I kinda see where you're coming from, but I think your issue starts almost solely with PSO2.
PSO EP1&2 were very well realized games in terms of their background lore and mystery, and felt very much like Phantasy Star, and while EP3 is kind of a different beast, I felt it played well in to the foundation set by the first two. PSO2 was also OK for the first couple of episodes, it was a cool vibe, being in a post-ep1&2 by about a hundred or so years environment. Where it really went off the rails was the Summoner episode when they tied it in to the anime. That's kind of when things just got really...weird.
I haven't played for a few episodes now, but that's about the time where I started thinking, "So like...I kinda miss the brooding, dark, under the hood story-telling of PSO" and got the vibe that the game was going full fan-service without shame but...the gameplay is still bar-none some of the best in the business, so that's enough to keep people playing.
Connect With Us