I recently beat the offline mode, clocking in at 19 hours. I was sorely unimpressed. The story never had anything that was unpredictable to me, and all of the characters seemed like typically Japanese-anime styled cookie cutters, as the trailer heavily hinted at.
Story is definitely not the offline mode's strong point. One thing I'm confused by at the ending is
is the online mode suppose to be a continuation of the offline mode, or is it supposed to be happening at the same time? Seeing as how they supposedly sent all the SEED to another plane, I can't see the online mode as being a continuation, yet that is what was being implied.
i believe to get the most out of story mode you to had to have at least played phantasy star 4. about the ending:
the containment system only took care of the seed in the guhral system,the hive was just outside of the system and out of the containment systems range
the online story pics up after story mode and theres quests that continue the story. in the first one you meet a new character( a tall beast female) and for reasons unknown to me you are fighting liina and ethan. i have a strong feeling we havent seen the last of magashi.[/code]