Console MMORPG Review: Phantasy Star Online

A look back on Phantasy Star Online, Released in 1999

While there's not much story to P.S.O. the game is oddly addicting. The gameplay is where it's at, and where it hurts. For that's really all you do... go around killing monsters. The main heart of the game, is gaining experience and levels and finding good or rare items. Now there is more depth to it than that. It all depends on the ID color of your character what type of items you find. Certain very rare items can be combined, or not be used until you're a certain level. Your mag (robotic-like familiar) is one key to help you move along a bit faster by upping IT's stats which help your own. Then there are ways your mag can change depending on what you feed it,and even a hidden 4th level evolution for everyone. So just touching on these few aspects, there's more depth here to be had, but you have to be VERY patient in finding what you want. The Xbox has the best character amount of options With each gamertag you can have 12 characters each. AND you can use the same gamertag in each of the 4 slots available which can total 48 characters on your hard drive!

Now the down side and a little history why Live is required.
A Live account (good or expired) is needed just to play the game. Now the front cover of the US version has this highlighted on every NEW game cover in orange to let you know BEFORE you buy it! Now Live was introduced in the US before it was released in Japan, but PSO was released in Japan FIRST the SAME DAY Live was released to the Japanese Xbox, as a bonus, every Japanese Live subscriber received PSO free with their Live account! So it was no-brainer that you just bought Live... you CAN play PSO on your Xbox now-- for Japan that is. The US version was delayed about 2 or 3 times before it was released early Spring/late Winter of 2003.

Now an explanation for the online cost incase you didn't know. PSO for the DC was free, and the hackers came out in force online... and it was bad. PSO ver 2.0 came out with a cost around $5 (it actually matched the yen to dollar amount which normally came around to just over $5 instead of the $7 that was advertised as the online price). Having a cost helped.... some, but the hackers eventually came out again in force. PSO 1 & 2 for the Xbox the cheating is still there, but can be MUCH easier avoided. Simply put, make sure you know who your friends are online are people you can trust, and you're fine really.

I rated this game a 5 since I've been playing it for nearly 6 years across 2 consoles and 3 versions. But rating it overall as a 4 for the repetitive nature of the game and the Live requirement for X-Box. As cheap as this game is now, with a live Live account or expired Live account, buying PSO at this price is a no-brainer and will have you playing... for HUNDREDS of hours.

I've been addicted since it came out on the DC version 1.0 (1999) and STILL addicted on the X-Box!
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Source / Author / Credit: Amz