PSO story

[sokiking]

I am starting fresh character on pso2 after leaving the game so long.
I have some questions about story on this game.
First, is the story good in pso2 ? is it worth watching it ?
Second, how far ark layer team translated the story ? do they translate stories dialogue fast when new patch comes out ? or just some part of it ?

[kurokyosuke]

EP1-3 is pretty good.
EP4 is terrible, but in a funny kind of way.
EP5 is just boring so far.

[sokiking]

EP1-3 is pretty good.
EP4 is terrible, but in a funny kind of way.
EP5 is just boring so far.

but what about the translation ?

[Anduril]

but what about the translation ?

For the first three episodes, if you play through the story via the original Matterboards (ie. starting up in Ep.1-3 mode), then it is pretty much all translated; if you play through the Omnibus versions, it appears that some of the scenes are untranslated, even though they are translated if you view the same scenes via the Event Chronicle in your room.
Ep4 is all translated as far as I know.
Ep5 speed seems to have been variable here, though last I checked, most of what is out is translated.

[TehCubey]

Ep 1: pretty bad
Ep 2: even worse (higher highs than ep 1, but even lower lows)
Ep 3: pretty good actually
Ep 4: also quite good
Ep 5: so far? Bad

Overall the story is acceptable I suppose. Nothing to write home about - there are some good scenes but if you are playing a game for the plot, do yourself a favor and don't play PSO2.

Or any other MMO for that matter.

[Meteor Weapon]

Ep 2: even worse (higher highs than ep 1, but even lower lows)

Haven't played omnibus yet but.....am I forgetting what makes it bad? Or is that just opinion based(well everyone has a different opinion, since you liked EP4 which is bad imo lol)

[Traumin]

Haven't played omnibus yet but.....am I forgetting what makes it bad? Or is that just opinion based(well everyone has a different opinion, since you liked EP4 which is bad imo lol)

It's pretty opinion based. Story wise, Ep4 is a complete train wreck imo. Literally goes in a loop and no one changes at all. Everyone stays about the same, and there's no like...real loss.

[Tyreek]

I must note that if you're going through sub events via matterboard, and not main story, that isn't complete yet for EP3. I decided to continue on EP1-3 mode after neglecting EP3 for the longest time, and sub events are still untranslated, so you'll be in the dark there.

[TehCubey]

Reasons why ep 2 is bad:

-Its majority is pointless. For 75% of the episode you're just fucking around aimlessly, doing investigations that come only to vague conclusions but it's all meaningless because it doesn't get anywhere and then Luther starts his plan anyway. It's nice that you managed to save Ulc, true, but her and Theodore's arc is entirely unnecessary except for giving us a face for people who will rebuild ARKS later (which doesn't happen in ep 2 anyway). You could cut it all out and nothing would change in terms of plot or how things turned out. And everything related to Echo is a total waste of time.
-Luther himself is a lame villain. He is incredibly popular due to his smugness and (supposed) charisma, but for all the game's grandstanding about how he manipulated ARKS since forever, his actions are dumb and worked only because everyone involved is a colossal idiot. Especially Regius. Oh no, I hacked a support partner, better send a kill squad after me.
-Same as in ep 1, the player character barely gets to do anything cool. You're a glorified observer who watches others be awesome instead of being awesome yourself. Getting one upped by Regius, Zeno (again...), hell - you even don't get to put a dent in Luther's plans, Xion stops them all by herself! Your presence was totally unnecessary.
-Final story quest is way too fucking long.

Dark Falz Loser remains one of the best big boss fights in the game though.

On the other hand, here's common criticisms I saw raised against ep 4:

-Can't stand the new characters, Hitsugi, Kohri et all (subjective)
-Don't like the Earth setting (subjective again, especially when the complainer makes it abundantly clear they don't understand the plot and thinks the game is pulling a Star Ocean 3 on us)
-Takes too long to get anywhere in plot (partially understandable, on one hand earlier episodes took forever for the story to start doing something, but on the other at least they gave you some filler quests, not just cutscenes)
-Old characters are getting phased out with a focus on new ones (not a flaw in my book, because eps 1 and 2 had way too many characters and wore themselves thin by putting them all into the story, as a result many had only very basic characterisation and weren't too interesting. A more focused cast is better. Besides, ep 3 was the first to start do, and ep 3 was the best)

[Meteor Weapon]

I don't mind much the Earth being a setting, it's how they presented it with common anime cliches all over the place which kinda ticked everyone I guess(tho I guess only most foreigner players feel that way). Well I admit PSO2's story was never it's strong point from the beginning but wished they'd put more effort in story and world building quality as time passes instead I feel like a lot of missed opportunity in EP4 they could have come up with. The same goes with every planet in the game.

That said, some said ES had better story than the main game due but I haven't played ES to figure out what was going on since there's barely any story discussion on it.