Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2
From Sega Retro
| Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| System(s): Sega Dreamcast, Windows PC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Sega | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer: Sonic Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Peripherals supported:  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: RPG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (ファンタシースターオンライン Ver. 2) is an update to Phantasy Star Online, and was released for the Sega Dreamcast in 2001, Much like ver1 the game can still be played through private servers with the Broadband Adapter, Modem and can be used with the DreamPi[3]
Contents
Gameplay
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 is almost identical to the original Phantasy Star Online, however adds in a "ultimate" difficulty, increases the level cap to 200. There are new multiplayer-focused "challenge" and "battle" modes, as well as several new single-player quests. "Go Go Ball" was added to online lobbies 11-15, as was a "dressing room" mode, accessed by using 100,000 meseta, to change player characteristics without re-creating the character.
In addition, new items were introduced and several bugs fixed. A shortcut menu can be accessed during gameplay by holding 
and pressing 
to equip or use items. Pressing with the menu up will change to different item types.
Very little (if anything) was added to the game's offline mode, so for those without access to the internet, the disc was for all intents and purposes the same as its predecessor.
Ver. 2 has limited compatibility with the standard Phantasy Star Online. In some situations, players from both games can interact with one another, while new sections are strictly for Ver. 2 players. The Broadband Adapter is also supported in this release.
Like its predecessor, Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 requires a dedicated Visual Memory Unit due to the amount of blocks it is likely to use.
History
Development
Plans were initially put in place to have this version of Phantasy Star Online run entirely through Windows CE, however technical difficulties meant this idea was scrapped (causing the game to be delayed for about a week).
Release
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 arrived very late in the Dreamcast's lifespan and was unable to recreate the same levels of success as its predecessor. This is likely due to new conditions imposed on consumers; in North America and Japan, a paid "Hunter's License" subscription was required to play Ver. 2 online. In the US the charge was $5 a month for a minimum of three months.
Conversely, in Europe no charge was placed on online play, however users required a copy of Dreamkey 3.0 for the game to work - a disc only available directly from Sega. Sega chose to shut down their entire online service for those not using 3.0 (or 3.1) discs prior to the release of Ver 2., meaning it was not actually possible to order a 3.0 disc through a Dreamcast[4].
Versions
This version of Phantasy Star Online would be ported to Windows PCs, though would lack the "Ver. 2" subtitle.
Production credits
- Producer: Yuji Naka
- Director: Takao Miyoshi
- Art Director: Satoshi Sakai
- Program Director: Akio Setsumasa
- Battle/Enemy: Yojiro Ogawa, Kenichi Fujiwara
- Field: Shintaro Hata
- Assistant: Masaya Amano
- Item/Technique: Kenichi Fujiwara
- Network/Word Select: Kenjiro Morimoto
- Sequence/Sound/Manual: Daisuke Mori
- City/Quest/Script Writer: Akinori Nishiyama
- Quest Script: Atsushi Kanno, Hidenobu Hasebe
- Assistants: Tomoyuki Hayashi, Michio Abe, Kenji Odaka, Akiyoshi Fushimi, Yonosuke Miki
- Character: Masanobu Yamamoto
- Enemy: Kouichi Toya, Yasuhiro Takahashi, Akihiko Shinya, Masakazu Miura
- Sound: Kouichi Toya
- Character Design: Yasuhiro Takahashi
- Battle/Data Saving: Akihiko Shinya
- Technique/Camera: Shinya Matsunami
- Field/City/Quest: Masato Nakazawa
- Word Select: Masakazu Miura
- Menu Window: Ryuichi Ishiguro
- Sequence: Nobuo Nakagawa
- Item: Makoto Suzuki
- Network: Akio Setsumasa, Kazuhiro Tonogi, Junichi Takeda
- Character/Item: Wataru Watanabe, Yuki Takahashi
- Assistants: Akiyoshi Fushimi, Yonesuke Miki
- Character Motion: Tomonori Dobashi
- NPC: Ai Ikeda
- Field: Kosei Kitamura, Sakae Tabata, Michio Abe, Hideaki Moriya, Akira Mikame, Kaori Hitsuda, Kenji Odaka
- Enemy: Satoshi Sakai, Yoshinari Amaike, Masatoshi Yasumura
- Technique/Sequence: Takanori Fukazawa
- Symbol Chat: Haruka Haginoya
- Character Illustration: Akikazu Mizuno
- Motion Capture: Kazuhisa Nishimura (Ldw/Sakuratei), Kazuhiko Mino (Ldw/Sakuratei), Akihito Okimura (Ldw/Sakuratei), Shigeru Ohata (Ldw/Sakuratei)
- Action Cordinator: Mitsuo Abe (AAC)
- Motion Actors: Tomohiko Akiyama (AAC), Motoko Nagino (AAC)
- Sound Director: Fumitaka Shibata
- Sound Creator: Hideaki Kobayashi, Fumie Kumatani
- Orchestra Recording Producer: Kotaro Kamada (Band Power)
- Orchestra Arranger: Daisuke Okamoto, Toshiaki Iida
- Conductor: Yasufumi Tokito
- Main Orchestra Play: Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra
- Orchestra Chief Manager: Hiroyuki Tominaga (Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra)
- Musician Co-Ordinator: Ayako Sato (Witchcraft)
- Recording Engineer: Hirokazu Akashi, Yoshitada Miya, Hirofumi Sako
- Assistant Engineer: Sawako Sogabe, Kazunori Yoshida (Sound City), Satoshi Nakazawa (Sound City)
- Recorded At: Wave Master Recording Studio (June-Oct 2000), Sound City Studio (Sep 2000)
- Vocal: Loren
- Recording Co-Ordinator: Shiro Sagisu (Ro-Jam)
- Recording Director: Kan Hashimoto (Jail House)
- Recording Engineer: Philip Bagenal
- Recorded At: Eastcote Studios London U.K. (Oct 2000)
- Sound Co-Ordinator: Yukifumi Makino
- Sound Created By: Wave Master Inc.
- Executive Management: Hideki Sato, Tetsu Kayama
- System R&D Dept.: Kenichi Iwanaga, Jiro Terakawa, Masahito Nishimatsu, Yuki Yamanaka, Takuji Konuma, Masahiro Sato, Akihiro Etori
- Product Management Dept.: Masanao Maeda, Seijiro Sannabe, Yasushi Yamashita
- Team Manager: Yoshihiro Sakuta
- Designer: Youichi Yakahashi
- Editor: Chieko Nakamura
- International Business & Product Development: Hiroyuki Miyazaki, Shinobu Shindo, Hitoshi Okuno
- Team Manager: Akira Nishikawa, Hideki Yohkaichiya, Yoshimitsu Wakai
- Quality Assurance Dept.: Takaaki Jindou, Dan Baker, Sunao Murayama
- Sales Promotions: Takayoshi Ohuchi, Naoko Ohoka, Kazuhiro Asami
- Licensing Director: Masahiro Nakagawa, Toshiki Izawa
- General Manager: Hiroshi Nakanishi, Game Business Dept.
- Manager: Keiichiro Suzuki
- Producer: Akihiro Itoh, Takeshi Hotta, Rikiya Katagai
- Communication Server Development: Akito Osame
- General Manager: Kunihiko Hayashi
- President & Coo: Peter Moore
- Executive Vice: Shinobu Toyoda
- Localization Producer: Jason Kuo
- Localization Manager: Osamu Shibamiya
- VP of Localization: Jin Shimazaki
- Lead Tester: Gabrielle Brown
- Assistant Leads: Tom Fong, Shaheed Khan
- Product Manager: Rich Briggs
- Associate Product Manager: Noah Musler
- Director of Product Marketing: John Golden
- Creative Services: Bob Schonfisch, Angela Santos
- Public relations: Gwen Marker
- CTO: Muwaffa Lahham
- Network Producer: Ryan Hurth
- Marketing Project Manager: Bee Yinn Low
- Lead Network Analyst: Jason Nolen
- Sega Europe Chief Operating Officer: Kazutoshi Miyake
- Director of Product Development: Naohiko Hoshino
- Assidtant Director of Product Development: Kats Sato
- Localization Producer: Kuniyo Matsumoto
- Test Manager: Jason Cumberbatch
- Lead Tester: Nick Bennett
- Language Co-Ordinator: Caroline Ruiz
- European Product Marketing Manager: Jim Pride
- European Product Marketing Executive: Mark Fisher
- Public Relations Executive: Stuart Turner
- Manual/Packaging/Senior Designer: Ross McLeish
- Network Manager: Ryusuke Ito
- Network Engineer: Stephen Tan
- Network Qc: Teruo Yabumoto
- Special Thanks: Sonic Team USA, Tadashi Takezaki, Toshimasa Kubo, Tsuyoshi Sawada, Ayako Hino, Ikuo Ishizaka, Takayuki Ohta, Mutsuhiro Fujii, Masahiro Wakayama, Yasuko Maruyama, Cord Smith, Every Hunters of Pso
- Executive Supervisor: ISAO OOKAWA
- Presented by: Sega
- Created by: Sonicteam
Magazine articles
- Main article: Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Wallpapers
The following wallpapers were included as extras on the installation disc of the PC version of Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2.
Screenshots
PSO Ver.2 players could opt to play with those who owned the original version, but with limited compatibility.
A shortcut window can be used to access items quickly.
Go Go Ball
Physical scans
Dreamcast version
| Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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84 |
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| Dreamcast, US |
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  Cover
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 Inlay |
| Dreamcast, EU |
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  Cover
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 Disc |
| Dreamcast, EU (White) |
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 Disc |
| Dreamcast, JP |
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  Cover
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 Spinecard  Disc  Inlay |
PC version
| PC, JP |
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 Cover
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| PC, KR |
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 Cover
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| PC, TW |
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 Cover
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Technical information
VMU Features
Character Data from Phantasy Star Online can be converted to be used in version 2. Once it is converted, the character can no longer be used by the previous version.
| Name | File Name | Comment | File Size | Icon |
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| PSOV2/MAIN_DATA | PSO______SYS | PSOV2/MAIN_DATA | 15 blocks |
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| PSOV2/GUILD_CARD | PSO______2GC | PSOV2/GUILD_CARD | 30 blocks | 
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| PSO/SCREEN_IMAGE | PSO______IMG | PSO/SCREEN_IMAGE | 195 blocks | 
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| Name | File Name | Comment | File Size | Icon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSOV2/Soul of a Blacksmith | PSO______004 | PSOV2/Soul of a Blacksmith | 8 blocks | 
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| PSOV2/Soul of a Blacksmith | PSO______005 | PSOV2/Soul of a Blacksmith | 64 blocks |
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| PSOV2/Letter from Lionel | PSO______004 | PSOV2/Letter from Lionel | 11 blocks |
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| PSOV2/Letter from Lionel | PSO______005 | PSOV2/Letter from Lionel | 47 blocks |
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| PSOV2/Soul of Steel | PSO______004 | PSOV2/Soul of Steel | 27 blocks |
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| PSOV2/Soul of Steel | PSO______005 | PSOV2/Soul of Steel | 64 blocks |
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| PSOV2/Central Dome Fire Swirl | PSO______004 | PSOV2/Central Dome Fire Swirl | 25 blocks |
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| PSOV2/Central Dome Fire Swirl | PSO______005 | PSOV2/Central Dome Fire Swirl | 27 blocks |
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| PSOV2/The Retired Hunter | PSO______004 | PSOV2/The Retired Hunter | 10 blocks |
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| PSOV2/The Retired Hunter | PSO______005 | PSOV2/The Retired Hunter | 26 blocks |
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| Name | File Name | Comment | File Size | Icon |
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| PSO/MAIN_DATA | PSO______SYS | PSO/MAIN_DATA | 15 blocks |
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| PSO/GUILD_CARD | PSO______GCD | PSO/GUILD_CARD | 30 blocks |
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External links
References
- ↑ Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 33" (UK; 2002-03-28), page 4
- ↑ http://sega.jp/search/result.php?page=6&pf=11 (Wayback Machine: 2017-03-03 23:30)
- ↑ http://www.dreamcastlive.net/games.html
- ↑ Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 33" (UK; 2002-03-28), page 9
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Edge, "March 2002" (UK; 2002-02-27), page 95
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dorimaga, "2002-18 (2002-10-11)" (JP; 2002-09-27), page 32
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Dorimaga, "2001-02 (2001-06-08)" (JP; 2001-05-25), page 36
- ↑ BGamer, "Maio 2002" (PT; 2002-0x-xx), page 102
- ↑ Consoles +, "Août 2001" (FR; 2001-07-27), page 90
- ↑ Consoles +, "Avril 2002" (FR; 2002-0x-xx), page 127
- ↑ Digitiser (UK) (2002-03-11)
- ↑ Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 25" (UK; 2001-08-09), page 48
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "November 2001" (US; 2001-10-02), page 215
- ↑ GameNOW, "November 2001" (US; 2001-10-16), page 94
- ↑ GamePro, "November 2001" (US; 2001-1x-xx), page 158
- ↑ Game Informer, "November 2001" (US; 2001-1x-xx), page 126
- ↑ MAN!AC, "05/2002" (DE; 2002-04-03), page 48
- ↑ PSX Extreme, "07/2001" (PL; 2001-0x-xx), page 49
- ↑ SuperGamePower, "Agosto 2001" (BR; 2001-xx-xx), page 37
- Pages with broken file links
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