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| | The Ragol.co.uk Hunters Gazette |
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Ring the Bell! |
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The big debate for this fortnights Hunters Gazette. 
Ever since the release of World of Warcraft, the world of Phantasy Star Online has never been the same, allowing Warcraft to steal many great hunters from our sleeves! But... should you do the same?! |
 
In the Red Corner stands our beloved Phantasy Star Online. Now through this debate, we'll mostly be comparing using Blue Burst and Episode I, the latest PC incarnation of the series, because afterall, comparing a PC game to a console game wouldn't really work! Phantasy Star Online is of course the series you and I love. It's an action based RPG game set for a small-scale MMORPG affair. You make a character, you take him/her online, you get weapons, you take down enemies and defeat bosses, like an adventure game. In the Blue Corner readies World of Warcraft. This game was released not long before the summer in Europe and worldwide has got a gaming audience of over 2 million! What do you do in this game? You choose your character, you take him on an adventure across a stupidly large world, and take down many enemies at your own pace in order to gain new items, quests, events, and the such. To start off with, we're gonna take a look into the storylines of the games, because for a game to be good, it needs to have a good story that makes at least some sense, so there's a reason to play it! Phantasy Star Online's story basically evolves around the destruction and loss of Pioneer 1, a ship that was roaming around the planet Ragol and setting up a new colony and new life on the planets surface amongst friendly wildlife, when suddenly the ship is attacked from the surface following a huge explosion, caused from a huge build up of Photon, and the whole place turns evil! Pioneer 1 is lost, presumed destroyed, along with it's entire crew and colonies, which also consisted of Red Ring Rico (Pioneer 2's Principal's Daughter). Pioneer 2 arrives at Pioneer 1's last known positions around Ragol and picks up the pieces to find out just what the hell happened down there, and to recover anything possible. In World of Warcraft, the story continues pretty much from the Warcraft series. Four years have passed since the mortal races banded together and stood united against the might of the Burning Legion. Though Azeroth was saved, the tenuous pact between the Horde and the Alliance has all but evaporated. The drums of war thunder once again... You pick a side, complete with its own races, and take up the story of the path. You can attack opposition villages in armies and they can attack your villages in armies.  
In Phantasy Star Online, you take your character through several areas of Ragol where the incident took place, of which include the Forest, Caves, Mines, and Ruins (Episode I). When you arrive at each of these areas, you enter a room where many enemies pop-up from the ground (Or fly down from the sky!), and you have to kill them all before the door to leave the room and enter another is opened. Once you get to the end of the complete area (Which may consist of 2 or 3 levels), you'll meet the boss of the area and have to kill him before you can move onto the next segment of the game. The aim of the game is to continue doing this and replaying the story so your character can get so much personal experience that he/she levels up to the current maximum of level 200. There are also different difficulties you can unlock when you get to a certain level so you can take on harder enemies to get greater amounts of experience at one time. World of Warcraft lets you take your character across a massive adventure that spans across a map so large, it could take you a whole day of continuous running just to cross it! Unlike PSO, this is just one big open area that you can enter despite what level or how much experience you have. The main aim stays the same, to gather so much experience that you can level up your character so he/she can become much stronger and able to gain the best items/weapons in the game to battle against others and enemies. The maximum level currently stands at level 60, and is by no means an easier task then PSO just because its a smaller number then 200! You roam around and discover new places (Which also gives you EXP!) to open yourself up to new quests which you can obtain from people around villages/roads. These quests may mainly involve exploring another area of the world and killing so many of one enemy and getting so many items. Once you complete a quest, you get more EXP and open up more quests! In World of Warcraft, everyone plays in the same map (However, different people maybe on different servers where the maps are held!). You may run to one village where there are billions of other people roaming around (Maybe trying to do the same thing as you!), or you could run to an area that is totally empty. The advantages & disadvantages of this though are obvious, because in busier places, your game will run very slowly unless you own a super computer! When you start off on each game, you choose the race (side) of your character and you're able to customise them to a certain degree.  
With World of Warcraft, you start on a server, and you choose the race, and the type of character you want. Once you've selected that from a few options of which each will determine how you character is different from the rest, you choose male/female, skin colour, and then you're able to choose between a few colours for a couple of other parts of your character, such as hair colour. The downside with this game though is that you cannot name your character using symbols, and you cannot use a name that has already been used on a character held on the server you're playing on. Creating a character on Phantasy Star Online starts off by asking you to choose your character type (Human, Ranger, or FOman (Magic!)). Once you've done that, you get to customise your character in the form of choosing hair type, skin colour, costume (From about 20 costumes & colours), height & width, and you characters name, which can be anything that fits in the alloted name space! Each character type has different abilities and different skills which again alter throughout the games playtime. The gameplay of these games are where they really differ. Although they are kinda the same, the thing that makes them different is the core element to the games.  
World of Warcraft is not really an all out action packed adventure game, because you cannot just walk up to enemies and go fight them some of the time, and when you do get a good brawl going, it is no way as quick and fast as Phantasy Star Online. When you get into a battle, you select several moves using the mouse from your shortcut bar held along the bottom of the screen. Its a little slower and gives you more time to plan what you'd want to do so to speak instead, adding a more strategic element to the battle. Enemies also although they constantly appear throughout the game are quite spread out and you can always dodge the battle areas so you can just take on one at a time. Phantasy Star Online however is a more fast paced action battler. Once you enter a room, swarms of enemies could ambush you and you've got to take them all down as fast as you can before you get killed yourself! While World of Warcraft is a more organised game, PSO takes you straight into the action as there's enemies after enemies, and it may take you a while to kill them all! You could compare the battle system to that of a game like Dynasty Warriors, where enemies approach you in big numbers, wave after wave!
A few more items to compare these two monsters on:  
Items/Weapons WoW: More then enough items and weapons to discover and equip, so much so that you can even gain skills to make your own! The weapons also work on durability, in the factor that they'll only kill so many before their stats decrease or the weapon goes bust altogether. PSO: A fairly large amount of items and weapons relevant to the games size. You can find them from either boxes, or from enemies, spread across levels. Graphics WoW: On the top setting, World of Warcraft looks fairly pretty but obviously due to its immense map size and immense amount of other features, the graphics can only be so great on the PC. PSO: This games graphics haven't really improved a huge amount since it's first incarnation on the SEGA Dreamcast, but despite that it doesnt need to be made any prettier because the graphics are perfect for the job. It would be hard to improve on. Audio WoW: World of Warcraft has very nice and dramatic audio surround sound. The music changes everytime you enter new areas so that it makes you feel more 'In the game'. There are also many different audio notes for clicking on certain buttons and completing certain tasks (I.e. completing quests/discovering new areas). PSO: Phantasy Star's music fits in incredibly well to the levels of the game. Everytime you're in a new level, the music changes, and you can also play your own music CD's you have bought from the online shop should you have them on your character at the time. There are also audio notes you hear when going through the menu's and the such.  
Key Online Features WoW: Guild Features (Teams), P2P Trading, In-Game Mailing, Real-time Chat (In Various Options), Special Events, Auction House Trading PSO: Guild Features (Teams), P2P Trading, In-Game Mailing, Real-time Chat (Group and Team Chat), Special Events, 'GOGO Ball!'. I know i have not covered everything between these 2 games, but there are so many elements within the 2 games, there just isnt enough space to fit it all into, let alone, remember at the time of writing! For example, i have not talked about PSO's MAG system, which can easily be countered by World of Warcraft's Pet system! However, it's time for the conclusion. I'm not going to say which one is better, because it depends on you in which game is the better. World of Warcraft is a deep, huge, and very busy adventure game that has so many aspects you'll need to be big on fantasy RPG and action games, and also be able to think and solve small puzzles when it comes to completing those quests. If however, you prefer games like Dynasty Warriors that are all really about the fast paced action and killing of outraged opponents, while also liking RPG game elements on a smaller scale such as weapons, then Phantasy Star Online is the game for you. It's very easy to get lost in both, and it's a shame that PSO has lost so many players recently since the release of World of Warcraft, but then again, Phantasy Star Online is a series that has been around for 5 years now and hasnt really changed at all, so i guess its not hard to see why some people may have wanted a change. For your loyal Lee-yoshi here however, you know you'll always catch me on Phantasy Star Online! If you don't, then you'll be wanting our sister World of Warcraft site, warcrafttavern.com! If you'd like to comment on this editions main article, then do it in our forums, in this particular Ragol.co.uk Forum Thread! Share your point of view with the world! Do you agree, dont you agree, DO post on our forums!  Chao's arrived at Ragol.co.uk Offices this morning with a big grin on his face, and since he's been neutered, that can only mean one thing. So... What great bargains have you got for us this time, Chao?  Some greatamondo items there, so if you're interested - click on the item! All prices were correct as of 28th July 2005 (Evening GMT)
Chao, for now!  | | The Ragol.co.uk Hunters Gazette |
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Credits July 29th 2005 Hunters Gazette Edition by: Lee-yoshi
Images: Lee-yoshi
© Ragol .co.uk |
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