Editing Phantasy Star Online (section)

=== Art and setting ===
Sonic Team built a science fiction-fantasy game under the working title ''Third World''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":13" /> The art style was "comic-like" at first, but became more realistic. One of artist Satoshi Sakai's early concept drawings of a dragon reminded Naka of Sega's ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' series, which had been dormant since ''[[Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium|Phantasy Star IV]]'' (1993) for the Genesis.<ref name=":0" /> Naka had been the main programmer on [[Phantasy Star (video game)|''Phantasy Star'']] (1987) and ''[[Phantasy Star II]]'' (1989).<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last1=Justice|first1=Brandon|last2=Chau|first2=Anthony|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/02/02/interview-with-sega-legend-yuji-naka|title=Interview With SEGA Legend, Yuji Naka|date=February 1, 2001|website=IGN|publisher=Ziff Davis|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220201437/http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/02/02/interview-with-sega-legend-yuji-naka|archive-date=December 20, 2015|url-status=live|access-date=May 27, 2018}}</ref> He had always wanted to develop a multiplayer ''Phantasy Star'' game, but previous hardware did not allow for it.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/1999/10/02/igndc-interviews-sonic-teams-yuji-naka|title=IGNDC Interviews Sonic Team's Yuji Naka|last=IGN Staff|date=October 1, 1999|website=IGN|publisher=Ziff Davis|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220201837/http://www.ign.com/articles/1999/10/02/igndc-interviews-sonic-teams-yuji-naka|archive-date=December 20, 2015|url-status=live|access-date=May 27, 2018}}</ref>

With the ''Phantasy Star'' series chosen as the setting, Sonic Team continued developing the gameplay and story. The team was given freedom not to adhere strictly to elements from earlier ''Phantasy Star'' games.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":13" /> The game would not continue the story from the previous ''Phantasy Star'' games, something that made Naka feel liberated.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /> Since few of the ''Phantasy Star IV'' staff still worked at Sega, the art team felt little obligation to adhere to the previous games' style, retaining only the science fiction look and some enemy and item names. Naka and Sakai believed factors such as the change in graphical fidelity and genre were enough to differentiate  it from previous ''Phantasy Star'' games.<ref name=":0" />