Introduction

My recent article on my experience with the SEGA Dreamcast sent me on a nostalgia trip from which I have not yet recovered. As the weeks elapsed from the writing of that article, I slowly became overwhelmed with a yearning to delve more deeply into some of the individual games that defined that time in my life. One game in particular kept cropping up in my near-aimless wanderings through my memories; that game was Phantasy Star Online. The reason I so hastily pursued writing about this game was first its incompatability with a formal review in my format thanks to the thousands of hours it would take to replicate my previous playthroughs in their entirety, allowing me to avoid another taxing review, and second its near-evergreen relevance to my gaming life. There have been very few games, if any, that have siphoned such a percentage of my waking hours; Phantasy Star Online is all consuming. This dungeon-crawling, party-based online multiplayer, action-RPG allowed a peek into the future, at a time when online console gaming was truly in its infancy, and it all began with a chance purchase of a Dreamcast magazine at the corner pharmacy.

The Dreamcast: PSO Ver 1 and 2

I will never forget the first time I stumbled across the multi-page Phantasy Star Online spread in what I believe was Official Dreamcast Magazine. The article highlighted the ability to create a character and join friends online, to explore dungeons and slay countless alien beasts in a hack and slash Action RPG.

This novel and exciting concept enthralled my pre-teen mind, providing access to avenues largely unexplored in the console space. I distinctly remember fantasizing about what playing online would be like, having constant access to four player adventures on a whim.

I read and re-read the article staring longingly at the beautiful, anime-style promotional art, and the scarce screenshots that offered glimpses at what PSO’s lush forests and mysterious subterranean caverns had in store for me.

This simple magazine article lead to my imagination running wild for, what felt like, countless months. As time elapsed, my excitement grew to a fever pitch, easily making Phantasy Star Online one of the most anticipated games of my life.

As my anticipation reached its peak, I dragged my parents to my local game store and pre-ordered the game as soon as was feasible.

Then finally, the game was released January 29th, 2001, a few short days after my birthday. As I quickly removed the plastic wrap and popped in the disk, I was granted access to the title screen and associated background music, which still floods my body with nostalgia-associated goosebumps even 18 years later.

As I  continued I was treated with an introductory FMV that explained little and instilled an even deeper sense of wonder in my young soul.

This was followed up by the character creation screen that allowed a player to choose from nine classes consisting  of three life forms, two genders, and three primary job classes.

A player could choose to be a balanced Human, a magically-inclined Newman, or a physically dominant android called a Cast.

These were further divided by job: HUnter, the melee specialists; RAnger, the firearms specialists; and FOrces, the mages

Despite being a rather streamlined character creation system, consisting of selecting from the nine classes, choosing hair and clothes, and picking coloration, I remember spending over an hour making the ever-so-critical decision.

I finally settled on a HUmar, the human, male, HUnter class that offered above average physical capabilities, coupled with access to mid-level magic.

Inspired by Sephiroth, my Humar, “Lucky7,” was a silvered-haired menace with all-black garb. As an added touch of badassery I applied a large scar on his face, as the icing on the proverbial cake.

I then explored the surface of Planet Ragol for literal years accessing every nook and cranny the game had to offer. With innumerable sidequests and a grind-heavy main quest I remained absolutely entrenched in the PSO offline mode, even purchasing the updated Version 2.0 that increased level caps and added an additional difficulty, nearly maxing out my character who was able to be imported from the original.

Despite one of the best gaming experiences of my life, it was admittedly shackled by my lack of access to the game’s primary selling point: the online mode. My parents, despite otherwise fully supporting my gaming habit, were unwilling to pay the brutal premium monthly payment that was an additional charge atop our pre-existing internet fees.

This lack of online access kept me insulated from what was perhaps the greatest aspect of the game, but even that wasn’t enough to prevent PSO from reaching the top of my favorite games list.

Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II

As I clamored for more Phantasy Star, I began to explore the classic iterations of the series released on the SEGA Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive.

I became immersed in the interplanetary, sometimes multi-generational adventures that defined the original series: the genre defining adventures of Alis, Rolf and Nei’s  adventure in Phantasy Star II, with its ahead of its time narrative and unparallelled world building, the expansive time-sweeping narrative of Phantasy Star III, and the culmination of the series with regards to both gameplay and story telling that is Phantasy Star IV.

These spectacular, and underappreciated gems merely whet my appetite for more Phantasy Star Online,  which was finally delivered for the Nintendo Gamecube as Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II and for the Microsoft Xbox as Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II Plus. Gamecube also received a Plus version which is rare and very highly coveted among collectors.

I opted for the Gamecube version and immediately re-entered the world that defined my youth. I re-created Lucky7, and three more characters to fill the slot for the four-player, split-screen multiplayer added to this version of the game. I  chose to create a FOnewearl, a RaCast, and a HUCast, each fulfilling magical, ranged attack, and pure-melee roles respectively.

Splitting my time between the four characters, I only managed to get Lucky7 back to around level 85, with the other three in the 50-60s. All the divided effort was worth it for the times I was able to share with my friends in multiplayer mode, finally giving me a small taste of what the online experience could be like… I was floored. I could not believe what I had been missing.

Despite being a large leap forward in my PSO experience, there were still some minor problems. The primary issue was wrangling four people who wanted to specifically play Phantasy Star Online that day, which could be rough with the sheer volume of awesome multiplayer phenomena released around that time. The likes of Halo and Super Smash Bros.: Melee, tended to dominate large crowds of friends and admittedly offered much more accessible gameplay. Despite the logistical challenges I still cherish these first few glimpses into multiplayer PSO.

In addition to the game changing split-screen multiplayer, this new version of PSO also added a new “episode,” which essentially was an entire game with just as many dungeons, bosses and quests as Episode 1. The quality of the adventure was on par with the original and offered venues such as beaches, undersea caverns, sun-drenched ruins, and space stations. I also believe there were some musical references to the classic Phantasy Star series, which was a nice touch.

The onslaught of new content continued with the addition of 3 character classes FOmar, HUcaseal, and RAmarl, a male human FOrce, a female Cast HUnter, and a female human RAnger, all of which were not possible combinations in the previous iterations of the game. Each of these characters offered to fill new niches in the party and some actually became some of the better classes to choose from. I dabbled with each of these classes as well, but couldn’t managed to get them out of the level 30s range, considering the pure volume of characters I was attempting to level up and limited number of memory cards I had available for storage.

Despite all the additional content and added multiplayer aspects that increased the depth of the experience, I eventually strayed away from Phantasy Star Online for a few years, simply due to distraction from other games. The thought of playing it online though never truly left me, always nagging at the back of my mind.

 

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, SchtHack Server

 As the thought of never playing PSO online continued to weigh heavily on my psyche, I finally reached desperation and took to the internet for some solution to a nearly decade-long problem.

My research quickly bore fruit, I stumbled across a website called SchtHack Server that provided a private server to play Phantasy Star Online across a variety of platforms including Dreamcast, Gamecube and PC.

My Dreamcast long being dead, and my Gamecube having no modem, I settled on the PC version of Ver 2.0, resisting the shiny new temptation of the newer Blue Burst version, a Japanese PC release with Episodes I, II and IV included, version for purity of experience.

The first time logging and seeing a lobby full of players was really a fulfilling experience. As I finally ventured across the surface of planet Ragol with three others, I had reached pinnacle of my PSO experience, or so I thought.

After beating the game in Normal difficulty with a full party, the temptation of a far larger server population and an additional episode finally became too much to resist, I made the migration over to Schthack’s  Blue Burst server.

The server client was lightweight and stored almost all data online, making it playable even on aging PCs. I again began from scratch creating Lucky7’s umpteenth iteration, for what would be his ultimate journey.

I cleared all three available episodes multiple times progressing to the pinnacle of the experience with Ultimate Mode. Countless hours of the grinding staple quest “Towards the Future,” lovingly abbreviated TTF, fueled Lucky7’s growth, as well as the supporting my growing stable of characters’ development.

The incredible struggle of being a HUnter in Ultimate mode slowly rewarded me with a feeling of accomplishment as I was able to clear the first episode and dabbled in the second and fourth’s interpretations of the same difficulty.

Then on a day that would live forever in infamy in the minds of current and former Schthackers, the servers crashed, someone didn’t back up the data despite continuing assurance for years that it was the case. Pure devastation. Thousands of hours of my life down the drain, all my efforts were for naught; I never had the chance to clear Episodes II and IV and I was back to square one AGAIN, with seemingly nowhere to turn. I again stepped away from Phantasy Star Online for an apparent indefinite hiatus.

After another multi-year break from one of my favorite games in history, I sit here penning this article, reflecting on the incredible times spent with the sci-fi action RPG classic that is PSO. 

 
The writing of this article once again awakened my innate yearning for experiencing the world of PSO, and finally attempting to clear all scenarios of the game in Ultimate mode. It is for this reason this article was withheld for over a month, considering the process of taking a handful of screenshots turned quickly into a full-on gaming experience leading to Lucky7’s final incarnation, hopefully.

I currently have progressed to Hard mode and am at level 27 with Lucky7. Though it is a long journey back to being a contender in Ultimate Mode, and the Ephinea-exclusive “Anguish Mode,” I cherish the additional opportunity to relive my childhood.

I will likely continue to periodically update readers on the state of my progress as time goes on just to keep things interesting and I would love to hear from anyone whose life was equally impacted by Phantasy Star Online.

Be Sure to Comment Below. Would Love to Hear Your Experience with PSO.