Played the demo at TGS...

[4x4eyes]

Alright, so I played two of the three missions that were at TGS and so far, the game is pretty cool. The downside was that we were started right at the begining of the missions so there was no chance to explore Clad 6 or the rooms. But anyways....

-Mission Mode-

Tried out the new field where you fight the big four legged spider like mech boss. This guy is absolutely HUGE....you have to take out one of its legs to make its center core pop out, but even that can be a real chore when it's spinning all over the place.

The charge shot is pretty cool. It did some pretty good damage. The chain combos are gonna take getting used to though. Especially if you're playing multiplayer. I was playing it with a bunch of kids and they kept on interrupting my combos...I think. Might've just been me screwing it all up myself. But yeah, they'll take getting used to. Especially if you're gonna weapon switch for a combo finish.

The dodge roll is such a godsend. Pretty obvious what it does besides rolling through a laser fence, but it also helped a lot in battle mode which I'll get to in a bit.

Other than that, I didn't get to see anyone using a mirage blast or any of the new nanoblasts/SUVs. They showed them in the display video though. The SUV with the Cast jumping onto a Transforming Airboard was cool. Kinda reminded me of Eureka 7.


-Battle Mode-

I wanted to play this more than the Mission Mode. The Trampolines were fun. Jumping all around the place and such.

And it's cool to finally be able to play against each other competitively besides just Airboard Racing. The combat was still a little iffy and suffered from the same lock-on issues that the first one had, but this IS a demo version and hopefully they can fix this.

Blocking someone's attacks is a nice touch, but dodging the attack all together really helps.....if you can pull it off. Tapping the R button twice will make your character roll out of the way which was weird cause I thought that circle and R was the command...

After the demo was all said and done I got to meet Sakai and shake hands with him. I asked him if he was gonna work on Phantasy Star for the PS3 and he said "That's still quite a ways yet". It seemd like he was tired and didn't wanna talk to anyone, so I just left with my two Fanta Straps.

The demo was good and gave me a taste of what's in store. But I really wish they could've let me explore the colony and worlds a bit more.

Other than that, it's a cool game so far. Definately better than the first, that's a given. But by how much, we'll just have to wait and see.

Edit: According to the PSP2 Passport, a demo (which might or might not be the same one as the TGS demo) will be released in November and should (my kanji isn't really good) support character import from the first full version of PS Portable. And I think you also get the Exam saber for doing so as well. But if your character is made from scratch in PSP2's demo and THEN imported, you get an unknown rare item.

Another rare item will be attainable if you access Fanta's website. Also, there will be a mini-game somewhere where you can get a Fanta collectible for your My Room as well.

[WBMike]

Yes that is strange. Even that video showed Circle was the dodge rolling.

I like that, a boss strategy. PSU really needed stuff like this to make the bosses less boring. But I see where Sakai was reiterating to plan your Chain Combo Finishes, I think they really need to explain this concept to players before they jump into multiplayer.

[Amherst_Wind]

Nice! You should have opened the menu and looked at your Type screen though! XD

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that even a half competent group of players will be fine with the Chain system, the only problem will arise with people who are new to the game, but a little explanation will sort that out quickly hopefully.

[Ffuzzy-Logik]

I still think the chain system seems like a bad idea. Instead of finding ways to dissuade people from spamming PAs, they should have just balanced PAs properly so you'd have a reason to spam more than only two of them.

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

Thats pretty cool you met Sakai. He's really starting to grow on me. Well I just hope they add more interesting weapons.

[AzureBlaze]

All of this sounds really interesting!
I will be getting a used PSP just for this game. I've heard too much cool stuff in here to resist it. I wanted the first one but this...seems like an actual sequel type thing, like illum was.

My favorite phrase!
"I asked him if he was gonna work on Phantasy Star for the PS3 and he said "That's still quite a ways yet"

He didn't say NO! So there IS going to be some sort of Phantasy Star on the ps3! They're not giving up due to dismal days on psu now. They're not changing to portable only. YAY!

[Blueblur]

Thanks for the impressions, 4x4eyes.

[Mike]

Yes that is strange. Even that video showed Circle was the dodge rolling.

Perhaps it's something to do with the control settings. I can't wait to get my hands on at least the demo.

[Immovable One]

I'm currently playing the Japanese PSP1 demo and the circle and X were switched making the X be your item switch button. Seems they're keeping the same configuration with PSP2 (with the only change being that R is now used to block/parry).

Hopefully we get a demo of PSP2 BEFORE the release date.

[Akaimizu]

"The SUV with the Cast jumping onto a Transforming Airboard was cool. Kinda reminded me of Eureka 7."

Wow. That actually sounds almost exactly like Virtual On. Temjin has a special attack that's triggered by a forward dash and a turbo charge shot which makes him perform a psuedo homing super attack on his opponent. It basically transforms what would normally form into his cannon into a giant airboard which he jumps on, and flies towards his opponent.

So I wonder if it could be a possible Virtual On reference. (Cross advertising?)