Offline
Phantasy Star Online had an offline mode but lets face it, it was just the online game but a lot less fun. This time around Sonic Team has seen fit to mold the offline game into an epic action RPG with everything you might expect from a Square Enix outing. Like its turn-based cousin Final Fantasy there are an abundance of cutscenes both pre-rendered and in-game that are both interactive and passive. There are so many cutscenes before, after, and during story chapters that the whole cinematic experience borders on being as obnoxious as the Xenosaga series. Thankfully though the scenes are decently paced and do eventually tell a semi-interesting, if not clichd, story.


Ethan is the star of the show offline.

11+ Hours of Offline Footage - Chapters 1-6 - Video

The entire offline story mode is split up into 12 chapters that clock in at around 1-4 hours a piece. Each one is packaged like its own separate game with intro CGI at one end and credits and a preview of the next chapter at the other. It almost feels as if Sonic Team was anticipating episodic content delivery a bit ahead of its time.

While fighting through the offline mode you’ll be experiencing all of the current and soon to be unlocked online areas, just in a more cinematic setting. Online you search for missions at a wide variety of portals and offline you just move from one area to the next as the story progresses. Online pretty much amounts to offline cut into much smaller pieces spread out with all the cutscenes removed. Well that and offline leveling is much faster and easier.

Graphics
The Graphics of Phantasy Star Universe are expertly crafted but are actually quite low resolution in terms of polygons and texture quality. I guess when you have to port from PS2 to PC and then to XBOX 360 you can’t expect next-gen graphics but I was still expecting Sonic Team to pull out all the stops. That being said, the art of the graphics is unparalleled and truly shows the talent that still resides at Sega. From the character models to all the outfits each character can wear the visual continuity and artistic craftsmanship is truly something to behold. Also a lot of the old PSO graphic models are exactly the same which makes for some fun nostalgia.
PS2 Graphics
On the Playstation 2 the graphics look right at home as the TV screen resolution is quite low. Textures and models show little evidence of edges and all of them blend well into each other and the environment behind them.

PC Graphics
While you can increase the resolution on the PC, the graphic quality doesn’t hold up under these standards. You can see most all polygon edges easily and all textures look horribly washed out. PSU was obviously made first for the PS2 and this shows it’s ugly head on the PC. You’d think they would have included at least higher resolution textures but what you see on the PC is basically and exact copy of the PS2 in higher resolution showing off all its flaws in detail.