Phantasy Star Online
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| Phantasy Star Online | |
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| Developer(s) | Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Release date(s) | JPN November 21, 2000 NA January 29, 2001 EU February 23, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Online Hack and slash RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (13+) |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast, PC, GameCube, Xbox |
| Media | GD-ROM, CD-ROM, DVD |
| Input | Joystick, Keyboard, Mouse |
Phantasy Star Online (PSO) was an online title for Sega Dreamcast released in 2000. A bugfix/upgrade edition was released the following year, entitled Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2. This version was also later ported to Microsoft Windows, but the Windows version was only released in Asia. Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II was later released for Nintendo GameCube and Xbox. Phantasy Star Online Episode III was later released for Nintendo GameCube with a changed gameplay formula, in the form of a card game.
In turn, the Xbox's Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II was ported to Microsoft Windows with the added Episode IV, NPCs, quests, team system and server-side saving system, as Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst. The Phantasy Star Online titles are a sub-series of Sega's Phantasy Star series of games that began in 1987. The PSO games themselves are simple hack and slash type role-playing games where the player slays monsters, levels up, buys new equipment, etc. The online Phantasy Stars differ from the previous games of the series by offering a real-time -- rather than turn-based -- approach to combat and seamlessly integrating this with the exploration/plot development aspects of the game.
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[edit] Communication system
Communication between players is achieved via a combination of direct 2-line text entry, Symbol Chat and Word Select. As PSO online servers support international co-operative play, the Symbol Chat and Word Select features encouraged players to attempt communication with others, regardless of language.
Symbol Chat allows the player to define a collection of symbols within a speech bubble, in order to convey an emotion or simple instruction. These symbols could then be invoked via a player-defined shortcut, or accessed via an in-game menu.
Word Select acts as a limited phrasebook, allowing sentences to be constructed through a hierarchy of menus. Once complete, a sentence is automatically translated into the configured language of other nearby players, thus bridging the language gap encountered in cross-cultural multiplayer games. (Word Select was removed in Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst)
Keyboard users can also trigger a number of gestures anywhere in the game by holding down the Alt key and pressing any letter, number or function key. Holding down the Shift key at the same time allows players to perform the gestures of the opposite sex, but only while they are in the Online Lobby.
The Xbox version (Episodes I & II) also allows voice communication via Xbox Live headset.
[edit] Modes of play
The first two episodes of PSO (excluding the original Dreamcast version prior to the Ver. 2 revision disc) offered the following game modes:
- Normal Mode
This is the plot-driven bulk of the game, in which a player or group of players fight through a number of levels spread over four distinct areas. Each area has a boss at the end. Upon defeating the final boss, the credits roll and in some cases, an extra feature will be unlocked (eg. The next difficulty mode).
In addition to the main story, players can also take Hunter's Guild sidequests, which explores the lives of Pioneer 2's citizens, and further delve into the backstory behind the game. The rewards for these sidequests include a payment of Meseta for the job, the chance to explore the stories behind Pioneer 2's NPC residents, the opportunity to obtain special weapons that can't be found anywhere else (such as the Soul Eater scythe), and of course, whatever weapons, experience, and Meseta you can get while fighting on these missions.
In all editions of Phantasy Star Online, normal mode is available to play at four different difficulty levels. Normal is available from the start, while Hard, Very Hard and Ultimate become available once the final boss has been defeated on the previous difficulty. This does not apply to Blue Burst and online play in Ep I & II; instead, there is a specific minimum experience level required to join or create a game for each episode or difficulty level that is different in Ep I & II (eg. Players may not join or create an Ultimate game on Episode 1 unless they have already attained Level 80)
Blue Burst breaks down the main story into separate missions, accessed via a special desk in The Principal's Office or Lab. Each area of the game is divided into 3 or 4 missions that must be completed to progress the story. Items such as weapons and techniques are awarded after certain missions are completed. Other players are able to join the mission at any time, even if the mission is in progress or finished. The final mission in each area is a standard run through the area's levels to the boss battle, essentially 'clearing' the area and unlocking the next one (in the same style as previous incarnations of PSO).
- Challenge Mode
Challenge mode sets all participants to a set level with set equipment at the beginning of each mission (lasting only until the end of the mission), and requires the team to reach a predefined goal in a series of specially-designed levels that are modified versions of areas seen in Normal mode. The aim is to complete the missions in the shortest time possible. New level objects can include laser barriers, buttons, and so on, and sometimes strategically placed enemies/types of enemies. If anyone on the team dies, then the challenge is immediately terminated and the team is returned to the Hunter's Guild, so teamwork is essential if the levels are to be completed successfully. Everyone starts with a 'Scape Doll' revival item in their inventory, enabling them to die once without consequence (the harder the stage, the more scape dolls you get). Once all stages have been completed, players are given a rank based on their total time, with "S rank" being the best. If they achieve this, players are awarded rare weapons which can be customized with an 8-letter name which precedes the weapon's type ("*CHOSEN NAME*SABER", "*CHOSEN NAME*CLAW", et cetera). Challenge Mode is available for Episodes 1 and 2.
- Battle Mode
This is a deathmatch mode. In this mode, players are permitted to attack each other. A team may play while being able to attack allies (as well as monsters) to create their rules, or they may play one of several predefined sets of battle rules.
- 1 Player Mode
Exclusive to Blue Burst, this mode essentially allows Blue Burst players to play the offline mode online, complete with Episode I & II's side story quests (Blue Burst lacks a true offline mode). As of July 27th 2006 there are two 1-player quests available for the Blue Burst-exclusive Episode 4; "Black Paper's Deal" (requires the 'Photon Crystal' item to complete) and "Pioneer Spirit".
- Additions to Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 and 2 Plus (Gamecube)
1.'Central Dome Fire Swirl' is available offline in Episode 1
2.The GBA downloads in 'The Fake in Yellow' in Episode 1 are now available offline
3.'Seat of the Heart','East Tower' and 'West Tower' are available offline in Episode 2.
4.The Episode 2 Challenge Mode is now available offline. Users who have the original release of Episode 1 and 2 can only play Episode 2 Challenge Mode while online.
[edit] Fictional timeline
- A.U.W. 3060 - Endless warring on the homeworld of Coral is so devastating to the environment, it becomes uninhabitable. The Alliance of Nations, a group of 10 of the most powerful nations on Coral, bands together to plan a mass exodus to another planet. The search for a suitable world begins, and an intricate plan known as the Pioneer Project is mapped out to construct a hyperspace vessel to transport colonists to their new home.
- A.U.W. 3068 - Out of the countless unmanned probes sent into space to search for an inhabitable suitable new world to colonize, only one finds a suitable match. The Alliance of Nations names this new world "Ragol" and the construction of the first of the colonization vessels, Pioneer 1, begins. The main purpose of the maiden voyage of Pioneer 1 is research and planetary trailblazing.
- A.U.W. 3076 - Pioneer 1 takes off for Planet Ragol.
- A.U.W. 3077 - Pioneer 1 lands on Ragol. The scientific research team investigates the planet's surface, and deems it to be suitable for colonization. Construction begins on the preliminary habitat foundation, and the Central Dome is set up as the headquarters for the budding colony. Rico Tyrell is assigned to the Surface Exploration Team , which is in charge of survival planning and terraforming opportunities.
- A.U.W. 3081 - The Alliance of Nation's power base continues to weaken due to the unending wartime carnage on Coral.
- A.U.W. 3082 - Construction of the Central Dome and the fortification of the surrounding colony area is completed. The colonists contact the homeworld, and send the message for to clear the second colony ship to head out for Ragol. Also during this year, Heathcliff Flowen, the Deputy Commander of Pioneer 1 's military forces, mysteriously disappears.
- A.U.W. 3083 - Upon receiving the transmission from Pioneer 1, Pioneer 2 is launched for Ragol. An alarming number of violent outbursts increases near the Central Dome amongst the local wildlife, including new forms that are unknown to homeworld scientists. Rico Tyrell and her companions are the first to form the Hunters, a self-defense group that seeks to find the cause of these incidents and to ensure the safety of the colonists.
- A.U.W. 3084 - Pioneer 2 enters orbit around Planet Ragol. However, just as the ship makes contact with the Central Dome, an enormous explosion occurs within the Central Dome itself. After teleporters are installed on the planet's surface, the Principal sends the first round of Pioneer 2 's Hunters to investigate the surface of Ragol. (Episode 1 begins)
Note: Interestingly enough, the game mentions that Pioneer 2 would have the main wave of refugees (with Pioneer 1 having most of the scientists and military). However, each ship was said to only hold around 30,000 people. If this was truly the "main wave" of refugees, that would leave one to believe that Coral's population was very low, and the ratio of military:civilian being close to 1:2. (Sidenote: While the number given is 30,000, Pioneer 1 did have more aboard than that number (Rico mentions that the food consumption was too high for the number that was supposed to be on the ship)
[edit] Offline vs online play
Despite the 'online' in the title, all games in the Phantasy Star Online series except Blue Burst may be played offline, allowing the player to develop their character between online sessions, although at a lessened rate. Some versions (PSO Episodes I&II) also support split-screen offline multiplayer modes, but these suffer badly from reduced clipping distances, awkward camera movement, and in some cases, the inability to finish certain sections of the game (sometimes, a team cannot get to the end of the game without already having been there). The Xbox version of PSO Ep. I&II requires the user to have a Xbox Live gamertag to play the game, both online and offline. The gamertag does not need to be active though for offline play.
[edit] Cheating
Unlike most MMO games, PSO stores the player's character, inventory and other information locally on a memory card or similar storage device instead of on a server controlled by the game studio. This method of saving is required to allow the player to play offline with the same characters. This makes the player data more easily accessible to hackers, and as a result, cheating is much easier in PSO than in a conventional MMO game.
- Dreamcast Versions
The Sega Dreamcast version of the game was susceptible to cheats from the UK due to the Xploder cheat disc for the Dreamcast, which operated similarly to the more famous Pro Action Replay, but without the latter's American legal constraints. The codes originally provided with the Xploder were relatively harmless to players (item copy, raise level etc), but later developers created codes to seriously affect, sometimes destroy other users' characters. New items were made, and although these could be used offline players were not allowed to enter the main play areas of the online world without depositing the items in the bank (which meant they could keep them and play online but not use them online), some beneficial honest use of such cracks were developed. There was no formal means of trading, but players could drop items. Once an agreement was made, players would drop their items and pick up what the other party had dropped; however, this method of trading was relatively insecure, since players could simply drop any item they wanted to and pick up the other player's. Cracks allowed players to see what was dropped before walking away from their own dropped item so that dishonest players would not have a chance to grab the item.
- Episode 1 and 2
Episode 1 and 2 on the Gamecube, and Xbox were hacked as well. The first hacks for the Gamecube version were file-swaps (which require no enable code) via the Action Replay. Using file-swaps, it was possible to do many things, like achieve level 200 instantaneously, walk through walls (by replacing wall boundary files), and changing in-game music. The enable code was (much later) hacked by decrypting the enable code created by Datel. This code was released on Datel's Powerlink disk, which was discontinued early due to questions about the ethics of using cheats in online games. An FSOD (frozen screen of death) code came out due to a vulnerability in the handling of the word select feature in PSO. Using the code allowed the player to freeze everybody who saw the glitched word select. Duplicating of items was popular as well (which requires no cheat codes at all, since there was a bug in the game since the Dreamcast version that allowed duplicating).
- Episode 3
Episode 3 was hacked in a similar way as Episode 1 and 2 (file-swapping codes came first, then the enable code was created). Hacks were created which allowed the player to become the boss, have every card, use supposedly banned cards without actually getting banned, and trade any card to any player. Trading a banned card to a player would get the receiving player banned.
- Blue Burst
Blue Burst was hacked via a memory editing program called Cheat Engine. This was the first installment of PSO that utilized server-side saving, which was said to be unhackable. Cheating on this version was very different compared to the others; instead of codes or modified and patched files being released, memory addresses were released. Cheaters could use Cheat Engine to modify the data at these memory addresses, which would change the flow of the game. Later, an error in the server-sided item handling was found that allowed hackers to crash block servers and create duplicated items. Later on, another hack was released that allowed a player to change what an enemy could drop. The effects of this are not known at this point, but are considered great.
[edit] Episode IV
Episode IV was exclusively designed for PSO: Blue Burst, only available on the Windows operating system. Episode IV features brand new enemies, maps, and items, in addition to those included with previous episodes. The new maps include Crater Routes, Crater Interior, and Subterranean Desert. Like other Blue Burst episodes, the normal mode has a series of plot-driven missions to work through, as well as some exclusive Hunter's Guild quests.
Episode IV is notable for being slightly more difficult than the other chapters of Phantasy Star Online, but is criticized for not offering a greater amount of experience for defeating these tougher enemies.
[edit] Version list
| Version | Platform | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Phantasy Star Online Network Trial Edition | Sega Dreamcast | Q3 2000 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online | Sega Dreamcast | 21 November 2000 (Japan)
29 January 2001 (North America) 23 February 2001 (Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 | Sega Dreamcast | 6 July 2001 (Japan)
24 September 2001 (North America) |
| Phantasy Star Online Beta | Microsoft Windows | Q4 2001 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online | Microsoft Windows | 20 December 2001 (Japan)
2002 (Asia) |
| Phantasy Star Online Demo | Microsoft Windows | 20 December 2001 (Japan)
January 2002 (UK)1 |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Trial Edition | Nintendo Gamecube | May 2002 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (ver 1.0) | Nintendo Gamecube | 12 September 2002 (Japan)2 |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (ver 1.1) | Nintendo Gamecube | 29 October 2002 (North America)
November 2002 (Japan)2 |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II | Microsoft Xbox | Q1 2003 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution Trial Edition | Nintendo GameCube | June 24, 2003 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution | Nintendo GameCube | 27 November 2003 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus | Nintendo Gamecube | 27 November 2003 (Japan)
15 September 2004 (North America) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst Beta | Microsoft Windows | 21 May 2003 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst | Microsoft Windows | 15 July 2004 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Episode IV Beta 4 | Microsoft Windows | November 2004 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Episode IV 4 | Microsoft Windows | Q1 2005 (Japan) |
| Phantasy Star Universe | Microsoft Xbox 360,PC, Playstation 2 | October 24, 2006 |
1 Demo included on January Issue of PC Gamer (UK)
2 Contained a serious item duplication bug, fixed in ver 1.1 in Japan, and discovered before the North American and European versions were mastered. Owners of the older version have been able to ask Sonic Team to send them the updated version since 2002-11-25. [1]
3 The GAME retail group had an exclusive deal, allowing them to distrbuite the game from the 11 June 2004 in the United Kingdom. In other European countries it was released on a different date, and sold everywhere from the very beginning.
4 Episode IV expansion pack included with the North American and European versions of Blue Burst
[edit] Wii support
While able to play the GameCube version of Phantasy Star Online offline, trying to access the online mode on Nintendo Wii will return an error, asking the user to connect a modem or broadband adapter to the "GameCube". Because there are no serial ports for these adapters, all past attachments similar to the modem/broadband adapter such as the GameBoy Player will not work on the Wii.
[edit] Server shutdown dates
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 1 (US) - 31 October 2003
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (US) - 31 October 2003
Phantasy Star Online (Microsoft Windows) - January 2004
Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution Trial Edition - 15 September 2003
Phantasy Star Online/Phantasy Star Online ver. 2 (North America) - 1 October 2003
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II ver. 1.0 - 26 March 2004 [2]
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 1 (PAL & JP) - 2 April 2007[[3]
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (PAL & JP) - 2 April 2007 [4]
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (GC) (Ver. 1.1) - 01 April 2007 [5]
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus - 01 April 2007 [6]
Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution - 01 April 2007 [7]
There have been no announcements to shutdown Xbox and PC (Blue Burst) versions of the game.
[edit] Third-party code exploit
Before connecting to the game server, PSO Episodes I & II for the GameCube resolves the game server's address using DNS. By running a private DNS server, it is possible to redirect PSO to a third-party server program, which can be used to send executable code to the GameCube and run it. PSUL and PSOLoad were two such server programs.
For a long time, this was the only way to load up third party code, but it is now possible to load programs from a Memory Card, an SD card, or a modchip.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Official sites
- Official Phantasy Star Online homepage
- Official PSO fan site 'Minhiro'
- Official PSO Episode III Website
- Official PSO Blue Burst Website
- Official Phantasy Star Universe Website
- Sonic Team Website
- SEGA of Japan Website
Fan sites
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Phantasy Star • Phantasy Star II • Phantasy Star III • Phantasy Star IV |
