Its been a while since I've played a Phantasy Star game that I liked. The formula used in episodes 1 & 2 for the Xbox seemed to work so well, only to never see quite the same design used in subsequent titles. The latest one on the PSP seems to take that engaging, combo based combat I used to love, and actually expand on it a little. Combos can now be linked into strings well beyond the 1-2-3 repeat strategy of previous titles. The pacing has speed up as well, with the player blowing through monsters at a nice steady pace as they move through the dungeons.

The rest of the game hasn't quite changed as much. Items drop off of all the monsters to help you progress, weapons looked familiar to the other games in the franchise, and I was even fighting the same monsters as previous games. Hopefully the gameplay can make up for this aging content on the final release, which you can expect to see on store shelves September 28th.