PSO (North American Return?)

[Saligun]

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask this but whys it so hard to port over a engligh version of PSO2 to a game consloe used by people in the USA i miss PSO so much,Do game devleoper at SEGA think USA players don't want it or won't buy it anymore?There are players having to figure out how to get on JP SEGA PSO servers,and thats not easy for most of us,plus my JP lauguage skill is so limited it's not funny,I still play PSO(GC] offline because it's all i really have right now but i also have a old handheld portable PS and a few versoins of PSO portable but without online play it' just not the same.As for private servers there to hard to acsess without good PC skills...

[milranduil]

i think it just comes down to staff and profitability. in the past, most visibly with PSU, there was a severe content release gap in time for any number of reasons. i remember edward/clumsy talking about it a little bit in the past on SEGA forums, but that was probably nearly a decade ago by now. by keeping the game solely in japan, while silently allowing foreigners to also play on the server, they don't have to worry about running 1 game on 2 different servers, with different languages, and different companies to please, just SoJ.

[echofaith]

I really doubt is currently about "how hard it is", as much of a "why bother". Sega is aware of how gaijins has been playing for a while now, so there is even less players willing to play a NA version than before. I for sure wouldnt start over in an inferior version that is behind updates and will probably lose support before the current one.

On the bright side, they been releasing more games in NA(7th Dragon, Yakuza, Puyo Puyo) and they said they wanted to bring more games to NA after eating Atlus, so there is a fair chance their next big Phantasy Star game may come to NA.

[XrosBlader821]

You do not need JP language skills to enjoy the game thanks to the Arks Layer Team providing an excellent English patch that translates relevant content almost instantly.

Private servers for PSO are super easy tho. You just download the client and you're ready to go. Just recently I downloaded Ephinea PSO BB client, installed it and was already ready to go. Honestly the hardest part about this was deciding my section ID, since Ephinea allows you to change these once before hitting level 20.

But to answer your question. Sega most likely is just scared the game would flop after what happened with PSU. I know it might sound insane to think about but back in 2012 Gatcha monetarization wasn't as popular as it is nowadays (which is bread and butter of PSO2's F2P model) and Sega knew they'd have to cut out a lot of content because licensing anime collaborations in the west is a bitch. Attack on Titan games on the 3DS can't use a proper name and the My hero academia game had to scrap the academia part in the west because of that. However nowadays that the Gatcha system was proven sustainable, people stopped caring for the western release. the only people who still don't just play on a JP server are people who are pretending you need to be some 1337 Hax0r to even get the game running when it's never been hard to get into the game. A western PSO2 would be dead on arrival and there is always the possibility we get a scummy publisher that will ruin the F2P model like that translated Asia release that turned out to be a waste everyones time

[milranduil]

I really doubt is currently about "how hard it is", as much of a "why bother". Sega is aware of how gaijins has been playing for a while now, so there is even less players willing to play a NA version than before. I for sure wouldnt start over in an inferior version that is behind updates and will probably lose support before the current one.

when i say "i think it just comes down to staff and profitability" i'm more just getting at rather than sega putting in effort to serve a somewhat larger fanbase on 2 continents, they can be lazy and just run 1 server and catch a wide enough net of foreigners still. so like you said "why bother" lol

As for private servers there to hard to acsess without good PC skills...

i should also mention @ the OP if you are interested in playing PSOBB, most of the private servers are much, much easier to access now (though i still think it's against policy for whatever reason to actually talk about?).

[the_importer_]

Sega is aware of how gaijins has been playing for a while now, so there is even less players willing to play a NA version than before. I for sure wouldnt start over in an inferior version that is behind updates and will probably lose support before the current one.

Pretty much this. If there's any factors outside licenses, massive hacking from normies and uncertain success, it's the fact that people outside of Japan have been playing for so many years and that no one wants to start over.

[landman]

PSU flopped on PC, but the 360 servers had a couple of "universes" full for two or three years after the PC servers had shut down, and those were paying monthly. I doubt that didn't pay the electricity bills and "weekly" maintenance... and server technology doesn't seem to have changed a lot in pso2, we are still divided by blocks and servers. Sega should see how monster hunter world has been successful world wide and wonder if they can do something as appealing, because pso2 was visually outdated at launch day, and tier 6 graphics and all the modding don't better it that much. But then, if steam is full of mediocre games like Kritika or Closers, why not PSO2... I would start over no problem and have both JP and ENG games installed if it meant Phantasy Star being alive outside of Japan xd I also don't care about collabs and don't consider them as content updates, in the end if it had happened and been successful it would have had its own third party collabs, starting with sega's owned companies and their licences (warhammer 4000 for example).

[otakun]

Well, can end this discussion pretty quick. Sega makes money from AC Scratch. AC Scratch would be considered gambling in US and EU now. It is never coming to the west. Deal with it.

[TehCubey]

Well, can end this discussion pretty quick. Sega makes money from AC Scratch. AC Scratch would be considered gambling in US and EU now. It is never coming to the west. Deal with it.

Gacha rolls in mobile games somehow exist even in western releases of these titles. Same for lootboxes.

Not saying Sega will (they won't) or should (they shouldn't) bring PSO2 to the west, just that I don't think this argument holds water.

[ArcaneTechs]

Well, can end this discussion pretty quick. Sega makes money from AC Scratch. AC Scratch would be considered gambling in US and EU now. It is never coming to the west. Deal with it.
we have mobile gacha games and other f2p games offering basically the same or more when it comes to aesthetics etc that this MMO should have no problem fitting in. the only main issue again is licensing and how to go about replacing that stuff.

this game has 4yrs left on it, whether Sega decides to squeeze some money out of it with a West release seems less likely, theres literally no point of releasing it this late in the game unless they pull some surprise West connects to Jp move out of nowhere and there comes the part of having to ease new players into the current content etc even more than what they already do for their own players

[SteveCZ]

I personally think it's more related on license issues. I mean they did release PSO2 on southeast asia. Tanslation was made in English, so English version shouldn't be much of an issue. However, none of the collabs made it there, where most often the collabs are used to promote local contents for Japan.

The other might be (unlikely) the interest is low, or social-related issue (*cough* DOA xtreme venus vacation *cough*).

Speaking of AC scratch, there are many mobile games using the very mobile gacha we always know available globally, so I don't think that might be the issue.

If I say they just wanna make it easy to have it in Japan, not so sure either, cause they let it licensed to the southeast asia, though it's not managed by SEGA. Maybe there were no publishers in the US that are willing to be with SEGA terms as much as the publishers who did on the southeast asia? Where SEGA decided not to take care of the game by themselves outside of Japan? No idea either.

Well of all these assumptions, the fact about why they still don't wanna bring that US remains a mystery. :-?

[Meteor Weapon]

Mystery or not, the fact that bringing it to the west at this point is a waste of resource.

[landman]

Licensed stuff can easily be removed, and in the end, they can "try" to make a deal for some of that content if they think it's worth, just imagine a "worldwide" server was released next year, you can have 4 years of content just grabbing everything that's not licensed from the Japanese game, and stuffing 10 years of updates (actual content, not cosmetics) in 4y would be something of an advantage for that hypothetical server lol

[Sesheenku]

I wouldn't be willing to start over or lose my anime collabs. I've pumped 400 dollars into my JP account. Plus as an American... I don't want to go back to playing with strictly Westerners. I had PSP2 and they ruined it by being lazy, hacking, pricks. Nvm all the cringe.
Americans are selfish on online games and generally make the experience worse. The Westerners that have gotten onto the server are mostly of a similar mindset to Japanese players, stick together, cooperate, help each other.

If this was an NA server someone with 200 atk affixes on everything would be scoffing at my mere 70-115 affixes and saying I should never join endgame content.

[ArcaneTechs]

I wouldn't be willing to start over or lose my anime collabs. I've pumped 400 dollars into my JP account. Plus as an American... I don't want to go back to playing with strictly Westerners. I had PSP2 and they ruined it by being lazy, hacking, pricks. Nvm all the cringe.
Americans are selfish on online games and generally make the experience worse. The Westerners that have gotten onto the server are mostly of a similar mindset to Japanese players, stick together, cooperate, help each other.

If this was an NA server someone with 200 atk affixes on everything would be scoffing at my mere 70-115 affixes and saying I should never join endgame content.

i cant tell if youre joking or not. you couldnt be more wrong in so many ways my friendo

[Meteor Weapon]

Depending on which ship i guess.

Ship10 is the lenient ship where both jp and eng dont mind with each other much(unless you're noisy as fuck)
Ship2 is the English Majority Ship
Ship1 is the JP Proship
Ship4 is the 2chan ship.

Then again this is just based on my observation of what people say so its not 100% accurate.

[the_importer_]

I wouldn't be willing to start over or lose my anime collabs. I've pumped 400 dollars into my JP account. Plus as an American... I don't want to go back to playing with strictly Westerners. I had PSP2 and they ruined it by being lazy, hacking, pricks. Nvm all the cringe.
Americans are selfish on online games and generally make the experience worse. The Westerners that have gotten onto the server are mostly of a similar mindset to Japanese players, stick together, cooperate, help each other.

If this was an NA server someone with 200 atk affixes on everything would be scoffing at my mere 70-115 affixes and saying I should never join endgame content.

Only $400, you're not a big scratcher are you?

[Sesheenku]

Only $400, you're not a big scratcher are you?

When that's half your paycheck it's relatively big lol. I spent that in one day not across several days.

Had I a better job... well. I spent to the absolute foolish limits of what I could afford.

I may be getting a higher paying position soon, about 15 an hour. I'm not spending much on bills so if that happens... well I won't have to worry about any meseta grinding.

[ArcaneTechs]

When that's half your paycheck it's relatively big lol. I spent that in one day not across several days.

Had I a better job... well. I spent to the absolute foolish limits of what I could afford.

I may be getting a higher paying position soon, about 15 an hour. I'm not spending much on bills so if that happens... well I won't have to worry about any meseta grinding.
he was being sarcastic with you and your view on the community is a bit skewed consider a good chunk of us who have still been here since the day 1 (or alpha/beta) days offer a better insight on how the English (and JP) community has evolved over the years.

[Zorak000]

even though you think a lot of us are playing now, there's at least 10-100x more people, maybe even 1000x, that would at least try it out if they saw it pop up on steam or something in english/localized

from what I could tell from the format of the text data extracted to make the patches, the data cyberkitsune dug up while making the proxy server program, and one other thing I'll mention in a bit here, it seemed like the developers were shaping the game up to be global servers, or at least giving the game part of the infrastructure to do so, but sometime before even closed alpha they must have been told to scrap those plans.

The text data seems to be formatted where each text file has each text entry with an id number or reference name, the text, and a number that is 90% just a "0". when the SEA server came out, and people extracted the text from that, they discovered that all of the Japanese text was still in the files, but shifted over to "1", with their translation of the text using "0" instead. This could have been used for things like Word Select, so you could box in some [words] which would make your client sent out the reference name instead of your text, then the other clients see the reference name and use the text of the language they had their own client set to. Word select was a hallmark of PSO1, applauded for allowing players to communicate across the language barrier. The dragonkin of Amuducia use [word select] to talk to ARKS for cryin out loud! (this was the other thing)

that and I think cyberkitsune found data for block names that made reference to cross-region play; the cross-ship blocks were there too, so it might have wound up being a similar situation to the shared ship had any of the other servers actually reached challenge mode or arena.

Anyway, all of this kinda wreaks of SoJ Corporate giving a big "no", either because they don't want to deal with having to null out collab items for IP reasons, nulling out various cast parts because there's a number of copyright trolls about robots that look vaguely like airplanes over here, possible clashes with gambling laws over the AC Scratch, or one of many many other reasons. "Paying people to manage the server" might also be a major factor too, as they seem to be having trouble with paying people to work on the main game itself full time right now. not so much actual financial issues, as I guess the AC scratch continues to keep the game very profitable, but just general managerial issues of having a development house that works on multiple projects at once.

[XrosBlader821]

[SPOILER-BOX]even though you think a lot of us are playing now, there's at least 10-100x more people, maybe even 1000x, that would at least try it out if they saw it pop up on steam or something in english/localized

from what I could tell from the format of the text data extracted to make the patches, the data cyberkitsune dug up while making the proxy server program, and one other thing I'll mention in a bit here, it seemed like the developers were shaping the game up to be global servers, or at least giving the game part of the infrastructure to do so, but sometime before even closed alpha they must have been told to scrap those plans.

The text data seems to be formatted where each text file has each text entry with an id number or reference name, the text, and a number that is 90% just a "0". when the SEA server came out, and people extracted the text from that, they discovered that all of the Japanese text was still in the files, but shifted over to "1", with their translation of the text using "0" instead. This could have been used for things like Word Select, so you could box in some [words] which would make your client sent out the reference name instead of your text, then the other clients see the reference name and use the text of the language they had their own client set to. Word select was a hallmark of PSO1, applauded for allowing players to communicate across the language barrier. The dragonkin of Amuducia use [word select] to talk to ARKS for cryin out loud! (this was the other thing)

that and I think cyberkitsune found data for block names that made reference to cross-region play; the cross-ship blocks were there too, so it might have wound up being a similar situation to the shared ship had any of the other servers actually reached challenge mode or arena.

Anyway, all of this kinda wreaks of SoJ Corporate giving a big "no", either because they don't want to deal with having to null out collab items for IP reasons, nulling out various cast parts because there's a number of copyright trolls about robots that look vaguely like airplanes over here, possible clashes with gambling laws over the AC Scratch, or one of many many other reasons. "Paying people to manage the server" might also be a major factor too, as they seem to be having trouble with paying people to work on the main game itself full time right now. not so much actual financial issues, as I guess the AC scratch continues to keep the game very profitable, but just general managerial issues of having a development house that works on multiple projects at once.[/SPOILER-BOX]

If all of this is true then the Collabs argument gains a lot of weight since Japanese Media are very open about collaborations, Western media not so much and it would be way too restrictive to try and exclude all of the collab items from the western version & Cross region blocks while having them accessible in the Japanese version. That and all the legality headache since these items would still be inside of the game files.

What also supports this "Unified server for multiple region blocks" Idea is the fact that hit detection in this game is client sided rather than server sided. As a result of that us gaijins can play without any problems while most of us suffer from a 200+ ping. The only thing that goes against this Idea is PVP but that was added in EP4 at which point the devs probably gave up on the global release.

But if this is true then that means that Sega wanted to support all 3 regions with only the 10 servers that they made for Japan, which would save a lot of money when it comes to distributing the game and would take care of the delayed patch issue since all of the regions would receive patches at the same time. However that also means that if PSO3 will want to attempt something cost efficient like this again then that means it probably won't come to the West either unless Anime and Game companies in the west start working towards having much better relationships with each other.

[EvilMag]

There was also some others things as well that suggests global servers as well.

-Back in Closed Beta there was data for American Holiday Lobby events (Thanksgiving, America New Years, etc)
-Before Ep4 there was a language select option in the options.
-There does exist a graphic for the title screen without the katakana name under it in the JP version
-Finally back when the game went commercial the Japan only clause in the TOS wasn't there. It was added back in later on Sakai claiming it was easier to fight cheaters/hackers with it on. Since this was around the time they announced the NA version they also probably felt they might as well put it back on since they scrapped the idea for global servers at that point.
-Also theres data to change the timezone to any around the world. the English patch I believe uses this.

[Sesheenku]

he was being sarcastic with you and your view on the community is a bit skewed consider a good chunk of us who have still been here since the day 1 (or alpha/beta) days offer a better insight on how the English (and JP) community has evolved over the years.

Oh I didn't realize x3

1 -> I'm not sure if it was the beta but I played when the level cap was 30 and the only 3 classes were Hu/Fo/Ra

2 -> I wasn't insulting this games Western community. I was talking about Western MMO communities in Western games, where the majority of the community is Western and the game is built for Western audiences.

I checked my emails to see if I could find when I started playing but I forgot I wiped my entire emails a while back so my earliest is 2015, bumped.org says 13* were out by then so that's far too late.

I know for a fact I played when there were 3 classes and only level 30 but that's all I can say. It's also possible I started playing roughly around my join date here.

EDIT - AHAH! Found it.

http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?200810-New-player-some-questions

My very first post. So I started playing shortly after I joined here, so just a couple of months after the OB.

So basically, I'm not OB or Alpha old sure but my time with this game is nothing to scoff at. 6 years on and off.

But this isn't a measuring contest. All I said was that this community is more pleasant to me than the communities of Western MMO's I've played. I didn't say the community was perfect either but nobody annoys me greatly when I'm actually in a map fighting.

Hence why I said I feel Westerners that play these sorts of games have a more Eastern mindset in their behavior. At least relative to Westerners in Western games. Random nonsensical lobby conversations are definitely rude, I think that's like talking on your phone out loud in the middle of a restaurant but that's mild compared to most MMO's that reach a large Western audience.

All this on the back of my experience as an MMORPG player for 12 years having played entirely Western centric MMORPG's or Chinese/Korean MMO's released in the West until SMT online and PSO2 both of which emphasized cooperative play and both of which have had again relatively pleasant communities.

[ArcaneTechs]

Oh I didn't realize x3
2 -> I wasn't insulting this games Western community. I was talking about Western MMO communities in Western games, where the majority of the community is Western and the game is built for Western audiences.
ok?


Hence why I said I feel Westerners that play these sorts of games have a more Eastern mindset in their behavior.
uhhhh no, most of them dont (I refer to the roudy bunch)


At least relative to Westerners in Western games. Random nonsensical lobby conversations are definitely rude, I think that's like talking on your phone out loud in the middle of a restaurant but that's mild compared to most MMO's that reach a large Western audience.
Most of the ruckus stick to their containment blocks but thats not to say some of them dont act like idiots by cussing out JP because they cant understand (which I've seen a few times over the years) but most stick to their team chat and occasionally parties but people still talk in public chat.

[Sesheenku]

ok?


uhhhh no, most of them dont (I refer to the roudy bunch)


Most of the ruckus stick to their containment blocks but thats not to say some of them dont act like idiots by cussing out JP because they cant understand (which I've seen a few times over the years) but most stick to their team chat and occasionally parties but people still talk in public chat.

I never said all I said in my anecdotal experience most. Arguing anecodtal experience against anecdotal experience is pretty pointless though and backing it up with more time doesn't strengthen it. Even if you had double my play time it's still not usable to assert something as fact and you'd need to do that to disprove me and I would have to do the same to disprove you. I'm only speaking for myself and my experience.

In my personal experience I've never seen aWestern player cuss out a Japanese player. In yours you have. Both are right but neither are indicative of the community at large. Since there's no statistical data to back it up there's no way to assert either opinion as anything more.

[Meteor Weapon]

Depends on what ship and what block you're in.

If you're in ship2 B1 you would probably encounter something like that.

[ArcaneTechs]

I never said all I said in my anecdotal experience most. Arguing anecodtal experience against anecdotal experience is pretty pointless though and backing it up with more time doesn't strengthen it. Even if you had double my play time it's still not usable to assert something as fact and you'd need to do that to disprove me and I would have to do the same to disprove you. I'm only speaking for myself and my experience.

In my personal experience I've never seen aWestern player cuss out a Japanese player. In yours you have. Both are right but neither are indicative of the community at large. Since there's no statistical data to back it up there's no way to assert either opinion as anything more.
why do you keep trying to back this up with time as your basis? I said over the years but I'm showboating my actual personal time in game to prove anything and statistical data would exist on this either so no point bringing this up because most people wouldnt post about this anywhere


Depends on what ship and what block you're in.

If you're in ship2 B1 you would probably encounter something like that.
Blocks 01/07 are the containment blocks

[Sesheenku]

why do you keep trying to back this up with time as your basis? I said over the years but I'm showboating my actual personal time in game to prove anything and statistical data would exist on this either so no point bringing this up because most people wouldnt post about this anywhere




Dude, you brought up time first.


he was being sarcastic with you and your view on the community is a bit skewed consider a good chunk of us who have still been here since the day 1 (or alpha/beta) days offer a better insight on how the English (and JP) community has evolved over the years.

Dunno about you but usually when someone talks to you like that, they're implying they know better because they've been around longer than you. I simply responded saying I'm not that young in terms of play time.

Have I misunderstood what you're trying to convey?

[ArcaneTechs]

Dude, you brought up time first.



Dunno about you but usually when someone talks to you like that, they're implying they know better because they've been around longer than you. I simply responded saying I'm not that young in terms of play time.

Have I misunderstood what you're trying to convey?
i was trying to give you a generalization but apparently that didnt seem to cross your mind since you seem to think im coming off hostile or something

[Sesheenku]

i was trying to give you a generalization but apparently that didnt seem to cross your mind since you seem to think im coming off hostile or something

Not hostile so much as assertive of your point, at least it sounded that way.

What I said was a generalization too. A contradictory one at that. I've seen the horrors of block 1 and block 7 but it's just eye rolling more than anything else.

[Mystil]

If how the support was for PSU is anything to go by, it's because SEGA doesn't care to work with the west. Also it'd just suffer the same fate as all the other versions - get overrun with cheaters. I'm also afraid that the fan base has shrunk considerably over the years.

Everyone seems to be doing good on PSO2 in its current form, so ride with the tide.

[milranduil]

If how the support was for PSU is anything to go by, it's because SEGA doesn't care to work with the west. Also it'd just suffer the same fate as all the other versions - get overrun with cheaters. I'm also afraid that the fan base has shrunk considerably over the years.

Everyone seems to be doing good on PSO2 in its current form, so ride with the tide.

were you around at pso2 release? it had loads of hackers messing with shit in the lobby for a long time.

[wefwq]

were you around at pso2 release? it had loads of hackers messing with shit in the lobby for a long time.
This still fresh in my memory, a lot of people being teleported outside of lobby and they're the one who get banned, people being killed in lobby, super speed and jump, disconnect selected user at will, etc.

[NightlightPro]

https://twitter.com/tatara080/status/937396052298153984/video/1

wat some engs do

[Silent_Flower]

https://twitter.com/tatara080/status/937396052298153984/video/1

wat some engs do

Was that video someone leeching in PvP? -.-

[Moffen]

Was that video someone leeching in PvP? -.-
You could,yknow,watch the vid.
But no,its someone zipping around with super speed and fully charged bow shots just decimating everything.

[Silent_Flower]

You could,yknow,watch the vid.
But no,its someone zipping around with super speed and fully charged bow shots just decimating everything.

Thanks, it was hard to notice on my phone and the first thing I noticed are people just standing around.

[NightlightPro]

Was that video someone leeching in PvP? -.-

cheating *cough*