Phantasia II Review

Posted on August 30, 2007 - Filed Under Match Three, Review |

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You are asked to help save the forest from an evil wizard that has enslaved all of the animals of the forest and captured the good fairy in Phantasia II. There are multiple games inside Phantasia II, three to be exact. Each game is represented by a mode, but there are three games because each time you pick a new mode the story line is repeated. The three different modes are classic, bubble and arcamania.

The classic mode is a match three type game. The object is to get three color bubbles in a row and they will disappear. To match the bubbles, you have a paddle that you use to shoot the bubbles from. The paddle can move side to side to allow you to shoot at different areas. Stick the color bubble you shoot, to the same colors and the other bubbles explode. You do this while the bubbles are moving down the screen closer to you. If you miss the color you were aiming for, the bubble is stuck to the wrong color and you need to complete a match three on that bubble. You are able to hit rows of the same color to have the bubbles disappear. When the rows disappear, they cause the all of the bubbles below them to fall and disappear.

The reason you are matching bubbles is to free dwarves that are stuck in the bubbles. You need to free all of the dwarves before the bubbles drop all the way down and cause you to lose the level. If you do lose a level, you are able to retry the level.

The bubble mode is similar to classic mode, in the fact that you need to match three colors to get the bubbles to disappear. Again, you are saving dwarves trapped in bubbles. This time though, you are shooting bubbles from a stationary position. An arrow shows you where the bubble will be shot. You also have the ability to bounce a bubble off the wall to hit the same color bubbles in a different row.

The arcamania mode is just like break out. You have a paddle that moves side to side and you need to catch the ball as it bounces off the bubbles on the board. Match the color of the ball to the bubbles and you pop more bubbles from that row.

The graphics in the game are not that great. The story line is presented in still frames that contain pictures that are not drawn that well. You can tell what they are trying to represent, but it almost looks childish.

The sound in the game is really annoying. The sound basically consists of dwaves saying help me over and over. Unless you are in arcamania mode, then you hear the dwarves and the ball bouncing off the paddle.

All three modes in Phantasia II are enjoying to play, but don’t offer anything that drew me back in to want to play more. I kept playing for awhile and to be honest I am not quite sure why. I was being entertained, but there isn’t much of a challenge.