Phantasy Star has a dear place in my heart. It was my first exciting experience with an online world with the Dreamcast version of Phantasy Star Online, and I’ve worked on Phantasy Star Universe since launch and beyond. Within the SEGA community team, we have very different backgrounds with Phantasy Star. We thought it would be fun to play Phantasy Star Portable as a multiplayer session and post our impressions.

From the first boot screen to the character builder, I was back in familiar territory and ready for some multiplayer action with the team. Phantasy Star Portable offers a pretty faithful version of the Phantasy Star Universe, right down to the attacks, animations, and levels. Starting Unsafe Passage, the starter mission from PSU, we moved out to find our rewards and level our characters.

Of our play session, I had two things I really enjoyed – the way loot is addressed and the charge attack mechanic. The Charge Attack is a throw back to Phantasy Star Online and allows you to time your attacks for greater benefit. Unlike Phantasy Star Online, the charge attack mechanic is not required, and you can defeat foes with rapid button presses. However, with a bit of finesse, you can time attacks to return power points (resource for bigger attacks) and add increased damage with a critical hit on each successful strike. This gives the combat a much more tactical approach in how you dispatch enemies and maximize your damage output. Very fun!

In regards to loot changes, I was very happy to see how items were distributed and it really hit home for me what Phantasy Star Portable was all about: teamwork. In Phantasy Star games of the past, if an item of value dropped (instantly viewable as a red box) all play stopped and it was a race to acquire it. This meant ranged players didn’t see rewards and there were often squabbles about who deserved what and the inevitable discussion of fairness. What’s the change? To appeal to teamwork and fairness, items that are found are given to the entire party! This allows for less concern about loot grabbing and more focus on the encounter at hand.

I really enjoyed our play session and am anticipating the release of Phantasy Star Portable on March 3rd!

Ruby Eclipse
I’ve been looking forward to Phantasy Star Portable for some time now, and when I got a chance to play all the way through an early build, I was stoked. I think one of the best parts about Phantasy Star Portable is that they’ve changed the entire game to make it more like Phantasy Star Online. In our multiplayer session, it was a lot of fun teaming up and seeing some of the rebalances they’ve made to the game. My favorite addition to multiplayer gaming? Definitely the new rare item distribution system, which gives each and every player in the team a copy of a rare when one is picked up. No more fighting over who called a weapon or item – the system is genius, and I can’t wait to get some hardcore multiplayer games going on with friends once the game hits the streets next week.

Kellie
This was my first time playing any Phantasy Star game, so I was really eager to see what it was all about. The graphics were really good (better than I expected, actually) and I had a lot of fun playing the game with everyone. I guess any time spent playing videogames at your desk with your friends is fun, though. As a newbie, I found the game pretty easy to pickup and managed to get my bearings and movements down with only a few tries. It was helpful to have knowledgeable friends to play with, but I think I would have figured everything out with only a bit of extra time. I could see myself getting really absorbed in this game on my own, but playing with a group of friends adds a whole new level of fun. I’m sure that there are a lot of finer points about the game that I haven’t learned yet, but that just makes me eager to play and explore more. If you’re new to Phantasy Star, there’s no need to be intimidated. You’ll be able to pick it up and get sucked in right away.

Edward@SEGA
My first few hours with Phantasy Star Portable were like driving my old familiar car which had suddenly been tricked out and updated. All the little things I’d wanted to change over the years got an upgrade—-even though it looks and feels like Phantasy Star Universe in a lot of ways, this game is not just optimized for the PlayStation Portable; it’s incredibly at home on it. Playing in a group really brought this out.

Our intrepid SEGA Community Team didn’t hit anything too challenging in our foray into low-level missions, but nevertheless the PSP feels like the perfect platform to run around with a small group & kill SEED-infected monsters. We actually managed to clear a fair amount of low-level stuff in a short amount of time and the faster PA leveling made me just -ecstatic-. I’m really looking forward to seeing kind of group-play on a larger scale. The classes for Portable (more on this in future posts) allow for so much more flexibility in terms of how you build your group, and the idea of having a readily adaptable group of players for running against the big bosses is really appealing… Can’t wait!