Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II

"My Phantasy come true!"

Phantasy Star Online (or PSO), questionable spelling aside, is a very well made game. The first day, I popped the disk in at 4 PM. I didn’t stop playing until 2 AM. This game is that good. It’s a very solid port that Sonic Team should be proud of, but has a few minor flaws that I will go into in depth later. The games finer points redeem the less savory ones, and make this one of the Gamecube’s better titles. Quick, follow that Booma!

Gameplay: 29/30 A Only one word can describe it. Addictive. Who doesn’t like fighting monsters that range from native life to artificial life? Who doesn’t like killing said monsters with a sword that makes Michael Jordan look like Peewee Herman? The bosses are difficult and complex, and the sheer amount of weapons available increases it’s addictiveness… ness…. Let’s go in depth with it. There are sabers, daggers, swords, and partisans, shot weapons, rifles, canes, rods, and wands. That’s 9 different classes. And there are four levels of each weapon. (IE, the level after rifle is a sniper) So that’s 9x4=36 classes. Then there are the elements that some weapons have. Ice, heat, shock, heart, king, dark, and mind. And each element has about 4 levels of intensity. So 7x4=28 and 36x28=1008 SEPARATE WEAPONS! And that’s not even counting rare items and techniques! The only flaw in the gameplay is the *cough* repetitiveness.

Story: 12/15 B- There really isn’t too much of a story here. You’re a warrior called a hunter (ironically, there are three classes, Hunter, Ranger, and Force, but hunter is a generalization for all of them.) and you’re on a ship/city called the Pioneer 2, fleeing your doomed home planet. As the ship makes it to the inhabitable planet Ragol, the Pioneer 2 loses contact with the Pioneer 1, a ship that had already landed, during a mysterious explosion. So you’re trying to contact your base to see if there are any survivors, and that takes you to the surface, which is crawling with hostile life. There is very little to forward the story after that. Oh, and there is some guy called ‘The Principal’ who wants you to save his daughter who was on the Pioneer 1. That’s basically it. The whole story is told in the first three minutes. Leaves something to be desired, doesn’t it? Well, the story doesn’t always make the game, and this game is proof.

Graphics: 22/25 B The graphics in Episode 2 are nothing to sneeze at, but Episode 1 (A-choo!) is another story. Ragol’s sky is well done, but the graphics on the ground look sort of bland, and the grass looks like green tile. The rest of the graphics look okay, but some of the enemies (especially in the Forest) look dull in color, and aren’t sharp enough in important places, like their faces. (Cool, I’m a poet!) But the character models are great. The motions of weapon wielding are fluid and smooth, and the combos look especially well done.

Sound: 15/15 A+ The music is pretty catchy, but the sound effects are what makes this game excel in this category. When you materialize into the levels, it actually SOUNDS like you were pulled atom from atom and pieced together in a foreign area. When an enemy dies, it SOUNDS like an enemy dies. When a boss roars… well, you get the idea. As you kill the first boss, it lets out a roar that makes you REALLY want to run! As it hits the ground, a dull thud resounds, and it sounds like he really fell on a hard packed dirt floor. When you hit enemies with a sword or saber, it sounds like you are cleaving through their skin. As your player deflects a blow with his arm-shield, a light ~ching~ is heard. You also hear your character’s footsteps as they trod across metal platforms. The sound effects are some of the best I’ve ever heard in a GCN game.

Replay Value: 15/15 A+ With all of those weapons that I listed earlier, plus quests, rare weapons, online play, four difficulty levels, and four player battles galore, you can play this game for years and not have done everything. Unless you don’t like killing things that are trying to kill you, you’ll be poppin’ this disk in two years from now.

Rent or Buy? BUY THIS NOW! You will not regret it! If you’re not sure, though, it’s a good rent. But you’ll regret bringing it back.

Personal Curve +5 I just like this game so much, it deserves more than 93, so I’ll give it 5 more points. If you were writing a review (if you haven’t already ^_^) you’d do the same.

Final Score: 98/100, GameFaqs 9.8/10, rounded to 10/10 A+ Thanks for reading my first review. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to play Phantasy Star Online… offline.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/03, Updated 07/12/03