Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II

"Phantasy Star Addiction"

Playing Phantasy Star Online is unlike any gaming experience I have ever had. On the one hand, the one player experience is rather tame and not very involved. The battle system is fairly basic and the story is almost non-existent. Why then do I have over 200 hours logged on this game? Why is it that a female friend of mine who almost never games cannot put the controller down? See, PSO is unlike any other console game in the fact that it is one of the most addicting/fun multi-player experiences out there. So much seems to come together, and so powerfully, that its faults are all but forgotten. Let me elaborate.

Technically, PSO is wonderfully crafted. Though this game originated on the Dreamcast and then migrated to the Gamecube, it still looks beautiful. The characters are diverse and have their own distinct creative style. The monsters are not merely color swapped boredom, but are all lovingly rendered and animated (each with its own special effects). The backgrounds, oh the backgrounds truly have to be seen to be believed. They are so breathtaking in fact that some of my friends actually gasped in awe and a female friend of mine re-named a room the 'pretty room'. Said room involves waterfalls and though I wouldn't have picked the word 'pretty', it really is.

The music in PSO is equally beautiful. Containing excellent remixes of past PS tunes combined with modern original pieces, the music is unbelievable. The themes follow the sci-fi mood of the game to the tee, and my non-game music listening friends actually told me to turn on the surround sound and crank it. I found myself, for one of the first times ever, considering buying the soundtrack. Even the sound effects are wonderful. From the Starwars-esque lightsaber swing, to the shotgun's deep bass every time a shot is fired, PSO's effects will have you loving every minute of it.

Unfortunately, since I am a big fan of the PS series in itself, the plot in PSO is just not up to snuff. The back-story is all there, and it seems interesting, but there simply are no answers. Most of the story is driven via small terminals in the ground that you can access, and via NPCs. Unfortunately, the dialogue seems quite stale and very little is actually available. You will come out of this game wondering what in the world is happening. This is very disappointing coming from one of my favorite sci-fi series.

Fortunately, PSO is all about the game play, and not about the story. Basically, you spend most of your time in a dozen or so dungeons hacking the same enemies, and finding items. Sound boring? It does in theory, but in actuality, it is quite fun. Your character starts off incredibly weak, but gradually becomes a butt-kicking machine. You build a kind of pride towards raising your character and you really start to feel attached to them. So much so that I will refuse to use anyone else's character, and I am not the only one. The game also lets you challenge more difficult worlds once you have completed the easier difficulty levels. This makes for a challenge that is always fresh. The game also rewards you by dropping rare items depending on the difficulty level you are currently playing. This makes for fun times as everyone races for the red box to see what it could be.

PSO can be played offline by yourself, online with 3 other people from around the globe, or offline with 3 other friends split-screen. Offline by yourself quickly becomes stale. Without friends to help you battle, the game quickly becomes nothing more than a standard hack and slash. Avoid playing like this if you can. Offline and with friends is much improved. There is nothing more fun than competing/helping out your buddies as you progress through the levels. Unfortunately, several aspects make this mode only playable for a very select few. For starters, PSO was not made for split screen. Everything gets crushed into tiny little boxes and it is rough to see what it going on. Certain aspects that you can normally view one player now have to be accessed via a secondary button. There is even some really bad slowdown, though I only experienced it when we were playing with 4 players and then only when there were tons of enemies on screen. The worst part though is the size of the screen. I am playing PSO on a 47-inch wide screen Toshiba with S-video cables and it is barely playable. Anything short of a big screen/wide screen would be almost unplayable I would think.

Online play is where this game is truly at. It is so much fun to hook up with some friends online and make up your own victory charges, etc. Everything that is great about the offline multi-player is greater online due to a nice full screen. Unfortunately, it is not perfect. While I haven't yet experienced this myself (as I am stuck offline for a bit), apparently there are quite a few BSOD's (Black Screen of Death) going on for broadband users. This can result in losing items or experience, which is never nice. Sega has had quite a bit of time to fix this and yet it still survives which is very disheartening. The worst part of online play however, has to be the cost. Not only do you have to buy the game, you must buy an online adapter, a keyboard (not required but in my opinion absolutely necessary), and an online hunter's license. And yes, it is a monthly fee. Sure if you work you can afford it all but it is still a pretty heavy hit to the wallet. None the less, if you can afford it, online is the place to be in PSO.

I am a veteran from the Dreamcast PSO days, and I can imagine quite a few others will be as well. So, what is different between the Dreamcast version and the Gamecube version? Well, for starters, both Episode 1 and Episode 2 are here, which is very, very nice. I never played Episode 2 on the Dreamcast but always wanted to and now I have the chance. There are 3 new character classes (I believe), and they are pretty fun to play with though they don't add all that much to the game. Rare items are now encased in red boxes (maybe it was like this in Episode 2 on the Dreamcast, but like I said, I never played it). This is a particularly nice function since you know which items to grab quickly. A few of the character classes seem to be taken down a notch. I am pretty sure I was able to use Reverser and Grants when I was using a RAmar on the Dreamcast, and now I mysteriously can't. Very strange. New quests have been added, the ones you could download in the Dreamcast version have suddenly appeared in the normal quests sections. All said and told, there are enough new perks to play through again, in my opinion.

To sum up, I would recommend this game to everyone I know who has ever picked up a controller before, provided you have some friends to play with offline, or plan on going online. Male, female, hardcore, casual, young, old, it doesn't matter, I have yet to meet someone who didn't enjoy the PSO experience. It is a beautiful, engrossing game. You will lose a lot of time playing this game, heck; I almost failed a course due to this game. In any case, give it a try, get online and meet up with my RAmar, Lbabinz. See you online.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/02, Updated 11/21/02