decline in the past few games. Most game titles this old have grown more sophisticated with age, but in recent years, Phantasy Star has been left in the cold. Phantasy Star Universe is Sega’s attempt to add action MMRPG elements into the story in hopes of reviving interest in old school fans.
The single player story focuses on young Ethan Waber (Waber…Weber…why does that sound so familiar?) who is living in a time where peace and prosperity reign across the galaxy. Though there is still racial tension between the Human, CAST, Beast and Newman races, all hostilities have been set aside under the peaceful reign of the guardians: a galaxy police force that keeps protects the planets from everyone, including each other. Yet Ethan’s life takes a major turn when a new parasitic enemy known as the SEED begins attacking the four races. Taking this as a calling for his future, Ethan joins the guardians and sets out to battle against this new foe.
In multiplayer mode, gamers design their own guardian from one of the four races and can party up together to take on various missions across the planets. Up to 6 players can form up together on Xbox Live, for a monthly account fee of $9.99.
Graphics
Phantasy Star Universe doesn’t look bad. The animation is fine and the characters though certainly not the most pleasant thing to look at, are perfectly fine and do interact well. The overall look of the game is futuristic but also very simplified. A room on a space ship will certainly have enough trim around the port holes to let you know that you are surrounded by futuristic technology, but there are no needless consoles and computers randomly stationed in the background. Less is more in this case and simple look that Phantasy Star Universe gives off is at least easy on the eyes.
However, there is almost no variety in the game. Not just from stage to stage, but from room to room. Players will visit room after room or open area after open area that mirrors the previous 5 rooms they have visited not just graphically but architecturally as well. The same underground cavern has the same two rooms attached to it, with the same boxes in one of them. The game’s simplicity also works against it here, because each of these cloned rooms you enter has a nice wide open space that is filled with absolutely nothing. On top of this, the game’s camera gets very clunky if you try to reposition it while walking. It’s as if Virtua Fighter came back from the dead to integrate itself into this game’s structure.
Gameplay
The biggest problem with Phantasy Star Universe is in the gameplay. Repetitive graphics are one thing, but repetitive gameplay is another. The game pretty much consists of hack and slash action with very few interruptions. You enter a room, penguin-like aliens appear, you tap the X button until they are gone, a key appears, and you pick it up and enter the next room. Occasionally you will have to break a box or heal yourself during this sequence. 90% of the game plays out this way, with the other 10% filled by talking to other characters, analyzing targets, and shopping.
There are no killer combos to pull you out of a tight spot or to add some flash to the game. There is no block button. There are no special dodge maneuvers or finishing moves. You simply add a weapon to your list, select it, and then spam the attack button until everything is dead. This lack of complexity is the biggest detriment to the game. One might assume that the game was geared towards younger players given the simplicity, but given the themes and dialogue throughout each chapter it looks as though lack of inspiration is more the culprit here.
To be honest, the gameplay wouldn’t even be all that bad if the stages weren’t so extensive. There’s nothing wrong with a little button mashing followed by some RPG style elements and a nice long juicy episodic cut scene, so long as players don’t have to run through large empty rooms for hours on end to get to those things. The cut scenes and story progression are slightly more interesting than the gameplay after all. Still, you’ll have to wade through a lot of boredom to get there, and it’s hardly worth it.
Sound
The music in Phantasy Star Universe is hit and miss. The opening and ending themes heard throughout the game (what a strange sentence this is!) are cheesy and sound as though they were written and produced in a 30 minute time span. Though the music during the actual gameplay has a lot of overused synthesizer effects from the 80’s and 90’s, its still surprisingly catchy and on occasion there are some good classical and techno elements that are quite pleasing.
The same goes for the character speeches. While most of the voice over work is relatively good, on occasion there are some horrible snafus that will leave anyone listening shaking their heads in shame. It doesn’t happen all the time and given the large amount of speech in the game, the content here is no worse than any other title imported from Japan. Like most sci-fi games, the sound effects are generic and work just fine both during battle and overall.
Lasting Appeal
As mentioned above, there are 12 very, very long chapters throughout the single player game, followed by far more missions in the multiplayer mode. The problem is that all of these missions are really long and don’t amount to much more than repetitive hack and slash action. The idea behind the episodic nature of the single player mode is cute but also annoying. The same goes for the training mode nature of the single player, designed to prep gamers into the multiplayer mode.
I simply cannot justify paying $9.99 a month for this. There are no Xbox Live achievements outside of the single player mode and the only real major differences between multiplayer and single player is the ability to play as different races alongside your friends, which will hardly change up the strategy in the game. Every race hits and heals the same way, just at different speeds and effectiveness levels. The stage graphics and music are the same, so rather than whet ones appetite for online play; single player mode effectively kills it.
Fun Factor
It takes about 15 minutes or so before Phantasy Star Universe starts to feel like a chore, and the game simply does not change from that point. While there is some interest in jumping from episodic cut scene to cut scene, the game is simply too spaced out, repetitive, and dull to hold interest. I imagine younger players might have a better time with it, but even then there isn’t much to hold anyone’s attention.
The 411
Fans of the Phantasy Star series are still waiting for a rebirth of the franchise where is older elements and edgy social commentary will return. Sadly, it doesn’t happen in Phantasy Star Universe. Instead, what we have here is a sad attempt at conning players into paying monthly fees for nearly no content. The episodic and multiplayer ideas are cute, but the game ultimately falls flat.
