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Monday20 November 2006
The universe of Phantasy Star has always been a unique one. Its refreshing sci-fi style breaks the swords 'n' sorcery RPG mould. Phantasy Star Online's networked approach, whichtranslated preset chat sentences into many languages allowing truly international gaming, was highly addictive and gave fans a reason to fall in love with the long-running series all over again.

But, no matter how stunning Phantasy Star Online was, gamers love single-player, story-driven RPGs. The intended solution was Phantasy Star Universe, which promised to contain both fully-realised story and online modes, to give fans everything they've ever wanted.

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Unfortunately, this isn't the case.

The first thing you have to understand about Phantasy Star Universe is that the story mode isn't up to speed - this is no Final Fantasy killer. For a game that covers three whole planets, it's a letdown that conquering the universe will take you about 20 hours.

Planet exploration is minimal - typically, there is one town and less than a handful of dungeons picked off a map screen. It makes it all seem small and limited, which is the polar opposite of what this 'universe' promises.

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