The Sega Dreamcast was initially an abomination in my eyes due to its presentation of the game Soul Calibur. The Dreamcast was so powerful that its rendering of games was better than the arcade version of the game. At this point, I always believed that the arcade port of a game should surpass any console version of the game. This notion was assaulted by the Dreamcast and I began to shun it in earnest. I didn't last long, because of games like Power Stone (and its sequel), Street Fighter III: Second Impact, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, this game and the rampant NES, SNES and Genesis ROM CDs I had burned by friends. The bloody thing was a treasure of time-killing. I soon learned to love Big Brother--I mean, the Dreamcast.
I started watching the game being played both on-line and off and I came to a revelation: this is how the future of gaming SHOULD be! You go online and quest while fighting monsters alongside friends! What could possibly go wrong? The only thing that could go wrong: human error.
Phantasy Star Online (we'll call it PSO for now) became a haven for a truly idiotic market scheme: players could sell the Meseta (fake money in PSO) they earned from playing PSO and then go online and post them up for sale on eBay, for a certain rate. Other PSO players would respond and pay REAL money for FAKE money and meet up in the PSO world later and exchange Meseta. The Meseta (read: FAKE MONEY) would then be used to purchase stronger weapons and armor that was not previously affordable, thus allowing the user to strike harder, absorb more damage and level up faster than normal. This looked like it was gonna work, no matter how silly it seemed--and then Sega started charging for online accounts, which were previously free. More often than not, people were on PSO because it was (a) cool and (b) free. Thus began the mass exodus of free account users to greener pastures.
There are more Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games out there now (Dungeons & Dragons Online, Conan, World of Warcraft, RIFT, and Final Fantasy XIV) each with its own flaws, problems and users whose lack of self-control get the game developers unwarranted press. None of these games captured my imagination more than the visual masterpiece called PSO--Phantasy Star Online.
The whole look, feel and urgency put into Phantasy Star Online came through so well, not to mention its initial character creation interface. This is where I really began to like the game. You could choose from 3 classes, each with 3 character templates, for a total of 9 possible characters with specific base stats. Then you had a palette of colors to apply to clothing styles, faces, hairdos, skin tones (if applicable). You could even control the body proportions! These functions were a bit cumbersome to master, so there was a randomizer that spit out random variables and made a character quickly. When you finally named your character, you were assigned a color badge based on the structure of your name. And off you go to the Hunters' Guild to join in the story of PSO.
The story goes that the home planets of an indigenous race have died and they are searching for a suitable planet. Probes sent out came back with the loction of a suitable planet the leaders of these transient people named Ragol. The transport ship Pioneer 1 went to check it out and said it was all good. Then Pioneer 2 came along, a massive generation-type ship that carried the bulk of all the dying worlds on it. Pioneer 2 arrived at Ragol and tried to contact the Pioneer 1 colony on the surface, but just as contact was established the link was broken by a massive explosion visible from orbit. The president of Pioneer 2 sent some adventurers led by his daughter, Red Ring Rico, to investigate. They never came back, so now he wants you to investigte what became of his daughter and the crew of Pioneer 1.
The game is all anime and super-simple sci-fi than all get-out. The menus you use to organize and make use of are straight and to the point; the quick-menu avaliable by a few button presses is even more so. The world you inhabit in downtime is small but richly detailed. Everything's glowing and shining and floating and flying and whooshing by. On the surface of Ragol, it's very beautiful and your surroundings are the perfect distraction for the mutated denizens it holds in its depths who want to kill you. The bosses are massive and more than hard enough. You'll need to watch how you fight them and make use of your little sidekick buddy, the MAG.
In watching this game, the visuals and the music all had me in a mental tizzy. Why? Because the visuals are how I imagined the future would look when I was a little boy. Hell, I still think that the future can look like that, but I feel that the amount of human error we allow will limit the level of technological advances we want to have. Basically, it's stupid and greedy people that prevent us from colonizing the Moon and having androids, airships and flying cars back on Earth. Until we can get past that, the world will have to settle for the imagined future world of Phantasy Star Online.
RATING: 9/10
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