Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

The game's only been out less than a week, so info is pretty scarce. I'm stuck on one of the bosses and have been wondering if anybody else is currently playing PSZ. The boss in question is the second form of Trinity, which seems relentlessly brutal, especially after such a breezy dungeon. Any help would be appreciated!

I'm waiting for the English version. From what I've read, there's no English support in the Japan release, unlike PSOnline. That's a major stumbling block for me.

Yeah, PSO was such a huge deal for Sega at the time that it was localized in tandem with development for a universal launch. With PSZ, Sega is more or less targeting a market that is really only big in Japan.

It's really not so bad. The game is perfectly playable with a basic understanding of hiragana/katakana. I followed the plot for the first few hours, translating on the fly, but this slows things down considerably. I started skipping scenes when it became apparent that it's just more animu garbage. Now I'm focusing on the dungeon crawling and loving every minute of it.

Has an English release been confirmed? I might be tempted to play through again by the time one arrives. I've been buying both the Japanese and English releases of most Dragon Quest games for the past four years as they're released, and it's kind of a neat way to get back into a game you thought you'd gotten tired of.

It hasn't been confirmed as of yet. If they don't announce one within a few months, I may go ahead and buy the Japan version. It's hard to predict what will happen here. They are bringing over the PSP game, but several months late. I think they might do the same with this.

Well in a previous post I stated that I saw somewhere that they're going to release it over here in America. Now after saying that I could not find the article I was looking for and thus am awaiting the wrath of Thoul for not providing proof. Although I'd like to say that at my local Gamestop I saw in the release book PS Zero but then again who knows how true that information really is....

So does it remind you more of PSO Pitohui?

I've never played PSO so PSZ is gonna be a new PS experience for me. When I can get a copy of the english release of course. It looks promising though I seen some vids on youtube for it an it has anime cut-scenes which look pretty darn sweet in my opinion.

It is so awesomely close to PSO. It's really redeeming for Sonic Team, what with the trainwreck that was PSU. I really think they're trying to get back to their roots. Honestly, it's exactly what you'd expect if they shrank PSO down to fit on the DS. It's amazingly refreshing.

For example, the gameplay is nearly identical. Weapons, combo timing, everything. Even the item boxes mimic PSO, right down to the red-box rares. I cannot overemphasize how close PSØ is to PSO. Granted, the game is a bit graphically limited by the DS. I fully admit that the PSP's Phantasy Star Portable looks absolutely amazing compared to PSØ. The difference is that PSØ is based on the nigh-infallible PSO, while Phantasy Star Portable is based on the abortion we call PSU. But I may be biased. I picked up a used copy of PSU for ¥980 and feel that I was ripped off, so that should tell you how I feel.

Really, I feel like a gushing fanboy restating it so many times, but PSØ is the next PSO if ever there would be one. It's a bit shrunken down, the visuals are a bit jagged, but the spirit is there. And the spirit is what's important!

I'm not such a big anime fan myself (I'm not really into the art style of PSØ at all) but I have to admit that the anime cut scenes in the game are pretty rad.

The one gripe I would have is with the weapon types. There's too many of them! With most of the weapons in PSO being photon iterations of the classic melee arsenal, coming across a medieval cutlass or handaxe was totally *. And hunting for rares like the Photon Claw or Double Saber is what kept me hooked so many years. But all of these are available right from the start in PSØ. I've found one rare so far (the Twinkle Star staff) but my HUcast can't equip it, so I'm not sure how it differs from the PSO version if at all. I'm sure the game has its own * rares, but it's kind of hard to top the curved double saber I'm using right now. And yes, they are still near-broken six-hit murder machines. The one I've found has a 49% Machine affinity and is presently mowing down autonomous enemies with a cold and ripping efficiency.

Yep after reeding what you just wrote pitohui I'm definitly looking forward to Phantasy Star Zero. By the way I understand why you felt ripped-off buying PSU. I bought it second hand from EB games for $29.95 AU considering brand new it was worth $59.95 AU sure the game is okay but I think the storyline is kinda predictable after a while and the ending was very...short and I pretty much played 38 hours of my life away to see a kiss scene I was hoping for something a little more exciting and involving all the characters. But I have high hopes for PSZ.