1UP's Phantasy Star Zero Review

[Bearissoslow]

Am I the only person who enjoyed story mode? :<

You can like the story, but calling it good, in objective terms, is just wrong; this is not a direct response to you but meh.

My main grief with PS0 is that it was shoving story down my throat constantly. I got no chance to just enjoy a single player campaign for what it was without Sarisa or x character impeding the gameplay with shallow "development" (if that's even the correct term for it :l) and useless diatribe. PSO was good at making a fascinating story for fans like us because it was sparse in details. A good majority of PSO quests were focused more as chores and errands, rather than being story-driven. I honestly would not have liked PSO's story as much if it had been given me three-five annoying follow-you-around-every-quest characters that were weak and constantly reiterated points like "WHERE IS RED RING RICO THIS IS RUINS WHAT IS POUMN WHAT IS RICO TALKING ABOUT WHAT IS A DARK FALZ OMG". Doing this only bashes the player in the head with points that are best left up to simple observation or reading. This type of story-telling method is only useful if you have a short attention span or just cannot read in between the lines (arguably, the lines at all, as well).

PSO did its story right in that it never forced you to care about it. You could play around fine offline and online without even encountering the story that much. Plus, it had a much better premise than PS0. PS0's story comes off as cliched and shallow; it's something that I could've found at a Japan Anime dumpster. It's not only anime in appearance, but it's also got the shallow "I'M SARISA I'M DEVELOPING LOVE FEELINGS FOR YOU EVEN THOUGH YOU NEVER TALK AND WE'VE BARELY KNOWN EACH OTHER LOL TENTACLE RAPE JOKES LOL", along with very bad plot-holes (i.e. thatoneperson's "GO ON WITHOUT ME" moment). Everyone falls into the same stereotype and archetype of bland unoriginality, and this game would've been trash if it had not retained the PSO element of online gameplay with friends.

Switching gears, PSO's premise was fantastic, and the execution was nearly flawless for what it was. Your character is a hunter, working his way through quests and monsters alike. The mayor wants you to find more information about Ragol and possibly what happened to his daughter, Red Ring Rico. Along the way through your murderfests on Ragol, you find messages from an unknown source, giving you introspections in on the Pioneer 1-Ragol catastrophe, and even hints for how to survive against the monsters. As you go on, you start to realize that the source is none-other-than Red Ring Rico herself, and that she might still be alive. As you go through more and more areas, you start to learn more of her inner-psyche, and the messages turn into a sort of diary. At times, Rico shows relatable human emotion, and something that would not be far or distant from what the player may be thinking. She even tries to uncover what the past of Ragol might be, pointing and alluding to many important ideas, thus avoiding the pitfall of being only a Navi-esque character guide. She even goes so far as to recognize the very small chance of her survival, but still decides that she must live for those who died and to stop the ultimate power within Ragol. Throughout the entirety of PSO, she becomes the main building and driving force for the plot, and turns the game into a "I can't put this book down" type of story. We, the audience, even feel compelled to sympathize with Rico, being all alone in a post-apocalyptic planet full of monsters and death. We even meet her during the last quest, only to realize that it was a figment of Dark Falz's doing. It is then that it is implicitly shown that Rico failed; she died and fell prey to Falz. Perhaps it was me, but this did get me. I didn't cry, but I did feel a sort of sorrow for her. It was even more bitter when you go against Falz, only to see that Rico's figure has been downright mimicked on this huge beast for the first and second forms. When you beat both forms, Falz merely tosses the body aside, the shell that it was. Beating Falz's third form is quite possibly one of the most satisfying moments of PSO, only to know that your character has released Rico from her Nightmare-fuel torment and can rest.

Wall of text aside, some of you probably see my point. While there wasn't much on the surface of PSO, the story was founded, fueled, and fphenomenal (:l I needed a f word) because of its subtext. It didn't explicitly spell anything out for you, and a lot of what I acknowledged and said about PSO had to be inferred or thought about, as opposed to PS0 blatantly screaming it towards the player. It's more effective to have someone draw a conclusion rather than you write it slowly on a green chalkboard seven times and then ask someone to say it in Spanish.


I think I'm done with my wall of text.

[Bearissoslow]

Crap. No one's going to read that, are they?

[watashiwa]

along with very bad plot-holes (i.e. thatoneperson's "GO ON WITHOUT ME" moment).

CHECKMATE, GUYS...

[Eclipse5632]

PS0's story comes off as cliched and shallow; it's something that I could've found at a Japan Anime dumpster.

Why does everyone associate anime with shallow characters/plot? I guess I just don't watch bad anime or something. Maybe that's your problem. Stop watching bad anime. :|

I dunno. I think I kinda liked the story mode because even though it was shallow, it knew it was shallow and didn't try to pretend it wasn't. An example of something that wasn't deep but pretended to be would be Kamen Rider Den-O, though I doubt anyone here has seen that. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy a deep and involving plot as much as the next person, but realistically every game/show/etc. can't have one and sometimes I do enjoy the corny "YEAH BELIEVE IN YOUR FRIENDS AND YOU'LL SUCCEED" kinda thing (refer to GaoGaiGar).

Also, stop making fun of Sarisa. ;_;

What am I trying to say? I dunno. Probably just that my opinion's different than yours. I'm not a huge PSOfag or anything, but I did enjoy it quite a bit when I was playing it for GC and found out about SCHT Hack last year. While I liked the plot of PSO a lot, I didn't really recall...any of it getting resolved. At all. Maybe it's because I only played through Normal and didn't finish Episode II. Which "last quest" are you talking about? I have no recollection of ever meeting Rico or ever hearing anything about Dark Falz being her until I read stuff about it online (keep in mind it's been...quite a few years since I went through the story quests). If it was just one of those read-between-the-lines things, then it would be understandable that I didn't get it because I am patently god-awful at seeing symbolism and figuring out stuff that...well, isn't explicitly stated.

...I should probably stop writing this post before it ends up longer than yours.

/ramble

[jmanx]

This review is accurate. If we weren't busy being butthurt (no offense but seriously), most of his points are valid within this review. The single-player campaign is trash and mind-numbing after four hours, and the online gets beaten with a cane for having no lobbies and FCs instead. It's all on target.

That would be nintendo's fault and if there was lobby you would probably have to pay for it... I was pretty amazed you were able to add random people in game in friend mode.

[Kion]

Crap. No one's going to read that, are they?

I read it. Very good points.

Why does everyone associate anime with shallow characters/plot? I guess I just don't watch bad anime or something. Maybe that's your problem. Stop watching bad anime. :|

I agree that there are a lot of good anime. Unfortunately for every good anime, there are a million completely worthless rip off derivatives. To put things in perspective; PSo was like Cowboy Bebop. PS0 is like Tsubasa Chronicles.

[Akaimizu]

I think PSO had a decent plot, but I think it also falters under the same issues plenty of JRPG players have for many Western RPGs. Sad thing is, half the western RPGs that people say have little in story, have TONS of great story and things that aren't shoved down your throat. They also may have a lot of backstory that is written, but not presented in direct text in the game. Loads of work went into them.

However, it also requires people to *read* them. And/or do a lot of the non-essential plot stuff to get more story out of it. In Planescape Torment alone, you get the depth of story and plot devices within the first hour of play that most JRPGs do after their entire 20-30hr game. But does it get celebrated for story? Not so much, because people have to read it, and do things that aren't necessarily forced in a linear story structure. This is where I realized that there's a huge audience within the JRPG fanbase, in which if the story isn't spoon-fed to them, it isn't story.

Not that I'm saying this one was great. Many SEGA plotlines are a bit contrived, though their early games came out when that kind of stuff was fresh. However, I consider it was simple fun, made easy for anybody to understand, and brief in its telling of it. Which was much appreciated after the more long-winded aspects of PSU. One in which the story plot is just as contrived and ripped from anime, but your held more hostage while they tell it to you. I tend to like my Dungeon Hackers to be a little more hands-off with their story telling. Let me get back to fighting, quickly, unless it's really important. PSO did that pretty well, but alas the lack of spoon-feeding (which I think can make a better quality story for me) seems to be lost on so many people that it's scary. As much as one can enjoy how PSO did it, there's so many JRPG fans that'll come right up and say it had no story. And for the exact same reasons why they would say that about certain Western RPGs that did have a lot of story devoted to them.

(Good example. Elder Scrolls games are known for having novels of storywork simply just to support the plot lines in their games. A good point that many folks dismissing the story in those games don't even know squat about the stories in those game because they simply ignored them. As one goes through the Shivering Isle expansion, the player can look at events in it, and remember events that happened before they went there only to learn a whole lot about how Daedric Princes work, a bit about what rules they follow, and the true level of significance of what it meant for that King (at the beginning of Oblivion) to die and move the Age forward to a new time. His death caused a cascade of a lot of events that are actually felt across several realms and planes of existence. Those dismissing the story don't even know that. Not to mention, what it meant for all kinds of key players. It's a pretty awesome feeling when you start to figure things out. To keep this from spanning multiple pages, I'm not going to even talk about the lower layers of story-telling in it.)

So to sum up. Most of the issues of a simple and anime-contrived story line are simply ST trying to cater to as wide of an audience, within the JRPG fandom, as possible. While I don't think there's an argument here, I've seen both sides of the story discussion argument for some time now. However, I had to get used to the idea that sometimes companies make compromises made to attract the larger audience.

Anime and lots of Japanese games are treated like popular music and movies of late. Every once in a while a studio goes out on a limb, allows somebody to truly be creative, and a fresh hit comes along. Then everybody else plays it safe, by copying everything that was successful in the past (or remaking the past with a new coat of paint) in trying to make a buck. Trends and fads get started, and it spills over to other forms of entertainment.

[Kishiin]

I also believe that ps0 is simply a different flavor of storytelling. Yes, some may fault it by forcing the story at a cut scene , sometimes after each room of monsters at times, but that goes with medium. Not every DS player is going to sit down for extended periods of time, searching high and low for the ins and outs of the story. Spurts of information and story/character development is handed in the same spoon of gameplay, so in short gaming sessions, we can get some leveling/hunting done, and learn a little more and more about our party members and world around us. Unfortunately for those who are able to play for a couple hours on end will feel that everything about the story was shoved down our throats! When compared to PSO, it is night and day, because a players comprehension of the story depends on how much THEY want to search out to discover, as it was well explained a few posts above me.

I think the important thing to remember is to know what Zero is in the first place. It compacts a lot of the good ideas of past entries in the series onto a smaller medium. It succeeds in many areas alone, but due to hardware limitations, some concepts/ideas may have been cut or shortened to fit. In the process we do have a new PS game to play after all, and there's always room for improvement.

[Bearissoslow]

Why does everyone associate anime with shallow characters/plot? I guess I just don't watch bad anime or something. Maybe that's your problem. Stop watching bad anime. :|

I dunno. I think I kinda liked the story mode because even though it was shallow, it knew it was shallow and didn't try to pretend it wasn't. An example of something that wasn't deep but pretended to be would be Kamen Rider Den-O, though I doubt anyone here has seen that. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy a deep and involving plot as much as the next person, but realistically every game/show/etc. can't have one and sometimes I do enjoy the corny "YEAH BELIEVE IN YOUR FRIENDS AND YOU'LL SUCCEED" kinda thing (refer to GaoGaiGar).

Also, stop making fun of Sarisa. ;_;

What am I trying to say? I dunno. Probably just that my opinion's different than yours. I'm not a huge PSOfag or anything, but I did enjoy it quite a bit when I was playing it for GC and found out about SCHT Hack last year. While I liked the plot of PSO a lot, I didn't really recall...any of it getting resolved. At all. Maybe it's because I only played through Normal and didn't finish Episode II. Which "last quest" are you talking about? I have no recollection of ever meeting Rico or ever hearing anything about Dark Falz being her until I read stuff about it online (keep in mind it's been...quite a few years since I went through the story quests). If it was just one of those read-between-the-lines things, then it would be understandable that I didn't get it because I am patently god-awful at seeing symbolism and figuring out stuff that...well, isn't explicitly stated.

...I should probably stop writing this post before it ends up longer than yours.

/ramble

The last quest I was referring to was "From the Depths". You meet her in the iconic large room in Ruins 2.

[Aziel]

The last quest I was referring to was "From the Depths". You meet her in the iconic large room in Ruins 2.

And here I was thinking you were talking about killing Falz with a hacked Dark weapon.

However, I'll just side with the whole "appealing to a larger audience," thing. I mean, come on, we got tentacle rape and loli in one shot--that's got to attract a certain group of people.

I don't really have a tactful way to implement this into my post, so I'll just say it. "GO ON WITHOUT ME"
God, what a horrible plot hole. Granted, it was nowhere near as terrible as the 534608484 plot holes that PSO had that users had to compensate for with their imaginations.