I wrote a Phantasy Star II review a couple years ago.

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I wrote a Phantasy Star II review a couple years ago.

Postby Espiga » Thu Jan 28, '10, 3:55 am

Clicking! (Beware of spoilers)

Anyway, the reason I'm making this post is because it's been a while since I wrote a review for a game, but my recent experience with Phantasy Star 0 has gotten me in the mood to pen my opinion of it.

So, any opinions or criticism I could get would be great. <3

PS: I noticed you have a "Reviews" section on the forums but that seemed reserved for reviews of the Fanfiction on the site. If I posted this in the incorrect spot, please accept my apologies. ; ;
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Re: I wrote a Phantasy Star II review a couple years ago.

Postby Thoul » Thu Jan 28, '10, 9:48 pm

No worries, you posted this in exactly the correct place. :)

It's an excellent review. While reading it, I was reminded a lot of the articles I used to read in Electronic Gaming Monthly back in the 1990s. You have a very similar style to those professional writers, which is a good thing.

There are only two things I would critique in the review. First is the repetition of "pass him off" in the first paragraph. It's a minor thing, but that would have felt more natural to me if you had used something else the second time. Perhaps something like "...mistaken to simply dismiss him as such" would be better,

Second, I think you may have spoiled a little too much of the game. Not by much, though. This goes back to the way the review reminds me of magazine pieces; they would give just enough details to hook someone into being curious of the story while not letting too much slip, so that the reader would want to play the game to experience it. I think you said a little too much about the Darum scene and the death scene, that it might rob the first time player of some of the experience. It's a very fine line to walk and while your review doesn't stray too far over the line, it does go there a little bit.
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Re: I wrote a Phantasy Star II review a couple years ago.

Postby Espiga » Fri Jan 29, '10, 12:11 am

Thanks for the comments. This is the first time that redundancy has been brought to light, and I'm pretty surprised I didn't notice it the several times I looked it over!

And I know what you mean about me giving away some fairly important story details. I think the biggest problem I had was that I was trying to go for an emotional hook, and with older RPGs you generally have to dig deeper for information to work with since they're not filled with a Bible's worth of text and mired in melodrama like most of today's RPGs are.

My biggest challenge with writing a Phantasy Star 0 review will be simply making it stand out. While it's definitely a solid game, it doesn't really do anything that's absolutely spectacular, like Phantasy Star II, IV, or even Online did back in 2000. It just feels like a more polished Phantasy Star Online with different areas and worse online play. To that end, I'm going to have a harder time writing and keeping people interested while still keeping a tone that implies that the game is actually enjoyable for the right audience.

Wish me luck! ; ;
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Re: I wrote a Phantasy Star II review a couple years ago.

Postby Espiga » Sat Feb 6, '10, 8:19 am

Doublepost!

Well, my new review for Phantasy Star 0 has just been approved.

Check it out!

Unfortunately, it was a hard game to write about because unlike PS2, the characters and events through the game weren't nearly as touching. Oh well...
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