| Phantasy Star Online |
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| Release/System: ?/??/?? - Dreamcast (Japan) 1/30/01 - Dreamcast (USA) |
| Updated 6/10/01 |
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| Oh wow, what do we have here? It's games like this that make you depressed that the Dreamcast is going away. I've never played a game as addicting as this. Yes, Tetris didn't hook me as much as this. I played Tetris for hours, but this beat the sh*t out of it. I delayed my life because of this game. I had to reorganize my life just to go out more while this game was in session. Phantasy Star Online (PSO) is a special game. You shouldn't base it on my numbered review on the bottom of the page. It's so much more than that. Because of this fact, the review will be written differently. Why? I have no idea how to write it. LOL. I want to tell you everything about how wonderful the game is without making this review look like an instruction manuel. So I'll try to point out many of the brighter points of the game. Read on. :-) |
| The game is basically a 3rd person action/rpg game. Just think about a Zelda game where you go around and fight monsters.. only this time you gain experience points. As you fight enemies, you gain experience that you use to make your character stronger, faster, etc. There are 4 main areas to the game with different monsters you can battle. If you want, there are a bunch of side quests that you could also play to gain a little more depth into the storyline. The story starts out really nice: "Your planet is dying, so the scientists start "The Pioneer Project". Probes were sent out looking for suitable planets to live on. Once a suitable planet was found, an interstellar spaceship (Pioneer 1) was made to establish a colony there. On this planet (Ragol), the colonists made a Central Dome (a living headquarters I guess). Seven years later, another ship was made, Pioneer 2, and established communications with the Central Dome on Ragol. Pioneer 2 held the remaining refugees to land on the planet. But before Pioneer 2 landed, a huge explosion shook the planet and all communication was lost. The main commander of Pioneer 2, the Principal, hires you to find out what happened.. " Now isn't that an awesome start to a story? Too bad the story kinda sucks during the game. The ending (or lack of one) is pretty bad also. |
| Diablo III? I'm sure many of you Diablo II fans out there would recognize how similar this game is to Diablo II. It's so similar in fact that I just joke around and call PSO, Diablo III. Here are some of the reasons why these games are so similar: * 4 Main Areas * Play with other fighters online * A town to heal up and buy stuff * A portal to get to town and back * Major point to game is getting exp * Slotted armor * Different colored enemies * Lots of rare items * Yellow meaning very rare weapon * Green to mean special weapon * Crappy ending * 3 difficulty levels to unlock * Money & Weapon drops when dead LOL, it's as if Sega copied Diablo II, put in 3D graphics, and called it PSO. So if you're actually tired of PSO and want to play another game, Diablo II is an awesome game you should consider. |
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| The game's graphics are well done, with a llittle bit of slowdown here and there when there are a bunch of enemies on the screen, or when your internet (or others) connction slows down. On the majority though, it runs nice and smooty. Colorful is definatly the best way to describe the basic look of the game. The forest area is fulled with different shades of green while the mines level can look almost floresent. After hours and hours of straight play, the colors can wreak havoc on your eyes, so try to take a little break here and there so you don't do any permanent damage (and so you can get even more play time throughout the day!). LOL! One of the best features of the graphics is how you customize your own special character (which I'll explain in more detail later). In the beginning of the game, you'll have to create your own character. You can make the character tall/short, light skinned/dark skinned, change the clothing, eyes, hair, etc. Heck, even the character's mag (explained later) will change shape as you care for it. But because of this customization, the game will load a bit (couple of seconds) during an actual game when another character comes in to load up their image. The game's music is decent. Maybe 2 songs stuck out, but not really worth mentioning. The music during the gameplay is hardly noticable or interesting to note. The sound effects are pretty good though. You can even customize different sounds to fit your different symbol chats (explained later). Yay! |
| Interaction is always fun. :-D |
| Now that I got the main points taken care of, it's time to tell you about the best part of the game: THE ONLINE PLAY. Because you're going to be meeting lots of people online, you gotta make your character stick out. In the beginning of the game, you'll have a chance to pick from 9 different character types which are seperated into 3 different species. The Hunters are good with blades and close range combat. The Rangers are good with gun-type weapons and long-range combat. The Force is good with techniques, and are better suited for combat support. There are also android characters which can't use techniques, but are strong, can see traps, and can withstand different dangerous spells. After that you get to choose how your character will look using a character editor, then you can choose your character's name. To me, the Rangers are better for beginners, and the forces are for the challenge minded (so damn weak!!). |
| And no, the level of customization doesn't end there folks. You can also make your own symbol chats. Symbol chat is basically a small picture you make to express how you feel, or if you need something (instead of typing in a sentence). It's fun to use, and can show off your art talents. LOL. For example, suppose you just gained a level. Instead of typing in "Awesome!!!", you can use a nice symbol with your own special sound to express how you feel. Yahoo!! :-D |
| And what about those sentences you use so often that you type over and over? Well, there are shortcuts you can use. You can assign shortcuts to each of the buttons to your directional pad (if you have a keyboard, you can assign even more shortcuts on your F function buttons). So instead of stopping and typing in "Thank You", you can assign a button to do it for you! |
| One of the best things I love so much about PSO is the interaction you have with other people. Remember, this game is worldwide. Heck, it even let's you select from 5 different languages in it's options screen (English, Japanese, French, German, and Spanish). Sometimes I just have fun talking with people (it's like a chat room where you have an actual picture to talk to) instead of playing. Since there are major time differences around the world, there is a beat time system used in the game. 1000 beats in a day. That's around 1 min and 26.4 seconds in 1 beat. In the start of an online game, you get to choose from a bunch of different ships (you can also choose to play in European or Japanese servers if you wish) you can go to. In a ship are a bunch of blocks. Once you select a block, you are put into a lobby where you can chat with people. If you want to play, you can go to the computer terminals in the middle of lobby to join or create a team. |
| With all this interaction with people of different countries, you'd expect a problem bridging the gap in the language barrior right? Sega sorta solved it with their handy translater. It has a bunch of phrases you can choose from to talk with a person that doesn't know your language. Suppose you want to say "Hi" to a person who doesn't know your language. So you go to the translater, go through the menues and choose "Hi", and it will be automatically translated! It's really convient when you play in the Japanese or European servers, but can be a pain in the ass to use. Even though the translator menues are easy to navigate, you might spend a lot of time finding the phrase you want to say. Doh! |
| The actual meat of the game is when you enter a team to fight monsters. This is where the real fun begins. Unlike other online games where you try to kill your opponents, this game encourages team work. Because everyone is helping you out, you get to interact with many of them as if they were your friends. During the game, you have these special guild cards you can trade so you and your online buddies can find each other during a game. There is a special mail system (sorta like email) that you can use to send messeges back and forth while not playing together. Very very cool. |
| Not only are your buddies helping you out, but you have a special robot that hovers above you. This is called a mag. This thing helps you out by giving you stats and special photon blasts. Each mag can have up to 3 photon blasts that it uses to either destroy enemies or heal you. As you do special combos, or when you get hit, a special meter on the mag will rise. When it gets to 100, it will grant you a photon blast. The only thing a mag requires is your special attention and care. The more you feed it, the more it will like you and treat you better. Some mags can revieve you from death, or give you greater strength for a fight (heck, some can make you invincible for a limited time!). As your mag evolves (yes, it also has experience levels), it will change shape depending on your character. There are many different mags in the game (different ones for different types of characters), and it's just fun to raise it and watch it evolve. |
| Now for one of the parts that keeps people playing, and that's the rare items. Scattered throughout the game are different items (usually weapons and armor) that you find while killing enemies or destroying boxes. These items are incredibly rare (you can tell it's rare by the item name's yellow color). Some rare items are easy to find, while others are just so hard, you'll most likely never find it (even after constant playing). My most precious rare that I found was a fake agito, which was surprising because I'm pretty unlucky with finding any special rare item. The basic fact that there are rare items in the game is what makes people want to play more and more. The more items that are discovered, the more interest people have with thte game. People even make special teams where all they do is trade items back and forth to complete their collection. |
| Now before I tell you all the bad stuff about the game, let me finish off with just some other minor points of the game. In a team game, you always have the option of going to town where you can buy/sell stuff, heal yourself, or just take/store things in a special storage place. |
| Now for the Bad Stuff.. |
| Being an awesome game as it is, there are a few annoying spots to speak of.. A lot of words are censored. Not just the swear words, but some common words. It's annoying to try to talk with someone and your word get's censored. Try typing in the world "sophomore" and you'll understand. LOL. I understand filtering out the bad words for the younger players out there, but why some common words?!! Also, each word bubble only holds 52 letters (I think that's it). Sometimes it's not enough. It's annoying to type what you're saying in a bunch of little bubbles. This is probably done on purpose so someone won't annoy you with their 200 word storeis. LOL. Only 4 areas to the game. Why? That's not enough! After many hours, some of the areas will start to annoy you. The fact that when you die, your main weapon and money drops. This causes a huge problem because sometimes another character will actually steal your stuff. These bastards from hell will then leave the game and show off their stolen weapon that you worked so hard for to their friends. Even though this game has an overall friendly atmosphere, there are some people who are just a bunch of jackasses. All they do is hogg all the items, leave you dead, steal your stuff, use stupid language all the time, etc. It's not fun having to worry about the safety of your character. The glitches in the game. There is this thing called BSOD (Black Screen of Death) which will actually erase all your items or worse.. erase your character. When this happens, the game pauses, turns black, and usually resets the Dreamcast (or you might just do that yourself). There are glitches where you can actually kill another player (which makes stealing items easier). And sometimes ther servers are slow, causing you to get disconnected, not be able to join a team, or just slow down a lot. CHEATERS. They use cheat devices to get all the rare items or make their character lvl 100. They can also use those devices to alter their character or even kill someone. The most annoying thing is when they complain that the game sucks just because they never actually played it. Or that Sega sucks from suspending their gameplay. THE GAME ISN'T FUN WHEN YOU CAN'T EXPERIENCE THE EXCITEMENT OF LEVELING UP AND GETTING RARE ITEMS!!! Come on Sega! Work on the story a bit more! Also, if you're not going to play this game online, don't buy it. It's not worth it. |
| And in Conclusion.. |
| Believe me, I have so much more awesome (and bad) things to say about the game. The story would have really lowered the game's score a bit, but because of the online mode, the interaction with people and the excitement you get while playing, it's raised considerably. If you've played for hundreds of hours and are already sick of it, you can still have fun with the game by mag raising, finding more rare items, maxing out your stats, helping newbies, using the game as a chat room, make another character from different species, play quests, etc. There is so much you can do. Once you buy this game, you won't need another game for months to come. Seriously. |
| Awesome Web Links: PSO World IGN Dreamcast PSO Virtual BBS Sega |
| Graphics: 9.5/10 Sound: 9/10 Music: 7.5/10 Extras: 10/10 Story: 4/10 Characters: N/A Control: 8.5/10 Combat System: 9/10 Length: Infinate Replay Value: 10/10 Originality: 8/10 Challenge: Medium - Very Hard Gameplay: 10/10 Ending: 2/10 Overall: 9.6/10 |