What's the difference between PSP and PSU?

[_Vyser_]

Sorry if there's a topic on this already, but what exactly is the difference between PSP and PSU? The only thing I can tell so far is: there are new items, a new story, and it's portable.

[Zarode]

There's minor things here and there. You pretty much hit it in the forehead, though.

[_Vyser_]

I see. Thanks for the reply. Probably wont get it then.

[StanleyPain]

They took out synthing and all the materials stuff.

[Akaimizu]

Here's several more differences:

-- Rare drops go to everybody in the party. That is, when you play with other players, a copy of that rare goes to anybody who happens to be in there with you.
-- (A rather nice touch specifically for PSP) The party leader's Class type affects drops. That is, play any mission and depending on the Party leader's class type - it greatly increases the chance of drops that are usable by the class. Note that other things CAN and will drop, but the drop percentage of leader-class usable stuff is increased. So it's nice that you may be working on one class, but are looking for an item in a place that has a pretty good chance of dropping if the leader was this other class. So you are likely to ask them to start the mission in hopes to get the drop you're looking for.
-- There is no trading. There is also less need to trade. It was done partially as a way to prevent duping and trading off dupes to players, cheating, or swindling. The even drop distribution is one of the things to alleviate the need; plus it encourages more online play with different types as leaders, in hopes to get stuff.
-- On the other hand, no synthing is necessary, and all weapon/armor drops come pre-made and with varying levels of elemental percentages on them (if they are found with an element on them).

- Classes are retooled. There are less of them than in PSU, but the ones that exist are not the same as PSU. Classes are:

Basic: Hunter, Ranger, Force
Advanced: Fighmaster, GunMaster, MasterForce, AcroMaster, Protranser.

Anyway, the Advanced classes all have their various requirements of Basic classes. Also, the weapon selection for any of the Master types are greater than any class of the same name in PSU. For instance, Protransers have access to Staffs, Master Classes like GunMaster can still use wands but are limited to 10 level techs.
The Master classes are still Advanced classes. They don't have the extra speed bonus and stuff, so consider them a kind of minor hybrid class resulting in a *what if* these classes were the offline versions. They have a good share of weapon choices, however each advanced class still has a unique total set of weapons they can use and varying degrees of PA limits. Check the psupedia (I believe they have this) for the usable weapons and weapon grades per class, you may be pleasantly surprised.



-- All PA limits only go up to 30. There is no real extra Rifle love like PSU has for 31 bullets, but this game isn't tooled that way, or made it necessary. Take note, the Rifle and the Bow balance questions are in effect for perhaps the Protranser. And with the rifles and bows a lot closer in capability, the rifle advantage is lessened, making the Bow a viable alternative. That is, not giving up that much for a fun or pretty weapon. But outside of that, if you are a techer, or a minor hybrid techer, you shoot bows. A straight Ranger type only has the rifles.

-- If you solo, you can fill out the rest of your 4-party-member limit with NPCs and a PM. And take note, your PM comes fully battle ready; when you create your character, you choose your PM type.

-- Offline character data is the same as your online character like PSO. No separation there.

-- Downloadable levels, challenges, trade missions, and events (so far, all downloadable additions have been permanent). This is something PSU has, but PSP has been very good at spewing out updates in a timely manner. All of these special events and downloadable missions are unique and only found in PSP (that is, there aren't stuff like it in PSU). There are mid-level timed challenges for bonus locations, rooms, and items. Plus unique items to find. Some of these missions are really good. (I especially like the G. Dungeon release, which was made for top-level characters and has timed challenges to get bonus stuff. An easier feat when in a party, but when solo, you want to be at your end-game. Still fun if you aren't as some of the enemies are deadly).

-- Progression is offline-style progression. What does this mean? It means that gains come quicker for a game that's not meant to take as long to get to your end game as a true online-MMO structured game. That means PAs level a lot faster than PSU. Basically, what you'd expect from offline-portable level progression in character/class and PA levels. So it's closer to PSO, in the regard of more quick and steady rewards.

-- There are achievements for clearing certain aspects of the game, or obtaining certain item groups. You also get specific prizes for completing these achievements. You are also given the ability to review information on every monster and/or item/weapon you have come across, in your game. Those are stored in-game, and you can review that information in your room.

-- Likely the best optimization for a PSU-like engine. Considering the hardware, this is probably the best example of optimized PSU code out there. The game runs fantastic considering what it's trying to do and what hardware it is on. The game does a good job at running at a steady clip, and only some slowdown is observed for when the action gets rather intense with a lot of stuff happening in a party. No more, unexplainable slowdown that happens in certain locations throughout the level like PSU does. When you see the action slowdown a bit, you can see why it happens and things stay generally quite playable.

**** Of the things that are the same, the main things are that it remains close to PSU in overall battle style, character design, planets, and relation to the PSU story. Stuff like the quicker movement, the ability to strafe, the weapon-item pallette, remain. So with all that in mind, you can see the differences are many, and some affect the basic aspects of the game. Hopefully, this might help you figure out what you would be getting if you get this game.

[Izurusuke]

I have a few more minor questions about what differences there are...

Can you still decorate your room? I've only played the US Demo, so I haven't even seen what my room looks like.

Also, does the casino still exist? I wasted many hours in there in PSU and I think I developed a gambling addiction... And what about the PSO missions? Are there roughly the same number of missions as there are in PSU?

[panzer_unit]

Don't forget the changes to attack techniques. Some of 'em can throw monsters around now, like Diga.

[Akaimizu]

I have a few more minor questions about what differences there are...

Can you still decorate your room? I've only played the US Demo, so I haven't even seen what my room looks like.

Also, does the casino still exist? I wasted many hours in there in PSU and I think I developed a gambling addiction... And what about the PSO missions? Are there roughly the same number of missions as there are in PSU?

There is no room decorations for PSP. You don't have realtime 3D rooms or lobbies. You pretty much get everywhere either by a quick menu selection, or a psuedo over-head view of the lobby where you can d-pad over to various characters or desks. That also means, pretty much little to no travel time to get places.

There is no casino that I know of. There have been events and trade missions in the JPN PSP downloadable releases, already. None of them had a time limit to run them, as far as I know. Everything released has been permanently made available. However, there has been one G. Dungeon mission in which it does keep a running tally of how many monsters you've killed running it since you started running that mission. Kind of like it did during out MAG events in PSU. Basically, it 's sort of like an achievement goal where you get a reward for playing it enough to take out 2000 monsters.

I haven't done a full side-by-side comparison to say how many missions PSP has. There's a good number of them, though. Plus there's a good number of downloaded missions. (With a different list of them playable in Story Mode (Free Mission) vs. Multiplayer Mode)

There's a lot less lobbies. Basically it's more like a lobby per planet, but you have access to all missions (for that planet) from that lobby. So you don't go through a lobby to get to Plains Overlord, Sleeping Warriors, or to run Scarred Planet. No need to run to the West side to run things like Train Rescue, Laboratory. They're all selectable from the Parum lobby.

The Guardian's Colony is where both the Guardian's Colony missions are, and (at least already released in the Japanese copy) the downloaded missions/trade missions/etc.

And yes, you may notice that some techs might have a little property about them that is different. Diga, yes, in PSP has knockback.

[panzer_unit]

Looking at PSUPedia, it looks like they don't have any of the missions that you used to use just for farming frags or materials e.g. Unsafe Passage, Mad Creatures, System Defense, Mizuraki Defense, Forested Islands.

It looks like all of the missions featuring a boss fights are still there including the co-op versions (Demons Above and Eastern Peril, Desert Terror and Rogue's Shortcut)

[djsgames]

the psp version takes place after psu but before the ambition of the illuminus is more like a side story of the actual game