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Phantasy Star Online (PSO) released in 2000 was an online title for Sega
Dreamcast. PSO was also later ported to Microsoft Windows, but this version
was only released in Asia. A bugfix/upgrade edition was released the
following year, entitled Phantasy Star Online Ver.2.
It is a part of the Phantasy Star series of games that begun in 1987. The
game has been followed by Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
The game itself is a simple hack'n slash type Role Playing Game where you
slay mosters, level up, buy new equipment etcetera. PSO differs from many
previous games of this genre by offering a real-time, rather than turn-based
approach to combat - and seamlessly integrating this with the
exploration/plot development aspects of the game.
Communication between players is achieved via a combination of direct
2-line text entry, 'Symbol Chat' and 'Word Select'. As PSO online servers
support international co-operative play, the 'Symbol Chat' and 'Word Select'
features encouraged players to attempt communication with others, regardless
of language.
'Symbol Chat' allows the player to define a collection of symbols within
a speech bubble, in order to convey an emotion or simple instruction. These
symbols could then be invoked via a player-defined shortcut, or accessed via
an in-game menu.
'Word Select' acts as a limited phrasebook, allowing sentences to be
constructed through a hierarchy of menus. Once complete, a sentence is
automatically translated into the configured language of other nearby
players, thus bridging the language gap encountered in cross-cultural
multiplayer games.
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