I much prefer this game to PSU

[Ryna]

I like PSP for the following reasons:
-Being able to find completed weapons with decent percentages is preferable to synthing.
-Photon Arts and Jobs level reasonably fast.

The biggest issue I had with PSP is that too much like PSU. After playing through PSU's missions several times over, playing the exact same ones on PSP was boring.

[Dragwind]

Not to mention that everything is 10x easier, and depending on your situation you're stuck playing the game alone which is not fun. Your only other options are local friends, or dealing with a non-user friendly format of playing the game online with a much smaller player base.

I find the game to be ok as an introduction to the PSU series. PS:P2 on the other hand sounds like it's shaping up to fix those issues.

[panzer_unit]

Haha yeah, it was lol/sad that in 40 hours of PSP I already had more rares than 1000+ of PSU.

[Gibdozer]

My only real complaint is that it has no trading system, its like they tried to force out any incentive to seek out co-op games!

[panzer_unit]

Enemies need to have about twice the HP in end-game missions ... that way you'd want at least two characters beating through missions just for efficiency's sake. As it is I can clear spawns with a Tornado Break combo and a second player really doesn't speed things up much.

Or they should do more about mission maps having branching and back-tracking so a team can split up to save tons of time overall.

[Akaimizu]

The difficulty is pretty much all to the issue of the US version not getting the extra tough monster download missions. What was nice about that end game, was that you had the choice to go up against monsters well over the max level your characters can go to. It was still possible, but it definitely upped the end-game challenge. Especially since you can have 3 scape dolls (max), and you have to find every scape doll instead of being able to buy it (or in some cases, not even see a Scape doll drop in several runs).

However, I do agree. PS:P was designed first and foremost to be able to play with a pocket-system aspect in mind, plus single-player offline in mind. So as far as how quickly you get rares, among other things, I can see why it was done though it still has you playing plenty of hours to get everything considering the 1-time purchase price of the product. Absolutely well worth it, in my opinion. The 2nd one sounds like it could be insane. Having a more accessible multiplayer would give them the excuse to have extra difficult (you want a party) style missions just because they know you'll be able to team up.

Obviously, they'll have to make sure much of the necessary game missions are accessible for single-players to beat with, at most, maxed out characters. That's the nature of supporting a pocket system that demands a full-on offline experience with each title.

Still, I think it's natural progression. Phantasy Star Online started off as a game you wouldn't spend THAT many hours to beat, and you could get a lot of your stuff in much shorter time. It was then when SEGA realized that the game they didn't originally intend to have a very long grind could be made into something bigger. Thus all the additions for Version 2 and the Episode 1 and 2.

Now, if they do intend to make the game have something closer to the amount of hours (to get the stuff) as in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite; I guess it would be cool if they also add in the diversions to just combat. A casino or something would be nice, but the only bad thing I can see from that is that people would abuse a casino that has data linked to offline save files. Perhaps if the casino rewards has nothing to do with obtaining items you would use for going into combat. Maybe some decoration you can use in a room, or some funny lobby thing you get. That way cheating would serve little purpose, but winning the casino could be a fun past-time.

Like it or not, Phantasy Star will always have the standard *dungeon crawling* roots it came from. So obviously, better weapons and equipment will make things easier for you. Monster Hunter has a very different system and set-up from any "dungeon crawler" due to the idea that those who cheat for good equipment, will still have a hard time with the game unless they built up the necessary skills to use such equipment, in the first place. The difficulty curve, there, is being able to use such a weapon in the first place. So it's not as linked to a weapon's stats until you overcome the weapon-use hurdle first. Dungeon Crawlers generally make weapon use accessible to most anybody.

Thus I think PSP japan had the right idea. Don't make it cease to be a good standard Dungeon Crawler. People already fell in love with that sublime aspect since the earlier games. Just make the end game monsters a certain amount of levels over the max any character can get. Thus making the survivability a challenge for anybody who hasn't learned the deeper nuances of the game, and fight smarter to use the group and/or whatever gameplay legal exploits they can figure out to do what they need to do without dieing.