IGN posted the first Phantasy Star Portable review outside of Japan, and gave it a score of 7.0. Comparing this score to Phantasy Star Universe, it is slightly higher from 6.6 for PS2 and 5.5 for PC. IGN reviewer Ryan Clements summed up his review as:

Despite its problems, including a terribly lackluster story.
poor AI and imperfect lock-ons, Phantasy Star Portable
is really satisfying, especially if you enjoy collecting loot and
seeing your deliciously fashionable robo-wizard level up.

He pointed out that “the game’s entire presentation feels extremely cheap” noting shops and cities have been reduced to a 2D representation of themselves. He also felt the AI was atrocious, stating,  “Never have I seen such incompetent, incapable party members like the AI-controlled riffraff of Phantasy Star Portable.“

We can assume the AI for Phantasy Star Portable acts the same as it does in Phantasy Star Universe. Most players use them for meat shields and healing support, they don’t tend to be useful in any other fashion.

He did point out excellent parts of the game, praising the wide assortment of cool looking weapons and the game’s multi player modes. He seemed to like the action pallete system describing it as, “…extremely handy, as attempting to navigate the game’s full set of menus with monsters leaping all over you is excruciatingly difficult (as it should be).” 

So in all, this is a very surprising review score coming from IGN after the horrendous scores of Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic Unleashed. Maybe IGN isn’t so IGNorant after all?

[via IGN]