Phantasy Star Online:
Episode I and II

After a mysterious explosion cuts off contact with the colonizers of a distant planet, monsters rule

	Phantasy Star Online: Episode I and II
	By Sonic Team from Sega
	GameCube
	MSRP: $49.99

Review by Eric T. Baker

ega's bowing out of the console wars has paved the way for its game-development expertise to go to work for everyone else, resulting in Phantasy Star Online: Episode I and II's arrival on the GameCube. PSO is the latest in Sega's Phantasy Star series of console role-playing games, and is the heir to no fewer than eight Phantasy Star games across various Sega consoles since 1987.

PSO is for the most part a direct port of the Dreamcast blockbuster, which distinguished itself as the first online RPG for a console. Actually, PSO is a port of two games, as Episode I and II were sold separately in the Dreamcast days. For PSO, Sega added some features, such as new character classes, and removed others, including the old "phrase list" method of communication and the Swatch-patented "Internet time" clock. Also, Dreamcast owners had to buy two games to get the complete package that GameCube owners get on one disk.

Due to the online format, PSO has a real-time combat system, instead of the menu-driven, turn-based combat system common to console RPGs. Players can map regular attacks, special attacks (which do more damage but are more likely to miss), spells and recovery items to whichever button they like. The three buttons usable in combat (A, B and X), when combined with the shoulder button, create six possible effects.

The Y button brings up the onscreen keyboard so players can chat with their online comrades, and the Start button brings up the menu screen, which players can use to access their item list, as well as the icon-based chat system.

Each character starts the game accompanied by a Mag, a small robot that hovers over the character's shoulder and boosts certain of their stats. The characters feed the Mags recovery items, and they grow stronger, boosting the characters' stats higher as they increase in strength. Depending on what characters feed it, the Mags will evolve into different forms. Starting from the same basic Mag that everyone begins with, there are over 49 different variations. There are also rare Mags that players can find in the wild, mostly shaped like various Sega consoles throughout history and various characters from Sega games.

A world best explored with others

As RPGs go, the story of PSO is somewhat shallow. The characters are part of a second wave of settlers to a recently discovered planet, which lost contact with the first wave after a mysterious explosion on the surface. The government has asked the characters to head down to the planet and investigate. Investigation is comprised of a linear journey through various levels, killing monsters and collecting treasure. Numerous side quests offer smaller sub-stories to solve for money and experience points.

Online play replaces the missing story elements by offering the chance to compete or cooperate with other players from all over the world, wherever GameCubes are sold. Upon signing in, players teleport to a lobby, where they can meet other players, form parties and venture into the wilderness. Players can also trade Guild Cards with their online buddies; these allow them to find other players across ships and servers.

A big improvement in online play is the effect of death. In the Dreamcast version, upon death the game resurrected characters on the ship. Whatever money and weapons they had were left behind planetside. This, unfortunately, led to roving bands of thieves who would kill unwary players and scoop up their goods. In PSO, the weapons come back to the ship with the character and only the money is left behind. Since characters can replace money much more easily than many weapons, this works out just fine. Characters can also deposit their money in a bank on the ship, so they are not carrying it around on the planet.

Another improvement is the icon-based chat system. It supplements the onscreen keyboard and is much handier in tense situations. By the time the player pecked out a cry for help on the onscreen keyboard, their character would be dead. Now the customizable icons come preset with basic communications like "Hello," "Goodbye" and "Help!" Players can customize the smiley faces in the system with any message they like.

Characters are customizable as well, adding greatly to the charm of the game. By choosing character class, face type, hairstyle, hair color, skin color, costume colors and proportions, each player has a chance to create a truly unique character. In over 40 hours of online play, no characters identical to each other were encountered.

Despite the fact that the simple storyline doesn't enter into play very much, quirky additions such as the extremely rare Frying Pan melee weapon and the Sonic the Hedgehog-shaped Mage gave me something to shoot for. Also, be sure to check out Lobby 15 on whatever ship you sign into; it contains a soccer field for those players whose characters want to take a break from the hack and slash. — Eric

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