In the absence of Wrath of the Lich King, I decided to reactivate my Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) account. I stopped playing initially because it wasnt PSO (Phantasy Star Online). PSO and PSU are an alternative to the average online game. It’s kind of surprising that they are not more popular. I think many people fail to realize PSU has absolutely nothing to do with traditional Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). It’s not a true MMORPG and it should never be compared to World of Warcraft. I always called PSO an online hack and slash game.

The Phantasy Star Online games are for those who want to play an online game with others but do not want to get involved with the current structure. These things include the issues of playing solo, customize your character’s stats a particular way in order to be accepted by others, making sure your party always has the Tank/Healer/Nuker’ mold (oh please go away already! I have nightmares about people shouting “We need a ‘Tank for Heroic WTF!”). Don’t get me wrong, I love MMORPGs and definitely love World of Warcraft, but after playing a thousand games that follow the same structure, I tend to long for something that doesn’t exist; which is an MMORPG that doesn’t follow any of the current MMORPG rules.

In the meantime, there is Phantasy Star Universe. I really feel PSU is for those that are interested in online role playing games but do not want to read the the ‘Encyclopedia of MMORPG Slang’. Unlike MMORPGs, PSU is realtime fighting. So, if you want to avoid getting hit by a bosses’ super attack, you must move out of the way yourself. If you want to perform an attack that does four hits you hit the button four times.

I myself didn’t initially accept Phantasy Star Universe. I came to terms and realized that PSU is NOT PSO. However, after installing the Expansion pak, it’s closer to PSO than it ever has been and closer to PSO than any game ever will ever be. They have re-incorporated MAGs, Dark Falz, and now all the Force Techs that were in the original and then some. I originally didn’t understand the mission level structure of PSU and it seemed random. In PSO, there were four areas with 2 levels in each. In PSU they expanded this idea. There are four areas but each with many different paths of missions to choose from. PSU has many improvements over PSO. The online shop trading has been expanded to online personal shops. Loot drops can be managed now instead of everyone racing towards rare drops. A very big improvement is the constant updated content. Missions and items are added very frequently. I feel very content playing Phantasy Star Universe right now. This will definetly keep me busy till Wrath of the Lich King enters the scene. If Sega continues to update the content, I may very well play Wrath of the Lich King and continue to play PSU on the side.

The one thing PSU does not recapture as much as I would have liked, is the PSO’s spacey soundtrack. PSU’s soundtrack is great, but has a different feel than the original. The original PSO soundtrack was like a mesh of neo-classical/new age/jazz that made it sound very sci-fi/futuristic. PSU tends to lean closer to traditional neo-classical/modern electronic pop. I’ll never forget the PSO music. Give it a listen:

Tags: Mass Multiplayer, Playstation 2, Sega, Video Game Music

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Nintendo, PC Games, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.