It’s the videogame equivalent of a support group: realize a band of Phantasy Star Online veterans together and the conversation invariably turn rounds to the harrowing subject of addiction.

It’s the videogame equivalent of a support group: realize a band of Phantasy Star Online veterans together and the conversation invariably turn rounds to the harrowing subject of addiction. Gamers didn’t simply play Sega’s pioneering online role-playing game, they became junkies with it—whether it was with the original Sega Dreamcast version, its beefed-up GameCube port, the voice chat–enabled Xbox revision, or terrifyingly enough...all three PSO held a tight grip upon players’ lives for hundreds of hours.

Fundamentally, PSO was a hack-n-slash treadmill—you cleaved your way by the and of armies of enemies in an eternal search for cooler gear—but jogging forward that treadmill felt wildly engaging. The mingle of gorgeous art, challenging bosse and greatest in number important, combat that actually required button-pressing skill made it tough to levy down. Playing with your buddies (or random dude all across the globe) made the examination for schwag all the more addictive: Making someone jealous of your giant chain-saw sword or frilly magical parasol helped validate all those squandered hours.

Five years after PSO first captured gamers’ emancipated time, Sega finally unveils a faithful sequel—not just some expansion pack or a weird offshoot—Phantasy Star Universe. Scheduled to hit the PS2 (and PC) in time for the 2005 holiday shopping season, this RPG threatens to devour even more of your life than its predecessor did. Not and nothing else does PSU expand upon the addictive online play of its forerunner, still it also includes a full-featured offline game to maintain you busy when you’re playing solo

Phantasy Star Offline

Here’s a strange fact: More than half of all GameCube Phantasy Star Online players not played it online. (Apparently, they didn’t notice the word “online” in the title....) for a like reason rather than trying to force unwilling consumer to bury onto the information superhighway, Sega’s devising an alternate plan for PSU: put forward a deep, rewarding single-player experience. “There are a fate of gamers out there who know and like traditional RPG like Final Fantasy,” says PSU Director Satoshi Sakai. “We think that those gamers can also like PSU not just the online gamers who already know the PSO brand.”

When you first profit up Phantasy Star Universe, you have a choice: Create your character for the online multiplayer game or tackle the sprawling, 40-hour-plus offline pursuit Nothing you do in common affects the other in any way, to such a degree it’s really like having couple games in one. The single-player adventure casts you as Ethan Waber, a headstrong lad living forward a massive space station in the three-planet Grarl star order As the game opens, the planets are celebrating 100 years of mutual peace when a mysterious alien force known as Se brutally assaults Parum, the human world. Creepy living missiles drill into the planet’s surface, mutating the wildlife into dangerous prodigys Ethan’s no hero, but when he discovers that his little sister is beneath attack, he takes up a sword and travels down to deliver her....

Unlike PSO’s simple single-player donjon-keep hack, this adventure delivers the beneficials you’d expect from a quality RPG—deep characterization, dramatic cut-scene oral dialogue, and massive towns to explore. And although the meat of the game is traditionally linear (with a fix progression of missions with predetermined party members), you’ll also be able to explore the worlds at your leisure with whatever party you pick leveling up and uncovering secrets

The offline game’s basic gameplay doesn’t differ plenteous from what PSO vets know and love: You’ll still trip around in lush environments beating down baddies, if it be not that now with the aid of up to three A.I.-controlled party members. You’ll single have direct control over Ethan, moreover you will be able to tailor your buddies’ behavior, like having them heal, cast seasons or attack all-out.

Your search to defeat Seed will lead you to three planets—but everything you view in these screens is from Parum, the geographically diverse homeworld of the hume race. You’ll also visit Neudaiz, the watery realm of the mystical newman clan and Motwob, the beast race’s waste planet. Before the game’s finis expect to venture through roughly 20 prison s face over 15 bosses, and equal do a few patently un-PSO-like things, like solving webwork puzzles.

You’re Not the barely Hero

The addition of a genuine single-player game is certainly a generous for the project, but we all know where the real action (not to mention cross-species marriages) goe down—online. This is where you’ll disburse countless hours felling foes with your friends, amassing an army of impressive weaponry, and working in succession international relations with players around the world.

First, the basics: You’ll ne a broadband connection to achieve PSU up and running, moreover don’t bother with the optional HDD disk drive: It won’t be supported, as the redesigned PS2 can’t access it. Sega hasn’t officially decided onward whether the PS2 version will propound voice chat yet, but passage chat (via USB keyboard) is a given. Actually, if you have a rockin’ PC you might just want to play that version—it sports long crispier visuals, and we calculate upon that you’ll be able to play alongside your PS2 buddies.