Withstand the temptation I could not. Two weeks ago, I finally took the plunge for a new GameCube after selling off my old one only half a month before, and picked up where I left off in Phantasy Star Online Episode III (PSO3). That explains why there were no new entries from me within that last fortnight.
It was only after two weeks from the date of my resubmergence that I would be able to spam rantings (some famous examples include ‘OMG U FUGGING NOOB!’ and ‘W7F! CH34P!’) with a GameCube-compatible keyboard. In the meantime, I had to make do with the software keyboard, a ‘Word Select’ system, and an intriguing something Sonic Team affectionately dubbed ‘Symbol Chat’.
‘Word Select’ allows you to flip through a list of the most commonly used phrases, and pick one to say. That may not sound very interesting – it isn’t. What IS interesting is that if you select the phrase in English, Japanese, German, French, etc, players would see them in their respective native languages, if the language was supported. All in all, you could say ‘I want my mummy!~’ in 5 different languages in PSO Episode 1&2, and in 2 with Ep3.
Of course, just a simple list of basic phrases isn’t going to satisfy all the non-keyboard-owning players’ spamming needs. In fact, this ‘Word Select’ system isn’t all that interesting now anymore – Final Fantasy XI has a similar, and better system, whereby you could type anything in English/Japanese, and it would be machine-translated to the other language automatically.
‘Symbol Chat’ is something that no online game has been able to top yet. Welcome to the next level of online communication.
Elite speak? Lame. Emoticons? A thing of the past. ‘Symbol Chat’ and all its creative possibilities? Now we’re talking.
Basically, a ‘Symbol Chat’ is a rectangular-shaped signboard that shows a bunch of shapes and symbols you’ve prearranged, with a selected sound effect played. The signboard itself consists of a ‘face’ (either a square, circle, triangle, or am inverted pentagon), which you then add face parts or objects parts to, until you obtain the desired image. It’s not easy though – the variety of both face and object parts are quite limited. As if driving the car uphill isn’t hard enough, Sonic Team had to give you worn-out tires by limiting the amount of each type of parts you can add as well. How I wished they had just adopted an MS Paint approach for this.
‘With great challenge comes great rewards,’ I’m sure a great man once said. Alas, he was right. Creative players have managed to express a number of emotions and implications with this nifty innovation.
From the classic anime faces,
to the simple pictures,
and the absolutely pWn-ing ones.
Of course, this is but a small sample of what creative PSO players are capable of. For starters, two out of four creations (the lame face and ‘byebye’) here came from me, although I was more or less ‘inspired’ by the other players’ masterpieces. Some of the other more impressive ones that I could not show you at the time of publication include a whacky version of that Pikachu greeting, with his eyes popped out and his face red, a Pikmin greeting not unlike the Pikachu one, and a whole bunch of facial expressions featuring the adorable anime kitty a fellow PSO friend of mine designed. There was also this one time, when I entered a lobby full of players, that this Japanese player repeatedly show 3 similar frames of ‘Symbol Chat’ to illustrate a Kirby dancing. If you thought the classic Kirby dance < (", <) <( '.' )> (> ,”)> was cute, then you’ve got to see the Symbol Chat version.
It is innovative features like this that make videogames such wondrous examples of contemporary art. So please give Sonic Team more money, by buying more copies of Phantasy Star Online, Billy Hatcher, Sonic Heroes, and Puyo Puyo Fever to innovate!
If you don’t, then you’re officially an enemy of PSO players around the world. And if you are an enemy, I believe I represent Yuji Naka (president of Sonic Team) when I say:
Just kidding!
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Did’ja know.. that Phantasy Star Online is not only available on the GameCube? Episode 1 was originally launched on the Dreamcast, but the online servers for that version have long been shut down. Episode 3 probably won’t be available on anything else apart from the GameCube, but so far Episode 1&2 has also been available on the Xbox, and will soon be on the PC as well.
Enter Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst. Featuring new additions such as up to 12 shortcut commands (previous versions only allowed up to 6 or 8), server-side character saving, and more. Detailed descriptions here.
Phantasy Star Online Episode 1&2 or Blue Burst is best described as an up-to-4-player, 3D, futuristic version of Diablo.
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