Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II

    

 In Episode I players start out in the Forests of Ragol. The dungeon is set up into 2 tiers, Forest 1 and Forest 2. That leads them to a dome building created by the members of Pioneer 1 which is inhabited by a Dragon. The second dungeon is the Caves. It has 3 tiers and is noticeably longer than the forest. The caves end with the players teleported onto a raft where they fight the wormlike De Rol Le down a seemingly endless underground river. The third dungeon is the 2 tiered Mines. In it players encounter the first non organic enemies in the game. The teleport in Mines 2 leads them to a control room where they fight the super powered computer Vol-Opt. The players are then taken to a mysterious underground room where if they activated all 3 relics in the previous areas they can go to the fourth and final area of Episode I, the ruins. This dungeon has 3 tiers and features darker, more supernatural enemies. The teleport at the end of Ruins 3 will take the player to a beautiful garden. At the garden they find a large stone, apparently a grave of some sort, and upon approaching it the skies grow darker and dozens of small spike covered  tops start spinning around the circular area. After destroying enough of them they bury themselves into the ground and then a large beast who slithers on three dragon bodies complete with heads(The infamous Dark Falz) assaults the group. The dragon heads spit out the same spiked creatures that the players fought before and moves around after every round of attack. After enough battling, Dark Falz will launch a blast of energy into the air and which rains down on the players hitting them all. After the players destroy him he leaves the dragon bodies and spins on the outside of the stage. He shoots out explosive blasts and rings of ice that freeze the players. After enough hits the battle ends or moves onto the third and final form if on Hard, Very Hard, or Ultimate difficulty. In the third form the players are ascended into the skies on a holographic ring created by Dark Falz. This form will attack one player at a time with a long range energy gattling attack and a swipe. Also the beast casts a light attack and a dark attack, which results in instant death. Ater the players destroy the creature they are treated to a congratulations screen and if the killing blow was done by a weapon with "Dark" in its name (earned as a drop from the Episode II final boss) the player can travel back to the boss fight area with Dark Falz to see the garden restored and the spirit of Red Ring Rico floating on the grave.

Episode II starts off with the player going through virtual reality locations. These are noticeably harder than the areas of Episode I. These are only one tier and feature enemies found in the other episode. Then players head to a Central Control Area which encloses three locations: the Mountain, the Jungles, and the Seaside area. After completing all of that the players journey to the Seabed, the hardest location in the game. It is there they fight the Olga Flow, a creature formed from a famous scientist aboard Pioneer 1, Prof. Flowen. Should the Olga be killed by a weapon with Red in it's name then they can travel back to the boss arena to see the ghost of Prof. Flowen.

The online play costed around 10 dollars a month and the servers were console exclusive meaning that Xbox players could not interact with Gamecube players. Due to voice support in the Xbox version there were a few additional quests that made use of that functionality. The Gamecube version made use of the connectivity to the Game Boy Advance allowing players to play three small games based on other Sega franchises. The Chao game linked up with a Sonic game to offer new gameplay options. The Gamecube version was re-released in August 2004 as Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II Plus with new GBA games and two Episode II quests which were formerly online only. The Gamecube versions servers were shut down in 2007 and the Xbox's in April 2008. The game can be played for free on Gamecube, Dreamcast, or PC through a free server created by SCHTHACK. The latest official release of PSO is Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst which features most of the console version's features and an all new episode called Episode IV as Episode III was a card based MMORPG released only on the Gamecube as Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution. Episode III's servers were shut down with Episodes I & II and their players could communicate with each other but not play together.