Who's going to get PSZ?

PSU is a sequel to PSO just like PSZ, they just took the game in two different directions. PSZ is the weird kiddy skip-hop fighting game, which is really a bit disturbing. Why do Nintendo games always end up looking like they should be named "My Little Pony Edition"?

Erm...well, yeah, it's a sequel. Just the fact that it's named "Phantasy Star" is enough to make it a sequel, like how Phantasy Star Online was a sequel to Phantasy Star 4.

I heard something about cartoony graphics being less difficult to pull off, which makes sense. You don't need it all the necessary human parts if it's just labeled as part of the "style". Which is understandable for the DS, but why they do it on the Wii is beyond me.

Something tells me if they tried to recreate PSO on the DS, it would look like, well...fugly. Something like this;


Here's the source. http://www.unseen64.net/2009/01/08/phantasy-star-zero-ds-beta/

I love some of the concept art so much though that I wish they had brought it to a more powerful system. Some of the beta characters look less...out of proportion, but it must've been hard to work with. Plus, some of the areas look more open. while the game is great for what the DS can do, if they had put that much effort into something on the Wii, or heck, the 360 or PS3, can you imagine what it would've been?

Graphics don't make the game, but an annoying graphical style can certainly detract from the enjoyment factor. I'd rather have had it on the PSP, but oh well.

I like the anime style. If you're a fan of any anime-style video game series (Disgaea, Lunar, Tales sereis, Cross Edge, etc) or you're maybe 10-25 years of age you would think the art style is nice. I loved the animated opening, by the way. It's one of the few gems. That opening also shows they are SERIOUS about offline mode this time, (hell to PSU, I like this story more) and at the same time they are still encouraging online play with the AI in the game.

Ives is 21 and has problems with the art style.

He could just be a 40 year old woman in disguise, though. It is the internet!

But anyways, I personally am alright with the art style. I liked the more serious looking concept art (and even some of the old models), but this is fine too. Well, except for the FOmarl's walking style. I sort of want to puke every time I use it. Shame, too. She was one of my favorite looking characters. x.x It's not bad, I just prefer a more serious style, like PSO's or PSU's.

PSU's story actually isn't half bad, once you get beyond the not so great presentation and terrible voice acting. Unfortunately, the whole 500-year war backstory is more interesting than anything else they've put out so far. If they were to release a prequel that took place during that, I'm sure it could be awesome. I can't read a lick of Japanese, but from what I can tell, the story sort of seems like a generic, "Oh no! Evil spirit is causing chaos! Let's kill it!" with some really quirky side quests along the way.

The offline mode is actually decent in the same way PSO's offline mode is decent. In fact, it's pretty much the exact same style, except Ninternet instead of a server. The AI partners aren't...wonderful, but at the very least, they have a ridiculous amount of HP. Thing is, Sega crafted them so that throughout the whole game, they'd switch weaponry at stats at various points so they'd always do about 10-12 damage per hit, even when you're doing 70-80. Don't get me wrong, they can be handy, but often times the most they do for you is the occasional Resta and meat shield from the tougher enemies...not to mention steal EXP. >_<

Oh yeah, that's the only thing I hate about AI in all the 'PS(blank)' games- AI kill steals. I don't like Kireek in the first PSO quest for that.

Play Battle Training in Ultimate, and then he won't KS anymore.

Yeah I know but I'm weak!
EDIT: But strangely I discovered that techniques will do the same amount of damage in Ultimate as they do in Normal for some wierd reason. I used a hack to check out Ultimate Forest playing Battle Training- I kept using Resta and Rafoie. XD

*sigh* PSZ... when art thou have a official release date?

It's supposed to come out this winter IIRC, so probably right before Christmas.

The dates are being mixed up- I heard it's gonna be released in fall.

Amazon has it listed as November 10th. That's nowhere near official, but it's something to take into consideration.

If you're PAL, then all you have is just a general, "Winter" date.

Already R4'd the Japanese version, really hard to play with my kind of hands

Downsides is that you get no camera in the city and I don't think you can understand Japanese

Still a good game tho.