More New PSO Info

I’d never thought I’d be covering RPGs for TSSZ, but it’s happened. The Sonic Team has released some more information on it.

First off, the online component of the game can best be summed up by the following catch phrase: “You’ve not the only hero.” Hmm . . .not exactly the best way to put it. Perhaps Sonic Team meant to say “You’re not the only hero.” In fact, the Japanese version of the phrase translates to “the hero is not alone.” Aah, now we have something.

Though many speculated that PSO would be a massively multi-player RPG not unlike Everquest, it seems as if this will not be the case. During a recent sit-down with Sonic Creator Yuji Naka (look for the full interview soon), IGNDC learned that PSO will in fact be much more like Diablo or Baldur’s Gate than Verant’s chart-topper. The premise for Phantasy Star Online is that you’ll be able to use the network to adventure with other people from around the world. Hopefully, this will help keep the story strong and make PSO far more personal, with you going about online with three other people.

Also, it seems that the game won’t be exclusively an online experience, as you’ll be able to play in both offline and online modes. Sonic Team has promised that playing the game in offline mode will be the same experience as playing it in the online mode, a promise that suggests the game is set to feature some clever AI routines to make your party members act as though they’re being controlled by real people.

That’s all we know for now. The game will be released to Japan some time in the year 2000.

This seems incredibly interesting, and if the Sonic Team can pull it off, we have have a small revolution of the RPG genre in our hands. Look for more info as the Sonic Team releases it.