Interview with PSO2 Director Yuya Kimura

[HandOfThornz]

Its been a while since i posted here!

Apologies if this interview has already been posted, makes a good read if you haven't seen it before.

http://automaton.am/articles/interviews/interview-segas-yuya-kimura-talks-past-future-phantasy-star-online-2-part-1-3/

http://automaton.am/articles/interviews/interview-segas-yuya-kimura-talks-pso2-expansion-ddos-attacks-2-part-2-3/

http://automaton.am/articles/interviews/interview-segas-yuya-kimura-talks-games-his-youth-titles-produce-part-3-3/

[strikerhunter]

Good interview. Like the fact that they still have battle mode as a possibility.

Also.....

We also held to several concepts in making PSO2, and as you’d expect, making the online RPG with the best action stood out among them. I wanted to make it fun as an action game. So I studied Capcom’s action games - although I can't really name titles - and 3D action games out at the time.
Just wanted to mention, is anyone that dumb to not know which game(s) he's even talking about.

[wefwq]

Pretty good read, i really love how they care about user's opinion so much.

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

When's the next survey? I'd like to give them a piece of my mind it terrible machine translated japanese.

[Tivor]

"In actuality, it’s sort of like our games are character creation engines with online games bolted onto that."

KIMURA, Yuya - On the truth about "Phantasy Star Online 2" being actually "Waifu Simulator Online 2".

[Kondibon]

Just wanted to mention, is anyone that dumb to not know which game(s) he's even talking about.I'm pretty sure it's "I can't say this directly because legal shenanigans" and not "I can't say this because I don't want people to know".

[SakoHaruo]

pvp ded

[strikerhunter]

pvp ded
They never denied it's not going to happen (in the form of battle mode) but with they said so far it's just not a priority.


I'm pretty sure it's "I can't say this directly because legal shenanigans" and not "I can't say this because I don't want people to know".

hehe...........shenanigans (just giggles :-D )

Jokes aside, from what they said it was just too much of a dead give away. Wait....what kind of legal crap/etc. would be even involved in this? They mentioned Diablo in Part 3 of the interview.......ah fuck lets just call it shenanigans....

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

"In actuality, it’s sort of like our games are character creation engines with online games bolted onto that."


[SPOILER-BOX]http://cdn.alltheragefaces.com/img/faces/large/misc-you-dont-say-l.png[/SPOILER-BOX]

[GoldGenII]

"In actuality, it’s sort of like our games are character creation engines with online games bolted onto that."

KIMURA, Yuya - On the truth about "Phantasy Star Online 2" being actually "Waifu Simulator Online 2".

10/10, Kimura is a true Pioneer (hurr) of our time. Just needs better developers. Also can I have Chelsea repca yet

[yoshiblue]

If it works, I guess.

[Zyrusticae]

Fuck it, let's come up with a universal super-awesome character creation engine that we can just bolt on to any game of our choosing.

Wouldn't THAT be a lovely new future, eh? EH?!

[Hexxy]

Under the second question in the article, the word "Scratch" links to a PSOW thread on scratch (a poor one at that).

Wat?

[Maenara]

"In actuality, it’s sort of like our games are character creation engines with online games bolted onto that."

KIMURA, Yuya - On the truth about "Phantasy Star Online 2" being actually "Waifu Simulator Online 2".

bahahahahahaha

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

Someone needs to ask him why players must enjoy the XH content on SEGA's schedule, and not their own now unlike H-SH.

[Kilich]

Fuck it, let's come up with a universal super-awesome character creation engine that we can just bolt on to any game of our choosing.

Wouldn't THAT be a lovely new future, eh? EH?!

That'd be great.

[NoiseHERO]

"In actuality, it’s sort of like our games are character creation engines with online games bolted onto that."

KIMURA, Yuya - On the truth about "Phantasy Star Online 2" being actually "Waifu Simulator Online 2".

Coo' now that you've admitted it, make more outfits that don't have something stupid attached to ruin em. <_>

[wefwq]

Someone needs to ask him why players must enjoy the XH content on SEGA's schedule, and not their own now unlike H-SH.
Cause muh content longevity.
They cockblocking XH to prevent player rushing content just like every update.
I believe they'll add XH for free field, but just not for now.

Or worst case scenario, XH are exclusive only to EQs.

[Chimeria]

"You know, we've been touting this goal of running the game for at least ten years from its launch, and now we’ve finally cleared the two year mark. We want to keep going for another eight, and we work with that in mind. It reminds us that we want to be sure to constantly and consistently provide our users with new twists and surprises, and avoid falling into a routine of simply repeating updates one after the other. We don’t just want to continue, we’re doing this because we want to continue to have fun for ten whole years."

I'd be down for it going for ten years...When the first PSO came out for the dreamcast, I played that for a long time and even got the expansions on Gamecube and Xbox. Granted, I was younger at the time and had more time to play. I like PSO2 just as much though. Hopefully they can keep squeezing out updates and content that keep us interested. One thing that would absolutely suck is if it went the direction of PSU where like Yuya said, it was pretty much just a routine of repeating updates and events. I know they say that the JAP PSU got way more content than we did but even still, it seemed lackluster.

[Cadfael]

Just wanted to mention, is anyone that dumb to not know which game(s) he's even talking about.

I don't really follow Capcom games. Which one is he talking about?

[Z-0]

Probably Monster Hunter lol

[Chimeria]

I don't really follow Capcom games. Which one is he talking about?

Probably Monster Hunter lol

Most defintely. Me and my sis played the PSP Monster Hunter games heavily. She watched me play PSO2 recently while fighting the Banther Bros. and she kept going, "Omg, this reminds me so much of the Naruga fight from MH."

It's definitely not a bad thing though. The Monster Hunter series is a great game. So great that alot of developers have emulated it. Square Enix has a final fantasy game coming out for the DS called "Final Fantasy Explorers" that looks like it may be similar. And Namco/Bandai's "God Eater" as well. Ragnarok Odyssey too.

[LonelyGaruga]

They're doing a trash job of making PSO2 resemble MH. Is that really what's being implied?

[strikerhunter]

Probably Monster Hunter lol
Bingo.


They're doing a trash job of making PSO2 resemble MH. Is that really what's being implied?
They studied, not trying to resemble (then again you can call BS on that because some bosses resembles some MH bosses in a bad way). The closest game that tried to resemble MH would Dark Souls IMO.

[yoshiblue]

All hail the mighty hip check god!

[strikerhunter]

All hail the mighty hip check god!

Don't remind me of that.

[LonelyGaruga]

They studied, not trying to resemble (then again you can call BS on that because some bosses resembles some MH bosses in a bad way). The closest game that tried to resemble MH would Dark Souls IMO.

Trash job of studying, then. There is a tremendous number of flaws with PSO2's gameplay that MH does right. I could write a guide on all the things PSO2's developers did wrong despite studying MH.

Some basic ones:

Large monsters in MH primarily rely on punishing players for mistakes, and have a wide range of attacks to minimize blindspots, forcing players to learn how to avoid their attacks and react to tells. The ever infamous tail whip is the most obvious one of these, omnipresent among nearly any tailed large monster, forcing players to learn how to position in order to minimize the odds of getting hit by it, and deadly in speed and force (unsurprising that the hip checker has one too). In PSO2, bosses have none of that and basically rely on getting a cheap shot through overpowering attacks and combos. They struggle to keep players in check with their poorly thought out movesets, and easily fall to the wayside because of that.

Large monsters in MH rage regularly and frequently, with dangerous increases in speed and power. Often, they'll begin using moves radically differently, start using new moves, and gain different properties to existing ones, and never get crippled by part breaks. At worst, their tail range becomes reduced, and in some cases, breaking parts actually triggers a retaliatory response, or in one case, permanently enrages the target. In PSO2, some bosses don't even power up in their fight, and many of them are crippled by part breaks, particularly Big Vardha, Dark Falz Elder, and Vardha Soma. By design, these bosses get easier the more you attack them and destroy their parts, something that should never be the case.

Large monsters in MH often sport varying vulnerabilities and immunities, particularly the later game ones. Yian Garuga are immune to poison and pitfall traps, for example, while the Yian Kut-Ku is stunned by Sonic Bombs, but only if its ears are intact, and will immediately enrage afterwards. Generally, all traps and all status effects will work on a boss, and immunity to all is the exception, not the rule. In PSO2, the opposite is true, a boss will be vulnerable to at most 1-2 status effects, 3 in the case of Caterdra'n. Status effects are useful and handy to have in MH, but either useless or completely debilitating in PSO2. 10 seconds of Paralysis helps in MH, but its fights take several minutes minimum, while in PSO2, you just shaved off a huge chunk of HP on your target.

The damage formula. In MH, the damage formula is entirely on the enemy's side. Flinching, damage taken, even hitzones, all of that is aimed solely to increase a monster's durability. A higher ranked monster flinches less often, takes less damage, gains more resistance to a weapon's sharpness, and becomes more powerful and durable when enraged compared to a lower ranked one. Upgrading weapons in MH is about keeping up with a monster's defenses as the ranks go higher. In PSO2, almost every single aspect of the damage formula is aimed to increasing the player's damage. MH has maybe three hitzones across every game that is higher than 100% damage, and 55% (or 45%, forget) is considered a weak point. In PSO2, hitzones below 100% damage are the minority, and most bosses have a weak point that doubles the player's damage.

I'd go on more about things like damage balance between melee/range, reskins, how PSO2 emphasizes mobs way more than it ever did bosses, unlike MH (Frontier, in all of its years, has only added about four non-boss monsters, to give an idea), but I need to leave for work.

For the record, I do think Ultimate's bosses are right on the spot with everything, at least as far as PSO2's design can take it.

[landman]

And I though he was referring to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, that's the action they should aim to, the BEST action :wacko:

[Lostbob117]

And I though he was referring to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, that's the action they should aim to, the BEST action :wacko:

They probably looked at those games too.

[NoiseHERO]

I really wish they took a couple glances at KH for aerial combat and the "custom combo system" we got for PAs.

-melee air attacking homing/magnetting towards enemies until the combo is over

-the PAs being designed for either specific use and working instantly out of normal attack combos. So you don't always need to make a perfect combination or end up using the same PAx3.

-give normal attacks a better use outside of building up PP with shit attack range.

/hasn't played much devil may cry or other hack n slashes but I'm sure a lot of games just had, way better approaches. And while PSO2 took a big step with action combat for an online game.

I think the base and their overall game design set up left a pretty good amount of room for them to flesh out some combat mechanics, killing the excuse of it being an online game = combat can't be better.

But I guess a cheap monhan with flashy special attack spam is all this game really needed to be to make the money it's making when they have its dressup portion.

[RadiantLegend]

Make things up as you go for the next 8 yrs. I'm sure a lot of games do this but at least have some vision or direction that you are aiming for not just gotta make it last 8 more years.
BTW pso lasted because hunting weapons was fun and each "was" unique. Not 20% more dmg.

[Zyrusticae]

And I though he was referring to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, that's the action they should aim to, the BEST action :wacko:
If they did, surely they could have made a far better combo system than the one we have now.

Imagine if Guilty Break was triggered off of double directional input -> heavy attack, for example. And Nova Strike were trigged off of 360* joystick/WASD input -> heavy attack. And light attack -> hold heavy attack triggered rising strike. And hold light attack triggered Sonic Arrow. And back -> forward -> light strike triggered Stun Concido. So on and so forth.

There are a bunch of less-used PAs (even after buffs) that would really benefit from being able to be used without taking up precious PA slots. Utility moves in particular are always going to fall to the wayside next to powerful damage PAs by nature of the system, so a full system overhaul would be the best way to address that.