I’ve placed Phantom Dust back in the rotation, after hearing Microsoft finally made it backwards compatible with the 360 (thank you!).
Phantom Dust has often been called the video game equivalent of Magic: The Gathering. Players bring an “arsenal,” or deck of skills, into battle with one opponent. Some of these skills can attack, while some are defensive. There are also trickier skills that erase the opponent’s deck or affect a player’s speed and stamina. Basically, the player wants to arrange his deck in a way that focuses on a certain battle plan. Each player gets a spot in the arena where their skill capsules are held, where they can bind a skill to one of four buttons.
Example: I thought it would be neat to make an arsenal where I could walk over to someone’s capsules and erase them. I arranged the arsenal to have basic defensive capabilities, and put the rest of my resources toward skills that pop capsules and absorb whatever skill the other player is using.
It didn’t work. One player was able to wear me out by freezing my skills and kicking my ass with a sword. Another opponent completely screwed me over by casting a spell that prevented any erase skills from being used.
I rarely won any online battles, and as soon as I considered copping some of the arsenals that were used against me, I stopped playing. It seemed you could only be crafty to a certain point, after which you’re just stealing someone else’s ideas. I guess this is why, even after learning to play chess, I never got into it. Part of me — and I hate to admit this — just didn’t want to do the leg work of memorization. As in Phantom Dust, there’s a certain amount of quick thinking and thorough planning involved, but in the end you just need to study all the possibilities. Those who do their homework have the upper hand. But homework is homework.
After all that, why am I dusting off (pun!) this title? Probably because, like Chess, it’s still a damn good game.
