Ok, cutting right to the chase: I'm a pretty big fan of the Phantasy Star Online series. Big fan might be an understatement, PSO overtook my life in 1999 when it hit the Dreamcast and to this day I can honestly say no other online experience has been anywhere near as much fun as PSO was. There was a pretty good community, a ton of people I knew online played it, and I could be guaranteed that almost any night I could log in and see at least a few people I knew playing. We had fun, I loved the game, offline and online, and it is probably one of the most cherished game experiences I've ever had.
Later I moved on to the Gamecube version, then the PC version (Blue Burst), then the fan servers when Sega asshole-ishly closed down the PSO servers, then to Phantasy Star Universe, the expansion, and then Phantasy Star Portable on the PSP.
About 3 or 4 months ago I stopped playing PS altogether because I sort of burned out on it. That time period is literally the longest I have ever gone without PSO being in my life in some form or another. I thought maybe I had taken that monkey off my back for good only to find out that not only is Phantasy Star Zero (the completely new PS title for the DS) coming out in a few months, but now another PSU-related title for the PSP is coming out in Japan, and most likely here in the states at some point in the future.
I CANNOT ESCAPE PHANTASY STAR!! In all seriousness, though, now the PSO bug is starting to bite me again and I will likely wind up getting PSZero since I heard it was pretty good. What's scary is that it will make almost 10 straight years of playing PSO related titles and I can't believe it's come to this point. I would have never thought back in 1999 PSO would have the lasting fanbase it does, but it does and it's both awesome that so many people, especially younger people, have created a community for it, but it also makes me sad that so many people I used to play with and obsess over the game with now no longer play it.
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Yeah, PSU ultimately was not too good, mainly because they made to be not as much about fun as about making you grind things as much as possible just so you keep paying your monthly fee. PSP was way more fun.
@celicacrazed
Yeah, PSO did have some issues. I was very careful online with people which was good since it did have some issues. When version 2 came along, though, they made it so you didn't drop your weapon when you died which was one step towards fixing things.
http://dreamcast.ign.com/objects/013/013022.html
I'm still debating whether or not I should get into PSU, I've heard that there have been a lot of support issues for new content.
Also you may or may not know this but a lot of community servers sprang up for Blue Burst in the vacuum when the official Sega servers went offline.
I don't think linking to it is kosher on Destructoid but simply grab your copy of PSO and search for schthack for the community servers of PSO.
Anyway...
@yehat
PSU is not bad offline, but the part that sucks is that without the online you miss out on a ton of stuff. Basically, any time Sega added any content, it was all pretty much only available online. Also, the expansion, Ambition of the Illuminus, is pretty much online only. All of the new quests, items, etc. are only accessable online. If you have a PSP, I would say go with Phantasy Star Portable. It's a port of PSU and most of the stuff from the expansion in an offline focused version that plays much more faster and funner thanks to the fact they ditched the entire crafting system which bogged down the whole game.