This is actually an update to this post:

https://new.reddit.com/r/PSO/comments/1fvi77v/i_started_again_even_if_only_offline/

Thanks to the advice of several people here, I bought the Dream Pi. Yes, I could play online with an Ethernet cable. Not with Wi-Fi. I could not get the Raspberry Pi to display anything on a monitor. And I tried several monitors and several cables. Oh well..

Anyway, I defeated Dark Force on normal, offline mode with three of my characters: a hunter, a ranger, and a force. And forgive me for calling it Dark Force instead of Dark Falz. That's how it was called on Phantasy Star II, III, and IV.

Here are some tips: For the Darvants, I could defeat the 3 you needed with a Partisan using the hunter. With the ranger I used a Saber and then switched to a Rifle for the rest of the battle. With the force, it was more difficult. My standard weapon was a Rod. I always hit them with a heavy attack so I could destroy them with one hit. But I had to charge that attack and it had low accuracy, so that was a wash.

On Dark Force's first form, the monster with three heads, I could do it with no problems with a hunter using the Partisan. That weapon is a good compromise between speed, range, and strength. With the hunter it was less stressful because I could hit it from far away using the Rifle. With the force I had to use Razonde over and over. With the force I found out it's better to wait until Dark Force lowers one of its heard to attack: you use less fluids this way. That doesn't really apply to hunters and rangers, since they don't use a limited resource to attack.

The following is on my opinion, the most important advice: on Dark Force's second form, when it hovers alongside the edge of the field, stay as close to it as possible, right on front of him, at all times. I don't care what type of character you are, just pretend you are a hunter. Otherwise Dark Force will cast a magic spell from time to time that can kill you instantly. That's especially the case if you are a force. And don't worry about Dark Force casting slowdown on you. Ignore it and keep attacking, and healing yourself if he attacks. That's better than instant death. And by the way, I just used Gibarta over and over with it while being a force.

Let me finish by saying a few things about forces: It was harder for me to defeat Dark Force (and all the bosses and enemies, really) as a force. I had to memorize which spell was better for each enemy or form. And since I was only using my weapon to open boxes (otherwise I'm too weak), I had to go back to town every time I ran out of fluids. When I defeated Dark Force I had no difluids and had around 2 monofluids left. I was getting nervous. I will probably have to use trifulids to defeat Dark Force on hard mode.

That meant that I tend to be low on money when I play as a force. I grab every item I can get my hands on and sell it so I can buy more fluids and spells. The main reason why it took me longer to defeat Dark Force as a force (other than figuring out which spells were better) was that I kept running out of money. I had to buy more fluids before each time I faced Dark Force. Once I ran out of money, I just saved and quit, and tried again a few days later. You know you have to complete all of Ruins again to reach Dark Force again on each play session, earning more money.

Other than that, I believe forces are actually very powerful. They might actually be the most powerful character types in the game. If you like the challenge, it's worth playing as a force.

I hope all this advice is useful. Take care.

I seem to have lost the file for the gamecube proxy, iykyk. Would anyone be willing to send it to me? I'd greatly appreciate it

Just curious. It's been 15 to 20 years when the servers were up. I have very few I still keep in contact with. Figured I'd throw a shout out here and see what happens.

I’m looking for rare items and people who are either a duper, who don’t play anymore, or want to sell or just get rid of some items? I’ll send a memory card or pay you something.

I used to play on Sylverant a long time ago, but what server actually has the bigger playerbase & active events? I remember Sylverant would sometime skip holiday events they had done the previous year, and i would feel kinda bummed playing online during those times, does Schthack host annual events?

Its actually kind of criminal how LITTLE Phantasy Star Merch there is officially. Nabbed this on Etsy

https://preview.redd.it/uncktvzqebzd1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9169652d7bbd7aa136e543588cda60fc20fc1734

https://preview.redd.it/02f5wvzqebzd1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3c18c22fa26a1b1dbb37a594ef57503b7de47fc

https://preview.redd.it/qohalbqvwwxd1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3971843e739ff5dcd292377a2364416aaaff4ede

It's a set with GameCube Episode 1 & 2 and a 56k modem adapter.

I managed to purchase it with great effort from Yahoo Auctions Japan.

I plan to connect to PSO through an old laptop with a dial-up modem installed.

The package is on its way!

I played the hell out of PSO V1 and some of V2 (until my character got into a bugged lobby and my gear was wiped) back on the Dreamcast back when both were contemporary. Loved them so much. Haven't touched the seri s since, but fired it up as I & II vis Dolphin GCN emulation on my Odin 2 and I'm having a blast.

However, I'm wondering if there are any things I can do early game to optimize / speed up leveling and gearing up? I know your characters name / creation influences their color and drops, but as far as in-game stuff, any advice? I have only vague memories of how I did things back then. Playing as a RAcast.

I had th Dreamcast strategy guide as a kid which was a great reference guide. Not sure if something like that is useful or exists for the GCN version. Might connect to online play eventually but want to work through the single player missions / areas first.

*via Dolphin

I was looking at mag guides online but most if not all are for Episode I & II onward. They mostly guide you to the fourth evolution but that wasn't in the original PSO for dreamcast right?
Right now I'm with a lvl 45 Mitra with almost all points going to DEX, then I was supposed to do 2 more evolutions and max out POW.
But If there isn't a 4th evolution, what do I do? Do I make it the same stats as most guides even without the 4th evolution?

I just picked up a Dreamcast and PSO V2. I am struggling a bit with combat early on and I need to heal between nearly every area. I am playing as a Humar currently with a green Sabre.

Mainly, it is the bear things in the woods that do damage to me. If I try to just fight them and press A, I get damaged badly. All I’ve found that seems to work is to run, wait for them to get close, hit heavy attack (hope it hits), run away, and repeat. What am I missing?

Aside from buying the official keyboard controller, how can I effectively chat with other players on schtserv? I saw a mod that would let me set up a keyboard. Do others generally do that or just basic in game stuff?

I want to be polite and efficient, but I have no idea how to do that. Played this game on splitscreen with my cousin a couple decades ago. Really want to experience the late game online but don't want to be a burden to anyone.

I've been playing around with Suno lately and trying to recreate that iconic Phantasy Star Online (PSO) music style. Has anyone found a good set of tags or styles to nail that sound?

I've been experimenting with tags like "ambient," "sci-fi," "chill," and "synthwave," but it's still not quite hitting the same feel as PSO's OST. Would love to hear if anyone else has had success or if there's some combination of effects or instruments I'm missing.

Appreciate any tips!

PSO Ver 2.. Can anyone tell me how the jump pack works with the game. I mean specifically on the console (because I want a base line) also if you’re using it on an emulator (like I am) with an adapter, controller, rumble, etc.. are you getting rumble? I’m only getting rumble on the bosses. I’m using a blissbox gamer pro advanced adapter on retroarch. Any info on this regarding the console rumble or emulator rumble is appreciated!! Thanks

PSO is avail through Isnsigna. What would be the beat server for Xbox? I used to play on Schthack but my character got wiped a long time ago.

Hey Guys, I'm new to the game but I have made a guide to how to get the online running on Wii, Wii U, GameCube, and PC (Dolphin). As well as some explanations for things that didn't make any sense to me starting out. Big thanks to all the veteran players who helped me learn and there are links to youtube videos in the document that I used to get some of my info as well. I just wanted it all in one simplified place. This is a work in progress so I will slowly add stuff as needed. There are also links to the wiki for more complex stuff that isn't as necessary for new players who just want to try the game to see if they like it.

I want to give credit to all the wikis and youtube videos so I tried to link everything I could that I used to compile this info.

There are NO links to the rom in the document.

Anyway here is the google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pRmzIdw39VjqzAznKVwFEPNHAoQt5Gj_rDrmfX3wntg/edit?tab=t.0

🎃 Get Ready for a Spooktacular Night! 🎃

We’re thrilled to invite everyone to our Halloween Event 2024! Our team has brewed up something extra special this year with exciting new surprises debuting for the first time! 👻🕸️

Come for the fun, stay for the chills—don’t miss out on the frightful festivities. See you there... if you dare! 🦇

#Halloween2024 #SpookySeason #NewSurprises

https://www.phantasystaronline.net/forum/index.php?/topic/40609-halloween-event-2024/

I played PSO on Dreamcast back in the day, as well as the Xbox version when that released. I was in the age range of 10-13 and PSO quickly became an obsession for myself and several of my close friends, we all played together and had an absolute blast. Eventually we moved on to other things, world of warcraft comes to mind.

Jump forward to last week when I learned about the various community driven private servers for the PC version, Blueburst.

I was fairly skeptical at first glance, worried the servers would be empty, and players I would actually find would be maxed level or they would be toxic to a new player. So I decided to just play in a single player mode and get my nostalgic tickle beating up cave sharks and stuff.

Completed the forest area and the dragon by myself easily enough and moved on to caves, where I found things to be much more 'tedious', not exactly difficult, but everything took a long time to kill. So I decided to create a new room but left it open to other players to join and potentially help me out. I was a little worried nobody would join at all or if they did, they would be impatient or rude to me. I couldn't have been farther from the truth!

I played for another couple of hours and quite a few people filtered in and out over that time. A couple newer players like myself and some higher lvld characters as well, the higher lvl people were happy to jump on lower lvl alt characters so it would still be fun for us scrubs. Everybody I met in that time was extremely patient, kind and just relaxed. It was an awesome experience and I couldn't be more grateful to those players.

I just wanted to write this post to thank the community for being awesome, and to hopefully inspire anyone out there that's just lurking in solo mode like I was to join an open room and meet people

I play on ephinea BTW, hit me up if you want to do some low lvl areas!

Could someone help me with this, I just got a DreamPi and want to play these games but I do not understand how to patch the GDI files on my GDEMU

I was 20 or so when it came out on Dreamcast, and although I liked it, once I beat the main boss I thought 'is that it? Just four levels?"

As a gamer of the 80s and 90s I had been brought up with the understanding that 'clearing' games was the goal. I had never played Diablo and the idea that you would replay a game over and over again to acquire better gear and ascend higher challenges didn't occur to me. As a result I foolishly dropped the game when it was in it's golden age. 😓

Only years later, with other games having built on this gameplay loop did I start to understand the shift that had occurred and I have kicked myself ever since. Biggest gaming regret

Edit 1: PSO 😅

Hi all, I've been itching to get back into PSO, and I've gotten the return to ragol mod running on GameCube on my steam deck. But when I'm done with episodes 1,2 & 3 I want to do 4, but I just want to be able to mod my stats and items into my character in BB, I don't want to play through the first 2 episodes there since return to ragol is geared towards single player. I've got my local offline server instance of Blue burst running on my deck, I just need some help or pointed in the direction of a tutorial on how to modify my local server files. Any help would be appreciated!!

I started playing PSOBB Ephinea for the first time (played GC PSO back in the day)
Trying to understand how rare drops work.

I'm playing with a friend (Whitill Ramar)
And I am playing as a (Pinkal FoNewm)

Friend has been hosting the games, and we are now in hard so rare drops are showing up.
So far I have only been getting rare drops that come from Whitill, according to the Ephinea Drop Chart page.

Is it because he is creating the lobby? So I am unable to get any Pinkal drops? How does this work?

https://preview.redd.it/ap6w63leadtd1.png?width=996&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc453c14a11986fbc7aba5c73a96aa36d5adc7b4

So i have the rom on dolphin downloaded and installed but it crashes after the agreement screen and time selection. I also can't get rid of the on screen controller buttons. Help me !