Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II

Surprisingly enough, for an RPG the story does not play a massive part in the game and is really only shown in the game's beautiful opening FMV, yet is worth knowing. Your home world of Coral is soon going to become uninhabitable and a ship named Pioneer One has been sent with half the population to find a suitable planet to occupy. Your story, however, begins aboard Pioneer Two along with the last of the refugees. Now, whilst Pioneer One has found a planet that is seemingly perfect, unfortunately upon the arrival of Pioneer Two to this perfect new world, Ragol, a mysterious explosion rocks the planet and all contact with Pioneer One's settlers is lost. Cue you, the gamer, taking control of a personalised character hailing from one of three classes; Hunter, Ranger or Force, which each have four sub-classes. Hunters are the m

 

Unlike the hit-and-miss visuals, the musical presence in the game is of a permanently high quality. From the opening cut-scene to the game endings, everything is beautifully orchestrated and warms the heart on several occasions

 

All characters (except androids) can learn an array of magic attacks. Forces, being the best with magic, can learn all spells and can naturally achieve the most effect with them. Since the main pull of the game is to Level Up you learn spells, most of which have levels one through thirty, with technique "disks" that you can find either at stores or dropped by enemies. The battling seems very straightforward at first but is subtly ingenious in its own way. When you begin to factor in the game's vast array of weapons and weapon types you will soon discover that range, speed and power are all very important aspects. Since the game is in Real-Time, Forces have their work cut out for them when working alongside three other players. Although a formidable fighting force within themselves, they take on their "true" role in multiplayer, in which they have to heal and support a group of fighters, which is no mean feat!

Based on the style of fighting you would not believe this to be your everyday, run-of-the-mill role-player. The feature that does define this game most as an RPG is the numbers / statistics. The game is based totally on Levelling Up and what can be achieved through it. As you Level Up your stats increase and as this occurs, more and more weapons, spells and armour become usable. You spend the entirety of the game watching and managing your stats so you can equip that great new weapon you just found or learn that devastatingly-powerful new fire spell, but soon enough numbers begin play a bigger role than that. Very quickly you will be watching your characters stats very closely in your quest to mould them in the exact way you desire.

The game's dependence on numbers is made even more noticeable with the introduction of a Mag, a cute little companion that evolves and hovers above your shoulder at all times. Your Mag has four statistic levels - power, dexterity, mind and defence. When you feed it certain items the statistics are raised until they Level Up - accuracy, mental strength and defence, respectively. Mags offer you the chance to build-up specific stat-areas on your character and are the only way to attain the type of fighter you want. They are a clever addition as the raising of them adds an extra element of brain power that is not immediately apparent from the game's hack-and-slash exterior.

 

For those wondering whether the game is actually worth the expense, I can reassure you slightly as there are multiple ways for this game to be enjoyed. You can play offline through the levels to reach the end boss or instead choose the twenty-plus missions that are incorporated. You can play through the two- to four-player offline mode with your friends or merely compare your unique rare findings. The game also offers a challenge mode whereby you are stripped of your levels and left with the default character, thus forcing you to work in a perfect team to overcome tasks that alone would be impossible. Tag on the fact that once Online new missions can be downloaded as soon as Sega releases new quests (something that still currently happens), and the title expands quite considerably. In addition, for veterans everywhere, upon completing PSO, you unlock hard mode, followed by a very hard, then ultimate mode! The last of these is especially fun with the inclusion of brand new enemies and a much higher degree of difficulty. Overall the game's modes can keep dedicated players happy for upwards of a year offline or Online.

So at its worst this game is a glorified hack-and-slash with masses of rare weapons and items to keep fans happy for ages. At its best, though, Phantasy Star Online is a live community, the likes of which you have to experience at least once. The online game is so fantastically realised by Sega that it is Unreal. The overwhelming sense of community and triumph as you and your team of friends defeat an enemy with team work is breath-taking. It is this sense of teamwork and community that is the game's main focus point. Explaining PSO is difficult, but just imagine a futuristic wonderland where you have enough statistics to fulfil a perfectionist's dream; thousands of weapons and armour of varying rarities to be found and equipped, and powerful magic spells to learn that will get progressively stronger...Most importantly, though, imagine everyone else is experiencing the same excitement and sense of convergence as you!