It took me 20 hours, but I finished Phantasy Star Portable 2. Take that, stupid Kumhan! You and your stupid Light Attack that killed me 6 times until I realized it was blockable! It’s not just blockable but it’s his weakest attack once you block it. All those wasted attempts. Tch.
I was a bit sorry for Shizuru by the end though. As far as white-haired pretty boys go, he wasn’t so bad. See, this is why I hate possessed and mind-controlled bad guys so much. I tried hard not to get a good ending in the hopes that Emilia would die, but the better characters snuffed it instead. Tch again.
I did a couple of the open missions after finishing, and they were good. Really, really good. Most of the criticisms I made last time only apply mainly to Story Mode anyway. That’s where enemies scale to match your level so that grinding makes no difference and the stinginess of your teammates really hurts. But still, as much as my head knows it’s good, my heart just doesn’t have room for Phantasy Star Portable 2. I’d like to finish up today with a look at the things they got right and the few things they still need to fix up for the next game (which is no longer an auto-buy for me because I’m fickle as hell).
The stuff they got right
+ Lots of variety in story missions. Unlike open missions where you just run from point A to point B grabbing keys along the way, story missions require a lot of thinking and more than a little skill, especially if you want to A rank them. You don’t just have to grab keys, you also have to evade traps, decipher writing, protect facilities, activate switches, etc etc. Some of it was frustrating, but much of it was good.
Hello, ladies!
+ The story was pretty good. “These ghosts are going to take over our bodies and we’re all going to die! Unless we carry out this daring plan with a 0.005% chance of success, which is gamerspeak for 100%!” I like simple stories in my Action RPGs. Let’s me focus on the really important stuff, like massacring enough wildlife to give PETA a heart attack.
+ They threw in a couple of story-related sidequests which were even more interesting than the main plot.
+ I guess it wasn’t that hard after all. I mean, I did manage to finish it without too much trouble. And that final hit felt really good. Action RPG boss fights really are the best!
+ Lots and lots and lots and lots of weapons and armor to collect. Too bad the limited PP meant I only used twin sabers and double sabers all the way through. I thought this would be the game where I finally expanded my repertoire, but it wasn’t to be.
+ Even more fashionable duds for me to deck my dude out in. They even gave me a whole room to decorate!
+ No more slowdown in the battles. They worsened the loading times but once battles actually get under way it’s all smooth sailing. I doubly appreciate this because I’m playing a DS game called Ore ga Omae wo Mamoru right now and it has INCREDIBLY bad lag whenever more than 2 enemies show up on the screen. So thanks for doing it right, Sega.
The stuff they need to fix
– The stupid visual novel choices came back again. Just look at the screenshot on the right. Which one’s the right one? What makes one answer “right” and the other “wrong”? It’s even worse than in the first game because there are even more random questions and the right answers are even more ambiguous.
– Needs less annoying characters. Emilia and Lumia in particular. I give Shizuru a bit of a pass for being possessed, I mean, no sane man would willingly dress like that. Also this might be just me, but I’m already sick of the legacy characters from Phantasy Star Universe and stuff. More new guys, please.
– Not only did carrying my save bonus over give me crappy rewards, but my imported character didn’t look like my old character at all! They went and bishie’d him up and made him look all generic and JRPG-like. Do not want. It took a lot of work to make him look halfway hardcore.
– Visuals are brighter than before, but still kind of dark. I guess it’s a Phantasy Star thing.
And that’s it. Great game, but it never really “got” me in the heart. I probably expected too much after the first game blew me away. PSP2 is a better game all around, but without that advantage of surprise it was never going to overthrow its predecessor. I’d like to do all the open missions at least once before I shelve the game, but I’m kind of bored right now so maybe after a break. We’ll see.
Currently playing: Doki doki Suikoden, Ore ga Omae wo Mamoru, Summon Night 3.
Damn it,i will get this game cuz i played the first one,good stuff.You should try growlanser: wayfarer of time,for me at least is the best rpg on the psp library.40 ENDINGS !!!
You won’t regret getting PSP2. Apart from the wonky story, it’s way better than the first one.
I’m going to wait on Growlanser WoT for a bit, simply because I played the remake of the first Growlanser on the PSP, and I wasn’t crazy about the battle system at all.