For the uninitiated, PSO is a role–playing game which can be played online or offline. At the outset, you’ll choose one character from nine different choices and customize their costumes, hair, and so on. The different characters all hail from three different classes: Rangers, Forces and Hunters. Each class possesses its own strengths and weaknesses that range from power to weaponry. Forces are magic users with a good ability to gain TP (the term for the usual Magic Points in most RPGs), but are slower to gain hit points with every successive level. Rangers, on the other hand, can be equipped with heavy artillery and pack much more power than spell casters. And Hunters have a slightly balanced compromise between the other two classes, useful for hand–to–hand combat as well as magic.

The balance between the different classes provides you with choices that suit your fighting style preferences. Although the complexity and variety in character selection hasn’t been fully explored in PSO, the bases are adequately covered. Just enough disparity in the game play and strategy between the types exists to keep you wondering what it would be like to play as a Ranger if you’ve been using a Force all along.

For those who’ve read every story about PSO since its announcement, the concern among fans is whether or not the game remains true to its Phantasy StarAlgol System roots. The answer is mixed, to say the least. The chances for a strong, coherent storyline are strained because of its online functions. With the number of players and the non–linear structure being the focus of online gaming, coupled with the odd offhand reference to PS series staples like Dark Falz and Monomates, the difference between PSO and Skies of Arcadia, for example, is a rather large gap filled with plenty of monster–killing.

In the beginning, your character is chosen as a Hunter to chase down the cause of a giant explosion on Ragol, a planet your civilization is hoping to inhabit. An earlier crew that had previously inhabited the surface of Ragol has strangely vanished — along with all communication to you. Although this is a cool premise, the actual thread of story within the game is almost pushed aside in favor of the game play.

Prepare yourself for overload the minute you plunge into an online room filled with PSO–obsessed folk speaking every language (including the long–lost international tongue of smut), and who are eager to level up their characters just like you. Navigation and signing up for the game is amazingly easy for first–timers, but you’ll have to contend with some strangely delayed character renderings, and the annoying habit of speech bubbles clogging up your screen if a multitude of people are in the lobby.

Once you’ve entered into a game with up to three other characters, the fun really begins. The object of the game is to clear a dungeon and then gain access to the next one — the more characters you have in your party, the more monsters will inhabit each room of every dungeon. Therefore, the more people in your party, the better chance you have of scoring large amounts of experience points that help you to level up your character (which is the basis of any good online RPG). Having a larger party can also be a brilliant way to swap items and take down big, bad bosses with ease, and more importantly, there will always be someone to revive you if you die.

There is a downside to every group experience whether virtual or physical. The distribution of items gained from killing monsters, boss fights or treasure chests is always a source of tension in a low–level group of explorers. Grabbing items to sell or equip can boil down to who gets to them faster, but this is also part of PSO’s strategy. So, what does the offline game mean in any of this? Actually, a few different things.

Your offline game is played solo against the exact same monsters in the exact same dungeons as online play. Once you’ve cleared a dungeon in the offline game (you’ll start the offline game on Normal difficulty), you’ll be able to bypass it in an online game of the same difficulty level, providing you are the leader. Therefore, if you clear the Forest on Normal offline, you’ll automatically be given access to the next dungeon, the Caves, when you sign on and start a Normal online game. Besides the fun high jinks of online, the general idea of PSO is to beef up your character enough to take on all three difficulty levels of the offline quests (Normal, Hard and Very Hard) in order to receive the game’s real ending. This is not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination, but you’ll find that the camaraderie of online quests is sufficient enough to keep you enthralled for the long run — if only for the Diablo factor of getting your character to the next level, or to find that ridiculously rare item.

And you get to dish the dirt with all your friends online in different ways. Sonic Team has done a commendable job providing gamers with a multitude of ways to communicate with one another — simple mail, guild cards or universal translators. While the universal bit doesn’t work as smoothly as I’d hoped (it makes gamers scroll through a clumsy network of preset phrases), the effort is definitely present and makes asking, "Where are you from?" of a non–native speaker easier than breaking out a foreign language dictionary.

Players are also able to swap Guild Cards, which work like ICQ numbers, or business cards. Once you have someone’s Guild Card, you can seek them out online, no matter which server they’re using. If you choose to exercise discretion when giving out your card you will be grateful when the server is crowded and you are trying to find someone. The inclusion of simple mail allows you to send limited email to a friend online if you have their Guild Card on you. The entire chat and communication system in PSO aims to make each player’s online life much easier to manager, and even enhances the entire experience. Kudos to Sonic Team!

Even though Sega has pulled off the unthinkable feat of placing a high–quality online RPG on the Dreamcast, the project isn’t without a few hitches. Yes, PSO experiences a lot of slowdown during big brawls in rooms with loads of beasties and players running around. Yes, there is lag which will confuse players when they see their friends appearing and reappearing at odd locations on the screen. Yes, there are instances of hard crashes and soft crashes that will kick you off the server requiring you to have to reconnect. Yes, broadband compatibility is officially unsupported by Sega. Yes, the game could use more diversity in the dungeon designs and more brain work in its overly simplistic step on this switch and have a friend step on the other puzzles. And finally, yes, this is a dungeon crawler with the emphasis on killing things rather than exploring themes of love, death and loyalty alongside a salty lead character who has more angst and anguish than a typical Final Fantasy hero.

BUT (and it’s a big but) this is a game that’s so expertly constructed in its pick up ’n’ play controls, mechanics, simple but well–plotted systems and painfully gorgeous graphics (Sonic Team clearly gets something out of the DC that loads of other third parties can’t seem to figure out), that it’s best to keep your opinions to yourself until you’ve kicked considerable alien butt online. Then feel free to decide whether you want to trash the game (probably not), or keep playing so that you can test out that Dragon Slayer sword and get your character to level 62. For most gamers, the answer is the latter.

With the high addiction factor and ground breaking console design, PSO is a game that no DC owner should pass up. Flaws and all, the game stands as a testament to Sega. No matter what the company decides to do in the future, or how the task is accomplished, Sega delivers the content that will dictate what most gamers will see on other systems for years to come.