Once in a great while there is a game that releases and feels so intuitive and awe inspiring in several ways. And Phantom Dust is one of them. Published by Majesco and developed by Microsoft, Phantom Dust was originally released in Japan as a Microsoft exclusive. But after seeing the success it achieved in Japan, Microsoft quickly brought it to the States. A good move by Microsoft you might ask? And for a simple price of $20.00, is it worth it? Yes, yes it is indeed. Phantom Dust is clearly on of the best games to hit Xbox this year, and takes its rightful place as one of the best Xbox Live experiences to date.

Impressive, Most Impressive

Throughout the game the story pulls you in and doesn’t let go. You are set in a mysterious and confusing world where “humans” cannot leave underground due to the excessive amount of strange dust and enemy activity lurking above the surface. However, leaving underground and heading to the surface is dangerous in several ways. For one, you may only stay above the ground for a mere fifteen minutes before the cursed atmosphere makes its way inside of the body. The objective to the game is to learn attacks, defensive skills, and find Edgar’s missing girlfriend that he mourns constantly over. On the other hand, going above ground can eliminate multiple problems at hand. Each battle is based on the surface and either taking on one enemy, and sometimes up to four enemies or more. Most missions consist of a partner to help you complete the mission successfully.

You can basically describe Phantom Dust’s story as a typical anime-like plot, including a deep love connection, several twists, and an array of battles. The game itself will take around 9-13 hours to complete if you play through everything that the single player of Phantom Dust offers, along with completing the side missions given to you throughout the game. For the first several hours of the game you are stuck underground doing excessive amounts of training missions. I found the learning curve very easy to pick-up and can be mastered in a half an hour at the most. After the tenth training mission you begin to become very frustrated and annoyed quite quickly. Half of them consist of the same objective, just re-vamped into different enemies and spells to choose from.


Unlimited Options

The options for choosing spells are illimitable on any occasion. Each mission you select brings you to a certain battle arena. In one spot on the map you will find three dusts to equip to your inventory for casting. After equipping as many as you want to either your A, B, X, or Y button, they will quickly regenerate over time as different types of spell and aura. The types of spells consist of Attack, Defense, Erase, and many other types of uses. Each type consists of around six attacks/moves to use for each topic. For example: For the attack topic, there will be around six moves you can use to attack your foes. For the defense option, you also have around six block attacks to use while in combat. The same goes for the erase option, but vice versa.

The lock on system while in combat is incredibly useful. You pull the R trigger to automatically lock on to the closest near by enemy. As you’re locked on, you can pull the L trigger to toggle between various enemies. The lock on system is very helpful, yet there are some disadvantages. While locking on and firing a long ranged attack, your partner may be stupid enough to run right in front of the oncoming attack and injure himself. I found that the developers could have done something with the friendly fire options.

Throughout the game you will scout out and find various arsenals used to store spells and magic. These arsenals are a big help in the long run seeing as you can pull them out anywhere and use the magic stored inside. Also, after every mission you obtain a Memory Box, which allows you to look over the file inside, and learn new combos/attacks that you never knew you could perform. But in my opinion, you won’t need to use the Memory Box’s to learn any sort of attack nor defense. I also found it a tad disappointing that there is not an option of leveling up throughout the span of the game. Instead of leveling up, you achieve new skills every so often.