Your Final Thoughts on EP4's Map, Enemy and Raid Mechanics

[loafhero]

With EP4 being pretty much done with introducing any more new maps and enemies (barring the upcoming updated Yamato fight), I really want to know what you all think about the map, enemy and raid mechanics.

Should it be continued in EP5? Should it just be scrapped all together or at least, improved upon?

[Kintama]

Tokyo mobs, as in Tank, Helicopter, Yamato, were great design and made sense for an Earth planet bestiary.

The Vegas stuff, never fucking again, i'd rather drink bleach again than see recolors of these lazy abominations.

ESC-A darkers are just underused recolors of already existing mobs, eh.

And Angels are criminally underused as it is, what the heck sega, also how are the japanese coastal waters, the Moon and the new continent not free explore areas already?! (And by free i mean sandbox free, no stupid timer, and lvl 80 mobs FFS)

[Meteor Weapon]

Maps feels way too vibrant yet also bland even on Yggdrasil. I wish there are enemies that are seriously based on mythical lore of the planet Earth rather than based on human fear but that never happened. The design aspect of almost everything on Episode 4 other than Ult Amduscia, Falz Mother and Deus feels so lazy.

[Xaeris]

There's a trend in the raid fights of Episode 4. Technically, it started in Episode 3, but it really swung into high gear with this episode. As we should all be aware, the time a boss' weak point is exposed can be cut short if a certain damage threshold is reached. So in a strong group (that isn't coordinating Maron bombs), Mother might be down for like three seconds before she gets back up again. This really, really annoys me; it strikes me as a way to artificially extend the length of a fight without impacting players on the weaker end of the spectrum. I hope we get away from this in Episode 5, but I'm not hopeful.

[loafhero]

Well, their design is one thing, but how they function in gameplay is what I feel is deserving of more discussion. I think talking about EP4's aesthetics is like beating a dead horse at this point.

If I had to use a term to describe EP4's mechanics, its that its a "theme park". Instead of letting players determine when they can progress in something, its the game that dictates how and when the players can progress before cutting them off shortly expecting them to enter again.

"Exploring" in Tokyo and Vegas is very limiting. Unlike in the older maps where you can choose your own battles and even skip it without having your progressed hindered, EP4 maps forces you to clear out an area of enemies before your allowed to make any progress. Completing Hans Earth COs or any Earth Daily COs are a chore because you're very likely required to enter either Tokyo or Vegas again on a 2nd or 3rd attempt in order to complete the usual "Kill X number of enemies" as a result of this limiting design imposed on players.

"Oh, you need to kill more Polar Bears to complete your CO? Want to run around the map more to find more Polar Bears? Too bad! You reached the points limit! Come again next time!"

Doesn't help that Phantoms aren't as aggressive as older enemies. Their often spawned far away from each other which is made more tedious with the awful AI of the Phantoms who are quite possibly the most retarded enemies of PSO2. The Phantoms seem to have bad vision because for as long as I've played, they won't try to rush at you unless you're REALLY close to them.

Mother as a raid boss (not counting the Rideroid phase) is kinda fun, mostly because she's just using older Episode's raid boss mechanics.

Deus was actually really fun the first few times but the obligatory and awkward cut-to-black cutscene transitions have lost its charm. The fight itself seems more focused on being flashy than anything else.

[Cadfael]

"Exploring" in Tokyo and Vegas is very limiting. Unlike in the older maps where you can choose your own battles and even skip it without having your progressed hindered, EP4 maps forces you to clear out an area of enemies before your allowed to make any progress. Completing Hans Earth COs or any Earth Daily COs are a chore because your very likely required to enter either Tokyo or Vegas again on a 2nd or 3rd attempt in order to complete the usual "Kill X number of enemies" as a result of this limiting design imposed on players.

This, plus the spawn mechanics and a lack of specific boss rooms make it difficult to farm for Vegas specific bosses. Need a Train Ghidoran? Just use the Arks mission. Need a Trailer or Vegas Illusia? Time to run free field and hope that one of the spawn areas picks the boss you need, or hope that enough people are running riding quests.

[Cyber Meteor]

The only thing i don't like in EP4 is this spawn point system , while i do get it was done for "fashion/screenshot in peace" purpose, i don't get why we don't have a version of the quest like in Kuron EP3 with no set spawn point, and after a certain amount of point you go to the boss area. Idk if you remember but in the reveal teaser of Vegas there was a little cutscene for Vegas Illusia appearing, as other bosses used to have, but it's nowhere to be found now not even in Story board, meaning they probably had thought about doing something like Train Ghidoran quest but cancelled it at last moment for some reasons (riding quest could be one reason i guess).

Anyway, as for maps, well while Tokyo is kinda meh, Vegas is more interesting look wise, musics for both fields are really good . Phantom ennemies give me mixed impressions depending on the type : i'm not that much fan of Hagito's phantoms (zombies, military-like), but i prefer the Bethor's ones, and actually Vegas phantoms too , but it's more about their aesthetics than their mechanics as they're pretty simple. ESC-A darkers are cool imo, more powerful variants of their usual attacks and good choice of colors. The only thing about raid bosses that got my attention is actually, that they were easier than before and it was done on purpose xD, but thank god for the solo EQ and rematch thing they've introduced with deus and will be there for Super-Yamato, gives something more worth of our +35 13* power and lvl 80

[[Ayumi]]

Tokyo: It's fine. Not bad but not good.
Should've had the 1st level stayed the same, 2nd level be the tank (made it better to be an actual boss feeling to it), and 3rd being the same except like Kuro Explore when you get 250 you should go after the Train (It already takes way too long to get 500 in Tokyo because you can have bad RNG of never seeing a single Code or maybe just see one in one run)

Yamato: Not bad. Was kinda fun. Not much else I can say about it.

Las Vegas: Where do I fucking start... let me just say as a whole it can fuck off. Worst thing ever.
1. There's no fucking main mission to play which I think is fucking stupid.
2. There's only the Explore Mission and then the Ride Mission which is exactly a fucking Explore Mission with limited drops because you know very damn well the drops from the red gem is not even half of what you would've fucking gotten as drops if the enemies drop it normally... and forced to play it for 10 fucking minutes.
3. As the buildings in there are named... total RNG. I don't want fucking RNG in hoping to fight Optimus Prime or Ms. Mood Slime herself... which she shows up like 2% of the time it seems when I want her and almosr 98% when I don't need her. SH? Good luck... VH? Almost never... Hard and Normal? Every other area I go to usually is her. Makes any collection sheet involving Las Vegas almost a skip for me (or in Zenesis case if I have a sheet for the damn Truck I wait it out until one of the other spots are free and fight Org Blan or EX or Quartz or whatever than HOPE I see the fucking train enough times.
4. Emergency Codes. The best way to break any fun in this fucking area is to make be fly up in the air to ram into Alien Kakwangs that dash all over the place or go even higher up to ram into a giant UFO which the 1st time was fun but the 2nd time it became boring.
5. UFOs. Yeah these fuckers are singled out. They're not hard... they're not challenging... they're literally just an RNG annoyance. They dash all over with no pattern at all which makes anything that isn't a rifle the most annoying thing to fight. It's constant PSO symbols on the ground is annoying as well and their abduction beam is also just as annoying.... while I liked Mario Party out of all of the Mario Parties... there's a reason Nintendo never rerelease that one... UFO...

Mother: She's eh... really boring to me. One of the most boring bosses I've fought. Phase 1 wasn't fun... I don't think I ever had fun ever on that riding device as a whole actually but I might leave a spot for that alone.
Phast 2... blow up the arms... stun... blow up the arms... stun... blow up the arms.... stun... then only when she's at half health is the EQ ever gets decent. No thank you.

Phantom God: First time it was amazing.... after that if it wasn't for the collection sheets I would probably skip it every so often.
UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES ARE FUCKING DISGUSTING IN ANY BOSS FIGHT I don't need every fucking form to have some "epic" cutscene that just takes up time off my tickets and just bore me to death after seeing the Hydras climb out of the puddle and then start clip-helling themselves. Really dumb fight because of that. Without all of those cutscenes it would've been really nice.

Rider Machine things I don't give a fuck about to know the name of: Annoying to turn (don't care if I can "alright" with dashing and then turning while pressing X.... or the 180 only turn which is helpful at only certain occasions.) then the slow moving from going up or down and everything else. It's a chore to use which is why those codes in Las Vegas I really find very annoying and then the 1st phase in Mother I never is thrilled to play.
It's like they took the AIS which would be lamborghini tank and then turned it into a card"skate"board (Cardboard Skateboard).

I already hated EP4 when it 1st was introduced and these areas didn't do anything but made me loathe EP4 more. Never do this shit again, Sega. Fucking disgusting.

[Altiea]

UFOs: You don't play Boots or Rifle? AHAHAHAHAHA *proceeds to be a bitch for two minutes while having Nova levels of damage sponginess*

I never really had too much of a problem with Illusia farming, mostly because whenever I need to do it I just break out the Dragon Slayer and go play Solo XQ for a half hour.

[IchijinKali]

The problem I have with Tokyo and Vegas is the added 'openness' of the maps. Spawns aren't limited as much on where they can go so after they spawn and they didn't aggro more than likely they will just spread out. Can't count the number of times a bird in Tokyo or A FRICKIN UFO in Vegas was quite a ways away from the spawn point just because they fly off all the time.

Any other map besides Kuron that would be just fine considering you are moving towards another area and not stuck on the same map. But even with Kuron you can just move on to another part of the map to find a different spawn site, and hopefully a trial. Vegas and Tokyo on the other hand you are stuck there til they are all dead because point system, and as Altiea pointed out have fun with UFOs if you don't have ranged attacks.

Raid bosses meh attack the weakpoint, dodge the heavy hitting attacks, go crazy during DPS check, and move on. Nothing new, interesting, or worth mentioning when discussing them raid bosses to be a means of getting, sometimes, better gear.

I think I covered everything I wanted to cover, overall episode 4's maps, enemies, and raid bosses are meh. But that seems to be par for the course with this episode. Except for Amuduscia's Ultimate Map that was fun.