Here we go again

[RemiusTA]

No, PSU was not "THAT BAD" at all. I enjoyed it and played it for a good amount of time.

Like i keep saying, from the MOMENT i popped PSU into my PS2 the day it came out, it took me hours to finally realize why i didn't have a smile plastered on my face like i thought i would. And it's because i had realized that the game i popped into my playstation was not PSO. Same 3 hit combo, same monomates, same saber, same sword...but nope, not PSO in the slightest.

Of course, once you get over that, the game was GREAT fun. But i'd never call PSO's mechanics outdated because 1) PSU did not adopt them and 2) Neither PSU, PSP or PSP2 has found an alternative to them.

PSO2 is not going to either. But, because it's a sequel, we're all assuming they'll be taking notes from them. Which is really all they need to do anyway.

[ShadowDragon28]

No, PSU was not "THAT BAD" at all. I enjoyed it and played it for a good amount of time.

Like i keep saying, from the MOMENT i popped PSU into my PS2 the day it came out, it took me hours to finally realize why i didn't have a smile plastered on my face like i thought i would. And it's because i had realized that the game i popped into my playstation was not PSO. Same 3 hit combo, same monomates, same saber, same sword...but nope, not PSO in the slightest.

Of course, once you get over that, the game was GREAT fun. But i'd never call PSO's mechanics outdated because 1) PSU did not adopt them and 2) Neither PSU, PSP or PSP2 has found an alternative to them.

QFT. Pretty much agreed... Other than relying on having to PA spam enemies all the time, it was annoying that it took over a year and a half just to get an outfit that didn't look lame that I actually liked the look off, and it took forever to get the boards needed to make the few actual good looking weapons in the game that I liked.

[Jinketsu]

I started playing PSO seriously when it hit the GameCube. I had dabbled a little in the Dreamcast version, but I never owned a Dreamcast so it never took off for me there. I had always enjoyed the gameplay, and looked forward to being able to own my own character, so I got it for GC. I played the crap out of it, too. Episode III was weird, but I enjoyed myself with it, and PSOBB's Episode 4 was a blast.

Later, I got Phantasy Star Universe for PC when it came out. I liked the concept of Photon Arts. I liked how Technics consumed PP from the weapon, giving CASTs the ability to be FOrces. I enjoyed the environments. But for some reason, the game didn't stick with me like PSO did.

I'm not a fanboy of PSO, nor am I as passionate about the series as a lot of you guys are, but I gotta say that something about PSO was done right. It's very outdated in today's standards so I can see why some people can't get into it, but for its time it was just amazing. I think PSU's problem was that it tried too much to imitate PSO, while trying to be as flexible as other popular MMOs out like WoW or FFXI. And it looks like it took them long enough to create an engine that's really going to work in that respect.

I absolutely look forward to PSO2, and hope it doesn't leave a pesky taste in people's mouths to the point of SEGA pulling the plug on the servers like they've done with all their other Phantasy Star online games.

[Padium]

Speaking mainly as a FO player, I always found that PSO had a very nice balance between the classes, with each and everyone of them being able to fulfill certain roles very well. The FOs were actually needed and treasured by parties who wanted to go online, because having the support of S/D/J/Z 30 along Resta was quite often a very good thing. Come PSU though, and Forces got "complex", presumably what makes it less "outdated". But I disagree. Throwing in a bunch of grind-y mechanics such as weapon bounded techs and technique grinding did nothing good for FOs, much on the contrary. Couple it with how easy overall PSU felt (looking at you, Scape Dolls), and there we go, playing the role of a support of character became non-existent.

This is the thing that bothered me most about PSU. There was no way to play a force, and I ended up playing other classes instead, simply because a force was impossible to play well. I only play spellcasters, except in games where the mechanics for one aren't that great, and I want a PSO style caster, not an impossible to play PSU style one. Hell, I'd even be happy with a WoW, Dragon Age, PS0, or just about any other game's (except Oblivion's) spell casting.

[Fayorei]

I just hope the game has more PSO mechanics than PSU. I understand that a lot of people feel it's "outdated", but it's also true that PSO has a really strong fanbase still. I think Infinity was a step in the right direction by mixing these two mechanics, but I'd give my kingdom to just go back to the freaking action palette again. I know that techs are *still* linked to weapons, but it's just so incredibly annoying to me.

It's really impossible and crap-feeling that I can't do my old job of HUnewearl hybrid support, that if there wasn't a Force we could buff a decent S/D and help demolish mobs with Barta freeze spells to lock them in place, all while keeping out our actual melee weapons. The balance was in the fact that our melee wasn't as good as a Cast's would be, our defense was lowest, and our spells still weren't up to par with a Force's. But that whole cross utility thing has never really been implemented well since PSO in my opinion. Bring back our ability to freaking do a little support without having to carry a wand as a melee person. Or let us link techs to melee weapons, something!

I also think it had to be a least a tad annoying to play as a full Force in PSU. Melee classes could tear it up with regular attacks, and spam triangle to win. Forces with so many different elements on different maps, had to carry/micromanage a ton of rods/wands to get the spells needed. And that just doesn't seem fair to the class. Not using a unified TP bar also was a shot in the foot with these mechanics. That's the one thing I'm asking for with PSO2 at this point: ONE overall TP bar, because I already know that techs are being linked to weapons again from the recent info. ._.

I'm with most every other person here that has played PSO and PSU's opinion: PSO didn't have outdated game mechanics. Game mechanics are something that stand the test of time, and look how simple some are for the most successful games (Angry Birds, for a small example.) If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I would not mind the updated graphics, crafting system, etc, if Sonic Team didn't screw up the action palette system. We could've kept every other element of PSU, but if they had just linked TP to characters instead of weapons, what a joy that game would be!

In addition, I just want to add that PSU is not a bad game. It was just nowhere near my expectations, and I realized soon after I started playing at launch it was not PSO's sequel. It was just a completely new game, and I'm hoping PSO2 will be PSO's actual successor.

[ARASHIKAGE]

PSO....outdated mechanics...ughhhhhh....

The GAME was outdated. Old graphics engine, re-textures for outfits, low-poly character models, limited graphical capabilities/memory/space means limited area space/effects/draw distance/enemy count, very simplistic physics engine full of sticky and invisible walls and whatnot. I can go on and on.


The GAMEPLAY is fine, it worked very well, as anyone who's played it (or introduced it to people personally) and liked it can tell you. Adding the ability to jump, strafe, block, ect. ect. would not make PSO modern. It would make PSO a completely different game.

Despite PSO's "outdated mechanics", there are VERY, VERY FEW things that PSU did better than PSO in their own respective games. PSU aged faster than PSO, PSU got boring faster than PSO, PSU, despite its size, has LESS CONTENT than PSO, PSU has less holding power than PSO (obviously), and i can go on and on. There is a R E A S O N the pso enthusiasts bitch about wanting PSO2 to adhere to a certain formula.

You know, just like there is a REASON that Japanese RPGs (or jgames in general, really) are garbage these days. It's so bad that even THEY are admitting it now. They keep trying to ditch these "OUTDATED MECHANICS", and as a result are losing what made them good games in the first place.

I blame the "outdated mechanics" argument for the fall of so many freaking franchises and genres that i don't know what to do with myself.

I quoted Remius because I want more people to read this ^, well said Remius.

Honestly I wish more people got a chance to play PSO so they can understand this (surprisingly civil) discussion, instead of classifying certain people just for having an understanding of what a great game mechanics really are.

All I want is for PSO2 to be solid, I am going to go out and spend a lot of money on a gaming PC solely for this game. I'm probably going to sell lots of other games and forgo buying other great console games that I have been waiting for. But as long as I see some remnant of solid PSO game mechanics in PSO2 then I will feel it's worth my time and money. Because I know what I like, but more importantly I know what has worked well before and it will work well again.