#WeeklyGameMusic: A Song for Eternal Story (Phantasy Star Online)


Following up with a SEGA music from last week, we’re moving right along to their lesser known IP, the Phantasy Star series. More specifically, the first online-connected entry in the long-running JRPG sci-fi franchise, Phantasy Star Online (PSO). Fans of this game from the Dreamcast and Gamecube era could probably immediately guess which track I’ll be introducing for this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic: the iconic title music, A Song for Eternal Story, by Hideaki Kobayashi and Fumie Kumatani.

Phantasy Star Online begins with a start of a new hope. With the home planet ravaged and inhospitable, your civilization journeys across space in an effort to discover a new planet to call home. When one of these colony-carrying spaceships, Pioneer 2, receives a message from Pioneer 1 of an excellent candidate they dub, “Ragol,” the former immediately beelines to the new destination. By the time they arrive, however, communication with Pioneer 1 — which up to this point has been regular with updates on their progress colonizing Ragol — suddenly ceases. Readings on the planet indicates a sudden large explosion occurred on the newly built city just before Pioneer 1 went silent. Suspicions high, the Pioneer 2 government asks for highly qualified soldiers, “Hunters,” to scout the planet and discover what dangers might lurk in this lush, unexplored land.

As a Diablo-inspired action-JRPG, Phantasy Star Online greatly diverges from past entries’ turn-based roots. A typical play session involves taking the following steps:

  1. Form a party of a maximum of four real players in Pioneer 2, which acts as the lobby.
  2. The leader of the party picks a quest from the quest counter. This prompts the game to procedurally generate a dungeon, themed under the environment the quest takes place in.
  3. All party members meet at the Ragol teleporter (after making preparations, of course) to start the dungeon-crawling adventure.

Combat in PSO is in real-time, where the player can customize their button inputs on what attack or spell to execute when pressed. The weapon the player equips dictates what action they can assign to their input pallet (weapons can be quick-swapped with a simple menu). Finally, the player’s class — chosen during the character creation screen — determines what weapons they can equip, thereby limiting what actions they can take. Given the game was originally designed with dial-up internet connection in mind, some technical limitations were enforced in the game that appear archaic to online games today. For example, players walk very slowly, and are unable to jump in PSO, making melee-heavy characters incapable of hitting flying enemies, and forcing them to rely on their gun-trotting or magic-wielding allies to handle the job.

Phantasy Star Online was originally released on Dreamcast, Gamecube, and PC. While official servers for the game has been put offline for quite a while now, the fan-supported PSO: Blue Burst Ultima Server is still online as of this writing. Of course, the other route is simply to check out the game’s free-to-play spiritual sequel, Phantasy Star Online 2, available on Xbox One and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store; which after 8 years since release, is still getting content updates as of this writing.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Blue Sky Town – Dol Dona (.hack//G.U.)


#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music. Today’s track is Blue Sky Town – Dol Dona, composed by Chikayo Fukuda. It’s a pleasant town music from Bandai Namco’s mega-long multi-media series, .hack, specifically, the .hack//G.U. trilogy.

Before there was Sword Art Online (SAO), there was .hack. That’s right, this game, manga, and anime series all takes place in the fictional MMO Action-RPG, The World. Dull naming aside, much like SAO, players start falling into a comatose state, both in-game and in real-life. Unlike SAO, the devs blame it to a computer virus, presumably spread by malicious players. The G.U. trilogy stars Haseo, who seeks for revenge after his close friend catches this comatose spell.

.hack//G.U. is a single-player action-JRPG series. Unlike, you know, real MMORPGs, .hack//G.U. is a story-driven game with no character customization, and A.I.-controlled party members. The party explores randomly-generated dungeons: battle initiates when a monster gets close to the party, constraining them into a tight circle. Perhaps the more unique side of the game is how narrative plays: there are email logs, marriage simulation, and other MMORPG-like communication methods to suck the player into its universe.

.hack//G.U. is available on PC via Steam, PS4, and PS2.

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Weekly Game Music: Jeremy (Granado Espada)


New week, new music.  We need…more MMORPG music!  Here’s Jeremy from Sword 2 (or Granado Espada outside of North America and Europe).  It’s composed by a group of South Korean composers, known as S.F.A.  The dramatic crescendo best portrays the wonders of discovering a new world.

Sword 2 is free-to-play at GamersFirst.com.

Sword 2 is loosely based off of the European colonization on the North American continent.  In the mist of a losing war, the king of Opoluto commands the explorers to Gilbert Granado and Ferrucio Espada to find an ocean route to get its upper hand on its enemies.  Instead, they find a new land, Granado Espada.  The discovery was a big surprise…for the enemy countries.  Soon, many nationalistic people ventures to this new land of hope, not letting the monster-infested land get in the way of their desire for power.

Sword 2 plays similar to the World of Warcraft: click to attack enemies, collect loot, gain experience points, etc.  It does, however, have one distinct twist: instead of controlling one character, you can control up to 3.  This allows for some neat party system, such as allowing the player to devote one character into healing without the need to be defended by their friends.  Surprisingly, this makes it an engrossing experience for even people preferring to play as the lone warrior.

Sword 2 was released on the PC in 2007.
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Weekly Game Music: Above the Treetops


Goodness, I keep forgetting about this.  Better late than never: I’ve got yet another MMORPG music for all of you.  Here’s Above the Treetops from ultra-popular MapleStory.  Unfortunately, the name of the composer(s) seems elusive at the moment, but enjoy the mellow tune as it is.

You can play the game for free at Maplestory’s website.

The plot of MapleStory is a simple one: the Black Mage, once sealed by 5 legendary heroes, has unfortunately re-awakened!  As the knight of the Maple World, you must fight!  Cue all the cute monsters that tries to rock your level 1 boat.

The gameplay is a little more interesting.  Much like Legend of Zelda II ,MapleStory is a 2D side-scrolling RPG, with some light platforming.  As with the MMORPG tradition, the collectible weapons and character costumes significantly spices up the action.  Any player should be able to find their most ideal play style, whether it’d be short-range, brute-force brawler style or long-range, tactical style.

MapleStory was released on the PC in 2005.  Offspring versions exists on the Nintendo DS and, oddly enough, Facebook.
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Strange Free Games: Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online


New week, new game. Lets talk about an MMORPG, shall we? Here’s one addicting, but queer RPG called Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online. Why queer? Well, for a Japanese anime inspired game, the visuals are oddly gothic and religiously offensive. Unusual to this genre, the game even has some cinema-scenes, too. And the most interesting part? It plays a little likePokémon.

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online can be downloaded at Aeria Games.

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online starts off in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where the city has been leveled by demons. As the typical MMORPG trope, you are a Demon Buster, one trained to fight against demons. While investigating a ruin, your leader takes a significant blow as a gigantic demon emerges. You’re rescued, barely alive, and decide to take some vengeance against this boss.

It wouldn’t be a Shin Megami Tensei game, however, if you couldn’t befriend these demons. As luck may have it, you have a talent to convince demons to join your cause, and have them fight alongside with you. Some NPCs are demons themselves, proving once and for all how resilient the human species are.
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Weekly Game Music: Vinelle Island (Fantasy Earth Zero)


New week, new music. A few weeks ago, I’ve mentioned a Flash-based MMORPG with excellent music. This time, I’ll talk about a now-defunct MMORPG that, unfortunately, nobody can play anymore. Here’s Vinelle Island by Hitoshi Sakimoto. It’s from Fantasy Earth Zero.

Fantasy Earth Zero is a fantasy-based versus game that involves taking over other kingdom (teams). It’s a strange mix of real-time strategy and action-RPG. Like real-time strategy games, the players must collect resources called crystals at designated locations. Collecting enough crystals allows players to create infrastructures or summon units to take control of.

Like Action RPGs, there’s a controlled level system with a hard limit. Like console RPGs, Fantasy Earth Zero requires that you control your character directly. In addition, attacks must be aimed and executed manually. As such, the game requires immediate attention and reaction to heated battles.

Fantasy Earth Zero was released by Square Enix in 2006. While it has been released in the US in 2010, the game has been defunct and unplayable for over an year.

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