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

[Maulcun]

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/2020/7/26/21332950/yuji-naka-sega-phantasy-star-online-20th-anniversary?utm_campaign=polygon&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Director - Takao Miyoshi
https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2020/8/2/21348946/phantasy-star-online-director-diablo-cut-features-christmas-nights?utm_campaign=polygon&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Composer and Sound Designer - Hideaki Kobayashi
https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2020/8/9/21357456/composing-phantasy-star-online-music-20-years-hideaki-kobayashi

Script writer Akinori Nishiyama and Effects Designer Takanori Fukazaw

https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2020/8/16/21369887/phantasy-star-online-interview-angry-fans

Lead programmer Akio Setsumasa, character programmer Yasuhiro Takahashi, and enemy programmer Masakazu Miura
https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2020/8/23/21378092/phantasy-star-online-programmers-diablo-style-isometric-prototype

Yuji Nakazawa, PSO 2’s North America producer
https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2020/8/30/21406035/how-sega-took-eight-years-to-bring-phantasy-star-online-2-west

[silo1991]

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

[ArcaneTechs]

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.

[the_importer_]

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

Yup, SEGA always had balls.

[Mystil]

Made me feel seriously old, but I'm thankful PSO came out - don't know what my childhood would've been without it.

[the_importer_]

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 :(

[mother clusterfck]

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

[Cyclon]

Those are some matter of fact answers, especially for an email conversation. Some interesting tidbits in there, though.

[MikonX]

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.

[Verkins]

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

[mother clusterfck]

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.
I was considering this but it's still such a massive stretch to talk about alleged successors that are so different when the game has a number of true successors and a real sequel, lol.

He should have just not plugged other games at all and keep it purely on PSO1 as the only game mentioned by name and only talk about other online games in general without any specific titles.

[landman]

I was really surprised reading Takao Miyoshi's interview in a couple points:

Burning Rangers being planned as an online coop game (I knew a multiplayer mode didn't make it into the launch, but never would have guessed it was planned to be online)
Lutz being there, at the centre of the Ruins after who knows how much time, still sealing Falz. New flavors to that Uraending image with that new information...

[Cyclon]

Now that's what I'm talking about, no offense to mister Naka. Great questions, too!
It's so interesting to hear how intertwined all the projects at Sega seemed to be at the time, or how the ambition of a single person was enough to make things happen. Of course everything was cheaper back then. Still, that really sounds like a different world compared to the impression I have of the Sega of today.

Also, it was funny that he got somewhat defensive about PSU... a bit sad, too. Whether we're talking about Sonic or Phantasy Star, it's hard to believe that many of the same people were still in charge after the Dreamcast era.

[LinkEP]

Lutz being there, at the centre of the Ruins after who knows how much time, still sealing Falz. New flavors to that Uraending image with that new information...
Too bad their initial plans for classic lore with Lutz and Searren never arrived in the final development. This leads me to justify why PSO1 didn't use Algol planet names for the 3 seals, so Ragol doesn't have a direct connection with Algol.

[landman]

The planets names are used, Rico just doesn't know how to pronounce them, why would she? it's a different alien civilisation, the fact they even sound similar is kind of a miracle, I don't think the ruins had any audio data to know the original. Hey, the planets even sound different from japanese to english, and from game to game because "localization" lol

[LinkEP]

The planets names are used, Rico just doesn't know how to pronounce them, why would she? it's a different alien civilisation, the fact they even sound similar is kind of a miracle, I don't think the ruins had any audio data to know the original. Hey, the planets even sound different from japanese to english, and from game to game because "localization" lol
Oh they did? Where did you find the info that the names were used? I might have missed it because I haven't read all the books and I may have forgotten/unnoticed some in-game infos. Either way, that sounds plausible.

[landman]

Do MUUT DITTS POUMN ring any bells to you? that's What Rico reads in every seal, then in the door to Ruins after Vol Opt.

[LinkEP]

Do MUUT DITTS POUMN ring any bells to you? that's What Rico reads in every seal, then in the door to Ruins after Vol Opt.
Yeah but it could be some another civilization, just like Parum, Moatoob, and Neudaiz.

[landman]

It certainly could, but Director san just confirmed the uraending picture was Lutz (or "a" Lutz, like Rune was), so that's one confirmation we have, maybe the plot changed, but they took that screenshot and added it in the game as a secret:

https://i.imgur.com/s3J9a8M.png

Here we see someone in white tunic (model seems to be the default GM, but in white), holding the Spycho Wand, in front of the pillar.


It could be someone from Gurhal, true, since gurhal had a Rutsu, too, but since PSU came later, I don't think that was the original intention.

[LinkEP]

It certainly could, but Director san just confirmed the uraending picture was Lutz (or "a" Lutz, like Rune was), so that's one confirmation we have, maybe the plot changed, but they took that screenshot and added it in the game as a secret

Indeed, but he also said it was already cut since they can't get around with cutscenes and any more characters, so probably the screenshot is no longer relevant to the final story.



Here we see someone in white tunic (model seems to be the default GM, but in white), holding the Spycho Wand, in front of the pillar.

It could be someone from Gurhal, true, since gurhal had a Rutsu, too, but since PSU came later, I don't think that was the original intention.Well Emilia and Nagisa did arrive on Ragol via subspace travel.. so I guess Lutz from Gurhal can also go there? But his hair was black and not cyan, I have doubts on this.

[landman]

Either way, it could not have been their intention back then, when only the classics and PSO were a thing.

[Maulcun]

lol! ''Initially, the plan was to have players take a dragon’s egg, nurture it, and then raise the dragon that hatched from the egg''

[Mystil]

You feel old? I was 7 when the original Phantasy Star came out on the Master System :(

If it's any consolation, I was 4 when that arrived and I didn't even play my first game(Atari 2600; pong) til 1988 ;p.

[Maulcun]

Does anyone know what Sega PR means?


Sega PR: How about running the online side?

We’ll keep it to a minimum. Just keep the servers running. [laughs]

[rokkuman]

Does anyone know what Sega PR means?


Sega PR: How about running the online side?

We’ll keep it to a minimum. Just keep the servers running. [laughs]

Public Relations person, I guess

[Maulcun]

Public Relations person, I guess


It was what I imagined. thx

[Cyclon]

"We had users sit outside the Sega offices in protest, demanding that we give them their lost items."
... oh boy. And I was thinking things had gotten worse.

Tons of interesting tidbits once again! One can only imagine what the fifth PSO zone they mentioned could have looked like. It's also pretty funny to see a Sega employee calling them out on how they tread their IP.
To be fair, they've taken some positive steps lately.

[Mystil]

It was what I imagined. thx

These are people that are basically paid to lie and be assholish if they want to.

[StreetFighter2242]

It's funny how people tries to connect PSO to the originals when PSO Isn't really canon to begin with