Sakai Answers Questions

[WBMike]

Very difficult to translate, but Shougai PSO updated so now I can put some information together.

http://ameblo.jp/phantasy-star-portable2/entry-10338280964.html

Line Shields


Line Shields can be changed from the Action Palette
You can Equip up to 6 Line Shields

Unit Slot


You now have Free Slots
You can mix and match units of any type.
For Example you can equip 2 Extra units at the same time
Allowing you to have SUV and Garment Aura.

Difficulty


Monsters are increasingly difficult
There is a change of difficulty from Story Mode to Multi Mode
Sakai describes playing solo like hell.
Playing with 2 players makes it somewhat better.
It feels good with 3 players
It feels somewhat easy with 4 players

Scape Dolls


No scape dolls in shops
You can find scape dolls in a mission, but they have low drop rate
You can exchange something to receive them while advancing the story. -thanks mike

Weapons


Guns and Technic weapons are endowed with attributes
Some rare weapons will experience a boost in technic power

[landman]

What I understand from what you say, is that you can equip anything in the "free slot", so you could equip an extra head/arm/body/extra unit, but I doubt two SUV or two auras would work, it would provably only add the stats from both units (or the aura effect and the SUV attack)

[Dhylec]

They definitely tweak the difficulty, specially w/scape dolls. PSU's scapes should be like that. ;3

[Volcompat321]

Wonder if the added in playing story missions after you beat it.
I games I play, and can, I like going back to get 100% of the things in a mission.
So, if you can get a rare in only story mission 3, and you passed it without knowing, you can choose to go back and replay it.
I hope PS:P2 has this.

[Akaimizu]

Actually, the scape doll thing is the thing that already exists in PSP1. You only can have a max of 3 at a time, on your character. Scape Dolls are only found as rare drops in a mission. And yes, you may go through a number of missions and maybe get 1 scape doll, at times, depending on your luck.

Now PSP1 did have some difficulty, (class dependant) until your end game. That is, if you go into S-class missions, alone, as soon as you meet the level requirements; certain missions may hurt you badly. (Often enough, it's just one group of mobs that hit hard enough, take a good amount of damage, don't freeze too well, and are hard to exploit with hit and run tactics) Of course, that gets a lot easier with another human around or two. (Which makes even limited-time trap use a whole lot more significant) It's just the end game that has you killing everything without much effort.

[Volcompat321]

Well, in the JP game, of PS:P1, you can carry up to 10 scapes, and you can buy them in the shops. (though I think they show up randomly).
So this was probably answering for the JP game, since the US/EU release hasn't been released yet.

[WBMike]

Aha! That was confusing me. I was wondering why he was talking about 10 scape dolls and not 3. He wrote that he lowered the amount of scape dolls in possession (but at the time of writing the OP i was wondering how can it possibly be lowered from 3...)

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

Same here. I was thinking "Are we going to carry around 1 or 2 dolls now?" and as for difficulty I was thinking that its near impossible to solo missions. But now that I know he was talkin about the JP version I can breathe a sigh of relief.

[Volcompat321]

Haha, yea, a lot of people were confused by that (not what you mentioned) but by why the JP game has 10 and the US/EU has only 3, and cant buy em in shops.
So, PS:P2 JP, you are down to 3 scapes?
I hope the US/EU release keeps that number, cause holding 1-2 scapes (specially when it's harder at first, and solo) would be some shit.

[Amherst_Wind]

I thought that Line shield symbol in the bottom right was for a Line shield palette. :D
Also more freedom with unit equipping is a very welcome change, compared to PSO or PSZero, the PSU system is so restrictive and annoying.

I never knew they changed the scape dolls from 10 to 3 for the US release of PSPortable, thats... weird. I always felt having 10 was fine because they were rarely for sale and almost never dropped. Only having 3 and only having them drop will be going back to PSO days of Scape Doll rarity! :o

edit: Although if he didn't say 3 specifically, maybe its only been lowered to 5 or 6.

[panzer_unit]

Now PSP1 did have some difficulty, (class dependant) until your end game. That is, if you go into S-class missions, alone, as soon as you meet the level requirements; certain missions may hurt you badly.

Yeah, I got burned horriffically by that in Endrum Remnants A actually. My human PT had blown most of his healing, scapes, and charges against the Bete's and I was hallway-camping them for quick trips to the recharger before they finally gunned me down. Actually I think all my losses in PS:P have been handed to me by Grinna Bete and their various cousins. Encounters with multiple mid-bosses in that game are harsh... they have hard enough attacks to avoid even one-on-one, and hit like a boss (and worse with buffs)

One thing I really hated about PS:P missions were that most of the single mid-boss encounters that spice up the mission along the way to the end were removed. It's just little creatures and humanoid-sized stuff for the most part.

[Volcompat321]

I don't know...I really didn't find the game hard at all, though I made a Cast.
The only thing I found super hard was the Jp DLC mission where it's like 6 blocks of True Darkness type monsters, with Fakis as the boss.
I mastered all classes with both my characters, and even with a male Newman, it was fairly simple.
Even with the no knockbacks with rifles, it was easy.
I stopped playing PS:P1 after we found out there was no character transfer. There really is no point in playing anymore. :(

[blyr]

Somewhat worried about the difficulty thing in Multi mode.. I generally like to play alone.. I suppose I'll manage though, as long as it's not ridiculously hard.. and if it is, I'll just grind high enough to where nothing is a challenge :P

Happy about the armor, adds more PSO nostalgia.. and it was always a pain in the butt to find a really good line shield, that didn't have a extra slot, or a head slot, so I couldn't use it..

[relentless]

Challenges? Difficuilty...? O,o!!! Hell yeah!
The line shield palette supports my laziness, and that scape doll thing's been good since PSP1. :)
Nice clearance.~

[Chuck_Norris]

Somewhat worried about the difficulty thing in Multi mode.. I generally like to play alone.. I suppose I'll manage though, as long as it's not ridiculously hard.. and if it is, I'll just grind high enough to where nothing is a challenge :P

I hope not. I want this game to be so ball bustingly hard that you have to have 4 people to get through high end missions. I want you to need those dodge rolls and reaction blocks. I want the game to kick your ass and make people run back to White Beast on PSU.

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

Probably not gonna be that hard Chuck. Maybe a slight increase in "PAIN IN MY ASS!" than "WTF!? Did that Rappy just shoot me with a Megid AND a Barta at the same time? Is that CAST enemy shooting bullets that shoot more bullets?"

[panzer_unit]

I hope PS:P2 recognizes that there's a difference between "hard" and "slow".

Original online PSU was pretty hard because EVERY GOD DAMNED THING YOU FOUGHT was made out of titanium plated diamond and had to be beaten upon for ages before it would give up the ghost and let you move on. AOI and PS:P let you kill things with a reasonable amount of effort, like a full PA combo... but then you're getting through most fights without giving enemies a chance to lay a claw or bite on you.

It's almost like there should be some really strict limit on how much PA spamming a player can do, so that they're not just blowing through every encounter. That would add to the strategy/energy management gameplay, but you would probably need some way to avoid enemy attacks in order to survive fighting through waves of enemies with normal attacks. TA-DA it would be PSU fixed.

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

Yea I really don't want the difficulty to be "This level one booma has enough HP and DEF to qualify for a final dungeon monster! Enjoy smackin em wit yo stick!". Thats just f*ckin stupid even for a portable game. And I DON'T want it Monster Hunter hard either. I'm not a Monster Hunter fan. As a matter of fact I freakin hate it. I tried to like it but I don't. As a matter of fact the difficulty in PSP1 should have the difficulty setting of Left 4 Dead. It starts out normally but the game gauges your performance. If your doing really good then it gives enemies a boost in level. if it sees your gettin your ass beat it'll make it a smidge easier...but your still gonna get whupped if you don't becarefull.

[Mike]

But you can find them in the opening mission of story mode.

Are you sure about this? I think he might be talking about collecting something like badges or photon drops to trade for scape dolls.

ただし、ストーリーを進めていくと開いていくミッションにて、あるものを集めて入手する事は可 能です。
Sounds like PS0's photon drop shop to me.

And don't forget that guns and rods/wands also have %s now too! Bullets have also been changed from elemental to "high attack power" bullets, "accurate" bullets, and "long range" bullets. (Don't know why I needed quotes....)

[WBMike]

Thanks, I just came back home, Shougai PSO updated and will be adding that to it

They wrote a comment about exchanging something for scape dolls

[Blueblur]

Excellent news. Keep it coming, guys.

[furrypaws]

If you play multi mode alone, it feels like hell.


Do want. As long as nothing's OHKOing me and I can go in multimode without an internet connection, I'll have a blast. PSU's difficulty was a little overdone, but that was only because you leveled like molasses. If they kept the same EXP values but cranked the enemy stats back up, I think it'd be perfect. Better than the whole "kill every spawn in less than three seconds" thing we've got going now.

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

There is a benefit to playin multi mode alone though. You get all the missions enabled without having to unlock them. Which is good if there is a certain weapon you wish to get and don't feel like trudging through the glorious and well written plot of the story.

[Blueblur]

There is a benefit to playin multi mode alone though. You get all the missions enabled without having to unlock them. Which is good if there is a certain weapon you wish to get and don't feel like trudging through the glorious and well written plot of the story.
:lol: You're starting to become my favorite poster.

[Arika]

change this online too! , Come on!, SeKaI! Se-chan!.

[Phaesphora]

Well... soloing is what I do best, so the difficulty news is a concern. If it only pertains to soloing Multi mode, then I suppose it is no big deal.

I'd like to have a majority of missions (60%+) viable for solo play, as well as a few that are simply impossible without 3+ players.

[3R]

What's the point in hoping for a decent online mode if you only want to solo?

IMO, one of the flaws PSU has is that cooperation isn't really a must, so these news sound quite promising.

I wish there would be more missions like security breach where in fact best items would drop there instead at soloable missions.

[Volcompat321]

Some of the first bit of information we got said "there will be multiplayer missions where you will have to do more than slay monsters" or something along those lines.

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

Whoa! Puzzle missions huh? The majority of the Multi missions could easily be soloed. I mean the only reason you needed 4 people was to get to the areas with the item boxes and rare monsters.

[Amherst_Wind]

More puzzle missions like the PSP1 DLC or the missions that pop up on PSU during events are a must, its nice to see that they'll finally be added as a regular part of a PS game for once.

[WBMike]

Totally slipped passed me, a interview with Sakai with Dengeki. He added some new details.


Character Creation voice is completely new.
Running Animation changed (supposedly it’s dynamic, and full of motivation.)
If you attack an enemy with an opposite element Technic, you will see new animation.
For example, ice will scatter if you attack a fire enemy with ice elemental technics.
They had differing opinions on how they would set up the NANO/SUV blast gauge
*He won’t say how it will work at this time.
The approximate time it takes to clear a mission is in the mission counter
(multi mode) Players do not receive the same item drop.
Collaboration items with food and drink industry.
Expect some kind of linkage to PSU:Aoi

dps psu (http://dps.dengeki.com/psu/2009/09/1_1.html) (also see psujp guides with maps in dengeki >_>)

[Arika]

Collaboration items with food and drink industry.
>>> something like FFXII's potion, and FFXIII 's Elixer?

I think it will be... Monomate! <,<

[landman]

I thought there could be real brands in the game as items, like in the Yakuza series.

About the drops, I still think the best drop system is the one from PSØ...

[SubstanceD]

Somewhat worried about the difficulty thing in Multi mode.. I generally like to play alone.. I suppose I'll manage though, as long as it's not ridiculously hard.. and if it is, I'll just grind high enough to where nothing is a challenge :P

Happy about the armor, adds more PSO nostalgia.. and it was always a pain in the butt to find a really good line shield, that didn't have a extra slot, or a head slot, so I couldn't use it..


I'm also a little bit worried about the difficulty of Multi Mode since I will almost always be playing solo and if PSP2's storymode is anything like PSP1's then I will definetly be sticking to Multi Mode as much as possible. Not that I thought PSP was all that difficult, it's just that I kind of hit a wall once my character hit level 70, my character stopped leveling up. The obvious solution to this was to do more S rank missions but my charcter wasn't strong enough to do most S rank missions without using at least 1 scape doll ( which would make me mad and upset ) and the Exp rewards wern't worth the aggravation and the disgust ( at my weakness and my lack of skill ) that I would feel afterward.

[Amherst_Wind]

Totally slipped passed me, a interview with Sakai with Dengeki. He added some new details.


(multi mode) Players do not receive the same item drop.


The way thats worded is confusing me, is it implying that the drop system is now like PSZero with everyone in the party getting unique item drops (a Saber might come out of a box for player 1 but for player 2 a Handgun comes out)?
Or does it mean they simply removed the 'everybody gets the rare' from PSP1?

[BioWarrior]

The way thats worded is confusing me, is it implying that the drop system is now like PSZero with everyone in the party getting unique item drops (a Saber might come out of a box for player 1 but for player 2 a Handgun comes out)?
Or does it mean they simply removed the 'everybody gets the rare' from PSP1?

Sounds like the loot system from PSZero which I honestly enjoyed quite a bit.

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

Brand names in my PSP2? So a Quizno's Ranchero will have the same affect as a Trimate? A bottle of Cherry Pepsi will fill up half my PP guage? Will I get to use dual M1911 .45s? Maybe a for a room deco I'll have lamps that are from some little known Swedish company that over-paid rich people know about? Crazy time!

[landman]

Wow, I hope the drop system is like the PSØ one then, I always feel oppressed while playing in a PSU party: "don't grab this, the other players may don't want it" "is this crap or is this worth it?", etcetera...

[DreXxiN]

Sounding more and more awesome every day.

[RC_SEGA]

Thanks for the update. It's sounding really good.

[Mike]

PSP2 won't have PS0's "big treasure box" though. We've seen screenshots where items have dropped from enemies.

[WBMike]

Lol yes that is correct, in essence Sakai says:

In Phantasy Star Portable, the same item went to every player,
however in PSP2, the item drops are separated. It's almost like PSzero but
you won't see the items scatter all over the place from, as mike said,
that one "big treasure box". Then he talks about that drop item shapes
which we already know about (octahedron)

[Amherst_Wind]

Well thats another great bit of news, PSZero handled item drops perfectly! I guessed it wouldn't have PSZero's big treasure boxes though, they really only suit PSZero's block type rooms.

[WBMike]

http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/o0480027210254152166.jpg

This is the ice scattering effect described in Sakai's interview, this happens when you hit the enemy with the opposite element.