Phantasy Star Online

"Why does it start with"

I consider Phantasy Star Online (PSO for short) a tried and failed experiment. Being the first online RPG for a console, it's definitely revolutionary, but there are to many shortcomings to give it perfect score. Granted, it is undeniably addictive and any game that I willingly can spend over 200 hours on is worth the money, and I think the series has the potential to improve in the future, maybe on another console.

The story is this: Your home planet is dying, and the ship Pioneer 1 is sent out in search for another habitable place to live. They find the planet of Ragol, and confirm that it's a suitable location. Seven years later, Pioneer 2 comes to meet them with the main wave of refugees. As the two ships attempt to establish a communication link, something rocks the planet and all contact with Pioneer 1 is lost. It's your duty to go out and search for the remains of the people, and find out what happened!

Unfortunately, the story doesn't extend much from this. You're greeted with one single cinema throughout the entire game, and even after beating the final boss, the story doesn't really complete itself. Fortunately, playing online is more about chatting with fellow humans rather than solving a mystery, but the offline mode can become extremely boring without any sort of storyline.

When starting out, you'll find yourself aboard Pioneer 2, and from there you can visit the shops, deposit/withdraw items in the bank, talk to the Principal, or heal yourself at the medical place. Once you and your party are ready, take the main transporter to one of four areas.

The fighting system is in real-time rather than being turn based, and it works pretty well. Your ''action palette'' is composed of six different actions that can be used with the X, A, and B buttons along with the R trigger. You can assign certain actions including attacks, recover items, and spells to the different buttons, which usually works well enough. There are three different types of attacks, and pressing the designated button will execute them. As you play you'll find crates that contain treasure, and dead enemies will drop items as well-these can include recover items for health, weapons and armor, or even money called Meseta that is used to buy things in the shops.

The worse thing about playing is that the gameplay is so monotonous. It consists of entering a room, killing off the enemies, picking up the items, and moving on to do the same thing again. At the end of each stage you'll have to fight a boss, and then move on to the next area. This repetitive gameplay grows dull, especially offline, and it's to the point where I can't play offline without falling asleep. Fortunately, the online part makes up for it.

When you first connect, you can choose from different ships and blocks, which act as the servers. Once you choose where to go, it will take you to the lobby and you can chat or play a game from there. Playing online is no different from offline, except now you have friends to back you up, and you can chat while they do so.

Talking is done by using one of two things: the Dreamcast keyboard, or the on-screen ''virtual keyboard'' that is accessed by pressing Y. I would highly recommend getting a keyboard, because it's just too hard to type otherwise. There are other cool chat features though, including the Word Select thing that lets you choose from a list of preset of words and phrases, that when used are automatically translated into the language of the user you are playing with. This makes international games easier, and more interesting too! Another cool thing is the Symbol Chat, which are images that you can customize to express your feelings.

You can then keep track of your friends by exchanging what are called Guild Cards, which act as your own business card. These allow other users to find you if you're online, as well as mail you via the PSO in-game email.

Unfortunately, the online world is a mess. So many users with cheat devices or people simply taking advantage of the game's glitches are out to destroy you-they can kill your character, freeze your screen, and even make you lose items or *gasp* your character. Annoying idiots like this can keep one from playing the game at all, but there's more! The game has been hacked to death to the point where everyone has so-called ''rares'' and they really ruin the game. Yet Sega has done little to stop it, and even PSO Ver. 2 has a problem with cheating already.

It looks good at least, and the game has some of the best graphics I've seen in a while. The music is decent, but nothing special.

- Bottom Line -
Several glitches and monotonous gameplay slow it down, and the cheat-filled online world sucks the fun out of it. But it's addicting nonetheless, and will keep you entertained for hundreds of hours! So despite some major problems, it's still worth buying.

Final Scores:
Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 9
Sound: 7
Replay: 10
Overall: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/01, Updated 08/20/01