[mario2099]

Thank you both for the very informative answers! I have a couple of other questions.

1.If you are online in a solo play, is there a way to tell if a friend logs online as well?

2.I noticed the guy in the sewers when he converts enemy parts into weapons will give you random percents. Is it worth the time to try to get percents that you want? Can you get accuracy adjustment on the enemy weapon?

[Chaos Rappy]

Originally Posted by mario2099

Thank you both for the very informative answers! I have a couple of other questions.

1.If you are online in a solo play, is there a way to tell if a friend logs online as well?

Yes; when they log on, a little ping will sound, as well as a green "go" symbol showing that they are online (along with their name). Similarly, if they decide to host a game, the "hosting" symbol will appear along with a different pinging sound and their name.

Also, you can go to the quest counter (the girl on the right) and check your friends list to see who's on/hosting as well.

Originally Posted by mario2099

2.I noticed the guy in the sewers when he converts enemy parts into weapons will give you random percents. Is it worth the time to try to get percents that you want? Can you get accuracy adjustment on the enemy weapon?

Yes, as the difference could potentially make for getting a very useful weapon or a somewhat waste comparably. Try and reroll an enemy part (via reloading without saving) until you get the stats/PA desired (if PA can be changed, of course). Be aware that, if any weapon you craft has its element name in its weapon name, it is treated as a "common" and can in fact have its element changed too, such as the enemy part shields' Lv5 elements, or Hadan Bite's Lv4 Dark changing to Celeb (the most common one), etc.

And yes, you can get ACC ADJ on enemy part weapons. The only thing I can kinda confirm on my end about them though is that you cannot get more than one stat to have 50% in any enemy type or ACC ADJ, and any I've found that DID have 50% never had any % in any other stat... although, that COULD have just been me. I DID roll thousands of items, but I could just have really bad luck at that stuff. :/

[DoctorShanks]

1. If you go to the Quest Counter, there is an option there that will allow you to see the status of your friends. Also when playing online, either by yourself or with others, you will hear and see a notification pop up when your friend either logs on or makes a party.

2. Yes, and yes. Most people will spend hours rolling a Garahadan Fang, since it's not only rare, but with the proper stats it can easily become one of the most broken weapons in the game. For novelty weapons, it depends whether or not you're willing to put the time into it. Keep soft resetting and eventually you'll come out with desired stats. As far as I know, there is no RNG abuse method to get what you want (unless someone wants to tell me otherwise).

EDIT: I see Chaos answered as well, but I will leave my answers up in case I might have given a more thorough answer to some questions of yours, mario. :P

[Sebastian & PSO]

Hi my question is

A) Can i buy this game in Australia? If so what stores sell it?

B) If not what versions off the internet work here?

C) How does this game rate in comparison to PSO GC ep I & II?

D) What Nintendo DS systems does it play off??

Thanks heaps for anyone that answeers this AND E) Is there Mags on this one!?

[DoctorShanks]

A) I believe this game was sold in Australia at one point. However, if it's anything like my community, it's not on the shelves anymore since the sales were so miserable. You can always buy it online though . . .?

B) Could you reword this?

C) I would consider it like a Mini-PSO. There are 7 playable stages online (8 offline), and there are 3 difficulties as opppsed to 4. I haven't really played PSO GC all that much so someone else would be able to answer this better than I can.

D) This game should be playable off of any Nintendo DS system, however, in order to play online, you need to be connected to a WEP or unencrypted hotspot, even though the DSi and up can connect to more secure network encryptions.

E) Yup. And mags are over 9000 times easier to raise in this game. However you only get one Photon Blast, and it doesn't matter what kind of mag you have; the nature and abilities of the mag are always random.

[Chaos Rappy]

To put a more helpful answer for B), from what I can recall about this stuff, I would think that in Australia, your guys' games are "PAL" versions of the games, right? I'd have to confirm this myself, but if this is correct, I would assume any EU version of the game would be about the same for you in Australia; however, if that's true, make sure when/if you do order the game, it's not a US version, but that should be obviousness at this point. :P

Also, to give a little more detailed response about the mags, the ones you start out with when you make your character (since when you make your character, you get to choose the color of your mag) will come with a random Nature, and will have a single Photon Blast that is representative of its form. A more detailed list of Mag Natures and the forms and Photon Blasts mags will have when they evolve as they grow can be found on PSO-world (or by clicking the highlighted text :P). Mags purchased through Photon Drops are randomly assigned colors and natures when you buy them, so if you're looking for a specific color, then your best bet is to start a new character, get the mag of the color you want from them in the Joint Trunk, and then delete the character; otherwise, you could spend a lot of Photon Drops wasted with little to no favorable results. :/

Another thing worthy of note, is that you CAN find mags in a certain specific area in the game (like in PSO's Mine stage); these mags are special in that, no matter how they are grown after finding them, their Photon Blast WILL NOT CHANGE. This makes mags found in this way very special because they allow for the most optimal builds, and allow for more creative and efficient designs to be made with them. However, they also drop with levels in a single stat (from 15 to 25, I believe), and are also randomly assigned with a Nature and Photon Blast as well, so sometimes you might find one you like... but probably a lot more you won't. But, hey, one man's trash is another man's potpourri. :P

Ah, and I almost forgot to mention, in reference to what Shanks means how it's "easier to raise mags", in this game, you can feed them pretty much anything you can find in the game. That includes weapons, armors, and even Materials, which give very specific stat increases, rather than PSO's only feeding items and stuff. So, just feed it the following for your specific stat needs:

POW - Melee weapons, Power Materials, HP Materials
DEF - Armors, Slot-in Units, Defense Materials, Evade Materials
HIT - Ranged Weapons, Hit Materials
MIND - Force Weapons, PP Materials, Mind Materials


And, if you want to decrease the gauges of the stats, in case a stat you don't want starts to get high and you don't want to level it up, just feed it a Reset Material; while it won't lower the levels of stats already raised, it will lower all the "experience gauges" of all the stats by a small margin, useful if you don't want to feed the mag weapons/armors/units/materials to get specific increases; Reset Materials can only either be given to you by a specific Title, or must be purchased with Photon Drops from the same person you can buy mags from, and it only appears in her selection occasionally, so it's not always a reliable source, unfortunately... But, it's likely to assume you'll probably be feeding it weapons and such anyways if you need a specific increase anyways, so that shouldn't be a big issue. :P

[Daggart]

Originally Posted by Chaosmaster00

however, if that's true, make sure when/if you do order the game, it's not a US version, but that should be obviousness at this point.

Feel free to disregard this if you play this on a DS or DS Lite. They don't have region lock. However, if you use a DSi variant or a 3DS then yeah, keep it in mind.

Originally Posted by Chaosmaster00

Reset Materials can only either be given to you by a specific Title, or must be purchased with Photon Drops from the same person you can buy mags from, and it only appears in her selection occasionally, so it's not always a reliable source, unfortunately...

You can hard reset the game (Turning the power of the DS off, maybe home menu for 3DS) to shuffle around the sewer shop. So if you need anything specific you can just redo that. Shouldn't take long to get what you want from there that way.

I know it wasn't asked as a question but I figured I'd clear a few things up there.

For the record, I was wondering which materials raised what after I used a guard material on a mag on a whim. Guess I don't have to test now.

[Sebastian & PSO]

Wow thank you for these extremely detailed answers : )

Doctor Shanks - It was in regards to region codes which Australia does use PAL. I had a little search on Ebay and there's a version available from the UK so ill be emailing the seller tonight to ask if it's a PAL version or US.

Chaos-Master - Thanks for your reply, thats great about the Mags I do like the idea of being able to feed them any item, it would make getting rid of items in your inventory whilst playing through a level a whole lot easier!

Daggart - Thank you too. I have the original DS and a 3DS so either way I should be alright but would rather play it on the 3DS of course.

In regards to gameplay compared to episode I & II I didnt really get much of an answer? I assume the game would be much smaller but in terms of game play, graphics, music and hours how would you guys rate it? Online VS Offline mode?

Also are there still a lot of users playing online?

Thank you to anyone who answers this for me : )

I'm in a major toss up atm for a new wii game or this (Wii game being The last story or Pandora's tower) and then theres ICO coming out for PS3! FML what to do! Ontop of all this I still havent finished Skyward Sword and Skyrim Ahh!

[Chaos Rappy]

Originally Posted by Sebastian & PSO

In regards to gameplay compared to episode I & II I didnt really get much of an answer? I assume the game would be much smaller but in terms of game play, graphics, music and hours how would you guys rate it? Online VS Offline mode?

It plays almost exactly like PSO ep. I & II, with a slight few twists. Enemies do not drop items on their own, but instead, when all enemies in a room are defeated, a chest appears with all the items that the enemies WOULD'VE dropped inside of it (probably to prevent glitching and "no-drops" if enemies are killed in areas where you can't walk, like Batts and Vulkures flying over gaps).

Graphics are a little downgraded compared to PSO, but that's to be expected since it's on a lower-end (handheld) machine.

Music's pretty good for a game of it's time on the DS, not as awesome as PSOep.I&II's, but still pretty good. They really help set the mood to the areas, and some (like the boss themes) you might find yourself humming to when you play it enough, but it's not like I found myself Youtube'ing any of the songs to listen to when I' not playing it. Probably'd give it a 7/10 for music.

As far as replayability, it's probably not as much as PSOep.I&II, considering there's only three difficulties, and only about 300 droppable weapons, with almost half of them being rare (some even being from the same enemy on the same difficulty *COUGH Phantasma Gauntlet and Yonohate In COUGH*, but with PSZ being on a handheld system means that you're not tied down to one spot whilst doing your hunting, so it doesn't feel as bad. Hunt for insanely rare items in your room, kitchen, and your backyard, if you so desire, haha... Me, I've likely spent over 1500 total manhours playing this game, but it's not exact. ;P

One thing I will note, with how repetitively similar Quests are (run through either full-areas or double-length half-areas in which you either start at, or never get to, the half-point of full-area runs) to Field Runs (full-area runs every time, in which you WILL get to get to the half-point of an area, and will go through both halves of the area), in which the end result is the same between them both: run through area, kill boss, MAYBE retrieve some putrid-smelling mucous from a cephalopod... you know, the usual. Kinda makes for boring runs when you do quests, since there's really little variance compared to doing runs through a field (which has a supposedly higher droprate for rares than quests anyways), so it's give or take with that. You'll still have to complete all the Hard mode quests (except for the rare reward quest you get for finding the bakery, "Third Sister") to unlock Super difficulty for offline mode anyways, so don't think there's no reason to do them, because unless you never play solo, you're probably gonna need to get to Super offline sometime, and The Eternal (an almost seemingly never-ending mission where you repetitively run up through 101 floors of 5-rooms per floor of 1 wave of enemies from any area of the game per room, with a mini-boss every ten floors and the boss at floor 101), which WILL be required to be completed as well, which can take anywhere from 4-6 hours for the first runthrough on Hard, if you're not perfectly equipped already... just be prepared for that when the time comes around for it. :|

As far as offline vs. online is concerned, with this game being made with online in mind, you'd probably not even half as satisfied playing only single-player than playing with other people online if you could. You just get a better sense of accomplishment and the teamwork aspects when you and someone else are made to get along and fight together just really help keep people drawn to this game, even years after it came out (like myself, haha!)! Sure, enemies are tougher online, but it sure beats getting shafted with the stupid AI's of the CPU allies you can get in offline mode.

Originally Posted by Sebastian & PSO

Also are there still a lot of users playing online?

Oh, most definitely... well, defining "a lot", I'm not certain, but I would suppose from the looks of things, what with how Phantasy Star Zero Revival 2 group is going, we've definitely got enough people that there should almost always be someone who would be available to play with you, most of the time anyhow. If you know the group, then you should never have to worry about problems with meeting up with other people, I'll just say that much. As long as that group (or its subordinates) are still around, PSZ's online life will never die. :P

[DoctorShanks]

Originally Posted by Sebastian & PSO

Doctor Shanks - It was in regards to region codes which Australia does use PAL. I had a little search on Ebay and there's a version available from the UK so ill be emailing the seller tonight to ask if it's a PAL version or US.

Also are there still a lot of users playing online?

Regarding the first question you directed at me, I have no idea how to answer it. Sorry.

Users left playing this online? Well, there are some cases where you can log online and start up Free Play, and you could be waiting there for a VERY long time. If it takes longer than 5 minutse to match you up on Free Play, then chances are, there is nobody online with your specifications. There are SOME people left, but the number isn't all that large unfortunately.