@ Somebody who played PSO...

[Zipzo]

I was a huge player of PSO. I loved the long epic grind to 200, and made so many good friends and had such a great little niche in Antares 8 with lots of cool people all the way there. Always running anything in ultimate because it was all good exp if you had a good party, and Seabed/CCA runs with friends were just f'n epic.

Is the grind to 200 on the psp2 just as formidable? Tougher? Much easier?

I cannot wait to purchase the NA release of this game to make some all new friends while leveling up all the way to 200, but if the journey is short then I'll just be disappointed :(.

(The Gear hunting stuff gets stale for me in the phantasy star games)

I meant this as a PSP2 post, so my bad.

[kongajinken]

I'm level 148/24 after almost 250 hours. I could just be bad at the game though. I would say it's harder then PSO from the fact that once you get hit your not invincible for 2-3 secs like in PSO.

[GUARDIANDNL]

i find it more difficult, it takes a long run to level up, specially if you re doing solo runs, but it is fun.... a lot!!!!, also i like that the s ranks mission with enemies starting at lvl 190 gives a lot of difficult too, not like pso when you are over 150 its really hard that some enemy kills you without being sloopy to fight him

[darkante]

The challenge is there, the huge level gap is the biggest reason since the requirement is lower then one might expect.

[Flamingo99]

I find this game to be more challenging than PSO also. For example, I've noticed that the dragon in PS:P2 has a few moves (The fireballs and landing stomp) that require you to dodge or block so you don't get destroyed. The Dragon in PSO was pretty much a punching bag.

The game is really fun. They took the best of PSO, PSU, and PSZ and put it in this game. All that's missing are MAGs. ;;

[Akaimizu]

I also find it a bit more challenging. Like it or not, these Phantasy Star games have become even more action oriented and deal the combat based on the faster way your character moves and attacks. PSO, though a bit more limited in movement speed and attack, was a good deal more lenient based on those limitations.

However, online was part of the push for PSP2's added difficulty. If you weren't quick enough on levelling, you'll often have to face their challenges with lesser stuff. Thus you have a fight on your hands with even some of the general enemies in the game. Good example. Drill rappies at levels for which a single one of them can take a good chunk of your lifebar, and even worse, hit stun you for another attack to hit you. (perhaps by a stronger monster)

I also think, it's because you have to manage a little bit more in how you fight, in this. Even if you ignore the combo system, you're generally managing your Photon Energy between times you attack, pull of Photon Arts, dodge roll, block (more of a timing thing, sometimes block is the better choice than attempting the dodge roll), and techniques. Though they have streamlined other things as well. The ability to quick swap your armors, in battle, is a real nice thing and allows a smoother combat strategy when you go up against monsters with different attack elements.

Oddly enough, that last thing was the toughest to program into my mind. I got so used to the PSU ways. Where you might, at best, set up your armors before an entire level, and maybe switch once through it. It's also another series of button combinations, I had to learn, to bring it closer to instinct, like I did for weapons and items. Even now, I'm still not quite there with that.

Outside of the Hardest Difficulty, in PSO, the game more or less eased you into it, and allowed you to rely on simpler combat mechanics. With few exceptions. There were some oddly more difficult missions thrown in, where it spiked the difficulty out of nowhere. I think that was more prominent in the Dreamcast versions, as they fixed some of those by the Gamecube and Xbox ports. For instance, anybody remember Mome? Remember De Roi le? A mission, stuck right in the early part of the middle section of missions where you not only had to keep the guy alive through the whole mission, you had to keep him alive against De Roi Le. It made the mission way harder than it needed to be since some of the De Roi Le attacks killed him outright. (Thus why Mome got the early hate. It's the Dreamcast players remembering the fist shaking issues of throwing such a weak guy at a boss that can fail the mission with a single attack you can't stop.)

The ports changed it to have him effectively taken out of combat, on the boss. At least 10 times easier. At least, it did bring the difficulty down so that things ramped up a bit more properly.

I would say that Blue Burst had moments like that. They allowed lower level players to jump right into episode 4. To a degree, that offered similar challenges. Though to be fair, I didn't have to think about as many game mechanics. If you get whipped, you're more quick to consider it an issue with your character level and gear, whereas you're more convinced that a better strategy will win you over your power deficit, on PSP2.

[Izuna]

In about 150 hours you can get to Level 200 and 30 in all classes, but that's only if you just grind for EXP. In PSP2 getting weapons is much easier, but you're able to switch out different weapons for the sake of it like in PSO, because you can have essentially a custom class using any weapon you want.

I'd say PSP2 plays better than PSO (and only PSP2 does), but the balance of statistics is no where near as good. PSP2 starts out very good, but as you reach higher levels (like 80) it just becomes more and more like PSU, eventually when you reach 175+ it becomes just like PSU, and you're better off making a new character.

[Akaimizu]

I still think it also depends on class and access. There are some combinations where the level 80s still offer a good bit of challenge. But give or take, as you approach the endgame levels, you do still start to outbalance things. Then again, by then, you normally worry about rare drops and not so much on difficulty, with that character.

I also wonder how much *luck* plays a factor in how quickly you get everything up to 30.

Then again. If they do like PSP1, I wouldn't be surprised if its the DLC that provides some endgame difficulty. Something that the US version of PSP1 didn't get. Downloads where the enemies were a good deal higher leveled than you could possibly get, which kept endgamers on their toes.

[Zipzo]

In about 150 hours you can get to Level 200 and 30 in all classes, but that's only if you just grind for EXP. In PSP2 getting weapons is much easier, but you're able to switch out different weapons for the sake of it like in PSO, because you can have essentially a custom class using any weapon you want.

I'd say PSP2 plays better than PSO (and only PSP2 does), but the balance of statistics is no where near as good. PSP2 starts out very good, but as you reach higher levels (like 80) it just becomes more and more like PSU, eventually when you reach 175+ it becomes just like PSU, and you're better off making a new character.150 hours? I think I remember my hour count in PSO getting to 200 at around like...1000ish. I mean I suppose you have to take lots of lobbying time in to account because I was really social with my keyboard a lot of the time but 150 hours would be implying that the 200 grind is essentially much easier if it's that big a gap.

I knew someone that grinded to 200 in one month, but he was on like every single day, doing non-stop TTF runs after it came out, alllllll day. To the point where the crowd kinda knew him as the "crazy" guy.

[kongajinken]

There's a mission called magashi eradication and the enemies there give 200% more xp and have much less health then normal enemies. He probably was refering to only doing this mission over and over.

I did it a few dozen times but got bored of it so stopped running it.

[SammaeltheDark]

There's a mission called magashi eradication and the enemies there give 200% more xp and have much less health then normal enemies. He probably was refering to only doing this mission over and over.

I did it a few dozen times but got bored of it so stopped running it.
Not to mention that it costs trade items to run so you wouldn't be able to just run it over and over again for too long before you run out of the items necessary to run The Magashi Plan.

[Izuna]

Not to mention that it costs trade items to run so you wouldn't be able to just run it over and over again for too long before you run out of the items necessary to run The Magashi Plan.

You get the rarest of them during the mission.

[kongajinken]

You get the rarest of them during the mission.

The one's you get from that mission are the one's I have the most of(around 350).

[Nidramag]

For instance, anybody remember Mome? Remember De Roi le? A mission, stuck right in the early part of the middle section of missions where you not only had to keep the guy alive through the whole mission, you had to keep him alive against De ROL Le. It made the mission way harder than it needed to be since some of the De ROL Le attacks killed him outright. (Thus why Mome got the early hate. It's the Dreamcast players remembering the fist shaking issues of throwing such a weak guy at a boss that can fail the mission with a single attack you can't stop.)
Oh God. That was Hell. The stupid as meme NPC's


150 hours? I think I remember my hour count in PSO getting to 200 at around like...1000ish. I mean I suppose you have to take lots of lobbying time in to account because I was really social with my keyboard a lot of the time but 150 hours would be implying that the 200 grind is essentially much easier if it's that big a gap.

I knew someone that grinded to 200 in one month, but he was on like every single day, doing non-stop TTF runs after it came out, alllllll day. To the point where the crowd kinda knew him as the "crazy" guy.

Oh God. In between my two level 200 Battle Forces (Katz and KATZ) and my relativley high leveled TUNA and Ver 2.04, I, and I kid you not, have well over 3000 hours clocked. Yes, I was very social. and a couple times I left it on all night. but seriously. That game ate a lot of my life. I love it

Not counting DC days. That's just Gamecube.

[NAM]

Man if you guys had that much I know mine had that much, sheesh I played that game like it was a 9 to 5 (in 6th-7th grade that is). PSO is one game I do not regret using time of my life on, I miss that game because it was a work of art and a worthy child hood expirience.

I think this game might have possible potential to have that earthy/homey feeling of PSO, however I think the quick level gain might be an issue (200+ for lv.200 :P when PSO it took like 5 times more of that to get even close) and the easyness of finding rares.

I also think some of the PSU features that were taken out shouldn't have been and some should've been taken out. The PA color indication was unecessary, they just should've retouched the gross purple aura of PSU vanilla or made the PA colour match the weapon element.

One more thing is the taking out of player shops, and making trading basically useless was a bad idea imo. One more would be that they're now one-piecing every new wardrobe. :S

Actually another thing I think they should've done to bring a good feel of PSO was a darker theme to the ship and each shop have their own theme. The cake shop should've been a shop about clothes especially when you can only get the good cake stuff from the missions so the cake shop is practically useless. :P