Phantasy Star Portable 2

But, out of the new tech, it's the trio of Chains, Dodges and Just Attacks which represent the most significant change. Similar to Monster Hunter, dodging affords the player a few frames of invulnerability as they try to avoid an oncoming attack at the cost of Photon Power. Chains, meanwhile, relate to how many consecutive hits you and your team combo the opponent, with the twist being that once you land a Photon Art, the chain multiplier is used to determine the Photon Art's strength before being reset to zero.

Add onto this the returning Just Attack system from Ambition of the Illuminus – whereby pressing attack in a set rhythm increases damage potency – and you have a combat system where spamming Photon Arts is significantly less effective than carefully chaining normal attacks together before unleashing a deadlier Photon Art. And although it's not in the same league as Capcom's superlative slice of portable adventuring (which, in contrast, highlights how it's preferable to have ten excellent weapon classes rather than 28 similar ones), this tactical overhaul is nonetheless welcome.

As a Phantasy Star game, Portable 2 has an inherent obsession with loot-hoarding and power-levelling which kicks off the instant you head into single-player. The structure of the Story Mode has been significantly improved from Portable, with the static menu system replaced by a 3D central hub – similar to the classic Pioneer 2 from Phantasy Star Online – which allows the player to wander about their business between missions. The rendering budget also stretches to a player bedroom, complete with a 1000-item storage chest.

The story missions themselves spin an uninspired yarn around a dead civilisation called The Ancients who long ago perfected subspace travel and are looking to reclaim the galaxy. While that may sound serious, most of its played alongside your ditsy partner Emilia who keeps proceedings predominantly light-hearted. But with only ten chapters and a 25-hour completion time, it won't be long before you have this new threat resolved.

That said, it's all about the four-player dungeon-pillaging and, as before, this is where the depth of the game lies. The returning ad-hoc mode means that with a few Portable players in the room it's just a simple case of setting up an Open Mission and then carving your way through some generic labyrinth before either double-, triple- or quadruple-teaming some fiendish dragon or monolithic boss.

Portable 2's biggest selling point, though, is undoubtedly the option to play online via the PlayStation Network. Although there were ways to simulate this in the last game – including the PS3's excellent ad hoc Party – this shouldn't overshadow a crucial feature that now allows anyone to play Phantasy Star online with just a PSP and a wireless router. There are some minor issues with host latency affecting the smoothness of play, but team up with UK gamers who have stable connections and it's hard to fault.

Amongst a slew of beneficial tweaks to the Phantasy Star formula – which are too numerous to list, but include subtle changes like the Action Palette now having six slots for armour – Alfa System's crowning achievement is that instead of a handheld port of Universe, Portable 2 feels like a Phantasy Star that was designed to be portable from the ground up. The missions are punchier and the ebb and flow of the gameplay is tighter and more refined.

Unfortunately, Portable 2's familiarity is also its weakness, because as much as it tries to shake things up, the combat feels archaic and stagnant after remaining largely unchanged since Phantasy Star Online. When compared to Monster Hunter – in which deep weapon classes compliment a multiplayer experience that epitomises teamwork – Phantasy Star's shallow gameplay just doesn't have what it takes to compete.

Nonetheless, if you find Monster Hunter too hardcore and are looking for something with accessibility in spades - or if you're just a Phantasy Star diehard looking to plunge the depths of a new 200-level cap - then Portable 2 has a lot to offer. At its best, it's arguably the most accomplished Phantasy Star yet, and undoubtedly the new king of loot-hoarding on the PSP. We just hope next year's Sega-developed Phantasy Star Online 2 does more to reinstate this classic series to its former glory.