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
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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.”
We didn’t because we don’t want you to suffer. Suffering’s our job. And no matter how hard we tried, it wouldn’t have been accurate enough. After all, if you got tired of it, you could always skip to the end of our review, and that’s the one thing you can’t do when playing Phantasy Star.
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.
