History Videogame / PhantasyStarOnline

* KatanasAreJustBetter: On paper, Katanas in ''PSO'' can outdo many other melee weapons. Also a RockBeatsLaser, as it outdamages ''laser'' weapons. However, they are slower and [[AwesomeButImpractical outclassed by weapons that have five or six hit combos]], though there is one paired set of katanas that not only has a five hit combo, a health refill special, and is relatively easy to ensure that its Percents are very good. The Tsumikiri J-Sword, while falling into the Sword weapon category instead of the Katana, has the appearance of a giant 6-foot long katana.

''Phantasy Star Online'' is a [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame Massively Multiplayer Online]] {{Action RPG}} released for the Sega Dreamcast, then for the PC, Xbox and UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube that carries on the legacy of the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' franchise.

* StandardStatusEffects: Poison, Paralysis (you can move, but can't attack), Confused (inflicts InterfaceScrew), Slow, Frozen, and Instant Death.

* DummiedOut: The Red Ring and the Parasitic Cell D were meant to drop off the final bosses of Episodes I and II respectively. Unfortunately for players, Sega set the item drop rate for both bosses to zero, meaning they would never drop ''anything'' (including rare items). As such, it is impossible to obtain either item without a cheat device or homebrew quests.

* DifficultySpike: Playing online is harder than offline. Though on the flipside, when you do hit a wall offline, you can't just ask other players to help out, so you may be more likely to have to [[LevelGrinding grind]] for a while. In addition, enemies give more experience online, can be killed faster in groups, and some of the best quests for grinding quickly are only available online too.
** Episode 4 is this in regards to the difficulty scale from Episode 2. To note, Episode 2 can be cleared after doing Episode 1 on the same difficulty, if a bit overleveled. Episode 4 should only be done if you can do Episode 2 on the next difficulty.

* ZettaiRyouiki: [=HUnewearl=] and [=FOnewearl=] characters can come equipped with this in most of their outfits.

All versions of ''Phantasy Star Online'', including the most recent incarnation (''Blue Burst''), have had their online mode servers shut down. Sega had initially set up international servers for ''Blue Burst,'' but these were shut down on March 31st, 2008. The Japanese servers went down on December 27, 2010. You can play PSO on a private server, with several fan-created efforts out on the net to try in this regard.

''Phantasy Star Online'' is a [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame Massively Multiplayer Online]] {{Action RPG}} released for the Sega Dreamcast, then for the PC, Xbox and GameCube that carries on the legacy of the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' franchise.

''Phantasy Star Online'' is a [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame Massively Multiplayer Online]] {{Action RPG}} released for the Sega Dreamcast, then for the PC, Xbox and Gamecube that carries on the legacy of the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' franchise.

* CameraCentering
* CameraLockOn

* KillEnemiesToOpenDoors: A rare case of ''every single fight other than bosses'' being like this: until you kill all the monsters in a given room/area, all the doors leading forward are locked. Thankfully, monsters can't like their room/area (although you also can't hit them with ranged attacks from outside their room), meaning you can retreat into already cleared areas to heal yourself.

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:Part of Rico's human body can still be seen as fused into Dark Falz's first two forms, [[PainfulTransformation horribly mutated and writhing in pain]]. You can still see Rico's red ring]] on one of the arms if you look closely (it falls off after the creature dies). As for Flowen, we get an idea of what happened to him thanks to ''Episode 2's'' [[ApocalypticLog Apocalyptic Logs]]. One tidbit of NightmareFuel: We learn that the mutation begins as the wounds inflicted on Flowen by Dark Falz's infant form shift and change shape ...]]

* CallBack: The beginning of the opening theme is based on the theme tune from ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII''.
** Episode II uses the first dungeon music from the first ''Phantasy Star.''

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: One of the worst offenders amongst [=MMOs=]. The highest level cap in all editions except the original is 200, which doesn't sound too bad except it requires just over 82 ''million'' experience points in a game where the enemies in the last dungeon on the highest difficulty give about 350 XP (in Episode I anyways - Episodes II and IV really crank things up by going all the way to... 450) and bosses cap out around 50k. Oh, and virtually all the game's content is perfectly beatable if you're at least level 130 (at which point you're not even 10% of the way to the cap going by experience points).
** The last levels are almost exclusively for [[BraggingRightsReward bragging rights,]] since your stat growth almost completely flatlines for the last 20 levels or so and the level up requirements get truly ridiculous thanks to the exponential XP requirements (to give an idea of just how bad it is, the character passes the halfway point for experience at level 182).

* ''Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst''
* ''Phantasy Star Online Episode IV''

* EarlyBirdCameo: Rupika shows up as a nameless, unconscious [=FOnewearl=] in an early quest in Episode I. She isn't seen again until Episode IV, where she plays a much more significant role.
** Not completely nameless, as you you can see her name if you open your chat window. Of course, there's no reason to do that on an offline quest, unless you really want to know the names of the {{Non Player Character}}s.

'''Episode III''' is a CardBattleGame sequel exclusive to the Gamecube. Set 50 years after ''Episode II'', it's about two rival groups- the government-approved Hunters and the rebellious Arkz faction- and their battle for control over the revolutionary C.A.R.D. (Compressed Alternate Reality Data) technology as humanity finally prepares Ragol for colonization.

* CardBattleGame: ''Episode III''.

* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: A common feature of all post-millennial Phantasy Star games, but ''PSO'' was ''really'' bad about it. The first episode of ''PSO'' contained only '''four''' mission environments (each with two to three sub-enviroments), and told an entire story (complete with side stories and quests) within these maps.

See ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' for the original tetralogy. It later received a SpiritualSuccessor called ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse'' and a proper sequel, ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2''.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' (sequel to the original not to be confused with Episode II)

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: PSO practically wrote the book on this trope. Generally speaking, the rarity and quality of a weapon is inversely proportional to how much of it is composed of photon particle effects. You'll get a fancy, dangerous-looking LaserSword right out of the gate, but it won't be anywhere near as good as a several-hundred-year-old katana.

* LostForever:
** The Ragol Ring and Kireek's scythe, the Soul Eater, require the player to perform quests in a specific order and give a specific series of answers. If you screw it up, those items are impossible to attain on that character/difficulty level. Worse, the two items require the player to give different answers to the same question, so you can only ever get one on a specific character/difficulty level.
** The Ragol Ring is really bad in this regard, since dying while it's equipped will remove it from the game. SO not only is it easily missable, but it's unusable too.

* ScunthorpeProblem: The swear filter used in ''Blue Burst'' was a very good example of why swear filters should ''always'' be optional in games. A notable example would occur when trying to tell another player that you can't play Friday, but can play on "Sa!@?#ay"...

** RareRandomDrop: Enjoy your chances of getting objects easily getting lower than 1/1000.

** Everyone always pulls up the menu when moving between rooms as a protection from traps. Even when they're traversing an already-completed area where there are no traps. ''Even if they're playing an android who can see the traps in advance.''

* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: A common feature of all post-millennial Phantasy Star games, but ''PSO'' was ''really'' bad about it. The first episode of ''PSO'' contained only '''four''' mission environments, and told an entire story (complete with side stories and quests) within these maps.

All versions of ''Phantasy Star Online'', including the most recent incarnation (''Blue Burst''), have had their online mode servers shut down. Sega had initially set up international servers for ''Blue Burst,'' but these were shut down on March 31st, 2008. The Japanese servers went down on December 27, 2010. You can play PSO on a private server, with several fan-created efforts out on the net to try in this regard. As a starting point, [[http://ephinea.pioneer2.net/ Ephinea]] currently has the closest to the vanilla experience with a few optional modifications.

** The Ragol Ring and Kireek's scythe, the Soul Eater, require the player to perform quests in a specific order and give a specific series of answers. If you screw it up, those items are impossible to attain on that character/difficulty level. Worse, the two items require the player to give different answers to the same question, so you can only ever get one on a specific character/difficulty level.
** The Ragol Ring is really bad in this regard, since dying while it's equipped will remove it from the game. SO not only is it easily missable, but it's unusable too.