Vampyr
04-01-2004, 12:23 PM
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
Zachary Wright aka Vampyr
First Impression:
Nintendo’s first online attempt at a game, and what a game it is, though it’s not for everyone. Phantasy Star Online was a game for the old Sega Dreamcast that I’m sure most, if not all of you remember. It was one of the first of its kind; a console online game. The game allowed users to connect to the internet with a modem and play with others around the world on servers. The players created a character from a wide variety of options: race, hair, clothes, height, etc. The game has story, but that’s not where its true potential lies.
Game Play:
This is where Phantasy Star Online really shines (as every game should), the gameplay. The story lacks much to be desired, but that’s not the true reason to play this game. It’s all about the items and reaching the next level of difficulty. Basically the story goes as follows: We humans had to leave earth because we ran out of fuel or something of the likes. One of the vessels we sent out with humans on it was called Pioneer 1. Its mission was to boldly go where no man has gone before…and find a habitable planet for us humans to settle on. That it did, a planet named Ragol. After it had started to colonize the planet, another vessel followed it, aptly named Pioneer 2. Upon reaching the planet, and just hours before it would land, a gigantic explosion was spotted on the planet from Pioneer 2. Elite forces of military peoples, known as “Hunters” are being sent down to investigate. It has been discovered that no trace of the Pioneer 1 colonies can be found, with the exception of some architecture and data capsules left by a scientist hunter known as “Red Ring Rico.” You are one of these hunters who have been sent down to investigate. This would seem like a boring objective, but the creatures on Ragol, once noted to be peaceful, have turned violent, and the hunters are the only ones with the weapons and skill to stand up to them.
The story for Episode II is similar, except for the fact that there are new levels and bosses. Getting interested? Well, you still haven’t heard what makes this game truly awesome. It’s the weapons. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them. There are common weapons, special weapons, and rare weapons. The most fun from this game comes from finding rare weapons. But before you can do this you have to beat normal mode, this is so because rare weapons can be found only in the hard, very hard, and ultimate difficulty. You will learn when playing this game that you live for getting to the next difficulty, so that an entire new library of weapons will become available. Aside from the normal rare weapons, there are the mysterious, powerful, Mags. These are little creatures that fly over your shoulder, and they greatly enhance your stats and each can learn three extremely powerful techniques known as photon blasts. The Mag you get is based on your Section ID, which is based on the number of letters in your name. Your Mag is basically like your pet; you must feed it and take care of it to make it more powerful. Depending on what you feed it, it will excel in a certain stat.
The battle system is easy to learn and follow, you can attack with a three combo attack, which can consist of a mix between strong, week, and special attacks. Some weapons have special abilities, such as freeze, confuse, etc. You must tap the buttons in a constant pace to perform all three attacks in a row. At first its tempting to click A as fast as possible, but you soon learn to control yourself.
Aside from the insane rush of finding a new rare weapon, the other major “fun factor” is the multiplayer mode. While this game was created for online gaming, I have yet to experience it, but I have made many trips to my friend’s house to play with him and another friend. While this provides an extreme amount of fun, there are drawbacks. It seems that everything runs fine, until a fourth player starts to play. Once this fourth player is plugged in, the game starts to lag horrifically. But that can be easily overlooked as you will barely notice it because of the fun you’re having.
Score: 9/10
Visual Appeal:
The graphics aren’t what you would call awe inspiring, but they are a nice bit of eye candy. After playing through both versions of the game, episode 1 and 2, I actually think that the graphics from episode 2 are better than that of episode 1. But that is to be expected, because episode 1 is basically a port from the Deamcast version (with a few modifications), and episode 2 is an entire new game. The water effects at the beach in the episode 2 game are very beautiful. The monsters and creatures are nicely done, each one different in its own way. The levels are for the most part very creative and beautiful, with the exception of the dreaded caves level, which is in my opinion, and the opinion of many others, the worst level in the game. Each room looks almost identical to every other room, and there is a serious lack of color and texture (most of the levels lack texture). For the most part though, things are great. The weapons look nice, and every time you find a new one and look at it, you’re like “Wow!” The character design is also impressive; I will often run myself into a corner so that I can change the camera to be looking right into my characters face. Not to be forgotten are the spell effects, which aren’t as amazing as you would find in a typical turn based RPG, but they are nice to look at.
Score: 8/10
Sound:
The music of Phantasy Star Online is ok, but you won’t find yourself humming along or anything like that. The sound effects, on the other hand, are right on. When a sword hits an enemy, it sounds like a sword hits an enemy. The sound effects of the guns and spells are also nice. The creatures make a distinguishable sound which you will find very helpful, because you can’t look in all directions at once.
Score: 7/10
Replay Value:
Why would you ever stop playing this game? There are so many weapons and items it would take months if not years of gameplay to find them all. There are four levels of difficulty and four levels in each episode. Not to mention that this is a two games in one package. You have episode 1 and 2 to play through. So even when you have found all the items and beat all the levels in episode 1, you still have episode 2 to play through, and when you’ve beat it with one type of character, you will still want to do it again with another type of race or class. The possibilities are endless.
Score: 10/10
Final Impression:
This game is very near perfect. But it doesn’t get a 10 because it’s not perfect. The barely noticeable errors such as the camera, lag time, and the terror known as the caves bring it down that 1.5. I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPG’s that deal with hunting down rare items and leveling up. Well, happy hunting!
Final Score: (not an average) 8.5/10
Zachary Wright aka Vampyr
First Impression:
Nintendo’s first online attempt at a game, and what a game it is, though it’s not for everyone. Phantasy Star Online was a game for the old Sega Dreamcast that I’m sure most, if not all of you remember. It was one of the first of its kind; a console online game. The game allowed users to connect to the internet with a modem and play with others around the world on servers. The players created a character from a wide variety of options: race, hair, clothes, height, etc. The game has story, but that’s not where its true potential lies.
Game Play:
This is where Phantasy Star Online really shines (as every game should), the gameplay. The story lacks much to be desired, but that’s not the true reason to play this game. It’s all about the items and reaching the next level of difficulty. Basically the story goes as follows: We humans had to leave earth because we ran out of fuel or something of the likes. One of the vessels we sent out with humans on it was called Pioneer 1. Its mission was to boldly go where no man has gone before…and find a habitable planet for us humans to settle on. That it did, a planet named Ragol. After it had started to colonize the planet, another vessel followed it, aptly named Pioneer 2. Upon reaching the planet, and just hours before it would land, a gigantic explosion was spotted on the planet from Pioneer 2. Elite forces of military peoples, known as “Hunters” are being sent down to investigate. It has been discovered that no trace of the Pioneer 1 colonies can be found, with the exception of some architecture and data capsules left by a scientist hunter known as “Red Ring Rico.” You are one of these hunters who have been sent down to investigate. This would seem like a boring objective, but the creatures on Ragol, once noted to be peaceful, have turned violent, and the hunters are the only ones with the weapons and skill to stand up to them.
The story for Episode II is similar, except for the fact that there are new levels and bosses. Getting interested? Well, you still haven’t heard what makes this game truly awesome. It’s the weapons. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them. There are common weapons, special weapons, and rare weapons. The most fun from this game comes from finding rare weapons. But before you can do this you have to beat normal mode, this is so because rare weapons can be found only in the hard, very hard, and ultimate difficulty. You will learn when playing this game that you live for getting to the next difficulty, so that an entire new library of weapons will become available. Aside from the normal rare weapons, there are the mysterious, powerful, Mags. These are little creatures that fly over your shoulder, and they greatly enhance your stats and each can learn three extremely powerful techniques known as photon blasts. The Mag you get is based on your Section ID, which is based on the number of letters in your name. Your Mag is basically like your pet; you must feed it and take care of it to make it more powerful. Depending on what you feed it, it will excel in a certain stat.
The battle system is easy to learn and follow, you can attack with a three combo attack, which can consist of a mix between strong, week, and special attacks. Some weapons have special abilities, such as freeze, confuse, etc. You must tap the buttons in a constant pace to perform all three attacks in a row. At first its tempting to click A as fast as possible, but you soon learn to control yourself.
Aside from the insane rush of finding a new rare weapon, the other major “fun factor” is the multiplayer mode. While this game was created for online gaming, I have yet to experience it, but I have made many trips to my friend’s house to play with him and another friend. While this provides an extreme amount of fun, there are drawbacks. It seems that everything runs fine, until a fourth player starts to play. Once this fourth player is plugged in, the game starts to lag horrifically. But that can be easily overlooked as you will barely notice it because of the fun you’re having.
Score: 9/10
Visual Appeal:
The graphics aren’t what you would call awe inspiring, but they are a nice bit of eye candy. After playing through both versions of the game, episode 1 and 2, I actually think that the graphics from episode 2 are better than that of episode 1. But that is to be expected, because episode 1 is basically a port from the Deamcast version (with a few modifications), and episode 2 is an entire new game. The water effects at the beach in the episode 2 game are very beautiful. The monsters and creatures are nicely done, each one different in its own way. The levels are for the most part very creative and beautiful, with the exception of the dreaded caves level, which is in my opinion, and the opinion of many others, the worst level in the game. Each room looks almost identical to every other room, and there is a serious lack of color and texture (most of the levels lack texture). For the most part though, things are great. The weapons look nice, and every time you find a new one and look at it, you’re like “Wow!” The character design is also impressive; I will often run myself into a corner so that I can change the camera to be looking right into my characters face. Not to be forgotten are the spell effects, which aren’t as amazing as you would find in a typical turn based RPG, but they are nice to look at.
Score: 8/10
Sound:
The music of Phantasy Star Online is ok, but you won’t find yourself humming along or anything like that. The sound effects, on the other hand, are right on. When a sword hits an enemy, it sounds like a sword hits an enemy. The sound effects of the guns and spells are also nice. The creatures make a distinguishable sound which you will find very helpful, because you can’t look in all directions at once.
Score: 7/10
Replay Value:
Why would you ever stop playing this game? There are so many weapons and items it would take months if not years of gameplay to find them all. There are four levels of difficulty and four levels in each episode. Not to mention that this is a two games in one package. You have episode 1 and 2 to play through. So even when you have found all the items and beat all the levels in episode 1, you still have episode 2 to play through, and when you’ve beat it with one type of character, you will still want to do it again with another type of race or class. The possibilities are endless.
Score: 10/10
Final Impression:
This game is very near perfect. But it doesn’t get a 10 because it’s not perfect. The barely noticeable errors such as the camera, lag time, and the terror known as the caves bring it down that 1.5. I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPG’s that deal with hunting down rare items and leveling up. Well, happy hunting!
Final Score: (not an average) 8.5/10