Well, thats funny...PSU2 is PSP2.

[RemiusTA]

Has anyone else noticed this? Seriously?

I find it kind of funny how much effort Sega is putting into this game. Im guessing it has to do with the fact that PSP sold so freaking well, being only a port with minor (but VERY pleasing, esp if you happen to make a force) changes to the gameplay systems. Also the fact that a game like Phantasy Star Portable is FAR cheeper to design for the PSP than the 360 or PS3 (the exact same reason Monster Hunter Tri was moved to the Wii instead of the PS3.)

Phantasy Star Portable 2, however, is WAY more than simply an expansion on PSU -- it might as well be another whole game. PSP's engine was already more superior to the console version ones, seeing as it runs most scenarios of the game with ease on the PSP that the 360/pc/ps2 damn near dies with. Portable 2 has taken it WAY farther with the amount of engine changes. They completely ditched the weapon-dependant PP idea, for one. That alone sets it wholly apart from any current version of PSU, seeing as that COMPLETELY changes the balance of everything from characters to weapons themselves, even difficulty of the missions. They added dodge rolls, Exact Guarding, Charged Shots, "NEWMAN AND HUMAN BLASTS", "BLACK NANOBEASTS"....basically EVERYTHING we have been saying "boy it'd be really cool IF" to. They fixed the garbage ass camera and allowed locking on of airborne enemies (potentally making certian annoying ass bosses alot more fun too fight if you're a ranger, and adding a bit more to anything else that goes airborne.) And to top it off....BATTLE MODE? With island hopping action?! FULL FLEDGED CHALLENGE MODE?! They even went so far as to merge PSZero concepts into the damn engine.

Yeah, it seems like our version of this game is Doomed, because absolutely everything this series needed is ending up in the portable version. We could see an adaptation....but somehow upgrading from the PSP (which is more work than downgrading TO psp) just doesn't seem like something Sega is going to do anytime soon. There literately isnt ANYTHING our version has over PSP2 when it comes out. (yeah, anything. I'd say graphics, but PSP2 looks way better as a PSP game than PSU does as a 360 game, and since PSP runs better than PSU anyway, I dont see any advantages to owning AotI, even with the supplemental update.) The announcement of this game, and the subsequent uber hyping and collaboration Sega is getting from its community for the production and release of this game is absolutely astounding considering how horrible PSU is doing right now. The last time Phantasy Star got this much attention is when PSU was being developed. I wouldn't be surprised if they started advertising it over HERE...

I really dont know what to say. I'd be pissed, but they're doing exactly what we want, just not WHERE we want.

[Volcompat321]

It is a whole other game.
I absolutely hated the throw back and knock down shit for forces in PS:P.
Hated it.
I don't mind where SEGA puts their time or money into.
I like PSU, I'll keep playing it.
When PS:P2 comes out, I'll buy it, and play it as well.

[Allison_W]

And to top it all off, no subscription fee.

I'll miss cut-in chat and PSU's purdy lobbies, though. Possibly synthing (except for the part where my Zanshu-Misaki board made a Merculine); I don't know if PSP2 is keeping that, or what changes would be made to it. I'll also be pissed if Sega fails to release PSP2's DLC stateside the way they failed to release PSP1's DLC stateside, but they actually seem to give two shits about this one, so I dunno--admittedly, even if all we ever get is what comes on the disc, that still beats the hell out of what we've gotten from PSU so far.

I won't miss the lack of human and newman racial specials, the fixed weapon proficiencies that have a special gift for running counter to what a class really needs (it pisses me off that three-quarters of the WT S-ranks are two-handed, thus no R/R TCSM), boring ranged and technique weapons, broken-ass overspecialized master-classes, crappy first tier for techs, certain classes not getting complete combos for their melee weapons, Megistar and the lazy-ass Acrotechers who stoop to it, buff leveling parties, anything involving bullet leveling, forces sucking against bosses, etc.

[Volcompat321]

PS:P2 has lobbies. Not the same of course.
And, if you have a Go, I'm sure any bluetooth KB would work with it.

[Allison_W]

If I remember correctly, there's only one lobby in PSP2. Or maybe they really do just mean only one city instead of four and that there will be other lobbies, but I dunno about that.

Also, if I don't want to shell out for a Go and a Bluetooth keyboard, is there any way to use a keyboard with a regular PSP?

EDIT: If the game has no player shops, I'll miss those. :( Won't miss the legions of players who inexplicably try to sell Vulcalines and resins for 10k. Seriously the game needs a function in it to keep people from doing that.

[Volcompat321]

People have mods, but I don't think there is anything you can just go out and buy :/

Also, I was mentioning a Go, in case anyone did buy one. I wouldn't buy a Go just for one game, but I do plan on getting one, and happen to already have a bluetooth keyboard. :D
Maybe there is a little USB type keyboard, I'll look into it.

[Allison_W]

People have mods, but I don't think there is anything you can just go out and buy :/

Also, I was mentioning a Go, in case anyone did buy one. I wouldn't buy a Go just for one game, but I do plan on getting one, and happen to already have a bluetooth keyboard. :D
Maybe there is a little USB type keyboard, I'll look into it.

I appreciate it, thanks.

And I wouldn't ordinarily buy a system for just one game, but if that game appears to have a high chance of becoming my No-Life Game of Choice, that changes things a bit. Also there's that Castlevania: Rondo of Blood remake and the original PSP, though I don't know if they can be downloaded to the Go for certain.

[Volcompat321]

Okay, did some research very quickly.
Apparently there is a USB type keyboard for a PSP, but you have to get a .prx program(just like RemoteJoy, and CWcheats) (which none of the sites linked).
I can look more into this tomorrow. (bout to go to bed :D)

[Powder Keg]

I appreciate it, thanks.

And I wouldn't ordinarily buy a system for just one game, but if that game appears to have a high chance of becoming my No-Life Game of Choice, that changes things a bit. Also there's that Castlevania: Rondo of Blood remake and the original PSP, though I don't know if they can be downloaded to the Go for certain.

It's not available for download on the Go currently. Honestly you're better off buying a PSP that can take UMDs and just getting large memory stick(s). You'll be spending the same pretty much anyway. There are other older but great games for the PSP as well that I'll bet will never be downloadable.

[str898mustang]

I like my PSU on a screen thats bigger than 5 inches.

[Gibdozer]

EDIT:[/b] If the game has no player shops, I'll miss those. :( Won't miss the legions of players who inexplicably try to sell Vulcalines and resins for 10k. Seriously the game needs a function in it to keep people from doing that.

There is a function to prevent that, it's called common sense. As for player shops it would be nice to have, but considering how stripped down PsP-1 is I'm not holding my breath.


I like my PSU on a screen thats bigger than 5 inches.

They make an adapter for that you know. Also its a handheld, PsP-1 may look better and out preform the PS2 version, but it's still nowhere near the 360. PsP-2 sounds like a huge step forward in game play mechanics but its not going to supplant PSU.

[Tetsaru]

Man, I REALLY hope PSP2 is successful, but I agree - why would Sega put that much effort into a HANDHELD game, knowing it would be more popular, rather than make a new CONSOLE game or expansion for PSU that has the exact same content?? I guess they're too afraid of fucking up again somehow, but really, it's their own fault for doing so in the first place. :confused:

[Neith]

PSP2 has a totally different dev team, involving Sakai. Sakai knows what was wrong with PSU, and is trying to both fix these problems in PSP2 while adding a lot of new things to keep players interested. Miyoshi, on the other hand seems to be content with letting PSU stagnate.

If anything, I would like to see PSP2 act as a template for future PSU updates, or a new PS console/PC based game altogether. With a solid template, there's less chance of going wrong.

[Zantra]

I don't like how the female beasts look... I want Panda to be pretty... not rabid.

[Allison_W]

There is a function to prevent that, it's called common sense.

Common sense is clearly bugged considering everyone and their dog prices Vulcalines and resins at 10k despite the fact that the NPC sells them for 8k and 7.5k, respectively.


As for player shops it would be nice to have, but considering how stripped down PsP-1 is I'm not holding my breath.

PSP2 is... not PSP1. PSP2 is looking like a souped-up and vastly expanded version of PSU, rather than the stripped-down model that PSP used. Then again, with the lack of a persistent online world, player shops seem unlikely.


They make an adapter for that you know.

Detaaaaails!


Also its a handheld, PsP-1 may look better and out preform the PS2 version, but it's still nowhere near the 360. PsP-2 sounds like a huge step forward in game play mechanics but its not going to supplant PSU.

I'm not so sure about that. It may not kill the JP servers, and it may not prevent the formation of private regional servers after the death of the official regional servers, but the regional servers are already dying--when PSP2 comes along with its promise of a superior game with no subscription fee and no annoying drop-feed mismanagement bullshit (at least, I'm assuming that everything on the PSP2 disc will be unlocked from the get-go, unlike PSU), it stands to reason that the official regional servers may well lose a sizeable chunk of what few players they have left--possibly to the point that Sega decides it's time to pull the plug.

Of course, that wouldn't be so bad, not when PSP2 is here to take on the refugees and official death would make room for private servers.


I don't like how the female beasts look... I want Panda to be pretty... not rabid.

Beauties are overrated. Beauties are a dime a dozen. Beasts are where all the fun is, and a watered-down beauty of a "beast" would completely defeat the purpose.

[Keilyn]

I don't think the regional servers will lose that many players.

Not everyone is going to buy a PSP to play one or two games. Secondly, there are players who have maxed out characters and friends here who will keep on playing. Also, I would like to have more than one mission counter and lobby to boot :P

PSU is what will make Sega Money with the Guardians Cash and Monthly Fee....PSPo II may be a good game, but it will lack being used as a continous resource for money through subscription fees.

I for one am not buying a PSP or a DS to play Phantasy Star on it. You want to bring sequals to handheld systems, that fine...but people on console and PC are not going to like having to buy a handheld to not miss out. I'm waiting on Guild Wars II :P Which will be free subscription fees and a fully persistent world. ^_^

[Arika]

They said that PSU will last at least 5 years. so They couldn't ditch their word and make a new gen game now.

Atm, it is 3 full year already. so developer in these 2 years might fully concentrate on PSP:2 until it starting to get boring, and then they will make a new PS-game. (more likely to be online game, since they love money, and GC/subscripte can get them more of that)

[rayner]

I'm sort of torn between PSP & PSU, although I do like hunting for weapons, finding an uber-rare weapon with 2% Elemental is worse than having 0%. So I keep running those missions trying for a better element... and then slowly those weapons are not-so-rare. If they add an option like in PSO to use Photon Drops to increase the Elemental % that would be great. I mean in PSO you could have 100% in 3 areas of a weapon and all it would cost was Photon Drops.

If finding a weapon is tough and then add a lottery for a number between 0 - 50... finding them will start to get boring and frustrating. This is what I'm worried about with PSP2... because once I hit lv 100 in PSP all that was left was getting a high-element weapon ( Hunters ) and switching jobs to try to get all the Rewards. There's gotta be medium-ground...

[pinkace]

My biggest fear is that cheating will be out of Segas control again, with client-side saves and the fact that you can share game saves online naturally on PSP, edit and hack save files on a computer with ease....

That's what happens when you void the subscription fee altogether.

[Kinako78]

That's a fair concern, pinkace, but it just means we'll have to watch out for who we play with.

Then again, if you only play with people that you know (or plan a game with people from PSOW), it shouldn't be a problem.

[Ash1ey]

^
One would hope your character is tied to your serial number that comes with the gmae, which is also tied to your PSN account. Of course that wouldn't stop cheating, but distribution of the save file and or at least being able to ban players

But then again theres the chance SEGA of America will take out the serial numbers for the US version. just like they did with PSU and PSU AOI. Heres hoping they don't take it out this time.

[Volcompat321]

Yea, my fear was the cheating thing.
Though, I'd only play with my RL friends, and people from PSO-W and PSU.
All of which, I hope are people better than cheating.
If not, guess I just lost someone to play with.

[Ash1ey]

I don't really care if one of my friends is a cheater. As long as s/hes not doing shit like NOL'ing people or damageing peoples data, I could care less. But I know not everyone feels the same way about that, which is fine. Though it would still be nice to have everyone playing normally, but thats not likely going to happen in the end

[pinkace]

If the game has shops, even if you play with your friends only, the entire economy will be destroyed. and unlike PC PSU, it will be permanent, as there are no patches for this game.

I'd rather have server-side saves and pay $5 a month for a guarantee that the game will never, ever be hacked, and if it is, a patch will be deployed. Preceeded by a rollback of course ;)

[BIG OLAF]

I, for one, plan on getting a PSP for this game (not just because of the game itself, but I actually wanted a PSP before I heard about Phantasy Star Portable 2). It looks very fun, and I know a few of my personal friends are also getting it.

On a semi-related not, I have a DS, and also plan on getting PS0 when it comes out on November 11th.

If anyone wants to play with me on either of these games when they're released, just let me know.

[Volcompat321]

Rollback in a game online and offline using the same character is not possible.
But then that goes with the "pay 5 dollars".
You'd have a different character online and offline.
I wouldn't want that.
People might not be around a Wi-fi access point all the time, and would want to play offline, and would have a different character.
Lame.
There will be cheating no matter what. I also think it's impossible to stop the cheating because you'd need the patches.
I also doubt there will be player shops.
I would not pay $5 a month for a portable game, no matter how awesome it is.
You have to be at an access point in order to play it.
I happen to have wi-fi in my house, but that's not the point.


I, for one, plan on getting a PSP for this game (not just because of the game itself, but I actually wanted a PSP before I heard about Phantasy Star Portable 2). It looks very fun, and I know a few of my personal friends are also getting it.

On a semi-related not, I have a DS, and also plan on getting PS0 when it comes out on November 11th.

If anyone wants to play with me on either of these games when they're released, just let me know.


We should play together when it comes out. :o
I also have 2 RL friend that plan on playing, so there would always be a full party!

[Akaimizu]

I'm game for that. We'll probably exchange info so we can connect together, in the appropriate forums here.

[Allison_W]

Yep, sounds like player shops are dead, and for very good reason.

I'll still miss them. I kind of like having an economy in PSU, even if it is kind of wonky--it's nice to be able to grab mats from player shops (when they aren't priced higher than the NPC, at least) or find good deals on weapons and armour I can use, like mid-percent Gudda Hons back when my beast WT was just starting out in the class.

I'll also have to connect with you folks when PS0 and PSP2 come out; I plan on getting both.

[Volcompat321]

When they time comes, I'll (if no one beats me to it), start a thread on meeting up, down in the PS:P section.
Most likely it will be a friend code type thing.
I kinda hope it's simpler than that, but with a shitload of people coming together in a small non server type game, it will be hard to pick out who's who, unlike PSU.

[Kinako78]

I'll also be picking up PSZ/0 when it comes out (actually, the day after, but that's another story). I'll be sure to post my friend code in my profile for anyone who wants to play with me. :)

[str898mustang]

Man, I REALLY hope PSP2 is successful, but I agree - why would Sega put that much effort into a HANDHELD game, knowing it would be more popular, rather than make a new CONSOLE game or expansion for PSU that has the exact same content?? I guess they're too afraid of fucking up again somehow, but really, it's their own fault for doing so in the first place. :confused:

IIRC, JP go crazy for handheld things over consoles. But yeah agree with ya, making it for a 3 inch screen was a bad idea.

[Tetsaru]

IIRC, JP go crazy for handheld things over consoles.

Well, if that's true, that just further proves Sega's lack of interest in the overseas playerbase...

[Allison_W]

IIRC, JP go crazy for handheld things over consoles.


Well, if that's true, that just further proves Sega's lack of interest in the overseas playerbase...

Noooooot quite. The handheld craze isn't JP-specific; portable systems are actually quite a bit more popular than home consoles stateside as well, if memory serves--specifically the Nintendo DS, which explains Phantasy Star Zero; a quick search confirmed this for June 2009, as an example. The PSP in specific appears to be quite a bit less popular, though, so you could ask Why the PSP instead of home consoles and PCs? My best guess is that they're simply more confident in the viability of a portable title over a home console/PC title at the moment--and remember, PSP1 actually did fairly well stateside. Given the mismanagement of the regional PSU servers, I'm inclined to think that even if it might piss us off, they probably will get a better return on their investment by focusing on regional PSP2 sales instead of trying to bring regional players back to PSU, which would have a questionable prognosis even if Sega suddenly turned into a collection of superheroes whose superpower was awesomely managing PSU.

tl,dr: The evidence Strongly Suggests that the next online Phantasy Star title being portable is in no way a snub of non-Japanese gamers. Regional players get all kinds of snubs from Sega, but this isn't one of them.

[kirtblue]

i hate synthing im not missing that already

[Yusaku_Kudou]

I like my PSU on a screen thats bigger than 5 inches.

I'm all set! Got my component cables for my PSP-2000. Weee! Seriously, though, PSP2 looks so good... do I wish it were on console? Yep. Do I wish it were free? Yuss. Do I wish it were free only if they had the cash shop? You betcha! That way at least there would be more players and you only got to spend as much as you felt.

I am sure there will be another console Phantasy Star online game and that it will build far on top of PSP2 with updated graphics... and hopefully free! (even with a cash shop to keep things running smoothly)

[VariaXVIII]

I'm all set! Got my component cables for my PSP-2000. Weee! Seriously, though, PSP2 looks so good... do I wish it were on console? Yep. Do I wish it were free? Yuss. Do I wish it were free only if they had the cash shop? You betcha! That way at least there would be more players and you only got to spend as much as you felt.

I am sure there will be another console Phantasy Star online game and that it will build far on top of PSP2 with updated graphics... and hopefully free! (even with a cash shop to keep things running smoothly)

It's great that the PSP gets component cables, but don't forget that we can't even get full screenage. I thought it was the aspect ratio when I had a really small screen on my TV with the component cables plugged in, but lo and behold it was actually the fact that the PSP doesn't output all games full-screen. :(

...weird thing is though, it seems to output PSX games just fine at full screen. I don't understand why Sony can't give us the option to make our PSP games fullscreen on the TV even with the cost of blurring the pixels just a tad.

[pinkace]

You can get full screen if you set your tv to panscan. if your tv cant do that then its not very good. My previous HDTV couldn't.

I will probably not be able to play this game, because it may require a firmware upgrade and I will not do that, I won't be able t o play my 32 gigs of backups :P. I may have to buy a brand new PSP just to play this game.

It would be sweet of they released it as a bundle with some extra goodies :)

[MadDogg]

Meh, even though I own a PSP, screw PSU portable 2. I'm not giving this thing no more than 3 days before its overran by cheaters, dupes, and hacks. Rather would have a sequel on 360 and PS3 that would also guarantee the game stays legit, and have patches when needed.

[biggabertha]

I love handhelds - this is looking to be really good for me!

I REALLY hope that we get an EU version... at least with this, I have something to do at work, can go online or stay offline and such. It'd be so nice to be able to upload/download characters from the console version to the handheld version and vice versa!

Sega's always full of great ideas - just like Nintendo.

Too bad Sony and Microsoft are just better at marketing.

[Arika]

I love handhelds - this is looking to be really good for me!

I REALLY hope that we get an EU version... at least with this, I have something to do at work, can go online or stay offline and such. It'd be so nice to be able to upload/download characters from the console version to the handheld version and vice versa!

Sega's always full of great ideas - just like Nintendo.

Too bad Sony and Microsoft are just better at marketing.

while SEGA seem to be worst on marketing D:

[Kismet]

I agree with the first post of this thread completely. XD