There’s plenty of game there without bringing other people into it; even without the online functionality, the game’s still quite playable. Unfortunately, it’s also got some fairly noticeable pacing issues and a combat system that - despite an innovative UI - just feels a bit clumsy. Rule 1: If you’re in a JRPG, and a cute elf-looking girl heals your wounds with what seems like magic, RUN AWAY BECAUSE THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET CRAZY. Like meteors and alien beings slamming into a space colony crazy.
As you escape the chaos, a peacekeeper directs the flow of beings toward safety, but because you’re a rebellious jackass who’s SO INDEPENDENT, you refuse to follow his direction simply out of spite and end up with your sister trapped behind some debris. Not getting off to a good start, Phantasm Star Universe. Not at all.
Seriously, I thought my TV was screwed up the first time I saw it. To this end, you’ve got a system of weapons and items, which can be assigned from the main menu to a palette called up by the B button. A few quick movements and you’ve swapped from your broadsword to a gun/saber combo, and used a healing item in the middle of it all. It’s a pretty elegant system, except for targeting and, y’know, actually hitting things.
You can use the left bumper to lock-on, but to hold it for extended periods gets pretty uncomfortable, especially as you’re trying to maneuver in combat. And when you ‘rein combat, you’re in a hell of a lot of combat.
I posted a time of 1:40 in the “burning meadow” mission - AN HOUR FORTY - which was good enough for an A rank. That, sir, is a dungeon that’s too long. I had high hopes for the pacing - as each chapter is bookended by opening and closing musical pieces, kind of like a TV show. (additional reading)
A TV show with rather awkward dialog, extras that just disappear into thin air if you get too close to them, and one of those aggravating pseudo-foreign fonts like in Final Fantasy X. So, of course, it’ll last longer than Firefly.
Anyway, the Guardian hooks you up with a sword and gun, and you go the long way around the facility, stopping only to recruit two troublemakers who are searching for their big bro, who happens to be Eddie from SSX Tricky. So you acquit yourself well, have a change of heart, and decide to join the Guardians yourself, to hack and slash your way through whatever ‘sailing the planetary system. Like meteors that bloom into flowers and release evil mind pollen that corrupts wildlife, destroys the land, and makes you wonder what the hell that blue crap floating around your display is.