It has been nearly two years since SEGAs release of Phantasy Star Online, an online RPG for their last ever console, the Dreamcast. Being quite a success, Sonic Team, the developers, started working on and upgrade, Phantasy Star Online Version 2. Unfortunately, it barely was released before the Dreamcast, and SEGAs future on the hardware market was destroyed. SEGA, the once greatest enemy of Nintendo, went 3rd party, developing for all three next-generation consoles. This came to an agreement between Nintendo and SEGA. Sega would release Phantasy Star Online Version 2, now renamed Phantasy Star Online Episode I, and another, totally new game, Phantasy Star Online Episode II, for the Nintendo GameCube, as Nintendo's first ever online title, on the same disc. The work began, and after two months of its release in America, Cube-Europe brings you an in-depth preview of the GameCube's first and only online title yet.

The story: Seven years ago, desperate refugees started The Pioneer Project, a plan that was to save them from being stuck in outer space. With their home planets destroyed, these people sent probes all over the galaxy to find a suitable colony planet. Few months later, a probe had discovered a lush world called Ragol, seemingly inhabited; then, a ship called The Pioneer 1 took most of the people down to the surface of the planet. Now, years later, The Pioneer 2 loses contact with their friends of the planet surface. Desperate to find out what happened to them, Principal Tyrell sends a team of warriors down to the planet, to find out what happened…

Phantasy Star Online is a real time RPG. It doesn't feature any turn-based combat, but it works, and it can pull of some really cool battles. It's controlled basic, yet advanced. There are two main combat modes: The swift, light attacks and the slow, heavy attacks. These can be combined for combos. You start of with a light attack, then you hit your enemy with a heavy one, and you finish him off with a quick again. But timing plays a great role when doing combos. You have to know exactly how to use your weapon. It requires skill. These attacks are performed at four buttons, with a total of six functions, and it works this way: A, B and X performs the attacks, while you indicate the speed and damage with the R button, using its analogue function. This is not an optimal system, and it's a little hard getting used to, but it works nevertheless.

Sometimes, you will have to change weapons while fighting, and this is a very good feature. While playing the game, you can press Z to access a menu, wherein you can choose your weapon with the C-stick. While you do this, you are still playing, and you have to dodge hostile attacks with the main control stick while selecting your weapon. Again, this will require training.

As you lead your band of brothers through the world of PSO, you will notice that it is a level based game. So, if you finish the first level, a forest, you will directly proceed to level two, the caves. Your home base is your spaceship, The Pioneer, and you will return here whenever you die (and aren't revived). You can also warp back to The Pioneer, but this requires magic. There are a total of eight levels in PSO, four in Episode I and four in Episode II (you can also download some new ones). They all have a boss character for you to kill in the end as well.

The stats of your characters are as following:

HP: The health points. Quite basic, lose all these and you die.
TP: The technique points, which are similar to magic points (as seen in other games).
ATP: The attack power. Your weapon mastering depends on these.
ATA: The attack accuracy. You always hit enemies of course, but these determine if you wound them.
DFP: The defence power. Damage is lowered the higher this meter is.
EVP: The evasion power. If an enemy hits you, these might help you not to get hurt.
MST: Magic upgrading. As you gain MST experience, you will learn new magic and make your old ones stronger.
LCK: Your luck. Hard to upgrade, but it will lessen the chances of being hurt by a critical hit.

As in many other online-RPGs, you can create your own characters in PSO. There are twelwe character types, divided into three classes. The hunter class, who performs close-combat easily, the ranger class, experts of the long-range attacks, and the force class, the magic masters. The classes have differences, though. For instance, there is a hunter class woman, whose body is clad in metal armour, who cannot perform magic attacks. However, she is totally immune to poison attacks. Also, force class characters are very weak in the beginning, and many enemies will knock such a character down in one hit. It is very important that you cooperate with you teammates, either online or offline, to get the best out of your character abilities. Your battle performance heavily resides with your this selection.

There are lots of weapons in PSO, from pistols and mechguns to sabers and maces. These are basic weapons, as you can also collect rare weapons. You can upgrade your weapons by items and spells. When upgraded, weapons change colour, so level one weapons are always green, and if you see a guy running around with purple mace, you can be sure that he is a level seven.

There are other features though such as your “virtual pet”, the MAG. It hovers, and stays behind you constantly. It is important to develop your character, and you have to feed it with items, and you will gain experience in certain areas by this. A MAG can only upgrade a hundred times, so you must choose in which areas you will be strong, and in which you won't.Force characters have a wide option of magic attacks, but keep in mind Hunters and Rangers can only learn these in limited amounts. There are five different categories of magic:

Normal Attack:

Zonde: A lightning, only able to hit one enemy, but it's a very strong attack
Foie: A fireball that only hits one enemy
Barta: An ice wave, which hits multiple enemies

Medium Attack:

Gizonde: A chain lightning that hits rows of enemies
Gifoie: A circle of fire moves outward from the caster, hitting enemies
Gibarta: A larger, more powerful ice wave, that is able to freeze enemies

Strong Attack:

Razonde: A thunderstorm is summoned around the caster for a period of time
Rafoie: A creature is attacked by an explosion, which is able to hit other enemies as well
Rabarta: A blizzard is summoned around the caster for a period of time

Healing:

Resta: Heals the caster and his party members
Anti: Removes any hurting status (poison, freeze etc.)
Reverse: Revives team members

Support

Shifta: Can raise your attack power
Deband: Can raise your defend ability
Jellen: Can lower enemy attack power (the amount of enemies depends your level)
Zalure: Lowers enemy defence ability (the amount of enemies depends on your level)
Ryuker: Teleports you back to The Pioneer, but you can return to the level you warped from

The items collectable in the Ragol world are often divided into three grades. Mono, di and tri. For instance, if you collect a Monomate, you are slightly healed, and if you collect a trimate, you are fully healed. The basic items are:

Mate: Health healing item
Fluid: Technique healing item
Star Atomizer: An item able to regain all health to a certain team member
Moon Atomizer: An item able to revive certain a party member
Sol Atomizer: An item able to cure a certain party member for whatever status he has
Antidote: Poison is removed when using this item
Antiparalysis: A certain team member can be cured from his paralysed status
Scape Doll: This doll works as an extra life. Can only be used once.
Grinder: Can raise the attack power of a weapon
Disk: This item can teach a magic spell, depending on the level
Trap Vision: Any traps (normally invisible) are shown with this item
Health Material: Will increase the maximum health amount with 2.
Technique Material: Will increase the maximum technique amount with 2.
Attack Power Material: Will increase the maximum power amount with 2.
Accuracy Power Material: Will increase the maximum accuracy amount with 2.
Defence Power Material: Will increase the maximum defence amount with 2.
Evade Power Material: Will increase the maximum evade amount with 2.
Luck Material: Will increase the maximum luck amount with 2.
Meseta: Money (no need to explain)

When you have finished the game in some day, you can also access a Very Hard mode and an Ultimate mode if your level is high enough. Enemies are tougher, bosses are tougher, and well, you know what difficulty means ultimately adding to the games lifespan.

When working as a team, it comes important to find the differences between your characters, and use every advantage. A hunter will always have to stay up-close, while rangers cover their backs. Paralyse immune characters will go in front when fighting, paralysing enemies.

Force class characters can heal team members in combat, as well as providing attacks, for instance the thunder mentioned above. Not only are the class types important, if a friend of yours has a very high attack power but a very low defence power, you have to make him the main attacker. He can't stay to fight the creature though, he has to leap out of nowhere with a strong attack, and then jump back to avoid attacks.

Enemies are often creatures, wolves, sharks, birds, you name it, and everyone has a weak point. By this, note that every creature will take the same damage if you hit the head or the tail, so don't worry about this. No, the weak points can be as is the creature is flying; the only way really to hurt it is to hit it in the air, because it's not very vulnerable when it's on the ground. Also, creatures living in water are also easy to take out from distance, rather than jumping into a lethal pool. It is very important for every player to know the enemies, so you know what to expect from them. Your battle strategy needs to vary a lot, depending on the enemy. There is depth, so don't be afraid.

At the end of each level there is a boss. These bosses have about six different attack patterns, and every pattern has to be avoided in a different way. This is much of the ultimate test to cooperate, as no one can succeed on killing a boss alone. The first boss, a dragon, spews fire, stomps, burrows, crushes and flies. Basic attacks and he is very easy, and works as a tutorial to learn how to defeat the massive beasts. Now, as mentioned, you can replay the game in a Very Hard and Ultimate mode when you have reached certain levels. The great thing is that when you return to some bosses at Ultimate mode, they have gotten themselves a little makeover. The Forest Dragon, as he was the first time around, has turned into the powerful ice dragon, The Sil Dragon. He's faster, he has upgraded attacks, and he requires a new strategy. A great idea and it makes the already fantastic replay value even better.

PSO actually played online has three different play modes. Normal mode (the level-based adventure, this is the only mode you can play alone), Battle mode (either on or offline, this mode lets you battle other players), and the Challenge mode (online only, the normal levels are now divided into nine different stages, and you can try them or level upgrading, or item collecting (finish them fast to collect rare items). Weird thing with this mode is the fact that you can't play four players, only three!).

You can play PSO online, alone or with a two to four-player split screen version, but only the online version is really worth it. Yes, four players can be pretty fun, but it won't last by a long shot. The reason to buy PSO is because of its online capabilities. This is where it gets tricky, nevertheless. First, you need to communicate with your teammates to get the best out of the online play, and it's rather hard to do this without a keyboard. ASCII has announced a GameCube keyboard controller, but unfortunately, it hasn't been released anywhere else than Japan. The two choices left is to buy a rather expensive 3rd party keyboard, and use a controller port on that, or use the in-game keyboard, wherein you choose a letter with the control stick, and select with A. Simple, but a it's hard to write long messages. Patience is needed! You can also use special smiley faces, and by this signalise a yes, a no and so on. The best feature is the premade sentences. They even have an artificial intelligence. They will prioritise certain phrases over others, depending on the situation. For instance, if you have a low health, the prioritised phrases would sound as: “Can you heal me?” “Retreat now” or “Warp”. This, all in all, is a good idea, but it takes a great amount of time finishing such sentences.

Second, the monthly fee of being online on a Gamecube is $8.95. This is an awful lot of money, and the only thing stopping you buying PSO. The gameplay is near the perfect mark (if it's online) it's just too deer for many. But, being online, you can download new levels, creatures, spells etc. Right now, there are five quests to download, six including a Japanese one. There will always be added new ones though! Constant updates can be uploaded from the internet, making the replay value something to die for. Furthermore, you can create guilds and clans and challenge others. The whole online world opens through this game, and it would be a shame not to experience it.

As PSO is shown with an outdated Dreamcast engine, the graphics can't manage anything but to look in resemblance to the deceased white machine. Bad textures, collision problems, blurry environments… They're all present and stare you in the face with some of today's standards. Where the graphics of PSO fail though, the art style and world succeed. Looking up on lush jungles from a beach is just amazing, and tall, white buildings in rocky environments have never looked better. Rain and water is also created amazingly well, thinking of the fact that this is a 2000 engine. During the split screen four-player, it is impossible not to notice that many of the effects aren't there, such as reflections, but overall, it looks quite good.

There are camera problems too. When you are playing single player, you won't have that much of a problem. It is being handled with the L button, but melee battles will give you problems. Especially in a four-player split screen. It gets very frantic, and as you can't zoom, it will be quite hard to keep an eye to every enemy. But you will keep an eye on some of them, using the automatic targeting system. You lock on an enemy, and this would work if it weren't for the fact that it's automatic. You see, once you've locked on an enemy, you can't switch between them, and that will become a very annoying issue. Treasure chests and boxes can even be prioritised. These problems are not easily found, but they are there!

Music themes are composed. There are different themes for each environment, and they sound quite good. It's even interactive, so when you fight enemies, the music will start to be a little more dramatic, and that's an appreciated feature. As an added extra, Sega fans can access music from earlier Sega games, such as Sonic. The sound is very well done; most enemies have their own “sounds” as shrieks, roars and the like. This means that you can recognize enemies, and prepare yourself for combat, and discuss battle strategies with your team members. This is very, very cool, and it's great to see what Sonic Team has done to make the sound so captivating. Other sounds are like buzzes and beeps, the futuristic kind of thing, and it all works well. There aren't any voices in PSO, but it's not really necessary.

All in all, this will be a must-have title if you can afford it, because this game really rules online. Despite both graphical and some gameplay flaws, and a not so intense story, this game is amazing with a modem. Play it online, and learn how well the Sonic Team has handled the pressure of producing the GameCube's first online game. Let's hope there's more in the pipeline, from Nintendo itself because games like PSO seem to be the future.

Available March 7th 2003