PSO and PSO Community Appreciation Thread

I think it was like late 07' or 08', I'd never even heard of the PSO franchise. One of my hacky/techy buddies was just lamenting and moaning about the current era of consoles, and going on and on, praising the Dreamcast and all sorts of hardware 'war stories.'

"Dude, you gotta come play some PSOBB with me, I think I have like 1000hrs on Schthack already."

So, I made an account and started a FOnl (cuz 'sorcerers' are the strongest class, just slow to build up, right? :wacko:)

What a bizarre ass game to be introduced to... I think it took about a year before I really started to understand the flow of the game; I didn't even see 'high skill' gameplay for the longest time until I joined a random ma4cE2; we were in that last Seabeds room before Tower and there was this RAct (who clearly knew all the spawns) in the party just FT'ing and melting all of the Sinow with a combo'ing, sphere'd Faust (lol)--such great game mechanics though, and seemingly such a simple recipe for gameplay; but for whatever reason, I've never found anything else quite like PSOBB. Between the community and game design, we played on that server until it went poof years later.

The burn out was real, all that time lost--but eventually some friends talked me into getting started over here on Ephinea--I think I started mid-2016 or so. Immediately I could tell at that time, that the administration was infinitely better.

So I'm very grateful for Soda and Ender managing this server, without a doubt, very bright minds for such a niche focus--but you bring so much joy to thousands of people.:)
 
I was introduced to PSO at 5 years old (2005ish). I spent a lot of time with my uncle while my parents were working and stuff, and he was/is a huge dreamcast nerd. I remember I used to call it "The Dragon Game" (because the disk had a dragon on it). I never got to experience PSO on official servers, and spent a lot of time as a kid barely knowing how to play the game on schthack. When I turned 20 I kinda took a look back and remembered PSO, that is when I found Ephinea. I made my first account on Hardcore and took a deep dive into the game under the name ATLANTIC. Unfortunately I lost both of my characters, took a short break and came back. This community is awesome, and I have met some people on here who I consider to be some of my closest friends. Really made some great memories grinding HBR (RIP) and trying to beat everyone to max rank.
I can go on and on about how awesome ephinea is but BIG shoutout to the staff and GMs that put in a ton of work to keep this game active and improve on things sega could not.

Lastly shout out to all the homies I have made along the way (new and old) who made this server/time playing so so fun.
ARCTIC, Dyne, Cerb, Sig Vicious, SirachaHero, Xiiihearts, Grizzly, Grant, Dezorian, Justis, Coal, JESUS, Mercy!, Ade, Toan, Sabata, Sundark, Mink, Mora, Clothos, Vander, Medi, Dubtaps, CoCo, Arsuru, Spuz, Meech, Derf, Eva, Loug, Cashmira, Touj.
(forgive me if im forgeting any homies).
 
Soda Im sorry you lost your dad. I lost mine and my brother as well... Im glad you channeled your energy into something wonderful for many people to enjoy! Enjoy your beautiful family! Thank you for giving us back part of our childhood! Thank you Soda, Ender and everyone else that pours their heart into this game! Thank you to the great community we have here that is also an vital cog for the function or our server. Darling Momma Kitty Mew we love you! Matt you can always answer my questions... unless you cant and then Ender does, but thats rare! Ryan I always have fun running stuff with you!
 
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Penny?! said:
Played with my bro growing up, forgotten about the game but always vividly remembered the times we slayed them boomas calling them boogers when I was smoll. Game holds a lot of memories and I am grateful I am able to play ((!!FOR FREE!!)) as well as making friends along the journey. Never forget @Harborer of Hope to help me and probably more than 80% of the players starting fresh on this server.
Gee mother freakin Gees
Click to expand...
LMAO! Mew mew's Loathing of Gees is Legendary apparently! lol! D'Awwwww~? You remember your mew? ='3!
 
I appreciate all of the effort. I've been playing here since 2019. My brother and I had a Dreamcast with V.2 that we played because my cousin got us into it. I think it was 2001, and I was 12, but we only played offline. When PSO GC came out we all played split screen. We played on Sega GC Servers for a year or so until 2004 when I heard about Schthack through a Gamefaqs post that was deleted shortly thereafter. We played there on and off until the data wipe. and I thought PSO was dead like others had mentioned until my brother found out about this server in 2019. It was mind blowing to see the Improved drop Tables, Rbr boosts, weekly boosts, individual loot, with Reshade and loot filter. I can't believe so many years have passed, but I always come back to this game for the same reason everyone else does. Long live Ephinea, and long live PSO!
 
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While sometimes I simply play PSO for the nostalgia, it has helped me get through a hard year in 2023, in addition to other rough times in the past. There have been times in my life when facing the root of my issues was just too hard, and the best I could do was to occupy my mind with distractions. PSO is incredibly good at filling that need, and the social aspects of it are especially helpful for not feeling alone. The community here is great, carefully molded by the great team of volunteers that run it. Thank you to all of you.

Around the start of this year, I've flipped a switch in my mind and now spend time nearly every day tackling my problems head-on. While no longer playing PSO wasn't an active decision, I feel it's necessary while I get things in order—it's just so hard to not keep playing once I get started. Working to improve my life is, at times, exhausting, and I'm less happy than when I spent the majority of my spare time playing PSO, but I'm doing the work to achieve my goals and improve my life. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of the thousands of hours I've spent playing this game so far. The time we've shared together has been so meaningful.

If you relate to my experience, I'll give you a photon hoard you're doing the best you can. And if that doesn't feel like it's enough, hopefully, in due time, you'll regather your strength and be able to take on more. See you next time.
 
I've been a PSO Addict since v1 on the Dreamcast and even a small bit of Phantasy Star IV on the Genesis prior, but not a whole lot. I went from there, to v2, then Xbox Ep 1 & 2, to offline Gamecube Ep 2 & 2 to Scht's server, until the wipe. I remember being floored when it was like "whoops! Characters are gone! Time to start over!!!". I took a long ass break (like 5 years or so), but at some point, I had made an account on Ephinea servers. When I came back, I lucky chanced myself back into my old account here and haven't looked back. It feels awesome being back, playing the series I have loved since its inception. Phantasy Star Online.

See y'all around.
 
I've been playing PSO for as long as I can remember. I played offline on both Dreamcast and Gamecube back in the day. I started to play online on the old Schtserv in ~2010-2011 I believe and played all the way til it's downfall. I joined Ephinea shortly after this server started back in 2015. I've made countless memories and made a lot of friends along the way. I've played on and off on Ephinea for these past 9 years and at the start of this year, I decided to make PSO my main game again. I appreciate everything that the staff has done over the years to improve and make this the best PSO experience that I have personally ever had. I hope to be a part of this community for many years to come. I'm thankful to still get the opportunity to play Ephinea with my dad who got me into PSO when I was a young boy. I'm also thankful to have met @brokenpromise (a friend who I speak to more than most of my irl friends) @Arsuru , @Spuz and all of the other members of team Pioneers. Some other noteable friends being @Ade (although we don't play together much anymore, you've always been helpful and friendly and I was happy to make many memories back when Ephinea was new (example: server lag causing Ade to slide across the crater :P )), @Aer and also Spuz for helping me achieve 2p records in 1c challenge mode. I can't even begin to list everyone. This game has helped me through some hard times in my life and it brings me joy to be able to play it in the year 2024 with such a wonderful, active community.
 
I love you. I've always loved you.
Leme beta test the focast.

This is probably the most wholesome community I've ever been a part of. It feels like all but one of us are genuinely appreciative of the situation and so happy to be able to play this game at all.

Thank you for giving me the chance to experience this with other people. It'll never be saod enough.
 
Almalexia said:
I think it was like late 07' or 08', I'd never even heard of the PSO franchise. One of my hacky/techy buddies was just lamenting and moaning about the current era of consoles, and going on and on, praising the Dreamcast and all sorts of hardware 'war stories.'

"Dude, you gotta come play some PSOBB with me, I think I have like 1000hrs on Schthack already."

So, I made an account and started a FOnl (cuz 'sorcerers' are the strongest class, just slow to build up, right? :wacko:)

What a bizarre ass game to be introduced to... I think it took about a year before I really started to understand the flow of the game; I didn't even see 'high skill' gameplay for the longest time until I joined a random ma4cE2; we were in that last Seabeds room before Tower and there was this RAct (who clearly knew all the spawns) in the party just FT'ing and melting all of the Sinow with a combo'ing, sphere'd Faust (lol)--such great game mechanics though, and seemingly such a simple recipe for gameplay; but for whatever reason, I've never found anything else quite like PSOBB. Between the community and game design, we played on that server until it went poof years later.

The burn out was real, all that time lost--but eventually some friends talked me into getting started over here on Ephinea--I think I started mid-2016 or so. Immediately I could tell at that time, that the administration was infinitely better.

So I'm very grateful for Soda and Ender managing this server, without a doubt, very bright minds for such a niche focus--but you bring so much joy to thousands of people.:)
Click to expand...
*Playfully pokes a tiny clawed paw at the blood vessels on Matt Matt-sama's and Ryan-dono's temples not seeing Their names mentioned...* <3! (We often have to listen closely for Tofu-samas stirring in the background, too~! <3)
Yes, it's going to be 9 whole years since the SCHTHACK Betrayal incident this Summer! And we count ourselves Blessed and Lucky to count you among family here, Alma-san~! =3! Keep up the Fight! nya~! <3!
(Carn-dono....anime-dono....Gori-dono~! mew didn't forget you all~!)
 
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Thank you, Soda. I really enjoyed reading that.

@Roo I'll be sure to hop in next time I see you in an open game :3

(I'll edit this later with my own reflection; I just discovered this amazing thread and it's too late in the evening for me to write the MANY positive things I need to say.)
 
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I've been playing this game for as long as I can remember. I've also never really stopped... from being a five year old lass who could barely read, just following around my older brothers as their "meatshield HUcaseal" offline on Gamecube, to playing solo hucl offline for years and years after they all lost interest.

Then, one of them says "Hey, I found a PSO server called Ephinea. We can all play together on computer!" and it just blew my mind. I started off basically only playing with them, then they all left again and I was alone... left to brave playing with "random people online". (How terrifying!) This would have been in 2017... I was really slow coming out of my shell, too. Basically the only person I really talked with for a long time was Nina, of the Mag Daycare. I spent hours feeding 'rescued' satos for her and/or Mew to give away.

One day, in 2020 (I think Summer Scav Event?), I ran into this HUcast called maelstrom. We started playing together more, and just watching him play really opened my eyes to better gameplay... and then, suddenly he brought a friend group, and I wasn't playing 'mostly alone' anymore. Thanks, @No Hit, again for everything. Playing with you really opened my eyes in many ways. From the fun of improving my gameplay, to the much better fun of actually having friends.

This game -this server- is basically my whole social life. So thank all of you! Staff, who keep this place running, and improving. My friends, who I can bitch at about idiots at work, or chat with about anything else on my mind. And all the rest of you for being here, for filling my pub rooms, for generally keeping the player count of an old game still so active. I would be a much lonelier, sadder person without Ephinea.
 
oh wow this post got me severely sentimental about my time with this game. thank you so much for everything you and your team have done, first and foremost, this game is older than i am so up until a couple years ago i'd never really gotten to experience this game the way most did! secondly, holy shit, i love pso, i love it so much.

ive been playing the game since i was about 4 or 5? with my parents and their buddy. this game has been a substantial part of my life for pretty much the whole thing. blue burst would have just come out, but i had no clue about it until way way way later. i ended up being recommended ephinea by my dad a couple years ago, but ended up playing solo tethealla for about a year. ended up migrating here and starting over on a new computer and its been a total blast since. like, this game has influenced my art, my writing, my thoughts... for forever! and to be able to experience it even now with so many other people who also love it so dearly for everything that it is is such a special experience? its so touching to be a part of things, even if i play entirely solo. for the record, i used to play fomarl and i guess my love of adversity never left me because my primary character now is a fomar, haha.

ive been able to make so many fun memories here!! i once got separate rare drops from the same migium and hidoom and the pop off was crazy and will never leave me, yknow? this game is so special to me!! augh!! its been a valuable escape from the real world as ive needed it. its given me a chance to write high fantasy sci-fi characters. something i would have never done otherwise. it cannot be overstated how much this game has permeated my life lol. again-- thank you for everything you've done!! thanks for giving a local guy a chance to sink his teeth back into one of his absolute favorite games!! have a good one, everybody! keep up the good hunt!
 
I actually just logged in by chance for the first time in like a year and saw this post on the launcher, just wanna say thanks for keeping this game alive, both in terms of maintaining the server and the community as a whole. As somebody whose been playing PSO on and off for some 20 years now? It's comforting to see familiar names still playing.
 
PSO has been a wild ride, haha. It's funny to remember how my cousin begged us all to play it with him on the Gamecube back in 2004, and how we all looked at it and scoffed because we thought it was just going to be some weeb game hahaha.

About 20 years later and we're still playing this damn thing. Crazy.

@Sodaboy You should be very proud of the work you've done to revive this game and give it the life it has man. I know that there are a lot of people that have played a role in giving this game the life it's had, and I'd like to say thank you to all of them, even the players. Such a passionate community has allowed this game to live far beyond what even Sega expected, I think. It's great to see it's still going strong, and I'll always treasure all the things the game has introduced me to.
 
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