GameSpy is excited to bring our readers the exclusive first preview of Phantasy Star Universe's multiplayer gameplay. We took a trip down to SEGA's headquarters in San Francisco, and had an in-depth first look at what players can expect when this game launches on the PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox 360.
Gerald: So Justin, correct me if I'm wrong, but you and I have very different habits when it comes to online gaming. I'm a hardcore online gaming junkie, raiding four nights a week in World of Warcraft, and having spent countless hours on games like EverQuest, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Planetside, Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast -- the list goes on.
It pains me to think that I could have gone to law school, become a black belt in jiu-jitsu, and learned a new language if I had dedicated all my online gaming time to more constructive efforts! Maybe it's become a problem. Since all you need to do is slap a sticker on a box saying "this game is online" to sell me, it's good that you came along to provide a more balanced viewpoint to this hands-on preview of Phantasy Star Universe. How do you feel about online role-playing games? Do you feel that forming a party with live human players online is an experience that rivals that of single-player role-playing games?
Justin: Well, I may not be addicted to World of Warcraft like the rest of the office, but I did screw around a few older MMOs and played Final Fantasy XI for a couple of solid months before burning out on the genre completely. I guess I'm just looking for something a bit less life-consuming in my online gaming experience. I am a big fan of cooperative play online and offline, though.
So I have to admit that PSU is really interesting to me in concept. If I can get online with my personalized character, join a group of other players without much hassle, and do some critter-killing and character advancing without committing four hours of my life to an epic assault on Daggermouth Ballforge -- or whatever you WoW guys are raiding these days -- I could see myself getting back into the online habit.
Gerald: I think you've touched on one of the things that Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast did so well. It was very easy to hop online, get into a group, and just kill stuff for a few hours without having to deal with the drama, management, and tedium required to experience group-oriented content in most online role-playing games. During our session at Sega to play PSU, we were in and out of the major city hubs, and off on our adventures within minutes or seconds, and not hours. It's a different kind of experience, with instant travel from the cities to the different adventure zones, without all the travel in-between that's required from games like Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft.
You mentioned character customization, and I was pretty impressed with the way that player avatars could be tailored in so many different ways. Most online RPGs suffer from 'clone syndrome,' where all humans look alike; every elf is the same, and so on. I like the way that PSU allows you to adjust character height and proportion to such varying degrees, and even change the shape of your face and eyes, ranging from realistic human shapes to over-sized anime features. It reminded me of the title for an anime-themed pen and paper role-playing game called "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" that I used to read about back in my tabletop days. I also have a thing for making really short characters in online games, so I loved making adorable little CASTs that wield oversized guns. How did you like the character creation aspect of the game?
