Phantasia 5

Preamble
Although this game is last in the Phantasia series (as of this review), it's the first one I've personally played.
J-man's reputation is known far and wide for his buggy games with mediocre dialogue, so rather than tracing the evolution of his skills, I decided to plunge straight into the most recent culmination of his ability.
The verdict? Read on.

Visual: 4.5/5
Phantasia 5 uses a mixture of sprite rips from the Star Ocean and Tales series plus custom work of it's own, using said rips as a basic template. Doing so borrows an existing graphic flavor while avoiding the fatal flaw of using a pre-existing party by another set of names. A wise decision.
As the custom work goes, J-man is a capable spriter, though not perfect. Some of the overworld sprites are shaded differently which causes them to jut out when moving among the rest of the world's population. It's a minor grievance though. The game is still easy on the eyes.

Also, there are cutscenes. One was a nice touch. The second was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect many more but they're actually peppered throughout the game in a lot of the pivotal, and non-pivotable but cool anyway, moments. Some of the character's anatomy could use some touching up, but the added charm effect these have is immeasurable. Bravo!



Sound: 1/5
Some of the BGM works, and some of it doesn't. That's just my personal opinion though, and doesn't count.
What does count is the abysmal quality found in some of the tracks.
11kHz mp3s in this day and age? Is that wav file monaural? Several of these tunes have blatant static in them! It's not like this is a file size-saving measure gone horribly wrong, because a few 10+MB songs are tucked in there. Quality Control was asleep at the switch here.

Then there was more than one instance of there being no BGM at all. I, in my flagrant disregard for the sanctity of another's project, opened it up in RM2k3 to investigate. Turns out the map/battle calls for a BGM that isn't there, or had since been renamed. So off I went to fight a climactic battle that should have been embellished with an exciting decisive battle BGM, but instead listened to the sound of my room's humidifier whirling. There was a car alarm too, a la the curse of living next to a Tim Hortons.

Storyline: 2.5/5
Spikey haired hero Dirk and obligatory best-bud Maxwell set off on a journey to help staff chick Cara and stoic mercenary Rufus complete their ambiguous quest. Meanwhile, a non-RTP guy based on an RTP guy goes around dealing 9999 damage to everything for 2MP. There's also a dual-identity character who immediately becomes unrecognizable when she puts on her hat.
If you were to make a drinking game out of each jRPG cliche you came across, you'd be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning in the first 10 minutes. Liberal use of tropes isn't entirely a bad thing though. It brings with it approachability, familiarity, and comfort. It all feels like old hat, making it easy to settle in and watch the characters' struggles unfold in their small world of Gaia.

Did I mention that previous Phantasias had reportedly sketchy dialogue? I'm glad to say that's mostly in the past. "I seen" a few grammar errors here and there, but nothing noticeably detracting.

Problems arise in the form of bugs, bugs, and bugs.
It's impossible to immerse yourself because you're always on the precipice of a game-breaking glitch. Just as you're getting cozy and into it, you go someplace you weren't supposed to and a cutscene from 5 gameplay hours ago activates. Well, I have no idea what switches and variables this is going to mess up, so the best course of action is to immediately exit the program and load my previous file. POOF! There goes my escapism.

Gameplay: 2.5/5
For the most part, the game plays out as standard 2k3 fare. It uses the default menu and battle systems with a few cosmetic tweaks to vary it up, plus a touch-encounter system. MP comes in small quantities, but recharges during combat so you don't have to hoard until the boss. Equipping certain items will alter your character's stat growth upon levelups (which is easily exploited by anybody who knows 2k3 algorithms).
Mixing up the attack skills a bit, each character has both a powerful 10MP combo move and a theoretically uber super move that can only be used I-don't-know-when. Seriously, I couldn't use any of the supers once during my entire playthrough. The expensive combo moves only work half the time because, you know, bugs.

More egregiously, Phantasia 5's playable cast is too damn large. There's no incentive to maintain everybody's levels on par, not that you could anyway. If a perfectionist player dared to do so, Dirk, being non-removable, would be a gajillion levels beyond everybody else. So apart from the instances where a party member you counted on temporarily leaves, you're better off just sticking to a set crew.

And true to the reputation of games made by J-man, there are passability issues galore. They are the bane his craft, to the point where a running joke exists on the subject. These gaffes honestly aren't too troublesome though, as long as the player respects presumed boundaries. They can even be helpful in certain situations.



Overall: 3/5
It's a fine piece of work, harkening back to ye olde SNES days. Popular tropes are used unapologetically with a couple of "didn't see that comings" included to mix it up. If that's what you've had a hankering for lately, you've found it.
Just... don't mind the bugs.