Phantasy Star Online (Nov 1, 2000 prototype)

Phantasy Star Online (Nov 1, 2000 prototype)
Build date Nov 1, 2000 09:39:27 Build name USA Region 11-2 Dump status Released Dumped by Sazpaimon Released by Hidden Palace File release date February 25, 2023 Origin GD-R Labels PSO USA Region 11-2 Dump method Plextor PX-755A (DiscImageCreator) Game Phantasy Star Online System Dreamcast Genre Role Playing Final build JP Dec 6, 2000 EU Jan 20, 2001 US Jan 20, 2001 Release date JP Dec 21, 2000 US Jan 29, 2001 EU Feb 23, 2001 Article Phantasy Star Online prototype

Download Phantasy Star Online (Nov 1, 2000 prototype) (info)

Error: The download file provided does not exist, please upload it or fix the file name if it's incorrect.

An English prototype of Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast.

Notes

• This is an English localization prototype. However, because the localization began during the development of the game itself, this is actually a prototype of the game during production.
• In general, this prototype of the game shares many similarities with the commercially released Network Trial Edition. A write-up of the Network Trial Edition can be found here. A major difference between this version and the Network Trial Edition is that the Network Trial Edition lacks an accessible offline mode.
• The game will accept any serial number and access key, and does not write to the Dreamcast's flash memory.
• The serial number and access key fields are much longer than in the release game.
• The private server software newserv has support for this version. A public newserv instance can be found at Ragol.org.
• The differences between this prototype and the final are as follows (differences written by Laurent and ehw).

Title screen

• The SEGA logo is light blue and not dark blue.
• The Sonic Team logo is much larger than in the final version.
• The main options menu has only one toggle for stereo or mono music. The options menu is untranslated, and therefore displays as garbage text. This is a recurrent problem in the game for various text entries.
  • The garbage text is displayed (instead of Japanese) because the game set to English interprets the text bytes as ISO8859 encoding, but Japanese text data is written for SJIS encoding.
• The title screen will display and loop the BGM forever, as there is no opening movie to show.
• The opening movie is replaced by a text crawl. Unlike the Network Trial Edition, the opening movie song plays instead of the titlescreen music.
• The B button cancels the text crawl, while the A button makes it scroll faster. The Start button doesn't seem to do anything.
• The "I" in the SEGA / SONIC TEAM copyright on the title screen lacks spacing between letters.

Gameplay differences

• The game is more susceptible to lag, especially when using Photon Blasts on a grroup of enemies in a graphically intense area.
• There is a bug that can damage your save file where if the game starts to lag very heavily, changing areas can potentially crash the game.
• Status effect icons do not always go away when cured, and sometimes will remain even after death.
• Every item box in normal CAVE 2, all of MINE, and all of RUINS drops a rare item with no attributes. Each area drops a different item. This is the case in almost all of Hard / Very Hard difficulties as well.
• Stat changes do not appear when you level up.
• Boss teleporters do not automatically start when all players enter them online, and must be started by a player. In the final game, boss teleporters will automatically activate when all players are present.
• The object pickup reticle and sound effects do not change when you target an object that you don't have enough room to pick up.
• All "tool" items (that is, green boxes) are stackable in the Prototype up to x10. This includes materials, grinders, technique disks, and so on.
• There are no MST restrictions on disks, and all of them can be used regardless of MST value (other than androids, who cannot learn them)
• Most doors do not have the correct collision data, so it is possible to walk through many of them, and also get stuck inside them.
• Warps can be re-used while the player is in the process of actually warping, allowing them to repeatedly spam the warp sound effect.
• Rico Message Pods exist before the bosses in Forest and Cave to give players tips on how to fight them, which are absent in the retail release.
• Techniques cast from the main menu can be recasted before the initial animation is finished, and will immediately recast the technique without the usual casting animation, allowing them to be cast VERY quickly. This is also the case on the Network Trial Edition.
• Mechguns fire 4 bullets per step of the attack combo instead of 3, and the bullets also all land immediately without any travel time. There is also no end lag at the end of the combo.
• Slicers appear to also have no travel time for their projectile.
• The common area drops are slightly different in this version, as certain items can be found earlier, such as Sword in Forest 1 and Mechgun in Cave 1.

Character

• You're allowed to move your character before you've finished loading, so you'll see a disembodied shadow moving around, instead.
• You start with only 1 Monomate, 1 Mmonofluid, and 100 Meseta (in the final it would be 4 Monomate, 4 Monofluid, and 300 Meseta)
• You can't move the camera with the joystick to look around when you're dead.
• Units increase your current stats, not your base stats, so you can't use them to help you meet the requirements of a weapon.
• The base stats of characters in this version are closer to the final release than the Network Trial Edition, although they are not the same.
• Weapons appear to have the same equipment requirements from the Network Trial Edition however, making them much easier to equip.

Mags

• Mags get hungry every 40 seconds or so in the prototype, whereas in the final release, it takes 3 minutes and 30 seconds before you can feed them again.
• There is no sound effect when mags level up or consume items.
• Unlike the Network Trial Edition, mags will gain their third form and Photon Blast at level 50.
• Mag pictures are missing.
• Mags increase the character's total stats, not their base stats, so mags cannot be used to help meet the requirements of a weapon.
• Mags appear to stop leveling at level 199. The Mag can still be fed, but the bars do not increase. It seems imposisble to reach the level cap of 200.

Enemies

• The Prototype added the Hildebear enemy to the enemy list in comparison to the Network Trial Edition, which offset many enemies at the bottom of the BattleParam.dat file. However, the BattleParam file was not altered, causing many enemies to inherit the stats of a different enemy, making them much stronger or weaker than intended, and also giving different experience values. The affected enemies are:
  • Hildeblue has Booma stats
  • Booma has Gobooma stats
  • Gobooma has Gigobooma stats
  • Gigobooma has Grass Assassin stats
  • Grass Assassin has Evil Shark stats
  • Evil Shark has Pal Shark stats
  • Guil Shark has Delsaber stats
  • Delsaber has Dimenian stats
  • Dimienian has La Dimenian stats
  • La Dimenian has So Dimenian stats
  • So Dimenian is pushed to a new entry, which is all 0, so they do no damage and can be defeated in one hit, providing no experience.
• Enemies seem to need a line of sight to you to wake up. If the terrain stands between you and a Booma, even if you stand at melee distance from it, it won't notice you or wake up at all unless you step out from behind the obstacle. We can manipulate the elements of the scenery to target them without them seeing us.
• The online and offline map files in the Prototype do not different in enemy counts, unlike the final release which has Forest and Cave spawn less enemies offline.
• Some enemies lack a defined type in the prototype, such as Pan Arms and Pofuilly Slime, which display as "Attribute:???"
• Enemies in the prototype appear to have a higher "drop anything rate" compared to the final release.
• Some enemies cannot be targetted prior to their initial battle cry.
• The BattleParam.dat file entries for Hard and Very Hard difficulties are incomplete, with some enemies having identical stats to their Normal difficulty counterparts, but most of them having blank entries, allowing them to die in one hit, be unable to move, and grant no experience.
• Pan Arms do not have the extremely high DFP stats they have in the final release, allowing them to be attacked with attacks based on ATP.
• The lava in the dragon boss arena does not cause any damage, although it still causes flinch due to it being a non-physical attack.
• Unlike the Network Trial Edition, boxes do spawn after the bosses are defeated, but they do not drop anything.

Menus

• Simple Mail is not accessible offline.
• Log Window is not accessible when outside of the Visual Lobby. Even when online, the Log Window cannot be viewed while in a team.
  • The Log Window does not actually work, as accessing it only displays a blank, black menu.
• Some item names have changed. For instance “Evade Material” is known as “Avoid Material” in the prototype. Descriptions of some items have also been altered, either suggesting existing stat differences in comparison to the final are old differences that have since been changed.
• Many menus, such as the options menu and the purchase/sell menu at the shops, are not made large enough for the English text, so not all options are visible. They are accessible however as the cursor will go beyond the visible menu.
• Auto disconnect has an option to turn it off entirely, unlike the final release which only allows the player to set it up to 60 minutes.
• Setting the cursor position to non-saved does not have any effect.

Sound/Music

• Some sound effects take precedence over the level-up jingle (such as a door opening)
• Several songs have not been implemented in the prototype. Some tracks, such as DARK_B2, SHIP_N, and MINICLEAR are different.

Chat

• The player name is displayed in white rather than black, and does not have its own speech bubble background.
• If the player switches from the virtual keyboard to word select / symbol chat, any text messages sent by the client will be sent as word selects or symbol chats instead of text messages.
  • For word selects, this tends to results in an empty message being sent, as the input does not correspond to any known word select entry.
  • For symbol chats, this results in various garbage symbol chats being sent. Without any text input, it will send a green circle with 4 "Yes" speech bubbles around it, but other garbage can be sent by typing different messages.
• Line breaks in the word select menu are not replaced with a space like in the final release. For example, "Shall we go to the SHOPS first?" is displayed as "Shall we go to theSHOPS first?"
  • The line breaks are fully functional, however.
• Some word selects are formatted slightly differently, such as the message "Please send me your SHORT MAIL again a little later." not having any line breaks like in the final release, causing it to take up the full width of the screen.
• Some word selects are missing, for example, "Thank you" is not present.
• The title of the word select sections are not correct, for example, "FIXED:SHORT MAIL" corresponds to "FIXED:INTRODUCTION"
• In “LIST ALL”, the box on the right "NEXT" is missing to allow you to choose yet another word for the desired formulation. On the prototype, we go directly to "everybody" without going through this step.

Symbol Chat

• For symbol chat, there is no representation of them when navigating in the sub-menu.
• The head of default symbol chats is square, rather than round. They also look slightly different to the defaults in the final release.
• The final version has 12 symbol chat slots, with the bottom 6 defaulting to "not in use". These do not exist in the symbol chat menu, and only the default 6 slots are available to access.
• On the prototype, when selecting the symbol chat option, a sub-menu opens asking if we want to go to the next page (list of Symbol Art) or go back. On the retail version, we arrive directly to the list of smileys.
• Symbol Art does not appear in a white speech bubble but in a box with the standard PSO background.
• By navigating among the 6 pre-recorded symbol art, each one plays its own sound, the same as when you use it in the game. In the final version, the sound effects are made by selecting the desired smiley to modify it.
• When trying to create a new symbol art, its original color is green instead of gray.
• When the game asks to choose the shape of the symbol art (Face Type option), the help written below the symbol art box is missing, there are only the buttons to use without their explanations. It is impossible to change the color, only the possibility to choose the shape of the symbol art. When validating the shape of the symbol art, the prototype plays a validation sound specific to this version.
• The "New Part", "Parts Edit" and "Register Symbol" options are visible in the symbol art creation sub-menus but do not work. By validating them, the game returns to the main menu of the "Chat". A sixth option (impossible to translate because of the problems of the build), the final version has only 5, is present. It is specific to the prototype but reacts in the same way as the options mentioned above.
• The "Change SE" option works. When you select the sound you want for your symbol art, you will also hear the confirmation sound of PSO. The confirmation sound will override the sounds of the different emotions of the symbol art. The confirmation audio will be muted during the Phantasy Star Online master.
• You can save the newly created symbol art but you won't be able to use it unless it is a modification of one of the 6 pre-registered symbol art.
• The structure of the symbol chat parts is not the same as the final version of the game. If a Prototype symbol chat is sent to a player on any of the retail PSO releases in the Visual Lobby, or vice versa, the receiver will see a very different symbol chat, sometimes to humourous results (for example, the default angry symbol chat from the final release becomes a mischievous-like symbol chat on the Prototype).
• When using a symbol chat in the field, the bottom action palette action will be fired, rather than it being blocked while in the symbol chat menu.

Online

• Despite the Network Trial Edition supporting it, the Broadband Adapter is not supported by this prototype. The BBA will be ignored entirely and the Dreamcast will attempt to dial the modem.
• Day Dawns, the music for the Visual Lobby, plays when on the ship selection screen, but does not actually play in the lobby unlike the Network Trial Edition and the final release.
• When using the lobby teleporter to go to another lobby, the camera will sometimes swing to another part of the lobby before the loading screen.
• When creating a team at the counter, two options are offered: Battle, and Difficulty. However, the game creation packet does not send any information when changing these fields, meaning that Hard and Very Hard are not available online, and the "Battle" mode cannot be activated (with the Battle mode not making it into the game until the Ver. 2 sequel).
• In the retail versions of Phantasy Star Online, other than the original Japanese release, turning off the game without saving while online will cause the player to lose all their unequipped items. In this prototype however, turning off the game without saving, disconnecting from the game server, or soft resetting the game will cause the player to lose their entire inventory, including equipped items, all their meseta, and all their check room contents.
• In the retail version of Phantasy Star Online, damage seen by another player is actually fake, and is the local client just rolling a damage number to display, while the actual damage dealt is received from a broadcast packet from the other player (the 6x0A packet). However in this prototype, that fake damage value is actually broadcast to all other players in the game, meaning that in a 4-player game, a player attacking an enemy will actually have 4 damage packets broadcasted between the players. This causes an extreme version of the "damage cancel" bug in the retail versions of Phantasy Star Online, as the damage packet does not actually contain damage, but rather how much HP remaining an enemy has, and with differing latencies between players, the remaining HP is constantly replaced with the packet received by the client last.
• Interestingly, damage from ranged projectiles from other players is not calculated on the local client, with the observing player seeing no damage. This means that the damage packet will not be sent other than from the damage dealer, circumventing this issue.
• Quests are available online, although the server has to provide them like all other versions. If the server does not provide any quests, the client will hang if they attempt to press the confirm button on the empty quest list.
• When a client player uses a Photon Blast in a game, they will remain stuck in the Photon Blast stance and position where it was used for all other players until they leave the floor. They can still be seen firing projectiles from their model, however.

Pioneer 2

• NPCs which provide services, such as the shops and quest counter, are targettable with a lock. The check room NPC is not lockable however, but the check room is still accessible as an invisible menu activation object is interacted with, rather than the NPC.
• When depositing or withdrawing Meseta from the Check Room, the quantity selection window starts on the maximum number of Meseta you have.
• All items have stack quantity indicators in the Check Room, even if they aren't stackable.
• All levels and sublevels are unlocked at the main warp, meaning that you can go to Ruins 3 immediately.
• Pioneer 2 is called CITY in the prototype, per the warp in the principal's office.
• The dialogues of the NPCs are, for many of them, slightly different. Important words are highlighted in this way : "xxxxxxxx". This will not be the case in the commercial version.
• On the prototype, dialogue messages can be skipped while they are still loading.
• The prices in the shops are all different, most of them are cheaper in the prototype. The descriptions are also different here and there too. “Purchase” instead of “Buy” in the prototype.
• When buying grinders from the tool shop, the grinder is not removed from the shop list like the final release, and can be bought as much as the player's meseta allows.

Cave

• When fighting De Rol Le, it is possible that after getting knocked down by one of its tentacles, the player does not get back up again. However, they do lose their invulnerability frames and can be killed to be freed after revival.

Mine

• Gillchics are called Dubchics.
• If a Canadine dies over a space, he can drop an object into the void and the box of objects will float in the air.
• Some doors to be unlocked by stepping on 4 switches remain red.
• Many walls in Mine 2 are missing their textures.
• Killing a Dubwitch only kills currently living Dubchics or Dubchics who have seen you. Dubchics still alive after the death of the Dubswitch will be immortal.
• Garanz missiles are incredibly slow, short-range, and weak, which makes Garanz much easier to defeat than in the final game.
• Vol Opt form 2's Resta has white text, rather than green.
• Killing the screens gives 30 EXP, while each pillar gives 200 EXP. In the endgame, you get no EXP until you defeat the second form of Vol Opt.
• One of the attacks of Vol Opt phase 2 cannot be avoided, you are trapped every time after his green ray.
• Boxes appear after defeating Vol Opt boss. However, there is nothing in any of them. Volt Op doesn’t seem to drop anything either.

Ruins

• Dark Belras are called Darth Belras.
• The Guom trap in Ruins (that is, the trap which falls from the ceiling to trap the player) will softlock the game if the player is trapped by it. The p_action_disable command is correctly fired (to stop the player from making any actions while trapped), but when freed, the p_action_enable command is not executed, meaning that the player can never make use of their action palette until they exit the game entirely, as this persists after warping and death.
• The huge crystals are not bright from the inside.
• Chaos Sorcerer can launch his Rafoie if you are in a corridor, with no zone delimitation.
• None of the forms of Dark Falz have a cutscene.
• Dark Falz does not have any stats defines, so does no damage and dies in one hit on all phases.
• Dark Falz 3 appears even in normal difficulty, and unlike the Network Trial Edition, it cycles through its moveset, although it seems to have no wait periods and does not do any damage or cast any techniques.
  • However after a few minutes, the game will freeze, although the music/sounds will still be playing.
• Once Dark Falz is killed, there is no teleporter to escape the arena, so your only option is to log out. The credits are not there but you can see the people who worked on the game by looking at the 1ST_READ.
• The mini-map once touching the obelisk does not change to the Dark Falz arena, but rather stays as the paradise's area map.
• Dark Falz 1 still has the zoom problem but this time the appearance of Dark Falz is just shown with an orange dot on the mini-map and not a huge X shape taking up 1/3 of the mini-map.
• Dark Falz 2 only moves around the edge of the arena and does not do any attacks.
• Many walls in Ruins 3 are missing their textures.
• Items spawned from the poison traps in Ruins corridors will spawn in the ground, rather than on the ground.

Quests

• Starting and ending quests don’t replenish your health automatically.
• No quest will give you any description (Client, Quest, Reward). Selecting a quest will just give you a YES/NO prompt.
• None of the quests are translated yet, but all of them are unlocked.
• Most quest files have “dummy” title names that are referenced when attempting to quit the quest.
• Some quests crash the game entirely, potentially causing lost save data (quest 1). Some soft lock the game (quest 5).
• Some sound cues (like the objective completion, and quest completion jingle) are missing.
• None of the partner NPCs will attack monsters for you. They just sit and take damage.
• Certain effects like screen fade-ins/outs don’t occur fast enough, causing NPCs that are supposed to disappear to vanish into thin air visibly.
• Most quests start off with different camera angles upon loading them up.
• NPCs based on player data seem to load much more quickly in the prototype.
• Most quests seem to base their enemy layouts on the normal offline enemy layout.
• The teleporter room on Pioneer 2 will always be available, even though the teleporter might not be able to be used in the prototype. In the final, the gates leading to the teleporter will be locked if they aren’t meant to be accessed.
• The prompts when getting the reward at the end of the quest are different. However, you do get rewards for each quest you complete.
  • Individual quest differences:
    • Quest 1 - Claiming a Stake
      • This quest will crash upon loading Forest 1 and might lead to lost save data.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 2 - Magnitude of Metal
      • This quest will crash upon loading Forest 1 and might lead to lost save data.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 3 - The Value of Money
      • Different sound effect during the “weapon-fetish” line.
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 4 - Battle Training
      • KIREEK is level 21 in the prototype, but level 36 in the final.
      • Some dialog boxes are delegated to white text boxes that can be progressed while moving. In the final, most of the dialog is in the form of a “black bar” or “cutscene” where you have to progress through the dialog before you can move again.
      • Some of Ash’s dialog that is based on player data appears as player dialog (as if an actual player sent the text in the chat).
      • Ash gets up after defeating the last enemy in the room in the prototype. In the final, you have to talk to him while still on the ground after the room is cleared.
      • There are a few dialog boxes when picking up the reward. What the text boxes say is unknown.
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 5 - Journalistic Pursuit
      • NOL starts at level 6 in the prototype. In the final, she’s level 5.
      • The first gate before the first open area with monsters is still red in the prototype, preventing you from progressing any further. If you go near the gate, you will get stuck and will have to either be killed by a monster or quit/save the game.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 6 - The Fake in Yellow
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 7 - Native Research
      • Even though this quest is timed, there’s no timer that displays.
      • The Quest Board has a delay when showing the icons of quest objects.
      • Messages from the device when defeating waves of enemies come from the player rather than a white box prompt. The special effect that displays when this happens is absent from the prototype.
      • No health pod in Forest 2.
      • You have 10 minutes to complete the quest in this prototype. In the final, you have 20 minutes.
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 8 - Forest of Sorrow
      • Alicia is in level 11 in the prototype. In the final, she’s level 10.
      • Despite Alicia being unable to attack, she can heal herself at least three times. When she dies, you teleport back with full health near the guild.
      • Forest 1 is almost completely devoid of enemies. The enemies that do remain use the same layout as “Native Research”.
      • No health pod in Forest 2.
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 9 - Gran Squall
      • This quest will crash upon loading Forest 1 and might lead to lost save data.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 10 - Addicting Food
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 11 - The Lost Bride
      • This quest is significantly more difficult because there are more enemies in each wave which makes it difficult to keep your partner alive.
      • Cecil is level 10 in the prototype. In the final, she’s level 13.
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 12 - Waterfall Tears
      • The quest will crash upon loading Caves 1 and might lead to lost save data.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 13 - Black Paper
      • The quest will crash upon loading Caves 2 and might lead to lost save data.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 14 - Secret Delivery
      • The quest will crash upon loading Caves 1 and might lead to lost save data.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 15 - Soul of a Blacksmith
      • There are additional untranslated white window prompts after the initial dialog with the quest giver.
      • FOREST 1, CAVES 1, 2, and 3 are available from the teleporter immediately. In the final, only FOREST 1 is available.
      • When picking up one of the materials needed off the floor, the text prompt for certain materials can appear more than once if you walk near the area where the material was.
      • The Dragon boss doesn’t spawn a teleporter or the item boxes, causing you to get stuck indefinitely. Telepipes for some reason doesn’t work in boss areas. However, Ryuker still works.
      • You cannot get any of the materials from the big stone near the beginning of CAVES 1. You have to somehow find your way to CAVES 2 to get the actual material.
      • The door leading to the areas beyond the shiny rock in CAVES 1 is locked. You have to use the Pioneer 2 teleporter to get to CAVES 2, where you can find the material in the waterfall area. Walking near the door in the CAVES 1 area can cause you to get stuck.
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 16 - Letter from Lionel
      • Forest 1 and 2, and Caves 1 and 2 are activated in the Pioneer 2 teleport by default.
      • The game seems to crash when loading Forest 2.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 17 - The Grave’s Butler
      • The game seems to crash when loading Caves 1.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 18 - Knowing One’s Hear
      • This quest can be completed.
    • Quest 19 - The Retired Hunter
      • The game seems to crash when loading Ruins 3.
      • Caves 1 and Ruins 1 are available from the teleporter.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 20 - Dr. Osto’s Research
      • The game seems to crash when loading Mines 2.
      • Caves is present in the teleporter.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 21 - Unsealed Door
      • The game seems to crash when loading Mines 2, but Mines 1 works correctly.
      • Caves is present in the teleporter.
      • This quest cannot be completed.
    • Quest 22 - Doc’s Secret Plan
      • Elenor is level 6 in the prototype. In the final she’s level 27.
      • Elenor, unlike other nonplayable partners, can die and stay dead in this build until you resurrect her. In the final, the quest is over when she dies.
      • Elenor doesn’t leave your party when you approach the Hunters Guild. Because of this, the quest can’t be completed if you talk to the quest giver.
      • This quest can be completed, kind of.
    • Quest 23 - Seek my Master
      • The game seems to crash when loading Ruins 2, even though Ruins 1 is playable.
      • This quest cannot be completed.

Bugs

• After a long time of playing, player names will stop appearing on chat bubbles.
• After a long time of playing, invisible collisions may appear in random locations, such as on Pioneer 2 stopping the player from getting to the shops or check room.
• After a long time of playing, attempting to exit the game after seeing the above bugs will cause the game to reset instead of save to the title screen.
• Learned Techniques are bugged in this prototype as you play the game. You can randomly lose access to Technique and even have specific Techniques lose or gain their levels for no reason.
• Sometimes putting an item away in the bank will lose that item forever.
• Depositing and then withdrawing items from the bank will allow you to take out certain items more than once, allowing you to duplicate items based on the number of things you currently have deposited in the bank. The same bug can occur when selling items.
• Sometimes enemies can become untargetable.
• Some techniques can become “corrupted” where the levels will randomly fluctuate each time Pioneer 2 is loaded. For instance, Resta can sometimes alternate to a negative integer.
• Sometimes the list of maps accessible from Pioneer 2 can be randomly changed for some reason.
• Accessing the weapon shop when level 11 or above will crash the game, as the data for the shop generation is not complete for level 11 and above.
• Certain quests can crash the game when loading up another area.
• Warping to an area with the Pioneer teleporter will sometimes put you in an area that doesn’t have a teleporter, like behind a locked room with boxes. This occurs as the client has attempted to load an incomplete map file that does not have everything correctly defined.
• Text will often run off the window or prompt, usually due to newlines being added or removed. This can affect the main menus, where specific options don’t appear because the text pushes some of the selections of the window.
• The mini-map for CAVE 3 does not always fill when going from room to room, as the radar collision objects are not properly defined. Strangely, this does not happen in the Network Trial Edition.
• The p_disablewarp script action does not disable Ryuker like it should do, meaning that Ryuker can be used in boss areas, but not telepipes.
• Items which are present on a floor when entering will sometimes not be targettable and cannot be picked up. This appears to occur most often in Ruins 1.
• Ryuker and telepipes sometimes do not work in Ruins corridors.
• Sometimes attempting to drop items in ruins corridors will cause the player to pause and fail to drop the item.
  • The above two bugs occur due to ruins corridors actually being multiple small rooms strung together, and SEGA has not yet made an exception for dropping items / using telepipes in these locations when over a boundary.
• Enemies can be pushed through walls and scenery.
• When offline, Scape Dolls do not work, as the Scape Doll takes too long to take effect before the character is returned to Pioneer 2.
• The meseta drop amount is capped to 255.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Game is emulatable: Yes (as of February 25, 2023).

Screenshots

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Origin

• 

  Disc front.

• 

  Disc back.

Files

File	Type	Date	Size	SHA-1
Phantasy Star Online (USA) (En,Ja) (Proto) (Track 3).bin	File	2023-02-26 04:48:13	1.1 GB	9f11592fbd7e5fd93eb187164021c149de6be6af
Phantasy Star Online (USA) (En,Ja) (Proto) (Track 2).bin	File	2023-02-26 04:37:41	2.2 MB	1312a9ce85a306e731945dc0e97a047b2a7c6187
Phantasy Star Online (USA) (En,Ja) (Proto) (Track 1).bin	File	2023-02-26 04:37:40	1.18 MB	99bf171ceaea81b719971ada64e28b50f4c2d974
Phantasy Star Online (USA) (En,Ja) (Proto).cue	File	2023-02-26 04:47:47	420 bytes	75beda10bf5f3daa0b2461e79b1c27543af9198c

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Laurent from Sega Dreamcast Info Games Preservation and ehw for researching and playing through this prototype! Special thanks to VincentNL for researching the game’s debugging content as well.

See also

• Phantasy Star Online prototype (February 26th, 2023)
• Sega Dreamcast Info Preservation Games
• The Cutting Room Floor (TCRF)