Hands On: Phantasy Star Portable

December 22nd, 2007, 23:50 Posted By: JKKDARK

via IGN

Phantasy Star Portable may have just been announced a few weeks back, but judging by what we saw today at the Jump Festa event in Tokyo, the game is quite far along in development. Sega put the game on playable display at the show, and we were sure to get in some play time before the typically long Phantasy Star lines developed.

Sega had the game set up for four player wireless co-op play in a classic Phantasy Star Online-style field environment. Each player was given a Level 25 character loaded up with a variety of weapons, including swords and sword/gun combos.

The field level was split into three large sections, loaded with enemies and gates to unlock. After clearing each section, we ended up at a confrontation with a giant red dragon boss.

The series' control scheme maps well onto the PSP. The analogue thumb pad is used to move your character around, with the d-pad for rotating the camera. Square performs your standard attack, or you can press triangle to perform your Photon Arts move. Pressing X brings up the weapon select chain for quick weapon changes. To toggle between sword and shooting mode when the appropriate weapon is selected, you press R. L is used to lock your character into strafing mode and center the camera. If you want a view of the surroundings, you can press select to enter a first person viewing mode.

Visually, PSP is looking like a solid port of the Phantasy Star Universe engine. The game runs smoothly, with just a bit of pop-up visible in the distance. It looks close-enough to its console counterparts that PSU veterans shouldn't have too many complaints in this area.

With a Japanese release planned for Spring, PSP looks like it could offer Japanese game players something to do once they tire of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. As evidenced by the millions of copies sold by that franchise on the platform, party-based combat games are one of the few genres PSP owners actually buy en masse here, so Sega has the potential for a hit if they load the game up with content.

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