xav's 2023 media thread: Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (Episode I, Normal Mode) (2003) (REPLAY?)

this is a weird entry. PSO is an online RPG that technically "has an end", but the game isnt over once you reach the credits. you're meant to keep playing on the harder difficulties, keep grinding, hunt rare monsters and items, and play online with other players; and then do the same in ep II. but, i DID beat the final boss and reach the credits of ep I on my character Klee (and later my  character Krys), so i guess this warrants a media thread post? that being said im not sure if im going to update this thread when i reach the credits on subsequent modes? idk, if i do ill probably have less to say and moreso just talk about what my experience in the mode was.

PSO is one of my favorite games of all time. ive owned it and played it for years since i was young on various characters across various versions (dreamcast v1 and v2, gamecube, blue burst, and now on the xbox version).  i picked a FOnewearl because i consider forces to be the most fun to play; hunters are cool but ive played them too much and rangers are fine (though ive never really played those either), but forces are really where the game is at- although its definitely the hardest class to play. its a fun kind of hard though!

PSO is very simple to learn. you have three melee attacks- a special attack for weapons with certain attributes (like launching fire, stealing HP, or having a very low chance to one-shot), a normal attack that does standard damage with standard accuracy, and a heavy attack with lower accuracy. you cant button mash in PSO; its based on timing and positioning when it comes to taking down monsters. for forces, there's an whole extra layer of combat with techniques; PSO's equivalent of magic.

techs cant miss which is a huge plus in their favor, but casting them takes TP, which can run out quickly especially when you find more and more powerful techniques, meaning you'll have to return to pioneer 2 (the hub area) to buy more TP restorative items. so, playing a force can get very costly. forces also start off with the defensive capacity of a wet donut. many things can knock them down or kill them outright so you have to play in a very risk-calculating manner if you want to survive. it isnt impossible to play solo, and for a lot of my progression i did, but your chances of surviving runs are greater when youre playing in a party.

all of this serves to create a satisfying gameplay loop of going to ragol, killing monsters, getting loot and selling loot, unlocking harder difficulties and then eventually finding elusive rare drops and hunting specific gear thats tied to your character's section ID.

speaking of playing in a party, thats something i managed to do when i hooked my xbox up to the internet with insignia. its awesome playing online on a crt and having a controller + keyboard set up like the old days. i play on the schthack servers and ive met plenty of really nice players, some of whom have given me really rare stuff which im still amazed by.

the story of episode I is very simple but i enjoy it a lot. it surrounds a mysterious explosion that happens on ragol and cuts off all contact with colonizers on the planet. as you go deeper from the forest to the caves to the mines and eventually the ruins, you slowly get an idea of whats going on until it hits you all at once and it shocks you. the whole time youre also following the notes of rico tyrell, or red ring rico, and trying to figure out what happened to her as well.

the story isnt important, i think its more of a complement than anything, but if youre interested theres certainly lore to dig into- alongside the many sidequests the game has as well.

again, this was all on the normal difficulty. next up for me is hard, then very hard, and eventually ultimate- which is gonna take a lot of grinding.....