Having never before played a game in Sega’s famed Phantasy Star franchise, I was unsure of what to expect of the latest entry into the series, Phantasy Star Portable. I do know that over time the style of play evolved from a turn-based RPG to a more action-packed game. So with Phantasy Star Portable (aka PSP—a pun I’m sure is intentional), curiosity got the best of me and I just had to give it a shot (though the sweet trailer had a bit hand in that as well).

From what I saw, the game can can be summed up in eight, incredibly hyphenated words: hack-and-slash, level-grinding, dungeon-diver action. If anything I’d say it plays a lot like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy XII, or even Dynasty Warriors (only with much fewer enemies). And of course, these are all welcome comparisons.

See, what won me over with those games wasn’t the story, but the excellent and addictive gameplay—including FFXII. With FFXII, I didn’t care much for the story or many of the characters, but instead focused my time on the hunts and exploring the vast landscapes of Ivalice. Phantasy Star Portable, while not nearly as massive or engrossing as FFXII, does offer a similar experience with loads more customization.

Ultimately, your time will be divided in three ways:

• Tried and true, hack-and-slash action on the battlefield.
• Story sequences where you “interact” with other characters.
• Menus, menus, and more menus.

Yes, you will be spending the majority of your time sifting through the countless options and menus. Everything is pretty much presented in first-person or menu form in regards to the story (aside from cutscenes). If the lack of an overworld map and a mission based style of gameplay don’t bother you, you’ll be fine.

Of course, the missions are pretty basic: move from point A to point B while crushing enemies and collecting keys to unlock gates. Simple enough, right?

As mentioned, PSP is heavily based on customization. The game starts by having you build a character from the ground up. You have four different classes (Human, CAST, Neuman, and Beast) and about a gajillion other features to play with while creating your in-game avatar, including hair color, outfit, face shape, and voice type/pitch, etc. Heck, if you wanted to, you could make the fattest, funkiest looking mo’fo’ in the Phantasy Star Universe (title pun semi-intended).

The battlefield is where PSP really shines. You’re forced to make a lot of decisions on the fly, whether it be using items to simply mashing the attack button and taking out enemies. It’s pretty fun, especially if you’re into level-grinding, since this is basically all you do.

The battle system, which is arguably the most important part of the game, is fun and easy to grasp. I’ll sum it up for you:

• Run around.
• Hit stuff until it dies.
• Occasionally use a healing item, check the map, or change your weapon.

Repeat, in any order.

It’s really cool to be able to change weapons on the fly, especially since the game offers so many types and combinations. All your weapons are upgradable too, which is important for obvious reasons.

Much to my dismay, the only multiplayer PSP offers is local. Using an ad hoc network, you can play with up to three other players. Still, it’s not as cool as being able to play online with someone across the country. A damn shame, it is.

Another ever-present issue involves some of the controls. Don’t get me wrong—for the most part, they’re great—but due to the PlayStation Portable’s lack of a second set of trigger buttons, working the camera requires a bit of finesse. You’ll likely find yourself tapping the L-Button (which doubles as strafe/lock-on) to relocate your view behind your character unless you can find some tactful way to position your index finger so it’s out of the way while still working the D-Pad controlled camera—good luck with that one.

There is a bit of a learning curve. It took about two or three hours to get the hang of PSP. But after figuring out how the menus function and how the battle system works, it quickly became second nature.

Aside from accidentally leaving the START menu open during battles (there is no such thing as a pause function in PSP), I didn’t find to many problems. Though occasionally when you pause to look at the map, you’ll try to attack an enemy, but can’t because the START menu was never closed. It would have been mighty convenient to let the attack button close it considering how smoothly everything else runs.

For the most part, you can pick up all the “how to play” basics in-game, which is great for DIY players like myself who loathe reading the manual.

Load times between areas are quick and the graphics are crisp and pretty, something that is appreciated in any title.

Unfortunately, the characters are rather stock: a sweet-hearted android trying to understand her emotions, a hardened soldier who’s tough as nails with a heart of gold, a straight from heaven womanizer who believes the Holy Light thinks every woman should date him, and the perverted old headmaster whose high jinks get him into trouble regularly. Even your own character fits the mold, being the quiet, brooding protagonist who barely speaks a word.

There are options given within the storyline to interact with other characters, but you best choose carefully, because sometimes what seems like the right thing to say totally isn’t, leaving you with a very awkward, confused feeling towards the game.

But perhaps this is due to the dialogue. Sometimes the characters say some of the dumbest things. The voice acting isn’t awful, but it doesn’t impress either, and I find myself skipping through most of it. Still, some conversations are so lame, I often caught myself laughing out loud at moments that didn’t warrant such a reaction.

Overview

Though not without its set of problems, Phantasy Star Portable has a lot to offer hack-and-slash RPG fans looking for a quality pick-up-and-play. PSP is all about crushing your enemies and leveling up, exactly like it should be. It’s fun enough that I can almost forgive the bland story and stock characters that, while not tragically bad, lack innovation and any interesting qualities.

Yet there’s no getting past how horribly disappointed I am about the decision to exclude full-out online play. Truth be told, I feel that may have been the push PSP needed to deem it a must buy.

Still, it’s a fun game that I know I’ll be playing for a long time. While I wouldn’t recommend it for its story, I do think the gameplay entertaining enough to warrant a purchase, provided you’re into this sort of thing.

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