PSO vs PSO2 - Theme & Tone

[Zyrusticae]

I just felt like this is something that's worth looking at.

Like many others, I imagine, I felt somewhat disappointed that the game didn't have the same sort of foreboding atmosphere as the original had. Thinking on it a bit, I realized that this is intentional. From the very beginning it was very clear they were going for a completely different theme with PSO2 versus the original.

The intros say it all. Compare:
PSO
- Only two colony ships, one of whose inhabitants all vanish without a trace
- Desperate exodus for the sake of survival
- Mysterious forces at work, and the Hunters must work to uncover them
- Hunters are essentially 'land-locked' - all exploration occurs on foot

PSO 2
- MANY colony ships (the fleet numbers in the dozens, if not the hundreds)
- Nomadic people, exploring for the sake of knowledge and science
- Darkers are a known entity, and the weapons of the ARKS are the only ones capable of destroying them permanently
- ARKS have full mobility, using camp ships and telepipes to move about freely across every planet

There's basically no sign of the tension and mystery that was present in PSO. It's more of a superhero fantasy, basically - the ARKS possess great power and great versatility, and are really in no danger of being wiped out or destroyed... or at least, that's how it feels. Judging by the way the story is going, a real threat is going to present itself, but the way it's been presented is very, very different from PSO.

In PSO1, you delved further and further into what seemed like an endless dungeon, until you eventually entered the Ruins, a place so alien and so isolated that it felt like another world entirely. Even though I could use telepipes to beam back up to Pioneer 2 whenever I felt like, I always felt like I was isolated from the wider world when inside there. There was a palpable sense of foreboding, like the threat of being wiped out of existence was always there.

In a sense, PSO2 is a very logical progression - the threat has passed, people have moved on, technology has advanced, so on and so forth. I appreciate it more now than I did at the beginning - it makes a lot of sense, and going for PSO-style ruins would have been incongruous with the new style. Still, I do wish they put a bit more effort into making the threat of the Darkers more palpable, as it really feels like they're constantly on the defensive now, with ARKS just wiping them out piecemeal.

And I still can't really forgive them for making the Ruins theme so... upbeat. ^^;

[BIG OLAF]

To address the last sentence, the "Ruins" in PSO2 aren't really the same 'type' of "Ruins" from PSO. The music in PSO2's Ruins is apt; epic music for an epic battlefield. Expect a much darker, more foreboding theme for the next field ("Darker Homeworld" or whatever).

[CelestialBlade]

The story definitely needs a legitimate threat, and it needs to be huge--as you said, our fleet is massive and it would take something to the scale of what is seen bursting from Naberius (which, speaking from physics is a disaster capable of destroying all life and ecology on the planet but I'm sure everything will look JUST FINE afterwards) to seriously threaten the Arks fleet. I actually really like the Ruins music, it makes me feel like we're approaching a climax.

I admit, I get really tired of the PSO comparisons. Yes, the ep 1 story was great and the atmosphere was awesome....but it became boring pretty fast for me. That first trek through the game is just mindblowing, but then that's it. You just get to do it over again. The game never evolved. There was ep 2 and BB, but I wasn't impressed by either story there. Even though not much has happened yet, PSO2 will evolve and the story will always be changing and will be added to. That's more fun to me than being stuck with the same four-area story forever.

[Reiketsu]

I'm glad it's so different from PSO1, because, well... I wanted to play something new, not something I already played before xD"
We're still at the beginning, so story-wise, literally anything could happen... maybe something really big pops up and even destroys like more than half of the ARKs fleet? Or even everything except the ten server ships, lol

And I love the ruins just the way they are, music, design, everything... even all the Naberius enemies spawning there... it's like perfect in my eyes!

[gigawuts]

I love the design of PSO2's ruins, but I would love it more if they had us move on to explore the sunken sections of the ship/city/whatever.

Ruins & seabed combined. It would be awesome.

edit: Honestly, mines and ruins are the only two themes I feel fit the levels. Even mines seems a bit unfitting at points in the changing songs, but ruins is bang-on through and through. I hope they do more levels like ruins, with a feeling of ancient-ness and real exploration. Exploring the forest and caves felt meaningless. Who gives a shit? It's just going to be more forest and caves. Ruins, though? That's something you want to explore.

[CelestialBlade]

edit: Honestly, mines and ruins are the only two themes I feel fit the levels. Even mines seems a bit unfitting at points in the changing songs, but ruins is bang-on through and through. I hope they do more levels like ruins, with a feeling of ancient-ness and real exploration. Exploring the forest and caves felt meaningless. Who gives a shit? It's just going to be more forest and caves. Ruins, though? That's something you want to explore.
Absolutely; Ruins has lots of neat things to find. I also like how Naberius as a whole works: from Forest, you can see the snowy mountains in the distance. From Tundra, there's some forest around and you can see that ethereal tree in the distance. In Ruins you're surrounded by the mountains and you can see the source of the ethereal tree. I like that progression and it gives you that PSO feel of running through one huge planet.

[Zyrusticae]

Yeah, without a doubt the Ruins are the most well-done area in every respect. Good thing, too - after all, expectations were sky-high for this one.

I'm really looking forward to the December update and I'm really curious about that giant Darker fleet coming out of Naberius... Could herald a major shift in tone for the game. It was clearly large enough to pose a major threat to ORACLE.

Wouldn't be surprised if they did a trilogy structure, with the first episode being us in power and exploring and then falling from grace, and then the second episode being us struggling to regain our footing, and the third episode showing the Darkers being exterminated for good (...or so we thought...). They did something similar for PSU, after all...

[Alia]

And I still can't really forgive them for making the Ruins theme so... upbeat. ^^;


I agree 100% with this. Which is why I turned off the music and used an external media player to play the PSO Ruins music while I run Ruins. The feel IS really different!

[Sparzyle]

Hmm thinking about PSO having only the 2 Pioneer ships, "right now" Falz Hunar is beating every ARKS ship with help of Gwanadhas and Ragnes (I mean that video showing ships destroyed http://youtu.be/UYw5Vj53AEM?t=29m) so pretty much I believe they will end with 2 or 4 Ship like PSO.

And also PSO Ruins battle music was kinda upbeat http://youtu.be/8remh8uA4MM?t=2m50s , the only thing about PSO2's music is that it seems to have a common rhythm between all the songs of the areas so they're all fast to fit eachother, which PSO didn't, every song was independent.

[gigawuts]

Well, amduscia now has the seaside area visible from the quartz dragon's boss room (which I think would be gorgeous, I'd like it far more than I like FC), and lillipa has...I don't know. They could do a subterranean desert, which I would like quite a bit honestly as I found it to be one of the more fun and cleverly designed maps of PSO1. They could also do an above ground factory area, or even have us traversing the satellite dish network.

I like the interesting areas the most. The "Why is this here" kind of areas. That was 100% of PSO, which is a MAJOR reason I found it so fun to replay. It kept me curious, even after so many years. They're getting to that kind of level here in PSO2, which has me pretty happy about its future.

[eharima]

nah, we're just in a different era of music production,
simply neeeds more Tomonori Sawada (Sound Designer PSO1)
Hideaki is a cool composer, but man, you just cant beat Tomonori for sound synthesis, he was simply a fucking genius.

Compare how many 'real instrument' sounds there are to digital synthesized sounds in pso1 and 2
PSO1 is just a bendy chiptune sea of sounds AND ITS FUCKING GREAT.

The transitional music was an amazing innovation (just like every aspect of PSO1) but had hella lot more euphoric undertone. (im only refering to PSO ver1 still) caves, mines, ruins, wow just wow, even still today 12 years on the compositions are amazing on so many keys.
Dont even get me started on the lobby theme(day dawns) and guild counter theme (crossing 3084)

The whole gameplay style was alot slower, literally dungeon crawler...
PSO2 is too high paced action upbeat style for the euphoric exploration of PSO1
It's fitting, wonderful music, but you cant compare the two.
They are from different eras of gaming, although
more medley remixes should be done

I like the 4bar “SYMPATHY” system, but so far, they haven't come close to the melody's churned out in PSO1,

Anyway, I totally forgot what the point of this topic direction is and have just sat through [spoiler-box]yes, 15minuets of guild counter music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4B4fdisd0c[/spoiler-box]

[Porkmaster]

nah, we're just in a different era of music production,
simply neeeds more Tomonori Sawada (Sound Designer PSO1)
Hideaki is a cool composer, but man, you just cant beat Tomonori for sound synthesis, he was simply a fucking genius.

Compare how many 'real instrument' sounds there are to digital synthesized sounds in pso1 and 2
PSO1 is just a bendy chiptune sea of sounds AND ITS FUCKING GREAT.

The transitional music was an amazing innovation (just like every aspect of PSO1) but had hella lot more euphoric undertone. (im only refering to PSO ver1 still) caves, mines, ruins, wow just wow, even still today 12 years on the compositions are amazing on so many keys.
Dont even get me started on the lobby theme(day dawns) and guild counter theme (crossing 3084)

The whole gameplay style was alot slower, literally dungeon crawler...
PSO2 is too high paced action upbeat style for the euphoric exploration of PSO1
It's fitting, wonderful music, but you cant compare the two.
They are from different eras of gaming, although
more medley remixes should be done

I like the 4bar “SYMPATHY” system, but so far, they haven't come close to the melody's churned out in PSO1,

Anyway, I totally forgot what the point of this topic direction is and have just sat through [spoiler-box]yes, 15minuets of guild counter music.15min of guild counter music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4B4fdisd0c)[/spoiler-box]

I like you.

[eharima]

I like you.

enough to dump all the pso2 music you generously worked on into a .rar an post on the interwebs so i dont have to rip youtube pls?? ;-;

:cheepcheep:

[Porkmaster]

enough to dump all the pso2 music you generously worked on into a .rar an post on the interwebs so i dont have to rip youtube pls?? ;-;

:cheepcheep:

You shouldn't have to rip YouTube. I have a mediafire link in the description of my playlist (in my signature) that has all the songs I've uploaded on there. Well, almost all of them, I still have a few I need to put up.

Anyway, back on topic people, didn't mean to come in here and throw things off.

[Florgenstein]

I played PSO ep 1 and 2 for a while when it first came out and then again recently before I found out PSO2 was a thing. Personally, I really like what they did with the game except for some of the music, as well as the level layouts. The bad really outweighs the good even though I think there were some missed opportunities with PSO2. I'm just happy that I can properly aim and move freely now.

[Agitated_AT]

Only threatening things in pso2 are the bosses, and it also stops there

[Flame]

I think you nailed it on the head, Zyru.

The only thing I would add is that the NPC's of PSO2 are absolutely and utterly repulsive. The voice acted interrupt cutscenes also need to go. They are gaudy and cheap feeling and the dialogue coming out of the characters' mouths is equally annoying.

The NPCs of PSO1 were far more lovable. Kireek, the black hound, anyone?

[yoshiblue]

Btw, is the guy in the beginning still dead? How come he was the only guy we see being insta-killed?

[RemChu]

Btw, is the guy in the beginning still dead? How come he was the only guy we see being insta-killed?


He is black and Japan is xenophobic. ^ ^?

[Galax]

You mean in the tutorial? That RA guy that got slashed by a Dagan? I thought that was Jean?

[Ezodagrom]

You mean in the tutorial? That RA guy that got slashed by a Dagan? I thought that was Jean?
It wasn't Jean, it was the default RAmar.

[Zyrusticae]

Answer: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackDudeDiesFirst

[Cyber Shaman]

In PSO1, you delved further and further into what seemed like an endless dungeon, until you eventually entered the Ruins, a place so alien and so isolated that it felt like another world entirely. Even though I could use telepipes to beam back up to Pioneer 2 whenever I felt like, I always felt like I was isolated from the wider world when inside there. There was a palpable sense of foreboding, like the threat of being wiped out of existence was always there.

In a sense, PSO2 is a very logical progression - the threat has passed, people have moved on, technology has advanced, so on and so forth. I appreciate it more now than I did at the beginning - it makes a lot of sense, and going for PSO-style ruins would have been incongruous with the new style. Still, I do wish they put a bit more effort into making the threat of the Darkers more palpable, as it really feels like they're constantly on the defensive now, with ARKS just wiping them out piecemeal.

If you have an enemy that's on defense all the time, it wouldn't make it a very interesting or even challenging opponent, gameplay- and story-wise. They will ramp up the Darkers, as we're already seeing with the Power Monoliths and how they can corrupt it.