The original Phantasy Star Online is a hugely important game to me. Actually, Phantasy Star as a series is a pretty big deal to me. But let me back up. Yes, it's true that as an 80s baby in America, my introduction to JRPGs was literally Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. That's all pretty normal. And those games make up the foundation of what I consider JRPGs to be all about. But I was also a Sega kid. At least by the time I hit my teens. And thus, the Phantasy Star series just seemed cooler, darker, and slightly sexier.
I did own a Master System back in the 8-bit days, but games weren't as easy to come by in the pre-internet era. So unfortunately I didn't actually play the original Phantasy Star until I was in my 20s. But I can tell you this - it blew my mind. Not only did I beat the damn game, but I proclaimed that it was in fact better than both the original Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. My introduction to the Dreamcast was in college, and it will forever be a special console to me because of all the nostalgia that surrounds it for me. It was the first console I played of that generation and it reminds me of Tony Hawk and drinking ill-gotten alcohol and smoking cigarettes and listening to indie rock and talking about girls with my buds in our lousy little apartment. Long after the Dreamcast died, I was still obsessed with the system. I collected pretty hard for Dreamcast for many years. This was back when I still considered myself a collector. And I played any Dreamcast game I could get my hands on. Phantasy Star Online holds a very special place and memory in my heart. We had a huge snow storm back in 2011 or so and I stayed home from work and decided to check this game out. If you can believe it, my first attempt at anything remotely MMO-like was Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast in 2011. I had a broadband modem for Dreamcast and logged onto an independent server and met up with kind strangers who showed me the ropes. I was a pretty diehard PSO player for a few years after that. When we moved into our new house in early 2012 it was one of the only games I didn't pack away so I could play it as we slowly unpacked. I finished the game solo/offline and recorded the whole thing because I was young and had that kind of time and energy to burn. I arranged online meetups with other Dreamcast enthusiasts. I installed Blue Burst on my PC to play with other non-Dreamcast friends that way. I was obsessed. It was perfect when Phantasy Star Online 2 was announced. But though it launched in Japan in 2012, it took another eight years to make its way to the US. I won't lie, I actually tried to get onto the Japanese servers way back then on my PC, but it didn't go well. So I waited, and eventually got sidetracked. The game finally launched in the US in 2020 but by then I had a child in the house. The 30-something with unlimited time was gone. Now I was nearly 40 and absolutely tired. So here I am, finally playing this game that I've been fantasizing about for a decade. I'm now 42. The year is 2023. And Phantasy Star Online 2 has been around for so long that it's even gotten a gigantic expansion in New Genesis. And it's available to play for free on Xbox Game Pass. But can it possibly hold up to my expectations? Well, yes and no. I did actually dabble with the vanilla PSO2 and sure, it feels like a proper sequel to PSO. Which is to say that it feels like more of the same. You can certainly follow a line from Phantasy Star Online to Phantasy Star Universe to this. And that's all good. More PSO is never a bad thing. But, given that I waited so many years to play it on from its original Japanese release, it also feels fairly dated. To be fair, PSO2 is exactly what it is - a new Phantasy Star Online released in 2012. Which is a decade ago now. But New Genesis? Well, that's a whole different story. Although effectively an expansion, New Genesis truly feels like a brand new game. Sure, it carries over your character and gear, and replaces the original PSO launcher on digital game stores. But really, New Genesis feels like an entirely new game. If it weren't for PSO2's late launch in the US, I think that New Genesis may well have just been called Phantasy Star Online 3. Sure, New Genesis was built upon the bones of PSO2, but its differences might as well be akin to Final Fantasy XIV and A Realm Reborn. Not that PSO2 is a disaster by any means. But this "expansion" is a truly different experience. Let's start from the beginning, though. The character customization here is great. In any sci-fi RPG I tend to make a similar character. Usually a badass redhead named Newt. So of course I did the same thing here. I went with a Ranger class because I tend to prefer ranged combat in games like this. But the real awesome component for me here was the story. Yes, New Genesis has a legit story. It makes the whole thing feel much closer to an RPG than the majority of PSO/PSU and related games that came prior. Sure, there were story beats there, but they weren't as engaging or in the forefront. The biggest tweak to the formula is that New Genesis feels like an honest to goodness MMO. Previous PSO entries felt like they were more along the lines of Diablo in space. Don't get me wrong - I was hooked on that formula for years. But it'd kind of neat to really experience PSO as something even grander. I also get some strong Xenoblade vibes from this game, but maybe that's a feedback loop. In some ways the Xenoblade games always felt like single player PSO to me. And here, it's like New Genesis is what Xenoblade could have been as a proper MMO. The combat is also way slicker in New Genesis than any PSO game has ever been. Even in the vanilla PSO2 the combat felt pretty antiquated. You still had the whole sort of pseudo rhythm game thing going on in how you timed your attacks. In New Genesis things just feel smoother and more organic like a proper action RPG. As a long time Phantasy Star fan, I'm also thrilled at any little easter egg tying this in to the original series. Just the name Dark Falz being uttered brought great joy to me. It's hard to know how to talk about PSO2 now. In 2023, it's sort of a living breathing thing where New Genesis is just a "major expansion." Both it, and the vanilla PSO2 experience launch from the same game app. Yet, they're two different options of how you want to play. And yet they're entirely different experiences. My best analogy is this. According to True Achievements, I've played hundreds of hours of Overwatch 2. Yet, I've played zero in actuality. I've played hundreds of hours of the original and none of the sequel. But because the publisher decided to just use the same launcher, well here we are. The thing is this, Phantasy Star Online 2 didn't arrive until American until 2020. And a year later New Genesis launched. While Japan had a full eight years with the original release, we westerners got a year before a major rehaul. I know I'm being pedantic here. But it's confusing. And again, it reminds me of Final Fantasy XIV versus A Realm Reborn. In theory we're talking about the same game. But also, we're totally not. New Genesis straddles the line between the old Diablo in space thing, and an MMO proper. And I kind of love it for that. It tries so hard to be a modern console MMO (think The Elder Scrolls Online) while remaining rooted in classic PSO. It feels like Genshin Impact and a retro game at the same time, and I'm really into that dichotomy. Now one thing that's infuriating about playing an online game is server maintenance. Twice in the past couple weeks I've gone to log on in glee, only to be crushed to learn that no, I would not be playing tonight. But man, New Genesis has me hooked. I've never been an MMO guy. World Of Warcraft and the like never appealed to me. But this game? Yeah. There's something so awesome about the whole Phantasy Star aesthetic to me. I can't help but love it. And while the game is grindy as they come, I'm finding myself soothed by running around aimlessly and killing stuff. I love knocking off random side quests. I love finding a group of players and jumping in to help. I often log in with no real plan. Maybe I'll continue on with the story quests. Maybe I'll just wander aimlessly. Maybe I'll tackle some side quests. Maybe I'll see some other players that could use a friendly hand. The point is, that all of these options are completely viable and completely fulfilling. In that sense, New Genesis becomes a sort of comfort food to me. This feels like one of those games that I'll keep installed for years to come, possibly putting it in the same pantheon as things like Overwatch, Fortnite, Minecraft or Slay The Spire. So it's in good company.
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