First impressions are everything, they say, and those given by Phantasy Star 0 are not good. It appears that the game cannot decide on a graphical style, so opts for three. The result is a terrible mix of cartoon cutscenes, pixelated people, and blocky backgrounds. The cutesy animated cutscenes feel out of place, and Gamestyle found them cringeworthy on more than one occasion (think Zelda on the CD-i). They don't appear to fit with the feel of the game, and it's strange to see the action flick between the animated and then badly-pixelated representations of the same character. It seems strange that the cartoon depictions weren't maintained throughout, giving the game some continuity.
The gameplay itself takes place in 3D, and you control your character from a 3rd Person perspective. The DS is not renowned for its graphical power, but the environments and objects are truly horrible to view. The landscapes are dull and repetitive, and the enemies are boxy and robotic. Some of the bosses are impressive, but overall, Phantasy Star 0 is not pleasing on the eye.
This would be forgiven by an involving gaming experience, but this is not a redeeming feature in Phantasy Star 0. You are a hunter, from one of the three races that populate the Phantasy Star universe: Humans, Newmans (an elf-like race), and CASTS (androids). Having chosen a race, you can customise your character to an extent, from their combat style, skin tone, hair style, and clothes. You then embark on quests, which involve progressing through a grid-like map, defeating spawning monsters to get power-ups and key cards. These key cards unlock gates, opening up a path to the area's boss.
You meet various people in the single player campaign, who become your allies in combat. You can use them to chain combos together, which deal heavier damage. The concept is good, but the implementation is poor. The basic controls are fine; movement is controlled by the D-Pad, and you assign functions to the other buttons, such as light attack, heavy attack, dodge, heal, and other magical spells to assist you. Movement is clunky, however, and the targeting is atrocious. When you near an enemy, a red cross-hair appears on their body, to show that an attack will hit them. Holding the left should button locks on to a certain degree, but as soon as the enemy moves offscreen, you lose the lock, and end up side-stepping aimlessly (for certain weapons, the target-lock button acts as a secondary fire option, so you don't even have this to fall back on). You turn to face the enemy, but the camera remains behind you, so you have no idea what you're aiming at. A press of the left shoulder button centres the camera, but by now, you've probably been hit, or the enemy has moved offscreen again. It's incredibly frustrating, and you end up adopting a hit-and-hope approach which is entirely unsatisfying.
This is not so bad against the weaker enemies, but against bosses it's fatal. They have generally got faster, and more dramatic movements, and Gamestyle often found themselves being hit simply because they couldn't turn to face them quick enough. Collision detection is appalling, and either hits fail to land (even when you're standing right next to your target, swinging a sword in their face), or you get trapped against the side of the environment, taking damage with no chance of escape. The frustration is compounded by the game's evasion system, which defies logic. By hitting dodge, you do a forward roll to avoid an attack. You are invincible during the roll, but inexplicably freeze for about a second after the roll, and during this you are not. The game does warn you about this, saying something like "good things come with a cost", but it seems an unnecessary system, especially when the rewards in Phantasy Star 0 are so few.
It's worrying when a game's selling feature is the ability to draw pictures and send them to friends during online battles. Yes, the game is much better when played online, and you don't have annoying AI allies who are seemingly intent on dying before they get old, but should picture messaging really be considered a highlight? It's novelties like this in games, which makes Gamestyle wonder about the attitude of the developers. Time would have been far better spent in developing better controls, or improving presentation, and as it stands, Phantasy Star 0 is almost an unplayable mess.
It's sad to say that it's just not worth persevering through the tortuous controls. The story is not particularly gripping, and the decisions that affect the progression aren't provoking. There is some entertainment in levelling up your character, and customising weaponry and armour, but it seems pointless when using them is such a painful experience. Fans of the original Phantasy Star Online may like to relive the game, but after 10 years they've probably moved on; something that Phantasy Star 0 should have considered doing.
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