N-Philes

Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution

Posted by Stephanie DeSiena.

It's one in the morning. I'm sitting cross-legged on a green rug, staring blankly at a 29-inch television screen. The reflections in my eyes seem to remain static then flicker and bounce as I forget to blink until my eyes dry up. There are no clocks down here in my basement, only the Pacific clock in the game, in military time no less. The wireless has been beeping for hours, because I forgot to hang up. I've also forgotten to shave, and looking appropriate for school in six hours is in the back of my mind. My eye twitches and drool slowly trickles down my chin. I have become addicted to a Phantasy Star Online game. For the fourth time.

For the past month, Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution has kept me captivated to the point where it becomes an extension of myself. Whether you experience the absolute thrill you get from defeating a Japanese player nearly 100 "C-Levels" higher than you or just hanging out in the lobbies listening to your favorite Sega tunes, PSO Episode 3 proves its worthiness of being the latest and final installment in the widely-accepted Phantasy Star Online franchise. Whether you're a PSO nut looking to finish off the story in the universe, a competition nut or a tactical wiz, Phantasy Star Online Episode III has plenty of intense battles and replay value to keep your face glued to your TV set for weeks, even months to come, even if you don't have access to the online features.

Phantasy Star Online Episode III is Sonic Team's final installment in its nearly four-year-old franchise. It wraps up the story (or whatever you want to make of it) that began in PSO Episode 1. The story is played out through an engaging offline Story mode (which, some would argue, is unusual for the PSO series) that is told from two different perspectives: the weapon-equipping good guys or "Hunters"; and the creature-summoning bad guys, the "Arkz". Naturally the game also has an online mode, which seems to take less precedence over Episode 3 than it did 1 & 2.

So Cool It's Spelled With A "Ph"

The simple-minded would pass this game off as "just another Yu-Gi-Oh collectible card game," and although there is a heavy focus on the card collecting aspect of the game, the strategy that is involved with this mechanic is neither aimless nor derogatory. Once you realize the perfect strategies for making the formidable deck of your dreams, the game will flow better than many other card-based strategy game before it. This being said, the learning curve for PSO Episode 3 is eminently higher than previous installments in the franchise. The tutorial is informative, although at the same time painfully basic, teaching you the simple dynamics of the game through pictures and text. It'll take many battles before you begin to get a grasp on the different effects of each card, and you'll oftentimes find yourself implementing trial and error, teaching yourself exactly how the game works. Don't expect to buy the game and jump into Free Battle mode with your friends unless you want to explain to them how to play strategically multiple times. However, much like nearly every Sonic Team game before it, once you get the system down it all clicks.

You begin the game by creating your character (or importing your Episode 1 & 2 character given you have a save file) and are given and extremely basic set of C.A.R.D.s. With these C.A.R.D.s you can either build a deck right off the bat or use a pre-built Default deck for your first couple of battles. It's strongly suggested that you play offline a bit first to get the feel of the game before going up against human players online. Jumping into online mode with the Default Hunter deck expecting to win is about as good a strategy as playing in an amateur baseball league without wearing a cup. However, after you win a few matches and gain more cards you can build an efficient deck that you can practice with, and even master. You gain cards by winning or losing (although you naturally gain much less in a loss than you would with a win). The amount and rarity of your card depends on the rank you get after completing a battle. In typical Sonic Team fashion you are ranked from E, the lowest, to S, the highest.

The inclusion of character creation and the receiving of a Section ID seems useless, something included with the game only to clash with Episode 1 & 2's interface. Your own character you create doesn't battle, rather, it's only an avatar to use in the lobbies and in the Morgue (your base of operations). Otherwise, your deck's character card does the actual battling.

The battle system, similar to strategy games like Othello or Risk, is easy to learn yet difficult to master, at least when playing against competent opponents. It's turn-based, and your actions depend on a completely random roll of the dice before each turn. In the next phase of your turn, the "Set" phase, players spend their dice roll points intelligently on item and assist cards that are in their hands. After that comes the "Move" phase, in which players move on a grid depending on where they want to attack from, their allowed movement value specified on their character card, and/or how much of their dice roll they want to spend on that phase. After that comes the all-popular "Action" phase in which players then attack other characters, if able, using weapons, attack cards and techniques. Finally comes the "Draw" phase, in which players drop and gain cards (no more than 5 cards in your hand are allowed). Then their turn ends, and the other side's begins. This may sound tedious, but using your brain and trying to predict what the other side is going to do to you just leads to bedlam as you tumble over in immense concentration and lack of awareness for anything but the game.

One feature that most everyone that likes their playing field to be leveled is that no matter what level, or "CLvl" your avatar is in the game, they still have a chance of defeating someone 500 CLvls higher. When you build a deck, you can only include 30 cards. No more, no less. And although someone with a CLvl that is 7 times yours may indeed have more rare cards, this does not guarantee a win. Even the rarest of cards are balanced enough for any strategic character with two barriers and 6 handguns equipped to take in one turn. This is because the total number of ATK (your points determined by the "Dice" phase) that your equipped items take up cannot exceed 8 points. Say an epic Double Cannon, with an HP of 15 and a rarity of R1, takes up 6 points and you equip it. This leaves little room for more items to be equipped. If, say, a ranger with two barriers, a rifle, a handgun and a Wals comes around, fully in-tact, and gets a lucky enough dice roll to attack with all 3 weapons in his next turn, that Double Cannon has the potential to be destroyed before the "weaker" player has a scratch on him or her. This adds a lot of strategy to building an effective deck and even cheaters can't get by just by having every super-rare item in his hand, assuming cheaters do begin to pop up thanks to the genius minds at Datel.

Simple Yet Effective

Visually, Episode III is nothing to write home about. The characters still move like robots and have a Dreamcast-feel to them, although this was most likely to once again work with Episode 1 & 2. The bare-bones battle animations are also taken directly from the previous games, even the tech animations are bland enough for you to sometimes even not notice what you were attacked with. Sonic Team kicked it up a notch by adding neat particle effects when new items and creatures are set, otherwise the graphics are comparable to those of the previous games. There is enough detail and polish to be an effective strategy game, but not enough to be deemed as any special kind of eye-candy.

One thing PSO Episode III sorely lacks is interaction with obstacles that are on your grid. Being able to break rocks blocking the field, or having the ability to open and close the electricity gates while in the heat of battle would have added a lot to the strategy. Otherwise the environments have a close attention to detail. Watching the lilies sway in the wind in the forest map, or the waves lapping against the shore on a beach map sets a welcome level of ambiance.

The game's story is occasionally portrayed through the hand-drawn manga scenes that were last used in Phantasy Star IV. This style was chosen, rather than graphically rendered cinema, because Sonic Team felt that character's emotions are more easily portrayed through illustration than graphics. This is done extremely effectively through the panel-by-panel manga while also keeping the player entertained. The panels will also have movement and special effects occasionally, making it more interactive than a traditional comic.

The C.A.R.D. illustrations are of the same quality. Once you look at some of the animations of the card in full screen you'll be amazed at some of the detail the animators pulled off. You'll even feel that the illustrations look better than their 3D counterparts, especially on the character cards.

Sounds Like Heaven

Having bought the official soundtrack long before the States received the game, I knew what to expect in terms of composition. The sound is done by three of Sega's famed WAVEMASTER studio's composers, and some of my personal favorites.

The soundtrack ranges from a fantastically composed and powerful title theme to downbeat, laid-back trancy-ambient space music, to intense and thrilling battle themes. Once you hear the edge-of-your-seat theme from Tower of Caelum it will be stuck in your head for many days to come. The music is used in the game effectively and very appropriate, although sometimes the music may be even too intense for the more casual matches.

A neat little feature that Sonic Team included, to minimize tedium while waiting for tournament matches to begin, is the addition of jukeboxes to the online lobbies. In the jukebox you'll find many themes from Episode 1, 2 and 3, as well as themes from other Sega games once Sonic Team gets around to acknowledging their American players. As of this writing, you'll also be able to listen to popular themes from Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio: Future. Japanese players have a bit more music to select from, such as the infectious theme from Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. More songs to relax to will most likely come in due time as Sonic Team unlocks them for us North American players.

In the sound effects department, it's basically your standard fare. There are over-the-top punch noises, grunts from creatures and the frequent chat bubble "swipe" noise. PSO, rightfully, is free of voice-overs, so there are no trademark silly Sega voice-overs to be found.

An Era Of Good Times

With any successful RPG, it's the entertainment and variety that keeps the player coming back for more. The biggest draws in Phantasy Star Online Episode III are building better and better decks, collecting different types of cards and rarities, and for the victory-hungry of us out there, the drive to get the highest player-rank possible online. After the game snaps for you you'll be playing and time will be flying by like you don't even notice. This is time you will need, as matches in PSO can occasionally go on much longer than you'd anticipate. If you sign up for a full 16-player tournament it could take anywhere from an hour to two and a half hours, on average. If you're interested in the game and don't have that kind of time to spare, offline mode is probably for you.

For those of you that are restricted to offline play for whatever reason, you can play through the Story mode as many times as you like, although it will begin to get repetitious. The Story mode isn't very long either, and each side can be beaten in roughly 7 to 10 hours. Unless you have a reasonable number of friends with their own characters that they can bring over on their memory cards, Free Battle against computers probably wont keep your interest for a terribly long time. In this aspect, online play is a must. Otherwise you just have a quicky game that's good for a week or two and then you'll most likely move on, unless you're devoted to fighting the average AI over and over again to see how many rare cards you can obtain.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A-.

All this being said, Phantasy Star Online Episode III definitely isn't for everyone. If you want your games to be more accessible and action-oriented, then you'd be better off sticking with Episode 1 & 2. Also, for your dial-up users, Nintendo has stopped supplying dial-up modems to retailers and replaced them with broadband adapters, so you'll have to buy modems from Nintendo's website if you wish to play online. If you're looking for a new challenge, or you just want a solid, surprisingly deep strategy-RPG experience, Episode 3 is for you. Phantasy Star Online Episode III adds enough variety to the series to appeal to all different types of gamers and adds a fresh, new experience that those who are not afraid of change will most likely see the brilliance within Sonic Team's latest gem.

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