Gaming Review

[2010DigitalBoy]

I want to start a thread where people submit their reviews. I usually submit my reviews to GameFaqs, heres one i submitted and they accepted. Please, give me good reviews, if they suck, I wont know if the game is good or not...

This is a review for Phantasy Star Online Episodes One and Two for the Nintendo Gamecube. There have been four other Phantasy Star games, all made by Sega, most of which can be found on the Phantasy Star Collection on the Game Boy Advanced. It may be important to know that I do not have the online version of this game, and I haven?t completed Episode 2 yet, but that doesn?t mean I don?t like the game? and now my review of Phantasy Star Online Episode One and Two.

This is one of my top five all-time favorite Gamecube games. The game play is great. You play dozens of mission given by the hunter?s guild, and level up from killing enemies. You can equip up to six weapons at a time. There are hundreds of different weapons and armors you can buy and use depending on your level. There is a color system for weapon strength, and many of the weapons have special effects. There are also a whole bunch of upgradeable magic spells, all which depend on your stats. Mostly your character class determines your stats. Any human can use magic, and robots use traps. Your character class determines your MP meter, your HP meter, and which weapons you can use. This game brings several innovations to the table, and has some features you just won?t find in most offline gaming. The style is a lot like Sword of Mana in the fact that it?s an action RPG, and you sometimes get partners that follow you around. Also like Sword of Mana, you have a meter that fills up a little more with every hit, and when it fills you can use your Mag?s special ability, the Photon Blast. Oh, yeah, the Mags. The Mags are tiny things that float over your head. You can make them grow, evolve, and learn new Photon Blasts by feeding them certain items. While these Mags are great, they can be confusing and complicated. You won?t be using the things too often, because it is very difficult to fill up the meter, and they?re so complicated to use, they?ve earned their own strategy guide on the Game FAQs. All this may sound very confusing, but the game is actually very easy, and won?t take very long to get used to, especially if you read the FAQ and know what your doing. The one player mode game play is very fun, so I give that part a 7/10, and the game play of the multi mode ears a solid 10/10. This games game play earns a 9/10.

There isn?t much story in this game. What there is, the characters tell you in little voiceless speech bubbles. You can find a lot of the plot in the missions, and things unravel through each NPC?s own story. As you complete missions, and the NPC?s get more information, you earn more levels, revealing new plot innovations and new monsters. With they?re not being much of the story, it?s hard to review, but I give it a not-so-great 6/10.

The graphics are nothing amazing, but nothing to laugh at. There are no cinema scenes in this game, so FMV fans should walk away. The character customization is great. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of different costume combinations you can choose. The characters aren?t super detailed, but they?re cool enough to make you want to play. While they aren?t great, the backgrounds and environment are uber-detailed. There is lots of extra pointless stuff that just makes the experience better. The weapons look cool, and the spells are well done. The one thing that really could have been improved is the mag summoning. It seems like they tried to pull a Final Fantasy with the whole monster summoning thing, but it came off as a horribly ugly experience. I give the graphics a solid 7/10.

The sound is great. The background is a combo of all sorts of weird sci-fi-ish tracks. The main menu has great techno and sci-fi tracks. The main theme, ?a whole new world,? is pretty good, and very epic sounding, but sounds too much like that annoying Aladdin song. The weapon noises are good. The guns have a basic bang noise, and the swords sound like light sabers. The magic sounds the best though, because the noises match the elements used in the attacks. When an enemy is hit, it basically makes a crash noise. Nothing too special. The charge attacks sound cool, though, so I give the sound a 7/10.

This game is long. It takes at least 15 to 20 hours to beat Episode One and I haven?t even beaten episode 2 yet. But this is also a curse on one player mode. There aren?t very many levels, so playing one player missions will send you through a lot of the same places and a whole lot of the same battles. Also, sometimes you advance to the next stage before you?re at a high enough level. While this can get old fairly quickly, two-player mode will help your level, but I?ll discuss that in the next section. The playtime gets a good 8/10

This game has an insane replay value. The two-player mode won?t get old until it?s over. My friends and me have had more marathons here than any other games. It never gets old, because you always want to level up to get the new, cool items. Playing with your friends is a blast, because you can use great teamwork combinations to get the job done right. The only problem is, while your character data always saves, no matter how far you get in multimode, the game will send you back to forest one, that is until you beat the level in one player mode. Overall this game has a 10/10-replay value.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys online play. If you like multiplayer battles and you don?t really care about a little bit of repetitively, you will definitely like this game. I give it an 8/10.

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