Should I get this?

[Konaru]

Ok, I have played PS0, and that was my fist Phantasy Star game, and Im addicted. At first I had planned on buying an Xbox 360 to play PSU, but I rembered this game. SI went and read some reviews, but they didnt make this game sound all the best. I was wondering, Should I buy a PSP to play this game? And If I do should I get Phantasy Star portable 1 or 2?

And I have been wanting to buy a psp anyways, just never had a real reason

Thank you in advance

[ashley50]

get it.

[Konaru]

Ok, im guessing PSP2?

[Wash]

I'm also getting a PSP mainly to play the Phantasy Star Portable games, my plan being to get the first one and play that until the second one is released in America. If you have never played PSU (or quit it early into the release as I did, not experiencing the cooler content), then that should work out because you can burn a LOT of time into just one character, so yeah.

I'd definitely say get a PSP for the first PS:P, and if you know Japanese, or are willing to translate everything (there are places with every translation, so it's doable) then get PS:P2. Otherwise yeah I'd say just stick to the first one: if you are addicted to PS0 then even the first PS:P will be like crack (well, in a good way haha).

[ashley50]

yes...it's much better.

PSP2 is ONLY in JP atm so you have to import it...

if language barrier is a problem(which im sure it is), just wait for its localization here.

[Konaru]

Well language isnt a problem, if other people can play it in japanese, I figure It wont be hard, but should I play the first one in english to learn the controls, or just lear to play with 2?

[Wash]

I think you are underestimating how annoying/difficult translating everything is going to be lol: many importers here have imported games in the past and have experience in Japanese. Also, people who have played PSU/PS:P kinda know what's what and can remember what some of the items say (they would know what they actually need to translate; whereas someone new to the game would have to translate everything to get a feel for what's going on), so it's not as bad; for someone fresh in the PSU/PS:P universe it'd be very tough (it's a lot different from PS0 in terms of gameplay). The controls are veryyyyy easy to understand, so you wouldn't need a whole game to set up for the sequel. However, I advise getting the first one anyway because like I said, it is very different from PS0, and it'll take some getting used to the different mechanics, class, and weapon system.

Bottomline, get the first one haha (if anything else just to see if you even enjoy the play style, I'm sure you will but it is a little bit more involved than PS0). After some (and you'll drain many hours into it I'm sure haha) gameplay you'll get used to it and you can decide whether translating everything will be a problem or not.

[Enshroud]

I was a PSO addict and never played PSU. I had no problems massing hours in the first game when it was just released in Japanese, and obviously this one isn't a problem for me either. If you don't mind not being able to read everything and needing to use some time to look up online/test things out such as certain drops then by all means get it.

[Izuna]

In Japanese we have this alphabet called KATAKANA. If you learn how to read that, you should be fine with item names and so on. There are a few KANJI (Chinese characters) needed for the status information.

The get the best idea of how it is, play the Special Trial Version.

If you're not interested in the story, (or you're okay with reading a summary of the stories), then I recommend playing PSP2.
PSP1 does not have an infrastructure mode (online play). PSP2 has dodging, shields, and discs just like PSZ/O.
There are more levels the chain system from PSZ is in this game too. I think you'll have an easier time getting used to PSP2 than PSP1. PSP1 is just a port of PSU: AotI. If you want to know how PSP1 plays, try the free PSU demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

[landman]

Most items you need to read are monomates and dimates, and they always appear in the same order in the menu, so I barely read anything while playing, everything has an icon, and everything has a preferent order, I know what Mirage Blast I'm selecting because I know in what order they appear in the menu