The definitive Phantasy Star Online experience


Yesterday I was craving for some PSO. Don't know why, maybe it was a sudden attack of nostalgia. Anyway, I just felt like I needed to play the game, even if just for a little bit. The problem was, which version to choose? Would I just play the good ol' PSO, the 2nd Dreamcast I bought back in 2000 (the first was Jet Set Radio), for the 10th time? Or would it be better to hunt down the upgraded PSO Ver.2? After browsing the webz what I accidentally found was that there was a 3rd option, the best of them, the definitive PSO version, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, exclusively on the PC.


Yeah, I know, it would be a lot better to be playing it on my Dreamcast, but the game makes up for it. But what exactly makes it the best PSO version of them all? Simple, not only it has all the content from the Dreamcast games (known as Episode 1), but it also has the exclusive content from the Gamecube and Xbox versions (Episode 2), and a whole new Episode IV (Episode III was the spin-off Battle Card Revolution for the GC), which means more levels, monsters, NPC's, items and quests than ever before!


Now, I'm yet to explore most of the new stuff, but I took a peek at one of the new levels (and that level's new enemies), and let me tell you, it rocks! It's the PSO we know and love, but at the same time it's like a new experience. To sum it up, this is a game that every PSO fan should try out, specially since the official Dreamcast online servers were shut-down a long, long time ago.

11 comments:

ColdsnapBryan said...

Did you have to start at level 1? Are people still playing it online? Hackers ? I got the bug to play PSO again, my ver 2 disc doesn't work anymore so I started over on ver 1 on my dreamcast last week. Just single playing it to re see the content. You should do a in depth experience with Blue Burst.

NebachadnezzaR said...

Yes, we obviously start at level 1. Yes, there are lots of people online (last time I played was in a server with 130 people). About the hackers, don't know.

Indeed I should, but only if I can get the time to properly explore the game.

Anonymous said...

I love PSO on the Dreamcast, still play it online on a private server (not the schthack one)

Tom Charnock said...

Bought PSO a while ago and played it for about 5 mins. Maybe I should give it a chance seeing as many people seem to rave about it...

NebachadnezzaR said...

5 minutes in PSO is like 5 (or even 10) minutes in Shenmue, it's just not enough to get into it. Give it another chance and try at least to reach the Forest 2 zone :)

Caleb said...

Yeah Starting out in PSO kinda sucks.

But after while it gets better.

Plus the boss battles are fun.

Unknown said...

According to this: http://www.psobb.com/community/index.php

The psobb servers shut down in March. How is it your still playing and there are people online? Or are you just playing the single player mode?

fatherkrishna said...

I was just about to say the same thing dear Kevin! please enlighten us Nebacha, as I've never managed even a minute on PSO either online or offline...

NebachadnezzaR said...

I've been playing on the SCHTHACK private server:

http://www.schtserv.com/

BTW, talking about people online, played it for a bit today, just to show it to a friend, and there were more than 200 people in the most popular server.

Anonymous said...

I play on dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com it's a small community, dreamcast only, with a private PSO server. It's more fun online with just a few people instead of ~200 on schthack

NebachadnezzaR said...

I know of online consoles, but never played on it. It's fun if you already know people there and like to play with them, otherwise the more the better because you always have someone to play with. Like I said, yesterday I played just for a little bit to show the game to a friend and still, just a minute after creating a new team there was already someone joining me. You're never alone there :)