Phantasy Star Universe

Phantasy Star Universe (ファンタシースターユニバース) (PSU) is an action roleplaying game by SEGA's Sonic Team for the PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. In Japan, it was released for the PC and PlayStation 2 on August 31, 2006, with the Xbox 360 version releasing on December 12, 2006. Its North American release was on October 24, 2006, available in all formats. The European release date was November 24. The initial unveiling of the game was at E3 2004, with subsequent showing at the next E3, and then again at TGS 2005. A closed beta stress test for the servers took place between April and May 2006.

While Phantasy Star Universe is a hack and slash roleplaying game similar to the Phantasy Star Online (PSO) games, it takes place in a (presumably) different time period and location and has many new features. Like most of the PSO titles, PSU is playable in both a persistent online network mode and a full featured single-player story mode.

Plot
Phantasy Star Universe's story is continued in its expansion pack, Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus, picking up where Phantasy Star Universe left off. Players use their own avatars and take the role as instructors to younger GUARDIANS recruits while investigating the evil organization of "human supremacists" known as the Illuminus. Along with new missions, new weapons are introduced as well as new Photon Arts, classes, enemies, bosses, and more.

The user's personal avatar is the main character. In Phantasy Star Universe, players experienced the story through the eyes of Ethan Waber. In Ambition of the Illuminus, they will complete missions using their own customized avatar, working to restore peace in the Gurhal System. This content is available offline in the PS2 and PC versions; there is no expansion offline content available on the Xbox 360, however.

On November 13, 2008, this expansion was available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 MS points (reduced from its original price of 1600). PS2 and PC players have to purchase a retail disc of the expansion for $19.99. These were both released on November 20, 2007.

As of June 30, 2010, the expansion became free to download on Xbox Live Marketplace. A new version which is currently required for online play was released on July 20, 2010 and contains GUARDIANS Advanced Content.

Setting
The universe is the Gurhal Star System, which consists of three planets. Each planet has its own unique culture formed by its inhabitant races. The history of the Gurhal Star System is filled with conflict amongst the different races. However, after the Final Conflict 100 years ago, a union was formed between the three planets. This led to the birth of the Allied Army and ultimately to peace for the Gurhal Star System.

Story
At the start of the game, Ethan Waber, the main character, and his little sister, Lumia Waber, are at the celebration of the 100th year anniversary of the Alliance Space Fleet on the GUARDIANS Space station. The celebration is interrupted when a mysterious meteor shower almost destroys the entire fleet. During evacuation, Ethan and Lumia split off of the main evacuation route and collapsing rubble separates Lumia from Ethan. Ethan then meets up with a GUARDIAN named Leo, but they are attacked by a strange creature. The creature paralyzes Leo and Ethan takes his handgun and kills the creature. Leo then tells Ethan to find his sister and that a rescue team is on the way.

After killing multiple creatures and saving people, Ethan finds Lumia, and they both leave the station. After a conversation between Leo and Ethan, Ethan reveals that he dislikes the GUARDIANS organization because his father died when on a mission. Leo, impressed with Ethan's abilities, convinces Ethan to join the GUARDIANS.

Ethan and his classmate, Hyuga Ryght, are trained by a female Guardian named Karen, who leads them against the SEED, the strange monsters that came from the meteors. After being hired to accompany a scientist to a RELICS site of an ancient, long-dead civilization, they find out that the SEED are attracted to a power source (A-Photons) the ancients used and that the solar system has just re-discovered.

Karen finds out she is the sister of the Divine Maiden (the prophet of the Holy Light) and takes over that position when her sister dies at the hands of her estranged father who intended to kill Karen to increase the power of the original Divine Maiden (Mirei).

After befriending Rogues, Guardians, and CASTs alike, Ethan angers Magashi, a CAST who heads the Endrum Collective and has been kidnapping scientists who know about the ancient power source. After Ethan and a Rogue named Alfort Tylor kill Magashi, Ethan helps activate an ancient weapon the prior civilization used to survive the SEED before they were almost completely wiped out.

Ethan then gathers allies against Guardian orders to attack the last SEED outpost standing where two of his friends and the scientists are being held. In the outpost Magashi claims to be brought back to life by the SEED, where in reality he is a CAST incarnation of Dark Force who controls the SEED itself and controls whatever they infect.

With the help of Karen, Leo, and Tonnio, Ethan defeats Magashi.

Characters
This is a list of characters in Phantasy Star Universe, which is in order of character appearances.

Reception
IGN gave Phantasy Star Universe a score of 6.6 out of 10, saying "It may not have been perfect, but it was fun". 1up gave an average rating of "B+" Metacritic gave the game a 68 out of 100.

PC/PS2 server closure
Due to low population, the PC/PS2 servers of Phantasy Star Universe were shut down on March 31, 2010.