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adonis565
Nov 27, 2014, 11:02 AM
From what i have seen rangers seem to only get to weapons and in psu though i loved the game hated gathering materials to make a weapon id rather the eeapon drop made and if i can play phantasy star portable 2 infinity on my computer and i also just got the ps tv to replace my vita so both i now play on my tv

Sizustar
Nov 27, 2014, 11:57 AM
....What are you sayin?

Z-0
Nov 27, 2014, 12:38 PM
"Rangers only seem to get two weapons in Nova" (reference to that Rangers only have access to Rifles and Twin Mechs)
"And even though I loved PSU, I hated hunting for materials to make a weapon, I'd rather the weapon just drop" (Reference to the item "buying" system in Nova, which is to gather a bunch of materials and make a weapon)
"If I can, I like to play PSP2i on my computer"
"I also just got the PSVita TV to replace my Vita so I now play both games (Nova and Infinity) on my TV"

I think that's right!

About Nova itself:

Great game.

yoshiblue
Nov 27, 2014, 03:07 PM
Sounds like the monster hunter experience to me. Gather materials, make your weapon.

Light Bowgun
Heavy Bowgun
Maybe bow when added to the installment.

GoldenFalcon
Nov 27, 2014, 04:57 PM
Want Bow in Nova so badly

STNFCST
Nov 27, 2014, 05:14 PM
I like Rangers weapon you can move while shooting unlike Monster Hunter.

yoshiblue
Nov 27, 2014, 05:19 PM
I thought you could run and shoot with light bowguns? Heck they come with rapid fire/clips/auto loaders too.

STNFCST
Nov 27, 2014, 05:29 PM
I thought you could run and shoot with light bowguns? Heck they come with rapid fire/clips/auto loaders too.

Nope, heavy bowgun different are slower movement in weapon draw mode, better fire power and you can install a shield for blocking attacks.

Tivor
Nov 27, 2014, 07:56 PM
What's the advantage of light bowguns, then? Just "running" faster? IIRC, bows are also quite fast themselves.

strikerhunter
Nov 27, 2014, 08:10 PM
I like Rangers weapon you can move while shooting unlike Monster Hunter.
Thing is, in PSO2 you are using guns smaller than your size so by logic you should be to shot and run whereas in Monster Hunter the bowguns and bow are about your size (or even bigger) so running and shooting would be nearly impossible unless you want a broken shoulder.


What's the advantage of light bowguns, then? Just "running" faster? IIRC, bows are also quite fast themselves.

Mobility and rapid fire that saves a ton load of ammo.


Nope, heavy bowgun different are slower movement in weapon draw mode, better fire power and you can install a shield for blocking attacks.

Another note: Unless you don't get long barrels the accuracy will be horrible, but that is the trade off for hitting harder and having a longer range. Also, the shield is primarily there for block roars. I don't know about attacks since it never blocked an attack for me.


I thought you could run and shoot with light bowguns? Heck they come with rapid fire/clips/auto loaders too.

No you can't shoot and run, but you can do a sideways slide after each shot. Combining with with evasion and +jump you can literally kite almost any boss.

yoshiblue
Nov 27, 2014, 08:16 PM
More mobility, rapid fire (3-5 shots - depending on the bowgun - for the price of 1), less recoil (aka not stuck in place after shooting), more fun with parties; e.g. keeping ko values maintained, better chance at proc'ing status effects.

Not sure if anyone has ever uses the gun that rapid shoots recovery bullets. But hey, if you have a habit of shooting your friends, that's the gun for you.

STNFCST
Nov 27, 2014, 08:39 PM
Thing is, in PSO2 you are using guns smaller than your size so by logic you should be to shot and run whereas in Monster Hunter the bowguns and bow are about your size (or even bigger) so running and shooting would be nearly impossible unless you want a broken shoulder.

It's not recommend to valid realism into videogame. Otherwise boring game mechanic. Besides PSO2 has assault rifle bigger than ya body mainly loli body.


Another note: Unless you don't get long barrels the accuracy will be horrible, but that is the trade off for hitting harder and having a longer range. Also, the shield is primarily there for block roars. I don't know about attacks since it never blocked an attack for me.

I played this game since MH1 demo and have played all series except MH4 and Frontier. Heavy bowgun block is a newbie friendly function allow you know the monster pattern. Also can only frontal block when you standstill with the weapon draw.

Using to block function against G rank is total not recommend you take health and massive stamina damage unless you skilled for them or using mega juice/pots. I always use heroic drink/adrenalish rush with heavy bowgun/powerfull weapon since MH2 series cause it works so well with stagger locks strats.

LonelyGaruga
Nov 27, 2014, 09:38 PM
What's the advantage of light bowguns, then? Just "running" faster? IIRC, bows are also quite fast themselves.

Significantly higher mobility, different shot load-outs, Rapid Fire (less DPS in most but not all games, always more efficient in terms of what you get out of a single shot), usually lower recoil and faster reload speed, and the ability to perform a dodge to the side after firing in some of the more recent games (MH3 had this attached to its Light Bowgun originally, the Light Bowgun from previous games was what it called a Middle Bowgun). Because of all of those traits (barring the dodge one), LBGs are more suited for elemental attacks (3rd-gen on, pre-3rd elemental shots scaled with your Bowgun's attack, so HBGs had the best elemental shots), Crag/Clust (which do set damage and can KO), and status ailments. LBGs can also reduce their recoil further by installing a Silencer. In MHP3rd, LBGs were actually one of the best weapons in the game because their elemental damage output was so high (no coincidence that Rapid Fire was at its best in this one), while MHFU saw HBGs as one of the top speed killers for the same reason. In both games, their counterpart was quite bad when it came to kill time. Funny how game mechanic changes can completely alter how a weapon functions, right?

Bows are faster than LBGs in terms of mobility, yeah. Same walk speed, but the ability to walk while charging shots, cancel charges with rolls, and the shorter shooting animations makes them more mobile. Generally, LBGs are still the superior support option, because they can inflict status and KOs much faster and more reliably than bows, while bows are mainly damage output options in high level play.


Another note: Unless you don't get long barrels the accuracy will be horrible, but that is the trade off for hitting harder and having a longer range. Also, the shield is primarily there for block roars. I don't know about attacks since it never blocked an attack for me.

Shield can block the same attacks as any other shield, but you have to be standing still for it to work. It's basically inferior to the power option in every way unless your target has annoying roars...which is a lot of them, admittedly. Accuracy usually isn't a problem, even ranged weapons in MH shouldn't be used further than a few rolls away from your target. The way damage is calculated, your attacks do less damage if you go further beyond that distance (same deal if you get too close).

Unrelated, but MH in general has players being significantly less powerful in terms of mobility, range, and all that when compared with PSO2/PS Nova characters. Ranged weapons already are extremely safe in MH, if they were able to move while shooting, it'd be broken. And as they are, usually one ranged weapon in each game is a top tier speed killer in the first place. No need to be able to run and shoot at the same time in MH. PSO2/Nova work the way they do with ranged weapons because that's what these games were balanced in mind with.

Tivor
Nov 28, 2014, 12:58 AM
Gotta try the LBG then. Only tried it in the demo of MH3U, but when I bought the game I went straight to melee with the occasional bow in there. Seems nice for a change :D

I probably won't try the HBG though. I'm not good with slow movements/attacks.

Z-0
Nov 28, 2014, 03:45 AM
I know this has quickly turned into a Monster Hunter thread (which I have never played, mind you, I tried once but couldn't get into it):

Note that I'm only level 20ish Hunter at the moment.

First thing's first, this game is not Monster Hunter. It's PSO2. From what I understand about Monster Hunter, you go into maps, go to a really big enemy and work on killing it solely. Nova is not like this. Nova is your standard Phantasy Star Online format: Go into a map, and kill enemies going from A to B. While Gigantes does exist (the MH-akin enemies), they're not fought most of the time, and they're the end bosses of quests, after you've gone through the main map anyway.

Anyway! (I'm not really sure what to talk about, and this isn't really a review, more a random overview of things I've noticed worth mentioning -- if you want to know anything, ask and I'll try to answer)

The game is basically a portable PSO2 at its core. The combat system is pretty much exactly the same as PSO2, and controls in exactly the same manner. All weapon types (apart from Halo and Pail/Pile) are taken directly from PSO2, with the same attacks, although there are some unique attacks to Nova for every weapon.

That being said though, the PAs don't work exactly the same as PSO2, and have been improved on immensely. I've only really used Sword so far and a bit of Partizan, but for Sword, Sword Gear has been done away with entirely. Instead, every PA functions like you had max Sword Gear in PSO2 anyway, and every PA will centre on an enemy. Nova Strike will move you forward a significant distance per strike, Rising Edge will do the same. Bandersnatch will home in on an enemy when you use it, etc. etc. I assume that these sorts of improvements are systemic across all weapons, but I'd have to get back to you on that.

The Skill System returns from PSO2, except it looks absolutely nothing like PSO2's. The Trees have been done away with, and we're given a board with 16 slots for skills. As you level up, you will automatically acquire skills, which you put on the board. Each skill takes up one slot, and although I haven't tried yet, I believe you can use skills from any class on your skill board (although naturally a lot will be useless -- eg: flame mastery on HU). The catch to this system is "combo skills". Depending on where skills are in relation to other ones, you can create what is known as combo skills. Example include:

S-Atk Up 4: Place S-Atk Up 1 and S-Atk Up 2 next to each other.
Fury Stance Up: Place Fury Stance and GP Slayer next to each other.
Bullet Mastery (SE up for Bullets): Chase Advance (from Hunter) and Power Magazine (from Ranger) next to each other.

The skill board can be adjusted at any time, and allows for many different combinations. Skills don't have levels in this game, you're just given the skill, too. For example, S-Atk Up 1 gives you 25 attack flat, while S-Atk Up 2 gives you 50 attack flat.

In order to actually acquire anything in this game, you craft it. You don't find it. As you kill enemies, they will always drop materials 9 times out of 10, and combinations of these materials will make weapons, costumes, level up GAs (Gran Arts -- PA equivalent), shields, items at the item shop, etc. There are also rarer materials from certain enemies, which may be required for some rarer stuff, or has better affixes on it. Which brings me to my next point:

There's no RNG in this game. From what I can tell, pretty much everything is 100%, I cannot find anything related to rates anywhere I look. Which probably means I should explain upgrading.

There's no grinding in this game, it's been done away with. Instead, weapons are powerful on their own, rather than requiring you to pool your life's savings into it just to make it stronger than your previous weapon. A great example is the Sword versus the second Sword (forgot name, think it's the Alva Gigush): 110 Attack for the first sword, but 330~ attack for the second. When making weapons in this game, also, you need to use a Core, which will always have an affix infused into it (such as Stamina 1), so everything you make will have some sort of inherent property to it, too. Note that the affixes scale better here too, so Stamina 1 is 100 HP, rather than 30.

In order to actually upgrade your weapons though, you need what's known as Weapon Attachment Parts. You make these by using Cores which have some sort of affix on them, and then an aesthetic part, and then attach them to your weapon. You can attach up to 4 to a weapon (along with the visual, although it can be hidden), and can also be removed at any time to mix and match. Not really much more to say about upgrading I guess...

Anyway, final point is probably that all the quests in this game are set (slight variations in some quests). Yeah, that might sound terrible for some, but honestly I think it's for the better. Everything you make in this game requires some set of materials which may or may not drop from a specific enemy. Set quests allow you to give yourself some sort of direction, instead of "I am going to go to X and hope I find Y so I can hunt for Z", you can just pick the quest you need to do for the thing you need and know you're making some sort of progress. I'm also a bigger fan of the crafting system myself, as pretty much everything you find will be useful for -something-, whether it's levelling up PAs, making costumes, or whatever. No matter what you do, you'll feel like you're making some sort of progress, but I'm kind of early into the game so I can't really tell you if it stays like that all the way through.

All in all, I'd say Nova is a great game that stands on its own, and arguably much more satisfying than PSO2's utter RNG systems. In this game you make progress by playing, not entirely by luck, and the game itself has been improved in many, many ways.

There's a tonne of stuff I didn't talk about, but either I didn't think it was really important or I forgot about it. . _./ Please note I may be slightly inaccurate on some points (please correct if so), but I hope I painted a somewhat decent picture of Nova.

edit: buster can use every weapon in the game apparently according to the game, lol

Shakuri
Nov 28, 2014, 05:35 AM
It sounds as though Nova really is the Infinity to PSO2. Especially with the PSP2 style of Skill Customization (Outside of every Skill using 1 slot instead of multiple), along with said skills not having any points to distribute into them. I consider the S.Tree system a large downgrade from the PSP2 games, not that they were developed by the same people, but Sega definitely could have done some research and taken notes from older (good) entries to make PSO2 feel like an improvement to the series as a whole.

On combat, the tracking sounds as though it'll do away with the possible "utility" of a lot of the approach PA's we have. Not sure how to feel about that, but charge PA's having their max charge speed from the get go is a major improvement. I'm pretty big on PSO2's Partisans, so it'd be nice if PA's like SR, AB, and SE have their PSO2 Maxed Gear Range by default in Nova.

It would have been nice to see a return of the weapon system from PSP2, in that any class can use any weapon so long as they've got the points required for it. Though it seems "Buster" is a class specifically tailored to this, much like PSP2's Braver with it's PA level caps.

The weapon system as a whole sounds fairly interesting, and sounds as though you're rewarded more for the effort you put in rather than your ability to hit the lottery. So I can appreciate that.

On a somewhat unrelated note, one thing I liked about this series prior to PSO2 is Stage/Area progression, in some cases you could skip mobs, and in some you were required to kill most/every mob in an area to get through to the boss/mission completion. PSO2 doing away with this (Outside of TA/XQ/GP's/DD/Mothership) was mostly a consequence of the new MPA system, which while interesting at first, really hurt the feel of the series in relation to prior entries and took it in a completely different direction. Even in the exception examples above, the gigantic, open areas you're in still take away the feel of a proper dungeon crawl/area progression. I hope that Nova has for the most part returned to this layout, or at least done away with the sandbox routine.

Either way, I guess I'll be needing to play it myself if I want to know what Force is like. Speaking of, if Shifta/Deband are in the game (No Photons?), would you/anyone happen to know if they still require multiple ticks to get the full duration, or did the team working on this consider buffs that work this way to be as stupid as I do (which is very stupid)?

I probably shouldn't get hype for this game, but after being hype for Infinity and seeing what it changed from PSP2, it's difficult to not be more into the Portable PS games than the big name ones.

Z-0
Nov 28, 2014, 05:53 AM
Shifta/Deband are in the game. Nothing has changed in that regard, it's just that Photons have been replaced with Gran. (so everything costs Gran Points, you have Gran Arts, etc. etc.)

Tick system is still there, but there's only 2 ticks. Unsure on duration, can't find a number anywhere so I'll need to time it. (edit: 30 seconds per tick)

You can actually skip most of the stuff in Nova from what I can tell, but you are actively discouraged from doing so. Quest completion gives a lot of rewards in this game (in Gran Energy (meseta), EXP, Gran Pieces and stuff), and your quest completion criteria depends on if you killed all the enemies, how long you took and if you died. You're not exactly timed at all, but you cannot dawdle or you will lose your S-Rank.

I still need to really play more and explore, but impressions so far are pretty good. Everything seems fair rather than aggravating, and you're encouraged to actually play this game.

Another thing I just unlocked is a second skill board. You can assign skill board 1 or 2 to different weapons on your palette, so you're able to run with more than one skill tree. Not really sure what I think of that, I only have 5 skills overall at the moment so I really don't have any use for it.

edit: Navigator lady in Nova has far better fashion sense than the ones in PSO2:

[spoiler-box]http://puu.sh/d8AfI/c7e58d62ed.jpg[/spoiler-box]

edit2: Can't fire techniques uncharged in this game, but they charge much faster than their PSO2 counterparts regardless.

Tivor
Nov 29, 2014, 12:45 AM
The board skill system sounds a little like Children of Mana and the "skill stones" they use. Seems nifty!

From your impressions, it does sound like a great game. I just hope it gets an english patch (or, more wishful thinking, a western release [haha]), since I can't understand japanese :(. I'd seriously buy it (and a Vita) if it happened.

GoldenFalcon
Nov 29, 2014, 01:14 AM
From the demo, I liked how Piercing Shell traveled like 3 times as fast, and Glory Rain falls on your target rather than around you

Will need to see what high level play is like to run into fun skill boards

Crazyleo
Nov 29, 2014, 01:26 AM
I've played a bit of the demo; and what I've seen so far makes me want to import it (or at least get a digital copy)

Noblewine
Nov 29, 2014, 11:21 AM
Its nice to see SEGA is still making Phantasy Star games but I"m burned out and not going to invest money on any of there newest games. =/

Z-0
Nov 29, 2014, 11:37 AM
Well, Phantasy Star Nova was made by tri-Ace, not SEGA this time (although they overlooked the project, of course). The results are spectacular.

I honestly cannot praise this game enough. I'm at level 80 now and made it into the post-game segment after the story, and the game only gets better at this point. The game simply blows PSO2 out of the water in almost every way.

Noblewine
Nov 29, 2014, 11:41 AM
Well, Phantasy Star Nova was made by tri-Ace, not SEGA this time (although they overlooked the project, of course). The results are spectacular.

I honestly cannot praise this game enough. I'm at level 80 now and made it into the post-game segment after the story, and the game only gets better at this point. The game simply blows PSO2 out of the water in almost every way.

Tri-ace was involved in the project. Wow how'd that happened?

-I won't derail the thread anymore-

Tivor
Nov 29, 2014, 02:27 PM
It'd be nice if PSO2 reflected little by little some of the good things on Nova, then.

But I guess it'd make it more of a mess than it already is.

ShinMaruku
Nov 30, 2014, 09:28 PM
Well, Phantasy Star Nova was made by tri-Ace, not SEGA this time (although they overlooked the project, of course). The results are spectacular.

I honestly cannot praise this game enough. I'm at level 80 now and made it into the post-game segment after the story, and the game only gets better at this point. The game simply blows PSO2 out of the water in almost every way.

The fact that it's not by sega gives it quality to me.

Stealthcmc1974
Nov 30, 2014, 09:42 PM
Great. Now I wish I had a Vita so I could play Nova... Ugh...