Before you throw this into the miscelanouse games thread, just hear me out.

Sega announced today that it will be making a 3rd chapter to the PSO series.
In episodes 1 and 2 the character could be ported between the episodes freely, this 3rd game will not utelize any characters from Episodes 1 or 2... Instead it will feature a REAL-TIME-STRATEGY battle mode, similar to Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh. It also will feature a DICE style battle game SO similar to D&D and Warhammer you may as well out-right call it a ripoff of the games. Your characters weapons, leveling, and monster battles will all be based on turn-based combat now instead of Zelda-Like Real-time online Combat. This is the soultion so that 56k and Cable players can play in unison. It also has a cool feature that lets you play as the BAD-GUYS this time! !! Featuring old re-used models from Episodes 1 and 2, in all new levels, including 3 new player classes (finishing the balance of the scale) and it will have all new music, environments, AND of course, the GOOD OL' Fasioned Chat Lobby where hundreds of players and their characters can walk about and meet eachother, only this time the lobbies will feature WAY more mini-games and even some real-time battle games reminiscent of PSO Episodes 1 and 2 !!!

^_^ This is going to be sweet! A whole-new game instead of one based on the old systems, but with the same style and flaire! Alright!

If you'd like to learn more about Phantasy Star Online, you can check out this game in the Ironworks Role-playing forum.

If you'd like to see screenshots from the Episode 3 game you can find them right here!
1 4 7 10 13 </br>2 5 8 11 14 </br>3 6 9 12 15

The official site is here

So this'll make it the 8th game in the series [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Phantasy Star™ Sega Master System 1988
Phantasy Star™ II Sega Genesis 1989
Phantasy Star™ III: Generations of Doom Sega Genesis 1991
Phantasy Star™ IV: The End of the Millennium Sega Genesis 1994
Phantasy Star™ Online Sega Dreamcast 2001
Phantasy Star Online™ Ver. 2 Sega Dreamcast 2001
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Nintendo GameCube/Xbox 2002
Phantasy Star Online Episode III T.C.G. Nintendo Gamecube/Xbox 2003


It should debut this winter :D sweeeet

hopefully by then we'll have a stinkin' keyboard out for the thing >_>

Wicked, I played Phantasy Star 2 for a long time on the Megadrive/Genesis and played 3 for a bit but didnt like it. Then played Phantasy Star 4 and loved it - completed it.

How similar are the PSO games to the original Genesis ones? Does it cost money to play or can you just log on and play?

Well Episode 1, 2, and version 2 for the dreamcast were all pay to play, originally PSO version 1 for the dreamcast wasnt pay to play, but that's the only one. Now if you want to play it you must pay, unfortuently, there is a free online-working demo out there for the PC version though, you can probably get it at the sega of japan site, or on some file-swapping program you've got. I'm sure there are american sites with the demo too. In all, the Episodes 1 and 2 (Aka Dreamcast Version 1, and 2 + 4 new levels and 3 classes) isn't a whole lot like the orignal phantasy star games. For one thing, the combat system is totally differint, it's like playing Zelda with 4 people. The attacks are based on how quickly you can hit the enemy before it hits you, and you then nab items and head to the next room, beating room after room consecutivley and feeding a mag. THIS new episode however will be MORE like the original PS games because it will feature TURN-BASED combat. Though I'm sure there will be alot of changes with it to. It's really a matter of what kind of online game you like, one that's furiouse and invoulves alot of player supporting, or one that's more gradual like D&D or Magic the Gathering [img]tongue.gif[/img]

and i'd like to point out this is one of the many reasons why limiting the time on being able to edit posts is bad, my modems took so long to load the page that I couldn't take out that teeny space in time >_<

sadly, I never played any of them. :(

This one better not be pay to play!!! I missed out on all the other ones cause I didn't wanna fork over the cash every month!!

Hehe anyone remember Rune and Aelis IIRC and Chaz from Phatasy Star 4?
Ah those were the days :D