Phantasy Star Online was my first exposure to the franchise I’ve since played all of the mainline games and have become a huge fan of them, but back then I simply didn’t know. This was also my first exposure to the concept of playing video games with strangers across the internet. I kept up with Electronic Gaming Monthly issues, and remember this release being highlighted in all of them. I was a Dreamcast owner, and I’ve always been a huge fan of RPGs. I still didn’t understand how this game would work. Curiosity got the best of me, but for the first month or so I just couldn’t figure out how to get this title to work with the internet. I still had a blast with the mechanics, but when I finally went online with it I knew I would never be the same. I spent more time with Phantasy Star Online than I did with any other Dreamcast title, and even without the stellar line-up outside of this I would have been satisfied with just this one game. That’s how amazing Phantasy Star Online is. Unfortunately the servers have been long shut down, and so this is mostly a retrospective, but I still thought it would be fun to take a look back at this celebrated release.
I imagine long-time fans of the franchise were disappointed to learn that this isn’t a continuation of the original story. Instead Phantasy Star Online follows the exploits of a civilization in search of a new planet to habitat after natural resources of their own have been depleted. The first ship, the Pioneer, is sent to investigate, discovers a planet they call Ragol, and begins rebuilding civilization. Unfortunately communications break down, and the story begins as the second ship approaches the planet to find out what exactly happens. The scenario doesn’t follow any particular character, and you create your own protagonist. There are nine basic characters to choose from, and each have different statistics and even abilities. For classes there are humans, newmans, and androids. Humans are the all-rounders with basic magic abilities and strength. Newmans excel at magic, but are physically weak. Androids cannot use any techs, but are generally more resilient, can set traps, and repair themselves automatically by standing still. There are even three different jobs. You have the hunter which is best with melee weapons, rangers that excel with long range guns, and forces that are best left to their spells. You’re not given full choice among these options and instead choose from nine different basic set ups. You can however customize their body type, hair, and face. You can make some interesting designs, and for the most part you wouldn’t run into a carbon copy online, but inevitably you did considering the vast number of worldwide players.
Moving away from its franchise roots Phantasy Star Online is a more action oriented affair than the original quadrilogy. Instead gameplay occurs in real-time. Phantasy Star Online is a fully 3D game wherein you navigate your character through a variety of environments. This is an action RPG, and therefore you fight monsters as they appear. You have two basic attacks; the standard which is fast but weak and a strong which causes more damage but takes time to pull off. These can be chained together in combinations of three with a small window at the end wherein you cannot move or defend yourself. Spells are cast either from opening the menu with the start button and scrolling to them, but thankfully you can set them to shortcut keys which become available in conjunction with the shoulder button. I really like the fact that all damage is calculated numerically (with damage numbers spilling out of the enemy) because this makes it easier to discover enemy weaknesses. In addition you can also set specific items to the shortcut keys which significantly reduces the time spent wandering through menus. There is no pause function in this game (even when off-line) so the shortcuts really save it. Sonic team did a great job with the mechanics.
Gameplay is basically the same both on and off-line. This game is divided into four different stages each of which is composed of various rooms and areas. The enemies change with each of these, and obviously become more aggressive the farther in you progress. Unfortunately each level is pretty enclosed with few branching paths (these generally lead to dead ends). I really like the huge boss characters that wait at the end of these; they’re real designed, dynamic, and a real blast to tackle. The items you can find also change between the stages. These are both stored in item boxes or dropped by fallen enemies. Items include weapons, meseta (money), protective gear, and healing consumables. Now, four stages might not sound like very much but the developers added separate difficulties to prolong the experience. One thing I particularly like is the methods by which you open up the harder settings. When playing online you need only hit a minimum level for each difficulty, and then can freely join and create games at this setting. Single player is a little different. You actually have to complete the four stages solo in order to move up for offline play. I always really liked how Sonic Team handled this. Your use of weapons is also limited in a few ways. For melee equipment you have to have a specific base attack stat for each weapon. With guns the only thing that matters is your basic accuracy. In an online game you’re sure to be given high powered equipment from friendly players, and this is a welcome measure to ensure it’s never a cakewalk.
Phantasy Star Online is a really good looking game by Dreamcast standards. The environments are highly detailed, and though small in scope require surprisingly little loading. The various environments look really nice though, and many of the enemy types pay homage to the classic Phantasy Star monsters. My only complaint is with the characters. While the customization options are nice you don’t have such free reign that you can make them unrecognizable. While playing online I have memories of running into several others that looked just like my custom built avatar. That was pretty disappointing. The human hunters all look quite similar to Rolf from Phantasy Star II no matter how you mess with the options. The androids are also very boring in appearance. Clothing changes are mostly relegated to color swaps which is very disappointing. The high point is in the boss designs. Because of them I’ll never forget the first time I encountered the dragon at the end of the forest, or Dark Falz at the very end of the game. The soundtrack on the other hand is very disappointing. The music isn’t even recognizable from the classic Phantasy Star games. Simple remixes would have sufficed, but instead all of the tracks here are throwaways. Some more time should have been spent on this aspect. This isn’t one soundtrack I could ever see myself seeking out.
Unfortunately the online servers of Seganet have long since been shut down. I hear that there’s a specific way to still play this game online by jacking into a third party server, but I’ve never been able to figure out. What you’re left with here, for anyone still interested, is a pretty decent action RPG. On these merits Phantasy Star Online doesn’t quite measure up simply because the story is virtually non-existent, and there are only four basic stages to play. The Gamecube version allow for offline split screen with up to four people, and so I would go with that version. I’m not going to rate this one on the single player adventure, because that just wouldn’t feel right. I spent an entire summer playing this title online every day, and those are some of my fondest video game memories. This is the one game that sold me on online gaming.
