About the Project
Welcome the Kiyomizu Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst server, as a love letter for all those purist hunters seeking to relive their memories in a proper vanilla environment, the real deal.
Welcome Aboard
Welcome to Kiyomizu PSO BB!, this server was set up as a place where all the former original Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst fans (myself included) can actually enjoy the game in a total untouched state closely replicating the server ran by SEGA themselves, in a controlled environment which will only offer the original game and quests alongside it's original features, no more, nor less. You could consider this the true vanilla experience which to the date no other private server have been able to offer.
The Last Hurrah of a Legendary Game
Released back in July 8th 2004 Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst (PSO BB) was the PC port of Phantasy Star Online Episodes I&II previously released on Gamecube and Xbox, which also included many new features such as:
- A new progression system via Government Quests, clear these to unlock new areas!
- New Monsters, Areas, Items and a brand new Storyline in the newly added Episode IV exclusive to this version.
- Team System to improve communications with your friends in game as well as unlocking exclusive rewards together
- Server Side systems taking care of your Character Data, Item Drops, Quests rewards and much more.
The port was a derivative of the Xbox version as it shared architecture similarities with Windows XP at the time allowing the game to be easily ported to PC, but with all the extra additions added in this release you could consider PSO BB the GOTY edition of PSO as stated by it's producer Takao Miyoshi in recent interviews.
In addition to it's original Japanese release, the game was also released in the Chinese and American markets with limited success, as there wasn't much interest in yet another PSO version overseas with all the hype focusing towards the upcoming Phantasy Star Universe.
The game ultimately closed back in December 27th 2010 after 6 succesful years running, however I must admit, the last 2 years saw very limited content releases focusing mostly in Item or Exp boost events without any new major Quests or Items added to the game.
Why Kiyomizu?
Over the years PSOBB servers have evolved in different ways the most popular ones being (Ephinea, Ultima, Destiny), yet all of them right now have decided in different degrees to go the way of modifying the game beyond it's original capabilities and 'feature-creep' it with additional features, items, commands, and all kinds of weird contents. At the end of the day they are all running their servers in a 'Sunk Cost Fallacy' way they have to continue evolving in an unnatural way to keep appeasing the masses asking for more contents for various reasons with the fear of losing players if they do not comply.
It sounds very appealing for most players and it's the reason why those servers are still very popular, until inevitably they implement something you disagree with and then you can't escape it due the nature of being an online game with a client arbitrarily patching your game constantly with unwanted stuff affecting your gameplay, now you are screwed and you have to just swallow it and keep playing for the good of the 'community' or simply leave like I did.
This is the first key reason why I decided to set up this server, if you want a place where you can just 'play the original' as it was in the SEGA servers, right now, Kiyomizu can offer you such environment in both Japanese and English. It might not be as 'glamorous' as the others but rest assured you will be playing the game as SEGA intended it to be with its merits and demerits, of course being an emulation there's always a chance some small detail in-game might be off but I would put us 98% in the accuracy scale, as I was a very hardcore player of the now defunct official servers from Japan back in my youth days, I wanted a place where I can play PSOBB just as I remember it like some sort of Museum we can visit anytime.
Differences with PSO Episode 1&2 (GC/XBOX)
Phantasy Star Online Episode 1&2 in both Gamecube and Xbox is a very popular version of the game currently being hosted on both Schtserv and Sylverant servers. People say that in order to play the "Original" version of the game you can just play those offline, however, these version lack the support of the latest contents and features added in PSOBB with the addition of Episode IV, which also has it's own storyline in addition to all the previous Quests and contents included in previous game versions from Gamecube and Dreamcast.
The Technical Side
This server will be perpetually running the latest version of PSOBB japan 1.25.11, it is running using the newserv PSO Server Emulator made by fuzziqer with adjustments made on my own to further refine and make the game experience as close as possible to the official servers, with many of these already reported and added to the newserv repository for everyone to benefit, that means we are offering here only the official quests released in both PSOBB US and JP alongside the original drops for all episodes including fully working Challenge and Battle modes.
The Client also has its share of work, as I was able to recover from my old backups the original installer from SEGA with the latest patch already pre-applied (its been archived already), two developers called Repflez and devilti decided to go the extra mile and create a small non-invasive launcher solution called AzureFlare in the form of a drop-in file that bypasses the original client's DRM and launch the game without ever touching or modifying the main SEGA's executables and that allows you to do cool stuff such as easily changing the game's internal IP address and change the client language via simple config text file.
This is particularly important because the Client handles pretty much 80% of the game logic with the server handling the other 20% so by keeping a clean backup without weird hacked stuff or incomplete game files, you can use it to play here or in your own server or any other servers that might pop from here on. In fact, I would strongly suggest to make a backup of newserv and the client in a durable media such as a CD-R or DVD to avoid 'losing' the game.
As PSOBB is a client-server game, means the player data is kept here in the server, so in order to increase resilience against any host problem the player databases are being backed up twice a day and the game service is running 24/7. Hosting services are offered by Vultr (affiliate link) and I totally recommend these guys for their stability hosting all kinds of Web Projects.
Discord Enhanced Internet (DEI)
I've played many online games besides PSO since the early 2000's and in the last decade or so and more specifically the last 4~5 years, it's becoming impossible to find a place where you could just meet and play with your friends or strangers without having to worry for what you say in-game or walk on eggshells, without having to worry if some Reddit/Discord drone Moderator/Admin/GM will just instantly ban you and kill your game progress by talking about 'sensitive' topics they disagree with or just plain old-school shit talking in the in-game chats.
Let's say If someone has a problem with you while playing, they can always create a party with a password, use the block function in the client and ignore you, of course that means you are also in the same position if you attempt to bother them it's a two-way street. And if a discussion arises everyone must be ready to fight back and defend their arguments in such situations, of course it would be ideal to strive and find a consensus but I understand sometimes it's wishful thinking, but regardless of the outcomes nobody will have their game data or game access compromised here.
Spaces offering such degree of freedom of expression are very rare these days outside of 4chan and similar and in the gaming circles these days pretty much non-existent with Discord being the main culprit encouraging such weird echo-chambers that begin to look more like cults where you must pledge allegiance or else, playing an online game doesn't have to feel like you are in your workplace where HR can come and anytime fire you on the spot.
It doesn't have to be that way, so in a way Kiyomizu and this game (and future games we will host here) will follow this same very relaxed mantra. Of course resources are very limited as I'm only 1 person but I'm pretty confident we will begin to see a healing of the game communities away from annoying activism that just distracts you from just 'playing the game' and this is also the second big reason why I decided to embark in this adventure and responsibility about a year ago.
Ultimately I would love and encourage more people to setup their game servers of different genres such as this one following a similar idea.
About the Webmistress
Also known as RADIX or マリナ・ベルモンテ or ルミナ or more recently as Nol Rinale in the Hunters Guild Discord. I was one of the very few players from overseas who stayed playing at the official JP BB servers from the very beginning back in 2004's Open Beta until the very last day on December 27th 2010, thanks to this game I was able to meet many wonderful friends from Japan many of which I still talk to almost 20 years later and that I had the blessing to meet personally both in Japan and inviting them to visit my country as well, this game is very important for me so this place is also like a personal museum of sorts. I usually write random stuff about a variety of topics and scream like a fucking schizo menhera on my blog feel free to stop by anytime :)
Lastly, all I have left to say is to thank you for taking your time visiting this site and discovering PSO BB, feel free to also stop by the Guestbook and tell me your thoughts about PSO BB, the server, or whatever you want, always happy to connect with fellow hunters!