On a whim, I recently purchased Phantasy Star 0 for DS. I bought it new, at full price, for $34.99 from Gamestop (something I very, very rarely do for games that haven't come out in the past year or so) because I was itching for some Phantasy Star Online. I had heard a recent podcast about the entire series of Phantasy Star Online, from the original Dreamcast release all the way up to the recent DS and PSP games. One of the people on it, who said he played mostly offline PSO on the Gamecube (which is pretty much what I did the most of) said he really liked Phantasy Star 0, so I bit.
I'm glad I did! This game really seems like a remake of Phantasy Star Online, honestly. There are some new story bits, but they aren't too intrusive (something I've heard Phantasy Star Universe has big problems with) and has all new levels and character designs and enemies and such. In fact, the graphics are some of the best 3D I've seen on the DS, to be honest - much better than the Final Fantasy IV remake a few years back and better even than the recent Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light (which made some stylistic choices regarding its graphics, but I don't think they look too great, to be honest). One of my favorite things about this game is the varied levels; each place I've been to so far (four places) have been outside, and the game has random dungeon design so each time you go through the dungeon is different, thankfully. I suppose the only thing I miss compared to Phantasy Star Online is the player character design and detail. For my gunner, I picked the only option I had to [i]not[/i] wear a goofy cowboy hat. That's fine in Fallout: New Vegas, but not my futuristic pseudo-MMO, dammit!
The controls are pretty good, as well; the game plays very much like Phantasy Star Online, with a few minor tweaks. First, you have the ability to lock on to an enemy and strafe at the same time, by holding L and then moving left or right. This makes you a bit slower, but allows you to attack while moving a bit, dodging many enemy attacks in the process. Also, since I chose a gunner as my character, this makes combat almost damage free because I hang back from the enemy and shoot. There is also a dodge ability, which causes your character to roll in the direction of your choice - they are invincible during the roll, too, so far as I can tell. There is a cooldown period for this, of course, of about a half second - which means you better be out of harms way wherever your character stands up or you'll take damage.
I rather enjoy the music, too, although admittedly when I've been grinding recently I've been listening to my iPod.
I just find it interesting how retro this game is, in terms of its gameplay - this really is Phantasy Star Online Again Round 2. It's like Sega realized the past few have kind of sucked and they started over - perhaps that's why they called it Phantasy Star Zero? Although that probably has to do with some goofy storyline.
Anyway, I highly recommend the game. My buddy recently picked it up and as soon as he gets back to his apartment at the end of the week we should be playing some games online, which I'm really looking forward to. Apparently he is a human mage, so he plays quite a bit differently than my gunner. Which works!
In other news, I was able to get my Gamecube copy of Phantasy Star Online connected to a private server a few days ago, which means we can play that online now too, if Phantasy Star 0 isn't to our liking or we get sick of it or something. I guess we'll see.
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