For 3 or 4 years now I've been playing Phantasy Star Universe every Friday and Saturday night (or most nights, anyway) with Clark, Jim and my hubby. Sometimes my sis joined in too. It was something we could look forward to doing every weekend... a constant in life.

By the end of 2009 I'd gotten my main character, Reina Hidalgo, very close to the level cap (160, or is it higher now, not sure). I maxed her levels in 6 classes: Fighgunner (still my favorite ever), Guntecher (my 2nd favorite, yay for bows!), Fortegunner, Fortefighter, Protranser (EX traps rule) and Acrofighter. I'm very close to maxing Gunmaster and was determined to start on Fighmaster next, the melee weapon equivalent to the Gunmaster class, more or less. (Spear is one of their favored weapons... I love spears!)

But now it's all going to be gone at the end of March. :( We knew this would happen, the PC/PS2 servers have such loooowww activity compared to Xbox servers. But it's sad to see. All those hours of play (over 1000), yet even if I did get an Xbox I wouldn't be able to transfer all those levels over.

Sega just... didn't really put much effort into the North American release of PSU and put even LESS into the PC/PS2 version. But I loved playing it, and am so sad to see it go. I almost don't know if I want to play MAG+ because even if I play it, all my progress will be gone for good in about 2 months, anyway. :( Though I don't want to miss doing stuff with Clark and Jim.

We're thinking already of what to play instead of PSU for our game nights. Clark wants to play NWN2, and I don't mind playing (I'm making a Moon Elf Rogue/Mage/Arcane Trickster)... but it's just not the same. NWN2 isn't even as good as the original NWN, IMO. And the controls are awkward in window mode! Booooo.

And the MMOs I'm interested in at the moment (Final Fantasy 14, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Hero's Journey) are not even out anyways. FF14 and Star Wars will probably be playable sooner than later, but Hero's Journey is totally "Simu soon." I have COMPLETE faith it will happen, because Simutronics always eventually pulls through, but it could be YEARS from now.

Of the other two choices, I'm way interested in the new Star Wars MMO becuase 1) it's made by Bioware!!11oneone and 2) it's using the Hero Engine, made by Simutronics for Hero's Journey. Simu apparently got way more revenue from developing the engine, to the point it slowed development on their *game* to a crawl. But I read recently on mmorpg.com that they finally split into two teams, one for the engine and one for the game, and development is continuing stronger than ever.

Even so, there's really nothing out there right now to replace PSU for me. I really liked playing a MMO that used the control pad. Why are there so few action MMOs??? The other two I and Jon had our eyes on (Tabula Rasa and Hellgate London) are either long gone, or just about to be gone. I guess everyone prefers their clicky MMOs like World of Warcraft. :(

Before the sad news, I was thinking of making that PSU screenshot page... now it'll be more of a memorial of her adventures than an ongoing journal. So maybe I just won't make it, then. ._. I mean, now I'll never know what Reina will do after being a Guardian, or if she'll stay one until she dies, I won't get to continue her story. I could put her in other games, but it's not going to be the same world, the same experiences. :( I'll miss her roaming Gurhal with her partner, Shirai Aires (yay, space elves with rifles!), and her buddies S0YL3NT-G (big green CAST, made of people!!) and Furry McGrowlson (the beast melee expert with the funny name).

And my sis and I never really got to do any RP with our characters, either! Reina and Leila are supposed to be half newman siblings, who split because Reina left for Parum with their human dad (Hermann Hidalgo, who ended up hired by GRM) while Leila stayed on Neudaiz with their mom... whom I never really named, now that I think about it. Reina took more after the human side, and Leila after the newman side, which is why Reina never really bothered with techniques and Leila was really strong with them.

There was so many years of play, of coming up with background and story ideas... and they'll all be gone. :( It's not like all the roleplay I do on rpol, openrpg, etc. where I can go back and see my character sheets, the logs, and everything. I won't even be able to access Reina's stats, or her huge storage that everyone used to tease me about because I filled all 500 spots and was always needing to sell things off for more space. I collected so many weapons hoping that I'd return to being a Fighgunner again one day, once I maxed Fighmaster.

I guess I should remember to at least get screenshots of Reina's final stats, her best equipment as a Fighgunner, all the fun decor in her room, and so on. Just for posterity. I get to look back at it years later and remember what fun we had... how strong she became (in the past, her nickname was "Ruin" because she screwed up on missions a lot)... all the fun times (like during MAG when Jim's chara put on the Rappy suit in the nightclub and everyone started dancing around him under the disco ball!)... the frustrating times (getting pissed off about Just Attacks, then after that learning to do them perfectly!)... the triumphs of finding awesome drops (my 11* spear and bow being my faves)... the silly moments fooling around with emotes in the lobby or laughing at the crappy censoring (it was so easy to get around it, and weird things were censored like "tampon" :P).

It's actually depressing me thinking of Reina disappearing, and the game going away. :(((( But I'm pretty sure it's already been decided and can't be reversed. So that's that... I suppose we at least get to play for free for two months, but... I'm not even sure I'll want to play any more. Maybe if I could keep something of my character's progress. But I can't!

So I will soon I will say goodbye to PSU for good, and hope that if Sega makes another MMO (not a handheld game, please! A REAL MMO) based on Phantasy Star, it'll be more long lasting. That and I'll be able to make a girl with green braids, tan skin and blue eyes, who fights equally well with guns, bows, spears and swords. A fighgunner in spirit, if not in name!

One day, I want to be able to play Reina again in a game that's actually suited to her concept. That way, I'll feel she'll never die... at least until I do.

P.S. I thought of writing stories about her and Shirai and their friends... but honestly? PSU is not PSU for me without the actual gameplay. And neither Clark nor Jim roleplay so that wouldn't work either. Such a shame!!