Phantasy Star Online
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| Phantasy Star Online | |
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| Developer(s) | Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast, PC, GameCube (PSO Ep I&II), Xbox (PSO Ep I&II) |
| Release date | JPN November 21, 2000 NA January 29, 2001 EU February 23, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (13+) |
| Media | GD-ROM, CD-ROM, DVD,GameCube Optical Disc |
| Input methods | Joystick, Keyboard, Mouse |
Phantasy Star Online (PSO) is an online MMORPG title, originally released for Dreamcast in 2000. A bugfix/upgrade edition, entitled Phantasy Star Online ver.2, was released for the Dreamcast the following year. This version was also later ported to Microsoft Windows, but only released in Asia.
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II was later released for Nintendo GameCube and Xbox in 2002, featuring a whole new Episode II alongside with the original Episode I. Consequently, Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution was released for Nintendo GameCube in 2003, including a sole new Episode III with a changed gameplay formula, in the form of a card game. And in turn, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, a port of the Xbox version, was released for Microsoft Windows in 2004 through digital distribution, featuring both Episode I and Episode II, and adding a new Episode IV, NPCs, quests, team system and server-side saving system.
The Phantasy Star Online titles are a sub-series of Sega's Phantasy Star series of games that began in 1987. With the exception of Episode III, the PSO games themselves are simple hack and slash type role-playing games where the player slays monsters, levels up, buys new equipment, etc. The online Phantasy Stars differ from the previous games of the series by offering a real-time – rather than turn-based – approach to combat and seamlessly integrating this with the exploration/plot development aspects of the game.
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[edit] Phantasy Star Online
[edit] Communication system
Communication between players is achieved via a combination of direct 2-line text entry, Symbol Chat and Word Select. As PSO servers support international co-operative play, the Symbol Chat and Word Select features encouraged players to attempt communication with others, regardless of language.
Symbol Chat allows the player to define a collection of symbols within a speech bubble, in order to convey an emotion or simple instruction. These symbols could then be invoked via a player-defined shortcut, or accessed via an in-game menu.
Word Select acts as a limited phrasebook, allowing sentences to be constructed through a hierarchy of menus. Once complete, a sentence is automatically translated into the configured language of other nearby players, thus bridging the language gap encountered in cross-cultural multiplayer games. (Word Select was removed in Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst)
Keyboard users can also trigger a number of gestures anywhere in the game by holding down the Alt key and pressing any letter, number or function key. Holding down the Shift key at the same time allows players to perform the gestures of the opposite sex, but only while they are in the Online Lobby.
The Xbox version (Episodes I & II) also allows voice communication via Xbox Live headset.
[edit] Modes of play
The first two episodes of PSO (excluding the original Dreamcast version prior to the Ver. 2 revision disc) offered the following game modes:
- Normal Mode
This is the plot-driven bulk of the game, in which a player or group of players fight through a number of levels spread over four distinct areas. Each area has a boss at the end. Upon defeating the final boss, the credits roll and in some cases, an extra feature will be unlocked (eg. The next difficulty mode).
In addition to the main story, players can also take Hunter's Guild sidequests, which explores the lives of Pioneer 2's citizens, and further delve into the backstory behind the game. The rewards for these sidequests include a payment of Meseta for the job, the chance to explore the stories behind Pioneer 2's NPC residents, the opportunity to obtain special weapons that can't be found anywhere else (such as the Yamato), and of course, whatever weapons, experience, and Meseta you can get while fighting on these missions.
In all editions of Phantasy Star Online, normal mode is available to play at four different difficulty levels. Normal is available from the start, while Hard, Very Hard and Ultimate become available once the final boss has been defeated on the previous difficulty. This does not apply to Blue Burst and online play in Ep I & II; instead, there is a specific minimum experience level required to join or create a game for each episode or difficulty level that is different in Ep I & II (eg. Players may not join or create an Ultimate game on Episode 1 unless they have already attained Level 80)
Blue Burst breaks down the main story into separate missions, accessed via a special desk in The Principal's Office or Lab. Each area of the game is divided into 3 or 4 missions that must be completed to progress the story. Items such as weapons and techniques are awarded after certain missions are completed. Other players are able to join the mission at any time, even if the mission is in progress or finished. The final mission in each area is a standard run through the area's levels to the boss battle, essentially 'clearing' the area and unlocking the next one (in the same style as previous incarnations of PSO).
- Challenge Mode
Challenge mode sets all participants to a set level with set equipment at the beginning of each mission (lasting only until the end of the mission), and requires the team to reach a predefined goal in a series of specially-designed levels that are modified versions of areas seen in Normal mode. The aim is to complete the missions in the shortest time possible. New level objects can include laser barriers, buttons, and so on, and sometimes strategically placed enemies/types of enemies. If anyone on the team dies, then the challenge is immediately terminated and the team is returned to the Hunter's Guild, so teamwork is essential if the levels are to be completed successfully. Everyone starts with a 'Scape Doll' revival item in their inventory, enabling them to die once without consequence (the harder the stage, the more scape dolls you get). Once all stages have been completed, players are given a rank based on their total time, with "S rank" being the best. If they achieve this, players are awarded rare weapons which can be customized with an 8-letter name which precedes the weapon's type ("*CHOSEN NAME*SABER", "*CHOSEN NAME*CLAW", et cetera). Challenge Mode is available for Episodes 1 and 2.
- Battle Mode
This is a deathmatch mode. In this mode, players are permitted to attack each other. A team may play while being able to attack allies (as well as monsters) to create their rules, or they may play one of several predefined sets of battle rules.
- 1 Player Mode
Exclusive to Blue Burst, this mode essentially allows Blue Burst players to play the offline mode online, complete with Episode I & II's side story quests (Blue Burst lacks a true offline mode). As of July 27, 2006 there are two 1-player quests available for the Blue Burst-exclusive Episode 4; "Black Paper's Deal" (requires the 'Photon Crystal' item to complete) and "Pioneer Spirit".
[edit] Fictional timeline
- After Unification War, (A.U.W.) 3060 - Endless warring on the homeworld of Coral is so devastating to the environment, it becomes uninhabitable. The Alliance of Nations, a group of 10 of the most powerful nations on Coral, bands together to plan a mass exodus to another planet. The search for a suitable world begins, and an intricate plan known as the Pioneer Project is mapped out to construct a hyperspace vessel to transport colonists to their new home.
- A.U.W. 3068 - Out of the countless unmanned probes sent into space to search for an inhabitable suitable new world to colonize, only one finds a suitable match. The Alliance of Nations names this new world "Ragol" and the construction of the first of the colonization vessels, Pioneer 1, begins. The main purpose of the maiden voyage of Pioneer 1 is research and planetary trailblazing.
- A.U.W. 3076 - Pioneer 1 takes off for Planet Ragol.
- A.U.W. 3077 - Pioneer 1 lands on Ragol. The scientific research team investigates the planet's surface, and deems it to be suitable for colonization. Construction begins on the preliminary habitat foundation, and the Central Dome is set up as the headquarters for the budding colony. Rico Tyrell is assigned to the Surface Exploration Team, which is in charge of survival planning and terraforming opportunities.
- A.U.W. 3081 - The Alliance of Nation's power base continues to weaken due to the unending wartime carnage on Coral.
- A.U.W. 3082 - Construction of the Central Dome and the fortification of the surrounding colony area is completed. The colonists contact the homeworld, and send the message to clear the second colony ship to head out for Ragol. Also during this year, Heathcliff Flowen, the Deputy Commander of Pioneer 1 's military forces, mysteriously disappears, and is declared dead by the military command.
- A.U.W. 3083 - Upon receiving the transmission from Pioneer 1, Pioneer 2 is launched for Ragol. An alarming number of violent outbursts increases near the Central Dome amongst the local wildlife, including new forms that are unknown to homeworld scientists. Rico Tyrell and her companions are the first to form the Hunters, a self-defense group that seeks to find the cause of these incidents and to ensure the safety of the colonists.
- A.U.W. 3084 - Pioneer 2 enters orbit around Planet Ragol. However, just as the ship makes contact with the Central Dome, an enormous explosion occurs within the Central Dome itself. After teleporters are installed on the planet's surface, the Principal sends the first round of Pioneer 2 's Hunters to investigate the surface of Ragol. (Episode 1 begins)
[edit] Offline vs online play
Despite the 'online' in the title, all games in the Phantasy Star Online series except Blue Burst may be played offline, allowing the player to develop their character between online sessions, although at a lessened rate. Some versions (PSO Episodes I&II) also support split-screen offline multiplayer modes.
[edit] Cheating
Unlike many online RPG games, all versions of PSO before PSO Blue Burst store the player's character, inventory and other information locally on a memory card or similar storage device instead of on a server controlled by the game studio. This method of saving was required in the Dreamcast release of the game, due to the limitations of data transfer with 33.6 and 56k modems available for the console, and to allow off-line play. This makes the player data more easily accessible to hackers, and as a result, cheating is much easier in PSO than it is in many other forms of online RPGs, such as MMORPGs.
[edit] Phantasy Star Online ver.2
Phantasy Star Online ver.2 is a video game that was released for the Sega Dreamcast and PC on 6 July 2001 in Japan, on 24 September 2001 in North America and on 1 March 2002 in Europe. This game was intended to be released as a patch for the initial Sega Dreamcast release, Phantasy Star Online. It has been confirmed for this to be the greatest game ever.
[edit] Online capability
Phantasy Star Online ver.2 allowed users to connect to the internet via SegaNet and on either an OEM 56k modem or the BBA (Broadband Adapter). When the SegaNet servers were terminated in June of 2003, all SegaNet subscribers/PSO users were stripped of their medium to Phantasy Star Online.
[edit] Contrast
The second version of Phantasy Star Online functions as either an expansion, or a stand-alone game for the Sega Dreamcast.
In contrast to the first release, ver.2 offers many new features:
- The maximum character level was increased from 100 to 200.
- An online battle mode with several different rule variations was added.
- A challenge mode was added, requiring players to work together as a team to solve each area. If the player finished all nine stages under a certain time limit, they were given the opportunity to choose a weapon and name it.
- An "Ultimate" difficulty was added with considerably stronger monsters than the previous three.
- The addition of many new weapons with considerably higher stats in contrast to their Ver.1 counterparts. It was very difficult to do substantial damage to Ultimate level monsters with the older weapons online.
[edit] Server Termination
Although the US servers were terminated in 2003 the European and Japanese servers were still online, in fact SOJ even told users it would want their users to play forever announcing the Japanese servers will stay online "forever", a few months after this announcement SOJ announced they will be terminating their servers for all consoles on April 1st 2007. However, the termination didn't go as planned. The server went offline then back online a few times before finally being taken offline.
[edit] Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II is a video game released for the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox in 2002. An online hack and slash RPG, its focus is online gameplay rather than storyline. Offline mode is also available, for single player and multiplayer. Multiplayer split-screen mode can be played with up to 4-players, though the framerate and visibility range is much lower than offline single-player and online modes. Playing online on Xbox requires an active Xbox Live Silver account. Check Phantasy Star Online on "See also" for more details.
As of April 1, 2007, the online servers for the GameCube release of Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II have officially been shut down.
As of April 20, 2008 the online servers for the Xbox release of Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II have officially been shut down.
As it turns out this game is horrible conpared to Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2(The greatest game ever).
[edit] Changes
Aside from the new areas, there were many changes made from this game's Dreamcast iterations.
- Three new character classes were added.
- Several aspects of the game such as weapons, armor, and enemy stats were significantly re-balanced.
- The amount of experience points needed from levels 1 to 200 was significantly reduced.
- Other classes outside Force cannot use Reverser, Grants, and Megid unlike the Dreamcast version.
- Four new areas were added.
[edit] Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus is a video game released for the Nintendo GameCube on November 27, 2003 in Japan and on September 15, 2004 in North America. An online hack and slash RPG, its focus is online gameplay rather than storyline. Offline mode is also available, for single player and multiplayer. Multiplayer split-screen mode can be played with up to 4-players, though the framerate and visibility range is much lower than offline single-player and online modes. Check Phantasy Star Online on "See also" for more details.
[edit] Improvements and additions not in the Dreamcast and PC versions of Phantasy Star Online
This installment of PSO features an entirely new episode that includes 5 new regions to explore: Temple, Spaceship, Central Control Area (consisting of the Control Area, Jungle, Seaside and Mountain), Seabed, and Control Tower (Control Tower is available in Online mode and in the offline Episode II Plus version quests). This installment also adds 3 new character class/race combinations, many new items, many new creatures, and some added cheat protection (however, cheats and glitches were still found and exploited, rarely being addressed by Sonic Team). You can also play online with the Gamecube if you have a broadband adapter or modem adapter. Data between the previous Gamecube version and the Plus version is completely (and instantly) transferable.
[edit] Differences Between Phantasy Star Online I & II and the Plus Version
Early in the effort to run unsigned code on the GameCube, people found that when playing PSO and connecting to a server using the GameCube Broadband Adapter (one of the very few games that use this technology), a regular PC could be made to pretend it was a server, thus fooling the game. After making the connection, data could be streamed back to the GameCube. Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus was released to fix this problem. The other incentive to getting this version was the inclusion of exclusive content in the disc, while beforehand this data was only in a downloadable form. Also, the East Tower and West Tower quests for Episode II was added in the Plus version. In the normal version, those quests were only available online.
- Additions to Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 and 2 Plus
1.'Central Dome Fire Swirl' is available offline in Episode 1
2.The GBA downloads in 'The Fake in Yellow' in Episode 1 are now available offline
3.'Seat of the Heart','East Tower' and 'West Tower' are available offline in Episode 2.
4.The Episode 2 Challenge Mode is now available offline. Users who have the original release of Episode 1 and 2 can only play Episode 2 Challenge Mode while online.
[edit] Phantasy Star Online Episode III
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It has been suggested that Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
- See main article: Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution
[edit] Phantasy Star Online Episode IV
Episode IV was exclusively designed for PSO: Blue Burst, only available on the Windows operating system. Episode IV features brand new enemies, maps, and items, in addition to those included with previous episodes. The new maps include Crater Routes, Crater Interior, and Subterranean Desert. Like other Blue Burst episodes, the normal mode has a series of plot-driven missions to work through, as well as some exclusive Hunter's Guild quests.
Episode IV is notable for being slightly less difficult than the other chapters of Phantasy Star Online. This is due to the addition of new, easily obtainable weapons and items that drastically boost the player's performance.
[edit] Version list
| Version | Platform | Release Date |
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| Phantasy Star Online Network Trial Edition | Sega Dreamcast | Q3 2000 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online | Sega Dreamcast | 21 November 2000 (Japan) 29 January 2001 (North America) 23 February 2001 (Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 | Sega Dreamcast | 6 June 2001 (Japan) 24 September 2001 (North America) 1 March 2002 (Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online Beta | Microsoft Windows | Q4 2001 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online | Microsoft Windows | 20 December 2001 (Japan) 2002 (Asia) |
| Phantasy Star Online Demo | Microsoft Windows | 20 December 2001 (Japan) January 2002 (UK)1 |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Trial Edition | Nintendo Gamecube | May 2002 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (ver 1.0) | Nintendo Gamecube | 12 September 2002 (Japan)2 |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (ver 1.1) | Nintendo Gamecube | 29 October 2002 (North America) November 2002 (Japan)2 7 March 2003 (Europe) 14 March 2003 (Sweden) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II | Microsoft Xbox | Q1 2003 (Japan) 15 April 2003 (North America) 23 May 2003 (Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution Trial Edition | Nintendo GameCube | June 24, 2003 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution | Nintendo GameCube | 27 November 2003 (Japan) 2 March 2004 (North America) 18 June 2004 (Europe) 3 |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus | Nintendo Gamecube | 27 November 2003 (Japan) 15 September 2004 (North America) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst Beta | Microsoft Windows | 21 May 2003 (Japan) 10 May 2004 (North America/Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst | Microsoft Windows | 15 July 2004 (Japan) 23 June 2005 (North America/Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Episode IV Beta 4 | Microsoft Windows | November 2004 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Episode IV 4 | Microsoft Windows | Q1 2005 (Japan) |
1 Demo included on January Issue of PC Gamer (UK)
2 Contained a serious item duplication bug, fixed in ver 1.1 in Japan, and discovered before the North American and European versions were mastered. Owners of the older version have been able to ask Sonic Team to send them the updated version since 2002-11-25. [1]
3 The GAME retail group had an exclusive deal, allowing them to distrbuite the game from the 11 June 2004 in the United Kingdom. In other European countries it was released on a different date, and sold everywhere from the very beginning.
4 Episode IV expansion pack included with the North American and European versions of Blue Burst
[edit] Server shutdown dates
- Phantasy Star Online Ver. 1 and 2 (US) - 31 October 2003
- Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution Trial Edition - 15 September 2003
- Phantasy Star Online/Phantasy Star Online ver. 2 (North America) - 1 October 2003
- Phantasy Star Online (Microsoft Windows) - January 2004
- Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II ver. 1.0 - 26 March 2004 [2]
- Phantasy Star Online Ver. 1 and 2 (PAL & JP) - 2 April 2007[3][4]
- Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (GC Ver. 1.1 and Plus Version) and Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution - 1 April 2007 [5][6][7]
- Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst (US) - 31 March 2008
- Phantasy Star Online (Xbox JP) - 31 January 2008
- Phantasy Star Online (Xbox US) - 30 April 2008 12am PST
- Presumably the official servers for the Dreamcast version of Phantasy Star Online were to be shut down when the servers were officially closed. However, the Dreamcast servers were still accepting connections, except the connections would be dropped after some period of inactivity. Those servers were shut down on April 1, 2007, no longer accepting any connection, the same time the servers for the Gamecube version was shut down. There is no record of this, however, it is a myth that recurs when asking those who would be involved in the running of bots on the various SEGA servers (illegally, further lessening the probability of such actually occurring).
- SEGA has terminated support for the Japanese Xbox version of Phantasy Star Online Episode I&II on January 31, 2008. This has had no effect the European PAL or North American versions of the game, which were terminated on April 30, 2008. [8]
- Despite an announcement of an April 30 closure for the Xbox servers, Sega and Microsoft did not honor the date. The servers were not re-activated after Xbox Live maintenance on April 22nd. The result of this was that the Xbox players did not receive the promised last week of PSO online service.
[edit] Free Month
A couple of months before the SEGA servers (for Phantasy Star Online for the Gamecube) were shut down, Sega had announced that they will host a "free month," which would allow all users to log in, and play for free to enjoy the last month of activity.
The specifics involved that you would not be allowed to pay for, or create a new account on their servers after January 29th. Paying on the 29th allowed one to play during the month of February.
Nearing the free month, users started to notice that the free month would be only available to those who had already paid for the month of February, requiring one to pay for one month in order to get the "free month" for free. In this frustration, one user, who remains unknown to this day, found a method to crash any user logging into the servers, which would potentially corrupt any saved data. Users were urged to not go online by many fan sites (such as pso-world) to lessen the hardware problems users would obtain when going online. The cause was resolved to be a "crash bot," which was patched later on in the free month, running on Sega of Japan's login server. The method was later leaked after the SEGA servers went down. It involves simply sending a piece of data, known to cause a crash, while logging in. For some unknown reason, the servers allowed communication of clients during the log-in phase, which resulted in all clients logging in to be affected by this piece of data. That reasoning behind the attack had caused a small uproar, leaving users wondering what kind of server allows unmonitored communication at a critical phase when logging in.
[edit] Server Rebirth
In the wake of the server shut-downs, un-official servers have arisen from the ashes Sega had left behind. Supported as Phantasy Star Online Versions 1 and 2 as well as Blue Burst. The unique thing is that these servers are free registration at no charge whatsoever (although some sites politely ask for a donation). Platforms supported are Dreamcast, Gamecube and PC. These servers are also region-free, so someone from Brazil using a GC version could be in the same server as someone from the US on a Dreamcast or PC.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Official sites
- Official Phantasy Star Online homepage
- Official PSO fan site 'Minhiro'
- Official PSO Episode III Website
- Official PSO Blue Burst Website
- Official Phantasy Star Universe Website
- Sonic Team Website
- SEGA of Japan Website
- Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II at MobyGames
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