Phantasy Star Online hit some kind of magical sweet spot back in 2000. Though its spinoffs and followups kept much of the formula from that release, there was always something that felt off about them, and prevented some fans (like me) from getting fully into them.

It turns out that maybe those games were hewing too closely to the first PSO, because the new Phantasy Star Online 2 feels significantly different from its predecessors in action, and seems to have paradoxically recaptured the PSO excitement by doing so. It definitely hits all the right notes, but the mechanics have actually been upgraded. Can you believe it? Of course, the bummer about this is that it's a currently Japan-only, PC-only game.