Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst
From Sega Retro
| Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| System(s): Windows | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Sega | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer: Sonic Team | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: RPG | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (ファンタシースターオンライン ブルー バースト) is an enhanced PC port of the game Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II, developed by Sonic Team and released in Japan on July 7th, 2004 with a US and European digital release on June 6th, 2005. The game was also the first time a Phantasy Star Online game was released in mainland China with the game being released on January 18th, 2005 and operated by ZARVA.
This was the last update to Phantasy Star Online before focus shifted to Phantasy Star Universe.
Contents
Story
Episodes I & II
Being a port of the original game, Blue Burst allows players to play through the Episodes I & II storylines present in previous releases with the content present in previous releases being accessible by making a One-Player Party, however unique to Blue Burst is the Government Quests in Episode I available from the new NPC Momoka and Lab Quests in Episode II from Nol Rinale (previous seen in the Episode 1 quest; Journalistic Pursuit). Government and Lab quests act as a retelling of the stories seen in Episode I and II in a more story-orientated manner; as individual quests to investigate the various areas of Planet Ragol after the disappearance of Pioneer 1.
Episode IV
In addition to the content in Episode I and II, Blue Burst had its own story expansion released called Episode IV accessible by creating an Episode IV party and talking to Momoka. Taking place prior to the Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution, the story sees the player character returning to Ragol after being sent to investigate a meteor that had crash landed on the deserts Ragol. Meanwhile a Military Organization named WORKS lead by a man named Leo Garhart are interested in the meteor and a substance contained within it. Episode IV also sees the return of various characters like Ash, Sue, Kireek and also Rupika (previous seen in the Episode 1 mission; Gran Squall) who seems to have some connection to the events going on.
Gameplay
Being a port, the game plays similarly to its previous releases with the player traversing a variety of areas on Ragol, fighting enemies to progress and fighting an end boss. However with the release of Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, Sonic Team has made some changes to either improve on the game or make good use of the new server-side and PC capabilities. New features include:
New Areas
With the Episode IV expansion comes several new locations for the players to explore. These locations feature a much higher difficulty compared to Episode I & II and introduce several new enemies unique to Episode IV. The new areas consist of the following:
- Crater: The surrounding rocky terrain on the surrounding area of the impact site. The Crater Area is split up into four routes (Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern) which are depicted as four different identical locations ingame but with some mild differences.
- Crater Interior: The terrain over the impact site, the area features most of the same enemies and elements from the first Crater area.
- Subterranean Desert: A desert located under the impact site of the crater. This location consists of three different maps as the player progresses deeper and deeper into the impact site. Following the third area, the player has a chance to encounter the sole boss battle of Episode IV which comes in three variations; Saint Million if encountered during free roam, Shambertin if encountered during a quest and Kondrieu as a rare variation that can appear in either mode.
New Items
With the game's Episode IV expansion and over time via updates the game would have new items added to it. These new items included such things such as new Mags, new Weapons, new Armors and Shields, etc. These new items would be made available either as ingame drops or through special events for players to receive said item.
Teams
In *Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst players can establish "teams" which works similar to guilds in other MMOs. Teams enable players in the same team have access to a separate global chat for team members to chat together in addition to a teampoint system which enables players to donate rare weapons for Team Points. Team Points are used to rank teams on a leaderboard and also act as a form of currency for Team Leaders to buy new features for its members such as new quests, dressing room to modify already made characters and a unique team flag, an image that hovers next to a player's name to identify what team they belong to.
Miscellaneous
- Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst saves the player's character data on the server and linked to a unique player account as opposed to previous releases which saved the player's data locally and required the player to use the character on the same console.
- Items and Techniques can now be made accessible via the 1-0 keys via a hotbar as is common in other MMORPGs.
- In addition to the Episode IV expansion, the game would be able to receive various content updates to fix bugs, add new features and content, etc.
Downloadable content
| Title and description | Links | Releases |
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PC
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Promotional material
Press release
Physical scans
| PC, JP |
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 Cover
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| PC, JP (Rerelease) |
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 Cover
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External links
- Sega of Japan catalogue pages (Japanese): PC
- Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst Official Website: JP, US, CN
References
