Review - Phantasy Star Universe (X360)
Date: 2026-06-07
A Dead Mall in Space
I'm coming to the end of the still-playable single-player story campaign of Phantasy Star Universe on the 360. The only reason for really playing a game like this in 2026, are the vibes, and they are rich. If you're in any way nostalgic for malls, the early 2000s, Sega without furry characters and/or areo frutiger then this is about as good as it gets.
The central hub of this game is essentially a pristine 90's mall floating in space, and is supported by a soaring space-age orchestral soundtrack. There's elevators from the central fountain to a couple of floors of shops that you legitimately should be visiting as well as transport stations to various planets. The whole place is populated with ghostly NPCs that supposedly couldn't be rendered full-time on the available hardware (I have to imagine this is a hangover from the PS2 version), and there's little touches like planters and usable seating that helps the whole place cross the bridge from a playable experience, to more of an MMO-like living area. In this vein, you have an apartment accessible from the hub, that has it's own peaceful sound track and areas to display purchasable knick knacks. This room is reminiscent of the quiet peace of a room aboard the star ship enterprise or similar. The whole thing is deeply atmospheric.
Space-age hardware
Playing on a 360 is 2026 is less of a treat. I'm using a Xbox 360 S - avoiding my OG white model that's already had one red-ring repair. This little console is fairly nicely made. The touch controls on the front of the box are instantly responsive, not like that vague nonsense on PS4s. I swapped from a black controller with reasonable sticks that came with the slim, to a fairly worn white one. The white controllers match the aero frutiger theme of the blade era 360 so much better (not that mine still has the blades). And the chrome home button the black controllers make it look very cheap. People hold these controllers up as some of the best of the modern era, but I don't buy it. They have a great look, ergonomics and use AA batteries, but the buttons are clunky, with a lot of travel, the triggers squeak, the shoulder buttons invariably give out at some point and the sticks actively crumble to dust as you are using them - hence why every 360 controller in CeX has destroyed sticks. The PS3 controller feels like a much more refined product, despite having the ergonomics of a plastic bag with an outer of coke cans in it.
One of the lesser discussed advantages to playing games on 360 at the moment is the fact that achievements still work. Maybe we're just all hoping Microsoft have forgotten that this still works, but it really is surprising. Nintendo would have shut that shit off in 2013 (though lets face it, they never turned achievements on in the first place). This game basically has an achievement for each major boss, a bit limited yes, but it would take you nicely to completion at chapter 12 - unfortunately the set includes a handful from the DLC; Ambition of the Illuminus. Sadly this is no longer available nor playable, unless you play one of the other PSU flavours.
Space Boba
So there are other flavors of this game. After reaching ~ chapter 5 you unlock extra mode which allows you to create a custom character and really pretend you're still playing the MMO. Cool. This gives you an outlet for just comfort fooding this game for ever more. Spin up a new character with a different race and class and have at it.
Alternatively if you want to experience the DLC, Ambition of the Illuminus, there is a physical PS2 release that includes this. I believe this version also lets you play extra mode from the start as well.
Other than that you have 2 kind-of-sequels on the PSP - Phantasy Star Portable, and Portable 2. Portable is a weird rehash of the content in PSU with a slightly different story and no traversable hubs. Instead, these hubs appear basically as themed menus, complete with the original soundtracks. Same goes for your room/apartment. While this is a bit of a let down, this game is generally a bit more refined. You can play the whole campaign as a custom character, which is really nice, and there are lots of small improvements like more visible indication of hitting optimum combat timing (I'll get onto this). Also, not having the hubs means a lot less walking around just to buy/upgrade equipment and progress the story. It's a faster, more Tokyo-tube-commute-friendly experience, in a similar vein to the Monster Hunter Portable games.
I cant talk about PSP2 other than the fact that it had an Infinity version that includes DLC and now has an English patch and once-again working online. There's also an incredibly frustrating situation over on retroachievements.org around this game, where a developer basically finished the set and dropped it when they were kicked off the site due to some unrelated scandal.
What is this game
This game is a very basic action RPG. And I really mean basic. There is an attack button and a special ability button that uses a meter. Thats it. The only complication here is that attacks combo about 3 times and if you time it right, you do more damage. And that is really it.
What started to dawn on me playing this game is really how little you need to open an opportunity for optimization in a game's combat. Really what action RPG combat is, is an optimization problem. How can I safely maximize damage in a given encounter or time frame. And this game has everything you need to tinker with that problem. It has no block button (you have a chance to auto-block based on your stats), but you have a 2d plane to work with (not 3d, there's no jumping either). So you can watch for attack wind-ups, judge if your attack will land first, guess at the chance it will interrupt theirs, or just get out of there. You can reposition and swap to a weapon that hits multiple targets on a boss, or multiple small enemies. You can use guns to hit from a distance. There is plenty to chew on here if you want to optimize your damage per second, and boy do you want to do this. Because this game is a grind. Its a legitimate taste of that early 2000 MMO content. You are going to see the same 4 enemies for all of that hour long chapter, so by the end of it you will need to become an expert in those suckers to find anything to mentally engage with, Unless you're just watching something on another screen.
There is a story
The story is short and sweet. It takes a lot for me to get invested in JRPG stories - fortunately most JRPGs are tens of hours so that investment is often inevitable. I think a lot of JRPGs survive on this. According to the parasocial relationship effect, when you spend this amount of time looking at the same faces, you subconsciously form a relationship with them and they become like family. It's the same reason people find themselves watching The Office on repeat for years.
If I'm being honest, most JRPG stories are juvenile, cliché and generally pretty cringey. But after 80 hours I'm always going to shed a tear when the ending scenes play out.
I really like the format of the PSU story. Cutscenes are never too long, and the whole thing is over in around 25 hours, most of that being incredibly grindy gameplay. However they still find time to put you through some decent world building. There are story missions that force you to interact with the world in a way that make it feel more than an RPG setting. For example, early on you take your little sister for a shopping trip and are dragged around the various floors of the first hub - which helps increase the feeling that the colony is a living area filled with people that have nothing to do with the story.
Also, the story is told through TV-style episodic chapters that each end with a piece of art showing the chapter's characters and some closing music. You then get a "Next time on PSU" preview of the following chapter. When you kick the new chapter off, it opens with the same pre-rendered set of intros each time and some really catchy music that serves to rev you up for the next set of challenges. It works really well - and why shouldn't it? It's a time-tested TV formula.
Closing
I've really enjoyed my time with this game, almost entirely due to it's atmosphere. It's comfortingly nostalgic and has just enough gameplay and story to keep things moving.
Music - 10/10
Visuals - 9/10
Gameplay - 6/10
Playability - 6/10
Overall - 7/10