Phantasy Star Zero Mini

Nintendo exclusive

Phantasy Star Zero takes place on an alternate Earth 200 years after the Great Blank, a massive war that has reduced the once-prosperous civilization to almost nothing. The sole surviving Humans have worked hard to exist peacefully and have built thriving Cities. The Humans that adventure past the outskirts of these Cities, called Hunters, explore the vast wilderness and hunt dangerous monsters to keep Cities safe. Players will take up the role of Hunters and select from three types of races and different classes, as well as gender for a total of 14 customizable character types.

Released: 25 December 2008
Platforms: Nintendo DS
Genres: Beat 'em up Role-playing
Developers: Sonic Team
Publishers: —
Series: Phantasy Star
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action Fantasy Science fiction
Country: Japan
Age ratings: PEGI 12 ESRB E10+
Composers: Hideaki Kobayashi

About

Phantasy Star 0, also known in Australia and Europe as Phantasy Star: ZERO and sometimes in North America as Phantasy Star Ø, is a Nintendo DS game in the Phantasy Star series, developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game was released in Japan on December 25, 2008; in North America on November 10, 2009; and in Europe on February 12, 2010. The game expands on the gameplay mechanics of Phantasy Star Online, partly by borrowing some elements from fellow online Phantasy Star title Phantasy Star Universe, such as a fully realized story mode for offline play.

›Story

The game features three different main stories, starting with Humans, CAST and Newmans. Each storyline is different, but in the end they all are connected.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Phantasy Star Zero continues the character creation mechanics from Phantasy Star Online. The player first chooses a race, each with their own strengths: versatile Humans; powerful, hulking androids called CASTs; or nimble but fragile genetically engineered Newmans. The choice affects the character's perspective on the story and what order in which the first three zones are tackled, but all stories end identically. The player then chooses the character's gender and archetype.

Males tend to favor physical strength and durability; females tend to favor accuracy, evasion and techniques, Phantasy Star's equivalent to magic. Archetypes determine which weapons and techniques a character can use.

Development

The decision to develop Phantasy Star 0 for the Nintendo DS was made to expand the appeal of the series to younger gamers. The word Zero was affixed to the title to represent "a new start for the series" and separate itself from the main series games in favor of the GameCube games. Artist Toshiyuki Kubooka, made famous by his work on the Lunar series and Giant Robo anime, designed the game's characters with an "uplifting" aesthetic. The game was exhibited at Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2008 as part of Sega's lineup of new DS games.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Famitsu gave it a score of two eights, one nine, and one eight for a total of 33 out of 40; the authors praised the game's controls, game play, and online mode, noting, "it really feels like an online game in the palm of your hand." The publication criticized the game's "softness of the sound." Nintendo Power gave good remarks towards the game, but heavily criticized the menu setup and the loss to change weapons during gameplay. Phantasy Star 0 sold approximately 84,055 copies during its debut week in Japan.