It's a long, long run... to the palace in the sun!

I must admit that by some kind of happy accident it does seem rather fitting that I've ended up writing this, the fifteenth edition of Throwback Thursday - thank you to Josh for giving me the chance - about the great Phantasy Star Online which is in the midst of celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year and so the sudden realisation that I've been playing the game for literally half of my lifetime sets in, I can't help but wonder just how it all began.

Even though I adore the Dreamcast to this day - it made several Sega titles possible on the GameCube in time afterall - it definitely wasn't until the dying days of the great machine that I actually acquired one, almost as if it was meant to be there was the majestic white box calling to me in a branch of Dixons as I perused the prices during my lunch hour in college, though I had been deliberating getting one for some time.

To my delight, I saw a small shelf edge label which had those three words "Reduced To Clear" and even though the notion of this might have caused several Sega executives to be reduced to tears, I purchased my very own Dreamcast along with three games for the nominal sum of fifty pounds... wait make that four games because as I took my money out the kind lady at the till asked me "Would you like a copy of Chu Chu Rocket for nothing?" I nodded, replying with a "Yes please" and just like that, I was the proud owner of a console from the 128 bit generation of machines.

After a few weeks I had worked my way through the reasonable selection of titles, in actuality, most of the time was spent playing the two titles which were published by Sega, but crucially made by Sonic Team so this included the manic puzzler Chu Chu Rocket (later ported to the GBA), along with the iconic Sonic Adventure  (which made it across to the GameCube in DX form after its sequel) with all of its three-dimensional speed mixed with exploration, character swapping and of course the now familiar main theme by Crush 40 which you can't help but open your heart to upon hearing it.

Of course this was all nice but I had my heart set on another of Sonic Team's creations, the very first home console MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) which I somehow just knew was going to be something very special indeed. After a little bit of hunting around, I found the videogame rental shop (imagine such a thing) which would set the wheels in motion, as on that day the shop was selling off its Dreamcast games and right there in the box was what would then become my copy of Phantasy Star Online.

This may sound like something of an oxymoron, but initially when I got my copy of Phantasy Star Online, it was as if I knew that the moment my parents heard the word "Online" in the title they would surely be concerned so I reassuringly said "Oh it's OK, I'm not going to be playing it online..." well at least not immediately I thought to myself, indeed I was actually quite happy slaying waves of Booma's in the Forest offline as my main character who was a HUmar named Dark Avenger, dressed entirely in black and had an impossibly spiky hairstyle.

But that was exactly it though, PSO is a game built with shared experiences in mind with the option of the solo grind still being there, as nice as it was to have the choice of twelve different character classes each with an assigned section ID, which would determine which rare item drops you would get to an extent; you could play offline forever if you wanted. I always knew that all of those individual elements would come together to form a rather special experience indeed, but I didn't realise at the time just quite how life-changing it would be.

Enter the magical piece of software on a disc which was called Dream Key 3.0, which would enable me to finally gain access to PSO's titularly and until this point fabled online mode. You see, because the Sega Dreamcast was the first online games console to properly give rise to online gaming which wasn't limited solely to PC's anymore; you needed to connect via a specific IP by connecting the console to your phoneline using the included 56k dial-up modem, plus the very long phone cable. When Dream key 3.0 came along though you could opt to use your own ISP, which in turn would mean you could then access games like PSO, without any extra cost which really wasn't a bad deal at all in exchange for a taste of all this new-fangled online gaming stuff.

So in any case after sending away for the disc, getting it in the post, setting it all up along with acquiring an official Dreamcast keyboard (none of this fancy voice-chat), I was away! That first moment in which I beamed into the spacious, symmetrical online lobby area was a revelation to me, it wasn't long before a character greeted me before offering to show me the ropes. Sadly I can't remember this kind HUnewearl's name, but what I do remember is that she was at least double my level, as I must have been lvl 20 or so, while her character would have been lvl 40 at least.

This meant we had access to the Ruins, which was special in itself for me because I hadn't even been there yet in the Offline mode, plus being that it's the final area in the Dreamcast version it can take a while to traverse, all I recall is that my evening meal nearly went cold as I continued to play while eating, all the while attempting to simultaneaously not die in the game (this is not a habit I intended to form long-term). We must have made it through at least two thirds of the Ruins before my newfound friend at that time had to leave the game, though I was able to at least try to continue alone though before long I quit while I was ahead. From that first experience I knew that life would never be the same.

Over the years playing the Dreamcast version (which I would upgrade to Version 2 in time), I made a fair number of friends, it became as much about the social interaction as it was about the addictive nature of the gameplay. In these dark days of metered internet access, which would only allow you a certain number of minutes per month, it was a trial not to exceed that monthly quota. I also recall the times when the phone was needed and I'd be playing, getting disconnected or having to go offline was a regular thing, not like the days of always-on internet via a dedicated connection, which we have today.

Those memories of going off together on hunts in parties of up to four players are like noting else I've ever encountered before, when you had a good team working like a well-oiled machine there's just no better feeling than walking into a room, being ambushed by hordes of beasts, machines or otherworldly beings; then attacking as the hunters go in with bladed weapons, with casts on point with their ranged assault, using projectile-based photon weaponry and of course the forces who would set the room ablaze with fire, zap hidden foes with lightening or stop them in their tracks with an icy blast, all while remembering to heal everyone else of course.

Then, either scraping by or decimating the boss at the end (depending on your level), followed by a scramble for the rare red box items (though these were generally shared out) getting excited by your mystery item only to find when you got it tekked (appraised) at the city, that it was just another Gae Bolg, Club of Laconium or a *sigh* Final Impact; which being a Viridia I must have found thousands of. Then after all of this you could go back to the lobby to relax and type away to your hearts content, or if you went to the last lobby in the list (02:Rhea:05-15 for example) you could play a game of virtual football, where every now and then you could get knocked out by an oversized Chu Chu as one of my fellow players DS9 discovered, fortunately pictorial evidence was procured of this mildly amusing moment below.

Chu Chu - "I hate Casts!" DS9 - *comes back around* "Did we win?"

After revolutionising the gaming world with PSO across its two versions on the Dreamcast (Version 2 added Ultimate mode plus it boosted the level cap to two hundred), Sega announced quite early on in the life-span of the GameCube, that they would be bringing it to Nintendo's machine in an expanded form as Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II. Taking all of the content from the original then adding an entirely new episode exclusive to this iteration for the new generation (it was on Xbox as well but the GC version is still the most popular), plus the option to play split-screen Offline for up to four players (which became the default way to move items between characters).

In addition to the established Online mode which the Gamecube was capable of through the addition of the Modem or Broadband adapter, which consequently I ended up owning both when we switched to Broadband which was a revelation in itself. There was also the small matter of purchasing a Hunter's License in order to play online which needed to be paid for, it was £7.99  every month on the Sega website (or via the console) which had to be done via a credit card.

I was there from day one, because while I had started rather late to the party on the DC I wasn't going to miss out on this! There was only one thing missing though, a keyboard; the Dreamcast had an official one from its release but the GameCube didn't have such a thing, unless you were lucky enough to live in Japan where they had the glorious creation which merged two of the greatest inventions ever, neither a GameCube controller or a keyboard, it was both in a single unit. And so the ASCII Keyboard controller was created, even though I have wanted to purchase one for some time now, it was was never to be.

Fortunately, the people at Datel were on hand, as they made a serial keyboard with a GC adaptor on the end called the Powerboard, it wasn't perfect and far from elegant plus it would even give up working after being used for a long time but for the most part it did work and helped me communicate with my established set of friends both old and new for a very long time.

An absolute monstrosity? Granted. But many PSO players loved the Keyboard Controller.

While I must have easily amassed a good few hundred hours on the DC version of PSO, it seems this latest definitive version would top that almost ten times over, as to this day I have two and a half thousand hours devoted to my main character alone, considering I still haven't even hit the level 200 cap yet, that's a scary thought indeed, though I don't regret it for even a moment because I made some friends for life on there including my friend Sonic Beta who I still know to this day.

There was also the Epsilon Monkey who I'd talk with late into the morning hours, Sephy who was good at giving out advice, then you had Marsh and Big Dave who were almost part of the lobby furniture, Celica, DS9, Antilea Pal, Akai, Bronte & Peorth who I still played alongside into the era of Phantasy Star Universe which would be the later PC-focused semi-sequel.

I had the fortune of knowing a HUnewearl named Pogle who is easily the nicest, most good-natured and knowledgeable person I'd ever encountered on a videogame. To this day, I still think of her, other people I've known and the good times we had in addition to all the different kinds of friendships I've had with people via online games since. Do I miss a lot of the people I played regularly with online? Of course, but at least we shared the experience of playing such an amazing online game together.

Just about as much PSO lobby action as you can fit into a small space!

So after all of what what could possibly top this title? Well it seems Sega did release Phantasy Star Online Episode III, which was something of a revolution in it's own way but perhaps not one we were expecting as this one came in card form. I couldn't quite believe it at first, but Sonic Team had thrown us yet another curveball as even though this title was set in the same universe as the previous titles, even having its own rather deep story, it seems that there was no real exploration this time around; just a series of card battles brought together in one futuristic hub where you could walk around, talk to a few NPC's, set up your card deck and that was about it.

To the titles credit, at least it was a bit deeper than that as it had two seperate storylines (Sonic Adventure 2 style), with one following the Hero side with the other devoted to the decidedly darker Arkz, with it all coming together near the end in a truly epic finale which you'll want through to the end. In the online mode you could battle other players in card duels, these battles are more exciting in practice than they probably sound in words, you would beat other players to increase your amount of Meseta (the currency in the game) plus Level which could go up to Nine-Hundred and Ninety-Nine.

The high level cap does mean that the game feels somewhat lacking in direction, the lobbies were amazing though as they had a Jukebox which you could use your Meseta on to pick tracks from various Sega games! These included "The Concept of Love" from Jet Set Radio, "Anu Orta Veniya" from Panzer Dragoon Orta, even the main theme from Sonic Heroes was there, but by far the one track which got played in the lobby (and danced to using shortcut lobby animations) was "Chant this Charm" from Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg! An absolute classic track I'm sure you'll agree... ahem! When all the fun was had you could even go to the lobbies from PSO Ep I & II so you could chat with players from other versions and then realise just how superior the original game actually is before getting back on there, being that you could actually play both games on the same Hunter's License, so at least it was as if Sega was giving us a choice whereas today we have neither in official online form.

Or even Universe that should be as that's where the future of the series went, off in a new direction in the form of Phantasy Star Universe which involved the series moving away from Nintendo platforms, I did move with it to an extent as I played the game for many years first on the PC and then on the Xbox 360 of all places. Dark Avenger had many more adventures, but in time the appeal wore off, because although PSU was much grander in scale it tried to add too many superflous elements which really weren't required.

It wasn't until later that the series sort of shifted back to Nintendo as we got the sadly underappreciated Phantasy Star Zero on the Nintendo DS, which really tried its best to deliver the more classic Phantasy Star Online experience to the portable realm, while even managing to take some of the few elements from PSU which worked, while combining them with that PSO feel all while working with the technical limitations of the dual-screened format, which would ultimately lead to its downfall; especially when you consider that the whole amount of character control resided in the D-pad, whereas the camera was relegated to shoulder-button recentering just like on PSO which was fine so long as you were used to it.

The sequel which many fans wanted to play but were sadly denied the chance to.

There were of course other spin-offs which are barely worth mentioning, mostly because we didn't even get most of them over here in Europe, yet I still remember to this day when the fabled true sequel Phantasy Star Online 2 was first announced (you can find the thread here http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28234) with a glorious trailer to boot stating that it was the tenth anniversary of the original beloved PSO and in this clip it contained all of the music emotive of the series including the main theme, everything was there but in new shiny HD, it all looked too good to be true.

Sure enough, it was as well, because the game only got announced for the PC with no console released planned at all, no Nintendo machine would ever get a look in any more at this point, which is sad considering the long-standing platform history. What it even more bemusing is that it's still a Japanese release only, a free-to play title at that with optional microtransactions, so desperate to see what all the fuss was about I actually managed to sign up for a Japanese account along with some helpful third-party software developed over at PSO World (another fantastic fan-run site) I even had a partial translation even if my PC wasn't running the game at optimum levels; the irony is that now though I actually have a PC powerful enough to play this title, plus a fibre broadband connection which would be perfect, yet the game became no longer accessible to me due to being patched out; now within the year of the series fifteenth anniversary there has been at least a faint glimmer of hope in the form of PSO2 coming to the PS4 yet still only in Japan.

Back to reality.

It's a sobering thought that a series which I have supported for so long, devoted so much of my life to will always have a major chapter in its ongoing story which I will likely never be able to properly be a part of, naturally I understand that Sega and Nintendo are in entirely different places to where they where ten or even five years ago, so it's not hard to see why Sega chose to go down the route they have planned out for themselves, though I can't help but feel that with Nintendo due to unveil new hardware in the NX plus with Sega always ever-changing not to mention Sonic Team being an unpredictable developer at the best of times, who knows?

Perhaps 2016 could be a year of reawakening for the Phantasy Star series in one way or another, all I know is that if this doesn't turn out to be the case at least I can still switch on my GameCube and play one of the greatest games I've ever been a part of. There is always that next level to go for or a rare weapon to hunt as this will never change plus at least I still have those wonderful memories which I am eternally grateful for to be able to share with you all today, so I'll leave you with a few of my favourite pictures which were acquired using that brilliant screenshot capture tool built into PSO on the GC, they may be small but the memories are still there as I fondly remember Pioneer 2; the great spaceship city in the sky.

Thank you Sega and Sonic Team for these precious moments.

Back down here on Earth though, I still have my collection of Phantasy Star Online series along with the original Phantasy Star titles on the Sega Master System & Mega Drive which are great titles in themselves which are worth playing to see where the series got its origins from (you can still get the MS/MD games on the Wii Virtual Console so check early editions of VC Weekly (52,61,80 & 102) for reviews). Plus some other merchandise I've collected over the years so I'll leave you with a snapshot of part of my Phantasy Star Online collection to which I'll always return to because it's a series which will always shine brightly to me no matter what its future may or may not hold in today's ever-changing gaming landscape.

Some of the main games and merchandise from my PSO collection.

Thank you for reading my ramblings in what is surely a Throwback Thursday and a half which had so much content planned it nearly missed the deadline! Thanks to Josh for very kindly opening up this article to some of his fellow staff members to post their thoughts on various game series, who knows what glorious series will be covered next? I hope you all enjoyed this off-beat edition and that you'll tune in next time, right now I feel like a stroll through a certain digital forest, sword in hand with a mag by my shoulder; look out Booma's because Dark is coming to claim his remaining million and a half experience points!