But pso2 isn't dead I hope ur talking about the older games (I think u are talking about the older games..... I hope oh u are imma be honest the title of this video in my recommeded scared me thank goodness it wasn't what I thought)
i just hit teen age when i frst saw it from my father's friend's son playing it on the cube its was a joy to watch for my little mind back than, and i would not say pso2 is "dead" along with its ngs counterpart but its not quite what it once was compare to the older games
Take note, the Gamecube versions of the game live on with many of the same servers as PC's Blue Burst. (And oddly Dreamcast v2 has a server or two). Additionally Episode 1 & 2 Plus was another GC release that added in quite a few new things not present in the original release of it (mainly offline playable versions of some of the online missions and has the GBA-link downloadable extra games on disk now all playable offline). Released along the same year as Blue Burst.
@@solblackguy yeah I've got a list of issues with NGS. Starting with the story making me want to play with a fork and a socket, just so I can feel something about the game.
Isao Okawa was an absolute legend and doesn't get the attention he deserves. He gave everything to keep Sega going because he wanted the world to be a happier place! RIP
One of the few "Death of a Game" i would not even call a death, an Honorable Passing / still Alive Legacy since so much of it still exists in its original form and in the form of new games still being made to this day
@@Dewclaw7787 More than going! There were 187 people on Ephinea last weekend. Usually somewhere between 40-50 on at any given time of day, which I notice since I usually play around 3AM. And that's just one of a number of private servers. PSO is surprisingly spry for a dead game.
@@GELTONZ Yeah. I actually have a Wii, modded to be able to do Gamecube games online. It still plays Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2 Plus on the private servers. Always nice when it is one of the famous rare games rescued by fans. So unlike what this video states. PSO never died completely for Consoles. It lives on with Gamecube copies of the game (Dreamcast v2) and PC. (Including those who are running it with the Wii in Gamecube mode). The only console release that I believe lost all online was Xbox, due to its reliance on the old original Xbox Live service to connect. Tying the hunters license to the old defunct service.
I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this game's history on Dreamcast, Gamecube, and PC. It was my first online game and my god the memories and nostalgia. The text bubble conversations, the hunt parties for rares, gasps when a red box dropped, grinding TTF for exp, hours wasted in the lobby in those glowing chairs, etc. That kind of happy farewell and musical fanfare when you beat Dark Falz and the party disbanded. That song that plays after you get the character victory pose screen after beating episode 1 still gives me chills. I'll always cherish this game and the memories it created. I'm glad more people are recognizing what a treasure it was.
I was fixing to say, "how is this a DOTG" Then I realized it was more of a recounting of how revolutionary this beautiful game ended up becoming. I'm a bit sad that PSO2 has so much lag issues, hopefully they will fix it up a bit more because I love the series as a whole.
@@aorimiku It's true. I know NS may not cover this since it's not super in his ballpark but I'm willing to elaborate what you're talking about. NGS has taken many steps to simplify many of the bloated systems that was featured and added onto in PSO2. Gameplay: NGS has taken a lot of steps to make the gameplay more dynamic. Enemies react to your hits, the movement is a lot more structured thanks to the universal movement glide mechanic. However, they simplified and took away many moves from the base classes. In normal PSO2 many classes did have extraneous and useless moves in the skill-trees, but they removed some of the nuance which can make some classes a no-brainer. Which leads onto another problem Grind: The grind in PSO2 was pretty bad in Japan. It was practically removed in most of the NA release save for the controversial augment system which wasn't very intuitive at all. It was good that they got rid of the old augment system, but the new system is too dull. Or, rather, the new system is running around one area killing monsters. This is a measure of a lack of content, mostly, as you don't really have much to do and what you're gunning for is basically just stat boosts. There's no tricky/interesting augments really. F2P: This is just a flat-out worse product in that regard. They severely limited the player market by requiring a sub to sell items, which means cosmetics (which is 70% of the game tbh) is inflated and makes buying cosmetics a lot harder. The worst part about NGS though, is just the striking lack of content there is at the moment. The open world is too small, not much in it, little things to do with your friends (no rooms or guild halls) and just a lack to mess around with. It's disappointing, since as a base it does feel better to play.
@@aorimiku yeah PSO2.5. The release just felt very empty with a super low level/content cap, massive latency issues (NA), and a world that feels more closely aligned to an MMO than its predecessor PSO2. Hopefully I can come back in the future but as it stands currently I'm not super eager to throw another several hundreds of hours into a game that (at the time of release) had at most 20 hours to offer excluding all the time spent grinding already dead mobs that had not updated client side.
@@aorimiku Here to back you up. Played PSO2 for thousands of hours, both on JP and on the global release via steam. Didn't play NGS for much more than 10. It's exceedingly shallow and poorly made, and decided to time lock grinds and force players to be active instead of just logging on for EQs? I wouldn't despise NGS as much as I do if they at least didn't hamper the actual PSO2 experience in the process. But they just keep making stupid decision after stupid decision. Can't even play with half of my old friends because they can't go through the entire NGS tutorial, which is now mandatory to play PSO2 for some reason.
They already fixed lag problem on both network and gameplay. The only problem about NGS is extreme lack of content + pay2win shift from base PSO2, especially due to removal of free shop pass.
One of the things that makes PSO unprecedented, even to this day, is the fact that, even after the servers went down, people were able to maintain their data and their characters within the offline mode (with the exception of Blue Burst, which was online only). What this means is that, not only were players able to keep the experience alive offline with their friends, but years later when they would discover private servers, they could bring those same characters back into the online experience like nothing had ever changed. This is practically nonexistent elsewhere in the online gaming landscape. I was a HUGE fan of PSU when it came out and sunk over 1000 hours into the game. But when those servers ended, all of our character data went along with it, and there was no way to go back and relive those memories like there was with PSO. It was that experience that pretty much soured me on any online RPG experience ever again because, to me, part of the joy of games is being able to come back and relive the fond memories. I realize that nowadays PSU has its own budding private server community, but having to start all over from scratch in a game that already requires hundreds of hours of investment just is not the same as being able to retain your characters on a memory card. I realize why this is the case. The connectivity between offline and online opens up the door for rampant hacking and abuse. And for any game that aims to have a monetization method, that is a huge no-no. But because PSO existed in that unique time and space and didn't adhere to the online RPG norms we have today, it resulted in being something truly special and one of a kind. The fact that I can boot up the game and use the same characters, with the same gear, with the same friends I played with twenty years ago is just magical. No other game captures that feeling.
What Isokawa did is just astounding. That dedication and commitment to an idea is admirable, and the fact he sacrificed his own wealth to keep that dream going is amazing. Makes me have much more appreciation for a company that was such a benchmark in video game history. Amazing.
Oddly enough this coming out a time where people are questioning the staying power of PSO2:NGS. Otherwise, PSO was a victim of its own success in a way, but its legacy lives on.
I'm holding them to their promise of huge content updates each 6 months. If it's what they claim. I'll see what they have. I still got friends to chill with on there regardless.
@@Knuspermonster The issue with NGS is quite literally them having the same guy who nearly Killed PSO2 during it's peak in JP in Episode 5 running and directing NGS... aka SEGA making it's same mistakes it always does that nearly kill off their success.
@@rakeril7866 where are you from my friend, usa??? Sega dreamcast can still be found for 50 dollars and under used here where im at, that could be a cheap way in for you to play again
Gosh. Being a little teen back in the 2000s, sneaking on my GameCube dialup at 1am, playing online with my first internet friends. Every time I hear about PSO I tear up. I always wonder where those friends are today. If they are still alive 20+ years later. Sheesh. I feel so old now. Thanks for the nostalgia trip. This game is the one that got me into RPGs and co-op games, and influenced my life for all time.
I distinctly remember my older brother playing this when I was little, and being fascinated by it. I thought it was a fever dream, til I rediscovered it.
Damn. Just came across this. Almost teared up a bit. I miss those days. I was a clueless kid who bought the game based on the cover/back before i even had a dreamcast. F'in brings me back man.
Love the video! Quick correction: 10:40 Cast are unable to use techniques therefore cannot be a Force class. They made up for this in their ability to use traps, having natural immunity to some poisons/debuffs and higher base physical stats.
its so dumb how they made casts use magic and anyone can just do anything in the new ones. it had more of a lore to it when the world has rules.. like even how the weak human magic female had horrible attack power buyt amazing healing, that made sense. kinda dumb seeing a little girl having huge atp with a massive sword
Great send-off! By far one of my favorite games. I will say that a good portion of the PSO downfall could be attributed to the constant hacks from bromop (MOP for short). Lobby crashes, inventory hacks, and item trade thefts pushed a lot of people away in the franchise. They found ways to make player’s lives miserable with every online PS game in the franchise (PSO/PSU being the worst). I remember the lobby getting quieter and quieter as people would get fed up with these constant hacks as they would persist over months of time with Sega showing no signs of fixing it (at least not until DC PSO was down, putting an “anti-hack” agent on BB). Anyways, I just wanted that to be known, since it was certainly a contributing factor. You can find a wealth of information on the topic online if you want to know more.
If current PSO2 NGS Players would see this video, I think it would spread more appreciation and positivity towards the community. Literally almost shed a tear hearing about all this despite my first entry to this franchise being PSO2 NGS. It's great to know the history of this franchise even if I spent most of my life on PC games compared to consoles. What a beautiful video. Thanks for this!
I started with NGS this summer. Knew about PSO as a title and nothing more for a awhile. When I mostly ran out of anything to do I started playing base PSO2. As I go further back in history and talk to friends who've played PSU and the first ever PSO I more and more understand of what a big thing it was and now it's never going to be the same.
I remember playing blue burst on a private server years before PSO2 came to the west I play the hell out of NGS now but I always wished I couldve been born sooner to play the OG PSO
@@MajoraKamen64 NGS can be summed up in these 5 terms: Grind Heavy as hell Wild as fuck insensitive community Content Drought Sinking Ship Battle Power/Combat Power wall Yeah, it has that very insulting acronym for a reason.
It's nice to see a happier ending for a game, when a lot of others seem to implode or crash and burn, this seems to have done its job and pass on the hat to others it helped bring along
Such an amazingly impactful experience on my life. I still have my gamecube memory card with my characters and play every now and then when I see my neighbor that I played with when growing up. Some of the best coop gaming I've ever had.
I played this game for years and have stuck with the entire sub-series (including Universe) ever since. Heck, I’m listening to this DOAG while farming in New Genesis.
Can confirm how AMAZING this was back on the Dreamcast! Got by with the basic chat for the longest time but eventually invested in a used DC keyboard. The investment was warranted by the amount of hours I put in to the game. It also helped out in the high level runs with geared groups rampaging missions. Thanks for the flashback, cheers!
Not to mention Typing of the Dead was the most fun keyboard game ever! Those keyboards were only $20 if I remember correctly. I got super fast at typing because of those games!
1:57 Sega had previously released a multiplayer online RPG on the Saturn, "Dragon’s Dream" (1997). It even got a Windows version a year later, allowing for cross-platform online play for about a year before the servers were shut down. And "Rune Jade" from Hudson was an online hack & slash on the Dreamcast that preceded "Phantasy Star Online" by a few months.
One of those games that wasn't really "murdered" but more of a game that lived properly and died of natural causes. The clock is ticking for NGS though. PS: Casts are still cool.
I remember installing a modem on my broadband router so my Dreamcast could "dial-up" the internet over a short rj-11 cord. I also upgraded the dreamcast video output to a monitor so I could play at 480p. It never looked as good until it released on PC many years later. What was great was you could choose to play on Japanese servers if you wanted to. An incredible experience.
What ? Je m attendais pas du tout à ce que tu pop sur une vidéo PSO. PSO est génial et j ai investi des milliers d'heures dedans, est ce que tu étais sur les forums de blue-rappy ou psoworld à l époque ? Raa nostalgie (secrètement j espère aussi qu'une suite aux RPG solo de fasse mais pas sur que les gens connaissent)
Je suis toujours déchiré entre mon envie de jouer à WoW, SWG et PSO sur les pservers. Je crois que PSO recommence à reprendre le dessus ces derniers jours. Je devrais peut être repartir à neuf sur Ephinea bientôt. :)
Ah, the nostalgia... I was never able to play this online due to living in the sticks where we barely had dial-up, but even offline single player, this was a blast. I've waded into the private servers a little, and it's still a delight these many years later.
It's heartbreaking. Especially when you look at the state of PSO2 NGS. The franchise could be as big as final fantasy in my opinion but when you look at NGS you see how SEGA doesn't respect it.
They lost the original lead developer and producer. In fact I think the previous art director is running the franchise now. But don't quote me on that I'm on my phone.
@@nerdSlayerstudioss I think you're right. Your video hit the nail on the head with how legendary and influential PSO is. Its so hard to see how the franchise went from legendary into twitching and barely alive. I can't wait to see the sequel video on PSO2 and NGS.
@@jimjones9631 I mean PSO 2 had a good run in Japan at least. I had some fun with it before NGS but it had some real bummer issues in how it sells basic features that leave a sour taste in your mouth. I still need to at least try NGS though.
@@Dewclaw7787 PSO2 ending up being one of the best f2p mmos before ngs came out. They butchered the franchise man. NGS is not worth your time. It's been out for 4-5months and the level cap is still 20.
One of the greatest games ever made. Also the game that made me want to litterally die when it corrupted my memory card on GC after playing over 1350 hours over 3 characters.
You had to delete your guild file, then you would be able to open your save. Was a semi-common thing on GC. I have about 5,000 hours on the game in various platforms and characters.
"... and Yuji Naka who left the company after the failed launch of PSU in 2006." Ah yes, I'm sure no other games developed around that time had anything to do with that...
I remember picking this up for the gamecube and it was so much fun playing splitscreen with my cousins and friends. might have been our first "mmo"like experience
Also on sylverant you can see gamecube and blue burst users in the lobby and dreamcast v2 users can play with the non blue burst pc port as it's very similar to dc version
only found the spaceship....Olga(during elevator) osts decent XD.....both intro...and ep 2 ending ost too...with that said....each ost had fitting theme for each areas so at least got that redeeming side
I didnt have access to the online segments of the game, but i have hundreds of hours logged in the offline splitscreen. Staying up late with friends trying push into the VH to ultimately get to ultimate. Fond memories.
Me reading the video title: “Don’t you dare say anything bad about this gem of a game!” Me after watching the video: “oh thank god, I got worried for a second… thought we were gonna talk bad about PSO for a second.”
Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2 is by far my favorite video game of all time. The joy that I still reminisce about when playing this game with friends and family, nothing else compares to it for me personally. It’s one of my fondest memories and simultaneously one of the most bittersweet ones as well, since we’ve all grown up now and gone our separate ways. But this gem still sees play from time to time, just to take in the nostalgia and feels lol. 10/10 Masterpiece
“Sonic team could do no wrong” US DC PSO 1 players know this is wrong lol. JP players got so many quests and items we never got access to in the US. I’m also surprised the mass “hacking” that took place with gamesharks and code breakers wasn’t mentioned. That pushed a toooon of people off the game too. Also, Casts couldn’t be Forces. ;P
@@Damienx247 I wasn’t talking about those particular hacks. I was specifically talking about the ones people could use that would corrupt other peoples characters, or the ones that could be used to mod weapons that they’d then pass off to other people that could also corrupt saves on the vmu/memory card.
@@ProfiteerProphet I made a FOmarl named LON (after the Lord of Nightmares from Slayers) and was wondering why I had such a hard time getting teams when the NOL hack was just getting big. XD
This series is pretty much the reason I became a gamer and purchased multiple other consoles, even built my first pc for it. All after playing it originally on the DreamCast. The memories and friendships I have made and still have to this day because of PSO is just really crazy to think about what a franchise can do. Thank you for tickling the nostalgia scratch for sure.
Naoto Ohshima was Sonic's character designer. Satoshi Sakai was a monster designer and animator on Panzer Dragoon Saga, and his work on that game helped PSO to have character customisation as well as some great monsters. But he was still pretty new to Sega and the games industry. (small edit, meant to say PSO rather than PSO2)
@@nerdSlayerstudioss I don't think viewers can post links? But besides the credits of Sonic and Panzer Dragoon Saga, there's a Wikipedia page on Naoto Ohshima. And Satoshi Sakai's role in Panzer Dragoon Saga and Phantasy Star Online is detailed in interviews that Polygon did for the 20th anniversary of these games in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
This game is still very much alive. I still play it to this day on one of the many free servers. They even add small bits of content and extend the core functionality to make it more accessible to todays audience.
This is literally my FAVORITE game of all time, so seeing anything that gives it more exposure nowadays is a must-watch! I have so many memories with this game, and the reason I love it so much is primarily nostalgia, as I grew up watching or playing it.
The music gives me goosebumps everytime, such an amazing game. Hours upon hours spent split-screening this game with my brothers on GC, spent hours farming rare monsters with telepipe glitches, wiped a few saves trying to duplicate rare items through glitches too lmaoo, just to do it all over again man what a awesome time it was
I was born a few months before PSO v1 released, and only recently picked up the game on GameCube 2019 after enjoying PSO2 and finding a complete Xbox copy at a store. Sure, I had the BB PC release, but playing on a console just sounded amazing to me. A trip to Ebay and 2 weeks later, I got a GC copy and went online for the first time. I still remember my first time online, just got my first job interview, it was a success, and I got online once I got home and setup Devolution on my Wii. Met 2 people dancing in lobby, joined voice chat, complained about them letting my die and not giving me buffs, and got some small rare items. I continued offline, learnt the lore, got better equipment, ran Challenge Mode which solidified my main as a HUcaseal, fell in love with the endgame combat, the unique GC quests, the hunt for rares, and the amazing community. After 2 years, PSO has become my favorite game of all time. Unlike others, I can always go back to the game and never get bored everytime, take a break and come back, nothing is lost, no power creep, all my items are as good as ever. I love PSO, and I hope it stays online for as long as it can.
This game just drags me back everytime. Even without online functions I keep coming back to it, sometimes with older chars, sometimes just starting completely anew. Now I've been playing on Ephinea for around 1 year and a half, and I'll likely be a regular for years to come. That server not only rekindled my nostalgia but also my passion in this game.
No one every really talks about the Phantasy Star Universe series-Phantasy Star Universe, Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus, Phantasy Star Portable, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity. PSU takes a lot of influences from Phantasy Star Online, and later influenced nearly all of the updated mechanics and style of Phantasy Star Online 2.
To me the PSU had à weak protagonsit in ethan Weber whose hair cut and style didn't cut it for me. Also the dialogues in the CG were too long, when you launch the game offline you took much to long to really play the game. In my country where you didn't have cheap internet back then, offline mode was what I played the most and PSU Wasn't à fun experience. PSO was fun from the get go.
Thanks to the madlads at gametemps, PSP2i is fully translated, and i'm getting in all my nostalgia from the emulation of that game, instead of the foolishness that is the microsoft launch of PSO:NG.
I imported PSP2i for my handheld since it's not region locked. Gosh even without translations it's pretty good. Grabbed another copy for my partner and we spent so many hours on it- while reading the translations for the story online. Really great title.
Un-Fun-Fact: The Xbox and GameCube versions were different. GameCube: You could play offline with 4 people on the same console with split screen. Xbox: You could not get past the title screen to the main menu unless you had Xbox live.
PSO: Revolutionary pioneer of online gaming. PSO2:NGS: A wonkily launched online RPG with the best combat and movement in an online multiplayer RPG I've seen and not much else. What happened here?
I honestly miss PSO2 prior to the NGS release. Mainly cause the specs became too much for my PC to run it, but also because the community started to collapse on itself on both the competitive and fashionista sides.
Minor correction: CAST cannot use techniques in PSO, so were not able to play as any class which involves spellcasting. They literally have zero TP at all times, which is the resource needed to cast spells. To make up for it, they regenerate HP over time and can see enemy traps as well as set their own traps. They were also immune to certain statuses. Otherwise, this is a fun little trip down memory lane. I loved this game on Dreamcast and played it online for years. I also bought it for the Gamecube and am probably one of the few to still own the Gamecube broadband adaptor for playing online.
I can't really describe the literally physical reaction my body has from hearing the music from the game. Especially at 12:36.. this really hit hard. I loved this game SO much, and still do.
Thank you so much for covering this. PSO often gets forgotten in the conversation of online games from the early 2000s. Happy more people might discover this beautiful game through your video.
Feb. 21, 2001. Nineteen year old me went to Future Shop and bought a Dreamcast, copy of PSO, mem card and DC keyboard. In the days I had no drivers license and didn't go anywhere. PSO was an avenue for me to socialize. This game was a big part of my early twenties. Used to play on the IGN ship/block Cordellia:9. Lots of fun. Went from Ver. 1 -> Ver. 2 -> Ep. I&II (GC) -> Ep. III -> Blue Burst -> PSU -> and PSO 2. Universe and "2" have their charm. The original series line is where my heart is. I want to install BB, hop on a private server and go back to it all. Some day, but not today.
Fans never left PSO. It was always SEGA pulling the plug. We would still be playing on official servers if they existed. I'm glad unofficial fan servers for Blue Burst still exist (Ephinea) and it can be experienced today by everyone (on PC) I have 5k hours on PSO2 and i still play BB every now and then. Fans never gave up on classic PSO, SEGA did. I hope we won't see NGS here anytime soon.
Yeah... I honestly enjoyed PSU once I finally came around to accepting it as not actually being a sequel to PSO, but PSO2 is even further from what made PSO special in the first place.
@@Takarias PSO2 actually has A LOT of charm. It is so wacky and crazy and all over the place. Each planet you visit shows you that. But then PSO2: New Genesis barely respected the pre-established universe it had and tried making a PSU/Monster Hunter Game while borrowing the name of PSO2. Which is still not that bad but the game itself just has no direction and is obviously an Alpha-Game pretending to be a Full Game.
It’s such a cool game, and one that I think will not be forgotten for a long time, and will never truly die, even long after the fan servers go away some time in the future. The game’s spirit is practically legendary. It changed the face of gaming as we know it.
Same. I actually equate it to a drug. The "high" PSO gave me could not be matched by anything that came after. It was such a mind-blowing experience back in 2001 that I could hardly believe it was even real and I got totally addicted which basically turned me into an insomniac from then on. But it was totally worth it. PSO and the Dreamcast era was the peak of my life as lame as that may sound.
My dad had gotten PSO when it was released a year or two before I was born. By the time I was old enough to understand how to use the Dreamcast, the online function was basically nonexistent. Still I remember being barely 10 yrs old and watching my older brother play through the first forests and how the music sounded. I thought it was one of the most beautiful games in the world. I still have the Dreamcast and still play from time to time, but by now the game is so dated and janky, and tbh I’m not a strong player in most games anyways. It still brings me joy tho, and makes me wish I had been able to experience it as it was meant to be played :)
I think it's a bit too early to say that. besides.. We're in a pandemic. Even though I don't like the direction Sega's been headed in so far with NGS Sega also doesn't have the same development cycle as they usually do. Just wait it out a bit, and eventually the game will be much better, just like how PSO2 was around its launch period. (And it became a great game!)
@@negentropyagent7337 people said the same shit in pso2 episode 5 then episode 6 happened with a new director and it was a complete reversal. For some reason they brought back the episode 5 director for ngs year 1, we can only hope the bring the episode 6 director back for year 2.
@@vegitohaze2081 The game needs a solid 1-2 years to be something you can play, if they put in content, that is... If all they do is more scratches and idiotic time capped content, and new classes, the game will die for sure, they literally make all the free2play players to quit ,because this game literally hates f2p players in every way possible, and without those players, after some time the wales will quit the game to, so it's not entirely bullshit when they say, the game will die, because so far all they did and even the roadmap is showing a slow death, even with the december update, the game still will be an empty shell. So until i don't see any changes on the direction, i just log in and out after i do the daily things, and won't put any $ in the game, because it's not worth it
hears burning rangers mentioned in video. has flashbacks of central dome fire swirl. i look back at this game very fondly and remember nearly losing it when the gamecube version was nearing release. i still have the dreamcast keyboard and gamecube ascii controller as memento pieces to this day.
I remember having this game way back in the earlier 2000's on my Dreamcast, I had no clue on how to play the game and even on how it worked, I tried several times but I think I was too young to understand it, I was 10 at the time. I had no clue on what online game where, even less on what's a MMO.
Pso is the most memorable game that I played the least of. I dont remember how I was able to play it but I do remember playing very small snippets of the game and it really opened my eyes to what gaming could be at the time
Thank you for this video! GC PSO made up a huge part of my high school years and is still a fond time I bring up with my best friend. This game deserves more love and respect than it gets.
to a booma ?........my first death was on vol opt i think back as a noob :S or maybe garanz....too long ago......never died to a booma once tough XD(the worse they managed was on ultimate(stun lock for age b4 i could kill them)....never again did i let them surround me XD screw stun lock lol
@@bllllood The private servers are usually online only, so the difficulty is way higher. Dropping down to Forest with a fresh LVL 1 you can absolutely lose pretty quick.
@@AlexAshpool pso-world show 106 atp for online and 80 atp for offline.....dont think it make much of a difference in term of survival..their hp got a drastic increase though.....well unless they can kill in 1 hit online i dont think should be dying to them on normal where their attack speed is super low......unless those priv serv modified the parameters much highter than shown on pso-world for online
Yeah happened to me too. When making a room choose Single Mode as it makes the enemies MUCH easier. Also, if you can't kill it in a single combo, drop the combo after two hits and you can run away and evade an attack.
@@bllllood The private servers aren't necessarily using vanilla values for Blue Burst. All I'm saying is I don't think this guy died to a single player Ep 1 type Booma.
As a Sonic big fan, Phantasy Star Online series was also became my favorite SEGA game even despite of not growing up with it before, yet even heard the fact where Sonic developer was also behind this Online gem as well along with the game called Burning Ranger. In my experience with PSO history, I been played Phantasy Star Online 2, the budget sequel to the original PSO, and I put ton and ton of hours on it than any other games I own before I could ever pick up the original game afterward, and it was very fun yet super straight forward experience on how the Multiplayer online game work in general. While unfortunately, it was also struggle for SEGA and Sonic Team wanted to make an online game out of console over the computer game such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, then afterward the outcome was truthfully beyond the successful, but not for long with all the servers ceasing. CAST was one of my favorite character race of all time, and they are very cool mecha robot humanoid. Which to me was also reason why I did grew up with all the Gundam and Transformer back in my 10 years old day along with the Sentai Super Hero stuffs. Hunter was my favorite class in all of PSO series, and even tho I'm still being a Hunter main up until the New Genesis release of Phantasy Star Online 2, and I'm still playing Hunter class till this day. The boss fight in PSO however was very nuisance especially on the endgame part, which unlike PSO2 and PSU series where the movement base existed, the game itself was generally lack jumping and dodging, and therefore it will be impossible to make a life easier on trying to defend yourself with evasive option. Overall, PSO was like the partly Runescape like but in 3D and very engageable than the good ol MOBA online games. Phantasy Star Online was factually became the super important online game than just being the best of all time. If you been played so much MMO games or you just also been grew up with Sonic like I did, then PSO was more than just highly recommended game to giving a shot on both experience and the concepting on multiplayer online video game in general at the same time.
This video has caught the attention of a lot of Phantasy Star Online players from back in the day. I've gotten quite a few messages from people that watched it and recognized my character in some of the footage. Especially the footage from my Level 200 party. I consider it "Fair Use" and I have no objections to my appearance. I think it's really cool that I cameo in this!
Make no mistake Cran, you are a bit of a celebrity when it comes to western PSO players, at least to those who were around in the earlier days. Can't remember for sure, but weren't you a GM on Schthack? Though as I check your footage you seem to have been more of a PSOGC person. That 1vs1 punchout against the Mericarol was ace :D
PSO is one of the most influential games I've ever played. I spent hundreds of hours on the Xbox and PC versions and hundreds more on the sequels. This was an excellent video as always. Great work!
I never played the online portion of PSO before it got shut down, but this game is still one of my favorites of all time. I'll always hold the memories of playing this co-op splitscreen with my younger brother for hours on end. And I'll always be grateful to my friend for introducing me to the series, it really stood out to me when I was a kid and truly felt like something that was unique from other games that were available at the time. The Gamecube version is the one I played on and might be my most played game on the console. Grinding through the various maps, searching drop tables online, and feeding MAGs in 10 minute intervals while watching TV inbetween all stood out to my younger self. It's amazing to hear how much this game inspired, I had always thought it was a small success for SEGA and unknown to many. Thanks for the great video, the history of the game in interesting for sure!
Hearing a friend's older brother talk about playing this online when that capability first opened up was the first time I'd ever heard of someone I'd met play a console game online. Later on a group of friends and I played the crap out of this on GameCube. Also, the description of this video ("we're dealing with a very old game") makes me realize how long ago this was. I still consider "very old" to mean NES or earlier. I've been meaning to replay the original Phantasy Star on Sega as well actually.
i never played this game in any official capacity, only on private servers, it just has this simplistic charm on the surface that makes me keep playing. Even bought copies of the dreamcast version from japan.
I actually really like this format. There's a lot of games that no one has explored. This is probably the most refreshing I've ever taken in stories of mmo and company history in general
@@angelganon8213 I've been watching him for years. He's never made a video that was sort of a look into history like this. We've been looking how a game failed. But never how a game strived
This game was such a massively influential part of my childhood and I never got to play online, just the glory days of couch multiplayer with the boys and my brothers growing up. As someone who's just now getting into phantasy star universe it's depressing to see the lack of videos, footage, or even info on these particular Installments. Thank you for making unquestionably the best video on one of my most cherished childhood games. These kinds of games need more love
This game is probably my most fond memory from the early 2000’s. I had just gotten out of the military and was having a tough time adjusting. This game was my anchor. My sister and I would get home and play all night. We were both force’s and after that he beginning stages we were unstoppable. Great times.
This was really an interesting watch, loved the presentation, thank you for giving me insight into PSO, I never played it, I only played PSO2 and NGS, but everything about sounds fantastic. A legendary franchise
PSO was one of the most impactful games in my life. Ill never forget forcing my parents to get a second phone line because I kept playing this game with friends and making it impossible for anyone to call the house. Playing until 3 in the morning. I only found as much fun in an online game with the first Destiny title. But I couldn't get into any other online games.
This brought back a lot of memories and honestly? I miss this game a lot. It meant so much to me as a kid. I've tried playing it again, but I've had trouble getting back into it for some reason maybe I'm just spoiled. I remember hunting for rare item drops back in the day, doing event quests, and trying my best to find the rarest items. I think I had a ranger on gamecube. It was all going well until I ran into a guy named "Optimus Prime" and he crashed my game. Corrupting my data. A point I'm surprised you didn't make because it was really easy to do that at least in the GC version.
Similarly FF11 was my first MMO. I have a lot of fond memories and the soundtracks. But perhaps it’s no surprise I eventually moved on to FF14 after trying various other MMOs.
This was a great and uplifting video. That said, I wish when its successors were brought up that Phantasy Star Zero for the Nintendo DS got a mention, just for being the successor that felt most similar to the original. Sadly design issues and the restrictive online gameplay of the DS ultimately meant it could never be as good. But it still has a place in my heart for being where I got into the series, and it makes me wish there would be another attempt at returning to that classic style.
I enjoyed PS Zero a lot. It did have to be simplified, but it still felt like there was a lot to do and see, so the makers made good decisions on what the most important elements to keep were. Also, using Pictochat within the game was fun!
Holy shit thank you for this video, ive been saying for years PSO doesn't get the love or attention it deserves. Lotta people don't realize how heavy of an influence it had on games and not only that, maaaaany Japanese media/Anime/Art had taken a lot of inspiration from PSO. Truly a one of a kind masterpiece, we can only hope that we can get a game in the future that recaptures its magic.
Phantasy Star Online is officially dead, but there is still a passionate fan community that has private servers up. I adored this game as a kid. If I’m honest it doesn’t quite hold up today, but it’s still a nostalgia trip.
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But pso2 isn't dead I hope ur talking about the older games (I think u are talking about the older games..... I hope oh u are imma be honest the title of this video in my recommeded scared me thank goodness it wasn't what I thought)
i just hit teen age when i frst saw it from my father's friend's son playing it on the cube its was a joy to watch for my little mind back than, and i would not say pso2 is "dead" along with its ngs counterpart but its not quite what it once was compare to the older games
Take note, the Gamecube versions of the game live on with many of the same servers as PC's Blue Burst. (And oddly Dreamcast v2 has a server or two). Additionally Episode 1 & 2 Plus was another GC release that added in quite a few new things not present in the original release of it (mainly offline playable versions of some of the online missions and has the GBA-link downloadable extra games on disk now all playable offline). Released along the same year as Blue Burst.
The video is literally called Phantasy Star Online. Not Phantasy Star Online 2.
@@nerdSlayerstudioss yeah I should have known sooner tbh
This "Death of a Game" is less an autopsy of a victim, and more a eulogy of a dear friend.
Man, I had forgotten how much I loved PSO back in the day.
I still play it on a gamecube !
Losing your favorite weapons to the second boss was such a rite of passage.
Pso 2 exist
@@solblackguy yeah I've got a list of issues with NGS. Starting with the story making me want to play with a fork and a socket, just so I can feel something about the game.
There are still servers around
Isao Okawa was an absolute legend and doesn't get the attention he deserves. He gave everything to keep Sega going because he wanted the world to be a happier place! RIP
One of the few "Death of a Game" i would not even call a death, an Honorable Passing / still Alive Legacy since so much of it still exists in its original form and in the form of new games still being made to this day
Should've been called "Life of a Game"
Think the private server is going at least.
@@Dewclaw7787 More than going! There were 187 people on Ephinea last weekend. Usually somewhere between 40-50 on at any given time of day, which I notice since I usually play around 3AM. And that's just one of a number of private servers.
PSO is surprisingly spry for a dead game.
@@GELTONZ Yeah. I actually have a Wii, modded to be able to do Gamecube games online. It still plays Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2 Plus on the private servers. Always nice when it is one of the famous rare games rescued by fans. So unlike what this video states. PSO never died completely for Consoles. It lives on with Gamecube copies of the game (Dreamcast v2) and PC. (Including those who are running it with the Wii in Gamecube mode). The only console release that I believe lost all online was Xbox, due to its reliance on the old original Xbox Live service to connect. Tying the hunters license to the old defunct service.
New genesis is awful tho, it is nowhere near the original PSO.
It is nice to see a game on the channel, that has peacefully died of old age.
If only there wasn't a pso2...
It's not technically dead there's still people playing on private servers
I rather liked the Sequel and the PSO2: New Genesis
@@realdomdom too bad it's shit. Nah it's alright. But pso had that atmosphere, and that vibe you know.
Peacefully died due to age my ass. Check out clementine
I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this game's history on Dreamcast, Gamecube, and PC. It was my first online game and my god the memories and nostalgia. The text bubble conversations, the hunt parties for rares, gasps when a red box dropped, grinding TTF for exp, hours wasted in the lobby in those glowing chairs, etc. That kind of happy farewell and musical fanfare when you beat Dark Falz and the party disbanded. That song that plays after you get the character victory pose screen after beating episode 1 still gives me chills. I'll always cherish this game and the memories it created. I'm glad more people are recognizing what a treasure it was.
I was fixing to say, "how is this a DOTG"
Then I realized it was more of a recounting of how revolutionary this beautiful game ended up becoming. I'm a bit sad that PSO2 has so much lag issues, hopefully they will fix it up a bit more because I love the series as a whole.
I won't say it's always perfect, but they've got most of the lag ironed out. Nothing like the first 2 days anymore. At least for me anyways.
@@aorimiku It's true. I know NS may not cover this since it's not super in his ballpark but I'm willing to elaborate what you're talking about.
NGS has taken many steps to simplify many of the bloated systems that was featured and added onto in PSO2.
Gameplay: NGS has taken a lot of steps to make the gameplay more dynamic. Enemies react to your hits, the movement is a lot more structured thanks to the universal movement glide mechanic. However, they simplified and took away many moves from the base classes. In normal PSO2 many classes did have extraneous and useless moves in the skill-trees, but they removed some of the nuance which can make some classes a no-brainer. Which leads onto another problem
Grind: The grind in PSO2 was pretty bad in Japan. It was practically removed in most of the NA release save for the controversial augment system which wasn't very intuitive at all. It was good that they got rid of the old augment system, but the new system is too dull. Or, rather, the new system is running around one area killing monsters. This is a measure of a lack of content, mostly, as you don't really have much to do and what you're gunning for is basically just stat boosts. There's no tricky/interesting augments really.
F2P: This is just a flat-out worse product in that regard. They severely limited the player market by requiring a sub to sell items, which means cosmetics (which is 70% of the game tbh) is inflated and makes buying cosmetics a lot harder.
The worst part about NGS though, is just the striking lack of content there is at the moment. The open world is too small, not much in it, little things to do with your friends (no rooms or guild halls) and just a lack to mess around with. It's disappointing, since as a base it does feel better to play.
@@aorimiku yeah PSO2.5. The release just felt very empty with a super low level/content cap, massive latency issues (NA), and a world that feels more closely aligned to an MMO than its predecessor PSO2. Hopefully I can come back in the future but as it stands currently I'm not super eager to throw another several hundreds of hours into a game that (at the time of release) had at most 20 hours to offer excluding all the time spent grinding already dead mobs that had not updated client side.
@@aorimiku Here to back you up. Played PSO2 for thousands of hours, both on JP and on the global release via steam. Didn't play NGS for much more than 10. It's exceedingly shallow and poorly made, and decided to time lock grinds and force players to be active instead of just logging on for EQs?
I wouldn't despise NGS as much as I do if they at least didn't hamper the actual PSO2 experience in the process. But they just keep making stupid decision after stupid decision. Can't even play with half of my old friends because they can't go through the entire NGS tutorial, which is now mandatory to play PSO2 for some reason.
They already fixed lag problem on both network and gameplay. The only problem about NGS is extreme lack of content + pay2win shift from base PSO2, especially due to removal of free shop pass.
One of the things that makes PSO unprecedented, even to this day, is the fact that, even after the servers went down, people were able to maintain their data and their characters within the offline mode (with the exception of Blue Burst, which was online only). What this means is that, not only were players able to keep the experience alive offline with their friends, but years later when they would discover private servers, they could bring those same characters back into the online experience like nothing had ever changed.
This is practically nonexistent elsewhere in the online gaming landscape. I was a HUGE fan of PSU when it came out and sunk over 1000 hours into the game. But when those servers ended, all of our character data went along with it, and there was no way to go back and relive those memories like there was with PSO. It was that experience that pretty much soured me on any online RPG experience ever again because, to me, part of the joy of games is being able to come back and relive the fond memories. I realize that nowadays PSU has its own budding private server community, but having to start all over from scratch in a game that already requires hundreds of hours of investment just is not the same as being able to retain your characters on a memory card.
I realize why this is the case. The connectivity between offline and online opens up the door for rampant hacking and abuse. And for any game that aims to have a monetization method, that is a huge no-no. But because PSO existed in that unique time and space and didn't adhere to the online RPG norms we have today, it resulted in being something truly special and one of a kind. The fact that I can boot up the game and use the same characters, with the same gear, with the same friends I played with twenty years ago is just magical. No other game captures that feeling.
Sometimes we detectives are called to a scene to find that this individual died of natural causes and after a long and fulfilled life.
What Isokawa did is just astounding. That dedication and commitment to an idea is admirable, and the fact he sacrificed his own wealth to keep that dream going is amazing. Makes me have much more appreciation for a company that was such a benchmark in video game history. Amazing.
Oddly enough this coming out a time where people are questioning the staying power of PSO2:NGS.
Otherwise, PSO was a victim of its own success in a way, but its legacy lives on.
Yea i play NGS and they rly need to add more content since.....there isnt rly so much to do......
I'm holding them to their promise of huge content updates each 6 months. If it's what they claim. I'll see what they have. I still got friends to chill with on there regardless.
@@Tsukiru yeah. Hiro(the showcase guy. NOT the director, says it on an interview
For me, zero, the game is like playing a big demo.
@@Knuspermonster The issue with NGS is quite literally them having the same guy who nearly Killed PSO2 during it's peak in JP in Episode 5 running and directing NGS... aka SEGA making it's same mistakes it always does that nearly kill off their success.
Got a new player into PSO this very year and we put a good 20 hours or so in so far. Best online community ever.
still play on private servers once in a blue moon, thank you for making this, this game was my childhood.
You mean once in a blue burst? Tehe
I feel like I should say you are extremely lucky to be able to. I'm jealous.
@@rakeril7866 how come you can’t? Im genuinely curious, i want you to play this game too
@@AJ-ed7mx No console for it and looking through on my switch, nothing comes up. Only have a ps4 and phone. Switch is my wife's.
@@rakeril7866 where are you from my friend, usa??? Sega dreamcast can still be found for 50 dollars and under used here where im at, that could be a cheap way in for you to play again
Gosh.
Being a little teen back in the 2000s, sneaking on my GameCube dialup at 1am, playing online with my first internet friends. Every time I hear about PSO I tear up. I always wonder where those friends are today. If they are still alive 20+ years later. Sheesh. I feel so old now. Thanks for the nostalgia trip. This game is the one that got me into RPGs and co-op games, and influenced my life for all time.
I distinctly remember my older brother playing this when I was little, and being fascinated by it. I thought it was a fever dream, til I rediscovered it.
Damn. Just came across this. Almost teared up a bit. I miss those days. I was a clueless kid who bought the game based on the cover/back before i even had a dreamcast.
F'in brings me back man.
I am a V1 oldschool guy... how to forget that game..
if you play on PC check out the Ephinea PSOBB private server. A lot of players and you can still enjoy the good ol days
16:45 “Sonic Team can’t do any wrong”. Oh, how I yearn for those days, when the Sonic Team logo was a seal of quality.
This ^
Love the video! Quick correction: 10:40 Cast are unable to use techniques therefore cannot be a Force class. They made up for this in their ability to use traps, having natural immunity to some poisons/debuffs and higher base physical stats.
In the sequel CASTs can use techniques, but only certain classes. But you are right otherwise.
@@striker0 To be fair iirc everyone had to have a tech class to cast techs
@@koenwebb4157 Not in PSO. Even the non-tech classes could cast techniques, just not past a certain level. It was the CASTS that were unable to.
its so dumb how they made casts use magic and anyone can just do anything in the new ones. it had more of a lore to it when the world has rules.. like even how the weak human magic female had horrible attack power buyt amazing healing, that made sense. kinda dumb seeing a little girl having huge atp with a massive sword
However they are incredibly OP when they get those daggers that casts Shifta/Deband randomly.
We are reaching nostalgia levels previously unknown. Rip in peace my level 200s. You served my high school life well.
go back torture yourself and lvl 3 lvl 200 to manage to find 1 of each lvl 30 tech disks XD
I remember I really wanted PSO as a child, but don’t remember why I never I got it.
Rest in peace in peace
@@mikoto7693 bro you could still get it the servers are still online the developers even have a discord server for phantasy star online fans
Same 2001 - 2004
Great send-off! By far one of my favorite games. I will say that a good portion of the PSO downfall could be attributed to the constant hacks from bromop (MOP for short). Lobby crashes, inventory hacks, and item trade thefts pushed a lot of people away in the franchise. They found ways to make player’s lives miserable with every online PS game in the franchise (PSO/PSU being the worst). I remember the lobby getting quieter and quieter as people would get fed up with these constant hacks as they would persist over months of time with Sega showing no signs of fixing it (at least not until DC PSO was down, putting an “anti-hack” agent on BB). Anyways, I just wanted that to be known, since it was certainly a contributing factor. You can find a wealth of information on the topic online if you want to know more.
Yeah I used to constantly lose my save file on the Gamecube version due to hackers. Years later I realize I should have backed it up to avoid that.
If current PSO2 NGS Players would see this video, I think it would spread more appreciation and positivity towards the community. Literally almost shed a tear hearing about all this despite my first entry to this franchise being PSO2 NGS. It's great to know the history of this franchise even if I spent most of my life on PC games compared to consoles.
What a beautiful video. Thanks for this!
I started with NGS this summer. Knew about PSO as a title and nothing more for a awhile. When I mostly ran out of anything to do I started playing base PSO2. As I go further back in history and talk to friends who've played PSU and the first ever PSO I more and more understand of what a big thing it was and now it's never going to be the same.
I remember playing blue burst on a private server years before PSO2 came to the west I play the hell out of NGS now but I always wished I couldve been born sooner to play the OG PSO
Trust me, just Uninstall that trash game which is NGS and come join us on Ephinea PSOBB to enjoy the true phantasy star online.
If NGS took anything from pso it should have been the weapons, they are beyond lame rn.
@@MajoraKamen64
NGS can be summed up in these 5 terms:
Grind Heavy as hell
Wild as fuck insensitive community
Content Drought
Sinking Ship
Battle Power/Combat Power wall
Yeah, it has that very insulting acronym for a reason.
This was the first multiplayer online game I ever saw and it absolutely ignited my imagination as a kid.
It's nice to see a happier ending for a game, when a lot of others seem to implode or crash and burn, this seems to have done its job and pass on the hat to others it helped bring along
Such an amazingly impactful experience on my life. I still have my gamecube memory card with my characters and play every now and then when I see my neighbor that I played with when growing up. Some of the best coop gaming I've ever had.
That is pretty cool! I still play mine too, but my brother's whom I used to play with don't want to play anymore.
I played this game for years and have stuck with the entire sub-series (including Universe) ever since.
Heck, I’m listening to this DOAG while farming in New Genesis.
Private servers for both PSO and PSU are out there if you ever want to revisit old memories ❤
@@Seority I did play on Ephinea and Clementine prior to NGS’s release but my schedule hardly lets me play them these days
@@wiltedcypress3940 I feel ya. Glad you know tho ❤
I remember playing this game on a Sega Dreamcast through a free NetZero internet connection. Back when the internet talked before dial-up gaming.
Can confirm how AMAZING this was back on the Dreamcast! Got by with the basic chat for the longest time but eventually invested in a used DC keyboard. The investment was warranted by the amount of hours I put in to the game. It also helped out in the high level runs with geared groups rampaging missions. Thanks for the flashback, cheers!
Not to mention Typing of the Dead was the most fun keyboard game ever! Those keyboards were only $20 if I remember correctly. I got super fast at typing because of those games!
1:57 Sega had previously released a multiplayer online RPG on the Saturn, "Dragon’s Dream" (1997). It even got a Windows version a year later, allowing for cross-platform online play for about a year before the servers were shut down. And "Rune Jade" from Hudson was an online hack & slash on the Dreamcast that preceded "Phantasy Star Online" by a few months.
One of those games that wasn't really "murdered" but more of a game that lived properly and died of natural causes.
The clock is ticking for NGS though.
PS: Casts are still cool.
I remember installing a modem on my broadband router so my Dreamcast could "dial-up" the internet over a short rj-11 cord. I also upgraded the dreamcast video output to a monitor so I could play at 480p. It never looked as good until it released on PC many years later. What was great was you could choose to play on Japanese servers if you wanted to. An incredible experience.
One of my most memorable gamer experience evar ♥
What ?
Je m attendais pas du tout à ce que tu pop sur une vidéo PSO.
PSO est génial et j ai investi des milliers d'heures dedans, est ce que tu étais sur les forums de blue-rappy ou psoworld à l époque ?
Raa nostalgie
(secrètement j espère aussi qu'une suite aux RPG solo de fasse mais pas sur que les gens connaissent)
Same for me !
Je chill un peu sur Ephinea pour la ration de nostalgie mensuelle 😁
I was on PSO World too. Great times.
J'avoue, level 400+ here ahahah
Je suis toujours déchiré entre mon envie de jouer à WoW, SWG et PSO sur les pservers. Je crois que PSO recommence à reprendre le dessus ces derniers jours. Je devrais peut être repartir à neuf sur Ephinea bientôt. :)
Ah, the nostalgia... I was never able to play this online due to living in the sticks where we barely had dial-up, but even offline single player, this was a blast. I've waded into the private servers a little, and it's still a delight these many years later.
It's heartbreaking. Especially when you look at the state of PSO2 NGS. The franchise could be as big as final fantasy in my opinion but when you look at NGS you see how SEGA doesn't respect it.
They lost the original lead developer and producer. In fact I think the previous art director is running the franchise now. But don't quote me on that I'm on my phone.
@@nerdSlayerstudioss I think you're right. Your video hit the nail on the head with how legendary and influential PSO is. Its so hard to see how the franchise went from legendary into twitching and barely alive. I can't wait to see the sequel video on PSO2 and NGS.
@@jimjones9631 I mean PSO 2 had a good run in Japan at least. I had some fun with it before NGS but it had some real bummer issues in how it sells basic features that leave a sour taste in your mouth. I still need to at least try NGS though.
@@Dewclaw7787 PSO2 ending up being one of the best f2p mmos before ngs came out. They butchered the franchise man. NGS is not worth your time. It's been out for 4-5months and the level cap is still 20.
@@suzuya0 I heard they have made PS02 worse now that it's tied to NGS, and removed shop passes -_-
One of the greatest games ever made. Also the game that made me want to litterally die when it corrupted my memory card on GC after playing over 1350 hours over 3 characters.
Ouch...
Same.. my cousin deleted my characters to start a new one thinking it didnt matter
@@soldatheero that happened to my 151 pokemon save file on pokemon red lol.
You had to delete your guild file, then you would be able to open your save. Was a semi-common thing on GC. I have about 5,000 hours on the game in various platforms and characters.
@@derekmoore1612 not all memory card issues could be solved like this. First corruption I had was a shut down during saving.
"... and Yuji Naka who left the company after the failed launch of PSU in 2006."
Ah yes, I'm sure no other games developed around that time had anything to do with that...
I remember picking this up for the gamecube and it was so much fun playing splitscreen with my cousins and friends. might have been our first "mmo"like experience
Played about 16 years ago, the music was some serious nostalgia. I still have a Gamecube with the save files on a memory card somewhere.
Good times.
when my GameCube died, I used my wii for the longest time. now I have PC, but now all my friends I played with moved on. RIP.
@@cyberbeep5187 rip, I use the dreamcast version on sylverant, people on emulators and real hardware meet and play frequently still.
Also on sylverant you can see gamecube and blue burst users in the lobby and dreamcast v2 users can play with the non blue burst pc port as it's very similar to dc version
only found the spaceship....Olga(during elevator) osts decent XD.....both intro...and ep 2 ending ost too...with that said....each ost had fitting theme for each areas so at least got that redeeming side
Ever since I’ve been WFH I’ve been listening to PSO music in the background at least once a week. Brings back so many good memories.
I didnt have access to the online segments of the game, but i have hundreds of hours logged in the offline splitscreen. Staying up late with friends trying push into the VH to ultimately get to ultimate.
Fond memories.
Complete the same story as yours, so many good memories.
Me reading the video title: “Don’t you dare say anything bad about this gem of a game!”
Me after watching the video: “oh thank god, I got worried for a second… thought we were gonna talk bad about PSO for a second.”
Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2 is by far my favorite video game of all time. The joy that I still reminisce about when playing this game with friends and family, nothing else compares to it for me personally. It’s one of my fondest memories and simultaneously one of the most bittersweet ones as well, since we’ve all grown up now and gone our separate ways. But this gem still sees play from time to time, just to take in the nostalgia and feels lol. 10/10 Masterpiece
This game got me through my horrible school days. It will always have a place in my heart.
Great Presentation, Never realized how HUGE PSO really was. Never got a chance to play PSO but I got to play PSU for a little while before it died.
“Sonic team could do no wrong”
US DC PSO 1 players know this is wrong lol.
JP players got so many quests and items we never got access to in the US.
I’m also surprised the mass “hacking” that took place with gamesharks and code breakers wasn’t mentioned. That pushed a toooon of people off the game too.
Also, Casts couldn’t be Forces. ;P
Those hacks allowed us paying costumers to access the same region locked gear that Sega denied us.
@@Damienx247 I wasn’t talking about those particular hacks. I was specifically talking about the ones people could use that would corrupt other peoples characters, or the ones that could be used to mod weapons that they’d then pass off to other people that could also corrupt saves on the vmu/memory card.
Shush it about hackers or I will turn you into Nol and you will lose your AAA Spread Needle ;D
@@ProfiteerProphet XD
@@ProfiteerProphet I made a FOmarl named LON (after the Lord of Nightmares from Slayers) and was wondering why I had such a hard time getting teams when the NOL hack was just getting big. XD
This series is pretty much the reason I became a gamer and purchased multiple other consoles, even built my first pc for it. All after playing it originally on the DreamCast. The memories and friendships I have made and still have to this day because of PSO is just really crazy to think about what a franchise can do. Thank you for tickling the nostalgia scratch for sure.
I did not know you were a PSO Vet as well.
Nice to bump into them every so often.
Man what a blast of nostalgia! Loved playing this with my younger brother and friends all the time back in the early to late 2000s
Naoto Ohshima was Sonic's character designer. Satoshi Sakai was a monster designer and animator on Panzer Dragoon Saga, and his work on that game helped PSO to have character customisation as well as some great monsters. But he was still pretty new to Sega and the games industry.
(small edit, meant to say PSO rather than PSO2)
Could you post a source as well? Thanks for mentioning.
@@nerdSlayerstudioss I don't think viewers can post links? But besides the credits of Sonic and Panzer Dragoon Saga, there's a Wikipedia page on Naoto Ohshima. And Satoshi Sakai's role in Panzer Dragoon Saga and Phantasy Star Online is detailed in interviews that Polygon did for the 20th anniversary of these games in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
This game is still very much alive. I still play it to this day on one of the many free servers. They even add small bits of content and extend the core functionality to make it more accessible to todays audience.
This is literally my FAVORITE game of all time, so seeing anything that gives it more exposure nowadays is a must-watch! I have so many memories with this game, and the reason I love it so much is primarily nostalgia, as I grew up watching or playing it.
The music gives me goosebumps everytime, such an amazing game. Hours upon hours spent split-screening this game with my brothers on GC, spent hours farming rare monsters with telepipe glitches, wiped a few saves trying to duplicate rare items through glitches too lmaoo, just to do it all over again man what a awesome time it was
yea its nice there are private servers that let you still play the game
fantastic video! I just got my DreamPi working, and logged into PSO Ver.2 on the DC on Jan 1st 2023. There were hunters online!
I was born a few months before PSO v1 released, and only recently picked up the game on GameCube 2019 after enjoying PSO2 and finding a complete Xbox copy at a store. Sure, I had the BB PC release, but playing on a console just sounded amazing to me.
A trip to Ebay and 2 weeks later, I got a GC copy and went online for the first time. I still remember my first time online, just got my first job interview, it was a success, and I got online once I got home and setup Devolution on my Wii. Met 2 people dancing in lobby, joined voice chat, complained about them letting my die and not giving me buffs, and got some small rare items.
I continued offline, learnt the lore, got better equipment, ran Challenge Mode which solidified my main as a HUcaseal, fell in love with the endgame combat, the unique GC quests, the hunt for rares, and the amazing community.
After 2 years, PSO has become my favorite game of all time. Unlike others, I can always go back to the game and never get bored everytime, take a break and come back, nothing is lost, no power creep, all my items are as good as ever. I love PSO, and I hope it stays online for as long as it can.
This game just drags me back everytime. Even without online functions I keep coming back to it, sometimes with older chars, sometimes just starting completely anew.
Now I've been playing on Ephinea for around 1 year and a half, and I'll likely be a regular for years to come. That server not only rekindled my nostalgia but also my passion in this game.
No one every really talks about the Phantasy Star Universe series-Phantasy Star Universe, Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus, Phantasy Star Portable, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity.
PSU takes a lot of influences from Phantasy Star Online, and later influenced nearly all of the updated mechanics and style of Phantasy Star Online 2.
Something about PSU felt idk... like it was missing something, to me at least. I really enjoyed PSP and PSP2 though
Google PSU Clementine.
To me the PSU had à weak protagonsit in ethan Weber whose hair cut and style didn't cut it for me.
Also the dialogues in the CG were too long, when you launch the game offline you took much to long to really play the game.
In my country where you didn't have cheap internet back then, offline mode was what I played the most and PSU Wasn't à fun experience.
PSO was fun from the get go.
Thanks to the madlads at gametemps, PSP2i is fully translated, and i'm getting in all my nostalgia from the emulation of that game, instead of the foolishness that is the microsoft launch of PSO:NG.
I imported PSP2i for my handheld since it's not region locked. Gosh even without translations it's pretty good. Grabbed another copy for my partner and we spent so many hours on it- while reading the translations for the story online. Really great title.
Un-Fun-Fact: The Xbox and GameCube versions were different.
GameCube: You could play offline with 4 people on the same console with split screen.
Xbox: You could not get past the title screen to the main menu unless you had Xbox live.
PSO: Revolutionary pioneer of online gaming.
PSO2:NGS: A wonkily launched online RPG with the best combat and movement in an online multiplayer RPG I've seen and not much else.
What happened here?
I honestly miss PSO2 prior to the NGS release.
Mainly cause the specs became too much for my PC to run it, but also because the community started to collapse on itself on both the competitive and fashionista sides.
Minor correction: CAST cannot use techniques in PSO, so were not able to play as any class which involves spellcasting. They literally have zero TP at all times, which is the resource needed to cast spells. To make up for it, they regenerate HP over time and can see enemy traps as well as set their own traps. They were also immune to certain statuses.
Otherwise, this is a fun little trip down memory lane. I loved this game on Dreamcast and played it online for years. I also bought it for the Gamecube and am probably one of the few to still own the Gamecube broadband adaptor for playing online.
okay hearing this melody after so long brough tears to my eyes.
PSO my first ever ORPG..on GameCube..and still couch co-op was grand.
It's 2023 now and I'm just now finding out about Ephinea. I'm about to spend a lot time grinding this game again and couldn't be more excited.
Same, my dude.
Now do Family Guy Online
never heard of family guy online. I guess the game was never popular
lmao what?
An approved comment indeed my good sir
This but unironically
No way that’s true
I can't really describe the literally physical reaction my body has from hearing the music from the game. Especially at 12:36.. this really hit hard. I loved this game SO much, and still do.
Yup. That start screen music hits hard.
Thank you so much for covering this.
PSO often gets forgotten in the conversation of online games from the early 2000s. Happy more people might discover this beautiful game through your video.
Feb. 21, 2001.
Nineteen year old me went to Future Shop and bought a Dreamcast, copy of PSO, mem card and DC keyboard. In the days I had no drivers license and didn't go anywhere. PSO was an avenue for me to socialize. This game was a big part of my early twenties. Used to play on the IGN ship/block Cordellia:9. Lots of fun.
Went from Ver. 1 -> Ver. 2 -> Ep. I&II (GC) -> Ep. III -> Blue Burst -> PSU -> and PSO 2. Universe and "2" have their charm. The original series line is where my heart is. I want to install BB, hop on a private server and go back to it all. Some day, but not today.
Fans never left PSO. It was always SEGA pulling the plug. We would still be playing on official servers if they existed. I'm glad unofficial fan servers for Blue Burst still exist (Ephinea) and it can be experienced today by everyone (on PC)
I have 5k hours on PSO2 and i still play BB every now and then. Fans never gave up on classic PSO, SEGA did. I hope we won't see NGS here anytime soon.
There's PSU private server as well 😊
@@Seority really? How 😮
There are servers for every version of pso except Xbox I think. I still regularly get on gc servers
PSO on GameCube was my LIFE as a teen! Would play it every weekend with my best friend. Goooood Times.
Seeing this whole history, it is really a bummer how PSO2: New Genesis turned out.
Yeah... I honestly enjoyed PSU once I finally came around to accepting it as not actually being a sequel to PSO, but PSO2 is even further from what made PSO special in the first place.
@@Takarias PSO2 actually has A LOT of charm. It is so wacky and crazy and all over the place. Each planet you visit shows you that. But then PSO2: New Genesis barely respected the pre-established universe it had and tried making a PSU/Monster Hunter Game while borrowing the name of PSO2. Which is still not that bad but the game itself just has no direction and is obviously an Alpha-Game pretending to be a Full Game.
@@123hattan pso2 will never be as good as PSO. Unfortunately.
It’s such a cool game, and one that I think will not be forgotten for a long time, and will never truly die, even long after the fan servers go away some time in the future. The game’s spirit is practically legendary. It changed the face of gaming as we know it.
PSO still remains as my favorite game to this day. It's impact is just so massive
Same. I actually equate it to a drug. The "high" PSO gave me could not be matched by anything that came after. It was such a mind-blowing experience back in 2001 that I could hardly believe it was even real and I got totally addicted which basically turned me into an insomniac from then on. But it was totally worth it. PSO and the Dreamcast era was the peak of my life as lame as that may sound.
!!YOU!!!
*need to Play...PSO Nova....my GoodNess
You'll....Never Come Back....
@@priestmorrison6564PS Nova is awesome.
The sound only made me cry. Thanks for the Vid.
glad you filling in everyone on how OG pso really was
My dad had gotten PSO when it was released a year or two before I was born. By the time I was old enough to understand how to use the Dreamcast, the online function was basically nonexistent. Still I remember being barely 10 yrs old and watching my older brother play through the first forests and how the music sounded. I thought it was one of the most beautiful games in the world. I still have the Dreamcast and still play from time to time, but by now the game is so dated and janky, and tbh I’m not a strong player in most games anyways. It still brings me joy tho, and makes me wish I had been able to experience it as it was meant to be played :)
And now sadly you can easily do one about PSO NGS......oh how they're killing that game so quickly
I think it's a bit too early to say that. besides.. We're in a pandemic.
Even though I don't like the direction Sega's been headed in so far with NGS
Sega also doesn't have the same development cycle as they usually do.
Just wait it out a bit, and eventually the game will be much better, just like how PSO2 was around its launch period.
(And it became a great game!)
@@HippyDipps copium lol
@@negentropyagent7337 people said the same shit in pso2 episode 5 then episode 6 happened with a new director and it was a complete reversal. For some reason they brought back the episode 5 director for ngs year 1, we can only hope the bring the episode 6 director back for year 2.
@@negentropyagent7337 lmao look at this dude doomposting and circlejerking😳
@@vegitohaze2081 The game needs a solid 1-2 years to be something you can play, if they put in content, that is... If all they do is more scratches and idiotic time capped content, and new classes, the game will die for sure, they literally make all the free2play players to quit ,because this game literally hates f2p players in every way possible, and without those players, after some time the wales will quit the game to, so it's not entirely bullshit when they say, the game will die, because so far all they did and even the roadmap is showing a slow death, even with the december update, the game still will be an empty shell. So until i don't see any changes on the direction, i just log in and out after i do the daily things, and won't put any $ in the game, because it's not worth it
hears burning rangers mentioned in video.
has flashbacks of central dome fire swirl.
i look back at this game very fondly and remember nearly losing it when the gamecube version was nearing release. i still have the dreamcast keyboard and gamecube ascii controller as memento pieces to this day.
I remember having this game way back in the earlier 2000's on my Dreamcast, I had no clue on how to play the game and even on how it worked, I tried several times but I think I was too young to understand it, I was 10 at the time. I had no clue on what online game where, even less on what's a MMO.
Pso is the most memorable game that I played the least of.
I dont remember how I was able to play it but I do remember playing very small snippets of the game and it really opened my eyes to what gaming could be at the time
man, MAN OH MAN. I do so miss this game, could play 4 player split screen when it was on the X-Box.
Thank you for this video! GC PSO made up a huge part of my high school years and is still a fond time I bring up with my best friend. This game deserves more love and respect than it gets.
I was so excited to show this to my wife. Downloaded a private server link and everything and promptly died to the first Booma.
I'll miss you, PSO.
to a booma ?........my first death was on vol opt i think back as a noob :S or maybe garanz....too long ago......never died to a booma once tough XD(the worse they managed was on ultimate(stun lock for age b4 i could kill them)....never again did i let them surround me XD screw stun lock lol
@@bllllood The private servers are usually online only, so the difficulty is way higher. Dropping down to Forest with a fresh LVL 1 you can absolutely lose pretty quick.
@@AlexAshpool pso-world show 106 atp for online and 80 atp for offline.....dont think it make much of a difference in term of survival..their hp got a drastic increase though.....well unless they can kill in 1 hit online i dont think should be dying to them on normal where their attack speed is super low......unless those priv serv modified the parameters much highter than shown on pso-world for online
Yeah happened to me too. When making a room choose Single Mode as it makes the enemies MUCH easier. Also, if you can't kill it in a single combo, drop the combo after two hits and you can run away and evade an attack.
@@bllllood The private servers aren't necessarily using vanilla values for Blue Burst. All I'm saying is I don't think this guy died to a single player Ep 1 type Booma.
As a Sonic big fan, Phantasy Star Online series was also became my favorite SEGA game even despite of not growing up with it before, yet even heard the fact where Sonic developer was also behind this Online gem as well along with the game called Burning Ranger. In my experience with PSO history, I been played Phantasy Star Online 2, the budget sequel to the original PSO, and I put ton and ton of hours on it than any other games I own before I could ever pick up the original game afterward, and it was very fun yet super straight forward experience on how the Multiplayer online game work in general. While unfortunately, it was also struggle for SEGA and Sonic Team wanted to make an online game out of console over the computer game such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, then afterward the outcome was truthfully beyond the successful, but not for long with all the servers ceasing.
CAST was one of my favorite character race of all time, and they are very cool mecha robot humanoid. Which to me was also reason why I did grew up with all the Gundam and Transformer back in my 10 years old day along with the Sentai Super Hero stuffs. Hunter was my favorite class in all of PSO series, and even tho I'm still being a Hunter main up until the New Genesis release of Phantasy Star Online 2, and I'm still playing Hunter class till this day. The boss fight in PSO however was very nuisance especially on the endgame part, which unlike PSO2 and PSU series where the movement base existed, the game itself was generally lack jumping and dodging, and therefore it will be impossible to make a life easier on trying to defend yourself with evasive option. Overall, PSO was like the partly Runescape like but in 3D and very engageable than the good ol MOBA online games.
Phantasy Star Online was factually became the super important online game than just being the best of all time. If you been played so much MMO games or you just also been grew up with Sonic like I did, then PSO was more than just highly recommended game to giving a shot on both experience and the concepting on multiplayer online video game in general at the same time.
Wow, I have watched a lot of your programs and this is the first I actually played my self. Looking forward for it!
This video has caught the attention of a lot of Phantasy Star Online players from back in the day. I've gotten quite a few messages from people that watched it and recognized my character in some of the footage. Especially the footage from my Level 200 party. I consider it "Fair Use" and I have no objections to my appearance. I think it's really cool that I cameo in this!
Thank you so much for stopping by and thanks for letting us show off your great footage.
@@nerdSlayerstudioss The footage was actually filmed by pinkkittyrose but no objections to my character appearing here. *thumbs up*
Make no mistake Cran, you are a bit of a celebrity when it comes to western PSO players, at least to those who were around in the earlier days. Can't remember for sure, but weren't you a GM on Schthack? Though as I check your footage you seem to have been more of a PSOGC person. That 1vs1 punchout against the Mericarol was ace :D
@@HansHackfress Aye, I was the Schthack GameCube GM for about 7 years or so.
PSO is one of the most influential games I've ever played. I spent hundreds of hours on the Xbox and PC versions and hundreds more on the sequels. This was an excellent video as always. Great work!
For me it was FF11.
Sonic Team are pioneers. Amazing dev studio unfortunately held back by SEGA's abysmal management.
This used to be my favorite game on Dreamcast. I played it well after the system was dead.
I never played the online portion of PSO before it got shut down, but this game is still one of my favorites of all time.
I'll always hold the memories of playing this co-op splitscreen with my younger brother for hours on end. And I'll always be grateful to my friend for introducing me to the series, it really stood out to me when I was a kid and truly felt like something that was unique from other games that were available at the time. The Gamecube version is the one I played on and might be my most played game on the console. Grinding through the various maps, searching drop tables online, and feeding MAGs in 10 minute intervals while watching TV inbetween all stood out to my younger self.
It's amazing to hear how much this game inspired, I had always thought it was a small success for SEGA and unknown to many. Thanks for the great video, the history of the game in interesting for sure!
Hearing a friend's older brother talk about playing this online when that capability first opened up was the first time I'd ever heard of someone I'd met play a console game online. Later on a group of friends and I played the crap out of this on GameCube.
Also, the description of this video ("we're dealing with a very old game") makes me realize how long ago this was. I still consider "very old" to mean NES or earlier.
I've been meaning to replay the original Phantasy Star on Sega as well actually.
i never played this game in any official capacity, only on private servers, it just has this simplistic charm on the surface that makes me keep playing. Even bought copies of the dreamcast version from japan.
I actually really like this format. There's a lot of games that no one has explored. This is probably the most refreshing I've ever taken in stories of mmo and company history in general
I've been following him for a year or two now and have watched almost all his videos he's really great
@@angelganon8213 I've been watching him for years. He's never made a video that was sort of a look into history like this. We've been looking how a game failed. But never how a game strived
This game was such a massively influential part of my childhood and I never got to play online, just the glory days of couch multiplayer with the boys and my brothers growing up. As someone who's just now getting into phantasy star universe it's depressing to see the lack of videos, footage, or even info on these particular Installments.
Thank you for making unquestionably the best video on one of my most cherished childhood games. These kinds of games need more love
I'll remember how addicted I was to all 4 episodes! These where my first online games.
This game is probably my most fond memory from the early 2000’s. I had just gotten out of the military and was having a tough time adjusting. This game was my anchor.
My sister and I would get home and play all night. We were both force’s and after that he beginning stages we were unstoppable.
Great times.
This was really an interesting watch, loved the presentation, thank you for giving me insight into PSO, I never played it, I only played PSO2 and NGS, but everything about sounds fantastic. A legendary franchise
PSO was one of the most impactful games in my life. Ill never forget forcing my parents to get a second phone line because I kept playing this game with friends and making it impossible for anyone to call the house. Playing until 3 in the morning. I only found as much fun in an online game with the first Destiny title. But I couldn't get into any other online games.
This brought back a lot of memories and honestly? I miss this game a lot. It meant so much to me as a kid. I've tried playing it again, but I've had trouble getting back into it for some reason maybe I'm just spoiled.
I remember hunting for rare item drops back in the day, doing event quests, and trying my best to find the rarest items. I think I had a ranger on gamecube. It was all going well until I ran into a guy named "Optimus Prime" and he crashed my game. Corrupting my data. A point I'm surprised you didn't make because it was really easy to do that at least in the GC version.
Similarly FF11 was my first MMO. I have a lot of fond memories and the soundtracks.
But perhaps it’s no surprise I eventually moved on to FF14 after trying various other MMOs.
This was a great and uplifting video. That said, I wish when its successors were brought up that Phantasy Star Zero for the Nintendo DS got a mention, just for being the successor that felt most similar to the original. Sadly design issues and the restrictive online gameplay of the DS ultimately meant it could never be as good. But it still has a place in my heart for being where I got into the series, and it makes me wish there would be another attempt at returning to that classic style.
I enjoyed PS Zero a lot. It did have to be simplified, but it still felt like there was a lot to do and see, so the makers made good decisions on what the most important elements to keep were. Also, using Pictochat within the game was fun!
Loved me some PSO. De Rol Le is still one of my more memorable boss fights as a child. Game had a lot of soul.
What i would give for a 1:1 remake of this game with HD graphics and animations
Holy shit thank you for this video, ive been saying for years PSO doesn't get the love or attention it deserves. Lotta people don't realize how heavy of an influence it had on games and not only that, maaaaany Japanese media/Anime/Art had taken a lot of inspiration from PSO.
Truly a one of a kind masterpiece, we can only hope that we can get a game in the future that recaptures its magic.
Phantasy Star Online is officially dead, but there is still a passionate fan community that has private servers up. I adored this game as a kid. If I’m honest it doesn’t quite hold up today, but it’s still a nostalgia trip.
With how PSO2:NGS's current long stagnant state, I just hope base:PSO2 doesn't get its plug pulled if anything happened to NGS
I remember creating my HuCast E-102 Gamma, sigh.... good times and recreated him at any opportunity I can get in any version I could.