Phantasy Star (Online, Universe, PSP)

[Octavious]

Well, the Phantasy Star Series has a long history of some very solid RPG action so I figured it was worthy of it's own topic. Whether you started on the Dreamcast, Gamecube, XBOX, or you remember the old days on the Genesis you can't deny that the series was/is an awesome set of RPGs. Now, I know we're all aware that Phantasy Star Universe for the XBOX360/PS2/PC was horribly botched so I'll ignore that in terms of awesome titles. Also, all of you PSP owners, Sega is bringing Phantasy Star Portable to North America around March of 2009. Phantasy Star Portable, as most of you PSP owners probably know if your a fan, sold over 500~k copies in the first week in Japan, almost beating out Crisis Core. Being a DS Lite owner, I've not really had an urge to purchase a PSP until I read about this. There's finally enough titles for the PSP that i'll be picking one up after Christmas. I hope there is some other fans of the Phantasy Star genre out there, some of my best memories on my Dreamcast and Gamecube came from that game.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tar_box_US.jpg

[Rokku]

You know Oct, I find it so hard to buy anything that's Phantasy Star related and has an online component, after PSO and PSU both flopping so hard. I had such high expectations for PSU, and even when we played together it was only entertaining for all of like a half an hour. :<

[Pikarya]

You know Oct, I find it so hard to buy anything that's Phantasy Star related and has an online component, after PSO and PSU both flopping so hard. I had such high expectations for PSU, and even when we played together it was only entertaining for all of like a half an hour. :<

Umm PSO never flopped. On the other hand, PSU was a complete failure to revive the online sector that died with PSO.

[Vade]

PSO wasn't a flop...I played the crap out of that game before FFXI came along. PSU was fun..just different.

[Rokku]

Flop wasn't the right word, my apologies. But people did hack the hell out of PSO, which made it pretty crappy towards the end. PSU deserved the title of being a flop, PSO didn't, my bad.

[Octavious]

Whats really funny is PSU had so much potential and they botched it by not adding new content for so long. Also, the voice chat problems ruined that aspect of the game and made me use the little XBOX keypad anyway. PSO was one of the best MMOs of all time for the Dreamcast, as long as you played with friends and not random assholes who would BSOD you and jack your equipment. PSO for the Gamecube was pretty solid for ~2yrs until duping hit big, other than the dupes nothing else was really an issue aside from the lack of online support from Nintendo.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm pretty sure I own one of like 100 (I'm under-exaggerating) broadband adapters for the Gamecube. Seriously, Nintendo has never had the vision for online gaming and that's what hindered the Gamecube version IMO. The Beta for PSU brought so much promise but the final release (sans Moatoob) lacked any new content. SEGA had a chance to make it awesome but botched it. I can't wait for the PSP version so I can Ad-hoc with some friends and bash some baddies. :3 (Oh, and there's a DS version of Phantasy Star but it looks like fail.)

[wintersquall]

phantasy stars on the genesis were some of my first RPGs ever... the whole multi-generational one was friggin epic for its time. years later, i hear they're making an online one... so happily i leap in and play it to DEATH (like 2 dreamcasts worth of death, several maxed chars).

unfortunately, years after that they came out with the same game again - so i skipped it.

as for the handhelds, i'll stay away from that but if they ever make a new, current-gen RPG, they've got my 60 bucks in their pockets.

[The Blackrose]

Nei, telling that dumb bitch Aerith to take a number since 1989.

[AoE]

I think I still have my Broadband adapater. I need to try to sell it on Ebay since I got rid of my Gamecube sometime ago. PSO was definitely addicting back then but then again I was younger and more prone to that addiction. I don't think I could go back to that now that I'm older and my time is a lot more limited. I played PSU for awhile but when they started fucking up with their billing servers (which caused them to get way behind in updates) I got tired of their ineptitude and cancelled my IDs. Pretty much only time I play is when there's a level cap increase to cap my main out just in case they come out with something worth reactivating consistantly.

[volcanicweather]

Quality thread, thanks Octavious for posting this.

I was a huge PSO fan for dreamcast back in the day... nothing like playing on dial-up! I fully agree with the comment about playing with rl friends or the same people, it made the game way more fun.

This gives me yet another reason to get a PSP (football manager 2009 and breath of fire III the other two).

Now I just need to find people around Minneapolis to play this with >.>

[BRP]

PSO =/= MMO

I loved PSO on the dreamcast though. I had a few friends/neighbors who were crazy obsessed about it back when it started out.

[Doombear]

I have played a bit of the Japanese Phantasy Star Portable after hearing "If you love Monster Hunter, you will love this" 1000 times. It isn't bad, but the language barrier killed a lot of the fun so I am happy to wait until the US/Europe release.

Also...

This gives me yet another reason to get a PSP (football manager 2009 and breath of fire III the other two).

Football Manager 2009, yes yes go!

[Flarega]

I was a GC PSO fan back in the day, and I just started playing it offline again. Currently searching for Yas 9k for my upcoming ranger, but no luck after about 30 runs yet.

What killed PSO was the stupid episode 3 card game. Fun at first, but didnt stick to the roots of what made 1 & 2 so fun. Seriously a fuck you to all the big fans. Wasn't long after episode 3 came out that I went to FFXI.

[AoE]

I thought Episode 3 was awesome and it's story was actually pretty good imo. It didn't take away nor add to the PSO franchise so I never really understood the hate for it other than the fact that it was a card game.

Imo the thing that ultimately killed the online part of Phantasy Star is the blatant inconsistency of service of the Japanese vs the foreign audience. They should just stick to offline games if SoJ insists on shitting on SoA every chance they get instead of focusing on how to make their business model appeal more to the foreign audience. Only people that suffer is the customers.

[brisk]

PSU is now just boring. After the expansion hit, everything is on easy mode, S3 v1 missions have retarded monster levels where v2 missions on S2 are still higher, "new" missions are old mobs reskinned. Bosses are the basic reskinned of other bosses. Sega keeps milking us with events where we need 300% exp and drop rate up where 90% of expensive items on the market become junk (hint pwand). PSU was fine and dandy during the v1 days where stuff was challenging and hard. /end rant

[Flarega]

I thought Episode 3 was awesome and it's story was actually pretty good imo. It didn't take away nor add to the PSO franchise so I never really understood the hate for it other than the fact that it was a card game.

Imo the thing that ultimately killed the online part of Phantasy Star is the blatant inconsistency of service of the Japanese vs the foreign audience. They should just stick to offline games if SoJ insists on shitting on SoA every chance they get instead of focusing on how to make their business model appeal more to the foreign audience. Only people that suffer is the customers.

I liked the idea of episode 3, but the complete change in gameplay, leveling up system, and lack of rare hunting really turned me off quick. If Sonic team could have brought over the real time combat system from episode 1 and 2 and introduced an interesting PvP system with decent rewards, along with familiar co op adventure mode that players were familiar with, episode 3 would have been hailed as great. Instead it is hardly remembered when speaking about the PSO series.

[Groovebox]

My grandpa bought me and my brothers Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System. I remember seeing the price tag on it, it was like $70 for some reason lol.

Anyways, a couple snow-days later and I was hooked.

Oh yeah, *points to sig* ... no one has really ever commented on it, but I figure this would be the perfect topic