Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst

"A fair statement from a hardcore RPG fan"

Introduction- Well, to start off, this game takes place in the 31st century where a large amount of people are trying to colonize on a new planet called Ragol. They came from their home world "Corel" and it ran out of resources. They split into two ships and they are called Pioneer 1 and 2. This is how the game starts. Do not read the story part of my review if you do not want any story ruined for you.

Story 7/10- The story sadly enough, stops there pretty abruptly and gets stale very quickly as you're set off to kill monsters mostly. After Pioneer 1 landed on Ragol, a large explosion took place after colonizing some people there. All the people disappeared and there were no signs of an explosion strangely enough. After this, Pioneer 2 comes into play and they decide to investigate what's going on. That's where you come in. You become the Government's dog and you continue through all the quests, risking your life at every given moment. The story is very odd, but easy to pick up on. There's a different story for each episode you can play through too.

Episode I: In episode I, as stated above, you move from the planet Corel to try and colonize the new planet Ragol. This isn't going very well since contact is lost with the first ship that went down there. Now you investigate what happened.

Episode II: A commander of Pioneer 2's military is missing. Commander Heathcliff Flowen is missing, and the Government wants you to try and search for him. They first send you through tests in the Temple and Spaceship levels, but later on, send you to Gal Da Val Islands to search for Flowen.

Episode IV: A meteorite comes close to hitting Pioneer 2, and lands on Ragol, creating a crater in the land's surface. A blue light came from Ragol and attracted the meteorite to the planet. Now, you need to investigate what happened, and locate a missing girl.

As for Episode III, this is not in the game. It is a separate version for the Gamecube that is played with cards instead of Action/RPG elements. Episode III is the story that happens after the events of Episode I, II, and IV.

Control 7/10(10/10 if you have a controller)-Thankfully, it's not a hack and slash game where you pull off Devil May Cry moves on opponents, so you're limited to what you can do. However, for a PC game, this is not very good control, and probably can't do much about it either, but can be greatly helped with a controller like I have done. You got simple controls, and the view is perfect for your character so you can see exactly what you need to, and the responses to the control are perfect.

Controls are weird at times. You use the w,a,s, and d keys to control your character in the game. The controls are kind of hard to maneuver, which is why I recommend buying a controller. There are controllers you can buy for your PC and there are also adapters you can buy for Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, and Dreamcast too depending on which controller feels most comfortable to you.

There are three little icons in the bottom right corner of your screen, and these are called your palettes. You can customize moves to those palettes. The palettes are used with the left, down, and right arrow keys. There's also a secondary list of palettes as well. Hold down ctrl and it goes to the next list of palettes. You can also do some neat animations by holding down the alt key and pressing any of the number keys at the top, any letters on the kb, or any of the F keys. Very interesting controls I must say.

Fun Factor 10/10- Oddly enough, however repetitive this game may be, it is VERY addicting. For some reason, the continuous hunt for nice, rare items keeps you going for hours, and Sega always updates the game with new quests and weapons for people to play around with. As you will see eventually in your travels through the game, the color red will become a very good heart stopper for any time you're hunting for something rare, as you will see.

You get to pick a class of character, customize, and send through battle. They go under Hunters, Rangers, and Forces. Hunters being the Knights, Rangers being the Archers, and Forces being the Wizards. After picking a class, you then pick a race to go with it. They go into Humans, Newmans(elves), and Droids. Forces cannot be droids however.

Sound/Music 8/10- The music is ok, I guess. It could use some work, but some of the songs are very well orchestrated, especially the one when you fight Dark Falz. The sound effects of the weapons are really nice however, as they sound very real when you hit a machine with a sword; it makes the sound you would expect to hear from hitting something metallic. The spells and photon weapons are very powerful too, and create some interesting sounds. Overall, I'd say it deserves at least an 8/10.

Replay Value 10/10- Replay value is extremely high, as I'm sure you(or maybe not)eventually find hundreds of hours clocking onto your character quickly, and it becomes a chore at some point. The hunt for rare items seems to constantly keep you coming for more at all times. The replay value is much higher on this game than on most online RPGs.

There will be many times when you are bored, that this will be a very good game to pick up and play around with. You can meet with friends using guild cards(little ID cards), arrange fights, and even join up with or make a team. This definitely deserves a 10/10.

Overall 10/10- Overall, I'd have to give this game a 10. With a lot more extras than the Xbox and Gamecube version, as well as a nicer community from before, this game is highly fun and addicting, and I'm sure that anyone would be willing to pay a measly $8.95 a month to play a game you don't even have to buy off the shelves.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/27/05