Phantom Dust HD : Out Now for FREE!!

As a fan of the original game who if very excited to see it's return, I thought I'd share a few observations/memories about this game to let those who never played the game know what all the hubbub is all about.

1) PD had some 300 powers and they were as a whole amazingly well-balanced. There were a few updates over the life of the game to make tweaks, which is to be expected. Now maybe I am just not recalling them, but I don't remember "broken combos" or anything like that.

2 ) The powers have more than just a "Mana cost" and damage value. The powers will work in particular ways which will effect how they are used in the environment. For example some ranged attacks will travel in a straight line towards your target, like the laser the guy uses in the trailer. Some abilities like "Side Laser" will travel in an arc off to your right towards your target, so it will go around obstacles that are directly between you and your target.

3)Personally I have to say that PD was some of the most fun I had on Xbox Live on the Original Xbox. To be fair, the lobby system could have been a little bit better, but that was still relatively early days on XBL. I wouldn't expect that to be much of a problems these days. Anyway, I felt like the game had a good balance between action and strategy. There was plenty of action in the game, but there is a great deal of strategy as well.

4) The story is pretty good, has some interesting concepts/ideas. Although I have to be honest that I never finished the final boss-battle so I never saw the final cut-scene in context (I did see it after the fact on Youtube, but it would have been much better to see in context).
 
I wonder if PD2 will be out anytime soon. I'm hoping for at least early 2015. So damn excited to hear more about this game.
 
No doubt about it. Phantom Dust was the megaton of E3 hands down. The Xbox One is getting some amazing games.
 
dmorans24 said:
Yeah it kinda looks like Marcus Fenix. Also right after that there's another Halo Wars posters, same picture, behind the guy sitting in the bench on the right.

Edit: Yes it is Gears.

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HAH, I KNEW IT!
 
Hissatsu said:
I wonder if PD2 will be out anytime soon. I'm hoping for at least early 2015. So damn excited to hear more about this game.
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I'd estimate that if any game shown doesn't say a release date, it will be 2015 at minimum.
 
KEM said:
As a fan of the original game who if very excited to see it's return, I thought I'd share a few observations/memories about this game to let those who never played the game know what all the hubbub is all about.

1) PD had some 300 powers and they were as a whole amazingly well-balanced. There were a few updates over the life of the game to make tweaks, which is to be expected. Now maybe I am just not recalling them, but I don't remember "broken combos" or anything like that.

2 ) The powers have more than just a "Mana cost" and damage value. The powers will work in particular ways which will effect how they are used in the environment. For example some ranged attacks will travel in a straight line towards your target, like the laser the guy uses in the trailer. Some abilities like "Side Laser" will travel in an arc off to your right towards your target, so it will go around obstacles that are directly between you and your target.

3)Personally I have to say that PD was some of the most fun I had on Xbox Live on the Original Xbox. To be fair, the lobby system could have been a little bit better, but that was still relatively early days on XBL. I wouldn't expect that to be much of a problems these days. Anyway, I felt like the game had a good balance between action and strategy. There was plenty of action in the game, but there is a great deal of strategy as well.

4) The story is pretty good, has some interesting concepts/ideas. Although I have to be honest that I never finished the final boss-battle so I never saw the final cut-scene in context (I did see it after the fact on Youtube, but it would have been much better to see in context).
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You forgot to mention that the environments had destruction as well; you could take damage from the debris. Skills fell into one of five "schools":

Psycho - primarily telekinesis
Nature - self-explanatory I hope
Optical - used light, mostly lasers and such
Ki - a lot of physical attacks with added effects
Faith - high offensive/defensive skills that consumed player life or aura (mana) to perform

Within these "schools", skills typically fell into classes:

Attack - Offensive damage skills
Defense - Protective skills
Status - These altered player attributes like increased speed or lowering attack power
Environmental - These affected the entire battlefield's combatants, including the one who used it. It including things like restricting skill usage of skills that cost more than a certain amount or flipping everyone's controls
Specials - Sort of a catch-all class including stuff like teleport, flying/high jump, etc.
Erase - These destroyed opponents equipped skills, as well as, spawn point queued skills

All of these contained their own varieties. For example, some attack class skills were homing, tracking, or "line of sight". Some even went through obstacles. Some defensive skills absorbed attacks, while others redirected them or "brushed" them aside. An extremely strong attack skill could "shatter" some defensive skills thereby destroying them altogether. Some attacks had piercing, effectively working like trample in Magic the Gathering.

I could go on. The game was incredibly strategic and it came down to not only how well you built your deck, but how well you used it as well. Most importantly, it was a lot of fun in both single-player and online play.
 
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The coolest thing about this game was collecting and asssembling your deck. Now PLEEEEEEEASE Microsoft,dont whore out the powers by creating 10,0000 differenr DLC packs.
 
Zcythe said:
You forgot to mention that the environments had destruction as well; you could take damage from the debris. Skills fell into one of five "schools":

Psycho - primarily telekinesis
Nature - self-explanatory I hope
Optical - used light, mostly lasers and such
Ki - a lot of physical attacks with added effects
Faith - high offensive/defensive skills that consumed player life or aura (mana) to perform

Within these "schools", skills typically fell into classes:

Attack - Offensive damage skills
Defense - Protective skills
Status - These altered player attributes like increased speed or lowering attack power
Environmental - These affected the entire battlefield's combatants, including the one who used it. It including things like restricting skill usage of skills that cost more than a certain amount or flipping everyone's controls
Specials - Sort of a catch-all class including stuff like teleport, flying/high jump, etc.
Erase - These destroyed opponents equipped skills, as well as, spawn point queued skills

All of these contained their own varieties. For example, some attack class skills were homing, tracking, or "line of sight". Some even went through obstacles. Some defensive skills absorbed attacks, while others redirected them or "brushed" them aside. An extremely strong attack skill could "shatter" some defensive skills thereby destroying them altogether. Some attacks had piercing, effectively working like trample in Magic the Gathering.

I could go on. The game was incredibly strategic and it came down to not only how well you built your deck, but how well you used it as well. Most importantly, it was a lot of fun in both single-player and online play.
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Great points. I was just trying to give a broad overview, but you give a really nice description of the game and it's strategy. I am kind of kicking myself for forgetting the destructible environments, which was even hinted at in the trailer when Freya deflected the laser blast into the statue and was hit by the debris. Can you imagine the possibilities presented by cloud based destruction? :)
 
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I never ever played the first one, so i cannot get excited yet. The trailer was very well made though.
 
KEM said:
Great points. I was just trying to give a broad overview, but you give a really nice description of the game and it's strategy. I am kind of kicking myself for forgetting the destructible environments, which was even hinted at in the trailer when Freya deflected the laser blast into the statue and was hit by the debris. Can you imagine the possibilities presented by cloud based destruction? :)
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It would definitely be cool for them to use cloud based destruction. I don't know if they will, but it would be cool. I'm so excited to see gameplay for it; it can't come soon enough.
 
I bet you i was that one twitter guy ;-) cause lord knows ive been bugging phil about phantom dust on twitter for months on months, posting comments on forums, gaming websites, joining the fan forum..ahahah but yeah it doesn't matter the way those guys are all foaming to get the Microphone from each other and internally how much of them love the game and how they've looked for the best development studio to make this game..makes me so damn happy..ive never seen devs this excited.
 
Yeah that was the same enthusiasm i saw with the KI reboot/sequel and that turned out to be a great game, can't wait to see what team they have in place to revive PD. Still hard to believe this is actually even happening to be honest. I was sure i would never see a sequel or reboot to this game. Especially seeing how the original sold. Now lets see if we can get a new Crimson Skies and Shadowrun rpg out of Spencer!
 
I think it really helps to have hardcore fans within Microsoft because from viewing that it seems Adam Isgreen was instrumental in bringing back Killer Instinct & Phantom dust he appears to be the one moving the mountains and then convinces ken lobb to say yes and ken lobb convinces Phil to go all in
 
Never played Phantom Dust so it will be interesting from a fresh view. By the way does anyone know if this will be a full retail release or digital only like KI?
 
TheGeneral said:
Never played Phantom Dust so it will be interesting from a fresh view. By the way does anyone know if this will be a full retail release or digital only like KI?
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Watch the vid. From the video it seems like they're thinking of doing it the KI way but tweak it to suit it for a great experience of PD to familiarize as many gamers as possible with the fun aspects of game. They haven't revelealed anything beyond that about their business model.
 
I think the Killer Instinct model is the right path to go down. If you look at digital card games the only one that still does really well at retail is Pokemon, and Phantom Dust does not have that kind of broad appeal.
 
Yeah, I believe that a digital model with some kind of immediate access like KI is the best way to go with Phantom Dust. They need a way to get new players in at the ground floor so that they can be exposed to the awesome gameplay of Phantom Dust with as little risk as possible.
 
I would love it if they took the KI digital structure for this release. I'm also someone who has never played the original, but I'm highly intrigued by this game and want to give it a try. Would like to not waste money on a game I end up not liking at all.
 
It really was, I still own my launch Xbox and Phantom Dust (along with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Halo CE, Project Gotham Racing, Gun Valkyrie, Shenmue 2 and a few other games).
 
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Ketto said:
It really was, I still own my launch Xbox and Phantom Dust (along with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Halo CE, Project Gotham Racing, Gun Valkyrie, Shenmue 2 and a few other games).
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Buffie was actually pretty good. Og xbox still the hardest core console in my opinion so man classics and niche games.
 
i find it amusing.. i unabashedly bought nearly every damn game I could for the OG box... why haven't I heard of PD before?

To be honest, this video does nothing for me, it doesn't seem to be all that... so honest question, what was the appeal of the first one? Plus, in this vid, obviously they are playing a 360 version correct?
 
illiniguy said:
i find it amusing.. i unabashedly bought nearly every damn game I could for the OG box... why haven't I heard of PD before?

To be honest, this video does nothing for me, it doesn't seem to be all that... so honest question, what was the appeal of the first one? Plus, in this vid, obviously they are playing a 360 version correct?
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360 had backwards compatibility with xbox games there's no 360 version. This is the only game of its kind ever its practically its own genre. There's no game that mixes deck building strategy and real time third person action inside an arean base gameplay. You have to play it to get it.
 
illiniguy said:
i find it amusing.. i unabashedly bought nearly every damn game I could for the OG box... why haven't I heard of PD before?

To be honest, this video does nothing for me, it doesn't seem to be all that... so honest question, what was the appeal of the first one? Plus, in this vid, obviously they are playing a 360 version correct?
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There is no 360 version, it's the Xbox version running on the 360 in BC mode. The video will do little because it wasn't about the single player mode (which basically served as one long tutorial more than anything). The actual appeal comes from online battling, it's strategy mixed with frantic action. Managing your resources, knowing what each skill does instinctively, and the skills range as you battle 3 other people trying to be the last one standing. You battle over resources to use said skills and battle over the skills themselves as much as battle to hit/not be hit. It's deck building + arena + strategy game all in one.
 
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