Your planet has been dying for some time now, and the final hope for your people has come in the form of two giant spacecrafts: Pioneer 1 and Pioneer 2. Pioneer 1 has been sent out first to find a new home for the people of your world, and they've discovered a planet called Ragol that they claim is perfectly livable. You've been traveling through space for a long while in the massive ship, and when you and your people finally arrive on Ragol, you discover that a tremendous explosion of unknown origin has destroyed Pioneer 1. As a brave warrior in the employ of your government, it is your mission to find out what happened to Pioneer 1, although you will quickly discover that Ragol is not quite as hospitable as the first arrivals had implied.Although many role-playing games have come and gone, there are a few console RPGs that invoke a sense of fond memories in those who play such games. Arguably, these stalwarts consist of Square's Final Fantasy games, Enix's Dragon Quest series (at least in Japan) and, of course, the Sega titles that have carried the name Phantasy Star. What began on the Sega Master System, with a first entry that was many people's choice for that console's finest piece of software, and continued on to the Genesis, has now finally been brought to the next generation, with a legion of fans hungry for the update. It is not, however, a game that follows the traditional console RPG model, as the addition of "Online" might suggest.
Rather, Phantasy Star Online consists of a game which takes a back seat in the story department and focuses more on the building of a character and their levels, in much the same vein as Diablo, at least on a surface level, although it does follow the now-standard Phantasy Star design model, mixing futuristic sci-fi with classic fantasy. Players will pick from one of three different classes: the ranger is adept at movement and range weapons, the Force is a typical spell-caster, and the warrior is handy with melee attacks. In addition to class, players can select their race from a choice of human, numan, or android. These races offer a different set of attributes. You can also select from a wide variety of different superficial attributes: heads, body-sizes, and colors are available.
As previously mentioned, the game eschews a deep plot to give players the experience of hunting down and killing numerous monsters and participating in a number of quests to build their levels and find equipment such as weapons an armor. This can be done single-player, in an offline experience, where players will try to finish the various areas of Ragol themselves, or you can go online and join three other players to take on the planet's challenges. There are different strategies for playing offline and online, as the game tends to throw many more monsters at you when you're with a group, and the different skills of the various classes can be used in conjunction with each other.
The combat system takes place in real time, and is primarily a hack-and-slash type affair. Each weapon has two basic attack styles, and many armaments have an additional attack that is more powerful and has extra effects. There are both ranged and melee weapons, and there are also different sorts of magic that can either be used defensively or offensively. Phantasy Star Online for the Sega Dreamcast uses the built-in modem, and no Broadband support officially exists within the game.