any games similar to PSO2?

[drummer829]

although i love PSO2, i kind of want to explore other games. I think the thing i love most about this game is the gameplay and the wide open fighting. Are there any other games that are comparable to it (MMO)? i figured i would ask you guys since you all enjoy PSO2.

[gravityvx]

Vindictus, no space hookers and lolis everywhere though, sorry.

[The Walrus]

Check out Dragon's Nest

[MidiPour]

Third-person ARPG
-Demon's/Dark Souls
-Monster Hunter
-Tera
-Neverwinter
-Vindictus

Isometric ARPG
-Diablo 1-3
-Path of Exile
-Torchlight 2
-Van Helsing

FPS loot-fest
-Borderlands

All of the third-person ARPG are action oriented than the static cooldown games you usually see in WoW and its clones. Since PSO was heavily inspired by Diablo, you should also try that out. However, it is different gameplay-wise and thematically, however the loot-fest, newgame+, and player interaction is there.

[Syklo]

I'm surprised no one mentions C9,
But there's also Dragon Nest and Vindictus.
And S4 League if you're into TPS games, but that's been infested with hackers since I quit.

[blace]

I'm surprised no one mentions C9,
But there's also Dragon Nest and Vindictus.
And S4 League if you're into TPS games, but that's been infested with hackers since I quit.

I was going to mention S4, but as you mentioned, the hackers are irritating and the players don't know how to push 'y' to kick.

[TaigaUC]

Vindictus, no space hookers and lolis everywhere though, sorry.

Just medieval hookers and the like instead.

Vindictus suffers from pretty much the same issues as PSO2. They have a good base game, but they focus on adding superficial or minor enhancements and rarely ever change or improve upon the base gameplay. I heard that Vindictus' original director was so upset with the direction the game was going that he quit as its director. That says a lot.

I started at open beta along with two friends, and we played up to boat 8 on the first four characters before quitting. One of the main reasons was because nobody ever does any of the boats needed to progress, and by that point enemies tend to slaughter you mercilessly without giving you any opportunity to heal. It's not viable for solo unless you pay, unlike PSO2.

Anyway, I think PSO2 is a lot "kinder" with its pay elements than Vindictus. Vindictus has a lot of issues that PSO2 doesn't, but it does have a few (minor) advantages here and there. The thing to be most wary of is that Nexon is notorious for providing absolutely terrible service. They've been reported for business malpractices many times. They also like to perm ban people for no reason, and literally take months to years to respond to customer support, only to ban them again. Didn't happen to me, but seen it happen to a lot of people over and over.


Dark Souls

I highly recommend Dark Souls. It may take a while to get used to, but it's an amazing game and well worth enduring through.



-Monster Hunter

Played the Wii version a little. It did feel PSO-ish. I don't think I got far enough to really say anything about it, but it seemed like an okay game.



-Tera

Personally didn't like it, it was typical generic MMO fanfare. It's basically a more generic WoW without auto-targeting. It's not "true action" like Vindictus or PSO. TERA does look nice, though. The sad thing is that playing the official TERA Online server felt about the same to me as when I played Aion alone on a private server I set up for myself.


And S4 League if you're into TPS games, but that's been infested with hackers since I quit.

Haven't played it, but also heard it's filled to the brim with hackers.

Other possible recommendations:
I've heard that Rusty Hearts and Dungeon Fighter Online are similar games. Haven't played them though (Nexon, so avoiding like the plague).
Some people like Blade and Soul. I only tried a private server of it, and it didn't seem like a true action game. Just another WoW-style MMORPG without auto-targeting, like TERA.

[Syklo]

I was going to mention S4, but as you mentioned, the hackers are irritating and the players don't know how to push 'y' to kick.
When I read this, I was excited for a moment, thinking they added an action key to physically kick players with a gun held....

[Walkure]

Anyway, I think PSO2 is a lot "kinder" with its pay elements than Vindictus. Vindictus has a lot of issues that PSO2 doesn't, but it does have a few (minor) advantages here and there. The thing to be most wary of is that Nexon is notorious for providing absolutely terrible service. They've been reported for business malpractices many times. They also like to perm ban people for no reason, and literally take months to years to respond to customer support, only to ban them again. Didn't happen to me, but seen it happen to a lot of people over and over.

I've heard that Rusty Souls and Dungeon Fighter Online are similar games. Haven't played them though (Nexon, so avoiding like the plague).
Some people like Blade and Soul. I only tried a private server of it, and it didn't seem like a true action game. Just another WoW-style MMORPG without auto-targeting, like TERA.@bold: I think you mean Rusty Hearts, which is dying afaik, and DFO is straight-up closing down either this month or next month. You could hop on Korean or Chinese versions, but it's far, far harder to do so than it is for PSO2.

Otherwise pretty spot-on.

If you dislike FTP, pay-to-win games, I'd definitely roll with Dark Souls/Monster Hunter series.

[blace]

When I read this, I was excited for a moment, thinking they added an action key to physically kick players with a gun held....

If it means I can play Chaser without those wall hacking/bomb spamming idiots, I'm all for it.

[Alisha]

imo monster hunter is garbage.

some other options if you have a vita are soul sacrifice and ragnarok oddysey

[blace]

If, for whatever reason, you have a PSP around God Eater Burst could be a game worth looking into. It takes elements from MH and has a bit of flair similar to PSO2. Ragnarok Odyssey is fine, but the games difficulty is thrown around from being mildly easy to being one shotted by a boss if you don't pay attention.

[Emp]

If, for whatever reason, you have a PSP around God Eater Burst could be a game worth looking into. It takes elements from MH and has a bit of flair similar to PSO2. Ragnarok Odyssey is fine, but the games difficulty is thrown around from being mildly easy to being one shotted by a boss if you don't pay attention.

I agree. RO was nice but the bosses are bit powerful if your not well equipped. I loved RO and would recommend it. However, the only problem I had with it was there no replay value at all(maybe, but I didnt feel it) when u get to end game like I did(all the best cards equipped, etc.) Hopefully the new RO installment called Ragnarok Odyssey Ace will have good replay value. A bit of dlc quests, better dlc items, and levelable classes would satisfy me.

[ShinMaruku]

Being 1 shotted by a boss when not paying attention is awesome. I love Raganarok Odeyssy

[Suz]

You forgot to mention S4 is pay-to-win. The more money you put into that game, the more your lack of skill carries you to victory. SOME skill is involved, but when the "pro" has free gear and the kid with moms credit card has cash gear, it'll take a fair amount of time before that kid dies in lets say... 20 shots. Where as he 3 shots you. Not really neat.

[blace]

You forgot to mention S4 is pay-to-win. The more money you put into that game, the more your lack of skill carries you to victory. SOME skill is involved, but when the "pro" has free gear and the kid with moms credit card has cash gear, it'll take a fair amount of time before that kid dies in lets say... 20 shots. Where as he 3 shots you. Not really neat.
It used a system similar to PSO2's gacha. You have to sink a lot of money to get those OP FP weapons and outfits.

Even then, costumes in S4 had actual stats and could gain abilities, whereas all clothing in PSO2 is cosmetic.

[Kent]

If you're looking for randomly-generated areas and encounters within the context of a purely-PvE action/third-person shooter that's centered around killing things to acquire loot through various types of missions... Maybe think about trying Warframe.

The basic gist is "Space Ninjas vs. Bald Space Marines and Some Other Stuff, Too." Free-to-play, on Steam, in open beta, and non-paying players are limited solely by the size of their non-equipped inventory for specifically weapons and frames (which functionally create your character class by designating their stat growth and ability compatibility). Things like crafting blueprints and materials are not counted against these limitations.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDqpY-c9Mw

So yeah. The game's actually a lot better than your generic free-to-play fare, partly because it doesn't outright cripple players because they decided not to fork over cash. It's just, the only real problem, is that your inventory can get a bit crowded when you get to around 80 hours in or so... Unless you sell off stuff you never use any more (it's worth noting that you level up gear through use, which by extension increases your account-wide ranking, which allows you access to some new types of gear - nothing is ever really "obsolete," because every weapon is balanced against every other weapon that can go in that slot... So your starting gun isn't necessarily worse than the one you can unlock once you're a few dozen hours in).

There are some obvious balance issues with some things in the game - some frames are dramatically more powerful than others for one reason or another, and some feel like they only have one ability that's actually worth using. Some weapons are not as well-balanced against each other as they should be, but a lot of this is less about numbers and more about mechanical differences that favor versatility over niche circumstances. Some frames embrace this, like Volt, who has offensive abilities that are very specifically fantastic against one overarching type of enemies (who use a lot of robots and machinery - which are weak to electricity) but then have half of their abilities providing amazing utility in situations where shoving a lightning bolt up its ass isn't the best answer. Ember is a great example of a frame that falls victim to this - little actual utility, and deals good damage against one out of the three base enemy factions... So it's basically useless, outside of the guns and melee everyone has, against anything else.

It's not shown off in the video, but the amount of dynamism and freedom-of-movement in your ability to dash, slide, wallrun, walljump and deliver flying kicks to enemy faces is actually quite nice. You can naturally mix this in with melee combat, as well. You're a space ninja, after all.

[TaigaUC]

@bold: I think you mean Rusty Hearts, which is dying afaik, and DFO is straight-up closing down either this month or next month. You could hop on Korean or Chinese versions, but it's far, far harder to do so than it is for PSO2.

Otherwise pretty spot-on.

If you dislike FTP, pay-to-win games, I'd definitely roll with Dark Souls/Monster Hunter series.

Uh, yeah. I don't know how I typed "Rusty Souls". I had "Rusty Hearts" in mind when I typed it. What the hell. My brain has been melting lately or something.

I guess I'm behind times on everything. Doesn't surprise me that Nexon's stuff is dying off. I heard they let Mabinogi rot and decay. Tried it briefly when it appeared on Steam, and the servers lagged so badly that it was beyond unplayable.

[gigawuts]

It took me a bit to get into monster hunter, and I utterly hated monster hunter tri, but with MH3U I'm really loving the meat of the game.

The same way PSO didn't really start until very hard, but did have good pacing all through normal & hard, monster hunter doesn't really start until you have a good backup of supplies and your first set of decent armor + weapon. In MH3U you're given better starter gear so it doesn't take nearly as long to get rolling - within an hour I was already further in than the 6 hours I spent on tri. But there's still some seemingly gimmicky mechanics that aren't really favorable for the starter gear. Sharpness, skills on armor, the item combining, it's all a bit much to take in and harsh for new players. You get sharper weapons, more kinds and more useful skills, and items that boost item combo rates just by being in your inventory (generally best when kept in the bank, since there's 5 in total).

I've played the whole game up to g-rank solo, but then I just like playing ARPG's solo so your mileage may vary. It also helps that I find gems/rubies/etc. like fucking candy. First deviljho carve: deviljho gem. First goldbeard ceadeus: TWO dark dragongems in the loot. Killing third zinogre, shiny drop & then immediately cut off tail: both are zinogre jaspers. Why can't I hold all these gems? This must be Japan's official apology to me for Dudu.

Borderlands is one of the most continuously rewarding, best paced loot games I've ever played (which, granted, isn't an enormous number, but it's up there). BL2 seems a bit less well designed, but there IS more actual content and areas. The weapon designs felt like they had more variety and permutations in BL1, but BL2 is more recent and has more active players so there you go. I highly recommend it.

[drummer829]

is dark souls 1 and 2 a MMO?

[Kent]

is dark souls 1 and 2 a MMO?
No - most of the games mentioned in this thread aren't.

Dark Souls is primarily a single-player game, but it has some semi-social aspects that can lead into direct multiplayer, depending on circumstances.

Basically, in certain situations, you can summon other players as friendly spirits into your world, to engage in co-operation to help you through an area... But other players can, under various other circumstances, invade your world to kill you (be it through punishment, random acts of trolling or pure malice - though they can't choose who they invade).

So really, it's not strictly a "multiplayer" game, it just has the ability to create randoms-only multiplayer segments through player actions. You can also sometimes see ghostly figures of other players that are playing in the same area, which can add to the atmosphere.

[Randomness]

No - most of the games mentioned in this thread aren't.

Dark Souls is primarily a single-player game, but it has some semi-social aspects that can lead into direct multiplayer, depending on circumstances.

Basically, in certain situations, you can summon other players as friendly spirits into your world, to engage in co-operation to help you through an area... But other players can, under various other circumstances, invade your world to kill you (be it through punishment, random acts of trolling or pure malice - though they can't choose who they invade).

So really, it's not strictly a "multiplayer" game, it just has the ability to create randoms-only multiplayer segments through player actions. You can also sometimes see ghostly figures of other players that are playing in the same area, which can add to the atmosphere.

Seeing other people can also save your ass - you can watch how people died, which can reveal traps and such.

It's also wonderfully rewarding of skill - you can get a lot of nice gear early if you know what you're doing, especially if you know how areas connect. Actually, knowing these connections is a godsend - there's one earlyish area of the game that is really brutal (due to some non-respawning enemies who inflict a horrific status), and can be completely skipped if you know how (Though there's some really nice equipment hidden in the latter part).

For Dark Souls, I'd recommend the PC version if you have a controller - it looks a lot better (there's a mod that dramatically improves the appearance of everything from being a straight console port) and comes with the DLC included in the base game (another three major areas, with a full complement of bosses, loot, and everything else).

Monster Hunter could be described as PSO with only boss fights and no levels. It's still an oversimplification, but... there's a demo for 3U available for 3DS/WiiU that gives a feel for how fights go (but not the other aspects that boil down to getting ready for the big fights. You can seriously cheese some things if you bring lots of items - I've seen groups trap/knock down a monster several times straight... at the end of which it died.)

[gigawuts]

Oh also, for dark souls

when the guy says to get him out of the barrel

do not

i repeat

do not

attack the barrel

just roll into it

i'm serious about this

[RenzokukenZ]

It should be noted that Dark Souls has slower combat compared to PSO2. Much slower. Almost the equivalent of turtling in a fighting game. MH is in the same boat, to a degree.

If you still crave the fast-pace combat, then Dragon's Dogma would be a better choice. It's like an open world version of MH with faster combat and more interactive boss fights.

[Randomness]

It should be noted that Dark Souls has slower combat compared to PSO2. Much slower. Almost the equivalent of turtling in a fighting game. MH is in the same boat, to a degree.

If you still crave the fast-pace combat, then Dragon's Dogma would be a better choice. It's like an open world version of MH with faster combat and more interactive boss fights.

Eh, MH is fairly fast paced, but it can take a while to take something down. About the slowest way to fight is lance turtling - THAT takes a while (as opposed to dodge or counter lancing).

Dark Souls is slower because the game strongly encourages cautious play. You can end up at a point where you can rampage through things, but you normally end up working to keep fights as small as possible. Normally. (And then there's the times you want to level fast, grab a horde of enemies, and then summon pillars of hellfire to incinerate them all in an instant)

Both games have a heavy emphasis on defensive work, though - your main concern is not getting hit.

There are a number of fights in MH though that I can basically go all out offense on, and its really satisfying (This is easiest with SnS - constant dodging into combo into repeat)

[gigawuts]

Dark Souls is incredibly fast paced, with single mistakes mattering FAR more than PSO2.

In truth, I tend to gauge pacing by how quickly I need to move between actions and how precise I need to be with them.

Dark Souls takes the cake there. It's got a mix of very real and completely artificial difficulty - it has actual challenge, but it's also got a bunch of stuns, knockdowns, and everything hits very very hard. Where PSO2 seems like the necessity to avoid hits is due to lazy design, it's the entire point in Dark Souls.

Monster Hunter varies, but I also find it faster paced than PSO2. The combat is preferable over PSO2 for me. You don't have PA's, because instead your weapons have a bunch of moves that are actually properly balanced. Having a hundred PA's doesn't matter if only 7 are any actual good. I'm actually very impressed by MH's weapon balance so far, although I do tend to just use the greatsword.

[Randomness]

Dark Souls is incredibly fast paced, with single mistakes mattering FAR more than PSO2.

In truth, I tend to gauge pacing by how quickly I need to move between actions and how precise I need to be with them.

Dark Souls takes the cake there. It's got a mix of very real and completely artificial difficulty - it has actual challenge, but it's also got a bunch of stuns, knockdowns, and everything hits very very hard. Where PSO2 seems like the necessity to avoid hits is due to lazy design, it's the entire point in Dark Souls.

Monster Hunter varies, but I also find it faster paced than PSO2. The combat is preferable over PSO2 for me. You don't have PA's, because instead your weapons have a bunch of moves that are actually properly balanced. Having a hundred PA's doesn't matter if only 7 are any actual good. I'm actually very impressed by MH's weapon balance so far, although I do tend to just use the greatsword.

There's some bad moves, and some that will make people hate you, but yes, most attacks serve a purpose.

And then there's the switch-axe hack n' slash, which locks you in place, drains stamina, and does inferior damage to the basic combo loop (Mainly because the overhead swing does such high damage). The only good thing about it is that it looks cool. Completely outclassed by sword burst. Which is on the same weapon.