Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
GameRatio Review
GC

Phantasy Star Online is one of the most addictive games I have ever played. Not only is PSO well planned and thought out, but it offers more modes of play than the original Dreamcast release.

I was very pleased to find that there are now four modes of play with PSO. There is Single player, Multiplayer Co-op, Multiplayer Challenge, and Multiplayer Online.

In single player, you can take jobs and progress through an actual story. The story is set after an apocalyptic event. You are a hunter, who travels to the planet's surface on missions. As your missions progress, you learn more about what happened to the planet. As time progresses, you become stronger, and can learn more skills. Single player mode offers the most interaction with Non-Player Characters (NPCs). 

There are only slight differences between the multiplayer modes. Multiplayer Online and Multiplayer Co-op are the exact same. You go out and fight on the planet's surface, for no other reason, than to gain levels. This may not seem like much, but you have to play multiplayer to gain access to some items. Different character classes gain different items during standard play. For instance, a FOMARL (Male/Human/Force) will gain access to an Ice Saber +3, but must trade the saber with a HUMAR for a Draw Cane +1. You may also exchange money in Multiplayer modes(Except Challenge).

Challenge mode varies from the other Multiplayer modes. Challenge allows you to fight other players (online or offline) for the heck of it. You can even wager items or money in the events.

Game play takes some getting used to, but it is not difficult to learn. Movement is performed with the left analog stick. This is not the problem. The problem comes in planning ahead. In battle, you only have 6 actions that can be accessed quickly. You set these up in the customization menu. You can set attacks, items, or techniques in these slots. Often times, you'll find yourself fighting a slew of enemies, each weak to a different element, so you will equip yourself with all 3 elemental attacks. Yet, when you have more useful techniques, like raising your attack power, you quickly find yourself in need of a quick fix. PSO has no pause feature, so as soon as you hit start, you need to make sure you are moving around, while using the right analog stick to navigate through menus. This can be cumbersome for those who are not accustomed to the Mouse and Keyboard play method or have trouble multitasking.  The trouble with being in the menu screen, is that you can not realign your sight. You must rely on your ability to maneuver blindly. Once you are out of the menu screen, you can use the L trigger to realign your field of vision.

I can not say I was completely impressed with the PSO's environments. They seem a little lacking. Forests are just open fields surrounded by trees. This fails to provide an accurate feeling of actually being hunted or hunting the beasts that roam the land. The creature roster is rather impressive and imaginative. Designs range from small chicken like animals to huge ogres and worse. Sonic Team really had their work cut out for them.

Character growth is presented rather well in PSO. Instead of just leveling every time you kill something, like in Final Fantasy and most other RPGs, it takes hours before you even start to grow. The downside of this is that it takes forever to learn new techniques (which is necessary if you play as a Force user). The upside is that the game remains fun and does not become too easy too quickly. Not only does your character grow, but you also have a creature that travels with you called a MAG. MAGs can be equipped. Once equipped, a MAG will increase your stats. You need to feed them items every so often. Feeding your MAG regularly will cause it to gain levels. The more levels it gains, the stronger of an ally it will be. Feeding MAGs can be anything from recovery items to revival items. MAGs also allow your character to perform overdrive attacks. The manner in which you raise your MAG, determines what overdrives your MAG will have.

PSO has an excellent character creation system. First you choose what type you want your character to be (Hunter, Ranger or Force). Then you choose the gender and species. Once this is done, you can begin to design your character. Your character is customizable in the following areas: face, hair, skin tone, outfit, and proportion. Proportioning means that you select how tall/short and skinny/fat your character will be. Androids are the only let down. With Androids, you can only choose from a few preset body and head combinations. Androids also can not use techniques, which comes as a disadvantage. But they do get interesting weapons, such as chainsaws and reapers.

PSO wasn't entirely a great game. I was disappointed that you could not go on quests in multiplayer modes. It was also a draw back that characters are hard to level. For beginners to the RPG world, this can be very frustrating.

Overall, I found PSO to be a great game. It did not require an entire Memory Card like most Game Cube games. Despite the minor problems with this title, I would give it a 9.9. I highly recommend this to other Game Cube owners. Online or Offline, this is a must own.