Phantasy Star Portable is a Japanese game that can be played on any US PSP, since they are region free, and is a great pickup for any fan of the series. It picks up in the same style and gameplay as Phantasy Star Universe for the Xbox 360 and was recently one of the top games purchased in Japan.

Graphically, the PSP version of Phantasy Star is pound for pound equivalent to its Xbox 360 brother. Monsters look very good and behave the same way as the console version and boards are almost exact ports of the console maps. The sound in the game is classic Japanese style with Japanese voices yelling and speaking. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand a word they said, but it didn’t impact my playing one bit.

The story is 100% in Japanese, so I could not tell you if it was good or not, but after playing hundreds of hours on Phantasy Star for the Gamecube, Xbox and Xbox 360, I can tell you that I never really read the story in English either. The hardest part is figuring out the different places you need to go, but once that is done, the Japanese characters don’t even matter anymore.

The game breaks its different levels, armor, and weapons into different classes: S, A, B, and C ranks, C being the lowest and S being the highest. As you progress through the different planets and level your character, the more difficult ranks will unlock and allow you to play through and get more advanced loot for your character. Most of the fun in Phantasy Star is finding new weapons and to use on different mobs.

Gameplay is simple; you walk using the analog stick, you shoot/attack using the square and triangle, and strafe using the left trigger. You also can make a team of players to assist you in your battles (up to 3). Unfortunately, just like the console version, you do not control the AI that comes along with you and they will end up dead. Fortunately, his will not affect your rank at the end of each level. You also get ranks at the end of each level to build your specific class: hunter, magician, ranger, etc.

One huge difference from the portable version to the console is that it only supports Ad Hoc play and the rate at which you gain experience and rare items is much more accelerated. The faster leveling makes the game more fun as you can quickly rush through stages on the go and build up a decent character with special weapons, instead of spending hundreds of hours and having crappy ones.

Phantasy Star also breaks its monsters and weapons into elementals: Fire, Ice, Dark, Light, Lightning, and Ground. Each one offsets the other so that a Fire weapon is good against an Ice monster and a Light weapon will give you bonus damage against a Dark monster. Using this dynamic and coupling it with the different styles of weapons that range from melee daggers, swords, and whips to magical wands, staffs, and fans to the ranged bows, machine guns, shotguns, and even grenade launchers. Some special weapons are very comical in nature as I recently discovered a pair of sabers that resembled meat on a bone and a grenade launcher that looked just like a teapot. Sega did a good job of injecting classic weapons along with some innovative and very different ones as well.

Bottom line is this is a fantastic game and, if Sega is reading this, they need to launch this in North America as soon as possible. Phantasy Star Portable is an addictive game that will have you playing for hours on end or until your PSP battery drains. Do not let the fact that it is in Japanese deter you from importing this classic for your PSP or you can hope that Sega brings it over like they did Monster Hunter, which this blows away.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10 (Mostly because of lack of online play)

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