PHANTASY STAR III2K

I should start this review by stating that I've never played Phantasy Star III, which this game is a remake of. As such, I can't judge how closely it resembles the original, so I have to judge it based on itself, and not compare it to the original.

That's not entirely true, I did watch a few clips of the Original, just to see a few differences between the two, and I was surprised at how much this game added. The story is fluffed out a bit, with much more dialogue and characterization. Some things that annoyed me about the game were actually present in the original, so perhaps it is too much of a recreation. There are extra mechanics, dungeons, and puzzles, but many of these are hit-or-miss with me. Let's break everything down.

Story: The overall story is fairly well taken from the original, and as I mentioned, more dialogue has been added. However, the plot is standard RPG fare, and the only surprise you're likely to find is cyborgs in a fantasy setting. Basically, your bride has been stolen from you on your wedding day by your people's enemy, the Layans, and you'll be damned if you're not going to get her back. The game starts off on one of the worst tropes ever, you're stuck in prison for all of 5 seconds before someone breaks you out. From there, you eventually go on to make some friends from all walks of life (5 heroes in all) and start to learn that there is a bit more to the legends of your world than you thought, and that the Orakians (your people) and the layans (your supposed enemy for 1000 years) are not so different - but this is hardly going to surprise you by the end. One really annoying aspect is that you can't quickly travel between the worlds of the game, and you have to backtrack a lot.

Verdict: Yawn.

Dialogue: as I mentioned, dialogue has been added. Actually, I would say that this is the game's strongest quality, with a few caveats. Everyone has quite a lot to say, and it's either amusing or relevant. The heroes are given many more lines, and never break character, or poke at the fourth wall for cheap humour. In general I found each of the characters quite likable. One thing I really appreciated was that when someone else in the party was talking to an npc, the hero sprite would change to them. However, it does have some problems. One, dialogue seems to drag on, the window closes after each person talks, and by the end of the game you'll be mashing to talk key trying to make the dialogue go faster. Secondly, I hope you paid attention to what the NPC said you needed to do, because he's not going to say it again.

Verdict: Enjoyable

Combat: First the good. An interesting system where enemies can be either Near or Distant, and only certain weapons and abilities hurt them respectively. Also, the cyborgs you recruit have equipable skills, with themes, so that person is always versatile, and can switch them out during combat. Now the bad. Most of the enemies are near, and you can easily get into a groove where all your weapons do damage to near enemies... and then you get into a fight against distant enemies and die. You can't run away normally unless you have the ability equipped. But running away takes mp, and isn't 100% successful. Exacerbating this problem is that the "switching skills" mechanic is buggy, and unless you did it right, you can be left without the ability to switch to the abilities that allow you to run. Also, and most egregiously, the attack skills you can find for your cyborg don't work. I had to fix them myself so i could use them.

Verdict: Starts interesting, but gets boring, and then frustrating, and finally, you just breeze through it.

Mapping, sprites: another bad point against the game - Some parts can be beautiful, but the beginning of the game is filled with mismatched sprites and passability. There are plenty of places you can walk where you shouldn't be able to, or sprites over top of other sprites. Character sprites are usually too large for the size of the hallways, but you won't notice. Finally, one negative is that there is a place you were supposed to learn a skill from, but can't because it's innacesible by bad mapping.

Verdict: not great, but you won't notice.

puzzles and minigames: One of the first dungeons has a puzzle that gets reused later, and you do not welcome its return. Later, the dungeons just seem to be more annoying than challenging. As for minigames, they've added in some nice pieces to the original: collecting items to sell back to NPCs for extra cash - which you will need ridiculous amounts of. There's also a lock picking minigame, which you only get access to at the end of the game, with chests all over the world you can unlock. The more chests and doors you unlock, the greater chance of success stealing has - but by that point, there's no need. Just something to fill time. Also, the lock picking minigame itself is rather boring, and too difficult. Finally, all over the world you can find diggable spots which yield identifyable relics which you can then use, which is a fun and great addition.

Verdict: if you're playing it from the Editor, you're going to be holding down that CTRL key like nobody's business.

While it may seem like this game is more bad than good, I don't think that's the case. While the game does get tedious, it isn't very long. The dialogue is sound, and the characters make you care about them quickly. The story won't wow you, with a few DUN DUN DUUNNN moments you see coming a mile away, and the mapping certainly won't impress you, but It's still a competent game with only a few real drawbacks.

Give it a try, but you won't be singing it's praises all the way home.