Phantasy Star Zero

[rooks37]

It was a full year's wait for it to come to America, but it was completely worth the wait. Phantasy Star Zero for the Nintendo DS is the Nintendo DS game I have been waiting for someone to produce since I was playing Nintendo DS Phat. When I heard about the wifi-connection for the DS I had day dreams of running around Ragol while waiting for class to start in my head.

And then I wait for several years without noting happening, and no game taking the Wifi-Connection beyond just death-mach style multiplayer. I was just about to swear off Wifi-Connection game play until I got the news of Phantasy Star Zero would be released in Japan December 25 2008. I waited and prayed that PSZ would find it's way to America, and that Sega of Japan would not be an ass and forget to release the game over here. I got my answer eventually, discovered that Sega of America was going to take a full year to release this game state side. On top of that, they put out very little publicity for the game. I was worried that they were going to cancel it at any time.

Then comes the the release date of November 11, and I march up to game stop with my pre-order slip in hand. I collect my copy and head home.

The game in short, is amazing for a DS title. It is essentially a slightly watered down PSU, PSO hybrid. The fact that it is only slightly watered down is amazing to me. They really put a lot of effort into this game despite the lackluster advertising campaign.

So lets go over the good points first:

Fully 3D gameplay. At times it seams like most developers have forgotten that the DS is a 3D capable system.

Complex online play. The PSZ has managed to pull off PSO-like gameplay within the confines of the Wifi-Connection. Absolutely amazing.

Full single player game with your own customized character.

Client side save file. You can level your character even when your offline.

Enhanced combat system. You can evade enemy attacks much easier now, and photon arts are present.

Extensive collection of items available. Comparable to a full PSO game.

Zero lag, just as with the original PSO on the Dreamcast.

FREE ONLINE PLAY. Anyone who has played the previous games of the series will know what I'm talking about.

Extremely challenging bosses. The boss do more then just sit around and let you hack at it most of the time. You had better get used to dodging -- a lot.

Now the bad:

Character creation is a step below the original PSO's standards. Expect a lot of clones to be running around.

Free play online mode finds itself stuck within quite a few of the confines of the Nintendo Wifi-Connection. You will not be able to trade items, or even chat properly in it. Also, match making takes forever currently.

No text chat, or voice chat. You have to write out all your messages by hand using the game's version of pictochat.What makes this worse is the fact that they were going to include voice chat initially. (Real smart move dumbasses. >_<;)

Difficult to master combat. The combo system is even more difficult then PSO's own combo system to get used to, and you are expected to dodge some attacks for a change.

Client side save file. Yeah, hackers just love these, and half the major PSO community had transferred their save files over from their Japanese game cards.

In my opinion, Phantasy Star Zero is one of the best additions anyone could make to their DS library.


TL;DR:
Phantasy Star Zero is a great game, and I think you should buy it to if you haven't already.

My PSZ friend code is: 4597-9555-7768

I hope to see you online some time!