10 ways too improve the next PSO!

[Shark11]

Hey guys, I hope this is the right place to post this!

My name is Ryan aka Sharky (Remember me from MagicBox Pikacheif?)
I hope this doesn’t seem too much like a shameless self promotion! =)

My self and a co-worker have written the first part of a 2 piece article on what we would personally like to see in the next PSO game.

Before I go on some back story so you don't think I'm just coming out of nowhere trying to generate some hits. I've been into Phantasy Star since Phantasy Star 2 on the Megadrive/Genesis (Hated 3, LOVED 4) and bought PSO on release day for Dreamcast, Ver.2 and PSO Ver.1 & 2 for Gamecube. I've also dabbled with Blue Burst on PC and PSU + expansion. But I've been out of the loop for a while as I wasn't a huge fan of PSU but I have my eye on PS:P2.

ANNNNYWAY! The article is HERE:
http://www.segabits.com/?p=1231

I'm sure you will agree with some and disagree with other points, thats cool, I just hope this interests some of you!

The next part of the article will address the more technical side of things such as content, world wide releases and other shenanigans. Please look for that next week!



I hope you enjoy it and all comments are welcome! If you want to suggest other changes you'd like to see leave a comment on the article and we'll choose the ones we think are best and include them in our second part!

Thanks guys!

[Hatrix]

I like alot of your ideas there, but a few I don't really care for. Like over the shoulder cameras
don't really seem quite right, and clan only quests

[Angelo]

Hey Sharky, it's SuperAngelo64 from the-magicbox, lol.

Very nice article. I actually started posting here again in anticipation of the '10th anniversary' mystery. The only thing I disagree with is the over-the-shoulder thing. It can actually be pretty detrimental for melee classes, which is why I think that the 'hold shoulder button to strafe' option in PSU was incredibly ideal. Another option would be for Ranged and Force to have this style implemented as default, which is actually the way a game I'm beta testing right now (TERA) works.

The thing I agree with the most is giving us all the content on the disk. If they're not going to do this, they shouldn't charge us a monthly fee. Other games charge fees to go to development costs of future expansions. This was acceptable in PSO because of the time, but not PSU. Honestly, the way they trickled content felt literally insulting at times, especially to anyone who knew jack shit about how games and data storage work.

Free to play is something I absolutely do not want. These kind of games never really amount to anything and a majority of the time extra profit is made by making purchasable 'extras' which defeat the whole purpose, creating two very different groups of gamers. It's been said before, but any game of quality is pay to play, the next game just needs to actually merit our monthly cash.

But I thought you wrote for another SEGA site? Did you just change the name?

[stinkyfish97]

I got an idea, reduce the monthly fee's? and take advantage of DLC, you know like every 1/4 of the year release some worthwhile content that we can all buy?!!! This whole oh we may get an update this month crap has drove people away from this game. I dont think design was the problem with PSU, I think all can agree managment of this game was the problem, not the games content. I mean some missions are so out of date you might as well cut them from the game because nobody runs them.

[Neith]

- I'd like more variety (although in my opinion PSO provided enough- it's PSU that was a dull grindfest). Mini-game missions and so on are a nice break.

- Totally agreed on unlocking disc content. Holding it back is nothing but a lazy way to get subscription money.

- I haven't played PvP in PSP2, but Battle Mode in PSO was kinda funny. I wouldn't mind PvP if it's just a sidetrack. Don't make it open-world PvP, and certainly don't create the game centered around it. The recommendations like 'clan vs clan' and 'defense' are modes I really couldn't see in a PS game, and to be honest, I don't want them.

- No @ over-shoulder camera. I've always hated it, and it tends to completely obscure part of your vision. Camera behind character, as it always has been. All a new PS would need is the rotatable camera, like PSU. A combat system utilising combo attacks for Hunters could be interesting, but I'd need convincing. If you're gonna 'fix' any class at all, fix FORCE. It's never been as good as the other classes (in PSO, PSU, PSP2) and badly needs something to bring it up to where it should rightfully be. Don't go boosting the other classes without boosting Force or the problem would grow even wider.

- Subscription needs to be like Global Agenda. Free, but if you want access to the absolute best missions/areas/gear you need to pay up. That way casuals can play all they want for free while people who really want to get the most from the game can pay. Microtransactions would possibly work, but having said that look at the kicking off about Guardians Cash in Japan (although that's ontop of a monthly fee, if I remember correctly).

Some good suggestions, but I don't agree with them all. Honestly, I don't want another PSO (the ones we've had now are nigh-on perfect considering their age), but some of this should apply to a new Phantasy Star in general, not necessarily a new PSO.

[Zantra]

I'll read it, if you post it in the thread. Why should we be forced to give your site ad revenue, and hits, just to read your opinion?

[SuperRygar]

lol @ Zantra

I'm not going to read it (but i did click the link, so your welcome for that extra hit ;)) because just like all the other people that had ideas for new and improved features in a new game, SEGA will not be reading them and they will do whatever they please :3

I can use my own brain and think up ways to make the game better

*Thinks really hard*.....YES, that would be perfect.....

[Angelo]

SEGA will not be reading them and they will do whatever they please :3

I'm actually pretty grateful for that, since in my opinion western influence has been incredibly detrimental to Japanese and Korean Online game developments that have taken it to heart to try and hit the 'jackpot' (Being the next WoW) instead of making a good, creative, fun game. I know my feelings are incredibly biased in this sense, a big reason I've come back to the online Phantasy Star scene is because I absolutely love online gaming but hate the way the bland western market dominates and dictates it. There is no feeling behind it, not the way the Phantasy Star games have done it.

But speculation and hype sure is fun. :D

[FUDGEHOY]

I'll read it, if you post it in the thread. Why should we be forced to give your site ad revenue, and hits, just to read your opinion?

You're gonna get Ruby fired if you keep talking like that.:D I thought you said you weren't going to post here anymore after that whole Ruby thread:-P

[Immovable One]

Regardless of how Sega decides on what the core gameplay would be like, all I want is for the next Phantasy Star title to "feel" like Phantasy Star in both aesthetics and music.

They really nailed the PSII feel on PSO from the opening music (which is a remix of the PSII title theme I think), and the dominant blues and greens of the ultra futuristic setting.

Above all, the new development team should be reminded of how Phantasy Star came to be in the first place - that Reiko Kodama and the gang wanted to do everything differently from what's being done at the time the first series was being made. This resulted in the medieval fantasy and sci-fi hybrid, the 3D first person dungeons, and the lead character being female - creating a style that is unique to Phantasy Star. This is the style that should define the franchise and the future titles.

[Kent]

Eh... After looking over the article, there are a few things I agree with. Like the over-the-shoulder view (which I'd really prefer instead of the first-person aiming - just click the right stick to toggle it, right?) and going past the recyclable enemy AI, and giving us all of the on-disc content from the start...

But the billing model is probably the worst idea of the bunch. It's a much better idea to have the system not have an inherent cost to players outside of purchasing the game itself and expansion packs. In both my personal and professional opinion, an ad-supported model would probably be much better for the game than a free-to-play/premium-membership dichotomic model.

I say this because the environment of the games would make it able to have advertisements in the games without them taking away from the experience itself. That is, the advertisements could be done in a way that actually makes sense within the game's universe. Generally-speaking, you could throw a billboard up into PSO's lobbies, inside the town areas after making a game, and maybe a small one on loading screens from time to time (for example, instead of that spinning thing in the corner), and there'd more than likely be enough advertisement revenue to keep the servers going easily.

The key point here is to do it right: It needs to be unintrusive and not impose anything on the player. If these were just put into the in-town areas, they'd actually make sense, because people see advertisement posters and billboards when in towns in real life, anyway. But no intrusive banner ads or things that pop up during gameplay, things with sound, or anything moronic like that.

Or they can just design the game structure itself properly, so it doesn't need any sort of extensive server hardware and maintenance - like what they're doing with Phantasy Star Portable 2. Perhaps hosted peer-to-peer with a migrating host if the host disconnects. This also discludes the idea of an "open world" setting, which fans of PSO would be just fine without. One of the main things behind PSO that makes it a unique experience, is that it's not an MMO, and until fiber optics become ubiquitous, it's probably better that it remain that way, in order to enable it to keep its action-oriented gameplay intact.

[landman]

Above all, the new development team should be reminded of how Phantasy Star came to be in the first place - that Reiko Kodama and the gang wanted to do everything differently from what's being done at the time the first series was being made. This resulted in the medieval fantasy and sci-fi hybrid, the 3D first person dungeons, and the lead character being female - creating a style that is unique to Phantasy Star. This is the style that should define the franchise and the future titles.

Really? the first time I played Phantasy Star I thought it was a Star Wars ripoff, I mean, Stormtroopers!! Jawas!! the game only lacked a Hutt, wait, Medusa kind of resembles a Hutt... and PSO had double bladed lightsabers!! xD but what I really really loved in the series was the hokuto stile in PSIV

[Immovable One]

Really? the first time I played Phantasy Star I thought it was a Star Wars ripoff, I mean, Stormtroopers!! Jawas!! the game only lacked a Hutt, wait, Medusa kind of resembles a Hutt... and PSO had double bladed lightsabers!! xD but what I really really loved in the series was the hokuto stile in PSIV

Hehe that's right - even Reiko Kodama said in an interview that Star Wars kinda combined Japanese culture with western scifi (e.g. Luke in a Judo outfit), and that their designing of Phantasy Star is kinda similar in approach.

But think about it - back in the mid 80s everyone wanted to be Ultima/Dungeons and Dragons/Lord of the Rings - somebody has to innovate and Sega did just that.

[Angelo]

I say this because the environment of the games would make it able to have advertisements in the games without them taking away from the experience itself. That is, the advertisements could be done in a way that actually makes sense within the game's universe. Generally-speaking, you could throw a billboard up into PSO's lobbies, inside the town areas after making a game, and maybe a small one on loading screens from time to time (for example, instead of that spinning thing in the corner), and there'd more than likely be enough advertisement revenue to keep the servers going easily.

Phantasy Star is one of the few instances where in-game ads could not only be non-intrusive but actually pretty cool. I would actually enjoy seeing ads for products done with the futuristic Phantasy Star flair.

Plus if it means easy money to feed the development process of expanding the game further I am 110% all for it.

[EvilJohn]

i like your ideas :p specaily the pvp that was fun as shit in PSOVER2

[ashley50]

hooo...its that magic 3 letter word again.

[neilp4453]

Most of the things I agree with...especially guild support and PvP. Especially guild support...this is something that should be in ANY game nowadays.

Now I've played WoW before and it is a fun game. The open world environment is awesome. But would it be practical in Phantasy Star (a game that isn't as progressive)? We come back to the same missions over and over again so the current system is optimal. Now if we are talking expanding cities and areas just for the sake of exploring..that would be cool. Maybe the vehicles you mentioned could be put to use here (Red Dead Redemption anyone?).

Combat is essentially button-mashing in PSU. I'd like to see more action as well. I've always wanted a roll button. I also don't want the game to turn into God of War or Devil May Cry either. These are things to think about.

All content unlocked is something to think about. The current system can potentially work great too. Segac just handles it wrong but updates EVERY week (maybe something that happens automatically instead of waiting on these fools to unlock things) would work just as well. I'm fine with either model...but I love the anticipation of upcoming missions and updates.

I'm not a fan of these games where gameplay is free but you pay real money for certain aspects (like GC). I think it defeats my purpose of playing the game. Plus, these models are not very popular. Monthly/yearly payment is the best imo.

I've seen posts where people don't like the grinding (weapons that is) and synthing aspects of the game. I love these aspects. Keep them. S-rank grinding needs some tweaking though. I'd be all for a system where grinders operated like synthing. 95% chance for each grind but make grinders have a much lower drop rate.

[Pillan]

It’s an interesting article, though I’d have to say I’d disagree with half of it. And the most disturbing part to me was that it did nothing to attempt to address the racial and class balance issues within the game, which are the heart of most of the heated debates on the various PSO forums. If I was going to tell them to fix anything, that would be the number one priority on my list.

The over world idea sounds fine. I doubt anyone would complain about more mini-games and vehicles in PSO. And, let’s face it, the opening previews of PSU showed a feature where you and your party could all ride around Moatoob in a tank, so it felt like a rip off when that never really happened. Mags are a mixed bag for me because, you know, they made low level characters far too powerful. I’d say “all the disk content” is asking for a bit too much, but “all the standard free missions that are available offline” seems like a fair request from the start.

Player versus player content sounds reasonable, but I wouldn’t emphasize it in this game. I’d regard it as a minor thing that the people who care about it should be able to do, as it has been in PSO and PSP2. Along the same lines, additional player recognition and clan support aren’t big in my book since I’ve never really cared about them in games I play for recreation. I’d personally want them to keep it as-is: a few leader boards during each event and let people organize themselves into whatever unofficial clans as they wish. I’m assuming the exclusion of clans was intentional and a result of the Blue Burst experiment. That being said, changing the world as the result of an event (say, the community reached a certain event milestone) sounds really cool.

Hybridizing PSO with Bayonetta is probably everyone who played Bayonetta’s dream. However, I’d be curious as to how well something like that could run online due to lag alone. Also, it’s interesting to note that the majority of Bayonetta’s enemy models were reused (see Bayonetta, Jean, and Joy, just to name an obvious chain). In fact, I’m pretty sure PSO has more unique enemy models than Bayonetta does. The point being that enemy regurgitation isn’t really bad and appears frequently in every game you can think of. PSU is nowhere near PSO’s endless Booma clones or Bayonetta’s constant Affinity spawns.

More customization is always good. And they moved to a pricing strategy that’s almost identical to your suggestion on the Japanese servers about a year ago. If I recall correctly, it’s free for people who don’t want to be anywhere near the top, monthly fees for those who want to play regularly, and Guardian Cash for anyone who wants the most up-to-date gear. However, I would prefer they replace Guardian Cash’s good weapons with PSP2’s system of PSN unique weapons that cost a few bucks.

[Danny_Dark]

SEGA Is In NE/EU A Failure...

[neilp4453]

TAing should be a permanent aspect of a future Phantasy Star as well.

It is kind of fun now...but it woud be so much better if Segac made it official.

[Shark11]

Thanks for all of your replies and feedback guys. Very much appreciated! Were going to go though your posts and see what you would like to be included in the second part of the article which will be up at the end of this week I think. (Will post a link.)



I'll read it, if you post it in the thread. Why should we be forced to give your site ad revenue, and hits, just to read your opinion?
Well, talking honestly, Every original article we do on a blog is 1) for our readers and 2) for hits.

I don't think it's that cheaky to ask you to just click it and read it off our site. After we put so much effort into writing the article finding pictures etc... After all, every time you click on a big game website to read a review or preview you are reading someones opinion. At the end of the day we are spending our own free time and our own money on servers to provide people a free service. I don't think wanting hits is unreasonable! :-)


Hey Sharky, it's SuperAngelo64 from the-magicbox, lol.

But I thought you wrote for another SEGA site? Did you just change the name?
Hey man! Long time no see!
I'm also very excited to see what’s going down with that anniversary announcement!

I used to work on 'seganerds' but that site was sold to a network group called 'the katrel' by its previous owner and we didn't see eye to eye on that deal so myself and George (who also worked on seganerds and posted on magic box) made our own site 'www.segabits.com' the one you see here.

If you ever want to catch up PM me your MSN address if you have one! Would be good to chat!

-Sharky

[Ogni-XR21]

First of all please try to use too/to the correct way in your next article, I'm not even a native speaker and it was driving me crazy...

Some neat ideas in your article but some also seem unreasonable. For example more customization of characters, this adds even longer loading times to players appearing in lobbies.
PvP is not what PSO is about and can hardly be balanced to work properly. Maybe if you were given "fixed" equipment and a set level this might work but other than that I don't see it working.
Leaderboards only promote elite behaviour and I don't think that should be encouraged even more.


Here are some thoughts I have:

- Go back to one central hub lobby like PSO, not spread out mission counters like PSU that made it impossible to find games to join at times. One appeal of PSO was that you could enter almost any running game and just join in on the fun.

- Mags returning is a great idea even though I approve of the "problem" that it can overpower low level characters. Maybe a way to prevent this is to make them untradeable or have one fixed mag for each character that can have different sets of stats.

- Stop with the synthing. One important aspect to me was being able to find weapons and armor already usable and not having to farm for boards, materials and still have a chance of failing a rare synth.

- Make the game not too deep. IIRC PSO was never intended to be played that long and that's how it was designed. Goals were possible to reach even if you didn't spend all of your spare time playing the game.


Just some thoughts, maybe I'll add some more at another time.

I don't think it does matter to Sonic Team/Sega at all what the western players think, but let's hope for the best.

[Lyghtstrea]

Hey guys, I hope this is the right place to post this!

My name is Ryan aka Sharky (Remember me from MagicBox Pikacheif?)
I hope this doesn’t seem too much like a shameless self promotion! =)

My self and a co-worker have written the first part of a 2 piece article on what we would personally like to see in the next PSO game.

Before I go on some back story so you don't think I'm just coming out of nowhere trying to generate some hits. I've been into Phantasy Star since Phantasy Star 2 on the Megadrive/Genesis (Hated 3, LOVED 4) and bought PSO on release day for Dreamcast, Ver.2 and PSO Ver.1 & 2 for Gamecube. I've also dabbled with Blue Burst on PC and PSU + expansion. But I've been out of the loop for a while as I wasn't a huge fan of PSU but I have my eye on PS:P2.

ANNNNYWAY! The article is HERE:
http://www.segabits.com/?p=1231

I'm sure you will agree with some and disagree with other points, thats cool, I just hope this interests some of you!

The next part of the article will address the more technical side of things such as content, world wide releases and other shenanigans. Please look for that next week!



I hope you enjoy it and all comments are welcome! If you want to suggest other changes you'd like to see leave a comment on the article and we'll choose the ones we think are best and include them in our second part!

Thanks guys!
one of my biggest quirks with getting into ps universe was the stiffness of the fighting system, but it looks like the psu portable 2 is taking steps in the right direction with quicker response times, dodging, & the ability to block attacks with weapons & swords. the latter i hope will include the ability to block while strafing instead of just being frozen while blocking. i would like to see more development into the pvp side as well, you forgot "capture the flag" mode between two teams ^^

capture the flag, survivor - last player standing, arena/ gladiator mode - 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, etc, tier match with a board of who leads 1st to 3rd place out of top 100; oh, & a declaration of challenge to practice fight outside the pvp atmosphere. back to the battle system, lots more weapon special combo moves for each weapon type, jumping - the ability to do ariel moves - jump then combo in the air, the ability to grapple & throw or perhaps a sliding move to combo or a low sweep move too - lots of potential there, maybe a dash move too?

overall, good article *nods* i'm not-so keep for a full mmo, i like that ps is more tailored to being an action rpg more-so than mmorpg which gets way too big. definitely agree to bring the MAG back & really expand on that as well as the robot companions ^^

[Halcyote]

PSU and MAG are two things that should never come together again.

[Kent]

- Mags returning is a great idea even though I approve of the "problem" that it can overpower low level characters. Maybe a way to prevent this is to make them untradeable or have one fixed mag for each character that can have different sets of stats
I think a simple solution would be to make it so that MAGs can only affect character stats upward of a specific max level. In the case of PSO, I think it'd be appropriate for the maximum effective MAG level to be equal to twice your character's level (topping out at character level 100, since MAGs cap at 200).

If the MAG is above the level threshold the player can benefit from it, the effective stats of the MAG are scaled down so they remain as close to the same ratio of the stat distribution on the MAG itself, while having the total effective levels of the MAG be equal to twice the character's level.

So if someone trades a level 200 MAG to a level 25 character with the stats of 40/80/40/40, the level 25 character would gain from it the same bonuses they would as if they had a level 50 MAG with the stats of 10/20/10/10. Naturally, people could still feed their MAG to raise it above their maximum effective level for their character currently, but it would just change the proportions of bonuses until they levelled themselves up more.

[r00tabaga]

Hd:PSO would be my first wish...PSO2 would be a close second! ;)
I do like some of your ideas.

[Puppet_Papaya]

I'm actually pretty grateful for that, since in my opinion western influence has been incredibly detrimental to Japanese and Korean Online game developments that have taken it to heart to try and hit the 'jackpot' (Being the next WoW) instead of making a good, creative, fun game. I know my feelings are incredibly biased in this sense, a big reason I've come back to the online Phantasy Star scene is because I absolutely love online gaming but hate the way the bland western market dominates and dictates it. There is no feeling behind it, not the way the Phantasy Star games have done it.

But speculation and hype sure is fun. :D

But what about the people who like WoW? What will they play if every game isn't WoW?

As for the 3rd person camera, they should also add a cover system and a recharging health bar!
Really, I like a lot of the ideas being generated here, but that is not one of them.


I'm not a fan of these games where gameplay is free but you pay real money for certain aspects (like GC). I think it defeats my purpose of playing the game. Plus, these models are not very popular. Monthly/yearly payment is the best imo.
I actually prefer the free to play with cash shop. For one, I really don't want to spend the extra cash for a monthly fee. Second, the cash shop stuff is never even worth it anyway. It's always lame stuff like angel wings.

[Zekester]

No more synthesis! Individual rare drops to all monsters again!

[Seira7]

The main thing I want improved is the enemy AI. Give ALL enemies character, make it more of a twitch game where position mattered like in PSO. In PSO when you studied the enemies movements, you could move about and evade/exploit them in different ways. The gameplay felt more dynamic because of that. I like to see all monsters be unique instead of them coming at me in similiar formations. And thats about it. I've been really impressed with PS Zero and PSP2 so I have a lot of hope the next console Phantasy Star will be much better than PSU =)

[landman]

The main thing I want improved is the enemy AI. Give ALL enemies character, make it more of a twitch game where position mattered like in PSO. In PSO when you studied the enemies movements, you could move about and evade/exploit them in different ways. The gameplay felt more dynamic because of that. I like to see all monsters be unique instead of them coming at me in similiar formations. And thats about it. I've been really impressed with PS Zero and PSP2 so I have a lot of hope the next console Phantasy Star will be much better than PSU =)

LOL

The other day I reinstalled my personal PSOBB server, and I got stuck between a booma and a rappy, they had the exact same attack animation xDD don't even talk about booma/shark/dimeninan...

[Seira7]

Yea but you could sidestep boomas on ultimate to escape those animations. And boomas and rappys in PSO do not move in the same formations. I was playing phantasmal word the other day and it struck me how varied the enemies and their attacks were, mericarols, sinow berills , gigues. I'm not saying the new game should be the same, I just want it to take a cue from PSO on having interesting enemies/varied movement patterns etc. I am not a game designer nor excellent at analyzing games all I can say is something bland about the way enemies are designed/act in PSU. I get bored fighting them - thats not good lol.

Edit: Now that I have a copy of PSPo2 I do have to admit this issue was improved somewhat - all the newer enemies are pretty interesting, in design, character and the way they attack, along with the bosses. i love the way the sand rappies really try and peck you to death, lol. Bosses seem a bit more on the epic side too. So if there is improvement in this area i have hope =) I just feel silly trying to describe why PSO seemed better in this respect, like I said, I am not a game designer so I cant really pin down why the enemies seemed more interesting, maybe because they attacked you from all angles and not just linear/from the front? dunno. I am pretty happy with PSPo2's beastiary thouigh so Ill quit whining :p

[landman]

Rappy and booma attack at the same speed, and with the same hitboxes, you just see it different from the outside, and there are as much reskins in PSO than in PSU

[Noob Here!]

Noob Here! This guy (who's name I forgot) who wrote that article brings up very valid points. I've played the Phantasy Star games on the home consoles, and episode 1 was my favorite. My favorite was how it should be played like an MMO game. Walking was a tedious task every now and then. The idea about using vehicles to move around in an MMO world would be really great. Every Idea this guy gives sort of contributes to the previous which makes them sound better.

I also played PSU and found out that there were some changes:
1. To me, less customization
2. Ability to change classes
3. Easier to kill monsters
4. Not as much fun as the original
etc. Frankly, I didn't like care for PSU that much. Not as much as I cared for PSO.

http://www.pso-world.com/images/quizes/volopt.jpg
I am a Vol Opt to know what you are take the quiz here. (http://www.pso-world.com/quiz.php?quizid=4)

[MadDogg]

1. Bring back PSO's entire system. The way lobbies worked, the way you selected missions, the way you found rares, section IDs, the classes, PSO was almost perfect besides the whole every single platform the games ended up on kept getting hacked.....BUT what PSU improved right was...

2. Keep the enemies A.I. and the way the combat system worked from PSU. Photon arts was a good idea and the way spells worked where way better than oldschool PSO.

3. I hate to say it, but phantasy star needs to be universal again. I don't really care for playing with the japanese, but its pathetic that the only way updates will stay the same is if the game is universally linked.

4. Even though I already said it in 1, its important enough to say it again, PSU's way of making games was garbage. You make all these separate lobbies and missions (which was hard to find a game since you would have to check every single friggin' lobby) with rewards, and the entire community will only flock to the best mission payout. No more mission rewards in the sequel please. I quit playing this game a year ago, and I bet you everyone is STILL playing white beast.

Follow these steps, while being sure to release it on the PS3 or 360, no Wii or PC version because to be honest with you, I have no faith whatsoever in sega keeping western servers clean of hacks and dupes like they do for the japanese unless the game was released on 360 or PS3. and the PSO sequel would be the best online console rpg ever for me.

[Kent]

2. Keep the enemies A.I. and the way the combat system worked from PSU. Photon arts was a good idea and the way spells worked where way better than oldschool PSO.

Now I'm curious - what exactly about the way techniques worked in PSU was anything other than an unfun, repetitive mess?

Finding disks was a much better alternative, because it never really required you to just sit there and spam a technique in order for it to get better; you find, buy or trade for the disk of the technique level you want, and you use it when you meet the requirements. With the rate at which techniques levelled up through usage, keeping that system would be just about the worst thing they could do, as far as techniques go. Unabashed grinding is the worst possible kind, because from a design standpoint, you want to do everything you can to make sure that players feel like they're not just grinding away all the time, as much as possible (this is where making the gameplay fun in its own right comes in) - this is one of the major areas where Phantasy Star Universe fell flat, and it's not just limited to techniques.

It's worth noting that Phantasy Star Portable 2, which makes myriad improvements onto the various systems introduced in Phantasy Star Universe, went back to the system for finding disks to level up all Photon Arts (simply because, from a gameplay perspective, it's far less tedious, therefore making the experience friendlier).

Though the notion of Photon Arts itself isn't a bad one, tying technique usage to specific weapons most certainly is. This, almost single-handedly, killed off the core gameplay behind playing (almost) any character that's anything other than purely one combat style or another. Considering that the real differences between classes in Phantasy Star Online was their degree of hybridity and equipment possibilities, I would say that the PSU system of restricting the core ability set that makes playing something other than an Android worth doing to a single type of weapon is incredibly counter-productive. Having weapons that increase your capabilities to cast techniques effectively is fine and everything, but there's no real or logical reason to make it a requirement, other than saying it thematically fits in with the other weapon types. It would be a much better option to just give specific skills, like with melee Photon Arts (or gun/ranged Photon Arts in PSP2), as an option for those kinds of casting weapons, as long as the main library of techniques stays separate. The same goes for Androids and Traps (in how they were handled in PSO).

Then, there's the variety of techniques available - this was another example of a critical design flaw. Aside from a few specific techniques (namely, the "basic" version of each attack technique, and I believe the two Nos- techniques) there's a severe lack of real differentiation between techniques. That is to say, all of the Gi- techniques, all of the Ra- techniques, all of the Dam- techniques, all of the support techniques, and all of the recovery techniques are functionally-identical, with the graphics and elemental/status effect properties changed from each other.

While this may not sound like too bad of a thing on paper, it really falls flat in practice. Part of what made techniques fun in Phantasy Star Online was that you really had to consider how to use them effectively. We still see a very small bit of this diversity in PSU's basic techniques, as the basic Foie(/Megid) and Barta are almost-identical, but then Zonde was changed to a non-grounded Barta and the newly added Diga was simply Foie with an arcing projectile. However, when we get into more advanced kinds of techniques... All this variety is really just lost, completely. You don't have to think about getting enemies into a cone in front of you for Gibarta, nor thinking about making sure there's a clear arcing path for Gizonde, and everything's just the same. Variety supplanted by redundancy results in things becoming less fun and feeling more like a grind very, very quickly.

Phantasy Star Online and Diablo II are two great examples of how to do varying levels and styles of elemental "spells" properly - by making them actually work differently. Reinstating this notion is probably one of the better things they could end up doing with the series.

[Drawers]

Over the shoulder view isn't necessary, why? Its because this games mechanics are a little subpar and not polished like RE or GTAIV and that's why. The hitboxes are so batantly large that there is no real reason to this, you could blindly shoot at an enemy and still hit them. :P First person view was pointless, it was just an excuse for them to not create actual aiming animations but instead make it where you don't notice that and shoot the flying De Ragan. ST however isn't that smart, obviously. One reason would be clearly when you aim over to someone who's in first person view, they're not aiming their face and arms up but the bullets are shooting at odd angles. :/ That right there is just inexcusable crap, they were just being lazy.

[Drawers]

I know what you mean Kent, technics definitely need some diversity like PSO. The only technic that was dumb in PSO imo was Gibarta, it was quite useless actually but the rest were spot on. See I've been saying this for the longest, the technics are too much the same and they are strictly grind based and not for fun.

Seriously people should be able to be a force and use what they want whenever just because its what they like and want to do, I loved seeing people with a persona it was cool to me. This is why I can't stand the fact that they took out unequiped physical attacks, casting while unequiped with a weapon and using physical attacks with force weapons. It was a stupid idea and is BS!

Idk what made them think grinding and doing the same old routine over and over is super fun because its NOT. What they should've did imo was give technics very special properties, like Gizonde - absorb projectiles and continuously shock opponents who touch it (not just one boring hit), Ramegid - pulls opponents together (like KHII) Radiga - Hits enemies upward and debrees have single hitboxes so any enemies hit by them are hurt with small damage. Just examples.

You know give them an effect where forces actually have some advantage, make them like Skill Arts so it would be like forces chaining Skills. That alone would drastically give forces a chance with the chaining system since spell charging takes far too long and imo would be fun to use. Major nerfing would be a necessity but worth it.

Personally I think Diga and earth element should be neutral, and zonde be ineffected by any element as well. I'm not saying make them overpowered, but realistically energy is needed for everything and therefore lightning is generally impervious to natural occurences while earth is pretty much omnicient.

[MadDogg]

Now I'm curious - what exactly about the way techniques worked in PSU was anything other than an unfun, repetitive mess?

Actually, when I said keep the way the spells worked from PSU, I didn't mean leveling them up through repeated use. I meant how each element has like 4/5 different versions to use, depending on the situation. Like you have a single target, aoe nuke, radial, constant stream fire spells. I actually agree with you about the disks.

[FirefoxKyuubi]

I see all your ideas comming to the next PSO In japan..........




Everyone else know where that statement is going.

[Kent]

The only technic that was dumb in PSO imo was Gibarta, it was quite useless actually but the rest were spot on.
Gibarta was definitely a lot better in Version 1. All those individual icicles that shot out could individually hit enemies, essentially making the spell work more like a really inaccurate, short-range machinegun of ice (Gifoie got a similar nerf - the circling fireball could hit single targets multiple times, and there wasn't so much of a delay after casting it once - however, it also got a buff in that enemies couldn't "dodge" the spell by moving closer when the fireball wasn't near them).

Personally I think Diga and earth element should be neutral, and zonde be ineffected by any element as well. I'm not saying make them overpowered, but realistically energy is needed for everything and therefore lightning is generally impervious to natural occurences while earth is pretty much omnicient.
Something similar could be applied to fire and ice, too - but systems like this aren't designed because they make sense in the real world, they're designed because they add depth to the game mechanics.