Releases
Phantasy Star Online ver. 2 is a video game that was released for Dreamcast and PC on July 6, 2001 in Japan, on September 24, 2001 in North America and on March 1, 2002 in Europe. This version features battle mode allowing other members to battle one another, a new difficulty titled "Ultimate Mode", a new soccer game within the lobby, and allowing Players to reach a maximum level of 200. Official servers have since been taken offline.
A Nintendo GameCube and Xbox version titled Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II was released in 2002. An online role-playing video game, its focus is online gameplay with a strong offline storyline, offering diverse online and offline gameplay. Offline mode is available for single player and multiplayer. Multiplayer split-screen mode can be played with up to four players. Playing online on Xbox required an active Xbox Live account. An Xbox Live account saved onto the system was also required in order to play offline. However, it did not need to be active for offline play. Official servers have since been taken offline, as well as the original Xbox Live server, meaning one can no longer make an Xbox Live account to play the game offline.
An upgraded version of the Nintendo Gamecube version titled Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus was released for the Nintendo GameCube on November 27, 2003 in Japan and on September 15, 2004 in North America. This version added various quests to Offline Mode that were originally available exclusively to Online Mode, while also fixing certain bugs and exploits that could be used in the previous release, such as being able duplicate various items from one's inventory.
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II was later ported to Microsoft Windows titled Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst and was released on July 15, 2004 in Japan, June 23, 2005 in North America and Europe. Blue Burst features a new episode titled Episode IV along with new enemies, maps, and items, in addition to those included with previous episodes. Blue Burst also features improvements in controls and graphics of the previous version.
| Version | Platform | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Phantasy Star Online | Dreamcast | December 21, 2000 (Japan), January 29, 2001 (North America), February 23, 2001 (Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 | Dreamcast | June 6, 2001 (Japan), September 24, 2001 (North America), March 1, 2002 (Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online | Microsoft Windows | December 20, 2001 (Japan), 2002 (Asia) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (ver 1.0) | Nintendo GameCube | September 12, 2002 (Japan)2 |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (ver 1.1) | Nintendo GameCube | October 29, 2002 (North America), November 2002 (Japan)2, March 7, 2003 (Europe), March 14, 2003 (Sweden) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II | Xbox | Q1 2003 (Japan), April 15, 2003 (North America), May 23, 2003 (Europe) |
| Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus | Nintendo GameCube | November 27, 2003 (Japan), September 15, 2004 (North America) |
| Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst | Microsoft Windows | July 15, 2004 (Japan), June 23, 2005 (North America/Europe) |
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