PSO2: Anyone else disappointed with "Hard Mode?"

[Porkmaster]

Seriously? Cut the crap. If you didn't constantly act like a know-it-all and stopped acting like any defense of SEGA is being a "fanboy" I wouldn't have to assume the worst of you, because frankly you do a very bad job of representing yourself (like me, actually - but unlike you I am actually aware of how I come across). I am far from a staunch defender of SEGA - if anything, I am quite critical of how they treat their "gaijin" fanbase, but that is neither here nor there.

I will apologize for making assumptions, but only just so.

I will also note that "quite a few" is pretty far removed from "the majority". If you ever look at the list of games again, note how many people are still running forest missions and look at how few caves and desert missions are being run. Pretty huge difference, that should tell you all there is you need to know.

I'm perfectly aware of how I'm coming across; a person who's disappointed with hard mode, as the thread implies. It's only amplified further by the fact that you jumped on my ass the moment I said SEGA hasn't fixed their lag issues. Nothing I said was directed solely at you or anyone else in this thread. I was just being disappointed and pissed in general. You're the one who turned this into a fight.

As for the people who are still running forest missions, so what? Those are probably the same people that I see dancing in the lobby for 7 hours. I'd hardly consider them players.

Not so much as you think. Comparing Normal Ruins with Hard Forest, the difference was not very big, barely noticeable.
Of course, if you were comparing Normal Forest to Hard Forest, then yeah.

That's not even counting EpI&II, in which Normal Seabed was harder than Hard Forest.

Just like PSO and PSU before, difficulty in PSO2 will come from areas moreso than from difficulty settings.

This is true, but if I messed something up in the original PSO, I always ran the risk of dying. What happens when I slip up in hard mode in PSO 2? 35 damage gets taken away from my 375 health pool and I continue about my business.

[Abbeel]

Sega won't fix shit. They can't even fix the lag issues that the past 2 maintenance updates were "supposed" to fix.

I'm starting to think (especially recently) that the players know the game better than the developers do. Put me in charge of decision making for Sega for one day. I might not fix the lag issues, but I'd sure as hell make the game more enjoyable.

You realize you're playing a game that has servers based in JAPAN, right? You're going to have lag playing it unless you're in Japan.

Chances are, any fixes they do for lag aren't going to affect you.

Anyhow, your whole second paragraph reeks of 'knows better than the developers' that MMOs get all too often. Really.

Calm down and consider what you're doing. You're playing a game for free. Testing it.

Now, have you given Sega of Japan any direct feedback on their game? I strongly doubt they're reading these forums.

And finally. Enjoyable to -you- is almost certainly not enjoyable to everyone else, probably not even the majority of the people playing.


And for the people who are upset with the difficulty of hard mode. It's fine to be upset with the difficulty. But don't flip out. There's still more to come. Hard mode is by no means an end game.

[ConsummateK]

The butthurt...it flows strongly in this thread. Anyway while there weren't level restrictions in the classical sense this is pretty similar to how PSO operated no? You had to clear Forest>Caves>Mines>Ruins on normal and then start at the beginning again on Hard. I would imagine as the official client is balanced as well as V. Hard and Ultimate come out things will become more difficult.

[Porkmaster]

You realize you're playing a game that has servers based in JAPAN, right? You're going to have lag playing it unless you're in Japan.

Chances are, any fixes they do for lag aren't going to affect you.

Anyhow, your whole second paragraph reeks of 'knows better than the developers' that MMOs get all too often. Really.

Calm down and consider what you're doing. You're playing a game for free. Testing it.

Now, have you given Sega of Japan any direct feedback on their game? I strongly doubt they're reading these forums.

And finally. Enjoyable to -you- is almost certainly not enjoyable to everyone else, probably not even the majority of the people playing.

And for the people who are upset with the difficulty of hard mode. It's fine to be upset with the difficulty. But don't flip out. There's still more to come. Hard mode is by no means an end game.

I know this game is free to play, that was said in my original post, but I can tell when the servers are running correctly and when they're not, regardless of if they're based in Japan. When the servers are running correctly, damage numbers and boxes appear and break almost instantly when I hit them. When the servers aren't running correctly, I'll shoot an enemy or a box, then I'll have to wait 20 seconds or more for the damage numbers to appear or the boxes to break.

The butthurt...it flows strongly in this thread. Anyway while there weren't level restrictions in the classical sense this is pretty similar to how PSO operated no? You had to clear Forest>Caves>Mines>Ruins on normal and then start at the beginning again on Hard. I would imagine as the official client is balanced as well as V. Hard and Ultimate come out things will become more difficult.

Right, but the only level requirements that were in place were for the extra difficulties, not the zones themselves in the original PSO. This is my biggest issue with PSO 2 at the moment. The way things are going now, by the time very hard forest comes around, it'll be just a teeny tiny step above desert on hard.

My issue is that I'm being locked out of doing the Caterdra'n mission until I hit level 25 when I'm 100% certain that I could complete the mission right now at level 20. By the time I hit level 25, I'll have progressed so far in power and defense that that mission will be a joke.

Forgive me for being uninformed and correct me if I'm wrong... but I was under the impression that Hard Mode is unlocked at Lv20 (after beating all 3 bosses 5 more times), and that the missions still have level requirements that are usually Lv21+.

That being said, Porkmaster, who just said that he's not 21, is complaining that it's too easy? How much of the hard content have you even played? (And that's a serious question.) SEGA is not precious and all-knowing, and they're certainly flawed, but they do fix things.

PSO v2 > Ep I & II had Ultimate fixed so that you didn't have to grind for Red weapons just to survive.
PSU had tons of content added to make it interesting.
PSO2 got the open-beta latency problem fixed over a weekend.
And Sonic... we're still working on that, but recent games have been better.

Anyway, how can you complain when you haven't finished the (limited) content available?

So if I get pissed at level 20, you tell me to stop being pissed and finish the content. Yet if I come back with all the content completed and sitting at level 30 and I'm still pissed, suddenly I'm considered a "no-lifer." Jesus Christ, it's lose/lose with you people. Now I'm finally starting to understand the people that told me not to get mixed up in this community.

[Slidikins]

So if I get pissed at level 20, you tell me to stop being pissed and finish the content. Yet if I come back with all the content completed and sitting at level 30 and I'm still pissed, suddenly I'm considered a "no-lifer." Jesus Christ, it's lose/lose with you people. Now I'm finally starting to understand the people that told me not to get mixed up in this community.

"No-Lifer" comments aside (since they aren't mine), I just don't complain about something I haven't experienced. I think it's unfair to the developers in this case. Without even playing it, you're already convinced that you'll be overpowered for a particular mission based on the level requirement. Never mind the fact that the monsters are higher level too. Never mind the fact that they could have a more aggressive AI. They probably don't.

But you're disappointed in something that you haven't yet experienced. I'd just give it time, honestly.

(From my perspective: I work a 9-5 and hang out practically every night. I sacrifice some sleep to get some play time in-I've waited years for this game after all-and managed to get to Lv13. I don't dance around in lobbies, but I just got to the caves and do continue to make Forest runs to help friends, complete client stuff, and complete my Matter Board to continue the story. By your definition, I may not be a real player. We may look for different things in our RPGs, but if all you want is a challenge this open beta may not be for you.)

[Porkmaster]

"No-Lifer" comments aside (since they aren't mine), I just don't complain about something I haven't experienced. I think it's unfair to the developers in this case. Without even playing it, you're already convinced that you'll be overpowered for a particular mission based on the level requirement. Never mind the fact that the monsters are higher level too. Never mind the fact that they could have a more aggressive AI. They probably don't.

But you're disappointed in something that you haven't yet experienced. I'd just give it time, honestly.

(From my perspective: I work a 9-5 and hang out practically every night. I sacrifice some sleep to get some play time in-I've waited years for this game after all-and managed to get to Lv13. I don't dance around in lobbies, but I just got to the caves and do continue to make Forest runs to help friends, complete client stuff, and complete my Matter Board to continue the story. By your definition, I may not be a real player. We may look for different things in our RPGs, but if all you want is a challenge this open beta may not be for you.)

Yeah, maybe. I just don't find it very fun to level from 20 to 25 with only 4 hard mode missions available to me. Once I hit level 25 and can do the rest of the missions on hard mode, I still need to get from level 25 to 30 in the desert just to be able to get into the free field quests and start killing real bosses. This frustration is coming from the fact that I need to gain 10 levels by grinding through tedious and boring quests just to get to the free field stuff and start doing what I actually want to do.

And nah man, I understand. You have a job and you like to have fun with friends later that evening. Even if you did just chill and dance in the lobby, I wouldn't hold anything against you, I just wouldn't want to hear anything about slow progression from the people who do. You're just as much of a player as I am, you just progress a little slower because you like to hang out with real life friends in the evening, then help your PSO friends through stuff once you get on the game.

[Adelheid]

The original PSO was normal progression up until ultimate for me, and only then because of hit issues.

Also try not to level in hard mode, level in desert free and hard mode urgent quest, spam codes.

[DreXxiN]

Hmm, yeah the missions are a bit...strange, I guess they are trying to modernize the game.

I'm having a blast, however. I must point out though that PSO wasn't hard at all until Ultimate, and even then ep1 wasn't that bad (Unless you played V2 on Dreamcast). I guess Caves mobs were....faster on hard..

Have you considered that maybe you got a lot better at video games as you grew up?

Also at the "no missing thing" ...I'd like to keep it that way if it means less RNG. I believe PSU nailed it on the head honestly...you can miss but if you hit from behind it's 100% success rate so it's under your control if you have the skill.

[Reyva]

Eh, everyone take a couple of my "Magic Chill Pills" and calm the **** down lol .

Since I'm mostly a neutral party in things in general, let me just say this :

In Porkmaster's defense, if Sega JP actually looked at this thread, it could be received as constructive criticism. I know I would. Its not like Porkmaster acted like the other 2 yr olds on the internet. He was just expressing his opinion after all. If you thought he was bad, then wait until the mainstream group of people come because you'll see the same thing except it will be the typical 2 yr old make no sense.

However, at the same time, Sega might already be ahead with this aka more areas and so on and other surprises. The main problem is "difficulty" itself. I know in a game called Rusty Hearts, people were saying back during its closed beta that it was easy (difficulty levels) just like PSO2. But then they changed that and then everyone complained like no other.

So to me, finding the right balance, especially with PSO2's style is pretty difficult in my opinion. Sega may say its easy, but thats just me. I say its hard because you will always have someone say its either too hard or easy and then their peers will ridicule him/her and thus a big fight lol.

From my personal experience with PSO2 as a hunter who was lvl 20 in alpha and 14 or something right now, I always thought of PSO2's difficulty is just fine. I mean I hate it when I get the Emergency codes in the free areas with the gigantic spiders or the dragon or the other crazy stuff and its over and over lol. Like 1 spider spawns, 1 dragon spawns, and 2 other things. I call that a good challenge and I can't really or the people with me can kill that very easily.

Heck, a surprise spider popped up in the forest 2x yesterday when I was like lvl 11 and me and the others with me got rofl stomped. Its not like I can be perfect 100% of the time.

So I look at hard mode that way and I'm kinda excited. Sure, normal monsters and whatnot it will probably be easy, but I don't mind. I just know there is a lot of things coming in the future that neither I or you know about so instead of assuming it may be like this in the future for all areas and difficulties, lets just see how things go first.

P.S PSO's Ultimate mode was crazy indeed, but got easy eventually. Like the rest said, I did not really consider Hard/Very hard mode that hard tbh. The way I see it, once you know how things work and you do it again and again, ofcourse, it will be easy. But what I like about PSO2 is the "surprises."

[Slidikins]

Yeah, maybe. I just don't find it very fun to level from 20 to 25 with only 4 hard mode missions available to me. Once I hit level 25 and can do the rest of the missions on hard mode, I still need to get from level 25 to 30 in the desert just to be able to get into the free field quests and start killing real bosses. This frustration is coming from the fact that I need to gain 10 levels by grinding through tedious and boring quests just to get to the free field stuff and start doing what I actually want to do.

I understand the frustration here. On the upside the bosses are all around the same level and remain fun/challenging/rewarding (I hope) but on the bad side you suffer through a looong drought of levels before you experience any of that. That's definitely disappointing.

A lot of this thread focuses on the difficulty/progression of it all, but I think the problem here is that you can't fight bosses for 10 levels. That's a pretty legit concern, if I'm understanding right.