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View Full Version : My PSO story, looking for reviews, crossing my fingers



Sammickk
Oct 24, 2012, 12:13 PM
I'm a long time PSO vet here looking to come outta retirement and renew my hunters license lol. I have played 3 or 4 of the Phantasy Stars on master system, in the RPG days and Bought my PSO copy on launch day for the Dreamcast...(ahh the dream cast, good little ol exploitable system lol) and popped it in and was hooked for years! No game was like this that i had ever seen! Played PSO, ver 2, and ver 4 (blue burst) until i was blue in the face and loved every minute of it. But you finally get tired of a game and move on as I did to Ragnarok, FFXI, and more recently Terra.
After the dissapointment of Phantasy Star Universe, god knows i tried to like that game, i had pretty much given up hope since Sega had thrown in the towel on systems..*sniff* I figured it was done for, and i know there are DS titles and what not out there, but DS is just not my thing. But low and behold i read on a forum of ...PSO 2 is coming out!!!!! I nearly shit my pants on the intro, and as soon as i saw a glimpse of the gameplay a flood of memories and nostalgia came rushing back, brought a tear to my eye lol. It looks to me what PSU SHOULD have been. And i realize you can ...err worm your way into the Japanese Servers I only found out about this game a couple months ago, so since its slated for PC in January I'll just wait for the english release.

Ok enough rambling, MY MAIN question is, for those who have played on the Japanese Servers, how is it? I wanna hear all perspectives, from those who played the original, to those who had never played the PSO series before. Please give details and reason's why you like or dont like the game, not just a simple, It ROCKS!! or IT SUCKS. Give a rating also on a one to ten scale.

The reason I liked PSO so well was the Action style combat, REAL TIME fighting Based on skill, not just stats. I still think they were way ahead of the times with this as most newer MMORpg's are just now taking on this style. Ragnarok was very Fast paced too which is why i liked it so well, FFXI .... eh I tried several times at that game and it just couldnt hold my interest. All i remember was ages of running across the land and every battle seeming like it took hours and standing around waiting for parties... Terra is action based not a bad game, pretty plain in gameplay though, doesnt stand out amongst the crowd.

Link1275
Oct 24, 2012, 12:28 PM
I actually wrote a review a while back:
"PSO2 JP is a very fun game, given it's limited content. You can currently only level to level 40, and the amount of areas is still somewhat lacking. I managed to level to level 40 in around 200 hours. The game's grinding system, is an obnoxious NPC named Doo-Doo. The success odds of successfully grinding an item tend to be very low, and the RNG is a biased ****. When a grind fails your item's grind will either go down by x amount of grinds, or nothing will happen to it. When a grind succeeds it will raise your item's stats up, and put a +x mark behind it indicating the grind level, with the highest being +10. The drop system is well, the rarest item I've found is the best rifle in the game. However I found it on a class that can't use it. There have been many reports of people finding rare items that they don't need, because of their class. The player shops are a part of the game that requires you to pay to use. You can still buy items off of them, but you can't make any money off them. Unlocking new missions and areas can also be a pain, as it requires you to go through time trials. And whilst the time trials for unlocking new areas have been toned down, the time trials for unlocking new missions has not. Client orders allow you to more quickly gain exp and meseta(the ingame currency system), however there are quite a few that are a pain to do. Skill trees allow you to customize your classes, to you liking. The downside to skill trees is that they require you to level up in order to put a single point into it. The game also has an NPC system that allows you to make an NPC of your character, which your friends can take with them on missions to earn FUN. FUN is a point system, you use it to draw FUN scratch cards. FUN scratch cards cost 100 FUN, and they can give one of many items randomly. You can also earn FUN by logging in consecutively each day, and sending "Good Jobs" to other players(I would recommend sending them to you friends with a message attached to get the most FUN points). You can also add attributes and increase your items element at the same counter as grinding. However attribute addition has the same problems as grinding. Armor comes from three different items, a back unit, an arm unit, and a leg unit. Weapons are restricted by classes, there are Hunters(melee), Rangers(long-ranged), and Forces(mage). You can also change your character's appearance in-game at the fashion counter, however a large portion of it is AC content, so get it right the first time. AC is the real money currency in this game(cash shop currency), 1 AC = 1 Yen."
The level cap is 50 now though, so some it is inaccurate now.

Sammickk
Oct 24, 2012, 12:54 PM
ok i have a couple of questions now.... in the old PSO days we had Something called Section ID's this was giving to you based on your Name. for instance if i Create the character Sammickk, his ID would be Whitall, which DETERMINES your Rares, is this not in this game??
LOL Doo-doo??? ok granted it used to be call a Tekker that ID's your weapons attributes, and Grinders, di grinders, and trigrinders that NEVER failed, i actually like the Idea that it can fail and have become quite used to this as most games have this now days anyway.
Now the skill tree system is definitely different for PSO! All ya had to do is hunt tech disks in the old days, but I'll see how this new system goes... As for the FUN system and being able to make an NPC to take down with you.....WHY? aren't there enough people online to play with? i guess its all for the Items but seems kinda silly to me.
i plan on Buying this game and actually paying some money into it, to support the game and Sega/Phantasy star team.. so this is not an issue for me at all, BUT how is it done? is there a free account and a Premium account or what?

Miraclearrow
Oct 24, 2012, 01:08 PM
Im an oldschool PSO player. The game expands on a lot of proper PSO foundations but at the same time incorporates a lot of the new commonly found MMO parts. Trust me, theyre ironing out the details but you will love it if you're an old PSO player. At least, for my experience that was true.

Eternal255
Oct 24, 2012, 01:14 PM
I absolutely love this game. But not in the sense that it is anything like PSO1. If you come to it expecting a cool new version of PSO1, expect to be disappointed. Instead, expect a cool new version of PSU.

I played PSU briefly. I didn't like the class system. And I never got into it until after US servers shut down so reading anything was beyond my capabilities. So I took a break and hopped on and off from some private server for PSOBB (which I still happen to hop onto occasionally).

But I play this game on the JP servers and absolutely love it. To the point where I'm dumping money into it. I kinda wish I had waited until english release, like you are doing, so that I can actually read the story and understand everything, but I've already spent so much time in this game that switching will be unlikely (unless I get banned or something, somehow).

Of course, it has its cons- most of which are related to the premium system, so lets go through a list:

Pros-
-New battle system is incredible. Much more fast paced than PSO1, and the variety of different skills and paths a player may take makes it so that you can play your own style if you arent one of the people who go for the 'best'
-lots of content, weapons and what not keep you interested. content gets released rather quickly too
-graphics. dear god the graphics shit on the previous games. its too bad i cant run more than the simple pixels what with my broken graphics card >:(
-meseta actually has value!

Cons-
-No trading what-so-ever, unless you pay about 16 bucks a month. Find loots you want to give to your friends? Well you cant unless both of you are paying for it. Items even soulbind when you use them (rare weapons and armor) so after you use something, you're stuck with it and cant trade/sell it (except to vendor) anymore


I'm sure theres more that im leaving out but those are the main concepts. Look forward to playing this game. Chances are you will be hooked for a while, but might get bored or irritated after a while when you find you have the worst luck in the game (like myself) and finding good weapons is impossible leaving you with shit D:

But i still play it even though thats the case lol The drop rates seem to be something along the lines of what they were in the dreamcast days, or worse

I do miss the older games, though. The crazy exp grinds and item hunts. Single path boss runs, with no infinite spawning rooms, etc. The fact that you can just farm the same area for 4 hours straight, is kinda, well, lame (although its all i do). But back in the older games, the social aspects seemed more apparent. It could be the language barrier or whatever, but either way, i see more people playing single player rooms, part of an MPA, as opposed to doing quests together with new people.

Ogni-XR21
Oct 24, 2012, 01:21 PM
Since I love this game I cannot be objective so I will just list what I don't like:

- The music is not very good. Compared to EP1, 2, 3 and 4 it is a total letdown.
- I miss the feeling of progression. While in EP1 you could go from forest to falz in PSO2 you usually play one zone for a long time. Yes there are Time Attack modes that have similar progression as PSO1 had but it's hard to find game for these and you cannot join when in progress.

Other than that I have nothing to complain about. As you already said, this is what PSU should have been.

Also with the english patch available I don't see why you don't just test it yourself. Check bumped.org for guides on getting you started.

See you online, either on the jp version or the international version...

[Ayumi]
Oct 24, 2012, 01:22 PM
This was my review from Closed Beta.
I guess it's still somewhat accurate about now:
http://ayumispender.deviantart.com/journal/Phantasy-Star-Online-2-Closed-Beta-Review-299468650

Sammickk
Oct 24, 2012, 01:42 PM
Im an oldschool PSO player. The game expands on a lot of proper PSO foundations but at the same time incorporates a lot of the new commonly found MMO parts. Trust me, theyre ironing out the details but you will love it if you're an old PSO player. At least, for my experience that was true.

THIS is what a was Hoping to hear!!

Sammickk
Oct 24, 2012, 01:56 PM
Cons-
-No trading what-so-ever, unless you pay about 16 bucks a month. Find loots you want to give to your friends? Well you cant unless both of you are paying for it. Items even soulbind when you use them (rare weapons and armor) so after you use something, you're stuck with it and cant trade/sell it (except to vendor) anymore


I'm sure theres more that im leaving out but those are the main concepts. Look forward to playing this game. Chances are you will be hooked for a while, but might get bored or irritated after a while when you find you have the worst luck in the game (like myself) and finding good weapons is impossible leaving you with shit D:

But i still play it even though thats the case lol The drop rates seem to be something along the lines of what they were in the dreamcast days, or worse.

Even though i am going to pay the 16 to help support this game (if it deserves it of coarse) THe trading thing is kinda lame can u at least drop items on the floor and let them pick it up? Doubt it lol just thought i'd ask. and In My opinion.... hunting treasures and kicking Booma/shark/Bot/ruin monster ass is mostly what PSO was about for me...so i think i'm gonna like it allot.

GoldenFalcon
Oct 24, 2012, 02:04 PM
can u at least drop items on the floor and let them pick it up? Doubt it lol just thought i'd ask.

You can drop recovery items, but that's it

Sakarisei
Oct 24, 2012, 03:45 PM
Well... i'm an old scholl player of PSO, and i would like playing C-Mode, and of course, because the market, although i don't like it, some PVP would be OK. And yeah, more, much more varierity

Link1275
Oct 24, 2012, 09:40 PM
ok i have a couple of questions now.... in the old PSO days we had Something called Section ID's this was giving to you based on your Name. for instance if i Create the character Sammickk, his ID would be Whitall, which DETERMINES your Rares, is this not in this game??
LOL Doo-doo??? ok granted it used to be call a Tekker that ID's your weapons attributes, and Grinders, di grinders, and trigrinders that NEVER failed, i actually like the Idea that it can fail and have become quite used to this as most games have this now days anyway.
Now the skill tree system is definitely different for PSO! All ya had to do is hunt tech disks in the old days, but I'll see how this new system goes... As for the FUN system and being able to make an NPC to take down with you.....WHY? aren't there enough people online to play with? i guess its all for the Items but seems kinda silly to me.
i plan on Buying this game and actually paying some money into it, to support the game and Sega/Phantasy star team.. so this is not an issue for me at all, BUT how is it done? is there a free account and a Premium account or what?

Section IDs got scrapped, and almost everyone is happy about it. There is still a tekker actually, and the grinding system is mostly to make the game more like an MMO... The skill tree and tech disks are entirely different systems, and tech discs still work the same(have since PSP2). You can't buy this game actually, it's a F2P free to download MMO now. And you buy a premium pass, you don't have to commit to paying monthly to keep playing on a premium account.


I absolutely love this game. But not in the sense that it is anything like PSO1. If you come to it expecting a cool new version of PSO1, expect to be disappointed. Instead, expect a cool new version of PSU.

I played PSU briefly. I didn't like the class system. And I never got into it until after US servers shut down so reading anything was beyond my capabilities. So I took a break and hopped on and off from some private server for PSOBB (which I still happen to hop onto occasionally).

But I play this game on the JP servers and absolutely love it. To the point where I'm dumping money into it. I kinda wish I had waited until english release, like you are doing, so that I can actually read the story and understand everything, but I've already spent so much time in this game that switching will be unlikely (unless I get banned or something, somehow).

Of course, it has its cons- most of which are related to the premium system, so lets go through a list:

Pros-
-New battle system is incredible. Much more fast paced than PSO1, and the variety of different skills and paths a player may take makes it so that you can play your own style if you arent one of the people who go for the 'best'
-lots of content, weapons and what not keep you interested. content gets released rather quickly too
-graphics. dear god the graphics shit on the previous games. its too bad i cant run more than the simple pixels what with my broken graphics card >:(
-meseta actually has value!

Cons-
-No trading what-so-ever, unless you pay about 16 bucks a month. Find loots you want to give to your friends? Well you cant unless both of you are paying for it. Items even soulbind when you use them (rare weapons and armor) so after you use something, you're stuck with it and cant trade/sell it (except to vendor) anymore


I'm sure theres more that im leaving out but those are the main concepts. Look forward to playing this game. Chances are you will be hooked for a while, but might get bored or irritated after a while when you find you have the worst luck in the game (like myself) and finding good weapons is impossible leaving you with shit D:

But i still play it even though thats the case lol The drop rates seem to be something along the lines of what they were in the dreamcast days, or worse

I do miss the older games, though. The crazy exp grinds and item hunts. Single path boss runs, with no infinite spawning rooms, etc. The fact that you can just farm the same area for 4 hours straight, is kinda, well, lame (although its all i do). But back in the older games, the social aspects seemed more apparent. It could be the language barrier or whatever, but either way, i see more people playing single player rooms, part of an MPA, as opposed to doing quests together with new people.
This game is not a second PSU actually, it only draws on PSU for a little bit of the stuff that was good about the PSU series. As for your last few paragraphs, they're fairly accurate to be honest. Although you don't have to play in MPAs fortunately.

Sammickk
Oct 25, 2012, 08:11 AM
Section IDs got scrapped, and almost everyone is happy about it. There is still a tekker actually, and the grinding system is mostly to make the game more like an MMO... The skill tree and tech disks are entirely different systems, and tech discs still work the same(have since PSP2). You can't buy this game actually, it's a F2P free to download MMO now. And you buy a premium pass, you don't have to commit to paying monthly to keep playing on a premium account.

I thought section ID's gave people the drive to want to participate and play with others in order to hunt rares together, so i actually am one of the few that will miss this...

lol i know not of this psp2 you speak of.... i only played PSO, ver2, ver4 (Blue burst) and a small bit of PSU. Aside from the original Phantasy Star RPG's on the master system I Did not play any portables or any other games, so all i know is.... pick force, hunt tech disks, use spells, can you or anyone elaborate on how PSO 2 Spell system works a little more? I ask because this was my favorite class and the one I will Likely play

Lastly there seems to be some contradicting info on the last post, one guy says to keep trading with others and such u have to pay about 16 bucks a month, and one says you buy the premium account only once.... i am confused

Chik'Tikka
Oct 25, 2012, 08:23 AM
I thought section ID's gave people the drive to want to participate and play with others in order to hunt rares together, so i actually am one of the few that will miss this...

lol i know not of this psp2 you speak of.... i only played PSO, ver2, ver4 (Blue burst) and a small bit of PSU. Aside from the original Phantasy Star RPG's on the master system I Did not play any portables or any other games, so all i know is.... pick force, hunt tech disks, use spells, can you or anyone elaborate on how PSO 2 Spell system works a little more? I ask because this was my favorite class and the one I will Likely play

Lastly there seems to be some contradicting info on the last post, one guy says to keep trading with others and such u have to pay about 16 bucks a month, and one says you buy the premium account only once.... i am confused

Premium is an optional once a month membership (optional that you don't need it to play, and you can buy it whenever you want) pass that includes my room, shop, trading, and double FUN points for logging in daily, it's 1300 yen which once all the hassle is finished comes to about $16 US+^_^+ it's 700 Yen to get My Shop by itself once a month+^_^+ any other questions you have i am sure can be answered in this guide; http://bumped.org/psublog/pso2-guide-list/ +^_^+

gigawuts
Oct 25, 2012, 08:32 AM
Since I've just been reacquainted with my bad grinding luck, I'm just here to say this:

Be prepared to throw weeks of work away in fifteen minutes just to make your weapon worse than it was before. This game uses an RNG-based grinding system. There is zero guarantees in any way shape or form when improving items. Now that rares are finally better than uncommons, to get high level gear requires such an extreme amount of either luck or money that an ordinary player, i.e. with a life or that can't spend hours and hours every day doing mindless 12 player grinding to make money, will not be able to achieve anything approaching high tier gear.

And that's just what happens after you finally get your hands on the weapon or units themselves. Now with 10*'s being the way to go you can't even fucking buy them if you're one of the unlucky ones that never finds the item you're hunting.

So, if you really feel that the risk of failure is balls to the walls fantastic in a weapon improvement system, then boy oh boy this is the game for you.

Sammickk
Oct 25, 2012, 09:16 AM
well lets put it this way... i am a very patient person and i stick with games that i like...for years... in the last game i played... not only did the weapons and armor have a great chance to fail, but it also DESTROYED the item completely... so the simple fact that u dont loose the item at all is a relief to me believe it or not. besides kinda goes to the old simple fact..if everyone is all mighty and powerfull, then no one is.

Gama
Oct 25, 2012, 09:35 AM
pso2 is fun, but gl on the en servers. i dont trust sega anymore. so i wont go to those servers.

gigawuts
Oct 25, 2012, 09:52 AM
well lets put it this way... i am a very patient person and i stick with games that i like...for years... in the last game i played... not only did the weapons and armor have a great chance to fail, but it also DESTROYED the item completely... so the simple fact that u dont loose the item at all is a relief to me believe it or not. besides kinda goes to the old simple fact..if everyone is all mighty and powerfull, then no one is.

There is such a thing as not improving something, yet also not making it worse. This game could stand to realize that.

Sammickk
Oct 25, 2012, 10:57 AM
also the game is young, mabye instead of RNG they will use the percentage system that most games use, example lvl 1-3 are 90% success 4-6 are 60% success 7-9 30% success and 10 be 10% chance success rate

Sammickk
Oct 25, 2012, 10:59 AM
pso2 is fun, but gl on the en servers. i dont trust sega anymore. so i wont go to those servers.

what do you mean by this?

Eternal255
Oct 25, 2012, 12:43 PM
what do you mean by this?

They have a history of fuckin up on the ENG servers, ie not paying enough attention to them, not having all the events, etc. and not to mention the level of idiocy of some of the english players you will have to deal with (cuz japan has none) and what have you.

But really, i would give it a shot regardless. I wanna play there too, for simplicity of purchasing AC and being able to read the story above anything else. I typically play in small groups with friends or teammates anyway, as im sure most people do, so the society shouldnt really be a problem (and the report feature will clean up the idiots). Jus disregard his post, and look forward to the english version. I'd be there if i wasnt balls deep in the JP one.

Miraclearrow
Oct 25, 2012, 12:45 PM
He's saying that the english servers will be bad and out of date the same way the old english pso versions were. The JP servers were always ahead and far better managed and patched etc. I hope that isn't the case but like you said, its hard to trust sega after what they've done in the past.

Gama
Oct 25, 2012, 01:09 PM
i also hate the fact tht i cant have the chance to meet people from japan. i like everyone else, but on the jp server u get people from everywhere atm, so i feel happyer there.

Flame
Oct 25, 2012, 01:33 PM
PROS

- It's free.

- great combat.

- great bosses.

- great flexibility in terms of how you want to play your game.

- the option to switch classes on the fly for free.

- Random boss encounters are always a treat.

CONS

- your progress is constantly hampered by level caps and client orders that are in place specifically to slow you down and force you to replay content.

- weapon progression is confusing and useful drops are far and few between. I've been wearing the same equipment for about 10/15 levels now.

- level design is practically nonexistent save for Time Attack. Randomized fields get old really fast and end up feeling cheap.

- Bland environments post Caves. Tundra and Desert being the worst offenders.

- no significant difference(statistical or otherwise) between races/genders.

- music is forgettable (other than the quartz dragon fight).

- confusing and expensive weapon forging system.

- absence of a story or mystery to motivate your experience.

NEUTRAL

- MPA areas are fun some times, chaotic and mindless other times.

- PSE burst system is confusing and random but kind of fun.

- interrupt events are interesting but are rarely ever engaging.




CLOSING THOUGHTS

A really ambitious title that while is never short on cool ideas, is often short on fun. Combat is almost always a blast but my overall impression of the game is that it's a little bit of a snooze. There's just not much here to keep me playing. I tend to only pop online these days when there's new content.

Sammickk
Oct 25, 2012, 01:38 PM
They have a history of fuckin up on the ENG servers, ie not paying enough attention to them, not having all the events, etc. and not to mention the level of idiocy of some of the english players you will have to deal with (cuz japan has none) and what have you.

But really, i would give it a shot regardless. I wanna play there too, for simplicity of purchasing AC and being able to read the story above anything else. I typically play in small groups with friends or teammates anyway, as im sure most people do, so the society shouldnt really be a problem (and the report feature will clean up the idiots). Jus disregard his post, and look forward to the english version. I'd be there if i wasnt balls deep in the JP one.

I understand. As you said though I too got around this problem on the first PSO and formed quite a big band of friends and since a few of my buds are gonna be starting this with me, at least I wont be alone. I just couldnt enjoy a game i couldn't read or only partially understand with a translation patch. I hope they change thier past ways and keep US up to date but i wouldnt hold my breath.

Link1275
Oct 25, 2012, 01:40 PM
I thought section ID's gave people the drive to want to participate and play with others in order to hunt rares together, so i actually am one of the few that will miss this...

lol i know not of this psp2 you speak of.... i only played PSO, ver2, ver4 (Blue burst) and a small bit of PSU. Aside from the original Phantasy Star RPG's on the master system I Did not play any portables or any other games, so all i know is.... pick force, hunt tech disks, use spells, can you or anyone elaborate on how PSO 2 Spell system works a little more? I ask because this was my favorite class and the one I will Likely play

Lastly there seems to be some contradicting info on the last post, one guy says to keep trading with others and such u have to pay about 16 bucks a month, and one says you buy the premium account only once.... i am confused

Section IDs usually meant more along the lines of someone making a new char just to hunt one weapon and then doing that over and over until they are done hunting stuff. Phantasy Star Portable 2 is one of the most hacked games to date(the only other contender is KZL). If you would like to hear about the US servers for PSP2, just read the section for a bit. Techs can now be charged just like in PSZ, the leveling system is the same though. However charging them can actually be annoying, as whilst it increases your attack techs strength, it also is required to charge them in order to cast support techs on your party. Charging a tech also decreases your movement speed.

Flame
Oct 25, 2012, 01:54 PM
What? Vadar? Mines? City? Forest (especially this if you played pso)?



Those all sounded pretty generic to me but to each his own. And I don't give PSO2 credit for sampling PSO1's music, no.

gravityvx
Oct 25, 2012, 02:45 PM
That was pretty much a rhetorical since it's obvious from the quote you only like one of the games tracks. :-?

goldwing
Oct 25, 2012, 03:41 PM
Love it. If you are a pso fan like me you will love it. Your story sounds way similer to mine. Anyway theres alot to go through and it keeps you comeing back for more. Takeing out the other players and such. Its a true sequel imo and with each new thing it just adds to it. So core gameplay and nothing but the gameplay id say it gets a 9.5 out of 10. Y? Because its not pso but its def no pushover to its grandfather.

Sammickk
Oct 25, 2012, 03:49 PM
Section IDs usually meant more along the lines of someone making a new char just to hunt one weapon and then doing that over and over until they are done hunting stuff.

lol i never did that , i found it much easier to just find a friend i had online with the right ID or just ask in the lobby, i just wouldnt want to raise a new character and get him to ultimate, JUST so i could search for rares.... wow i can't beleive people did that....wait yes i can. lol but seriously there are good people out there, you just have to find them. I seem to be one of the only ones here that didnt have problems with cooperative play. sure i ran into the occasional butthead but for the most part my online experience in PSO was really enjoyable.

Gama
Oct 25, 2012, 04:33 PM
the section id thing actually turned me slowly into a force since i wouldnt level a new character of the same class. x)

gigawuts
Oct 25, 2012, 04:39 PM
lol i never did that , i found it much easier to just find a friend i had online with the right ID or just ask in the lobby, i just wouldnt want to raise a new character and get him to ultimate, JUST so i could search for rares.... wow i can't beleive people did that....wait yes i can. lol but seriously there are good people out there, you just have to find them. I seem to be one of the only ones here that didnt have problems with cooperative play. sure i ran into the occasional butthead but for the most part my online experience in PSO was really enjoyable.

Wait, enjoying heavily risk-based weapon improvement systems is cool, but not wanting to depend on other people so just raising up another char isn't? And that's assuming the new char wasn't another class, which I expect it usually was for most people, or that they may have made the second char anyway just to play as another class when they felt like it.

Sammickk
Oct 25, 2012, 06:51 PM
taking it way outta proportion dude first of all i never said there was anything wrong with that,if you wanted to take the time to do it, thats totally fine with me. secondly i had a force and hunter different class i'm all for that too, i'm not saying you should stick to one class or only play one character, just raising one for the sole purpose of using them for the ID seems silly when u could just find a bro online with the ID you needed, was easy for me.
And yes still cool with risk involved in pushing the limits by upgrading armor, almost EVERY MMO i've played has this, PSO is the only one i can think of that didn't, this is my OPINION doesn't make it right or wrong.
BUT since id's are gone this matters not anymore, i'm kinda getting used to the idea that they are gone now, was just a little wierd at first but i can see where it would have its benefits

the underlying issue i was getting at was that no one seems to trust anyone anymore online, has it really gotten that bad??? I am just saying i didn't have these kinds of problems Online is PSO, but remember i didn't play PSU hardly at all, and any of the portables i did not play, so i've been away for a while

Agitated_AT
Oct 25, 2012, 08:12 PM
I think as a phantasy star fan you'll defintly feel like your entering familiar ground. Psu was terrible and was best to avoid from the first day, however pso2 is nowhere near that monstrosity(or at least initial monstrosity). The game emulates PSO1's vibe and atmosphere almost perfectly. I remember shedding a tear entering the lobby for the first time. I think you'll defenitly enjoy the game for a little or a long while.

The thing however is, the longer you play, you start to notice all the flaws. And there are alot of them. The game is a mess.

While the gameplay is still that great real time action based style, the way they execute everything around it is in my opinion terrible.

The core of the fighting mechanics are just amazing and have so much potential to build an amazing, thrilling and intense experience off similar to pso1. Apart from the bosses, that is never the case.

The game caters to a large croud and i'd say a large percentage are casual gamers. The result is that the game puts more emphasis on collecting and cosmetics instead of field experience intensity. The fields are dull and all feel kind of the same because of the random generated map nature. Apart from time attack mode, you wont find little puzzles or unique level structures. Once you find out what really drives the game(colle ting and cosmetics) you will also find out why you'll never b able to find a party on the go. Ill tell ya now its because people are farming a game for hours. You see in pso2 this is an easy task because once u gather/find a great multiparty of 12 people, enemies will feel like fodders and this is how people make their mesetas to reach their superficial goasl, being able to buy a rare or a cosmetic like an outfit and accessories. Because everything is so easy, there is no hesitation to do the latest and most profitable content ASAP, so that ends up being the playground for everyone. The reason why i say superficial is because the rares, which was supposed to debunk my statement, are totally useless in this game apart from showing off and bragging purposes. You dont need strong weapons or armors to defeat the dopey enemies, which mostly just dance around instead of coming at you. Another reason for farming is to reach level requirements for the next areas. You see, in PSO1 there was no level requirement but the requirement made itself known by slapping you in the face. I know my first time when I entered ruins in PSO1, I went back to grind a little more. But while there is a requirement in PSO2, if there wasn't any, you'd be able to do later content with ease apart from the bosses.

If you loved PSO1, you may have to get used to the new format. There are no barriers and gates that force you to engage the enemies. In the whole game except for Time attack mode, you're able to avoid every single enemy if you want, and reach the goal/boss. Remember that experience of an hour(s) of intensity towards your goal? Well that's changed. Areas aren't that large anymore and exist of 2/3 "playgrounds" with respawning enemies. You're able to stay in a game for hours just killing stuff, instead of having a sense of progression like in PSO1. There are no gates or barriers that force you to engage each enemy, there are no switches you have to find to open other doors.

Which comes to the greatest issue related to everything above. Everything that could make the fighting mechanics have so much potential is all afterthought compared to collection and cosmetics. The enemies are a joke and dont encourage you to play at your best. The biggest offender ended up being very hard. At normal you are still at your basic and its not supposed to be that hard, but once u reach very hard u have a great amount of skills, add the fact subclasses add to your stats, and bam you have a very hard mode that is easier than normal. I quit playing before i actually reached vh from hearing this, so im not 100% sure its easier. Allthough definitly not very hard.

That said, this feature called interrupt events is a great addition and keep things fresh. I imagine if they combined PSO1's format with the interupt events, PSO1 would now still feel fresh to this day.

Where it comes down to is, do you enjoy the casual aspect and the occasional thrill that bosses bring. This is defenitly the game for you.

Are you lookig for a game that builds amazing content around its core mechanics and becomes more intense as you progress? I'd say you are in for a dissapointment

Cyclon
Oct 25, 2012, 08:21 PM
Please be warned, this post is long. You may as well NOT click this spoiler box and not read it.
You've been warned.

[SPOILER-BOX]PSO veteran here.

I find it hard to describe exactly what I think of this game, but I can say I love it. But beware, it is not PSO "+", which might be what you are searching for. While there are some similarities with the original, this game IS very different on many aspects(it ISN'T "PSU 2" either though, in my opinion).

The only advice I can give is, do not play it to play pso. This could potentially ruin the game for you.

First and foremost, this game is faster-paced. Your character moves faster, attacks faster, dies faster, kills faster. The "3 rythm combo attacks" style of PSO is still present, but a lot different. While this game doesn't allow button mashing, you will automatically attack continuously if you keep the attack button pressed. "Strong" and "special" attacks aren't in this game either. Instead, you have "just attacks". basically, when an attack ends, a circle quickly appears on your character, and disappears shortly after. If you press the attack button while it's there, the next part of your combo becomes a just attack, and deals more damage. It's also the fastest way of attacking. So while attacking in rythm is still very important, it's no longer mandatory.
Also, you can repeat your three way combo endlessly; the third attack gets you back to the first. Forces are also included in this system, and using a tech in rythm after an attack or another tech will make it a just attack(or should I say just tech) which deals more damage.
The six button layout has disappeared. You instead have a classic shortcut bar of ten cases at the lower end of the screen, on which you can put healing items, active abilities(gotten through your talent tree, more on this later), etc. You don't use it as much, though.

You can also jump in this game, and use every single attack and PA(more on this later) in the air. This is useful for everything and everyone; moving around, evading, comboing, shooting faster for rangers, getting on some ennemies' bodies to access their weak points easier, etc. As someone else said, this is clearly a very important gameplay element, and you'll use it a lot.
Every weapon style also has a "dash", so there are three different dashes in the game. They have built-in invicibility frames, and thus are extremely important for evading. They also each have unique properties and durations.

Races are mostly the same now, with only slight statistical differences(which can be of critical importance though), and of course appearance differences. Casts no longer have access to traps(which are now ranger only)or HP regeneration, and can now be forces and use techs like everybody else, though they're the worse at it. TP's are gone, and everyone gets back PP at the same rate, so newmans are now simply the best at techs. Finally, materials are gone entirely, so humans simply are the most balanced of the three.
While all these changes are saddening, something that bothers me a lot more is that techs bonuses are also gone.

While you do choose a class when creating your character, you can change to the two others, and any other you get afterwards(there are six classes in this game as of now, you need to unlock the other three)at any time. Your character also does not have a "level" anymore, instead of that he has class levels. While these are mostly the same, the difference is that if you're hunter level 20, and switch to force, you'll restart as a level 1 force. Of course, you keep your classes levels when you switch, so you can get back to hunter level 20 nevertheless.

ATA and EVP have disappeared. The only way you can miss or evade is through movement. There is now a "TPS"(third person shooter) view, which allow you to manually aim your ranged attacks with the mouse. While it can be fun and challenging to use it as often as possible, also present is an auto aim feature just like in PSO, but more importantly a manual aim that allows you to always face your targer and hit it more consistently or evade its attacks better.

Back to the ability to endlessly repeat the three part combo, the reasons for it are pretty simple. Uninterrupted shooting for ranged weapons(although they have a reloading animation after the third hit), easier PP regeneration for forces(I'll get to this later), and most importantly the whole gameplay of melee weapons.

There are in this game special attacks called Photon arts, or PA. Every weapon has, as of now, eight(except for force-specific weapons, but they have access to techs, which are considered as PAs in this game)unique PAs with diverse properties. You find them as disks of various levels, on the field, just like techs in PSO. Three PAs can be assigned on a single weapon at any time(the same goes for techs, though you can also put them in your shortcut bar); for ranged weapons and tech weapons, you use the first with a PA button, and the other two by using a "switch button", so that your keys for normal attacks and your first PA become your other two. This is done very similarly to switching your action palette in PSO.
For close range weapons though, each of your three PA takes the place of one of your three combo attacks. While these are still accessed with the normal attack button, if you use your PA button, it'll do the PA instead.
To elaborate further on that, you can start with your first normal attack, then use your second PA, then your third normal attack. And since your combo resets, you can keep on going by using either your first attack or first PA, and so on. This allows for a lot of different combos, that make the hunter class a true delight to play as.
Additionally, the "switch button", for close range weapons, becomes the "weapon action". For example, sword's action is blocking.

All PAs use PP, for photon points; and that's where forces get a completely different feel from PSO. Monofluids and the such no longer exist. PP recovers automatically when you're not using PAs AND when hitting ennemies with your normal attacks. So forces have to actually use their weapon so that they can have enough PP to continously use techs(this can be somewhat nullified with the talen trees though).
Also, as someone already said, techs can now be charged to deal higher damage and have wider area of effect in most cases(or to even have an area of effect to begin with, as for resta and shifta. Otherwise, they're self only). The problem with this system is that as of now, 99% of the time, uncharged techs are absolutely worthless compared to their charged version. This is the second main difference of forces. If you want to be efficient, you always charge your techs. Charging takes a relatively short time though; about a second.

Zan techs(wind based)are back from the original genesis Phantasy stars, but diga techs(ground) from PSU aren't. Still, with six elements(fire, ice, lightning, wind, light and dark) all having five different techs, there are a lot more techs in this game than in PSO. Every tech of an element can afflict the ennemy with a specific status effect; fire is burn(damage over time), ice is freeze(very similar to PSO, but attacks can now break the ice), lightning is shock(slight stun every three or four seconds), wind is mirage(I believe it prevents ennemies from hitting with their attacks sometimes), light is panic(about the same as confuse in pso), dark is poison(damage over time, stronger than burn)
On a last note, shifta is a fire tech, deband is ice, resta and anti are light, and there is no reverser, jellen and zalure as of now. Yet, these last two have equivalents in the ranger talent tree though, and death is about the only thing that can help them making this game difficult, so it's unlikely we'll ever see those three.

Enemies in this game have elemental weaknesses depending on the area where they live. Every monster from the forest, for example, takes more damage from wind and fire elements. Darkers, the main foes of this game, are in every area but have their own weaknesses that never change no matter where you face them; some fear light and fire, and others light and lightning.
Weapons no longer have bonuses against native, a. beast, machine and dark ennemies; they have elemental properties instead. One weapon can only have one element that goes from 1% to 50%. They don't affect damage nealy as much as the bonuses from PSO, though.
Ennemies don't have elemental resistances. It is believed they have status effect resistances, though.

Also in comparison to PSO, ennemies act very differently. They have better AI, but are also much less aggressive; they tend to evade your attacks about as much as they try to land hits on you. The problem is that they are easily read, so most of the time they'll try to evade you, fail, and die before they even had the time to do anything. Furthermore, some lack the mobility to evade you at all, but they don't attack any more than the others. There also are no doors anywhere except for emergency codes in certain areas(more on that... later), which means you can totally ignore them and rush to the exit right away. As such, normal enemies hardly feel like a threat in this game.

This is completely different when it comes to bosses though. Well, main bosses at least. There are two types of bosses in this game, mini and main bosses. While mini bosses aren't half bad, main bosses are absolutely awesome. The arenas in which you fight them are pretty dull, though, so nothing like De Rol Le in this game yet. Still, they're very epic and enjoyable to fight. Don't be mistaken when starting with the game, as you face some mini-bosses before getting to the first main. Just for you to know, the first main boss is a dragon, just like in PSO.

"Frames" and "armors" also disappeared. Units are the new "armors", and you equip three at the same time; on for the rear, one for the arms, and one for the legs. They also require enough of one defensive stat to equip, and not that you reach a specific level.
Weapons and units can have "affixes", but it is a pretty complicated system(and others already mentioned this), so I'll leave it at that.

Apart from that, you do not have to buy the game, since it's free to play. Others may have already told you that.
Section IDs aren't part of this game. Areas are all coumposed of two blocks only, and they're mostly the same, save for one of them(so cave 2 is about the same as cave 1, and there is no cave 3)

Music is decent at best. Definitely not of PSO level. The game can also be incredibly easy, if you always play with people(basically three groups of four players can be in a single block at the same time; that's called a multiparty), but also decently challenging when playing alone. Sadly, as of now there is no incentive to play alone except for said challenge. Everything else is better when playing with other people. Money, experience, drop rates, everything.
This leads us to another problem, because more people yield more ennemies spawns, not stronger monsters. Thus, area of effect damage from a distance is extremely useful. Needless to say, hunters are no good at that.
To add salt to the injury, as said before, enemies in this game lack aggressivity, but deal considerable damage when they hit you. As a result, hunters take a lot more risks than the two other classes, to deal less damage most of the time. So unsurprisingly, hunter is widely considered the worst of the bunch.
There is also a very nice ability for rangers that you'll come to know soon enough if you ever play this game, called weak shot, that makes any enemy, bosses included, a complete joke. So yeah, sadly, this game is pretty unbalanced at the moment.

What else... as someone else already said, the game is not comprised of areas, like PSO, but missions which take place in these areas. Each area consists of three basic missions with simple objectives, and a "free field", which you unlock by time attacking two of said basic missions, and is probably the closest you'd find to PSO at first: two blocks with the main boss of the place at the end. Then you time attack the free field to get to the next area.

Missions are considerably shorter than an entire area of PSO(partly because your character moves a lot faster, but blocks are smaller nevertheless), but you're free to stay in them for extended periods of time since enemies respawn in almost all of them. It is also to be noted that blocks are created randomly with the various parts of the area, so that the game stays diverse. This can, however, result in extremely dull blocks with only a few rooms in a straight line leading to the exit. Overall though, I think the result is pretty nice.

Speaking of diversity, one of the main novelty of this game is "emergency codes", which are random events that happen fairly often on the fields, and can lead to a wide number of situations, like a npc needing your help to defeat a group of ennemies, an invincible creature that you must avoid for a set period of time, or even bosses spawning to fight you. I won't spoil anything else, but the list is long. You really don't know what you're jumping into(literally) when you start a mission.

Apart from that, the core gameplay of this game is incredible, and its main selling point for me. The three main classes styles feel more unique than ever; hunter type is an incredibly versatile and customisable close-ranged class, with loads of crowd control tools; ranger type is also versatile, with three weapons that have very different roles and allow you to adapt to any situation easily, and force type has access to a wide selection of elemental technics that they exploit differently depending on the weapon that they use in conjunction with them.

About crowd control tools, since it's also important, you can interact with ennemies a lot more than in PSO. You can blow enemies away, launch them in the air, ground them, grab them... Of course, all this doesn't work on bosses for obvious reasons, though there are other things you can do to them, like breaking parts of their body or afflict them of a status effect they are vulnerable to for various results(generally rewarding you with some free damage).

As hinted above, one of the main strengths of classes when it comes to diversity is the weapons. They really are distinct from one another, and it's not because you've played a class for dozens of hours that you instantly mastered all of its weapons. There really is a learning curve with each.

You do not, though, have access to every weapon of a "type" on one class. As of now, all three class styles have access to a secondary class, which can use the remaining weapons. ie, hunter can use swords, partisans and wired lances(a new weapon with nice range and a variety of grab PAs), while fighter, the secondary class, can use daggers, fists and double sabers. There is, though, a weapon type that every single class can use; the gunslash, which is, simply put, a combination of saber and handgun.
These secondary classes are unlocked by completing a quest when you reach level 30 with the primary class(so level 30 hunter to use fighter).

Quests have also a far more important place in this game than in PSO, since they're one of your main sources of experience. The reason why this is important is that you unlock everything through leveling in this.
That is actually, in my opinion, the biggest weak point of PSO2 when you compare it to the original. In PSO, you were free to do about anything you wanted at any time, because your level didn't matter much, but once on the field, you had to pay attention and play correctly. This game, because of its low difficulty, is the opposite. You are basically forced to do everything in a certain order, with very little choices given to you(this gets better once you've got everything unlocked, but it takes time), yet in the end, especially in multiparties, the way you play hardly matters, as long as you stick with the group. That's the reason why I play solo most of the time. I need all the challenge this game can give me.
SEGA have promised some more difficulty later on, we'll have to wait and see.

Back to the classes, this game has a subclass system, which you unlock at level 20. It allows you to "sub" any class you have unlocked to the main class you are playing as. You then get 20% of this classe's base stats, its talent tree and access to its PA, but not its weapons. So to use PAs that aren't techs, you have to use a special category of weapons called allclass, which as the name implies, can be used by everyone. Unfortunately, as of now there are very few of these, and they're pretty hard to get. Anyway, this system allows you to make your own style of character, which is definitely a plus, even if some combinations are obviously better than others.

Talent trees are easy to figure out if you've ever played a game that has these. You get one talent point per level, that you can use on special abilities to improve your character's aptitudes. Eventually, putting enough points in these abilities gives acces, to others, and so on, allowing you to specialize. These abilities can be passive or active, and each class has its own talent tree.

At this point the game has seven different areas, and an eighth one is coming soon. At it's launch(in July), it had five. In fact, it has received an impressing quantity of updating content in such a short time, though most was obviously already ready at launch, and they just released it afterwards to keep the game alive.
This is a problem though, because if they do the same with the EU/US version, it could take forever to catch up(read: it will never happen).
I saw that someone criticized the areas of this game, and I simply can't agree. Honestly, I like them all, especially some of the last ones.

Oh yeah, areas also have random weather changes, such as a thunderstorm in the forest, night in the desert, a snow storm in the tundra... While most make no difference on actual gameplay, they are really good looking, add some variety, and even epicness at times.

Next, mags make a comeback, and they work mostly like they did in PSO, except that their stats are now different, since they're the same as your character's. You have S-atk, which is basically ATP for close ranged weapons only, because ranged weapons have their own now, which is called R-atk. MST has been replaced by T-atk, which is basically the same but matters a lot more than the former did.
Similarly, there are three defense types, which mirror the attack types; finally, there is ability, a new stat that affects your damage range(to put it simply, the higher ability you have, the more consistently will you deal high damage); these are the seven mag stats. Defense and attack go hand to hand though when it comes to mag evolution(t-atk adds to t-def), so you only have four branches just like in PSO. Of course, with mags come photon blasts, which now attack in real time.

Stats are crucial into equipping high end units or weapons. So how you raise you mag is very important, even moreso than before, as, if you can play every single class at any time, with their own talent tree, you only get one single mag for free.

Additional mags, skill tree resets, myroom(which is a room only for your character, that you can modify in various ways), myshop(and trading), additional characters(you only get one for free, though you can make another account if you want another one, or delete your original character while keeping everything in your storage)and scape dolls are all AC only, so ultimately you'll have to planify and make choices if you don't want to pay, even though everything seems so accessible at first.

Most outfits are also AC only, but these can be sold by players, and you can buy from myshop without paying(you need to pay if you want to sell though); so if you have the meseta, fashion at least is not a problem. This is also the case of other AC stuff, like EXP boosters if I'm not mistaken.
Plus, if you planify and don't make stupid mistakes(I've screwed my ranger tree with a simple error), AND of course don't care for myroom, you really don't need AC to enjoy the game as of now.

As a last note, the game is a bit reskinny at times, but not any more so than PSO was. And the character creator is extremely advanced, though it could use more outfits, that are, of course, gotten through AC.

Soooo... Other people have already covered time-attack...

There are things I didn't mention, like teams, emergency quests, PSE, I have litterally left myroom untouched... but I think it's long enough as it is.[/SPOILER-BOX]
I tried to list everything different between this game and PSO. Of course that would be a lot of stuff.
There may also be errors here and there, I apologize about that.

TL;DR??

++ Permissive free 2 play model
++ Great gameplay
+ Great customization possibilities
+ Unique classes and weapons
+ New content regularly
+ Great bosses
+ Emergency codes
+ Good graphics, especially for a F2P

- Really grindy at times
- Unbalanced
- Too easy past level 20
- Races are too similar
- Inequal music
- Lacking content-wise at launch(this could be relevant for the US/EU version)

PS: I do realize I didn't mention the story, the reason simply being that I can't read japanese, and also that it isn't complete yet. From what I've understood though, it's decent, but nothing stellar.

Flame
Oct 25, 2012, 09:57 PM
The enemies are a joke and dont encourage you to play at your best.

You know the ironic part about this is there are bosses that are more or less impossible to solo. Which becomes a problem at this point as almost everyone is at a different stage in terms of what they need to accomplish. For example I need to kill 5 snow panthers to move on to VH but there's nary a party to be found that are looking to accomplish the same thing. like you say, because everyone has a different agenda, partying up is a nightmare. And those kitties are designed to have their attentions divided by multiple players at once.

No one better come in here and tell me it's because I'm not "skilled" enough to take them down. Even bosses that aren't THAT difficult have a fuckton of health because once again, they are designed for multiple players. Sega made no adjustments this time around for solo players.

Renvalt
Oct 26, 2012, 01:18 AM
You know the ironic part about this is there are bosses that are more or less impossible to solo. Which becomes a problem at this point as almost everyone is at a different stage in terms of what they need to accomplish. For example I need to kill 5 snow panthers to move on to VH but there's nary a party to be found that are looking to accomplish the same thing. like you say, because everyone has a different agenda, partying up is a nightmare. And those kitties are designed to have their attentions divided by multiple players at once.

No one better come in here and tell me it's because I'm not "skilled" enough to take them down. Even bosses that aren't THAT difficult have a fuckton of health because once again, they are designed for multiple players. Sega made no adjustments this time around for solo players.

I share your pain bro. I hate the Banthers to death. So much so that every time I actually DO kill one of these furry bastards I use their remains to cook what I like to call "Roast Cat Neck" - which I gnaw on like a dog bone whenever I DON'T kill them and they kill me (which is quite often).

That said, have you tried using NPC Partners? I know it seems unorthodox, but if you can get a full party of those, they can stall the Banthers enough for you to get away.

Though I do agree - too many people in VH mode to even make those last parts worth it.

Sammickk
Oct 26, 2012, 09:18 AM
The last two Posts are what i'm hoping is rectified in an NA server... there are bound to be allot more players speaking your language to seek help from... an online game should BE MULTIPLAYER, soloing is ok once in a while but i remember having the most fun teaming up and partying in PSO. I think allot of whether a game is good or bad for you comes from attitude and your play style, and actually trying to have a good time. you will run into bad times but i didn't let them defeat me before so i will try not to on this one either..

Agitated_AT
Oct 26, 2012, 10:42 AM
But samick, you can do nothing about it when the game doesnt actually promote it or make it easy, in fact i'd say its discouraging it. The game almost feels like it wants you to solo.

I went back to psobb and not alot of people play that game anymore, yet no matter what i did, wether it was normal or hard, my party was gathered wihin a minute. This is because pso1's reward system is balanced in such a fine way, that every content has its worth. People dont mind redoing a "quick" forest. The reward was very well in line with the challenge. But it was also because of the good balance in that, why everything had its merits. I will say this was less the case in episode2 and 4. There it was the case that the content was too hard for what you got out from it, so for me ep2 and 4 was always for variety anyway.

In pso2 however, everything is doable, within the same time range so the decision is made quickly which is doing The latest content. I mean what is stopping you? Nothing. The game drives people there so u'll find parties, you'll get more out of it so the game is rewarding you for playing that way. So in this case the reward balancing is terrible. Again one of the reasons is little challenge and the farming nature ofthe game.

Beside all this, even when people wanna party up. Like lets say i join a party and expect it to be like pso1 where im guaranteed a good game. Notthe case in pso2. People clash because everyone has different goals. As Flame said, he has the goal now of killing alot of the same type of bosses. Many people would be boss rushing in his case(avoid all enemies and go straight to to the boss, over and over again), but if u'd join him with the goal of playing regularly, then u'll leave quick. Or others who'd wanna farm would avoid this person as well. You're gonna clash. Everyone finds this out eventually so expecting someone to join your party is something you shouldnt by now. At the release daypeople still played pso1 style but thays not happening anymore

This all affects new players the most. Because only the free fields are visited by people who use a new class, and they are mostly farming their way to the end. So expect alot of endless games as a new player now in the jp server. I know its not possible to have an endless game anymore(after an update), but 3,5 hours is still pretty endless to me. I think a good example of this all is once i reached lvl 25(or maybe it was 20) with my second class(having unlocked all the missions allready but only requiring the lvl) 2 new areas are unlocked being tundra and mines. Guess which one is packed and which one is dead? The latter one's latest free field is packed and tundra has only occasional parties. By now you'll know the reason but just in case, its because the mines is more rewardign in exp and everything for the little effort differences between the both.

Only way to make this game worth it is to socialize. I had a great party allthough i defenitly like meeting new people and pso1 was very effective in that aspect. Unless some drastic change happen, this will keep the game from being a worthy succesor, or a good game

gravityvx
Oct 26, 2012, 12:16 PM
You know the ironic part about this is there are bosses that are more or less impossible to solo. Which becomes a problem at this point as almost everyone is at a different stage in terms of what they need to accomplish. For example I need to kill 5 snow panthers to move on to VH but there's nary a party to be found that are looking to accomplish the same thing. like you say, because everyone has a different agenda, partying up is a nightmare. And those kitties are designed to have their attentions divided by multiple players at once.

No one better come in here and tell me it's because I'm not "skilled" enough to take them down. Even bosses that aren't THAT difficult have a fuckton of health because once again, they are designed for multiple players. Sega made no adjustments this time around for solo players.

It is two extremely agile bosses in one arena, it's obviously set to handle a party. That said, when it comes to soloing them it actually does come down to a matter of what class you're playing, what your gear is like, what level you are compared to them and how good you are at it. There is no debating any of that when it comes to the banthers, their entire design is made to keep you on your feet and have you cooperating with your party members(not solo) at all times once both are out(to split them, if the first isn't already dead). As easy as this game is I rather they not nerf any enemy in this game. Hell, I'll help you out if you still needed them dead, they just aren't a boss to be taken lightly solo and I like the fact that they are actually challenging alone compared to 90% of the other bosses in this game.

Sammickk
Oct 26, 2012, 01:23 PM
after reading allot of the posts here on this thread and others, with this last one from agitated_AT, I dont think this game is what it appears to be.... i mean the gameplay looks sooo coool.... but alas i think my hopes and faith in this game were too high. perhaps i will skip this game again and wait for the next time around....

gigawuts
Oct 26, 2012, 01:29 PM
It has a good framework, but there are clearly people who do not play it at the helm. They take some irritating things and make them worse, but they do fix other things. They only have the community's feedback to go on, and that tends to be mixed and conflicting.

A lot of things are clearly more irritating than they need be just to try to get you to pay real cash for a shortcut, which is bad design through and through, but all this said we're still playing it because despite these issues it's still enjoyable. It's just not as thoroughly enjoyable to as many playstyles as it could very easily be with some more level headed design.

I say try it, but don't hype it up in your head too much. Nothing's perfect.

Flame
Oct 26, 2012, 01:53 PM
Dude, it's free. Give it a try at least. You'll know pretty quickly if you like it or not.

Sammickk
Oct 26, 2012, 01:57 PM
hmmm ok i will give it a full optomistic try, and try hard to take the good with the bad and like you say, even PSO had its flaws and no game is perfect. And MAYBE just MAYBE if the game holds strong long enough, SONIC TEAM will pull through and iron out some of the flaws, cause I'll say it again....the Gameplay looks sooooo goood. If you don't have good mechanics behind that you have a polished terd....

Agitated_AT
Oct 26, 2012, 06:57 PM
Yeah the game isn't that bad. Those posts are really just me venting my frustration because no one in this community actually says something about it. But when things change in the economy preventing people from their usual farm routine, only then you'll see people complain. Which is something i'll never understand, but maybe i'm just crazy.

The game is enjoyable. You will defenitly love going through normal. But because of the little difference between normal hard and vhard, apart from the larger numbers on screen, it ends up being a major letdown and repetitive. Take in mind however that the team behind PSO2 really takes alot of feedback, so maybe in the future, things might change.

Anyway If you need help in the english server, i'd love to team up with you. I think quiting the game now is the best thing for me anyway since I don't wanna waste more time on the JP server.

Link1275
Oct 26, 2012, 09:40 PM
The game is enjoyable. You will defenitly love going through normal. But because of the little difference between normal hard and vhard, apart from the larger numbers on screen, it ends up being a major letdown and repetitive. Take in mind however that the team behind PSO2 really takes alot of feedback, so maybe in the future, things might change.



PSO1 was repetitive and boring up until Ultimate too.

Syklo
Oct 26, 2012, 10:38 PM
The only Phantasy Star I've played before PSO2 was PSZ on the DS.
And boy I loved that game.

I'll agree on party clashes between players, but you could at least notify others about your party's function before they join, either in the playstyle categories or the party name.

PSO2 does get repetitive after a certain point though, at least in my opinion: having to go back to do forest-desert on hard mode or otherwise start over after unlocking fighter....

Regardless, unlike the other games I've played, PSO2 doesn't need you to have a party (except for time attack) and won't really penalise you for playing solo, to the point where it feels like just playing a console game. For me, this is as close to kingdom hearts as I can get (only mmo I've touched that has similar lock-on targeting features).

Heat Haze
Oct 26, 2012, 10:43 PM
My opinion, entirely subjective. Take it for what you will, blah blah blah. With that said I'm not going to go into great detail. Before I rant about what I think of it, I definitely feel you should give it a try. However, if you're looking for the original PSO in PSO2 you may be disappointed; but that doesn't make it a bad game. I'll just mention a few things since I'm lazy.

[SPOILER-BOX]F2P and AC: In short, you can get through the game just fine without AC (albeit it is much easier to get by with said AC; but it isn't an absolute need). There are a few catches though. It is unlikely that with your 1st Mag, and 1st Skill Trees; you'll come up with the optimal build suited to your playstyle or taste. AC allows you to get a new Mag, and additional skill trees in the event that you mess up somehow. If you have researched well ahead of time, and put careful thought into your character; that shouldn't be an issue. Some people feel AC is a need now; while others believe it isn't needed still due to the changes in the economy making meseta harder to earn; making MyShop a necessity. Other than that, you can get by just fine without AC.

Client Orders?: Fancy name for quests. What deserves a mention are Koffee's client orders. Notably the two level cap raise Client Orders. People feel that it's very grindy, unnecessary to have, and lengthens the game in the wrong way. Personally I think the level cap should just be raised automatically without these COs as you'll have to grind like hell just to level up. Just a minor complaint however. Most COs are reasonable, and some are even a good source of meseta (Time Attack COs).

Difficulty: If you're looking for a challenge, you certainly won't find it here unless you cripple yourself in terms of gear. Multi Parties make everything easy, but it's fun to meet and play with other people; take it as you will. As for the differences between difficulty levels; hardly noticeable as everything dies in a blink in a Multi Party.

General Gameplay: Flashy, looks nice. Combat is smooth and fluid, gets laggy during PSE Bursts and such but it isn't a problem. Gets grindy at times however (Level Cap CO, Making Meseta, etc.). If you're just starting out however, you're going to have one rough time. Most things are only possible in a party and it may be difficult for you to find a party that will help you in whatever you need to have done. Sega has tried to remedy this in their own way with their Class System so Veteran and New Players can interact; but it doesn't look to be effective. If you socialize a lot and make friends; you should be fine. If you're a solo, well.. good luck.

RNG: It's full of crap.[/SPOILER-BOX]
With all this said, I can't really give you a 1-10 rating OP. Pretty indecisive but I'm thinking around a 7 or 8 here. It's good, and worth a try; but there can always be improvements.

Syklo
Oct 26, 2012, 11:29 PM
General Gameplay: Flashy, looks nice. Combat is smooth and fluid, gets laggy during PSE Bursts and such but it isn't a problem. Gets grindy at times however (Level Cap CO, Making Meseta, etc.). If you're just starting out however, you're going to have one rough time. Most things are only possible in a party and it may be difficult for you to find a party that will help you in whatever you need to have done. Sega has tried to remedy this in their own way with their Class System so Veteran and New Players can interact; but it doesn't look to be effective. If you socialize a lot and make friends; you should be fine. If you're a solo, well.. good luck.

RNG: It's full of crap.

Lol @ RNG....so true.

Regarding that starting out solo part....I personally disagree, even though that opinion would be taken differently by others. Even so, I would say that starting out solo would be an interesting "challenge" if you find it so.

Flame
Oct 27, 2012, 01:59 AM
PSO1 was repetitive and boring up until Ultimate too.

Repetitive? Absolutely. You replayed the same 4 dungeons over and over.

Boring? Not on your life. Content was paced so well that there was always something exciting right around the corner. That's something the designers behind PSO2 can't seem to grasp.

It's funny because ultimate is actually where it starts to turn into a slog. It felt like the forced extension of a finished experience.

Spellbinder
Oct 27, 2012, 04:19 AM
Repetitive? Absolutely. You replayed the same 4 dungeons over and over.

Boring? Not on your life. Content was paced so well that there was always something exciting right around the corner. That's something the designers behind PSO2 can't seem to grasp.


I wouldn't call the same map every time with the same spawns every time well paced with something always exciting around the corner. That being said, the game was still awesome.

gigawuts
Oct 27, 2012, 05:16 AM
PSO1 was repetitive and boring up until Ultimate too.

Exactly. It really was. What made it enjoyable below ultimate was that many of us genuinely liked the story it told, even if we weren't reading it outright as we played it again and again. I like stories where you're chasing someone else, and reading it long after it's been written. It gives an ancient, mysterious vibe, like what you're following knows you're coming and doesn't want you there.

But that wasn't in PSU. I didn't get the enjoyability of feeling that story each time I played, even if it wasn't in the story mode. It's also not in PSO2. They both do have stories, but not ones I like quite as much. Other people might, of course, but they're not my favorites.

Of course, when I got to ultimate the game changed considerably, but only barely at the same time. It was a matter of changing strategy. Which is also what keeps me on PSO2 - different classes, PA combos, tactics in general, etc.

re: exciting around corners
That wasn't specifically map design, which was changed up between quests by the level designers. They had 2-3 layouts, but could change spawn patterns, where you entered, the routes you had to take, where locks were, etc. The same layout could be used a dozen times in as many quests and be different every time. The only thing that tended to stay the same was enemy spawns, and even those varied between each quest. You're talking about just running the same thing over and over, but I'm not. You didn't need to, each area had tons of quests you could do there.

No, what was exciting around every corner was the mixture of the well paced leveling - it stayed consistently challenging for your level, not too easy and not too hard - and the items. Each run you were likely to find something, and it would be good as soon as you picked it up. Now finding a rare is finding something that will suck horribly until you drop anywhere between 100k to 10m meseta on it...and 10m meseta still isn't an assured +10. Finding a rare is finding a chore.

Sammickk
Oct 27, 2012, 08:26 AM
Repetitive? Absolutely. You replayed the same 4 dungeons over and over.

Boring? Not on your life. Content was paced so well that there was always something exciting right around the corner. That's something the designers behind PSO2 can't seem to grasp.

It's funny because ultimate is actually where it starts to turn into a slog. It felt like the forced extension of a finished experience.

See i agree here it was very repetative, but definitley not Boring for me, took a looooong time for me to get tired of it anyway. so with that said i don't think the repetativeness will be what brings PSO2 down for me, it will be something else if anything... still hoping, btw i see there is a new content update for november announced.. nice!

Link1275
Oct 27, 2012, 11:15 AM
Repetitive? Absolutely. You replayed the same 4 dungeons over and over.

Boring? Not on your life. Content was paced so well that there was always something exciting right around the corner. That's something the designers behind PSO2 can't seem to grasp.

It's funny because ultimate is actually where it starts to turn into a slog. It felt like the forced extension of a finished experience.

I only started out on PSO1 a year or two ago, so yeah, Normal to Very Hard was boring to me.

Flame
Oct 27, 2012, 01:34 PM
No, what was exciting around every corner was the mixture of the well paced leveling - it stayed consistently challenging for your level, not too easy and not too hard - and the items. Each run you were likely to find something, and it would be good as soon as you picked it up. Now finding a rare is finding something that will suck horribly until you drop anywhere between 100k to 10m meseta on it...and 10m meseta still isn't an assured +10. Finding a rare is finding a chore.

this is what I meant by well paced content. The weapons were especially well done. When you found your first brand it was an enormous jump in power and your damage output increased significantly. Sega was clever in that as you moved up the rarity/power tiers your blade would change color, employing a visual representation to your growth. In PSO2 there is no such visual progression. You can no longer even tell if a weapon is stronger by looking at it.

The PA system in PSO2 is also really confusing as certain PAs do an extraordinary amount of damage and the player loses track of how much their basic damage output is to begin with. In PSO1 the difference between doing 30 and 40 damage meant the world. Here, while your basic attack might do 150 damage, your fancy PA will somehow land 500 damage making the whole thing just seem random and uncoordinated. And all people do is spam PAs anyway. It all starts to feel sloppy and cheap as opposed to focused and deliberate.

It's these kinds of things that make me retroactively appreciate PSO1 so much more.

Cyclon
Oct 27, 2012, 01:40 PM
And one big spoiler box again. this is an answer to a previous Agitated_AT post.

[SPOILER-BOX]
But samick, you can do nothing about it when the game doesnt actually promote it or make it easy, in fact i'd say its discouraging it. The game almost feels like it wants you to solo.

I went back to psobb and not alot of people play that game anymore, yet no matter what i did, wether it was normal or hard, my party was gathered wihin a minute. This is because pso1's reward system is balanced in such a fine way, that every content has its worth. People dont mind redoing a "quick" forest. The reward was very well in line with the challenge. But it was also because of the good balance in that, why everything had its merits. I will say this was less the case in episode2 and 4. There it was the case that the content was too hard for what you got out from it, so for me ep2 and 4 was always for variety anyway.

In pso2 however, everything is doable, within the same time range so the decision is made quickly which is doing The latest content. I mean what is stopping you? Nothing. The game drives people there so u'll find parties, you'll get more out of it so the game is rewarding you for playing that way. So in this case the reward balancing is terrible. Again one of the reasons is little challenge and the farming nature ofthe game.
So EP 2 and 4 are no good at this? Like, easily 60% of the game? But every content has its worth?
You really can't talk about "balanced reward system" either, when everyone has been doing ttf runs again and again since forever.
And even only taking the areas into account, until ultimate, every single one gets worthless when you get acces to the one after. How is that balanced? I can see how forest stays attractive since it's the shortest(and even then, ttf takes about the same time but that's beside the point), but what about caves? What about ruins when you've reached the next difficulty?
The simple, common objective is the only thing that makes PSO's partymaking that effective.

Furthermore, in PSO2, blocks are now classified by area and difficulty, which probably solves your issue. While of course, most people will always be rushing to the better, newer content, if you decide not to do so, you now have the option. I guess. All I can say is that no block is empty, ever.
Apart from that, almost everything in this game is designed around multiplayer, to the point that it's crippling solo play; so if that doesn't account for anything, I don't know what to add.
I'd be interested to know, though, how you can tell that people are only playing through the lastest content available at the moment, since you haven't even got very hard unlocked yet if I'm not mistaken.

Beside all this, even when people wanna party up. Like lets say i join a party and expect it to be like pso1 where im guaranteed a good game.
Notthe case in pso2. People clash because everyone has different goals. As Flame said, he has the goal now of killing alot of the same type of bosses. Many people would be boss rushing in his case(avoid all enemies and go straight to to the boss, over and over again), but if u'd join him with the goal of playing regularly, then u'll leave quick. Or others who'd wanna farm would avoid this person as well. You're gonna clash. Everyone finds this out eventually so expecting someone to join your party is something you shouldnt by now. At the release daypeople still played pso1 style but thays not happening anymore
Yes, this game can't be played like PSO. It doesn't mean you can't meet new people or have fun. The means to do so are simply different. Is it harder? Possibly. Is it worse? Not necessarily. Intruding other's parties being the only way to meet new people in PSO is a problem to me, since I don't do that. Reason being that I think that's rude. As a result, I have never ever met anyone in PSO:BB, while in PSO2 I have a decent friendlist and am part of an active team. None of which would have happened without multiparty areas and the freedom they provide.

Also, while on block 20(the unnofficial "rest of the world"'s lair), I had people joining my party all the time, and simply assisting me in what I was doing. Luck? Possibly.

This all affects new players the most. Because only the free fields are visited by people who use a new class, and they are mostly farming their way to the end.
I can't deny that issue, but that's what new players are for; playing with new players. It's not like it's a PSO2 specific either.
So expect alot of endless games as a new player now in the jp server. I know its not possible to have an endless game anymore(after an update), but 3,5 hours is still pretty endless to me. I think a good example of this all is once i reached lvl 25(or maybe it was 20) with my second class(having unlocked all the missions allready but only requiring the lvl) 2 new areas are unlocked being tundra and mines. Guess which one is packed and which one is dead? The latter one's latest free field is packed and tundra has only occasional parties.
This doesn't matter, since you can level through client orders, which are easily done alone, or with in game friends that you had all the time in the world to make at this point, if that's a priority of yours. Plus, as I said earlier, you have emergency quests on a 2-3 hour basis now, so long multiparties are far from the only way of hitting 30+ quickly.

Only way to make this game worth it is to socialize. I had a great party allthough i defenitly like meeting new people and pso1 was very effective in that aspect. Unless some drastic change happen, this will keep the game from being a worthy succesor, or a good game
Meeting new people is extra easy in PSO2. Honestly, it's actually hard not to. It might be a bit more up to the random, but that's how the game is. The real problem actually IS socializing. Since everything goes so fast, people are less likely to take the time to stop and talk. They rest when they're done, not during the mission, since it's not going to take THAT long anyway. And even in multiparties, with far greater length, the game rewards speed of action, so in the end it's the same.
Time attack may be your savior once again? Surely people are going to need the money sooner or later, since prices keep going up precisely because of it(yeah, let's weaken every source of income BUT the only real one. Surely that will fix the inflation).[/SPOILER-BOX]
Edit:

this is what I meant by well paced content. The weapons were especially well done. When you found your first brand it was an enormous jump in power and your damage output increased significantly. Sega was clever in that as you moved up the rarity/power tiers your blade would change color, employing a visual representation to your growth. In PSO2 there is no such visual progression. You can no longer even tell if a weapon is stronger by looking at it.
I totally agree on this. PSO had a really nice way of making you feel progression through weapons, unlike PSO 2. I must say though, that weapon evolution IS present in PSO 2 too. Not only do weapons change color, their appearance is also slightly modified(generally they're longer/bigger), which a nice touch. You should see the lastest gigush(I think they're named gigush?), it's just ridiculously big. Too bad it's mostly worthless though.


The PA system in PSO2 is also really confusing as certain PAs do an extraordinary amount of damage and the player loses track of how much their basic damage output is to begin with. In PSO1 the difference between doing 30 and 40 damage meant the world. Here, while your basic attack might do 150 damage, your fancy PA will somehow land 500 damage making the whole thing just seem random and uncoordinated. And all people do is spam PAs anyway. It all starts to feel sloppy and cheap as opposed to focused and deliberate.

To this I do not. Knowing the exact damage you deal is kind of useless unless you know the ennemies hp by heart anyway. So having a vague idea of it is enough, and it's pretty easy even in PSO2.
Also, what about missing in PSO? And let's not forget critical hits. These are the definition of random. While it might have been easier to know what exact damage you'd deal, there was a chance for it to be nullified or amplified. Not to mention hard attacks, which had a higher missing chance that you couldn't fully estimate at any moment. This has nothing to do with the player's skill, while in PSO 2 very little is random, and your ability as a player to keep your damage output in check is what's important.
It might take a little dedication, but personally, I have perfect grasp of the damage I deal, and almost always know if I need a PA or a normal attack to finish off a monster. I don't think I'm the only one either, so it mustn't be that hard.

The rest of what you said, you'd have to blame the game's simplicity, not the PA system. It's the reason people can spam PA like no tomorrow and get away with it. Monsters just die too fast. While it's true that some PA deal too much damage, it would still be far less of a problem if ennemies had more HP, in multiparty especially.

Agitated_AT
Oct 27, 2012, 08:56 PM
PSO1 was repetitive and boring up until Ultimate too.
Ok so i'll give you the right to your subjective views, but you can atleast admit that there were differences between the modes?



@Cyclon

I disagree with most of what you said, but I don't think repeating my point over and over again would bring anything to our conversation so I'll just say I disagree and leave it at that.

Let me just clear up 2 points:

Yeah, TTF was a gamebreaker, but it also proves the point how something like that can ruin a whole game(as is the case right now in PSO2)
Episode 2 and 4 were great but some of it's content was harder than what you gained from them.