Back to the Past

About a week before Christmas Day, Phantasy Star Zero was released to the public in Japan. Recently Sega announced that the game will be localized for other regions. It should hit the shelves in Q4 2009.

Sega’s intentions with the game were to go back to the gameplay of Phantasy Star Online while keeping some useful mechanics from Phantasy Star Universe; they have really succeeded in this goal. Fans of Phantasy Star Online may recognize the three-slot Action Palette on the bottom screen. The symbols on the Palette each correspond to the face buttons on the DS. For instance, the far left symbol is mapped to the Y Button, the middle to the B Button and the right to A. If you press the R Button, the palette will change, giving you three more slots to use. All 6 slots may be customized however you see fit, giving a lot of variety to how you play the game.

Multiplayer Action

The basic gameplay consists of using your Action Palette to perform regular attacks and special moves to kill monsters and find items. You can play the game by yourself in story mode and do quests with NPC team-mates or play with up to three other human players through local wireless connection or over Wi-Fi. There are two modes of Wi-Fi play: one with friends and another where you can form a random party. When playing with friends, the visual chat feature allows you to draw or write messages for your friends using the stylus. This is pretty much the only application of the touch screen in the entire game, but that is not a bad thing.

All Techniques in the game (basically what would be called spells in other games) and regular attacks when wielding certain weapons can be charged by holding down their corresponding button until the symbol changes. This charged attack will have different effects. For instance a charged Resta (healing Technique) will heal you and your team-mates within a certain range, whereas the uncharged version will heal only yourself.

Getting Technical

Techniques are learned by finding or buying Disks of varying levels. For instance, finding a Foie (fire Technique) Level 1 disk will teach your character Foie at level 1. The higher level a Tech the more effective it is.

The only way to level up a Technique is by finding Disks of the higher levels. Unlike Phantasy Star Online, Techniques are only available in one tier, but a second tier can be used if you charge the Technique in your action palette.

Not only do you have Techniques at your disposal, but also a huge number of weapons. It is estimated that there are over 300 individual weapons in total in the game. The different types of weapons are Swords, Spears, Sabers, Double Sabers, Claws, Machine Guns, Handguns, Launchers, Rifles, Bazookas, Wand, Rods, Slicers, Shields, and Gunslashes.

Weapons can be upgraded in power using Grinders that you find during your adventures. Some weapons are also automatically linked to Photon Arts, which can be activated by holding the normal or power attack buttons until the symbol changes.

Robot Buddy for Life

Returning in this game also are MAGs, little robot friends who follow you around and increase your stats depending on their levels in different areas. You may feed your MAG just about anything from normal items to weapons and armor. It will increase different stats depending on the type of MAG and type and value of the item fed to it.

When your MAG evolves after reaching certain levels it also gains a Photon Blast, a powerful special move with varying effects. When the round meter to the left of your character’s health bar is full, you can hold down L+R to unleash the Photon Blast.

Conclusion

A lot of people were disappointed with Phantasy Star Universe, but Zero is no disappointment. There are a few very minor flaws, such as the D-Pad being difficult to use for 3D movement and the character creating leaving a lot to be desired. But gameplay-wise it seems to be a pretty solid title, and the online mode by itself should keep you playing the game for hundreds of hours.