Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution expands the PSO universe, offering a new style of strategic combat. Combining the excitement of card collection and deck settings with team-based battle tactics, PSO Episode III allows users to chat in the lobby about status upgrades and tactics, and then journey to the planet surface to engage in strategic combat using a turn-based Card system. The game continues the story arc of the previous PSO games, as players once again become Hunters and explore the mysteries of the planet Ragol. Featuring both online and offline play, as well as multiplayer modes, PSO Episode III adds new content and players to the ever-growing PSO community.


Setting:

It's 21 years after the time of Pioneer 2's exploration of Ragol. Several things have happened in these 21 years. The population of living things on Ragol has decreased sharply. The job of being a hunter has changed. A new generation is born and new characters have emerged.

Features:
  • Play online and interact with Hunters from PSO Episode I & II in the lobby
  • Collect cards, construct your own deck and fight with other players and against enemies. Also fight alongside partners which will add to your elements in fighting.
  • Engage in offline team battles for up to four people, where players are divided into friends and enemies
  • Each player gets to pick a side: a Hero side or a Dark side.
  • Choose from either the Item Deck or the Enemy Deck, depending upon whether you will fight as a member of the Hunters or the Arks (enemies)
  • Collect an enormous number of weapons, gear, and items to create an original deck with your character
  • Rare weapons can be customized by constructing your deck.
  • Use Action and Assist cards to compose a powerful deck, supported by Hunters and Items or Bosses and Enemies
  • Position your characters on the battle field and move them as the battle unfolds to take advantage of your opponent’s weaknesses
  • The next chapter in the PSO universe continues the story of PSO Episodes I & II
  • Two separate storylines and game styles. Darkside and Heroside.
  • PSO EP 1 & 2 HL will carry over and work for PSO EP 3 meaning no additional fee for EP 3. PSO Hunter's Liscense is a Universal Account for both PSO ep1&2, and PSO ep3
  • Character level maxes at level 999. Character level is now called CLv.
  • There will be lobby actions in EP 3 as well. Access them by pushing Control, or Control + Shift and keys A - Z on the keyboard
  • There will also be lobby chairs. Access them by pushing the A and X button together.
  • You can exchange guild cards with your friend in offline multiplayer mode.
  • There will be deck sorting options. Pushing the X button while editing a deck will bring up the deck sorting menu.
  • Section ID's still exist.
  • You can echange your cards online and offline. S-Rank and E-Rank cards cannot be exchanged.
  • After each battle, you will get a rank of how you did in the battle ranging from A+ to E. After which, you will be able to choose one out of four packs. New cards will then be dealt. Thanks to ok-hybrid for this EP3 info.
  • Everyone starts off with a standard card deck. Same master decks can be accessed offline and online.
  • There are two dice used in calculating probability. Individual Dice probability is as follows:
    Dice Probability
    1 1/36
    2 3/36
    3 5/36
    4 7/36
    5 9/36
    6 11/36

New Battle Features:

  • New exciting feature of EP 3 is the online Battle Tournament feature.
  • 32 people can participate in a Battle Tournament online.
  • A maximum of 8 players will be able to watch the tornament from the lobby.
  • You will be able to choose the battle you want to watch from the lobby. Players watching the battle will be able to chat and comment with each other while the battle goes on. The chat will not be displayed on the screens of the battling players, and therefore will not disturb the battle process. A player waiting for his turn at the battle tournament can watch the current battle and chat with other viewing players and observe a current player's battling technique and card use.
  • Tournament results can be viewed and ranks will be displayed in a Battle Results Table.
  • You can play offline battle tournament with your friend. The set up for character preparation from memory cards will be similar to playing offline multiplayer in Episode 2.
  • After the battle is completed, you will be returned to the lobby.

Card Level

  • Your card level will increase when you gain 100 experience points.
  • You can gain experience by playing the game in normal online mode, normal offline mode or winning over a competititor in battle mode.
  • There will be an online and an offline card level value. Offline experience will only affect offline card level and online experience will only affect online experience.
  • Experience earned will be calculated depending on the difference of the card level of the two oponents.
  • If a player with a low card level defeats a player with a high card level, the player with a high card level will lose experience points.

To view more Sonic Team Screenshots click here.
To view more Trial Screenshots click here
To view the Trial game packaging click here
We also have Episode 3 Wallpapers.
To look at Episode 3 Trial Guides including Battle Sequence Breakdown click here.

Trailer movies: High Bandwith , Low Bandwith

For more Episode 3 news on PSOW, click here.

Known Facts From the Trial
  • Androids are now called Humanoids
  • You can't copy Guild Card Data
  • You can't change Guild Card Number
  • You will retain Ep 1 and 2 Guild Card Data only if your Ep 1 and 2 data is saved on the same memory card as your Ep 3 data.
  • You can have a maximum of 210 Guild Cards
  • You can use a wave bird controller
  • You must use controller port 1 for controlling your character
  • You can't change your password
  • Use a new memory card JUST for Ep 3 Trial, there are reports of data for other games being erased from the card used
  • You can use both a 251 or 59 memory card
  • If your Character Data is erased your Guild Card Data is erased as well
  • You can't use your trial character in the final version, but if you play the final version using the memory card that you used for the trial version you'll recieve a present card
  • There is a snapshot function available and a walkthrough on how to use it is available on our Episode 3 page
  • There is a time limit during battle
  • There is a maximum of only 8 people that can watch a battle
  • No katagana, hiragana or chinese characters for names
  • You can play offline
  • You can use your Ep 1 & 2 Hunter License, however no Hunter License is requried for Trial
  • There are 12 lobbies per block and a maximum of 1000 users per block
  • You can connect to Ep 1 & 2 lobbies but you will not be able to connect to v1.0 JP lobbies
  • There will be unannounced server maintenances, so if your game suddenly stops this may be the reason

User Bannings occur from:

  • Breaking the User Agreement
  • Altering the Program
  • Causing trouble to other players
  • Messing with the server
  • Hacking / Duping
  • Use of a Cheat Program or Analysis Program on the server
Character Creation


Customizable Options:

  • Face: Human and Newmans
  • Hair: Hairstyle, color and hat options available, Human and Newmans
  • Head: Humanoids
  • Body: Color Humanoids
  • Costume: Multiple costume options, Human and Newmans
  • Skin color: Human and Newmans
  • Proportion: All races
  • Character Name: English alphabets and numbers only, up to 12 characters
  • Hero side or Dark side
Download Quests
  • They are testing download quests still but it will be in the game for a fact and the schedule will follow the same format as the Ep 1 & 2 schedule, so news on new quests will be released as it comes.
  • You can choose which memory card to download quests to as shown in the picture below.
  • There will be multiplayer download quests.

Snapshot Walkthrough

  • First, make sure to have a memory card in both Slot A and B
  • Create the snapshot file offline before going online in the game like you would with Episode 1 and 2. Start the game offline and go to Options and select Snapshot. Click yes (first option) to create a snapshot file. The default snapshot will then be created.
  • You can now go online to take your picture.
  • Plug in a controller in port 4
  • Push the L trigger button on the controller to display the finder window, like the picture below.
  • You can now take the picture. You will see a message saying that the picture is being recorded.
  • After taking a picture, you will have to wait 10 seconds before taking another picture.
  • Snapshots cannot be taken during offline battle, exchanging cards or while editing the deck.

  • A button will display picture in the finder. Pressing A again will take the picture.
  • X button: zoom out and capture the whole screen.
  • Z button: B&W monochrome photograph effect (will only be evident in the resulting picture).
  • L & R buttons: Zoomz out when R is pushed and zooms in when R is released.
  • Control stick: Rotates Camera
  • C stick: moves finder window.
Sample Card Sheets & Screenshot
Halo Rappy

Sonic Knuckle
NPC Characters

During battle in Episode 3, you will be controlling NPC's. Their special attributes will help and benefit you during gameplay. Descriptions and names of card attacks below are loose JP translations, don't yell at us if they're not 100 accurate or you can try to translate them yourself. We will have more and accurate info when we get our hands on the trial or game.

Hero Side
Name: Sil'fer
Race: Newman
Sex: Female
Occupation: Hunter
Name: Krantz
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Occupation: Ranger
Name: Ino'lis
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Occupation: Force
Dark Side
Name: Break
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Occupation: Force
Name: Lura
Race: Humanoid
Sex: Female
Occupation: Ranger
Name: Endu
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Occupation: Hunter


Hero Side
Sil'fer:
Hunewearl

Krantz:
Ramar. Range of attack is widened, also has increased experience bonus.

Orlando:
Humar. Temp damage increase during physical attack

SARIGAN:
Humanoid Hucaseal. Not able to use techniques. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks. Has an low cost attack card that will reduce attack cost by half, however the damage done will also be halved but will not affect damage done by a weapon.

VIVIANA:
Fonewearl. Technique 1/2 reduction card will half the damage received when the card is used in defense against a direct technique attack. Attack to equipped item will not be halved and will remain the same,

TEIFU:
Humanoid Hucast. Has a bonus enemy card which will increase Attack Power of the card when there are more than 2 enemies. Not able to use techniques. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks.

Relmitos:
Fomar. Has Self Attack and Technique permanent substitue card. When using this card during an attack, the card will replace the Attack Power and TP of the character during the attack and will also affect equipped weapon's Attack Power.

STELLA:
Humanoid Racaseal. Range of attack is widened, also has increased experience bonus. Not able to use techniques. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks.

Ino'lis:
Fomarl.Technique card will decrease TP cost consumption during an attack. It will also decrease TP cost of equipped item.

Kill rear:
Ramarl

Guru star:
Fonewm

Guy KIRUDO:
Racast. Not able to use techniques. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks. Has Big Swing Card that consumes more ATK cost for all attacks but will increase attack of character and equipped weapon by 1 point when the card is used. Has an Evasion Card, HP of Evasion Card does not decrease.

Dark Side
Break:
Fomar

MEMORU:
Fonewearl. Has Robbery Card. Halves technique damage but will consume partner's EXP.

Endu:
Humar. Has a Random Card that will distribute damage to all the items the opponent has equipped during at attack.

KUREINU:
Fomarl. Has HP Support Card that will absord HP of enemies.

Hayes:
Humanoid Hucast. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks. Also has Hand Destruction Card.

Casey:
Ramar. Range of attack is widened. Has Revenge Card, Attack Power of this card increases temporary when an ally dies during the attack/use of this card.

Lura:
Humanoid Racaseal. Range of attack is widened. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks. Has Flight Killer card, damage is 1.5 times stronger when attacking in a flight state.

RUFINA:
Hunewearl. Has Action Rise Card that increases AP of all physical attack action cards that is in use. Attack damage is 1.5 times stronger.

PEKO:
Fonewm. Technique card will decrease tech consumption once during card use.

Organ:
Humanoid Racast. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks. Has an attack card that will affect attack power when there is a large group of enemies present.

Reiz:
Humanoid Hucaseal. Has card ability that makes the person immune to paralysis, freeze and acid attacks.

       

Projected Release Dates:

North America: 1st Quarter, 2004
Europe: 1st Quarter, 2004
Japan: November 27, 2003
Selling price: 6980 Yen

Trial Information
Reservation period: June 6th, 2003 - July 31st, 2003
Selling price: 6980 Yen
Console: Gamecube
Required Equipment: Memory Card & BBA/Modem
Publisher: Sega
Open trial date: July 24th, 2003 - August 31st, 2003 (Japan Only)
No Hunter's License needed
Sonic Team Episode 3 Links:
English Page: http://www.sonicteam.com/pso3/index_e.html
Japanese Page: http://www.sonicteam.com/pso3/
Japanese Episode 3 Page: http://sega.jp/ngc/pso3/
Japanese Detailed Episode 3 Page: http://www.sonicteam.com/pso3/
Japanese Episode 3 Online Manual: http://www.sonicteam.com/psoep3_trial/pc/manual.html
Why a card game? ST's Answers
Detailed Episode 3 FAQ: http://www.sonicteam.com/psoep3_trial/pc/faq_main01.html
Episode 3 Open Network Trial Info Page: Sega Direct
Episode 3 Trial Access Page: http://tails04.sonicteam.com/cgi-bin/pso3/trial/form_pc.cgi/
Episode 3 Trial User Agreement: http://www.sonicteam.com/psoep3_trial/pc/kiyaku.html
Episode 3 Snapshot FAQ: http://www.sonicteam.com/psoep3_trial/pc/manual/manual_02_10.html
Misc.
PSO EP 3 Trial Commemoration Product Cards
For sale at Sega Direct in Japan at 1000 yen per set.