I bought PSO back in the halcyon days of the Sega Dreamcast. At that time, the DC was the only console capable of connecting to the internet. This was before high speed internet, so the only way to play was via dial-up connection. As such, I couldn't play the game online (and never gained the capabality, coincidentally) so I mostly played solo.
The story of PSO doesn't really matter that much. You're part of an intergalactic seed ship trying to discover the fate of a previous ship. More specifically, you're supposed to be tracking down Red Ring Rico, sort of. What PSO lacked in story it made up for with slick graphics, a high degree of customization and excellent multiplayer.
It's hard to remember, but I think I convinced my friend Travis (who was my great friend and literally the only other person I knew who owned a Dreamcast) to get PSO. Playing PSO at Travis's house opened up new possibilities: I could finally play online. The dial-up cable was like some kind of genie's lamp - free items, free weapons, quick levelling, rare weapons, powerful MAGs. Online play was treacherous, though. You could join a bad room and get all of your stuff stolen by douchebag players - or they could kill you for no discernible purpose.
Eventually I moved on from PSO (as gamers do). Even then I remembered it fondly as a really cool game with almost endless replayability. The Dreamcast dwindled into obscurity, breaking my gaming heart. And then...
The Gamecube version of PSO contained both the original and the inferior but fun sequel. The graphics had improved slightly, the gameplay was a bit smoother, and (as the picture indicates) you could now play with up to 4 people. I distinctly recall playing PSO with my friends Travis, Tom and Kyle on four player splitscreen on my then 14 inch television (giving us all frequent headaches). Still, it was a total blast. While Episode II of PSO still wasn't as good, the game gave you the option to play 1 OR 2 with the same character, the kind of option you just don't get very often from most games these days. Imagine if Halo 4 let you go back and play the previous campaigns (!).
We played PSO to death in those days. The PVP was wildly unbalanced (if you play an android, you've basically got no chance against someone who can cast electricity spells at you), but was also a nice feature.
Needless to say, I was insanely excited for Phantasy Star Universe for the 360.
PSU seemed to promise everything that PSO had brought to the table and more. And yet the game was an unmitigated failure (the game itself was, whether or not it was profitable I have no clue). The story still sucked, but that wasn't the problem. Ultimately PSU suffered from over-complication and sheer cluster-fuck syndrome. The streamlined setting of PSO was scrapped in favor of massive cities (which I thought resembled the giant settlements in Star Wars Galaxies) that were bizarre and confusing. Playing online didn't seem to help matters, as the moment you arrived in a city, you were bombarded by hundreds of players shouting that they're selling this or that.
The actual combat in the game had become much more complex and confusing than the streamlined system in the earlier PSO. I'm not sure I ever got a handle on it. You could wield multiple weapons at the same time, which profoundly confused a PSO veteran like myself. Even the graphics (I thought) looked less stylized than in the DC version.
Ultimately, the worst part about PSU was the ridiculous "Hunter's License" fee you had to fork over just to play the game. That ensured I wouldn't stick with PSU. Single-player had become a total bore as well. That, and the simple fact that PSU wasn't PSO probably doomed the 360 rendition.
What kind of future does PSO have? Undoubtedly you can find some server somewhere to play the original online. With all of the Dreamcast games being (at times unnecessarily) ported to the 360 these days, maybe someone will have the sense to port PSO to Xbox Live Arcade. Hell, I'd pay 20$ to kick Dark Falz's ass again.
-K
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