Some games are better off left in the past— Phantom Dust appears to be one of them

Sometimes there’s nothing better than revisiting an old game you love. Sure, they rarely live up to modern standards, but they can be like a comforting digital hug thanks to the familiar surroundings and sense of nostalgia. Other times, it’s just nice to treat yourself to a bit of a history lesson for a classic that you’ve missed. After all, there are so many that deserve a second chance, perhaps all gussied up with an HD touch-up and some extra little treats. So with that in mind, I recently decided to pick up Phantom Dust, since a fair few people had raved about the original and how ‘unique’ it is. I figured I’d discover something new by playing it and maybe learn a thing or two about games from that era. Ultimately, though, all I did was leave disappointed.

- Daniella lucas

It all starts out fine. The visuals are, of course, a bit ropey, and the fashion sense is laughably bad, taking an extreme approach to the cliché of RPG characters covered in belts, but you expect that from a game made in 2004, so it’s weirdly charming. The story has a lot of amnesiacs, and you probably would have described its brand of apocalypse as ‘edgy’ back then, but now it’s adorably cringey, like finding old photos of yourself as a child wearing a bandana and a chain wallet. Then you get to your first set of fights, that famously ‘unique’ battle system presents itself, and you quickly realize that everyone has misused the word unique and what they really meant is ‘it’s so bizarre that there’s a good reason it was only ever used once’.