Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Title says it all. Last year I bought it and I wasn't thrilled at all. Awkward camera, long loading times, and many more problems caused me to sell it after only a week of playing. Ironically, the trailers got me hyped for the game but I didn't have a ps3 or 360 when this came out.
Recently I've began to think that I was rather harsh on it, so today, I decided to buy it again (this time for 360 instead of PS3 as it was cheaper) and give it an extra chance since I didn't get very far before I sold it.

What did you guys think of the game, assuming that you've played it of course, was it great or just meh?

I never played it, but I've heard a lot of negative opinions about it. In fact, I can't recall ever seeing someone say they enjoyed it. Lots of people have camera complaints, for instance. Are you liking the game this time around?

I tried, I REALLY TRIED HARD to like it just a little bit. Upon buying it, I thought to myself "Everyone must be exagerating, this cannot be so awful, I love pretty much all Sonic games".

What a BIG mistakes it was.

The loading...you think it must not be so bad. But let me give you a run down of what it is.

You see some guy on the map, you go talk to him, and accept his mission.
20 seconds load time
The guy talk to you about the mission
20 seconds load time
You start the mission, and let's imagine you fail.
20 seconds load time
The guy told that's too bad, and does not even give you a chance to retry
20 seconds load time
You're back on the map, and have to redo all those loading to even try again.

And this is just a tiny exemple, the game will load EVERYWHERE!!! Sometimes more than 20 seconds. You'll wish to die, believe me.

Next, Sonic...he's not fast. At all! He's really slow compared to every others games you've played. Except in one phase where Sonic always run in a straight line, and you can't control him except left or right, or by jumping. And those scene have really awkward controls. You'll die without understanding why.

And let's not talk about all the bugs that will litteraly kill you all the time (passing through floor, falling in a loop-de-loop, etc...)

And lastly...oh my god...the REALLY...REAAAALLLYYY disturbing love relationship between Sonic and this human princess...I'm still traumatized to life for of this scene in the grass field....and...the...final...resurection...KISS!!! This is really not normal!!! What was going on in Sonic Team????

Pfiou...ok, the rant is over. I'll give the game one good point. Silver. His stages, they were awesome. In fact cut the loading, do the game all in the post-apocalyptic world with only Silver and his telekynetic power, and call that "Silver the Hedgehog". Now that would have been awesome.

But as it stands, this game is the very reason why everyone is so affraid every time a new Sonic game come out. The fact that Yuji Naka left company during the development of it is a good sign of the horror to come. So people, don't fall in the same trap as me. Believe everyone. This game is really AS BAD as they say!!!

I thought this was the game where he kissed a human girl. That is...just....creeeeeepy. >_< And yes, thanks to this, and of course the 'Werehog' in Sonic Unleashed, I'm afraid to touch any new Sonic games that come out.

So sad, since I loved the Genesis games as a kid.

I agree with everything you said xellos, even after trying the game out a second time. I managed to get a lot farther this time (I actually beat it with Sonic) and I was even thinking about finishing the game but now, well, I'm gonna sell it again, the camera and controls make the stages VERY frustrating and sometimes I just wanna break my controller. And of course the loading times, but I've installed it onto my xbox hard drive which slightly reduces the loading times (it's barely noticeable though). Oh yeah another thing, I'm spoiling the end: the events of the game were erased so it never happened, which contributes to the already stupid story. The Nostalgia Critic would probably call this a Big-Lipped Alligator Game, cause nothing was accomplished, EXCEPT FOR DAMAGING SEGA AND SONIC'S REPUTATION, THAT IS!!!

The game has some interesting things though, namely Silver's stages, some parts of Sonic and Shadow's stages (by some I only mean like 1 or 2 each), and the music.

I've heard that this game was rushed to be released in time for both Christmas and Sonic's 15th anniversary, one example of this is that there's an unused item that could let you play as Super Sonic in normal stages, it's still in the game, but it doesn't work. It's really sad, if they actually took their time with this one (i.e. fix the glitches, improve load times, ect.) then it could've had a lot of promise.

On a side note, I bought Sonic 4 on the iPhone last night so I'm gonna try that right now

It took guts, but I beat the last story before I sold it, just so I never get the horrible urge to try this game ever again, but I will miss Silver's stages though, at least the ones where the camera didn't kill me...

At least you can say that you did finish it. It always bugs me to think of a game I bought but never finished.

somewhat off topic, but I wonder how Sonic Generations will handle 2006's featured stage. In case some people have never seen the leaked level list from the demo, I'm not gonna spoil it here, but here's a hint
tHaT tOrNaDo Is CaRrYiNg A cAr!

*sigh* that modern era trailer and the Rooftop Run demo can't come soon enough
UPDATE: Crisis City officially confirmed!

http://www.sonicretro.org/2011/10/moder ... ern-times/

I wonder how tHaT tOrNaDo WiLL CaRrY tHe cAr now. And Planet Wisp looks awesome too.