PSO2 EPISODE 4 -AFTERTHOUGHTS-

[starwind75043]

I think the best way to sum up ep 4 is, a lot of great ideas but poor execution of those ideas.

[loafhero]

I forgot to mention anything I liked about EP4. Well, to put it simply, when I'm not mentioning at all about the other EP4 stuff, that means I liked them enough to not complain about it too much.

I think the main problem with EP3's Harkotan arc was that it was a story arc that really needed more focus on and to be expanded upon more as the planet itself isn't as primitive or as savage as the previous planets. The previous planets could sort of afford to be less expanded on because it had its primitive nature as an excuse. Harkotan has a goddamn city and kingdom which should have called for more depth. That said, I still prefer EP3's story over EP4 because EP3 had more likeable characters and a much more competent villain. Said villain (Double) was no Luther but they were at least worth taking seriously than any of the EP4 villains.

[Meteor Weapon]

Storywise, we see Double as threatening due their ability to create clones of almost everything they eat and even manifest a copy of a goddamn Dark Falz with ease. Hell they can even blew up planets for lulz if they they wanted. Double is the most dangerous Falz compared to other Falzes due to their childishness that makes up their pure evilness. Phul and Olc being a duo doesn't even compare to their level of threat, a damn Alongahda/Wolgahda is a better threat than her so proudly Laplace Demon. Heck we all hated Double's Dark Falz form for their massive annoyance lol. Not the greatest boss, but still gets its job done by being an absolute annoyance and most hated. Never have I face a boss so annoying I wanted it dead ASAP.

[silo1991]

like i said before EP4 had nice gameplay updates but really sloth art direction , i didn't like the earth ambientation, the story is a complete bullshit which i cant see any rescuable point , the aesthetic of the phantoms ( specially you yamato) are really sloth , they dont give me the creative vibe like the other enemies families , the character are really annoying and the villains you can't take them serious , the music at of tokyo and las vegas fields (least the lyrical version) it becomes annoying eventually , sega should know that play the same song over and over again is a torture method :P ( thats why i dont play riding quest anymore)

and you know this was a bad season when the 3 raid bosses didn't cause me any sort of hype. talking about them my score are :
yamato : good and fun boss for newbies but the slothness of the aesthetics of yamato IS TO DAMM HIGH

falz mother: because of the music i had expectations with this boss but disappoint me really badly , i don't have trouble with the ridedroid section ( remind me starfox) but her second phase is really tedious and sloth in terms of gameplay ( specially if the team don't deal damage fast enough)

deus esca: where should i start besides the fact that the boss came out of nowhere ( just why ep 4 didnt end with mother and get out of earth ) the desing of the angels are acceptable but the variety is really short just 3 minions really ? they couldn't add archers or valkyries or even angels of death ( just armed with scythes) . the boss it self is really cinematic but what i consider a big mistake was give us 4 minutes for the last phase not 5 , FOUR ( i dont know if with last patch that change ) , and also if a portion of the team are hunters its gg they don't have good mobility ( i was part of the portion :P )

just for conclude the whole concept of the angels could work as a whole new alien race which they been fighting the darkers for generations and also they know how to use the ether and the phantoms as minions but they are like the protoss from starcraft , they burn/ destroy any world that has been tainted with the darkers main reason why the arks have to fight them .

also forgot to mention this , but you know the pahntoms were a lost cause when sega needed to recycle the darkers ; ESCA DARKERS this enemies most of them are just reskins , there is no diference of how to kill them or what you should watchout

[loafhero]

Kinda agree about the lack of variety in the Angel Phantoms. My guess is that the devs thought that there's no need to give more variety with the angels since their already classified as Phantoms and they've already designed a lot of Phantoms to begin with (even though the other half are just reskinned Darkers with new abilities).

One thing I do like about Phantoms is the sound effect of their weakpoints getting hit. Its just so oddly satisfying, more so than the balloon-like sound effects of a Darker weakpoint getting hit. Even the sound effect the Phantoms make as they teleport in sounds more satisfying than the teleport sound effects of Darkers.

[blkbox11]

I enjoyed it, and I can say this proudly. Story, characters and everything included. Wasn't such a big fan of EP 1 to 3, and parts of 4 could have been done better to avoid said parts being rehashes of previous Episodes, but it still left me with a much better feeling overall.

The only bad things for me personally were the introduction of SG and its exclusive scratch as well as Deus nerf.

[Golgotha]

Knowing the reason this episode was made this way, it makes sense.
All the "bad" things like intentionally surreal setting and anime tie in, "offtopic" story with less than threatening villains, stalled progression, all was mostly caused by rebooting the game for new players, which made game virtually empty for players that were around for more than a year.
Outside from that direction, the game got plenty of nice things like graphical update, NT system and Cfiles, Layering wear, stargems that enabled quest trigger circulation and more free costumes that otherwise would be likely in exclusive scratches.

Ultimate amduscia felt rushed, and the map is too static to enjoy it for long. At least the bosses were reused in many other places. But I really miss the monster blender situations from ult nab and lilipa, where boss or two could spawn in a narrow section filled with smaller enemies.
OT continued to become more and more obsoleted, with 13s increasing power gap even further, but at the same time Cfile hunting for enemies and drops reinvigorated many quest modes that almost lost their purpose in current progression otherwise.
Leagues helped directing people to play same quest once in a while as well, even though I doubt it will work again with so many SG sources around.
Most Earth enemies feel like having the same "dps spike" design, where you only can efficiently hit the target for a few seconds, but I hope its really just a local theme, and not a sole attempt to mitigate humongous MPA damage input.
Rings felt like they "stole the light" from class skills and crafting (which is almost abandoned, in favor of crudely done gathering), but at the same time 12s units add quite a bit of depth to customization, and managing offclass R rings is nice.
Battle arena feels much more pleasant than Cmode, mostly due to short session format and potential to be updated more often than once a year.

All in all there was a lot more of stuff for core players in second half of ep4, and more to come, so I think the game was done just fine. Now all it takes is the next episode to keep the current pace. If it is going to take another flip, making most of recently added stuff obsolete, then we might lose momentum again.

[mickbis]

how could I forgot to mention the battle arena that one of the very good thing that I like about EP4
It actually required a good team play and understanding of every weapon available
at first people're afraid because it "PVP" but I found it enjoyable maybe better than some game with PVP as a main selling point
now all they need to do is introduce more variety into the arena, more map with interesting gimmick or different pa

and just like Golgotha said I realize that EP4 is suppose to be the introduction of 2nd half from the start so I didn't expected many thing heavy or more arks related to happen yet with all those Earth plot
and it actually work well IMO regard the stuff that directly related to ARKS universe
the foreshadowing of Mother from the EP2-EP3
Sup-space travelling and PSP2 collab
The increasing power of Profound Darkness plot in the background ( Try to create more Falz )

anything Earth related tho is just a side story... unless Ether-powered Earth character will involved more with ARKS from now on and actually contribute in solving the Profound Darkness endless loop aside from us baby sitting them

[IchijinKali]

Lets see if I can do more than just complain about the story.

Skill Rings & Gathering

Spoiler!

The introduction of skill rings was a nice idea. But it became pretty clear early on that a good chunk were just objectively bad in every sense of the word and making some class combos have no real choices on their rings. Katana Braver comes to mind on that with its first two rings being able to activate gear without needing to counter but it drains so fast you probably shouldn't have bothered. The other removing the homing feature of KC which tmk is something people quite enjoy having.

But the main drawback of skill rings was farming for the items needed to grind your rings. Which thankfully, for some people, they can now just purchase the parts from others instead of relying on RNG for some gem. Personally I liked gathering reminded me of the Monster Hunter series but the whole only 100 stamina ruins the fun. SEGA let us spend SG to increase the max instead of just using SG to end the time, rather spend SG on a permanent boost than a temp.

Fashion

Spoiler!

The 'Fashion Editing' feature is something I take advantage of quite often, when I'm not farming for SG. I just wish it would change facial related things like eye color, makeup, and eye styles. Could do without having 30 saved outfits 10 was plenty enough if we could get the face changes.

Fashion Catalog I haven't used at all but I really have no interest in looking at thousands of people's 'cute' lolis, that is what forums are for.

CFs and Boss EQs

Spoiler!

Collection files both a boon and bane to me. Guaranteed 13* is nice but sheer farming required to get the weapon is quite annoying when they don't all center on just the EQ, like what Astra did.

Raid bosses pft the faster they can be completed the faster I can see nothing good dropped so if they are nerfed you won't hear me complaining about it.

Story

Spoiler!

Jesus christ we got Star Ocean 3'd

That was the high point in the story for me when it reminded someone of Star Ocean 3, and subsequently me as well.

Then the school setting with us watching a typical high school anime protagonist and how her life is going since she was infected with Darker Photons which then created life thanks to a mixture of BS, Photons, and Ether. My only hope is that we never see Earth again and leave them to fix their own Moon. I don't want to see any of those characters introduced in Episode 4 ever again, even Xierra(stupid HIGH CAST complaining about her damn chest size)

Anime

Spoiler!

The anime I can't complain about because I've only watched one episode which the last one because someone said it was like Mobile Fighter G Gundam's ending, and I LOVE G GUNDAM. Was told Itsuki was just another Kazuto thats badass at everything, has no personalty, and has main character immunity which I saw all three traits in that last episode. Isn't that right Itsuki how are those Apprentice blast wounds that were strong enough to one-shot AISs but MULTIPLE shots wasn't enough to put your lame butt down.

Lets see what else CF, story, anime, rings, gathering, oh
Ultimate Quest Amuduscia

Spoiler!

Talk about some fun when it showed up and had people doing them regularly. Granted it got boring after awhile but doesn't change the fact they were great fun and challenging.

Anything else . . . right that
PvP

Spoiler!

Had no desire to see it introduced because an actual Action RPG can't really work in a PvP environment. Psuedo-turn based RPGs yeah it can work there. I've done enough to get about to upper B rank before getting sick of it, or because I got all the items those lame BCs could get me whichever I don't care. I've never liked playing anything regarding fighting other players its fun when you are winning, obvs, and frustrating when you are losing, no shit sherlock. Creating your own group has no purpose as there is nothing to gain and it isn't like you get to use your own gear.

[Lumpen Thingy]

So... Am I the only one here who doesn't really hate anything about EP4? Cause it feels like literally everyone else is salty to some degree.

EP2 will always be the EP I hate the most. Even the shitty story in EP4 isn't as annoying to me as all the bullshit that went down with EP2 like making race stats worthless or making braver the shunka only class