Do you like a game that is online. a game that is a Phantasy and like to be a bit of a star? This could be your game...
But before i get to the game itself lets talk alittle about the history:
The Phantasy Star Online titles are a sub-series of Sega's Phantasy Star series of games that began in 1987. The PSO games themselves are simple hack and slash type role-playing games where the player slays monsters, levels up, buys new equipment and so on so normal RPG/JRPG fair.
The online Phantasy Stars differ from the previous games of the series by offering a real-time – rather than turn-based – approach to combat, seamlessly integrating this with exploration and plot developments.
With a little of the history out of the way the plot to this first game is simple. After many many years of war on the homeworld of Cora, the Alliance of Nations bands together to plan a mass exodus to another planet. To go about this they build the first of the colonization vessels, Pioneer 1. The planet they head for is called Ragol.
But this story does not start with the people from Pioneer 1 but rather the story picks up with an explosion on Ragol that the people on the Pioneer 2 see and it seems that the people from the Pioneer 1 have apparently vanished.
In the game itself there are three types of jobs to pick from either Hunter, Ranger or Force.
Hunters are adept with close-range weapons such as sabers, two-handed swords, dual daggers, halberds, and are more suited for up-close and personal confrontations.
Rangers are best at ranged combat and excel with weapons such as pistols, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns.
Forces are the magic class of the game and their skills are far-ranging, from physical and magical attacks on the field to support, magic, and healing for teammates.
There are also two ways to play Phantasy Star Online. First is the offline mode where players fight through a number of levels spread over four distinct areas. Each area has a boss at the end. The four areas are (in order) the forest, the caves, the mines, and the ruins. Upon defeating the final boss, Dark Falz, the credits roll and in some cases, an extra feature will be unlocked.
Not only is the main questline open to players but also side quests in the form of the Hunters' Guild. This opens up the back story and grants weapons you would not normaly find in normal play.
The difficulty levels range from normal which is open from the very start of the game while Hard, Very Hard and Ultimate become available once Dark Falz has been defeated on the previous difficulty.
Having said that Ultimate mode, however, was not included in the Version 1 release of PSO on Dreamcast.
Then there is the online gameplay, instead of having the final boss be defeated in order to select a higher difficulty, there is a specific minimum experience level required to join or create a game.
Phantasy Star Online first came out on the Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox. On the Japan December 21, 2000 North America January 29, 2001 Europe February 23, 2001.
If you can find a copy of this game...be it for the dreamcast the or any system it is on then i would say you had better give it a go.