Phantasy Star Online, Episode I & II

by Sega

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005RCR0
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 29, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,831 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Product Description

Play this award winning gaming phenomenon of Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II with all-new modes and exclusive content. Play with the new split-screen feature allowing 4 friends to battle it out at the same time. Witness all-new character classes, weapons, items, enemies, quests and more. Episode II features an exclusive new full-length adventure.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yet another reason to buy a GameCube, December 23, 2002

By 

Daniel A Moir (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phantasy Star Online, Episode I & II (Video Game)

Hunting down Game Cube's only online title may be a chore that some people may not be interested in, while hunting down the broadband adapter is even worse... thankfully I found both, and had a credit card handy that day, and boy am I glad I did.
I was a fan of he Dreamcast original, and so when Episode 1&2 was announced for GameCube I was very happy. Regardless of what anybody has said about graphical enhancements in the past I cannot stress enough that there has been drastic enhancements to the graphics, to the camera, and best of all to the controller sensitivity, defending you character is so much easier because the game is a lot more responsive than its previous incarnations.
There are more character types to choose from, new strengths, new weaknesses, a few new monsters, etc, and it is plenty fun on its own without going online.
Sega also included the option for four-player action offline, which is also a blast.
There is one complaint I have for this game, and only one, the lack of a keyboard, or headset for communication. Despite the addition of hotkeys, conversation online is a big pain because typing through the control pad is too slow, and by the time I finish my sentence my comrades have already left the lobby. Nintendo needs to release a keyboard for the GameCube, even if it's only for PSO.
Be aware that this game is not out of print, its just that demand is extremely high, and during the next few months it may be difficult to find, but not impossible. Some websites are reporting that the product is discontinued, but this is not the case. The game is a lot of fun, and if you don't mind doing a little hunting for it it's well worth the price of admission. Hopefully this means Nintendo will get its act together with online games and start getting serious about an online plan.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly addictive., November 13, 2002

By 

Carlos A Garcia II (Plymouth, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phantasy Star Online, Episode I & II (Video Game)

Phantasy Star Online is one of the most addictive games I have ever played. Not only is PSO well planned and thought out, but it offers more modes of play than the original Dreamcast release.

I was very pleased to find that there are now four modes of play with PSO. There is Single player, Multiplayer Co-op, Multiplayer Challenge, and Multiplayer Online.

In single player, you can take jobs and progress through an actual story. The story is set after an apocalyptic event. You are a hunter, who travels to the planet's surface on missions. As your missions progress, you learn more about what happened to the planet. As time progresses, you become stronger, and can learn more skills. Single player mode offers the most interaction with Non-Player Characters (NPCs).

There are only slight differences between the multiplayer modes. Multiplayer Online and Multiplayer Co-op are the exact same. You go out and fight on the planet's surface, for no other reason, than to gain levels. This may not seem like much, but you have to play multiplayer to gain access to some items. Different character classes gain different items during standard play. For instance, a FOMARL (Male/Human/Force) will gain access to an Ice Saber +3, but must trade the saber with a HUMAR for a Draw Cane +1. You may also exchange money in Multiplayer modes(Except Challenge).

Challenge mode varies from the other Multiplayer modes. Challenge allows you to fight other players (online or offline) for the heck of it. You can even wager items or money in the events.

Game play takes some getting used to, but it is not difficult to learn. Movement is performed with the left analog stick. This is not the problem. The problem comes in planning ahead. In battle, you only have 6 actions that can be accessed quickly. You set these up in the customization menu. You can set attacks, items, or techniques in these slots. Often times, you'll find yourself fighting a slew of enemies, each weak to a different element, so you will equip yourself with all 3 elemental attacks. Yet, when you have more useful techniques, like raising your attack power, you quickly find yourself in need of a quick fix. PSO has no pause feature, so as soon as you hit start, you need to make sure you are moving around, while using the right analog stick to navigate through menus. This can be cumbersome for those who are not accustomed to the Mouse and Keyboard play method or have trouble multitasking. The trouble with being in the menu screen, is that you can not realign your sight. You must rely on your ability to maneuver blindly. Once you are out of the menu screen, you can use the L trigger to realign your field of vision.

I can not say I was completely impressed with the PSO's environments. They seem a little lacking. Forests are just open fields surrounded by trees. This fails to provide an accurate feeling of actually being hunted or hunting the beasts that roam the land. The creature roster is rather impressive and imaginative. Designs range from small chicken like animals to huge ogres and worse. Sonic Team really had their work cut out for them.

Character growth is presented rather well in PSO. Instead of just leveling every time you kill something, like in Final Fantasy and most other RPGs, it takes hours before you even start to grow. The downside of this is that it takes forever to learn new techniques (which is necessary if you play as a Force user). The upside is that the game remains fun and does not become too easy too quickly. Not only does your character grow, but you also have a creature that travels with you called a MAG. MAGs can be equipped. Once equipped, a MAG will increase your stats. You need to feed them items every so often. Feeding your MAG regularly will cause it to gain levels. The more levels it gains, the stronger of an ally it will be. Feeding MAGs can be anything from recovery items to revival items. MAGs also allow your character to perform overdrive attacks. The manner in which you raise your MAG, determines what overdrives your MAG will have.

PSO has an excellent character creation system. First you choose what type you want your character to be (Hunter, Ranger or Force). Then you choose the gender and species. Once this is done, you can begin to design your character. Your character is customizable in the following areas: face, hair, skin tone, outfit, and proportion. Proportioning means that you select how tall/short and skinny/fat your character will be. Androids are the only let down. With Androids, you can only choose from a few preset body and head combinations. Androids also can not use techniques, which comes as a disadvantage. But they do get interesting weapons, such as chainsaws and reapers.

PSO wasn't entirely a great game. I was disappointed that you could not go on quests in multiplayer modes. It was also a draw back that characters are hard to level. For beginners to the RPG world, this can be very frustrating.

Overall, I found PSO to be a great game. It did not require an entire Memory Card like most Game Cube games. Despite the minor problems with this title, I would give it a 9.9. I highly recommend this to other Game Cube owners. Online or Offline, this is a must own.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, March 6, 2003

By 

sal (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phantasy Star Online, Episode I & II (Video Game)

When the Dreamcast first hit the shelves, many of us stared longingly for several moments at that phone jack on the back of the system. It took time, but that little port has finally seen action via the Web browser, "Chu Chu Rocket," "Quake 3," "Starlancer," and Visual Concepts' 2001 sports titles. The capstone to Sega's initial online multiplayer lineup, however, is a little SonicTeam gem called "Phantasy Star Online."

Although it incorporates many elements from the "Phantasy Star" series, "PSO" is a side story at best. The events in the game take place approximately 1,000 years after the end of "Phantasy Star 2." Seven years ago, the interstellar transport ship Pioneer 1 landed on the planet of Ragol to begin colonization. Pioneer 2 arrives to bring more colonists to the settlement, but as communication is established between Pioneer 2 and the planet's surface, a huge explosion rocks Ragol. The Central Dome of the colony is ground zero. Taking the role of an adventurer from Pioneer 2, your job is to figure out what happened on Ragol that fateful day. This premise is simply an excuse for "PSO" to exist; you don't get much more narrative than that.

Luckily, the lack of story doesn't detract from the fun of the game. Much as in "Diablo," Gameplay consists of heading into mazelike environments, clearing areas of numerous monsters, snatching up any items they may drop, and selling said items for cash back in town. As you gain experience from kills, you become stronger, progress further, and find better weapons and armor. Eventually, you can defeat the boss of the area and move on to the next area.

"PSO" differs from "Diablo" in that the game is fully 3D, with the perspective being third-person over-the-shoulder. The basic gameplay is solid, outside of some occasional camera troubles, although the battle system is a bit simplistic. Fighting boils down to "point and shoot." Strategy comes into play only when attackers swarm over your character in the higher difficulty levels. Because of this, the game can become repetitive, particularly when a character is powerful enough to make it through an area, but not quite strong enough to take on the area boss. Leveling up is tedious, but can be made relatively painless if you have online teammates with whom you enjoy playing.

You create characters by choosing one of nine character types, and then customizing the appearance of your selection to suit your taste. A variety of heads, faces, colors, and outfits are available for each type, and a proportion editor lets you use a sliding scale to change the height and weight as you please. Characters can be used exclusively online, exclusively off-line, or in a combination of both.

Of course, the heart of the game is the online multiplay, and "PSO" excels in this area. When you log on, you find yourself in a lobby area, which serves as both a chat lounge and a gateway to the actual game. From the lobby you can link up with up to three other players and jump into a quest. "PSO" uses an innovative Symbol Chat system that lets you communicate with player-designed face icons. You can also construct chat sentences from preset phrase menus. Any phrase you chose from a preset menu will automatically be translated for the other players. Japanese players will see your message in Japanese; French players will see it in French. In practice, most communication is done through old-fashioned typing, but Sega's bold attempt to break down language barriers is worthy of note.

Lag is almost non-existent. Where it does crop up, the game hides it exceedingly well. The most prominent display of lag is a delay in picking up an item or a teammate slashing at thin air but still hitting an enemy. This does not affect gameplay, and not once was lag anything more than an occasionally amusing quirk throughout the 60 or so hours I spent online with "PSO."

Indeed, the online play is so smooth that sometimes it doesn't feel like the game is being played online. The environments you hack, blast, and cast your way through are packed with gorgeous detail. The Forest where you begin the quest is one of the most visually stunning pieces of work on a console to date. Animation is excellent, and the Forest's dragon boss gives the impression of a truly fearsome creature. Yet somehow SonicTeam managed to make all of this run buttery smooth for four players on 56-Kbps modems.

Sound is less stellar than are graphics. While the music is excellent, incorporating some of the old "Phantasy Star" themes into new compositions, sound effects tend to fall flat. Granted, there can only be so much variety in sword slashes and bullet hits, but more distinct sounds would have been nice. Additionally, a number of monster sounds are taken from existing Dreamcast sound libraries. They're fine sounds for monsters to make, but it did seem a bit odd to hear the Poison Lilies laugh at me with the voice of the first boss from "House of the Dead 2."

If you are looking for an online RPG in the same vein as "Ultima Online" or "EverQuest," or if you are a "Phantasy Star" fan expecting an in-depth continuation of the classic RPG saga, then you will be sorely disappointed. "PSO" is not massively multiplayer, and the story is scant, handed out in tiny parcels in the form of a breadcrumb trail of data storage devices. Sharp-eyed "Phantasy Star" veterans will spot a number of connections and references to the previous games, though.

None of the aforementioned shortcomings ruin the game by any means. "PSO" is an attempt to move console gaming further into the realm of online play, and it has succeeded in what it was designed to do. In the process, SonicTeam created an undeniably addictive game in the great tradition of multiplayer dungeon crawling. "Gauntlet" and "Diablo" fans will feel right at home, and anyone who has a craving for hacking up Locustas with a few friends will undoubtedly find a few dozen hours of enjoyment in "Phantasy Star Online." This title is a solid gaming experience, a tremendous technical feat that overcomes the limitations of a dial-up connection, and a welcome return to a Sega franchise that has been gathering dust for far too long.