Phantasy Star Online

Sonic Team has never been one to fear the repercussions of taking a novel, offbeat idea and making a game whose commercial success is risky at best. Whether the game requires navigating a platoon of mice towards a rocket ship in Chu Chu Rocket, or shaking maracas to Ricky Martin's Cup of Life in Samba De Amigo, there's always a touch of charm and ingenuity to be had in every Sonic Team game. But to take one of Sega's —no, gaming's—most cherished franchises and almost completely rework it?

Making an initial debut on the ill-fated Dreamcast, Phantasy Star Online draws little inspiration from the classic RPGs from which it takes its name. In fact, sans the distinctive future-organic aesthetic, Phantasy has more in common with the likes of Diablo than it does any previous incarnation of the series. As its own name explicitly betrays its true agenda, Phantasy takes the franchise online, doing away with the traditional menu-ridden, turn-based combat in favor of a simpler, more intuitive approach: four-player hack-n-slash.

The idea of scouring dungeon after dungeon for the most sought after of items, while fending off wave after wave of fantastical bio-engineered creatures may not sound particularly exciting on paper; and honestly, as a single-player experience, it isn't. The lack of any compelling storyline to motivate the player forward only adds to the game's limited appeal as a solo experience.

Online, however, the story changes, and Phantasy becomes a completely different beast. Best experienced as a four-player excursion, the strategic behavior and online chatter of your mates goes a long way in towards making each online session an exercise in either tolerance or pure co-op bliss. When the planets do align, the experience is second to none, thanks in no small part to the inclusion of real-time voice communication.

The weight and pith that voice communication carries in Phantasy, let alone any online co-op game, is not to be underestimated. In an ideal virtual world, a rudimentary soft keyboard and a handful of symbolic gestures would be enough to convey a sophisticated plan of attack to three other players. Sadly, this is simply not the case. And while this limited communication may have been passable on other consoles, it is merely a novelty when contrasted against conversational interaction. And it is this ability to intimately collaborate with others on the fly, and the camaraderie that is formed from it, that makes Phantasy work so well.

Though the Xbox version has blessed gamers with the most substantial upgrades (voice chat, Phantasy ver. II dungeons), there remains a suspiciously apathetic attitude taken towards mending the game's more reparable issues. The absence of free camera control often makes for less than ideal viewing angles when in tight spaces, which consequently leads to cheap hits and, inevitably, death. Also, it appears there are some cracks in Microsoft's "unified" pricing structure concerning online games, because on top of the mandatory $50 Xbox Live account required to play the game (online or off), there is an additional $8.95 monthly fee. Add $40 for the game itself, and you're looking at a fairly hefty investment.

Still, though Phantasy remains slightly flawed in execution, one in the search of an online, cooperative console experience would be hard-pressed to find a more gratifying solution than this.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Xbox Nation.