As with any RPG in this day and age there are more items than you could ever possibly imagine needing in the game. You often find them being dropped by enemies when you kill them along with money (meseta). That money can then be used in the mostly static shops to buy upgrades and new armor and weapons. Oddly, the shops normally have items from just below your current ones to just above. Rarely did I ever see an ultra-powerful weapon hanging out in the shop waiting to be purchased.

Remember how I said every single mission is the same? Well as you progress you will go back and do the same areas and missions but on increasingly higher difficulty (C,B,A and S). You will kill the same monsters. At present in my Creature Log I have killed between 30-50 of each one with some minor exceptions like bosses and other NPCs. In fact, if Alfa System had put as much time into the gameplay and mission variance as they did into the large amount of stats you can find in the game, I am certain the game would have been exponentially better. They did include game achievements for hitting certain milestones but really, while playing I didn’t even care about them.

The game also has online multiplayer party play but it’s almost impossible to find someone to play with, not to mention it doesn’t do a whole lot to mix up the gameplay so really, why bother?

There are some cool mechanics in the game like Partner machinery, TECHNICS, special attacks and upgradeable items, but it still doesn’t balance out the flat and one-dimensional gameplay. If you’re a fan of the Phantasy Star series you’ll probably enjoy this continuation of the universe’s story. If you’re looking for rich, diverse gameplay, you’ll hate this game for its amazingly repetitive nature. Sure it has got great graphics and sound but it’s all about fun and frankly, this game has a finite amount of fun due to doing the same thing again and again.