Phantasy Star Online 2: Worries and Wish Lists

The Phantasy Star Online series is my favorite Online Multiplayer RPG series hands down. The atmospheres, character designs, loot and monstrosities Sega has created captivate me every time. Much more so than other Sci-Fi fantasy offerings. It was the first and only series where I've created a character from scratch and found myself creating back stories for them in my head, who they are and what they're about, and really caring about them. Couple all of that with the fighting mechanics of an action game and endless amounts of loot to seek (strange and fantastic) and you've got a winner.

There's only one problem in the equation, at least for the NA/EU fans out there: Sega themselves.

I love Phantasy Star and what Sega cooks up for the series. I just wish once they were done they would hand things over to another company to handle the online side of the games. I've held this sentiment since PSO Episodes 1 & 2 for the Gamecube. A wretched hive of scum and villainy was an understatement.

The NA/EU servers had little to no support from moderators to regulate weapon hacking, level moding and the dreaded FSOD (frozen screen of death) that ran rampant, all while still collecting the monthly fee from players to access the game.

Later versions were better, such as Episode 4 Blue Burst for PC and it's successor Phantasy Star Universe. Hackers were still present but at least they couldn't force your console/PC to freeze and boot you from the game or warp your character back to level 0. Sega themselves caused enough discouragement on their own though, more on that below.

Today Sega is working on the next entry to the franchise simply titled Phantasy Star Online 2. Looking at the videos of the game it's hard not to get excited. The graphics and character design options alone has Sega's fingers creeping closer to my wallet already. However, looking at their track record with the series makes me weary to take the plunge. Are things just going to end up the same as in previous versions of the series? Time will tell, but for now I've compiled a list of things, that if implemented, would make PSO2 a hit for years to come rather than slump into another niche fan only title.

1. Spread the love. If you played any online version of Phantasy Star you're probably well aware that Sega favors the Japanese user base and makes them a much higher priority over the NA/EU players. I guess this is to be expected since they're a Japanese company after all. However if you expect to collect a monthly fee to play then you need to offer the same level of customer support and content for all players equally. Which leads me to my next point.

2. Hand the reigns over to Sega of America for our online handling. SOA has given a hand with customer support over the years but it's usually lack luster due to the shadow that SOJ casts over them. Quest updates and content, along with player moderation has largely been handled by SOJ with SOA having to seek their approval to make any moves. They need to give SOA the rights to release content and quests as the NA/EU fans demand it. Which leads to the next point.

3. Make all content available to the entire player base equally. The amount of content that is Japanese exclusive usually dwarfs what is available to the english speaking players. Phantasy Star Universe for Xbox 360 is way behind in the amount of new quests and avatar costumes that are available on the Japanese PC servers. I understand that it takes time to translate these things, but again, if you're expecting a monthly fee to be paid then a higher priority should be given. If that's too much of a hassle, then let SOA develop new missions for the English speaking players to keep things fresh.

4. No time released content. There's no sense in this. Do you expect us to believe that you're still developing the content that's already on the disc? The content on the disc should be released as the player progresses through the missions, just like the original PSO. When Phantasy Star Universe launched you were able to experience all the content allowed in probably a days worth of playing. This effectively caused a large sector of the players to abandon the game in it's infancy because they had simply ran out of things to experience. By the time they realized that their release schedule was too slow the damage had already been done. Let's hope they remember this mistake.

5. Keep the player base together. There should not be dedicated separate servers to split the NA/EU players from the Japanese. You can still let SOA handle our customer service and missions. There shouldn't be an issue about exclusive content because there have been Japanese exclusive missions present on certain versions of PSO where all players were together. If you divide the servers you divide the user base. History has shown that some players prefer to import and play on the Japanese servers because they know they'll receive better support from Sega. It's sad that this is true.

6. Put the NPCs in the back seat, not the player. The thing I hated most about the Phantasy Star Universe story missions was that my character was just an extra. Sure, sometimes the characters would look at you and ask "what do you think? Yes or No?" but it never made any real difference in the story. The player's character should be the center of attention and the decisions they make should determine how the story unfolds. No one gave half a rat's ass about Ethan Waber or his struggles, especially after you've taken the time to give life to your own character. Don't force us to support some NPC, it should be the other way around. Hopefully this wont be an issue if the new "dynamic" cut in story interuptions are what I think they are.

7. Advertise your game! Usually you can get more people to try your product, if...you know...let them know it exists! Ask your average gamer what their thoughts on the Phantasy Star Online series are and they'll probably say something along the lines of "yeah that was an awesome Dreamcast game!" If you want players to try this series you need to get some tv spots and banners on some gaming sites. A single ad for a single month in the back of a Game Informer isn't going to cut it. Phantasy Star has the worst PR support I've ever seen for a game. Of course it'd be different if Sega wasn't so focused on wasting money on Sonic advertisements (games that usually sell themselves regardless of the quality).

I could probably keep writing on this subject all day but I think I've said enough. I haven't even touched on the Portable versions of the games either. In a nutshell a lot of problems would be fixed if Sega would at least ACT like they care about their player base outside of Japan.

In most instances we communicate to these companies with our wallets, but in the case of Phantasy Star they're more likely to pull the plug outside of Japan rather than fix things if sales went down. At least we'd still have our slew of Sonic games though, yippee.