the Tommy|Zor era

Let me begin by saying this game is the reason I bought a Sega Dreamcast.

I think back to the days in high school when v2 and I would sit in our tech class and do nothing but scour gaming sites and inappropriate content. Well, maybe not inappropriate for the average person, but certainly for a high school class. Bottom line: life changed when I saw the preview for Phantasy Star Online posted on dailyradar. Oh dailyradar, how I miss thee - anyone else? Anyone remember? Anyone? No? That’s unfortunate.

What was the appeal of this game? For one, it looked absoloutely beautiful. The screenshots had me salivating. By game standards at the time (2000/2001), this was going to blow the shit out of all the others. Sure, the Playstation 2 would be released a few months before this game, however, the PS2 was released with games that are better categorized as glorified screen savers.

My first experience with the Phantasy Star series was Phantasy Star IV for the Sega Genesis. I enjoyed it. It didn’t hold a candle to the Final Fantasy series, but overall enjoyable. Phantasy Star Online was a different experience all together, often described as Diablo in space. I think that is an unfair comparison for a few reasons:

1. Click, click, click, click, click. No mouse in this game = no aneurysm from clicking.

b) Three character archetypes, yes… but three choices within each archetype. Hence, you can play the selected archetype according to your own personal taste. [v2 edit] I really think you need to elaborate on this.  [Zor edit] No, it makes perfect sense.

iii) It’s just not a fair comparison, okay? They were both spectacular on their own merits.

The entire game could be played in either Offline (aka Single Player) or Online (Multiplayer) mode. While the Offline Mode introduces you to the game and gets your feet wet, the big appeal was the online component. Let’s face it, why would you ever buy a game called Phantasy Star Online just to play it by yourself? I’ll tell you why - it took serious dedication. Let me give you the rundown of the lengths I went to:

The Sega Dreamcast had a modem, not a LAN connection. You needed a dial-up connection, which (thankfully) was the standard at the time. Right off the bat I was going to be tying up the phone lines just to play. Next, I wasn’t willing to fork up the dough for a Dreamcast keyboard. Instead, I went online and bought a Dream connector. This allowed me to plug in my own USB keyboard… and a Playstation controller if I was so inclined. Then, v2 told me about this wonderful device called a VGA box. This beauty allows you to plug your Dreamcast into your computer monitor. Logic dictated that playing on my monitor also placed me in prime position to hook up to a phone jack and keyboard. [v2 edit] Too bad your logic sucks. After all this, there is only one question any person would ask: was it really worth it?

Yes.

The online component broke new ground with some of its features including pre-translated phrases. This meant I could play with people in other countries and understand them as long as I, and they, stuck to the pre-translated phrases. It also introduced a unified time zone called the beat system. Regardless of where you are in the world, time is calculated the same. For example, 42 beats = 7pm EST, 6pm CST, 5pm MST and 4pm PST. With the beat system, there was no longer this “my time or your time” confusion.

Bottom line - it was the first online console RPG and I loved every second I put into playing this game. Still do.