Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus review

It clearly doesn't want to be an astronaut

Reviews
By published

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Easy to pick-up-and-play

  • +

    Fast-paced

  • +

    action-RPG style

  • +

    Reminiscent of Gauntlet

Cons

  • -

    Incomprehensible cutscenes

  • -

    Frustrating camera

  • -

    Little in-game help

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus proves there’s room for a faster paced, action-RPG approach to the MMO. After playing it... well, there’s still room.

This Guild Wars-esque RPG game was going to receive the concept review to end all concept reviews. We were going to blather on for 450 words in a semi-kooky fashion, never getting to the point or being entertaining in any meaningful way. And then we were going to end saying “And that’s pretty much what watching a Phantasy Star cutscene is like.”

Latest Videos From

At its best it’s like a modern descendant of the jump-in kick-ass collect-stuff joy of arcade-classic Gauntlet. There are two modes. The Offline Story mode has you and NPC chums working through a direct continuation of where the previous game left off, although you can jump in here with a new character if you want.