The Dreamcast can claim a curious place in gaming history, a console ahead of its time rightly adored by those who owned it, yet bought in such small numbers that its creators Sega all but abandoned it after three years and pulled out of the market forever. One of the highlights of its short life however was the first console based RPG, Phantasy Star Online. While the Phantasy Star series had been around for a while it was reborn somewhat on the Dreamcast, thanks to the hardware's internal modem, with a hefty online mode enabling console gamers the chance to play through the space RPG's missions with other people. That may not seem too special now but remember this was 2000 and such joys were rare on consoles.

Thankfully the subsequent demise of the Dreamcast didn't spell the end for Phantasy Star Online and it soon spread it's wings to other consoles including the 2006 launch of Phantasy Star Universe on 360, and PC. Now 2009 sees the series move into the handheld market with the launch of Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP.

Considering the series' illustrious online history you'd be forgiven for thinking that the main selling point of this new Phantasy Star game was bound to be some fancy online features that would mark it out as the first truly online handheld RPG. Unfortunately you'd be wrong, for the most part anyway. You see, while PS Portable does offer multiplayer questing alongside its single player antics it's seen fit to limit it to Ad-hoc mode only. Since this means you'll need to find one or more friends who own a copy of the game (not to mention a PSP), a character at a similar level and the time/inclination to meet up and play in the same room, it becomes clear right from the off that the chance of PS Portable actually being used as a multiplayer game with any degree of regularity is pretty unlikely for most people.

Clearly this hasn't escaped developers Alpha System and there's the promise of online infrastructure support to come in the future but meanwhile you'll have to make do with the option to quest with computer controlled team-mates to create the illusion of playing with friends. This may go some way to dampening the sense of disappointment but true infrastructure support from the word go still seems an unfortunate omission, especially given how the series made its name.

At its heart PS Portable is a third-person and deals with events sometime after the end of PS Universe. Apparently a mysterious new terrorist is causing problems on the Guardians space station and it's up to you and your new Cast partner, Vivienne, to stop her. It's not the deepest most epic storyline ever to grace an RPG and the fact that for almost the entire game it's told using distinctly average looking static headshots complete with eye wateringly bad dialogue and poor voice acting doesn't help to draw you into the tale. It's a shame more time wasn't spent polishing up the plot and its presentation because the rest of the game deserves to have been served better by it's narrative, something Japanese RPGs are normally pretty good at.

PS Portable is divided into two sections, Story Mode and Multi Mode with the ability to share characters between the two. The Story Mode is single player only and, as the name suggests, allows you to play through the story from start to finish. Multi Mode is the multiplayer side of things where you're able to play through the missions from Story Mode as well as a few multiplayer only ones with the help of a few friends.

At the start of a game you get to design your character using the flexible character generator. Pick from one of the three available classes (Hunter, Ranger and Force) and four possible races (Beast, Cast, Human, and Newman) before customising their look as you see fit and jumping into the action.

Since the plot's a bit dull PS Portable essentially boils down to being a straight forward dungeon-crawler complete with the expected item hunting and level grinding. This familiar gameplay mechanic is one of those Marmite things for gamers; you'll either love it or loath it. For those that love it the pickups on offer do make it worthwhile in fact there's a commendable variety of weapons and accessories to find which will keep you smashing every box and crate in the game. In fact if you're on the right side of that Marmite poser PS Portable has got most of the boxes ticked in the action RPG handbook - there's hours of quests to be quested through, a decent selections of environments to gawp at, a none too shabby monster count and character types with a myriad of progression paths.

Combat is real-time and initially looks like a pretty simple button bashing exercise but as you start to get under its skin you'll discover a number of timing related subtleties to things that help to keep it interesting for those who want to master them. The one genuine problem that detracts from the experience is the flaky lock-on facility. This is made doubly annoying because the camera has a habit of getting a little confused at the worst times; times when being able to rely on the target lock would have helped you keep your sanity.

Another irritant that comes into sharp focus when you start adventuring with computer controlled team-mates is the shockingly bad A.I. on show. Not only do your companions suffer from horrible path finding which often leaves them stuck on walls, but their in battle decision making leaves a lot to be desired as well. Not good when you think that's pretty much their whole purpose for being there in the first place. Often you'll watch them die as they appear to forget to heal themselves and they're not adverse to standing and watching the battle rather than joining in even when they're under fire themselves.

Despite these sometimes sizable niggles combat is generally good fun thanks in no small part to the introduction of the Action Palette. This natty little function allows you to add shortcuts to particular weapons and items into a pop up menu you activate with the circle button. This may seem a small addition but it allows you to switch weapons and use items on the fly with time saving ease, especially in the heat of battle.

Visually Alpha System has done a good job of squeezing the PS Universe era Phantasy Star onto a UMD. One noticeable sacrifice is the loss of the fully hubs. These have been replaced with top down 2D maps and a menu system that streamlines these sections making them actually simpler to play and quicker to load than before - but does feel a bit clinical and dare we say it, cheap.

Judged without thoughts to the series' history, Phantasy Star Portable is a decent stab at crafting an action RPG for the PSP. Its item collection/level grinding nature and weak story telling will perhaps point it more towards the end of the market and the omission of true online multiplayer out of the box make it feel like a Phantasy Star game with one hand tied behind its back which is a shame. Those who've always wanted a portable slice of Phantasy Star will find hours of content to enjoy, especially if they have a like minded friend or two. The rest of the world however may find it more of an acquired taste.

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By Paul Newcombe