Phantasy Star Universe Review (X360)

Online Play

The online aspect of Phantasy Star Online plays out similarly to the story mode. You meet up with friends online, form a party, and then head out to take on missions. Unlike single-player, though, your motivation here isn’t saving your star system from the SEED aliens, and instead you are just out to gain experience and find good loot. It is also a social event, of course, and is quite enjoyable when you have a good party to play with. Beware of playing with random strangers online, though, because it is very easy for other players to abuse the way the experience and loot is distributed and you’ll likely be kicked to the curb. Hopefully your friends won’t do that to you. The long term appeal of the online play is that there are multiple versions of every area you visit, and the loot that enemies drop is randomized so you never know what you are going to find next. Also, new items will be added throughout the lifetime of the game, so there will always be something new to discover.

The downside to all of this is that there is a monthly fee involved. You have to pay $9.99 per month and there isn’t even a free trial period to see if you even like it or not. When these fees were introduced on the Dreamcast version it all but killed the game. On the Xbox 360, when we have so many other choices as far as what we can play online, having a monthly fee means PSU is likely to be on life support from the very start. The game is very fun and once you get into it you’ll be hooked, but you might be hard pressed to find other players online which is a shame.

Graphics and Sound

Visually, Phantasy Star Universe is a nice looking game. It isn’t pushing the Xbox 360 all that hard, but it looks very nice anyway. Everything is very sharp and clean looking, and the characters, enemies, and bosses are nicely detailed and look great. It is clear that they were aiming at a specific style here, and I think they nailed it. Complaining that it isn’t “next gen” enough like some reviewers have seems pointless because I don’t know what they could have done to make it look better and still have the style and charm it does now. Making things shiny looking doesn’t mean it is “next gen”. There are some framerate issues here and there, but they don’t affect gameplay.

The sound is also very good. I wouldn’t say the voice actors did a phenomenal job, but by anime standards it is very good. The music is fairly good all around, but it repeats way too often and will grate on you after a while. The intro music that plays before each chapter in the single-player is pretty good, though.

Bottom Line

Overall, Phantasy Star Universe is a solid game that I recommend checking out. The single-player is solid and worth your time, especially if you are an anime fan, and the online play is addictive and fun. Having to pay a monthly fee for the online play wasn’t the best move on Sega’s part, since it is going to slash the amount of potential players down to a fraction of what it would have been otherwise. If you can get a group of friends committed to playing it, though, I think it is still absolutely worth it. Even if you don’t want to play online, the single-player is very enjoyable and worth playing on its own. Give it a rental to see if the gameplay agrees with you, and then decide on a purchase and online subscription from there.