| Member Name: | Neith |  | | Name: | Darren Ruddy | | Location: | Middlesbrough, England | | When did you start PSO/PSU: | It's difficult for me to recall exactly, but judging by my join date here, it must've been early 2003. I missed out on Dreamcast PSO, so Gamecube was my first introduction to Phantasy Star in general. Anyway, I got a phonecall from a friend one night, who told me to come visit his place. "You gotta come here! I bought this awesome game for Gamecube! It's way better than Final Fantasy VIII!" At the time, I was a huge Final Fantasy fanboy (I'm really sorry, everyone...), so I didn't believe him one bit. I had planned on visiting him anyway though, so I went over. When I got to his place, I saw two of my friends playing split-screen on the Gamecube. I loved the character designs, and within 10 minutes or so, I was begging to have a go. After getting back home, I couldn't get the game out of my head. I needed this game. The very next day, I went into the town centre, picked up a used Gamecube and bought my own copy. That game was Phantasy Star Online. (And yes, it was better than Final Fantasy VIII!) | | Favorite Class: | For PSO, it has to be HUnewearl. I loved being able to switch effortlessly between melee and keeping my party alive. Plus...I gotta admit I've always had a thing for the ears. I think in all the time I played PSO, I must've had at least 6-7 HUnewearls. Now that I play PSU, I play Gunmaster a lot. The increased firing speed, combined with my love of Rifles just seemed like a perfect match for me. The people who play with me regularly know that I'm really picky on what classes I will/won't use, and Gunmaster was the first time I've felt one of PSU's classes perfectly encompassed how I wanted to play. For the record though, I'm still big on female Newmans! I have two (who melee) in PSU, but they're somewhat overshadowed by my Caseal main character, who shares my username here. | | Favorite Gamestyle: | Melee! Like I mentioned, my main character on PSU is actually a Gunner, but I always come back to my alts and resort to good-old pointless aggression on the nearest Kakwane. In particular (in PSO and PSU), I've always been very fond of using Twin Sabers (Musashi-style in PSO). I loved the flowing attack style, and in PSU the Photon Arts are very varied and allow me to use the weapon type for a lot of differing situations. Considering my melee characters are both Newman females, it can be pretty hilarious in open games to see how people react.
| | Favorite Enemy: | I'm a sucker for Delsabers. They remind me of the first time I ventured into Ruins...and ventured back to the Pioneer 2 hospital. They just seem so ominous as they fly through the air and deliver a well-placed sword to your character's face (especially in a dark room, where all you could see was the purple glowing blade/shield!). I think it was a long time before I finally figured out I had to use a gun to make them easier to beat. 100 levels later they were being mowed down with Charge Vulcans, but I still secretly loved them anyway. Obviously, since Delnadians are basically the same thing, I like them too, but my favourite PSU enemy has to be Grinna Bete S. They're one of the few enemies you need some skill to defeat, and they look awesome with the multitude of weaponry they bring against you. | | Favorite Weapon: | I think most people who've seen my posts on here know this already. Sange & Yasha. Back on PSO, it was one of the few huge accomplishments I had, and it felt really good knowing that barely anyone else had them (come on, have you seen Yasha's droprate in PSO?). I thought it was a very minimalistic weapon, that suited my relatively petite Hunter perfectly. When I saw Sange existed in PSU, I figured Yasha would make its appearance soon enough (which it did). At that point, I remade my Newman Hunter, Teika, for the sole purpose of using that weapon. I guess I saw it as a refreshing change from all the Photon-based weaponry in PSO, and an ultimate goal to work towards. | | Favorite Mag/PM: | Tough one to answer! I think I'll have to go with Sato. The idea of an odd-looking fox-robot following my character around had a certain charm to it, and it was one of the only Mags I felt had some character to it. Add to that the Invincibility abilities and it's a solid choice for any class. Plus, it's certain to go down as 'Kawaii!' with all the 'interesting' people you'd have found online!
| | Best PSO/PSU Memory: | This has to be the epic Ultimate mode Phantasmal World #4 runs online, with diZZy (hyperacute). As a HUnewearl/HUmar duo, we regularly ran this mission, which was blisteringly hard with anything less than a full team. We ran loads of this, as well as Phantasmal World #1/East Tower, trying to find a Sealed J-Sword (which unfortunately, never materialized). I just think that after playing together for a couple of years, we became good friends, and it led to me visiting him in real-life. | | Funniest PSO/PSU Memory: | Back on PSOBB, me and two team-members (Reno and Malice) were running Ultimate Temple. We got to a narrow path with El Rappies, and as normal, beat them all and advanced to the next room. It was then that Malice told us that the Rappies were not only still alive for him, but were pecking his character to death! Me and Reno ran back, and sure enough the Rappies had respawned. We decided to lure them onto the middle of the path, in a vain attempt at 'Rappy Rustling'. This went on for about an hour or more, and had all 3 of us in hysterics. It got even worse when the game started to de-sync, causing the Rappies to randomly disappear and respawn at different times for all of us. It ended up with the Rappies disappearing for Malice, leaving me and Reno to 'rustle' the so-called invisible Rappies...
An honourable mention has to go to one time during the Winter Mission Carnival on PSU. As a team of 4 (me, Touka, soubrette and diZZy), we got to the boss in World of Illusion Beta (the survival mission where everything has 2-3 times the ATP). Thinking we had it in the bag, the reaction from everyone was hilarious when De Rol Le decided to use his rockfall attack, which hit (and one-kit killed) Touka, soubrette AND diZZy. I'd noticed that Touka and soubrette had died, and thought nothing of it. It was only when I turned around to notice the raft completely devoid of any players except me that I realised why everyone had started cheering me on. Somehow, I got lucky and beat De Rol Le on my own, but I just remember finding it hilarious that after a perfect run, De Rol took out 3/4 of the team in one attack. | | Why did you join PSOW: | It was a long time ago now, so I forget the exact details, but I'm pretty sure I came here originally after lurking for a long time (to use the PSO Item Database). In fact, it may have been to ask how to unseal the Sealed J-Sword, even though I didn't even have one!
| | Best PSOW Memory: | Ah, the seemingly endless flame-wars with Kef...I kid, I kid. If I had to choose, I'd say the time shortly after I finished writing my Guide to Ultimate Mode, which is posted here on the site. I got a lot of new members mailing me, asking for help with the game, and advice on playing HUnewearl, which I thought was really nice. I've always been a firm believer in passing on help I've been given, and in the time I've spent on PSOW, I've gone from the random guy asking all the questions everyone's sick of to someone that some new players are asking advice from. I guess without PSOW, I wouldn't have picked up any of that- and I'd still be sat here today figuring out how to kill that Delsaber! | | Comments: | Newmans can melee! Also, forgive the speech, but thanks to all my friends who've been with me through PSO and PSU (in particular: diZZy, Touka, Rath, Reno, Malice and Kylie). Sorry if I didn't mention you all, but the list would be huge otherwise! For the most part, I've enjoyed my stay at PSOW, and though I have had...noticable friction with some members (you guys/girls know who you are!), it hasn't stopped me from posting. To anyone new here; don't say I didn't warn you about FKL, and for the love of God, don't provoke Shuri! Finally, thanks to Ryna and the staff of PSOW for selecting me. |
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