Being a long time PSO fan since the dreamcast days, I can tell you (aswell as any pso fan) that PSU did not deliver like we were all expecting it to.
For starters the graphics were pretty bad (not a huge improvement from pso), the music was "meh" at best, and the game just didnt have that amazing magical feel to it that PSO had. You when you played PSO it was always fun and hardly ever boring. The music was great and so were the graphics for it's time. The level of polish was much higher aswell. Everything had a very nice touch to it. PSU lacked all of these things.
Another huge thing about PSO was the fact that we were always connected with the Japanese servers and EU servers. Basically we were all together in one big place. You could either choose US, EU, or JP. There was no such thing as JP servers only and US/EU only. I'm aware that on the 360 we are all connected too, but that doesnt really count since 98% of the Japanese population plays on their own JP server which is the PC one. It's no secret that they are far ahead of us because of this reason alone.
In PSO we were all equal for the most part. We all had access to the same things at all times. There was no such thing as "Oh JP is one year and a half ahead of us!!".
Now dont get me wrong, PSU is a really cool game (IMO) but I would be lying if I said that it didnt lack in many departments. However when comparing it to PSO it does have some cool things to offer.
In PSO the combat was much more basic and not as flashy as PSU's. For example, melee attacks were done by doing a easy to do 3 hit button input. It require timing kinda like Just Attacking in psu only easier. Some weapons like Sabers did only 3 hits, other weapons did up to 6 hits (with a 3 button press aswell). Basically each weapon type had it's own ammount of hits and animation. However that was it.
PSU has that along with PA's. This made combat much more awesome and more fun. In pso you actually found techs with a random lvl (from 1-30 30 being the max lvl and also really rare) in PSU as we all know we level up our techs so in my opinion this was a much better thing as well.
PSU is a game that has good things, but it's negative things far outweight it. For example. PSO only had 8 "missions" (GC version and up) it was divided by Episode 1 and Episode 2. Ep1 had Forest, Caves, Mines, and Ruins (just like our current event in psu). Ep2 had Temple, Sapceship, Central Control Area, and Seabed.
Now you might think, that PSO was boring because it only had 8 maps to play on, but you are wrong. These maps were FAR more polished than ANYTHING psu has to offer. For example, when you werent fighting creatures, the map had a different theme and when you came across some monsters the game had a different theme (just like a traditional rpg cool!) plus all 8 maps were COMPLETELY unique from one another all with their own monsters and music. They all had a main boss at the end, none of the bosses were cut and paste bosses either (or reskins) they were all VERY unique with their own themes.
To spice it up even more, PSO had a mode called Ultimate mode this made everything really hard, but to make things even cooler the maps in Ep1 had a different look to them. For example, the forest insted of being in the daytime it was set in the sunset and all of the monsters had a brand new look to them (mostly more evil brutal looking). Ep2 has Ultimate mode as well, but the maps and creatures all stay the same
PSU has a TON of missions! However, most of them suck...That's a HUGE problem with psu.
For starters, alot of them look the same, have the same theme, have the same monsters, and if they do have a boss it's just a reskin with the same theme as the other boss. It's lame as hell. It just feels very "meh" compared to PSO. It's like sure we have a ton of missions in psu, but they all look the same as the other.
In psu everyone (including myself) run one mission only for the most part. But in PSO you ran them all. Every mission had it's own unique items as well. So there was always a reason to go to a certain one if you wanted a rare from that said mission.
Now that I explained all of this (mostly for those who have not played PSO) lets move on to the meat of my topic.
PSO2 should be alot more like PSO (again I love my psu, but i'm not blind) but, it should take what PSU did right into account as well. For example, PA's PSO2 should have PA's and leveling them up should be silimar to PSU. Classes, PSO2 should also have many classes like PSU. PSO had classes but they were tied to a certain character and race. For example, a HUmar was a Human, Male, Hunter a HUnewearl was Female, Newman, Hunter. You could not change their classes. If you picked a HUmar you were a HUmar forever.
PSO2 should take the PSU class system aswell I really enjoy that about psu. PSU gives you freedom. Hell you can be a Neuman Fight master if you want or a Cast Master Force is you want. Sure it may not be most ideal thing to be but who cares, psu gives you that freedom ^_^
Now heres another very important thing. PSO2 should be handle much different than how PSU got handled in the US. As we all know it's horrible, updates are slow, we are behind as hell, we have had a huge number of server related problems etc etc. As of right no we are about a year and a half behind japan (ouch).
The best thing to cure this would be to have everyone together once again n one huge server US, EU, and JP. That way when JP gets updated we get updated. Or if they insist on splitting us up again, we need a much better staff here in the US from my understanding our staff is small and not very competent (sorry but its true). We need to get the updates fast so that we can stay on par with japan or close to them and have us stay that way.
Now i'm not gonna blame everything on SOA I know SOJ has a hand in this aswell. Overall both have to get in gear and treat everyone the same. There's been countless debates on why we are so behind japan some even say SOJ/SOA just doesnt care some even say it's racism from SOJ who knows. What I do know is that the results suck, and such results have made many players quit psu.
So again they need to treat everyone the same that way we can all enjoy the updates the same way our fellow japanese players enjoy them.
Anyways, the new stuff about PSO2 made me make this topic. I'm a huge PSO fan (the reason I play psu) so I figured i'd post my thoughts on the matter since i've played both for many years now
I can keep going on in more detail about both games, but that's the gist of it. Plus I dont wanna bore you guys with so much text, this is already long enough.
Anyhow, like always please post your thoughts on the topic at hand, tell me what you personally would like to see in PSO2 compared to PSU, let me know if you agree or disagree with some of the things I want etc etc. Anyone's opinion is welcome here. Even from thsoe who only played psu.
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