Sports games were never high on my list in the gaming department. I do sports from time to time, so the feeling you get by performing them for real is lost in video games. As a kid, I went through mini-golf once, but I never pursued the main sport in general since it seemed like too much of a bore. Trying Fantasy Golf: Pangya Portable was a major step outside my comfort zone, but I'm still playing it up to now and haven't regretted a single minute of it.
PANGYA is the new term for straight. But what do you call a hook or a slice?
Pangya Portable is a port of a netoge by Ntreev Soft, which infused fantasy elements (and moe) in the stuffy sport of golf. Regrettably, it wasn't able to convince a lot of people that the golf could be fun with magic, babes and online anonymity. As a result, many international publishers quit on the franchise which in turn caused servers to go belly up. Despite the overall low state of the game, it's still enjoying a bit of a following in a few places (including Japan) and was picked up by Takara Tomy for release in the PSP console.
Is Kooh dancing because she got a hole in one, or is she just trying to keep warm? While I'm not complaining about the lolilicious outfit, it's a poor choice for the White Wiz course.
Ten years ago in Pangya Island, an unnamed hero fought against the malevolent Demon King and won, saving the island from destruction. The forces of darkness have since laid low and cast a seal on the island until such time that a descendant of their clan can become powerful enough to serve as their next king. Knowing that another invasion is imminent, the denizens of Pangya Island invited several humans who love to play golf to assist in weakening the seal by shooting Aztecs into the dozens of magical holes scattered around the area.
The Ponta is such a strange creature. Despite only being able to make rustling sounds, people in Pangya can actually understand what it's trying to say.
Pangya is a Korean onomatopoeia for the "bang" sound, and that's the effect you get when you hit the Aztec(Pangya's golf ball) perfectly for a straight. Pangya Portable offers the same characters, moves and options as the original netoge minus the local sponsor item offers. In the story mode, you can follow every single one of the main characters' adventures in Pangya island, though in the end it will be Ken (known as Scout/Nuri in the netoge) who will face off against Kaz. Upon finishing the first two chapters, you will once again assume the role of Kaz in the epilogue, who will fight his former minions in an effort to free himself from his fate.
From a dignified Coast Guard officer to a punker with an octopus plushie on her head... Cecilia's looking sharp!
The main appeal of Pangya Portable is dressing up your characters in cool threads and giving them the right equipment for playing golf. Buying clothes earn you points in a card, and when you get twenty articles, you are awarded with a Ponta shopping bag (Papel in the netoge) which serves as your character's caddie and item holder. Clothes are also won in tournaments, but the really good ones are obtained from the Ponta Shop, which really isn't a shop per se, but more like a Ponta-fied gashapon machine where you may get good stuff for just 200PP.
Sans these cuties, I wouldn't give Pangya a second look. Yeah I know, we have real-life female golfers nowadays, but how many of them can transform into birds or cast magic?
The character design for the guys are pretty good, but the girls are breathtakingly beautiful. My hat is off to the late Seed (the design director for the game who succumbed to illness recently, may his talented soul rest in peace) for creating such appealing female character designs that can rival even the most charming Japanese-made moeblobs. Despite being a Korean franchise, Pangya is hands down the most moetastic golf game around, and the kind of items you can dress them in serve to prove it... you'll be spending most of the game earning PP towards collecting the multitude of costumes, dresses, and bikinis for completion and ogling purposes. Also noteworthy are the teaspoonfuls of panchira from the short skirts flying up whenever the girls tee off an Aztec or do their little victory dances.
If Arin wore a blonde wig and this outfit to the masters, Tiger Woods would be hitting on her in no time flat.
Though releasing Pangya for the PSP seems to be an effort in Takara Tomy's part to compete with Clap Hanz' established Minna No Golf series, players who think that Pangya Portable is an easy romp will have their keisters utterly fried and served on a platter. Golf has always been a game of variables, so you shouldn't depend on the distance counter to the dot when you're trying to get to the hole in as few strokes as humanly possible. The different terrain surfaces and fickle wind direction can oftentimes ruin an otherwise perfect shot, and in high-level tournaments, the AI can get all the lucky breaks while you get stuck with pars (or worse, bogeys). Even the simplest of courses will have you screaming with frustration if you let your guard down.
Snake!?! Izzat you, dawg?So if you're sick of golf games with the same old predictable stuff, Pangya Portable should prove to be an interesting play. It'll change the way you look at the so-called "businessman's sport" for as long as you live.
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