It seems it’s only been two days. Or maybe three. I don’t know if I should be concerned by the amount of time I’ve spent on this game or disappointed that I don’t have more progress.

First thing I’d like to share is how often I’ve had to change Natsume.

I could never get the look just right. None of the default costumes looked quite right. I finally went into the salong and changed her hairstyle to something less sporty. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I’m not sure changing the costume again was at all a good match… but the other two are always on hand, so what do I care?

Before I go into the Wired Lance, which is my weapon of choice, I’d like to just briefly go over the Hunter’s two other choices in this game (sans the Gunslash, which all classes can access).

First, the Lance.

It’s surprisingly not all that rangey and is more suited to one-on-one combat than any of the Hunter’s other weapons. I personally am not fond of it, but it’s necessary for a later quest that adds 5 skill points for the Hunter class, so I’ll have to deal with it later.

Next, the Sword.

These are strong weapons good for short distance crowd clearing. Its Photon Arts are particularly punishing. It’s pretty much the weapon of choice for the average Hunter.

Now for the Wired Lance. You really need to see the video (well, skip around, no need to watch the whole thing) to see what it’s all about. It’s a strictly medium-range weapon that can clear crowds like nobody’s business, but it has a glaring weak point at close range.

We may not have Twin Knives yet, but the Wired Lance is an epic substitute.

Now to sidetrack. I have three NPC’s to share with you.

First is Jean.

Well, that’s what the Bumped blog calls him anyway. I would’ve gone with Gene. I usually skip the field Events, but I didn’t for this guy. And it was a good call. It’s pretty funny. He rambles on like the old man he is, and Natsume just gets bored and abandons him.

This is a CAST named Lisa. Her facial expressions creep me the hell out. I’d talk to her more except all her quests are for Rangers, not Hunters. Seriously, CASTS shouldn’t look like that all the time.

This is Kuroto. I wanted to share how freaking awful he looks. Look at that. Why…. Just why?

Moving on, I just kept doing quest after quest to level up and clear what I could. One thing I haven’t been able to do is clear the Lv. 10 Forest area in under 15 minutes with an S Rank. It happens to be the first boss field, mind you, so that’s an achievement.

This is the Rockbear. He’s a big, big guy that hits hard. But he telegraphs all of his attacks.

Most importantly, he’ll beat his chest and raise its arms into the air just before lunging at you with its most devastating attack: a grab and toss. This deals enough damage to kill me in one shot at my level, so I have to make sure I’m always out of its range. Not all that easy when you’re a Hunter, but anyone with decent sense dodges the attack without ever finding out how tough it is. I got unlucky a couple of times, but I did beat him my first encounter with him.

If it whiffs the attack, it lays on the ground just asking you to wail on him. If it whiffs a bunch of attacks, this happens. He spends half the fight on the ground. It’s ridiculous.

At this point it’s dead. The only way you know it’s dead is because the camera does a pan-over and the EXP gain shows up.

Instead of boxes, it drops whatever the hell this is after death. Honestly, I miss the boxes. Every “boss heart” I broke upon only drops meseta and the occasional non-meseta thing. Grinding is going to be terrible.

Now, I once actually did clear this mission in under 15 minutes… but I didn’t kill enough enemies in the main stage, so I didn’t get the S Rank. Pissed me the hell off. What also pisses me off about going for the time limit?

Dark freaking Ragne. I encountered this guy in the second area with plenty of time to spare, and he kept me there for well over the 20 minute mark. Another English player was fighting it, and it took us roughly 15 minutes to finish the guy off. It was both of our first time fighting it, and it was a bitch. Each of us died once. I learned how to revive another player this way. It might have gone easier if it weren’t for the fact that both of us were Wired Lance users. A Ranger and an offensive Force would have made this battle even easier. I only had AI partners that have no sense of self preservation.

I eventually abandoned this quest to work on the Story.

This is Shion. You first encounter her in the shopping lobby, and you know something’s different about her because the screen goes staticy when she talks. Static. Either it turns out you’re in a virtual world within a virtual world, or there’s something very unnatural about her. She gives you the Matter Board, which is essentially a series of unrelated quests you have to complete in order to continue on with the Story. Once I accomplished the two primary quests of the Matter Board, I talked to her again and triggered the Episode 1 quest. I was entirely too prepared for it.

You and Alfin go into a field, presumably to clear it of Dagan. Just after arriving you hear (or remember, I’m not entirely sure) the voice of that girl from my previous post, asking you to help me. But this time it’s ACCOMPANIED BY STATIC. I may not be RPG, but you know damn well the first thing that came to my mind.

The quest looks just like the Episode 0 area, except this time Xeno doesn’t come to save your ass from the Dagans. Unfortunately for them, they have Natsume’s Wired Lance to deal with. They didn’t stand a chance.

During the encounter, Natsume hears the voice of the girl calling for help, and her attention is drawn to a nearby cave. There are three other exits after the battle, and if you go to the wrong one, it’s a fail. So help the mysterious girl, you heartless beast!

Expecting a boss battle at the dead end ahead, I healed myself only to discover… nope, no boss battle. Just defenseless girl lying on the ground. And as we all know, mysterious girls must be helped at all times. This is the first time you see the source of the “help me” voice, by the way.

So you take her back to the ship and the nurse that doesn’t do anything… actually helps!

There are three nurses in the base. One sells medicine. One offers you fetch quests which unlock more medicine for you to buy. And this one… just looks pretty. And she’s the one that’s story-relevant. Ugh.

The mystery girl is named Matoi, and according to some snippets I found online, she claims to have amnesia. She also gets attached to you. Must be the whole rescuing-her-from-the-forest ordeal. Chicks dig that.

It wouldn’t be an online Phantasy Star game without some chick latching on to you. But I’ve decided she’s better than Vivienne and Emilia combined. She’s loli-ish like Emilia but not particularly whiny, and socially awkward like Vivienne but not a walking robot stereotype. She’s an entirely different stereotype. I believe TV Tropes calls it the Mysterious Waif.

So that’s where I’m at in the story so far. I haven’t checked to see if I have Matoi’s partner card yet. I hope I do.

I really need to join some English-speaking communities though because threats like the Dark Ragne aren’t meant to be faced alone in an unbalanced team.

Finally, I leave with you with this.

First off, that guy’s vaguely creepy. Also, launcher on back means he’s a Ranger. So probably not .hack. But still makes you think.

I’m not sure why I’m still playing this game considering a bunch of things I want might not come until Fall, and there’s likely going to be an English version in 2013. But I can’t not play Phantasy Star. I just can’t.