The OG phantasy Star was a little before my time but the GameCube version of Phantasy Star online was so good. They even have community servers for it today as Phantasy Star Blue burst. The game is now dated but honestly I could still play it because it had a good grind formula

https://www.phantasystaronline.net/

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AdmiralAsshat 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

To clarify: Blue Burst was actually the PC port. [0] I put alot of time into that one, once an English patch became available on Schtserv. They made a bunch of the perks/models available to everyone that were previously only available to Sega employees and holidays. Running through the game with a trio of friends, all skinned as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, is one of my treasured gaming memories.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasy_Star_Online#Blue_Burs...

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NoLinkToMe 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Uff Blue Burst, fantastic online game, it's one of those blasts of sheer nostalgia that is almost unbearable, I'd give everything to go back. It's partly the game, and partly my life around the time I was playing the game, a time of constant wonder and exploration and true excitement. There are times every few years that I just put the games' music album on a loop to relive the memories. Though just watching some gameplay is also fantastic with the sound and graphic design.

	▲	matheusmoreira 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> partly my life around the time I was playing the game, a time of constant wonder and exploration and true excitement It's those feelings that I miss the most. Sometimes when I replay old games or rewatch childhood stuff I only end up destroying my memories because it's not as good as I remembered it being.

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mountainriver 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Phantasy Star Online was so far ahead of its time. I remember connecting it up to my early modem via phone jack.

Gameplay was amazing, story and graphics were great, the community was really fun.

Oddly it’s also the last MMO I ever really played. As I got into high school I focused more on music and whenever I would try a new MMO game they never felt nearly as good as PSO.

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NDlurker 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I spent so much time playing PSO on the DC. I'd start the night playing with Americans, then Europeans, then Japanese. When the Japanese guys started getting on I knew it was far past my bedtime. My whole sleep schedule was messed up from it, but that's ok, I had fun. I made a bunch of online friends and we'd chat on MSN messenger and the PSOtakus message board.

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hnlmorg 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I still play PSO weekly online with a small guild of friends.

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mountainriver 5 hours ago | parent [-]

How can I play with you all!?

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hnlmorg 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If you already have a copy of PSO for the Gamecube and a GC or modded Wii, then sign up to https://schtserv.com/forums/app.php/welcome

It's free and they're almost always some open parties available for people to join (or create your own team and randoms will almost certainly join and help you level up).

I'm usually around on Tuesday evenings (UK timezone) but the guild meets other days too.

Do you have any characters already leveled up? Or would you be starting from scratch?

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mghackerlady 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

what version do you play? I believe that affects it. There are custom servers for pc and gamecube, but there's more work on dreamcast

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hnlmorg 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I use https://schtserv.com which supports both GC and Xbox versions of PSO.

The Dreamcast has it's own community servers and isn't compatible with Schtserv. Though I believe that might just be because Episode 2 wasn't release on the DC. I do have an account for the DC servers too but I wouldn't recommend them. The DC takes too much hassle to get online for the value when most people on the DC PSO server are there for the novelty rather than the grind.

Blue Burst (PC) has it's own community servers too. But I've never owned nor played PSO on the PC.

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mghackerlady 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I've played a few hours of the gamecube version online. I honestly would rather play the dreamcast version, I'm not a big MMO person so the novelty is why I'm playing

	▲	hnlmorg 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm a massive DC fanboy but even I have to concede that the GameCube version of PSO is better: - you don't lose any unequipped items when you die (this is super annoying on the DC) - you can level up your character to 200 instead of 100 (or 150, I forget which). Which is very useful in Ultimate campaigns (as well as lengthens the game) - GC also comes with Episode 2, which is something like 6 extra dungeons. Some of them look absolutely gorgeous too. The DC PSO is a fantastic game, but he Sonic Team basically doubled the scale of game when they released it on the GC. --- Edit: thinking about it, `Ultimate` mode might not even be available on the DC version. Or if it is, it's only available on the v2 of the DC version (there were two versions available for the DC). Ultimate is like another mod for Episode 1 because it comes with new skins for the mobs and the campaigns happen at different seasons and/or times of day.