Phantasy Star Online Memories

[ShinobiMan]

When PSO came out on the Dreamcast in early 2001, it literally changed my world. No longer did anything else matter. High School was just a diversion, something I had to sit through in order to get home and return to the world of Ragol.

It was the first MMO I'd ever played, and really the first online console game that I became extremely addicted to. The enviorments, the battle system, leveling up, feeding your pet MAGS and watching them evolve into classic SEGA chracters, the infamous hidden weapons you could only find online, and above all, just the sheer ammount of joy you felt from everyone you encountered in the game. PSO players LOVED this game.

I remember once playing PSO with DP and BHvrd. This was way back in the days of EZboard (can we even remember that far back?)

There used to be a thread back then that chronicled all of the adventures we had in that game. Is that thread archived anywhere?

Anyway, does anyone have any awesome memories attached PSO?

[StoneAgeGamer]

I played PSO like crazy too. I played with people from the SegaDojo board back in the day.

[Steve W]

I used to play it single-player only. I never had any interest in playing it, but I ended up buying it on clearance somewhere and I decided to try it out. And I was immediately hooked. It threw away all the boring parts of Japanese RPGs and made it into a great action game on top of a role playing engine. I never went online with it because at the time I was using Free-i, the free internet service, which had a lot of drop-outs. And my terrible phone lines at the time could never give me better than 26.4 bps. I could hardly play the game online if I couldn't even connect at half the speed of the DC's 56K modem.

I ended up getting a character to over level 100. But just the sheer repetition kept me from going too much farther. That, and I never made it to the last difficulty level in the game, mainly because I just couldn't defeat Dark Falz on Very Hard mode. The weird thing was, later on I bought the GameCube version and ended up playing that version even more, defeating Dark Falz and going to the mega-super-tough mode (I can't remember what it's called) and not being able to proceed too much further because the difficulty was so much higher than what I expected it to be. And then my memory card became corrupted, and I lost the character and all that hard work.

Specific memories; I truly hated De Rol Le. That damn boss was so difficult to kill, then later you had to lead a scientist and fight him again, while trying to keep that stupid sack of crap from getting killed. The AI was terrible, so he'd just stand there and get attacked over and over. After the trauma of that, I played through the Mines but once I cleared them all out I never proceeded to the boss, since the difficulty of the last one was so high. I kept playing it, though, just clearing out the Mines over and over. Finally, after a couple months of leveling up, I decided to try the Mines boss, just to see how bad he was. I banked everything except for a Repeater with a lightning attack (a crappy weapon I didn't mind leaving behind when I would die), and went in. And destroyed the boss with ease and taking just about no damage. WTF. Talk about unbalanced gameplay.

To this day, when I visit with my nephews, we'll play PSO on the GameCube. I never had the opportunity to play multiplayer on the game until my oldest nephew visited and played my copy and had to get one of his own. He's now addicted to the DS version.

[chrisbid]

those first few months of pso were simply awesome.

then the hackers took over, and sega started charging to play, and it just got out of control

[kupomogli]

I played it single player. The first time I played a Dreamcast was when my best friend picked it up and later on picked up PSO. We would have played online but he had no internet connection or computer, so of course he wasn't going to get internet for just one game.

So anyways we took turns. One of us would beat the forest, then the next one with our character, then we'd beat the caves, then the mine, then the ruins. First time we played it in a day we both completed a lot of the quests and got to the mines.

So once the game came out on Gamecube I picked it up. I also picked up PSO3 but that was a different type of game, also extremely broken with light characters having a huge advantages over the dark. PSO 1-2, I assumed would be just version 1 and 2, but when turning it on you had a completely new game added onto the original. Same gameplay and everything, but you had multiple different areas. The new areas were awesome.

Never played Blue Burst, but since it's just another expansion like PSO1+2, then I'm sure it'll be awesome if we ever get a console release. I'd play it online but I really don't like to play PC games.

If Sega released these games in an updated 720p on the PS3 and 360 I'd buy it first day. Hopefully if they do they make the online P2P. That way they don't charge monthly fees and also there's no server so we don't have to worry about it being shut down. People do so many stupid petitions. If it would ever do anything I'd do one for this game.

[JSoup]

I fiddled with the GCN version a bit at a friends house once and liked it, but I never got around to getting a copy for myself.

I've really been meaning to give the entire Phantasy Star series a try.

[Blitzwing256]

Pso was the one and only shining momment on the dreamcast for me, the system would have easily gone in the trash had it not been for this awesome game (only mmo i've ever liked) so deep and fun to play for a few hours.

damit now I want to play it again, thanks assholes ;-)

[megasdkirby]

damit now I want to play it again, thanks assholes ;-)

Too bad we can't create our own servers.

I LOVE this game. I recall playing this for hours and reaching the last difficulty in PSO Ver.2, when I realized that this last difficulty was INSANE. I gave up trying, though I should still have my old save file somewhere. Would love to play it again, if I can find a replacement PSU for my DC.

[BHvrd]

Yeah I remember playing with you Joe and Punkoffgirl (she even gave people frying pans, lol), that was great.

Hard to top those days, as honestly it was my first online game, so it will always hold a special place. Honestly though its simplistic complexity still stands up to this day and I still play the Gamecube version (bought after Dreamcast and Xbox versions) in up to 3 player spliscreen (4 player lags too much) and I highly recommend getting some friends or family together and doing the same. The game still lives on as the splitscreen is pretty much just as good (glad they added it). I also play Phantasy Star Zero though it is only "ok" really and doesn't have the exact same magic. Was subscribed to Phantasy Star Universe a while but now they canned the servers, but it all lives on when Phantasy Star Portable 2 gets released in the states as it will have most of the same stuff, but with no subscription fees.

As far as memories go, yeah lots. I don't think people quite understand that in alot of ways PSO was like a console Ultima Online, survival of the fittest. If you died people could steal your money or weapon, say like 3 people were fighting Dark Falz and you entered "while they were fighting" and they died you could telepipe down, enter the instance they just died at and pick up all their weapons, it was cheap but made playing with friends you trusted important. After player killing {PK'ing) got introduced via cheating all hell broke loose. Soon there were ways to duplicate items, walk through walls, crack passworded rooms, freeze peoples games, empty peoples banks, soul drop to avoid being pk'ed and pk a pk'er, and joining rooms where you got NOL'ed.

The hacks in themselves were incredible and expansive, it was a virtual warzone of hacks and cheats, some people just have no idea how bad it got, it was historical even by pc standards, definitely a time Sega would like to forget happened, but in all honesty it made for some interesting memories, though playing with friends was great, fighting hacks with hacks was wild stuff as well. I even remember seeing the first lobby kill, lol.

I don't think it will ever be topped honestly ShinobiMan, but at least a couple of us shared in that era which is cool. In its prime it was pretty much the console equivilant of Ultima Online, or at least the closest a console game has come.

[todesengel]

Too bad we can't create our own servers.

You can still play online using this site http://schtserv.com/.

[Arkhan]

I skipped school for a week, faking sick, to play it right when it was new. Great memories of fiddling with the emoticons, making KISS faces.

My Hunewearl is still max level

I just remember spending alot of time getting very immersed into the game, as it as my first online game too. It was fun to play with people you've never met, especially considering that it was pretty ahead of its time as far as graphics, gameplay, and concept.

It has definitely stood the test of time, as its still being played today. Hell, it outlasted PSU. That was supposed to be the new big thing and it crashed hard!

[old_skoolin_jim]

those first few months of pso were simply awesome.

then the hackers took over, and sega started charging to play, and it just got out of control

That. I played up to level 75, and once the hackers PK'ed me and stole my Chain Saw and put it behind the shop counter in town (where you couldn't get it unless you had a clipping code on), I swore my head off and never returned to the tubes.

Picked it up on Xbox, but it just wasn't the same with voice chat. Everybody knew I wasn't really a female and didn't profess their love to me (true story... I used a sexy little HUnewarl named 'Sasami X') or give me free items like claws or chain saws....

[swlovinist]

This game was for such a great experience and was the reason why I played my Dreamcast every day for about six months. I was an Android ranger, and worked on having a 70+ level character until I moved on to other video games. The online bliss of playing on dialup!

[kupomogli]

I read the schthack site. So you can still play with the Gamecube version. That's pretty cool.

Anyone have a Gamecube Network adapter they're not using for right now and not going to use? I don't want to pay $30+ in order to get one just to play one game. Maybe if the Wii gets a price drop and comes with a good game I'm interested in I may purchase the system. Finding this out almost makes it worth it.

[Richter Belmount]

I have none

[Arkhan]

I have none

alright! Good talk!

[ScottK]

i remember that when your party died at a boss they all dropped their equipped weapons. afterwards everyone would go to the store and loadup on items...while i would go back into the game and steal all the goodies that were left behind. then i would just unequip myself, lose to the boss again and still have everything. fun times! hehe.

[Logicdustbin]

I read the schthack site. So you can still play with the Gamecube version. That's pretty cool.

Anyone have a Gamecube Network adapter they're not using for right now and not going to use? I don't want to pay $30+ in order to get one just to play one game. Maybe if the Wii gets a price drop and comes with a good game I'm interested in I may purchase the system. Finding this out almost makes it worth it.

PSO will not work online with the Wii.

PSO for the GC is good because there is 4 play local multi player

as mentioned in the thread, there are still servers online, they have cross platform playing, so DC people can play with GC people (kinda buggy tho)

PSO is still hacked all to hell, but most people stick to the proper rooms (legit and hacked). Most people play PSO BB, this is for the PC, and you can only play online, it has all the PSO levels as well as teh BB levels.

you get banned if you hack on BB, this gets moderated better then Sega ever did.

[jdc]

The original Merlin here! My trusty Fonewm Merlin has been recreated on my Cube and is working towards level 200....entirely "legit" and 100% offline. No small task hitting 200. (I had to throw in the "legit" since it became such a big deal in PSO towards the end, lol) I was playing Merlin online pretty much since the beginning on the Dreamcast, but never did play him online on the Cube. He has also been resurrected offline on the Xbox. He's so strong that he can clear an entire large Ruins room using Ga-spells from the next room over. Devastating, lol.

Man, this game took up SO much time and gave SO many tired days at work, lol. We used to literally nod off while playing it. I used to love chatting in the lobby with people from far away countries. I thought it was cool being online in the morning, gabbing with someone who AFK'd so that he could check on his cooking supper. All these years later I'm STILL on a personal grail (with other characters that I have, because Merlin is a Pinkal) to find a pure legit Spread Needle.....just to be able to say that I really did find one. Seeing rare monsters was and still is always awesome......ESPECIALLY a Hildetor....which I only ever saw once. He was a tough mother. A game that I dearly love.

[Steve W]

He has also been resurrected offline on the Xbox.

I've got the Xbox version, but I've never played it. It's totally bullshit that you have to be subscribed to Xbox Live just to play the game, whether or not you're in single-player mode or not. I just stuck with the DC and GameCube.

Is the Xbox version even playable now that original Xbox games aren't supported for online play?