Back in March, I commented a little about the relationship between Phantasy Star Portable and PSU. The two games are not all that different, but despite all of the critical acclaim PSP received at launch, the population of PSU remained in decline. I figured that Sonic Team would use the success of PSP to make some changes for PSU.
As usual, I was wrong. It seems instead that Sonic Team has put all of their efforts into the development of Phantasy Star Portable 2, a sequel that looks more to me like Phantasy Star Online than the current incarnation of PSU. In fact, it almost looks like a hybrid of PSO and PSU -- at first glance, the game appears to mix the best of PSU's gameplay (combat, PAs, items) with some of PSO's game mechanics (character-based PP, level-based skill disks, etc). And unlike the original game, Phantasy Star Portable 2 will have a true online mode (as opposed to just the ad-hoc mode PSP1 had).
That begs the question: what exactly are Sonic Team's plans for PSU? Is Sega content to just let the game die while the PSP games grow in popularity? Hopefully not -- I'd like to see the console version continue to exist, either through some sort of update or through the development of a brand new game. PSU has more potential for improvement and expansion than any of the portable games ever will, and it would be nice to see Sonic Team use the PSP games as a way of getting new players into PSU.
Sadly, that doesn't seem to have happened yet. Hopefully Sonic Team will figure it out once PSP2 hits retail.
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