Sakai Answers Questions

[WBMike]

Very difficult to translate, but Shougai PSO updated so now I can put some information together.

http://ameblo.jp/phantasy-star-porta...338280964.html

Line Shields

• Line Shields can be changed from the Action Palette
• You can Equip up to 6 Line Shields

Unit Slot

• You now have Free Slots
• You can mix and match units of any type.
• For Example you can equip 2 Extra units at the same time
• Allowing you to have SUV and Garment Aura.

Difficulty

• Monsters are increasingly difficult
• There is a change of difficulty from Story Mode to Multi Mode
• Sakai describes playing solo like hell.
• Playing with 2 players makes it somewhat better.
• It feels good with 3 players
• It feels somewhat easy with 4 players

Scape Dolls

• No scape dolls in shops
• You can find scape dolls in a mission, but they have low drop rate
• You can exchange something to receive them while advancing the story. -thanks mike

Weapons

• Guns and Technic weapons are endowed with attributes
• Some rare weapons will experience a boost in technic power

[landman]

What I understand from what you say, is that you can equip anything in the "free slot", so you could equip an extra head/arm/body/extra unit, but I doubt two SUV or two auras would work, it would provably only add the stats from both units (or the aura effect and the SUV attack)

[Dhylec]

They definitely tweak the difficulty, specially w/scape dolls. PSU's scapes should be like that. ;3

[Volcompat321]

Wonder if the added in playing story missions after you beat it.
I games I play, and can, I like going back to get 100% of the things in a mission.
So, if you can get a rare in only story mission 3, and you passed it without knowing, you can choose to go back and replay it.
I hope PS:P2 has this.

[Akaimizu]

Actually, the scape doll thing is the thing that already exists in PSP1. You only can have a max of 3 at a time, on your character. Scape Dolls are only found as rare drops in a mission. And yes, you may go through a number of missions and maybe get 1 scape doll, at times, depending on your luck.

Now PSP1 did have some difficulty, (class dependant) until your end game. That is, if you go into S-class missions, alone, as soon as you meet the level requirements; certain missions may hurt you badly. (Often enough, it's just one group of mobs that hit hard enough, take a good amount of damage, don't freeze too well, and are hard to exploit with hit and run tactics) Of course, that gets a lot easier with another human around or two. (Which makes even limited-time trap use a whole lot more significant) It's just the end game that has you killing everything without much effort.

[Volcompat321]

Well, in the JP game, of PS:P1, you can carry up to 10 scapes, and you can buy them in the shops. (though I think they show up randomly).
So this was probably answering for the JP game, since the US/EU release hasn't been released yet.

[WBMike]

Aha! That was confusing me. I was wondering why he was talking about 10 scape dolls and not 3. He wrote that he lowered the amount of scape dolls in possession (but at the time of writing the OP i was wondering how can it possibly be lowered from 3...)

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

Same here. I was thinking "Are we going to carry around 1 or 2 dolls now?" and as for difficulty I was thinking that its near impossible to solo missions. But now that I know he was talkin about the JP version I can breathe a sigh of relief.

[Volcompat321]

Haha, yea, a lot of people were confused by that (not what you mentioned) but by why the JP game has 10 and the US/EU has only 3, and cant buy em in shops.
So, PS:P2 JP, you are down to 3 scapes?
I hope the US/EU release keeps that number, cause holding 1-2 scapes (specially when it's harder at first, and solo) would be some shit.

[Amherst_Wind]

I thought that Line shield symbol in the bottom right was for a Line shield palette.
Also more freedom with unit equipping is a very welcome change, compared to PSO or PSZero, the PSU system is so restrictive and annoying.

I never knew they changed the scape dolls from 10 to 3 for the US release of PSPortable, thats... weird. I always felt having 10 was fine because they were rarely for sale and almost never dropped. Only having 3 and only having them drop will be going back to PSO days of Scape Doll rarity!

edit: Although if he didn't say 3 specifically, maybe its only been lowered to 5 or 6.