Phantom Dust

"Get your Psyco Knives and Flame Swords out! Here's my review of Phantom Dust."

Phantom Dust was released in Japan on 9/23/04. During that time, Microsoft had at the time, no plans to bring it over to the US. However, seeing the promising potential of this game, Majesco brought it over to the US and was released on 3/15/05. Many people liked it and decided to pick it up. But to those who don't know wether to buy this game or not, here's a review that will either change your mind and get it or keep you still thinking wether or not to buy this game. Here's my review of Phantom Dust for the X-Box.

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Story: 9/10

This game is centered around the main character named The Protagonist, and a substance called Phantom Dust (according the the Character bios on www.phantom-dust.com). The world (Earth) is covered by the Phantom Dust. The dust steals the memories of the people who are on the surface, but to some lucky few, it grants them the power to turn thought into power. You use dust to win the 100+ battles (says on back of the game box) in the game and progress the story along.

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Sound: 10/10

The sound in this game is extremely top notch. Violins can be heard clearly, the music is really good, and the sounds are positioned in the right places to make this game sound good. There is also the voice acting. Never have I heard such good voice acting from any game that was ported from Japan to US in good emphasis. The Voice actors make the characters feel real, and the main character has his own share of suprising gasps and grunts (like the Legend of Zelda series).

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Gameplay: 10/10

I'm going to go in depth into the gameplay, since it is basically the same in each of the 100+ missions in the game. You get assigned a mission, and you either get to pick an Arsenal you made, or a Pre-made Arsenal (Aresenals are what you use to hold your skills) made for that mission. When the mission starts, you get to move around the hugely destructible world and use your skills to deal damage to your enemies 'til their health goes all the way down to 0 before yours does. If you lose all your health, then the mission ends, and you get to choose wether to retry it or go back to the main menu of the game. When not battling on the surface of the gameworld (you and the Visions, which are a group of people trying to find their memories, live underground), you are looking for missions from various npcs, constructing Arsenals, or buying new Arsenal cases, Skills, or Junk (the game will explain what all this mumbo-jumbo is to you).

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Graphics: 9/10

The final category in this review. The graphics are really nicely done, with an entirely destructible battlefield, detailed maps, and very detailed characters. When the cutscenes play, the graphics are almost like Halo 2's graphics (not similar though). The minor thing that brought this down a point is that all the characters' mouths are not in sync with the voices. Other than that, this game is masterfully done.

Overall: 10/10

This game, overall, is a must-have. The graphics are nicely done, the gameplay is solid, the music is top-notch, and the story is so interesting, you'll want to continue playing this game on X-Box Live (even after the game ends). If you don't have X-Box Live, you can still get this game, because of the things you can do. This concludes the review of Phantom Dust

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/05