This game is probably really fun but Microsoft destroyed it and it can no longer be played :( What a disappointment.
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Phantasy Star Online is out for XBox Live. You can play single player and enjoy the challenges, or go online and play with up to four other players. The plot is pretty simple refugees from a dying planet head out to join a colony on a distant planet. When they get there, the colony has been wiped out, and you have to figure out why.To start with, this can be played like a single player RPG. You can choose to be human, newman, or a robot. You can be male or female, and of three classes the 'hunter' swordfighter, the 'ranger' distance fighter, or the 'force' magic users. You've just begun to customize!
You can customize everything from face look, hair style and color, outfit, skin color, and body proportions. You can't actually choose clothing styles like in many other RPGs you just change the color and look of it. Still, your character is pretty tweaked to your own style before you enter the world.
The aim in local play is to build up your character. You can play in "Episode 1" where you roam the planet looking for clues as to what happened to the original colonists. You can also play "Episode 2" which is sort of a parallel timeline, where you work for the government and try to contact a hero from the original colony.
Like most RPGs, you build up experience by killing the enemies, and gather money ("meseta") so you can buy bigger weapons ... so you can go kill bigger things. You have a little robotic buddy, "mag", which also gains experience and power as you go.
Once you've gotten the hang of things, it's time to head on line and join up with a party! This is sort of a mini-MMORPG, a training ground for those not quite online yet. You go through the lobbies to find a group of people to play with. You can start a new group or join a group already questing. And then it gets fun!
The XBox live microphone makes it easy to coordinate attacks without the clumsy typing-while-fighting system that most MMORPGs require. Simply call out "I'm hurt!" to get healing, and coordinate attacks with ease. Since XBox Live is only for high speed connections, we haven't run into any lag while playing. Gather up experience, explore new worlds, and make fun friends in the process!
Highly recommended for XBox RPG fans who enjoy console-based RPGs and want to take it to the next level.
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There is something special about this game. Not just in the game itself, but in the community you are drawn into when you play online. You meet incredible people with the same intrests as you have.I'm sure by now you have heard all about the money that will be needed to play, online or off. But if you are like me, you will do anything to play this game again. I dont currently have a highspeed connection to play online, but i am getting one soon. If there is no way you can get a high speed connection to play online, I say pass, because honestly, the game itself is not worth both the combined purchase price of the X-box live starter kit and the game:$... But if you are even considering getting a high-speed connection some time in the near future, pick this one up fast.This is going to be a special online community that will last a very long time to come. See you online (in about a month when i finally get DSL)
Honest reviews on Phantasy Star Online, Episode I & II
This game is very fun on the Dreamcast and GameCube, and still fairly good on the PC. I imagine it would be on the Xbox as well, sadly I don't know because it literally CANNOT be played without some heavy-duty legwork.When this game came out, it required an Xbox Live account. This wouldn't be a problem, except that Live for the original Xbox is gone. And unlike the Dreamcast and GameCube versions, you HAVE to be connected to Live to even boot up the disc to the main menu. Even offline play requires a connection!
And when it WAS working, you'd be paying around $170 a year to play online, combining the cost of Live in the first place and the purchase of a $10/month license.
Yes, there are workarounds, but most involve a modchip or require you to have a "Linux box". The only one which works at all needs an old XBL account on a memory card or the hard drive itself, which are becoming increasingly hard to find considering that no new accounts can be created.
I was wondering why the Xbox version of this game was so cheap, and now I know. Thanks to some very poor marketing and design decisions by both Microsoft and Sega, this game is literally impossible to play for about 99% of Xbox users. It isn't even compatible at all with the Xbox 360!
Please, unless you KNOW you'll be able to play this, spend the extra dough and get the GameCube version (or the Dreamcast, if you don't care about splitscreen and Episode II). This is almost worthless even to collectors.
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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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