I was thinking of a Xierra Mag, you perv!Originally Posted by Kondibon
Yeah, so tiny. She could fit in so many places...
Best example from a Japanese MMO would be Final Fantasy XIV. The recent reviews for its latest expansion, particularly the story, have been very positive from both Western and JP players. Some have even gone on to say its story is even better than most single player Final Fantasy games.
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All valid points in-universe, someone else presented the same argument before. But what I meant was the meta reason behind all of that which I mentioned in the response before my last. The story obviously had to be greatly simplified to draw in newcomers to the franchise, and Episode 4's design itself is meant for new people. Some sacrifices obviously had to be made, like character appearances and so on, even suspension of disbelief for the veterans.
Could they have done better given the circumstances? Yes. But what came out worked for the purpose they intended. That being said, I do think that level of expectation is too high.
I don't really see how that first line is a valid leadup into the rest of your response there, because I never said such a thing.
There are many videogames with good stories and art, but most of those are single player games - reason being that they are developed for your experience alone. Online games however, can do completely fine with a vague background and little in the way of storytelling, because you are meant to play them with others as your primary form of interaction outside of shop NPCs. There are those with good stories, yes, but I never saw PSO2 as one of them, nor do I expect it to be, and I feel that people who do and feel entitled to it have their faith misplaced.
Moreover, PSO2's very design allows you to play through it while barely touching the story at all, so I find that comparing it to something like FFXIV and demanding something on par is too much. This game feels more like a faster Monster Hunter with a story as a side-dish - you don't need to know why you're taking on that giant boss in that EQ, only whether you're capable of doing it or not and if it's worth the risk. Sure, it'd be fun to know, but at the end of the day there's no point to it because you're getting loot either way. I'm sure not many people, if any at all, spend their time replaying/rewatching EP1~3 for how great it is. Instead, most of the players are in the lobby looking for clothes on the visiphone, or gearing up to improve their DPS.
And yes, I get that people want a better story and love PSO2. But ranting and raving doesn't solve anything either, especially since the English community isn't SEGA's target audience, and you even acknowledged the issue about modern Japanese entertainment. It's unlikely to change anytime soon, and their eyes are not here at all.
Last edited by blkbox11; Jun 30, 2017 at 10:16 AM.
While I do understand the points that you are making, seeing that this Episode is supposed to be a simplified version of the previous Episodes, but I - to be honest - cannot find any reason why there are cutscenes related to their shopping trips, or even simple conversations between Xiera and Hitsugi and Aru, because I do not find the cutscenes (not all of course, some is relatively informative) necessary for story plot, and rather than moving the plot forward or adding more exposition to the story and character, all it does is make it look like a filler scene, scenes which could be put to better use like perhaps, elaborating on the NPCs's journeys in the two years the PC spent in stasis? I understand that it might be hard to get voice actors in for only a few sentences, but since they actually got Quna and Io's voice actors, even Katori, Saga and Pietro, I do not see why they could not use the cutscenes spent watching their shopping trips/bathtime (which actually takes more than a couple of minutes to finish) to delegate to the old characters, who would then elaborate on what the other characters are doing. Perhaps, Xiera could have just went through the cutscenes by herself, since it is part of her job description, and just request PC's aid for the more informative videos to help analysis any details she had found. Similar to how she have PC take the Earth kids for a tour while she was sorting out info given by Casra, she could have done the same for this instance, and allow PC to get back on track with his/her friends's and comrades lives, friends and comrades would fought for and beside him/her, rather than focusing on a weird high school kid with self-esteem issues and no definite life goals. I was actually wondering why there are options like "Hitsugi, I'm coming for you," "it's all thanks to Hitsugi" and whatnot from the PC, as if Sega is trying to place an importance on Hitsugi over the veteran ARKS like Matoi for one, Matoi, who just finished her rehab and was able to hold off two Mother Cluster Apostles versus Hitsugi, who received help from Aru to regain her strength, but was still too weak to fight Mother, and they have the option of "it's all thanks to Hitsugi"?All valid points in-universe, someone else presented the same argument before. But what I meant was the meta reason behind all of that which I mentioned in the response before my last. The story obviously had to be greatly simplified to draw in newcomers to the franchise, and Episode 4's design itself is meant for new people. Some sacrifices obviously had to be made, like character appearances and so on, even suspension of disbelief for the veterans.
Could they have done better given the circumstances? Yes. But what came out worked for the purpose they intended. That being said, I do think that level of expectation is too high.
i understand that Sega's is pushing the game towards Japanese players, but to actively promote a new heroine, one weaker, more clingy and dependent on the PC's strength to deal with any problems, with cliche Tsundere-type character, and ignoring the former (and still official) heroine of PSO2, Matoi, one who actually have a will of her own, to protect and even sacrifice her own life for someone she cares for, to fighting beside someone despite having no memories of any battles, just on faith alone, and although she hesitated, was still able to take a life in a life-of-death situation when still suffering from amnesia (Claris Claes Clones), while she (Hitsugi) isn't? Though admittedly, they did give reasons why Matoi is unable to fight, and her and PC's duo against Falz Mother is cool (I still think that with just the two of them, they could have just destroyed her and save Aru, but seeing that they want Hitsugi to shine...), and I do like how they actually started to give out more cutscenes that are Oracle-related in the later parts (though not as much as I would like, but since you can't have everything...).
But yeah, ranting and raving doesn't do anything, but it is actually a good way to stir up other's creative juices, to find out different perspectives of how things would go, how the stories could be better. It is actually rather fun to read other people's self-made stories about their characters, because it makes it seem real, and it is also a form of entertainment for them, to find a way to make things better via complains, because somehow or other, anger always allow people to communicate better - adrenaline rush and all that. And what came out would be (not all of the time) legit complains, legit stories, excellent in-depth personality tests about the characters, it is always entertaining to see how people break down the character's personality, and rebuild it at the same time. It may be frustrating, and it may not do anything, but it is entertaining and is what makes debates and threads alive, because nothing would be interesting if you look at it in a clinical perspective.
And personally, I find ranting and raving about a story to be much better than simply sitting down and not saying anything, because as I mentioned before, it is always fun to read about others' interpretation of an event, and how they can think up of more materials (that I never thought of) as background that happens off-screen.
I don't think there was ever any need for Matoi to get involved. Mother Cluster did such a great job destroying themselves with minimal input on the Player's part. Having Matoi to tag with Player more would have been overkill.
Now that you mention it...That's....really true actually.
The kind of people in Japan who would spend a lot on this game, yet have no idea about the Phantasy Star universe are easier to draw in via those things people here deem unnecessary - I also mentioned this in one of my previous replies - as opposed to what people here would consider good story progressing scenes and development. There's also the fact that small talk is easier to get into for the average person compared to serious discussions, and helps with the process of easing in. Remember, a new player's expectations are not the same as that of a veteran player who has emotionally invested in the older characters and story.
Anyway, at this point both of us are starting to sound like broken records. I don't know if you'll be able to understand, and I apologize, because perhaps my explanations are not well-worded, but it's deeply rooted in anime-based media - that's why there are many anime that focus on fanservice, slice-of-life, highschool and so on, and why they still sell. This is similar to the reason why zombie-apocalypse/post-apocalypse settings and superheroes generally do well in the West.
On the subject of the new heroine and her qualities: Matoi has already been established through 3 episodes. They could have spent more time and effort to find methods of introducing her as the heroine to new people and have her be the star again, but must have thought it to be easier to get a schoolgirl from Japan as the heroine for the reasons stated above. Also, while (at least, from what I've noticed) PSO-W echoes a general fondness of Matoi, there are people out there who do not like her for equally good reasons - think of what these people thought in Episode 3. It would be along the lines of what you think of Hitsugi.
To be honest, I found Matoi's role rather forced myself by the time I reached Episode 3. So that's probably why I didn't mind Hitsugi as much; it was simply the same thing but with a different person, and played out in a somewhat less serious tone, maybe even a mocking one. To add, there were also far more interesting female characters in the previous Episodes, and I do wish I was given the choice of which one to be closer to, instead of being railroaded to one.
There is a large gap between ranting and raving endlessly and complete silence. When said discussions are civil, yes, it's completely fine. However, there is a point where it becomes excessive. Episode 4's flaws have been discussed more than enough times in the official story discussion thread, with people simply repeating their dislike of the same aspects nearly every time there was an Episode update. It's a lot like seeing the many, many videos of 'why Sword Art Online is bad' - each person is complaining about the same thing over and over, more or less, and there comes a point where there is nothing meaningful to add to the discussion.
Last edited by blkbox11; Jul 2, 2017 at 10:55 AM.
The cringiest thing I can remember is Hitsugi chasing Kohri alone and end up getting stabbed. How many times was she reminded that she's fucking inexperienced?
Also despite a short screentime Matoi was still top 3 and Hitsugi....lol i guess she's not liked very much.
Last edited by Meteor Weapon; Jul 2, 2017 at 11:05 AM.
I recall Hitsugi not even being in the Top 10 of the female popularity poll which is hilarious for the leading character of EP4. In fact, none of the "good guys" of EP4 made it into the Top 3. They all lost to the bad guys of EP4. Hagito ranked higher than Enga and Aru despite having disappeared from the plot after the Yamato battle and despite being treated as a joke by the protagonists.
Too bad they picked to make a PvC of Hitsugi for this episode.
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