Old article written by me (Kaneco) back in 2012 - some PSOBB experience [Backup]
Archive/Backup/Repost of an old article/blog post from 2012 from the Screwattack game website that is now defunct & is currently backed up on the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120716112845/http://www.screwattack.com/news/old-games-getting-back-groove-my-history-w-phantasy-star-online-blue-burst
Posting it here now for preservation of this time-capsule of a piece (unedited outside of a typo or two & some formatting), I wrote off the cuffs one day to bring some awareness to a still thriving game despite EoS of the official Sega Servers.
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Archive of Article/Blog Post
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Old Games: Getting back in the groove & My History with 'Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst'!
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Phantasy Star Online 2 now being on the horizon & within a few months of release in Japan, let's go unravel the roots where it came from... the original MMO/Dungeon Crawler 'Phantasy Star Online' & its last outing & expansion for the PC 'Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst'.
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'Phantasy Star Online' was one, and first, of the games that revolutionized online gaming in consoles. Starting with its first outing on the Dreamcast in the year 2000. It was the first online title to pave the way for console online gaming we love & use daily in today's social networking, it was quite ahead of its time alright. It all started with a Dial-up connection... Who would have thought back then, we would actually make it this far as to have high-speed internet/Broadband and make something so magical as 'dial-up' (the start of the internet & online gaming in general) completely 'obsolete'?
The start of something beautiful!
Hello world! ...are the words that resonate in my mind when I see such beauty the internet has brought us. Making every stretch of the world seem as close as our doorstep, it's quite the sight to behold. Simply beautiful!
Phantasy Star Online moves onto stretching its influence, after the fall of the dreamcast, onto new horizons such as the Xbox & GC platforms and with that adding a new chapter in the PSO brand, Episode 2. The game quickly gained momentum and became the stellar version of the series both online & offline alongside it's amazing entirely new 4-player offline mode.Even the art behind the game is as gorgeous as the game is, in concept, brilliant!
I can't stress enough how many hours I've wandered the lands of 'Ragol' with friends & family, hours on end! Beating bosses, collecting rare items, grinding, etc. Rinse & repeat. Even if we extracted every little bit there is to extract out of all on a day's work... We weren't quite done yet. We moved on to higher difficulties through both Episodes 1 & 2, challenge mode, battle mode, and even then it wasn't enough!Players unite to achieve a common goal!
Offline had a lot of replayability from the aforementioned engaging 4-player splitscreen to the single-player's polarizing story & unique quests with vast rewards, but that was just the 'tip of the ice berg'. The online, though, was the 'cream of the crop'! Its amazing lobby system was as its 'predecessor' but far more evolved with trade systems in place, clans, snapshot feature, the works! It also introduced, like its predecessor, multiplayer quests which are were not available for splitscreen sessions making the experience far more enjoyable and rather addicting; hours on end per se!
...but that's enough about Phantasy Star Online of the old.Hello World! ...Who's up for some 'Chair Race'?!
It's time to talk about the final installment of Phantasy Star Online, 'Blue Burst'. Although, this one is for PC only. It's also the reason as to why I'm writing this blog.
Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst was a downloadable digital port (Client-based/Online-only) of the GC/Xbox versions of Episode 1 & 2 with improvements including improved graphics, new items, quests, customization options, and last but not least a NEW Episode!The pinnacle & last outing of the Phantasy Star Online series... Blue Burst!
Blue Burst was composed of Episode 1, 2 & 4... What happened to Episode 3, you ask? It was a whole separate game exclusive to just the Gamecube with a rather different approach in gameplay mechanics from what PSO originally represented. Players from Episode 3 could interact with players from Episode 1 & 2 in the lobby (Online-only) but could not interact any further than that, due to the games being completely different in design.
Moving on...Episode 3 was a different breed of PSO with completely different gameplay mechanics.
Featuring a card system in place & turn-based combat. Ahead of its time, if you ask me... but that's a story for another time.
Episode 4 was exclusively designed for PSO: Blue Burst. It features brand-new enemies, maps, and items; in addition to those included with previous episodes.
Blue Burst was released in the States in 2005 and was shortly abandoned & shutdown in 2008, while the more successful Japanese servers closed 2 years after (2010).
...Thus, this is where this blog comes in!
'Schthack' a wonderful coder back in late '06, after hearing rumors that the US servers might be shutdown in the very near future, started work on a private server with much love for the franchise & dedication, he succeeded!
I, Kaneco, was shortly blessed and was able to get on the closed beta of the private servers along many fortunate lovers of the series. We regained our love for the game & the community!
Soon enough, before we knew it, the official US servers were shutdown and 'Schthack' had put so much work into the project that in short time, it was already more popular than the official servers it was trying to imitate and at a grander scale at that too.Watching right out into the horizon in Episode 4 among old friends ...snapshot taken back early 2007.
Day 1 on the closed beta. lvl 1 HUcast 'Destructor'.
So many improvements went into it. Such as quest ports from earlier iterations of PSO, original quests, original updates, Japanese only items, Japanese translated quests, events, etc.
Best part of all, that has kept this server going is that it's all Free2Play...unlike the official servers (since PSO's 1st outing) where you had to pay a monthly fee for a 'Hunter's License' to play online.
Presently, 'Schthack' is no longer at the helm of the team that made all of this possible, left about 3 years ago and moved on to better things... occasionally, paying a visit to the forums from time to time. Although, he has managed to leave everything in good -capable- hands.Worthy of mention, PSO2 is already confirmed to be going the 'F2P' route (could this be due to Schthack's doing, evolving business model of 'F2P' games, or both?).
Moving on... Present Day.
I'm finally coming back to the scene and with much more desire to play, especially with you G1s as I'm writing this, I've gotten together with a few G1s such as 'Shiro937' & 'MaliceLast'. I've had a lot of fun with these guys in the past few days. Heck! Even 'Shiro937' made a clan - 'g1Nation'... We're definitely going to need more members, hehehehe.
Anyway, this has become such a long-winded 'blog post', I could write so much more but I rather keep it concise, and I'm pretty sure most of 'You' are either skimming through or dead tired from reading this, trust me... I don't blame you.
In celebration of the soon to be released PSO2 in Japan (hopefully soon to be announced for the rest of the world) feel free to join us in 'Ragol' & feel free to drop a comment or two below of your thoughts on old games you wish to revisit/talk about, PSO-related, etc.
I'll be happy to read them all. Count on it!
Without much further ado I'll be leaving two (very old!) AMVs of the 'PSO experience' (it defines the way I feel about the franchise) & the link where you can download the 'client' below. Also, don't forget to register for an account... otherwise you won't be going anywhere without it.
Happy hunting G1s and hope to see you on the other side!
Schtserv Link (Wayback Machine 2012 Snapshot of the site)
Groovy!
- G1 Kaneco -
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End of Archive of Article/Blog Post
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Attachments Archive for images to self-reference embeds from the same thread/website:
titlelarge.jpg psparty2a-1.jpg phantasy_star_online_wallpaper.jpg psogc-5b.jpg 2311341300_178e64e051_o.jpg
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