Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D
By Cade
System: Gamecube
Developer: Sega

Introduction

So some of you know I have a certain addiction for Phantasy Star Online. To be more specific, PSO Episodes 1 & 2 for Gamecube. It's a Diablo-esque hack n' slash online/multiplayer action-rpg that I personally find lots o' fun. Well, Sega's gone and released a sequel called PSO Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution. Instead of being the monster-slaying adventure we know and love, the format's been altered dramatically into a Collectible Card Game (CCG) battle.

I was very skeptical at first since I figured they must've run out of ideas thought they could simply cash in on the Yu-gi-oh craze, but I'm pleasantly surprised to find it's another great game in the Phantasy Star franchise. The cards all feature familiar characters, weapons, items and monsters from the PSO universe so at least it's not totally foreign plus you can use the same Hunter's License (the monthly access fee you use to play PSO Ep.1&2 online) so no extra cost! This is gonna be my little review of the game so far. I've put in a few hours offline and online so my opinions may change, but if anyone's interested I can keep updating the review.

Game Setup

You have two sides to choose from; The Hero Side (Hunters) or the Dark Side (Arkz). The Hero Side uses weapons, armor and items to fight their battles while the Dark Side summons the many monsters of PSO to do their bidding. Once you choose your side you pick a Story Character (SC) to act as the focus of your deck. SC's are NPC's based off the many classes of PSO who have varying attributes and special abilities. You have to tailor a thirty card deck around them to improve their strengths and cover for their weaknesses. Unlike Episodes 1 & 2 the character you create is only used to run around the home base (the Morgue) talking to people, getting missions, setting up decks, etc. or interacting with people in the online lobbies.

The cards are set up in these categories:

Item/Creature: These are the weapons/armor/mags for the Hero Side and monsters for the Dark Side.

Action: Various special ability cards such as attack boosts, blocking, dodging, magic and many others. Can be used by both sides.

Assist: Haven't gotten any of these yet, all the instructions say is that they're difficult to use but have awesome effects when combo'd with other cards.

Once everything is set up, it's time to battle. In offline mode you get missions from a commander and fight computer controlled NPC's. In online mode you battle real people in one-on-one duels or mini-tournaments held every hour or so.

Rounds are set up like this:
The playfield is set-up on variable-sized grids.

Duel Start: You draw a hand of 5 cards and have a one-time chance to dump it and redraw. Afterwards rounds start with the Dice phase.

Dice Phase: Two 6-sided dice are rolled, one for Action points and one for Defense points. Usually the highest roll is assigned to AP.

Set Phase: This is where you place cards on the field. For the Hero side you equip your SC with various weapons, armor and items. The Dark Side places monsters to guard your SC and attack the opponent's. Each card has an AP cost to play and this number is removed from your AP pool. Each side can only have a total of 8 AP's worth of items/creatures on the board. This means if you have a creature that cost 4 AP in play and two 2 AP creatures you cannot place anymore until one is destroyed.

Move Phase: Each SC and monster has a movement value and may move up to that number in squares on the grid. One square of movement subtracts one AP from your pool.

Act(ion) Phase: This is when you attack with equipped weapons or monsters, use techniques (magic) and apply Action cards that give various effects to your attacks. One attack costs 1 AP and Action cards have their own AP cost. It's possible to combo attacks together using action cards. Each card has a color and if subsequent cards match that color you can attack simply by paying the card cost and applying it to an item/creature without needing to pay for the attack. When the opponent attacks you, the game gives the option of playing defense Action cards if you happen to have any in your hand. You pay for these cards using your Defense points.

Draw Phase: You may discard as many cards as you like in this round and your hand automatically refills to 5 cards. Once your 30 card deck has been completely drawn, it reshuffles all out of play cards. You cannot lose the match by running out of cards.

In order to win, you must reduce the opponent's SC to 0 HP. All monsters and items also have an HP value. When attacking a Hero SC, you must first destroy all his items before you can damage him. However, he loses 1 HP every time an item is destroyed. Usually you may choose what weapon/item to attack but if he has defensive items like Shields or Barriers, you are forced to attack those first. Dark Side characters may always be attacked directly since they cannot equip items. They must place creatures between them to block attacks. If they have a Guard creature in play, all damage goes directly to the guard creature instead of the Dark SC. They usually suffer no penalty when a creature is destroyed.

If you win or lose, you are presented with new cards. Winning nets you a half dozen or so and losing got me 2 cards. Oddly, when I lost I got the best card I've received yet. I'm hoping this is the game's way of balancing things so if you have so-so cards and start losing a lot, it'll beef up your deck. I've only lost once (online) so far, so I'll see if this is the case. Upon victory you also receive experience points that build towards your Card Level. The higher the CLvl, the better cards you will get when you win. The game gives you a separate CLvl for online and offline and you earn far less experience for winning duels online so it really means something to have a high CLvl.

Obviously, there's a lot of strategy in learning how to balance your cards and action points in a given turn. Too many high cost cards and you're sunk if you roll low on AP. It's really nice to be able to discard whatever you want though. That way if you have 8 points worth of stuff in play, you can discard item/creature in the hopes of drawing more useful action cards.

Review

After PSO Episodes 1 & 2's general lack of a solid storyline, Ep. 3 is a welcome change. The offline story mode is chocked full of plot. You can choose to play the Hero Story or Dark Story and see the game from both perspectives. Talk to people between battles to flesh out the storyline and after certain battles, if you used the correct Story Character you are treated to beautifully drawn manga-style cut scenes presenting extra bits of the story.

The action is much slower paced than Ep. 1 & 2 was, but that's probably to be expected with it being a card game. I personally love strategy games and CCG's as well so it appeals greatly to me.

The graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. The card art and cut scenes are phenomenal and the level backgrounds are very detailed and well animated, a marked improvement from Ep.1&2. The characters, items and monsters are another story... They lifted the models and animation straight from EP.1&2. Not that they're bad, but that game was a port of a Dreamcast game, so they're really starting showing their age. They tweaked them a bit with graphical special effects, but they're still the same. The worst is the x3 dramatic replay of the final hit that defeats your opponent. It would be a lot cooler if it wasn't for the stilted animation straight from PSO. Ah well, at least I've got no complaints about the music.

I was a little worried that the online mode would degenerate into the Magic: The Gathering syndrome of he who has the best cards wins. I don't think it will though. It displays the rank of every person online (wins, losses, numeric rank and level) so you should have a decent idea of what you're up against. Common cards you start with are more than capable of protecting you from uber stuff (at least what I've seen so far). Still, there's some jokers who are probably given powerful cards by other people. First guy I dueled online was low rank like me, but he ended up being loaded with really powerful gun cards (i.e. stuff he surely didn't start the game with). Unfortunately for him, that's about ALL that was in his deck. I played a monster deck and managed to surround him and whittle away at him until his defeat. I don't think he was too happy about that.

Conclusion

I'm extremely happy with the game thus far. I highly recommend it to anyone with a Gamecube, though you'll need to go online to get the full enjoyment. I'm sure my opinion could change, but as long as I'm having fun, I'll keep playing.

Cade