PSO: A great re-release, and new game!!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great Online Play, Easy to learn, Great Offline Play, FUN!

Cons: Repetitive at points.

The Bottom Line: 
A excellent online game that has an excellent offline game. A must have for all GameCube owners.

Author's Review
Overview: (8/10)
This great game was released originaly for the Sega Dreamcast and now avaliable on the Nintendo GameCube. Being the semi-sequel to the previous "Phantasy Star" games people that like them will probably like this and find the intertwining plot elements quite interesting.

Story: (7/10)
This game is kind of lacking in Story but what background information that you get is pretty neat.
The Earth is almost totally destroyed, and humanity must leave it in order to survive. A ship called Pioneer 1 leaves Earth on a immigration to a planet called Ragol. Once arriving to Ragol the ship lands and something goes horribly wrong, and all communication with Pioneer 1 is lost. But already on the immigration is the second ship, Pioneer 2, and on it is you, a Hunter.
This story is neat and allows you for the online game to proceed, and also for you to get the rest of the story through the Offline Single-Player Mode. The story is not overly complicated (but like I said in My "Lost Kingdoms" review: You don't need a complex story that hinders gameplay)

Graphics: (8/10)
The graphics for this game are quite nice, and are a upgrade from the Dreamcast version. Episode I there are a few graphical upgrades that do not effect game play. Example: the small ditch area on Pioneer 1 that is in the floor is now modeled instead of being texture mapped, the shadows, under the characters, are now done with the GC shadow mapping engine, and the textures in someplaces are higher resolution.
In Episode II on the other hand, which was not released on the DreamCast, is beautiful and a totally "re-vamped". This version has bigger and better looking areas and more area to explore. The character models are the same but look more in place then they do in Episode I. This version would have made a game on its own and stands graphically to any online game, or any game, that came out at the same time.

Gameplay: (7/10)
The gameplay for PSO is sometimes repeatative and involves a lot of leveling. It is similar to that of PSO for the DreamCast. The Character customizing tools are pretty neat and allow you to make a unique character to your own style.
-The Offline Single-Player Mode is good and the addtion of the missions to it make it worth playing.
-The Offline Multi-Player Mode is even also a great addition to the GameCube release, it allows you to level up with friends without having to go online. Although this mode is missing the missions it allows you to play Challange Mode, which is a mode that gives you challanges like have to beat levels in certain amount of time. You may also enter Battle Mode where you can battle your friends offline.
-The Online Multi-Player Mode allows you to play with up to four of your online friends and collect other players cards for easy finding the friends you like. This mode also lets you talk to the other player in a lobby and play Battle and Challange Modes.

Controls: (10/10)
The controls for the GameCube version of Phantasy Star Online are perfection. Easy to learn and easy to use the controls are nothing more less then prefect and sooo easy. Not much to else to say here, they are that good.

Final Thoughs:
This is a well definite pick-up game that plays excellent online and off. The minumum fee (to SEGA) is well worth it to play this game online, and if you do not want to pay it you can still play the offline game. So, I hope you like this game as much as I do and also that this Epinion has helped you on your decision on this game.