Phantasy Star Zero is...impressive!

[Mozgus]

I've been sampling the japanese version of Phantasy Star Zero on the DS. Wow guys. If you liked PSO, watch out for this.

Super long trailer:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/12/08/a-de ... o-trailer/

Despite everything being super japanese text heavy, I was able to navigate everything pretty easily, since so much of the game is laid out like PSO. On first try connecting online, I had a zero bar signal though. I don't know what to make of that, but hopefully I'll figure it out. I've been playing offline just fine. Figured out how to start a quest, and got a feel for the combat. Its just like PSO, but actually it feels slightly better, at least offline. Responds well, and I notice there's a new rolling dodge move. Melee combat feels about 20% faster than PSO was.

Those are all the thoughts I have so far. If all goes well, it will come to America and be the first DS game I actually like enough to buy.

[marurun]

So, is this a PSO-alike for the DS, then? Glad to hear it's holding your attention so far. That bodes well. Now if only Sega would release a more traditional PS game.

[Mozgus]

Finally played with someone. We died at the dragon boss, which was similar to PSO's dragon boss. Already up to lvl5, though he was lvl10 and we still got slaughtered.

Ignore what I said about the overall speed of the game. It's all about the same as PSO.

You still have a basic armor, which can hold minor enhancement items. You still use just one weapon, of which there are many. You still use MAGs which you can feed and grow.

[Anayo]

It's always good to hear about good DS games. I'll keep my eye on this one.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

might need to get a DS again for this but wasn't PSU coming to PSP soon?

[Mozgus]

might need to get a DS again for this but wasn't PSU coming to PSP soon?

I know there was a Phantasy Star Portable (hah....P.S.P.). I never liked the whole PSU thing.

For anyone who does get this game, I highly recommend filling up your 64 friend slots with just any valid friend codes you can find, like from this thread:

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=123809

When playing with strangers, you cant communicate at all. At least with friend codes, you can scribble messages and such. You also just get to know the people better and it becomes a better experience. It shows you when people come online, host rooms. As far as I can tell, there's no PMing system like Blue Burst had. That kinda sucks. I think voice chat would have made this so much better. Advance Wars had voice chat, I believe.

[Niode]

Ooh this looks great. I think I might have to import it.

Is it free to play online?

I hated PSU. Complete waste of money.

I played PSO to death and if it's more like the DC version then i'll definitely have to get it.

[Mozgus]

Ooh this looks great. I think I might have to import it.

Is it free to play online?

I hated PSU. Complete waste of money.

I played PSO to death and if it's more like the DC version then i'll definitely have to get it.

Surely it's free, and will remain so when it comes to USA. If, I mean. There's no MMO aspects to this. It's all instance-based.

I still have yet to play with strangers using matchmaking, because I believe its not turned on yet. This game releases in japan on x-mas. The rom got leaked a week early. How reliable the matchmaking is will be a major deciding factor for me.

As for whether you should import, I say no. The story mode seems to have a lot going for it, and without knowing japanese, you won't get much out of it. Also, I'm finding a lot of items confusing. I know that telepipes have 5 japanese letters in the name, so that's good enough. Now I just need to memorize which one is the revive item.

For what the game lacks in terms of communication, it makes up for with gameplay enhancements. I just realizes that on top of the standard 3 hit combos, weapons also have charge up special attacks that use PP, even if you're a cyborg. So now cyborgs finally have a use for PP. Some weapons, like these shotgunblades, act as swords normally, but you can fire them by holding L (camera/lock on). Very cool. So there's good variety to the action now.

Oh yeah, mag super moves now seem to be fully controllable creatures, instead of idle summon attacks. Very cool! You press L+R to use them. Mags can also consume more than just items. You can even feed them old equipment.

Now that I've added 40 people to friends list, there always seems to be at least one person who will play with you.

[Niode]

Sweet I shall get the rom asap!

[schi0249]

I would love to see a sequel/prequel to the real PS games.