Despite only 60% done (according to Weekly Famitsu’s report), it appears that Phantasy Star Portable is ready for it’s public appearance at the upcoming Jump Festa 2008 in Tokyo. The announcement was made at the game’s official website.

Phantasy Star Portable is Sega’s attempt at taking advantage of the multi-player market that the Monster Hunter Portable (MHP) series opened up. As reported before, the game features the same system as MHP of players heading out for quests together in the wild. Here’s a little more details on what to expect from the game based on the original Famitsu report.

The game is based on Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) and it’s expansion Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus. However, there will be new elements and a brand new story mode. Two new characters will be added, Vivienne (picture above) will be the player’s partner while Helga Neumann is a mysterious girl being accused of planning some terrorist attacks.

Just like MHP, player will be able to create their own character. There are quite a number of options as well.

The game will have a story mode for single player. The screen above shows space pirate Tyler taking on Helga.

On to the major feature of the game, the multiplayer mode, Famitsu says the game supports up to 4 players via the ad hoc mode. Something many fans of the series will be disappointed as the series has always been about being able to fight online with friends. But since MHP is able to do just fine without it, there is a good reason for Sega to follow suit.

Monsters from Ambition of the Illuminus will be making their appearance here and there will new ones for the PSP as well. Famitsu is wondering if there will be any interaction between the game and the PS2 version and how the new story fits into the PSU timeline. I am completely into MHP, so will always compare the two and from these early screens, I must say the backgrounds are a little lacking in details but the story mode (which MHP do not have) will probably draw me into it anyway. So expect closer follow-up on this one.

Report based on Dec 7th issue of Weekly Famitsu.

Posted in PSP on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 12:33 am | Comments Feed | Leave a response | Trackback