Phantasy Star Portable 2

As I said in my intro post, I'm a huge fan of the Phantasy Star series. I remember playing the original games on the old school systems, and I've loved the recent games that have come out in the series, such as: Phantasy Star Online, Phantasy Star Universe, Phantasy Star 0 (Zero), and Phantasy Star Portable.

Phantasy Star Portable is easily my favorite game to come out on the Playstation Portable. I've played that game more than any other RPG I can think of. (World of Warcraft not included.) The game played a lot like Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) and took place in the same universe. You had the same races and classes to choose from and could visit the same planets. But, where PSU was an MMORPG, Phantasy Star Portable was more of a single player game. The game did have a multi player option, but it was only an Ad-Hoc multiplayer. (Ad-Hoc means that you could only play with people in the same room as you. There was no online play available for it.) But, for me, that was enough. I loved the game when it came out and still do to this day.

So, you can imagine my excitement a couple years ago when I heard they were making a sequel. But, that excitement quickly turned to dismay when I found out that there wasn't a US release date for the sequel. It was released in Japan quite a while ago, and I've been watching for a US release date ever since. But, it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that my dreams came true. SEGA has announced a US release date for Phantasy Star Portable 2! Game Stop has the release down as sometime in September of this year (2010). I've got my copy reserved already and I can't wait for it to get here.

My expectations are pretty high for this game. I can only hope that they make it better than the first. (Which, in my mind, is going to be hard to do.) I can hardly find anything I don't like about the first game, so I'm hoping SEGA doesn't screw up the second. There's just a few things that I'm really hoping are in the second game that weren't in the first.

First; in PSU, you had a storage box in each of your character's rooms that allowed you to transfer items between the characters. It was great because I was able to send fancy items from characters that couldn't use them to a character that could. Phantasy Star Portable got rid of that option, much to my dismay. I'm really hoping they find a way to bring that back in the sequel.

Second; I'd really like to be able to play online with people all over the world instead of just with the people in the room with me. Mostly because I'm not sure how many people I know will be buying the game. I've heard rumors that there will be an Online Multiplayer mode, and I'm really hoping they turn out to be true.

The third thing I'd like to see isn't really a change, it's more of an addition; I'd love it if they added a new race or a couple new classes. If they don't, maybe they could make it possible to level each class higher than level 10. And I wouldn't complain if they added a few new weapon types in there. Again, if they don't, they could always make it possible to level your Photon Art higher than 30. It may be a long shot, but maybe they could add a fourth planet to the roster as well. Just sayin'.

The final thing I'd like to see added to the game is the ability to create your own items. In PSU you were able to collect ingredients that were used for creating different weapons and armors. Phantasy Star Portable got rid of this as well, and I really hope they bring it back.

But, even if they don't take any of my suggestions, I'm sure I'm going to like the game just as much as I have the others, unless they decide to change everything and mess it up. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they won't.) I honestly can't think of any game coming out this year that I'm more excited for than this one. I've been waiting for a long time for it, and I have high hopes that SEGA will deliver another winner. They have such a good track record with this series, it'd be a shame if they botched it up now.

My final thoughts on the game? I highly doubt that SEGA would betray their fans and make the sequel a stinker. I think they know that the series has a pretty big following and that there would be mass rioting if they messed it up. So, I'm just going to sit back and hope that September will get here as soon as possible.