#philosoma

I recently came across a very interesting game for the PS2 called Phase Paradox and, to my surprise, the information online about this game is very limited. I was intrigued... How can a game released over 15 years ago for one of the biggest consoles ever, be so unknown? I decided to do a little digging to find more and that’s what I’ll tackle in this post, but before we begin talking about it, a proper introduction to the series is due... Yes, to the series. Phase Paradox is no less than the sequel to the PS1 title, Philosoma. Never heard of it either, right? Don’t worry, I’ll elaborate... and spoil a bit of the first game, so be aware.

Philosoma was the first game developed by Epics Inc, the same Japanese studio who brought us Ape Escape Racing and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the PSP, and a bunch of other titles you might have heard about. It was one of the first games to ever be announced for the original Playstation and it was scheduled to be a release title, however it was only released in mid-1995 in Japan, and in 1996 in the subsequent regions due to complications during development. Despite the prolonged development time, it only received mixed reviews, praising the impressive FMVs and OK-ish gameplay but condemning its dull visuals. These didn’t stop it from receiving an award for Best Shooter of 1995 by Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine.

But what is it? Philosoma plays like any other 2D/3D space shooter (with a lot of resemblances to other shooters like Galaga and Gradius) but places its emphasis on the multiple perspective gameplay, which varies from isometric to top-down/vertical scrolling to full-fledged 3D. The story is pretty simplistic: a recently colonized alien planet named Planet 220, reports a devastating attack by an unknown force and requires assistance. The player assumes the roles of D3, a rookie pilot, as well as his commander Nicolard Michau and has to try to save the planet. In the end of the game (spoiler alert) , the said planet blows up and this is where Phase Paradox picks up.

But before we get into the story and gameplay, let's see how this game came to life. Phase Paradox, as opposed to it’s prequel, was not developed by Epics Inc, but by Sony Interactive Entertainment themselves, whom had published the first game. However, for the roles of lead designer and supervisor, Sony decided to hire Takahiro Matsushima, the creator of the original game. They setup a somewhat big team, which also included Tatsuya Ishiyama as a cinematic director, who would proceed to work on the cutscenes of the very acclaimed SoulCalibur IV. Don’t let me stop you from getting amazed but there are some more names you might recognize.  The character of Renee is voiced by no less than Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (who’s also the voice director in the game), the singer of some of the non-instrumental songs by Akira Tamaoka in Silent Hill. The character of Umma is voiced by Patricia Ja Lee, whom you may know better by Jill Valentine’s mo-cap and voice actress for Resident Evil 5. Steve Kramer, who has worked as an actor and voice actor for countless productions that range from cinema to video games, voices Lance Fuller’s character too... This only shows how big the production for the game must have been and how much Sony was betting on it.

The first announcement for the game was made by Sony in January 2001 but other than the game’s genres, very few details about it were given. They also announced it would be released in two DVD-ROM discs on the 22nd of March of the same year in Japan, but no dates for the other regions were given. The first demo only appeared in Tokyo Game Show Spring 2001 and by then, the game had been postponed to May 24th, the day it was released in Japan (in only one DVD). The first impressions were decent: people were praising the sci-fi atmosphere but were reluctantly talking about the gameplay:

“Three playable characters from different time frames and different places solve mysteries from each character's perspective. Once they all meet at a certain point in the game, the mysteries begin to unfold. As opposed to the theme of humans vs. aliens or zombies in most of the recent action-adventure games in the genre, this game is about human interaction, trust, and deceit...”

Now, this is where things start to get interesting! If you’re confused, because you were expecting details for a shooter, don’t be! Despite being a direct sequel to Philosoma, its genre is completely different. The sequel is not a 2D/3D shooter like its predecessor, but an action-adventure game with a lot of sci-fi and survival horror influences. The player can control three characters across a field map with pre-rendered backgrounds, similarly to the original Resident Evil games, however the action factor is not present. What I mean is, the player doesn’t shoot or solve puzzles. The player simply moves the characters in between cutscenes and is prompted to do binary choices of yes and no by pressing the X or circle buttons. By making the “wrong” choice, the player usually dies and is prompted to try again. This being said, the game can be easily completed by trial and error and this might just justify why most of the reviews I found online, even if scarce, were all condemning this gameplay mechanic. I’m not saying it’s very good but it seems to me that they’re were going for what could’ve been the beginning of tell-tale games like we know them today. The game also has three different endings, one for each playable character, depending on which one you choose to follow during the final phase of the game (you eventually play them all, to finish the game), which I thought was pretty interesting.

In my opinion, there are two things that this game nailed completely. The UI design and the atmosphere. The cover of the game is beautiful, that’s not an argument, but wait until you boot up the game! The main menu is gorgeous and damn satisfying to use. It’s the perfect intro for the game, which in its whole, gave me a vibe of “Blade Runner meets the The Thing”. Maybe because of the futuristic look of the pre-rendered surrounding environments, along with an interesting sound landscape that heavily relies on background noises, using music only when really necessary. The voice acting (done entirely in English with Japanese subtitles) is pretty satisfactory and goes well with the animation and even though it feels a bit cheesy at times, which game doesn’t? The cutscenes are decent, however, I’m really saddened by the fact that they couldn’t get the facial expressions right while the characters are talking, but hey, they tried! 

I got used to the game and to its flaws after the first hour, and got some enjoyment out of the whole experience and that’s why I’m writing this post. Most reviews of the game are bad, but I would still recommend it to anyone interested in survival horror and/or sci-fi, and any PS2 enthusiast. 

It’s an interesting landmark in PS2′s history that went completely unnoticed. But why? Despite the English voice over (which kind of proves Sony was intending to release the game worldwide), the game never got released outside of Japan. That means that if you owned a NTSC-U or PAL console, you’d need to import the game and you’d also need a modchip or an emulator to play it, hence making it hard for a common gamer to find and play the game. That doesn’t explain, however, why the mentions to this game on Japanese websites are nearly non existent... The game does have a small page on the Japanese Wikipedia, but there is no page for it on the English Wikipedia, so I’d say the Japanese are winning on this one!