Return To The Planet Of Ragol In This Phantastic Online RPG

Phantasy Star Online is a significant game for me because of many reasons, it was the first online game I've ever played, and it was one of the few games that lasted a very long time for me, for most games I will simply quit playing when I get near enough to the end of it. Phantasy Star Online offered something to console gamers that those without a PC had never experienced before, a massive online RPG. The Sega DreamCast was undeniably the first console to make online gaming on console popular, Sega's now dead console is one of my personal favorites. And so with such a great game do you think that Sega wouldn't make a sequel? Well that's where Phantasy Star Online Ver.2 comes into the picture, but it's much more of a rehash than a sequel at all.

The Phantasy Star Online games use the Phantasy Star license, the Phantasy Star games were involving RPGs that first appeared on the Sega Master System, but later sprung up on Sega's popular 16-bit system the Genesis. Something that would have made the Phantasy Star Online games a little better is if they were more based upon the earlier games, but that's not too big of a problem. The game does, however incorporate a couple of things from the older Phantasy Star games. For example, money is used in the same currency as the older games, the Hunter's Guild has returned, and a couple other small similarities are present.

Phantasy Star Online Ver.2 is a very technical game, you can't even play until you input 2 codes found on the inside of the game's case. These codes are used to create an account for you, but after inputting these codes you can only play online from the DreamCast you were playing on while you entered the codes. This can be a bit of a problem though, as when I first got my copy of the game I input the codes correctly but whenever I tried to play the game online I would get an error message saying that this account was already in use by another person. I had to call Sega a couple of times before they were able to fix the problem.

Character Customization: What Do You Want To Look Like?
After getting past all that mumbo jumbo, you are forced to create a character to play as. There are 9 possible characters to play as, and 3 basic classes; hunters, rangers and forces. Each class has it's own weaknesses and strong points, but on top of that, each particular character may have a few weaknesses or strong points that others in the same class may not have. For example, androids can't use magic, there is a hunter android, and 2 ranger androids. The classes strengths and weaknesses are mentioned below.

-Hunters
Hunters are great, they excel in strength and defense, but are a little weak when it comes to magic and accuracy. These types of characters are best used for close range combat, and 2 of them can learn magic, but aren't good with it.

-Rangers
This is a great class for beginners, rangers are best used in long range combat. Rifles and other guns are their main weapons, but only one ranger character can use magic at all.

-Forces
Forces are difficult to play as at low levels, and should be used mainly by professionals. Forces use staffs and rods for their main weapons, but they are extremely good with magic and can learn spells at low levels.

Character customization doesn't end with characters and classes though, you can create a name for your character, select a hair style and color, a face, a costume, and you can select their body dimensions. This is a very large amount of customization, but sometimes when you think you've got a really good idea you'll go online and meet someone else with a character that looks exactly like yours. All in all it is possible to make some pretty cool characters in this game.

Gameplay
Gameplay consists of destroying enemies, hitting switches, and gaining experience/levels ups, it may not sound all that great but it is pretty fun sometimes. The action takes place from a third person perspective, meaning the camera follows your character around. A key element to the game is the items, weapons, armor etc., they are scattered throughout the levels, these items can either be dropped by enemies, or found in one of the many destructible boxes found throughout the world. Some characters can't use certain weapons, and the same goes with armor. The other pre-requisit to equipping equipment is your stats, certain minimum requirements are needed in order to equip all items, this makes it so that someone that recieves a very good weapon early in the game from an online player cannot whiz through the game with this item.

Offline Mode: Would You Like Some More Weak Sauce With That?
The Offline mode of Phantasy Star Online isn't all that fun, it seems to me like it's main reason for being in the game is to earn up your characters when you can't go online, and also to earn Meseta (money). Offline mode has you traversing the 4 lands all by yourself, you follow the story of the game as you work your way to the last boss. The default difficulty level is Normal, only after beating the game offline can you gain the option to play on hard mode. Hard mode offers stronger enemies, more items and more money to be earned.

The hunter's guild is accessable on both online and offline modes, and it can be a great way to earn money. The hunter's guild gives you a chance to play the part of a mercenary, you are hired by the citizens of the spacecraft to complete tasks for them, these tasks can be anything from finding someone, to searching for certain items in one of the levels. Each mission gives you Meseta upon completion, and in some particular tasks you are given a teammate that is controlled by the CPU. These characters follow you around, and will help you to destroy attacking monsters. The hunter's guild is a great way to earn your character up both online and offline, and it's a great source of Meseta, especially in the later missions.

Online Mode: Hours of Your Life Down The Drain
Phantasy Star Online Ver.2's main draw lies in it's online mode, that's pretty obvious because they included the word "Online" in the game's title. Upon selecting the Online Mode option, you are sent to a new screen, select an ISP from the list of your ISPs, and after confirming the game connects (or at least attempts to) to the internet. Upon connecting you must choose a ship (server) to log onto, and then a block. After selecting these, you are moved onto the ship block's lobby, you must go to the chicks at the computers and register to start a quest. There are several modes of gameplay available.

Battle Mode: You and other players can battle against each other, but thankfully when you leave the battle arena your stats and inventory are exactly the same as they were before you entered the battle.

Quest Mode: You and your friends are transported to a level, only your stats have been predetermined depending on the type of quest you have entered.

Normal Mode: The normal mode of gameplay is just as it is in Offline mode, only people can join you and the enemies are a bit harder.

There is also a mini soccer game that you can play with other people in the lobby, but it loses it's novelty incredibly quickly.

But what would this game be without a way to communicate with other players? You can chat with other members, you can do it with a standard DC controller, but it tales ages to get your point across, you're much better off with a keyboard. After inputting messages and pressing enter the text will appear in a text box and everyone you are playing with will be able to read it, no matter where they are. Something else that's nice for communication is in the form of guild cards, you can give someone your card and they will be able to look you up whenever they want, and even send you private messages.

Mag Raising: A Cool Version Of Those Horrid Virtual Pets
Mags are a pretty deep and involving way to get more out of the game. Mags are little creatures fly alongside your character, they add to your character's stats and can heal your character, bring it back to life, and even use magic to increase your character's defense and attack power. You can feed mags, and the more you feed them the more they will boost your stats when you equip them, but some mags have special preferences when it comes to food. Depending on how you raise them, they will evolve into different forms and also gain the ability to use photon blasts. These photon blasts summon monsters to attack the enemies or boost your party. You can't use photon blasts all the time though, you have a small meter that needs to fill up before you can use a photon blast, the meter fills up whenever you take damage.

New Additions: I Once Bought a Game Just Like This
Sadly enough, Ver.2 doesn't feel different enough from the original to warrant a purchase if you own Ver.1. A couple new additions are the lobby soccer, quest mode, Ultimate mode, and there are plenty of new items and mags to be found. One thing that really gets me mad is the fact that Sega didn't add any new characters, the same characters that were available in Ver.1 are available in this game. A nice thing about this game is the fact that you can move your characters from Ver.1 to Ver.2 with no problems. Sega has also cracked down on hackers and cheaters, you can be banned if you are caught doing any of these. Now whenever you visit a shop the game automatically saves for you, so now you don't have to quit playing just to save. Your characters can now level up to 200, a nice feature to make the game last even longer. And last but not least Sega decided to charge you to play Ver.2 online, you are charged $15 for 3 months of play.

My Ratings

Graphics 9/10
Phantasy Star Online Ver.2 has great graphics, highly detailed characters and enemies along with some beautiful worlds. Of course everything is in 3-D and rendered with polygons, but the graphics haven't been improved much since the original Phantasy Star Online. There are a couple new graphical qualities though, the forest level takes place at dusk in quest mode, and there is a new ice dragon boss for the level too. Animation is solid, the only bit of slowdown I ever detected took place once when 4 people were typing multiple messages at the same time, but thankfully this wasn't during combat. Some levels look very nice, the forest and mines come to mind, and while the others aren't too bad, they can be improved upon. The game's spells are a little bland looking, but the photon blasts were nicely designed and scared the crap out of me the first couple of times I saw them.

Character design is all up to you, there are plenty of options to add a customized feel to the appearance of your character. You can do a lot of things with your characters, you can make a character with spiky neon green colored hair, select a face of your choice, and choose what tone of skin you would like them to have. One little thing that annoys me a little about the characters, is that when they are standing totally still they continually nod their heads, and it makes things look a little strange.

Colors and textures were done extremely nicely, everything from the textures on the characters to the grass in the forest level looks great. A level that really shows off the graphical prowess is the mines level, it's not what you'd expect from a mine. Another level worth mentioning are the Runes, perfectly done, it even has small little um.. tadpoles flying around in the air in one memorable room.

Story 5.5/10
Ahh, so we've finally reached the game's weakest link. The story isn't mentioned much in the game, and that's a big "uh oh" when it comes to RPGs, but thankfully this game is more based on teaming up with buddies and killing monsters than it is on storytelling. You are a mercenary sent to a planet called Ragol to try to discover why the Pioneer 1's colony was destroyed, and along the way you find little messages left from the people that used to inhabit the planet.

Warning: This Paragraph May Contain Spoilers
The pioneer project began as an act of desperation, the people must find a new place to live after the destruction of their homeplanet. As the evacuation was made, probes were sent into space to look for a place for these people to live, when they finally found a place a ship known by the name of Pioneer 1 was sent to colonize the area, Pioneer 1 confirmed that it would be suitable for the people to live on. 7 years passed, and as Pioneer 2 entered orbit of the planet, they lost connections with the people due to a violent explosion, as contact was lost with the thousands of men and women living on the planet.

Control 8/10
The control is great and all, but upon pushing forward on the joystick your character will at first walk, and then begin running. This can be a very bad thing, as when you are surrounded by enemies you just want to get out of there, and walking will get you nowhere fast. Something else that bugs me about this game is the fact that you cannot pause the game, but since it's an Online multiplayer game I guess I can understand why they left the pause feature out. The camera isn't even much of a problem in this game, it pretty much behaves itself and can be moved back behind your character if it gets messed up with the press of a button. Attacking and casting spells is easy enough, and the menus are pretty easy to navigate, it's not hard to instantly be whizzing through the menus.

Sound 8.5/10
The music in this game is pretty good, I enjoyed a couple songs. There really isn't any annoying track from this game, but some songs can freak you out if you are really tired. Namely the Runes' music can get a little sad, it just helps to let you know that you aren't going to get through this level anytime soon, as it's an extremely long one. The menu screen music is pretty good, it's peaceful and quiet, but the music in the forest always makes me think that I'm about to be attacked even though I know I killed all enemies in that particular area. All in all Phantasy Star Online Ver.2 features some great music that can help set the mood.

The sound effects are a bit of a let down, there really isn't anything exciting. The weapons (except sabers) really don't make the kind of noise you would expect from them, but the monsters do make some pretty cool noises right after you kill them, and trust me, you'll be killing a lot of monsters. I just kinda wish that when you hack away at an enemy with a sword that the sword would make some cool, metal ting or something.

Multiplayer 10/10
This is the real reason to get this game, but I know some people that bought this game and don't even have the internet, they'll never truly be able to experience this game now. Online mode is just so much fun, even if you go online for the sole purpose of trading items and money it's still an enjoyable experience, that is unless you die, drop your money and weapon and someone picks them up and makes a run for it. I can guarantee you one thing; Online mode will have you coming back for more and more even weeks after your purchase of this game.

Fun Factor 9.5/10
If you are looking for a game that will help you waste time then this is it, few games can offer a more enjoyable experience. This game is not only fun, but it will last you a long time, you may even find yourself staying up til sunrise playing this game online more than once. This is a pretty deep game, you can always raise mags if you get bored, search for items, or even simply battle other users to gain those all so respectfully deserved bragging rights. The choice is yours however you want to play, but online mode is what made this game get such a high rating, offline mode is good, but shouldn't be the sole basis for purchasing this game.

Overall Score: 9.5/10