PSU Difficulty....

[Riam]

I'm new to the pso/psu universe, but I'm really looking foward to playing this on my 360.

One question I have is how would you rate the difficulty in PSU, those of you who have played the import version?

I've played WoW and EQ extensively and am curious if you need to set up strategies similar to those games to finish off certain bosses....

Did PSO have hard bosses in it?

Sorry if I sound like a newbie, but I am when it comes to this game, thanks in advance everyone.

[-Shimarisu-]

It's harder than PSO.

You can't really twink new chars, but every new HU I've made has been more efficient than the last cause I learned how to play and where to level. Levelling is slower, but areas have more longevity cause they aren't as tediously long as PSO's. Plus, you level up and actually notice an improvement, unlike PSO.


Bosses have more strategy, unlike in PSO where my main strategy was "Boss, chuck a slicer at it."


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: -Shimarisu- on 2006-10-03 19:15 ]</font>

[Riam]

Could you compare the difficulty to EQ or WoW?

Since I've never played either pso or psu that's really what I'm looking for.

[Souppy]

Ok... even if PSU needs more tactics than PSO, you will find it very different than WoW or EQ. The Phantasy Star serie is more about bashing and action than all MMORPGs I've played before. In a matter of fact, I would say that the Phantasy Star serie should be known as Action-MMORPG.

As for difficulty, I think it's easier in a way. In PSO, there was no ''party strategy''... just bashing... I guess that there is a bit more strategy to be done in this one but it will still be less difficult than normal MMORPG.

[Saner]

Im glad its not hard like those mmorpgs.

those mmorpgs aren't challenging they are just plain frustrating and not fun at all. that's why they call those games a 'grind' and games like PSO a barrel of fun http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

[Kimil]

I personally Hate WoW, fucking time sink, wasted 30 hours of my life on that piece of shit

[-Break-]

On 2006-10-03 21:40, Kimil wrote:
I personally Hate WoW, fucking time sink, wasted 30 hours of my life on that piece of shit


Word.

[Souppy]

The thing people hated about PSO was that the gameplay was too repetitive. 4 areas (Forest, Caves, Mines & Ruins) that we were playing over and over and over again + the same 2 buttons to press to attack.

I must admit that yes, PSO is a repetitive game. BUT, I believe it's funnier than waiting 1-2 hours for a party, then it takes 1 hour to get to where the party can level, to stop each 30 mins because someone is going AFK for a 5mins that lasts 20 minutes and then 2 people gotta go already because they only had 3 hours to play & then you gotta start that cycle over and over again.

I <3 repetitive more!! lol

[Saner]

On 2006-10-03 21:42, Souppy wrote:
The thing people hated about PSO was that the gameplay was too repetitive. 4 areas (Forest, Caves, Mines & Ruins) that we were playing over and over and over again + the same 2 buttons to press to attack.

I must admit that yes, PSO is a repetitive game. BUT, I believe it's funnier than waiting 1-2 hours for a party, then it takes 1 hour to get to where the party can level, to stop each 30 mins because someone is going AFK for a 5mins that lasts 20 minutes and then 2 people gotta go already because they only had 3 hours to play & then you gotta start that cycle over and over again.

I <3 repetitive more!! lol



actually even games like FF11 are repetitive because all parties do is camp and pull in mobs, do their routines, and skillchains, rest, over and over. whether its for exp, farming, etc.

[Souppy]

Yeah... in a way, you're right. So I guess:

PSO= Bashing/fun repetitive game
FFXI= Too long/boring repetitive game

[Saner]

On 2006-10-03 21:56, Souppy wrote:
Yeah... in a way, you're right. So I guess:

PSO= Bashing/fun repetitive game
FFXI= Too long/boring AND SLOW repetitive game



ya

[Souppy]

lol... don't change words in my quote... LOL

[Saner]

On 2006-10-03 21:59, Souppy wrote:
lol... don't change words in my quote... LOL



lol I only added words http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

[Chaobo99]

the one thing is PSO, you have many many choices to do....Kill, talk, chill, dance, mag farm, trade, questing, random stuff thats fun, those quests that arent even actual questions(gallons shop..), search for things, beg, run around in the lobby, sit, solo lvling, and party lvling...
That was PSO..dont get me started on the list for PSU...

[sigseven]

On 2006-10-03 21:40, Kimil wrote:
I personally Hate WoW, fucking time sink, wasted 30 hours of my life on that piece of shit
so you got to like level 25 or what :I

[Drown]

I agree, I really didn't like WoW because of the repetitive roles that you constantly have to repeat over and over. Not to mention the raiding at "endgame." Biggest waste of time ever. As soon as I heard PSU was coming in a month, I uninstalled http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

I would classify PSO as more of a hack and slash than a mmorpg. But really, there isn't a game out there like it, maybe the best description for PSO is.. PSO?

[Zalana]

This game is ridicously easy at times since I just only play offline extra mode, but I usually just do the Hive area and level PAs/Techs up.

[Riam]

How do the encounters work? Are they random, can you get overwhelmed? Will I die once in a while?

I enjoy a little suprise in my gaming, that's all. A risk of loss or death. That makes success all the more rewarding.

[Saphion]

The general battle structure for PSU goes thusly;

Enter room. Several enemies spawn (usually around 4-8). Kill 'em with guns, photon arts (funky special attacks that not only do additional damage but can knock enemies over or send them flying in the air) or with TECHNICS (magic, basically) depending on your character class.

When enemies die, either more will spawn or the way forward will open. Enter new room, more enemies spawn.

Rinse, repeat.

Like the others have said, it's realtime, so you can run about like a loon during a battle to avoid getting hit and you can mash the attack button and hope for the best. It's very different to FFXI, Everquest and WoW, but in my opinion it's a lot more fun. I guess the best way to describe it would be 'An arcade-style game with RPG-style character development'.

Bosses are fun too, for example one boss flies around and is difficult to hit, but if you shoot his wings with a gun, he is forced to land and all the melee characters can knock lumps out of him!

Another thing I love about PSU/PSO is how easy it is to make friends and chat - there's a lot of emphasis on this compared to other games.

Oh - and the item collecting. I racked up over 2,000 hours on the original PSO (sad, I know) just trying to get rare items. It's incredibly addictive.

Hope this helps!

[OgSoulja]

On 2006-10-03 19:16, Riam wrote:
Could you compare the difficulty to EQ or WoW?

Since I've never played either pso or psu that's really what I'm looking for.


EQ isnt too difficult, hell u got 15necs or even 7 stack clerics you basically pwn any mob in the hole game. cant forget wizzies!!!! lol PSU loooks way harder to me becuz its 6 people and some bosses could be badass and might to know how to dodge etc etc.

[Riam]

I never said wow or eq were hard, i'm just trying to compare psu to them. Because they did involve some tactics and not everyone could kill all the bosses, it took some teamwork.

[OgSoulja]

On 2006-10-04 03:10, Riam wrote:
I never said wow or eq were hard, i'm just trying to compare psu to them. Because they did involve some tactics and not everyone could kill all the bosses, it took some teamwork.


lol what EQ u talking about, im an EQoA player

[Saphion]

There's a lot more tactics involved in PSU than there were in PSO. You could solo the whole of PSO yourself but PSU is a lot harder. Like Forces being the only initial class that can use magic, for example, or Rangers being the only class that can use decent guns. In PSO, one character could pretty much do everything.

Thankfully though there's a lot more flexibility, I remember in FFXI and WoW you can't do some things if you don't have the right amount of a certain character class with you (i.e, healer) but in PSU you could quite happily go with an all-melee team. Or an all-casting team. Although a good mixture of all three classes would makes things easier!

Another example; one of the enemies in Miruzaki is some sort of worm type thing that pops out the ground (anyone know the name?). Melee characters'll have a harder time with them (mainly because they keep moving about) but if you so much as touch it, you get an Attack-Down status ailment. Obviously Rangers and Forces can keep their distance.

Or another enemy, (there are a few of these) one that keeps charging towards players. Rangers and Forces will have trouble with these because being constantly so close to the enemy nullifies the distance advantage they have. Hunters, meanwhile, can dispatch them like any other enemy.

[Eauijhkuu]

On 2006-10-03 21:56, Souppy wrote:
Yeah... in a way, you're right. So I guess:

PSO= Bashing/fun repetitive game
FFXI= Too long/boring repetitive game



Actually depends on what you're doing...
If all you're doing is leveling up and stuff, then yeah, of course it's going to get monotamously boring.

Missions change up the pace of PSO and FFXI.
So did the PVP aspects.

I guess you have to look at it and see how you can fully develop the fun factor of your game.

I promise if all I did was race to try to get to lv 75 in FFXI, or LV 200 in PSO, i would of quit a LONG time ago. That mentality will certainly discourage and tire out anyone who's looking for fun.

[Cause_I_Own_U]

On 2006-10-03 22:57, sigseven wrote:


On 2006-10-03 21:40, Kimil wrote:
I personally Hate WoW, fucking time sink, wasted 30 hours of my life on that piece of shit
so you got to like level 25 or what :I



he could get to 40 nothing would change, he could get to 50 nothing would change, he could get to 55 nothing would change and then when he hit 60 its either raid the same boring dungeon over and over and over and over untill something good drops that you must roll against 15+ people to get......or quit the game if you cant do that because ther is nothing left to do but that

[Riam]

This wasn't ment to be a wow or eq bashfest. I enjoyed both of those games for the time i played them. I was just wondering what i was to expect in the way of difficulty in this game.

Should i be ready to die learning how to do instances or are they easy and strait foward?

A risk of loss really spices up things in games.

[Oxidation]

i put about 700 hours into PSO and about 2000 hours into FFXI, so yeah there u go. I had way more fun in PSO though. FFXI i pretty much maxed crafting made millions and it got boring. Don't get me wrong though both were very very hard to quit, almost like smoking http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif

[StanleyPain]

Actually, I'd argue that the best comparison of any game to PSO/PSU is Diablo II. The structures are a little bit different, but the comparison is very valid. The big difference being that whereas in Diablo II you're in a chatroom before starting the game, in PSO you're in an area physically with your character where you can hang out before going on a missions.

But, the gameplay is very, very similar in it's overall structure.

[Kindaichi]

FFXI is an amazing game that I find to be the best mmo every created. The amount of adventure and story is unthinkable. PSO to me shouldnt be called a mmorpg...The areas are all instanced and the game has little to no content. PSO is a genre in its own, whats sets it so far apart is you press a button your character reacts and so forth where in a game like ffxi you target a monster and click attack and you watch your avatar bash the monster.(I was a Blackmage so it was a lot more than pressing attack. PSO is an amazing game and is extremely fun but I cant compare it to any other mmo because content/stuff to do/story in other mmos is so much larger. PSO is a online game like guildwars and diablo and cant be compared to wow or ffxi. I'm not bashing PSO because i truly love this game and the fun really never stops.

[Bastille]

PSO has no content? You must have not played story mode/done quests/gone online.

The game had tons of story, it just didn't offer it in the normal style.

[Kindaichi]

On 2006-10-04 19:41, Bastille wrote:
PSO has no content? You must have not played story mode/done quests/gone online.

The game had tons of story, it just didn't offer it in the normal style.



I dont mean story in that sense i mean, doing a mission where your team gets together and completes a part of the story and moves on to the point where you unlock an area where you fight the Gods. PSO had lore , but when online I would join a grp and fight stuff...rinse and repeat. Which i really liked but when compared to FFXI(which it shouldnt) you cant do half the stuff that one could in FFXI or any other mmo on the market. For example 1 day i dont want to grind so i decide to go explore the 40 something areas not including the alternate realities on my chocobo that I raised since birth. Where PSO had what....4 areas. That is why they shouldnt be compared "content" wise. If i compare fun I had between the two, i would have to say that PSO was a constant blast where FFXI could be a drag sometimes.

[Miyoko]

A friend of mine once said something about WoW...

"... I put about as much strategy into WoW as I do tieing my shoes in the morning..." ... Yeah. WoW really doesn't require much strategy. It requires a tiiiiny little bit on certain bosses, for certain classes, but 90% of the game is "i have higher stats than u I win!"... Litteraly.

PSU will require actuall real-time strategy in fights, and there's no such thing as "omg we lose because their stats > our stats." If you just rush head on into enemies, you'll probably get hurt (just like newbs rushing into ob lillies did!)

[Kindaichi]

Totally agree, I really hope they make some challenging bosses.

[physic]

No, if your looking for tactics and strategy, nothing so far in the game requires that level of tactics or strategy. That said, while the overall strategy of the team is low, what you actually do for yourself will be more fast paced and probably more interesting. For hu dodging attacks using Skills staying alive. For ra hitting for max dmg while retaining some pp /debuffing messing up the enemies for fo's exploding stuff yet trying to maximize position for dmg. In doing these tasks, you on a personal level may require more attention. But in terms of overall strat yeah, no way near it.

Of course this is an action game, if the strategies required were on the level of FF or Wow it wouldnt work that well, it would lose its action feel