I haven’t been posting much lately due to being back in
college again and being up to my eyes in work but I’ll try and keep the updates
coming. I’ve actually been making a game demo for college and really enjoying
it. I’ve also been learning programming for the first time which I surprisingly
love.
I just want to talk a bit lately about a game I’ve been
playing lately, Phantasy Star Online. Sega closed the PSO servers for good a
few years ago but thanks to some very dedicated fans there are free hacked
servers available to play the game on. This is my first experience with PSO
other than a quick 4 player Gamecube session which ended unceremoniously with one
of the players rage quitting because it was too slow. I didn’t own a Dreamcast
until well after it died and Irelands terrible online infrastructure until
recently stopped me from playing it.
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| Here's my character Reissward arsing about on the Pioneer 2 hub. You'll see a lot of this place. |
Although billed as a MMO, PSO really isn’t anything like it.
It has more in common with Diablo 2 than anything else. You wander into one of
the 4 dungeons (well in Episode 1, there's even more in Episodes 2 and 4 which are also playable) in the game killing enemies and picking up random loot. There’s
a story there as well but I’m not far enough into it for it to have really gone
anywhere. If you want to play with other players you can create a game in the
lobby and wait for random people to join in, or you can join a game already in
progress. Up to 4 players can play together. PSO is far more action orientated
than most other Diablo style dungeon crawlers which for me makes it a lot of
more fun. There are some cool features like the telepipe item you can use so
new players can find you easily in whatever dungeon you are in.
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| For a Dreamcast game PSO looks gorgeous and even better on PC. |
My first impressions of the game weren’t great. I picked a
magic user as my class and found the game very difficult in the beginning.
Thankfully there is no negative to dying in the server I’m playing on. However
the fun increases exponentially when you are playing with other people. I joined a few games in progress and levelled
up with these guys and now I have a nice death dealing mage on my hands. One
issue is that controlling the game with a keyboard takes some getting used to
especially if you want to use a mage or long range attacker. Even when you get
used to it I get the feeling that the game would play better with an analogue
pad (the version I’m playing does not support this).
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| The later episodes represent a big jump in visual quality. |
Anyway if you are curious about PSO and missed out like I
did, or want to relive the good old glory days of PSO before cheaters spoiled
it then give it a go. Since there’s only a very dedicated fanbase playing at
the moment there’s none of the griefing and cheating that plagued the games
original release. I’ve had a good few memorable moments already like the time
when I found one of the rarest swords in the game... twice in one session. That’s
beginners luck for you. You can download the game and client from this link
here: http://www.schtserv.com/. I don’t
mind giving out the link because the game is pretty much abandonware since Sega
closed the servers and is no longer making money from the game. This game has
gotten me pretty excited for PSO 2.
