Mike
Jul 7, 2010, 07:33 PM
Tycho has some interesting things to say about PSO today.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/7/7/
I'm hesitant to guess how many hours we played Phantasy Star Online. Released when dial-up internet was still a thing that people did, you could tell immediately that you were engaged in something which was unmoored from linear time. Deep loot tables, omnipresent robo-pets, and weird crap like language-independent chat wrapped up in a singular look and accompanied by tremendous music. It was too beautiful. We didn't deserve it, and yet, there it was.
I can't really discern the difference between a "Multiplayer Action RPG" and a "Horde Mode," except to say that the second one is a less robust version of the first. In such an RPG, "playing against waves of AI Opponents" isn't an aberration, it's Tuesday. Also, every other day. You've played PSO, or you should have: how many times did you enter a discrete hunk of forest, only to have bipedal moles raise their claws skyward in defiance? I never got sick of it, it was always ridiculous, and their hilarious, wholly unfounded optimism never wore thin. Today, I couldn't tell you what the pertinent stats for a Phantasy Star Online character even are; just that they would dance o'erhead from time to time, swelling with their increase, and that it was enough.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/7/7/
I'm hesitant to guess how many hours we played Phantasy Star Online. Released when dial-up internet was still a thing that people did, you could tell immediately that you were engaged in something which was unmoored from linear time. Deep loot tables, omnipresent robo-pets, and weird crap like language-independent chat wrapped up in a singular look and accompanied by tremendous music. It was too beautiful. We didn't deserve it, and yet, there it was.
I can't really discern the difference between a "Multiplayer Action RPG" and a "Horde Mode," except to say that the second one is a less robust version of the first. In such an RPG, "playing against waves of AI Opponents" isn't an aberration, it's Tuesday. Also, every other day. You've played PSO, or you should have: how many times did you enter a discrete hunk of forest, only to have bipedal moles raise their claws skyward in defiance? I never got sick of it, it was always ridiculous, and their hilarious, wholly unfounded optimism never wore thin. Today, I couldn't tell you what the pertinent stats for a Phantasy Star Online character even are; just that they would dance o'erhead from time to time, swelling with their increase, and that it was enough.