A little game called Phantasy Star Online turns 14 years old today, having been released for the Dreamcast on January 29th, 2001 (In America... to be fair some may argue the real birthday is December 21st, 2000 which was the Japanese release)

Oh man, this game was so good and I think really changed my perspectives on what console gaming could accomplish. Although admittedly I didn't get on board the PSO train right away, I was certainly aware of the game, and always wanted to try it. Finally when Dreamcasts were getting marked way way down as Sega was fading from the hardware business, I picked one up, and the *very first* game I bought for myself was Phantasy Star Online.

I remember my earliest impressions of the game made me want to compare it to Diablo & Diablo 2 for some reason... the dungeon crawl where map elements were randomly generated in an endless search of loot. The fact that I could link up with friends and adventure out in the world together... keep in mind this was just before the dawn of Xbox Live, and the first time I'd been exposed to network gaming-- on a console (There had been plenty of network gaming on PC before that, from Duke Nukem to BBS Door Games...).

In retrospect, the game was awfully grindy, I mean in the first version of PSO there were really only 4 stages that existed with a handful of monster types and several "random" patterns. It didn't matter though because it was exploration! With FRIENDS! With the common goal of MORE LOOT! ... and maybe some rappy killing too. Or maybe I was just hypnotized by the telepipe animation that masked the loading times.

Although PSO on the Dreamcast for me didn't last too incredibly long, I remember visiting the world again for a little longer with PSO on the Gamecube (the lone game to use my broadband adapter!). Then again with PSO Blue Burst on the PC. And hell, for an even longer time with Phantasy Star Universe on XBOX 360 (Yes, as unpopular as that game was with some, I stuck it out... dual wielding light sabers was just too awesome).

I'm still a little bummed I'll probably never get to try Phantasy Star Online 2 or Nova on the Vita. Yes I know I could just download PSO2 and patch it, but gosh I wish on the birthday of the game we'd get an awesome announcement from Sega that the game will finally be properly localized. Okay well since time is running out for today, maybe at E3??? I can dream!

Okay curious if any of you guys had any PSO memories to share?

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