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  1. #1

    Default Yuji Naka looks back at Phantasy Star Online, 20 years later

    Phantasy Star Online wasn’t the first Internet-connected multiplayer game on Dreamcast. That distinction belongs to ChuChu Rocket!, which Sega and developer Sonic Team made as a data streaming test case in preparation for PSO.

    But Phantasy Star Online was the first console-based online action game to gather thousands of players from around the world on the same servers, allowing communication regardless of region, using a language-agnostic icon-based system.

    While Sega had experimented with online services and tech for years prior, with the Dreamcast it included a modem in every console, meaning that every Dreamcast owner could be, in theory, connected. For a brief moment, it seemed as if the technology for consumer-focused online gaming had finally caught up with Sega’s console ambitions.

    As Sonic Team leader and PSO producer Yuji Naka would later lament, though, his team ended up completing this pioneering game just in time to see the company abandon the hardware business. Although the series would live on, eventually finding success on GameCube, Xbox, and PC, Naka originally hoped PSO would revive the Dreamcast’s fading fortunes. Unfortunately, the console’s fate was sealed well before PSO’s arrival.

    This year marks the 20th anniversary of Sega’s groundbreaking franchise, which spawned numerous successors like Phantasy Star Universe, Phantasy Star Zero, Phantasy Star Portable, and, ultimately, Phantasy Star Online 2 (which, despite launching in Japan in 2012, has only recently reached English-speaking players).

    To commemorate this anniversary, we recently tracked down eight members of Sonic Team’s original PSO development staff to look back at the 20 years that have passed since the game’s debut, share insights on the challenges they faced, and reminisce about how PSO gathered thousands of players around the world on a daily basis to play together.

    We’ll be running these conversations as a series of interviews over the coming weeks, starting with the below translated email conversation with producer Yuji Naka.

    Producer - Yuji Naka
    Read the article here - https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2...source=twitter

    Director - Takao Miyoshi
    https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2...source=twitter

    Composer and Sound Designer - Hideaki Kobayashi
    https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2...eaki-kobayashi

    Script writer Akinori Nishiyama and Effects Designer Takanori Fukazaw

    https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2...iew-angry-fans

    Lead programmer Akio Setsumasa, character programmer Yasuhiro Takahashi, and enemy programmer Masakazu Miura
    https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2...tric-prototype

    Yuji Nakazawa, PSO 2’s North America producer
    https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2...-online-2-west
    Last edited by Maulcun; Aug 30, 2020 at 03:54 PM.

  2. #2

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    Sega has been always a company of extremes , it does something epic or fails cathastrophically

  3. #3

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    i cant imagine what the entire team felt to have finish such a good game only to have that system close up shop so soon after release.
    Cast - Gt 50, Fg 20, Gm 25
    PSO2 NGS
    Quote Originally Posted by the_importer_ View Post
    Tell you what mate, I'll decide when my topic goes into the QQ post or when it needs to be it's own thing, and you can do the same for yours. Alright, cool. Cheers

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by silo1991 View Post
    Sega has been always a company of extremes , it does something epic or fails cathastrophically
    Yup, SEGA always had balls.
    Fan Art of my Character & Matoi Defending a City
    Spoiler!

  5. #5
    Last Pureblooded ß-type Mystil's Avatar
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    Made me feel seriously old, but I'm thankful PSO came out - don't know what my childhood would've been without it.
    Miranda F Newman Fighter (PSO2: NG) Ship 2
    ~Past Characters~
    DC PSO: Silhouette HUnewearl 100 » 102 (Ver.2)
    GC PSO: Silhouette HUnewearl 161 :: Za'leshea FOnewearl 172
    PSU: Eternia F Beast FF15 Lvl142(PC) :: Elemia F Cast GM20 lvl174(360)

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mystil View Post
    Made me feel seriously old, but I'm thankful PSO came out - don't know what my childhood would've been without it.
    You feel old? I was 7 when the original Phantasy Star came out on the Master System
    Fan Art of my Character & Matoi Defending a City
    Spoiler!

  7. #7

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    Weird how they talk about FF 11/14 and godeater as the legacy but not once mention PSO2, the direct "sequel" of sorts.

  8. #8

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    Those are some matter of fact answers, especially for an email conversation. Some interesting tidbits in there, though.
    Last edited by Cyclon; Jul 31, 2020 at 10:25 AM.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by mother clusterfck View Post
    Weird how they talk about FF 11/14 and godeater as the legacy but not once mention PSO2, the direct "sequel" of sorts.
    Well, Mr. Naka does work for Square-Enix now, and it's quite rude in Japanese culture (really all cultures?) to endorse the products of a competitor, so yeah I'm not surprised by that answer at all.
    -MikonX
    OG PSO2 real (JP) version
    Too many characters to list

  10. #10

    Default

    Good read, Phantasy Star Online made me got into the entire Phantasy Star series.

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