What was/is right with PSU

[tadtwisted]

I'm making this thread to ask people what they think was/is right with PSU. As far as gamplay and overall as a game.

I do like having so many mission to choose from compared to PSO and the whole PA leveling is light years ahead of the older phantasy star games

[tadtwisted]

I'm making this thread to ask people what they think was/is wrong with PSU. As far as gamplay and overall as a game.

I think the biggest problem with PSU is the fact that they broke up the servers by region, unlike PSO which let the world play together. I understand that xbox live and PSN will never allow people to play together but i still dont know why they made the game for ps2 when the system was on its way out

[Palle]

I like the action-RPG control scheme. I'm not a point-click-hotkey-wait kind of guy [with one exception].

I like the PSU system of building skills [visual enhancement and increased effectiveness with use] over disc-finding or trees/grids. I am quite happy with the variety of PAs for all weapons.

I like the character customization and clothing/parts variety [though I would always welcome more].

I like the locales and lobby/field designs. Ditto for many weapons.

EDIT:

{...aww, man, thread merge deleted my cons...?}

Lack of support for the Western market is beyond disappointing. Localization is cheap and easy relative to other development, AFAIK there's no good reason we shouldn't be ≤4 weeks behind JP today rather than 10 months or whatever it is now. While MS approval may be a factor [I have my doubts that this is even a problem], this reason alone has cost them 17 or 18 months worth of Guardian's License fees from me since NA/EU launch.

I'm also not too pleased that much of vanilla PSU is abandoned due to the mission rewards from AotI. Even when Leo is at five stars, 85% of the mission counters Gurhal-wide are empty. I don't think PSU should be limited to PUGs @ WB, there's much more to do out there.

[Palle]

I would have liked a more varied array or increased volume of mission types [i.e. Time Attack, Item Retrieval, Heavy Extermination, Team Story Missions, etc/whatever].

I was not pleased with framerate/slowdown issues on the 360.

The lack of support for the Western market, in terms of updates, content, and events, was a serious disappointment. So far [since NA/EU launch] it has cost SEGA 17 months worth of dues from me.

The original story did not mesh at all with the qualities I have come to expect from PS titles.

[Volcompat321]

What's right with PSU?
Awesome community, fun game.


What's wrong with PSU?
SEGA

[roardova lengths]

Pros: Character Designs
Hella Missions To Choose From
Hella Special Attacks/PAs
Hella Channels To Play On
Hella Weapon Classes
The Ability To Choose To Do Story Missions Or Not
Classes
the Good Men & Women of the Community (which is very small in number)

Cons: No Bald Head Hair Style
Improper Hair Colors
Not Being Able To Spend Real Life Money To Buy In Game Money Like Mabinogi
Adding PPL To Blacklist With Out Having To Catch Them
Not Being Able To Upgrade Element Stats (it would've been really nice to turn a 13% ice weapon to 50% over time, wouldn't it?)
Long Times For Synths
Event Maintenance
065
Losers of the Community
Not Enough Weapons From All of the Companies In the Game

[Yuicihi]

I enjoyed the customization of the game. The speed and fluidity of combat were largely improved from PSO.

However, as I am smitten with the Ranger classes, I felt that I was taken too far away from the combat. In PSO, you had the Combo system, which at least kept me awake while killing dragons and such, while in PSU, I ended up mashing X, and occasionally refilling every so often. I tried the Hunter classes every so often, and found that I couldn't get into them. The Upgrade system kept me as far away as possible from the Force classes as well.

However, the main problem was simply execution. Some of it being Sega of America's fault, but also simply due to circumstances beyond control. The missions had variety, but human tendency to lean towards the most reward for the least commitment brought that to naught.

[Max B]

What's right with PSU?
Awesome community, fun game.


What's wrong with PSU?
SEGA

this :sheep:

[Keilyn]

PSU had the following good points

I'm typing about these from my point of view as a game modder/programmer, within such experience on what I believe makes a good game.

~Good Character Creation (one of the best out there) + tons of clothes and extras for them.
~Good Start Set (You could instantly dive into a map immediately after character creation)
~The ability to set your own difficulty later on
~Minimal Party support needed to play
~Mission Design allows a player to play for short periods of time and accomplish something.
~Weapon Models for almost every weapon (reused models/Reskinned)
~Orientation: You are either Hunter, Ranger or Force with strength determined by type limitations.
~When Events came which counted...those were great...From Events like Firebreak, STD etc....

Sorry, I have to post the bad:

~Experience Points: These are based by the monster level and buffs of the enemy....and has no bearing on the environment. This destroys the uniqueness of the game since all encounters and experience points are Level-Based, a player can just find a map with such an enemy and kill it....

Examples are if you wanted to kill pannons...The same pannons are in practically every dark oriented map...Just find one and kill it...Level determines EXP and Drop..

Makes searching with Ease, but destroys encounter uniqueness in maps.

~Lack of Challenging enemies: Only few enemies have any real challenge. Collectively Dark is the newest and strongest element in the star system....and they come organized..offering a little of everything together in brute force.

~Encounter Limitation: Due to the PS2s Limitation, Encounters are limited to a small number, where most of the time a full party of six outnumbers the number of enemies encountered on the field.

~Story Limitation: While you are free to replay and make new direction in the story...it is still the only Online Roleplaying Game I have ever played in which you had to do entire story alone + NPCs.

~Types: The singleplayer had Hunter, Ranger and Force...and allowed you to get into it and play with balance and limitations. Online so many types existed that players had to unlock them and level them to 20 (meaning more grinding).

~Multiplayer got updates, Singleplayer wasn't updated to include episode III content.
~Grinding: Everything about the game was a high grind...PA leveling, Type Leveling and Character leveling.....forcing players to play a long time to feel that they are just getting started on how a type should play as....without all the horse work.
~Repetitive nature: Yeah, I know...its a roleplaying game duh....but when you play the same maps at level 10 that you would at level 170 - 180, just different difficulty...regardless the power base or type of the character.....It begs to be called.
~Lack of Exploration: Once you see a map once, you don't need to see anything again...Exploration is only tied to the item drops....which was destroyed by both...the design of the game and by the existence of the Wikis Documenting all the drops...So a player doesn't need to explore and gather information...They can just look up charts for practically everything...and environmentally things don't really change either.
~Mission Victory Conditions: Too many extermination missions to the point only CoOpt missions are objective based enough to run something different.

~Lack of Updates: Enough said....There are so many emotions that come across when everyone knows the jpn version gets tons of updates and PC/PS2 did not get them. Hatred, Bitterness......Many dark/negative but justified emotions at how paying customers are treated...

I haven't played one game that doesn't have its flaws...I can give you a list of flaws that Guild Wars....and MANY games I played...like RYL (which I have currently played for 8 years) have. Sometimes the flaws add to the game..I recall getting bored in the game DXMP and killing myself 100 times with my own combat knife and players saying "WTF...How!?" but playing games for 20+ years...I've come to know a lot....

While PSU was decent, the game really was ruined by SEGA.

SEGA is decent at making Singleplayer games because once released they don't have a chance to ruin them...But everytime they release a multiplayer they ruin it with time. Its a trend that has existed since PSO....This is why I know any new phantasy star game simply with time will get ruined by them...

[bupjo]

being able to customize your character anytime you want

battle system

weapon/items search in players shops

fun as hell

plenty of places to go

my main love for this game is i'm not forced to run with people. i love soloing (don't have to deal with the racists and dick jokes from 12yr-olds)

easy to get into

again, it's fun as hell

[ZIE creations]

The only problems with the game is there isn't enough support on the 360 servers
Most of the problems I have with the game now will be fixed in later updates
like; no more advancements after cap,
Too many White beast noobs,
Low amounts of difficulty,
and the fact that masterforce fails.
But with futur updates the game will not only be generations ahead of previuse
phantasy stars but will actualy be considered a good mmo by the general players... hopefully... :watermelon:

[HienkyakuX]

What's right with PSU?
Awesome community, fun game.


What's wrong with PSU?
SEGA

Biggest flaw was to split servers; come on FF XI pc/ps2/360 are in the same server so why Sega didn't do the same? Hold back to mush on contents like at the very start; like only a hand full of missions, lv restriction, difficulty restriction, to many low lv monsters.

[Noblewine]

I enjoyed the combat most of all. The photon arts made the combat fun but I wish I could see the supplement update to see what it would have changed. The story was okay and good for someone who's new to the series. I didn't care much for the characters but I enjoyed the dialog.
I only liked some of the clothes but I enjoyed most of the styles from Neudaiz.

[Kent]

What's good about it? Well... The level of character customization, and the sheet variety of weapon types are great examples of the scant few things the game did right.

I suppose the quick-menu on the B button was nice, too. As was the idea of how dual-wielding may work, but most certainly not the execution of said idea.

Other than that, it took most properties of the genre in the wrong direction.

[Eidolus_Dyne]

http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?p=5719907#post5719907

I JUST made this thread on the official forums. Not sure who's looking at them, but I thought I'd come over and get some attention for it here too. I think I agree with Keilyn on many points.

Experience points are a lie. Think about it, they're an inverse reward. Like fighting a decent challenge? Well, not for long, because now that you've leveled up everything's too easy. Don't like fighting monsters, but prefer to assist? Tough luck, now you're doomed to get out leveled by your team mates and be super weak. Plus, if you're not playing as much as your friends, suddenly your immediate community becomes stratified. I think we've graduated from making games that decide your handicap through such an arbitrary method. We'll let games like WoW reward players for sinking their time into them, this game should be a skill based adventure game.

So...

Pros: Photon Arts were better than what PSO had. It gives a somewhat greater sense of choice and control.
Cons: Photon Arts don't really let you choose the moves you need the moment you need them. PSU's control scheme could learn a lot from an action game like Devil May Cry. Lock-on + Direction Forward + attack = distance closing attack. This has been a staple of action games since Ocarina of Time. Just replace the direction for more variety in attack choices. PAs are NOT a more innovative design than this.

Pros: Rangers can now use guns to aim in any direction.
Cons: You have to stand still to aim... even though the game demands a controller to play it, and every controller has two analogue sticks. Why no 3rd person shooter controls for two handed guns? I wonder?

Pros: The specifics of character customization are awesome and diverse.
Cons: The general details of character customization are non-existent. Every character has the same base skin texture and default pose. I've seen enough 10 year olds and fat people with 8 packs to last me a life time. Plus when everyone stands the same, no matter how different their clothes look, they still look the same. Facial structures and textures aren't varied enough to not make everyone look like clones.

Cons: Environments blow chunks. Seriously, I can never tell which block I'm in, it all runs together. Every place is so homogeneous it's sleep inducing.

Cons: SRSLY, there's NO diversity in the environments. Sure they have cool designs and compared to each other they have superficial diversity, but each design is just spread out over too large an area with minimal unique landmarks to make any part of it stand out.

Cons: Forces haven't changed since PSO. In fact all the unique parts of their techniques have gotten removed in favor of homogeneity. PSO has the basic, Gi, and Ra classes of techs. But each element handled that class differently.

Just read my above post on the PSU official forums. Everything I could possibly say is listed there.

[Gibdozer]

-character creation and clothes/parts
-fluid and enjoyable combat, spot on controls
-awesome shop system and wildly fluctuating economy
-transferable pa skills
-class/race combinations, hybrid classes
-technic linking system

[CDOG14515]

http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?p=5719907#post5719907

We'll let games like WoW reward players for sinking their time into them, this game should be a skill based adventure game.



WoW raiding requires lots of studying advanced strategies and coordination, not to mention PVP, which requires FPS-level reflexes. I loved PSO, but this series is pretty much a button masher.

[Smidge204]

Like: The player shop system is definitely something I appreciate when comparing to other MMOs I've tried. Search and go to all shops from your room or any other player shop, meaning you could find things and people could find your things. Moderate entry fee to set one up, take it down any time you like.

Like: Compartmentalized missions. Eliminates killstealing and over-farming of a particular area.

Like: Ability to change your character class at any time for essentially no penalty (Meseta cost, big whoop) as well as "unlearn" skills without losing their leveling progress - even share leveled skills with your alternate characters.


Dislike: The lack of "quests" usually associated with MMOs. I suppose it's a double-edged sword, and I do appreciate the open play, but when you have essentially nothing to give players a direction it turns into a boring grind/farm fest faster than usual. Sure you'd run out of them eventually, and they're cliché as hell, but it would at least lend more purpose to leveling your character or obtaining certain items than just bragging rights.

I guess in a more abstract way there were item collection quests; collect items to trade for other items. They lack even the slightest hint of narrative though.
=Smidge=