Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II
- Developer
- Sonic Team
- Publisher
- Sega
- Genre
- Role-Playing
- Players
- 4
- Rated
- Everyone
- Released
- 10/29/2002
7.8out of 10gameplay 7 · visuals 8 · audio 8 · value 9
Phantasy Star Online
It seems everyone's trying to get online nowadays, with Microsoft's XBox launching its Live package and Sony talking about their online plans every other week, well everyone except, it seems, Nintendo. Who appear to be leaving it all up to SEGA, who have some experience of the online world from their much loved but ill-fated Dreamcast console. So it seems fitting that the Dreamcasts most successful online game launches Nintendo's GameCube’s online gaming ability, let's hope that SEGA shows Nintendo that there is nothing to be afraid of.
PSO is one of those games that if you don't love it when you first play it, you'll find it very hard to love it at all and then playing it will feel like a burden and you probably won't get your just rewards for sticking with it. You see, in the world Phantasy Star Online, the amount of time you put in more often than not is rewarded with finding special items and your personalized character becoming stronger and more unique.
It's this character development that is the main part of PSO. You start the game being able to choose whether you are a Hunter, Ranger or Force (Close-combat specialist, Long-range expert and magic user respectively). Then you get to choose what type of character you are whether it's a Human, a Newman (genetically modified human) or an Android. Once you've done this you choose the appearance of the characters. Then it's off to the main game, to where trouble and treasure lye ahead.
You're given a very simple task to start you off with, you are to either go to the Hunter's Guild and do some of the Quests to gain some Meseta (PSO's own currency) or down to the first level to gain experience from fighting, which is basically pressing a button 3-times to get a combo and doing so until each room is cleared. Then doing the same until you've beaten the boss, there’s no real skill to this game, anyone can pick it up, but the skill comes in the Multi-player game, where you are forced to play as a unit. To break up the entire endless button bashing though, you have some beautiful scenery to take in, especially in Forest, Mountain and Seaside. You also have a little unit over your shoulder that raises your stats called a MAG, you feed this curing items to raise its own stats and in turn it helps you out. PSO is rather repetitive, and there isn’t much to do in the beginning, especially online. And quite frankly it isn't anything but a re-release of an old Dreamcast game, but Nintendo wouldn’t op SEGA a port for their precious PSO unless it was any good. And believe me this game is good, to some people, this game is crack.
The beginning (Episode I) is taken straight from the Dreamcast, with a few of the downloadable quests thrown in for good measure, and Episode II being the new story, complete with rebuilt battle levels for you to do as part of the game instead of just fighting in, and 4 new areas too boot, there is plenty here to keep you going (I've been playing for 50 hours so far and I'm just about ready to beat the easiest setting for Episode II, already beaten the easiest one for Episode I). They've also included an Offline Multi-player mode, just in case you and your mates fancy a hack through Ragol without having to take up a pone line in each of your homes. But at the end of the day it's the Offline single-player mode that really lets the game down because it is so repetitive, but don't let this put you off buying the game, it is great fun if you put in the time.
The audio is PSO is good, nothing too special. And the audio of characters, creatures, and environments submerse you into this game, but still don’t overwhelm you.
So when it comes down to it, if you're a cube owner and want an online game, this is your only choice really, but it's a decent one anyways. And we can only see this leading to bigger things for Nintendo's tiny purple console, with Sega, and with it’s online community.
- Duane Wheatherall
Click here to view Phantasy Star Online video 1!
This trailer gives you a feel for the game, with brief gameplay footage and online play.
Total time: 1:27 / Size: 8.56 MB
It seems everyone's trying to get online nowadays, with Microsoft's XBox launching its Live package and Sony talking about their online plans every other week, well everyone except, it seems, Nintendo. Who appear to be leaving it all up to SEGA, who have some experience of the online world from their much loved but ill-fated Dreamcast console. So it seems fitting that the Dreamcasts most successful online game launches Nintendo's GameCube’s online gaming ability, let's hope that SEGA shows Nintendo that there is nothing to be afraid of.
PSO is one of those games that if you don't love it when you first play it, you'll find it very hard to love it at all and then playing it will feel like a burden and you probably won't get your just rewards for sticking with it. You see, in the world Phantasy Star Online, the amount of time you put in more often than not is rewarded with finding special items and your personalized character becoming stronger and more unique.
It's this character development that is the main part of PSO. You start the game being able to choose whether you are a Hunter, Ranger or Force (Close-combat specialist, Long-range expert and magic user respectively). Then you get to choose what type of character you are whether it's a Human, a Newman (genetically modified human) or an Android. Once you've done this you choose the appearance of the characters. Then it's off to the main game, to where trouble and treasure lye ahead.
You're given a very simple task to start you off with, you are to either go to the Hunter's Guild and do some of the Quests to gain some Meseta (PSO's own currency) or down to the first level to gain experience from fighting, which is basically pressing a button 3-times to get a combo and doing so until each room is cleared. Then doing the same until you've beaten the boss, there’s no real skill to this game, anyone can pick it up, but the skill comes in the Multi-player game, where you are forced to play as a unit. To break up the entire endless button bashing though, you have some beautiful scenery to take in, especially in Forest, Mountain and Seaside. You also have a little unit over your shoulder that raises your stats called a MAG, you feed this curing items to raise its own stats and in turn it helps you out. PSO is rather repetitive, and there isn’t much to do in the beginning, especially online. And quite frankly it isn't anything but a re-release of an old Dreamcast game, but Nintendo wouldn’t op SEGA a port for their precious PSO unless it was any good. And believe me this game is good, to some people, this game is crack.
The beginning (Episode I) is taken straight from the Dreamcast, with a few of the downloadable quests thrown in for good measure, and Episode II being the new story, complete with rebuilt battle levels for you to do as part of the game instead of just fighting in, and 4 new areas too boot, there is plenty here to keep you going (I've been playing for 50 hours so far and I'm just about ready to beat the easiest setting for Episode II, already beaten the easiest one for Episode I). They've also included an Offline Multi-player mode, just in case you and your mates fancy a hack through Ragol without having to take up a pone line in each of your homes. But at the end of the day it's the Offline single-player mode that really lets the game down because it is so repetitive, but don't let this put you off buying the game, it is great fun if you put in the time.
The audio is PSO is good, nothing too special. And the audio of characters, creatures, and environments submerse you into this game, but still don’t overwhelm you.
So when it comes down to it, if you're a cube owner and want an online game, this is your only choice really, but it's a decent one anyways. And we can only see this leading to bigger things for Nintendo's tiny purple console, with Sega, and with it’s online community.
- Duane Wheatherall
Click here to view Phantasy Star Online video 1!
This trailer gives you a feel for the game, with brief gameplay footage and online play.
Total time: 1:27 / Size: 8.56 MB