Phantasy Star Online 2 Announcement!

[Eidolus_Dyne]

Eidolus Dyne mentioned a preference for PSO's environmental variety as opposed to PSU's preference for simple, easily reused topography.

To note, Episode 1 had relatively boring topography, though the Mines and Ruins were nonetheless visually impressive enough to outweigh this concern. Even the first half of Episode 2 had boring topography, though the VR Spaceship had, again, good visuals (as well as excellent music, which sure as hell didn't hurt).

Although Temple and Spaceship had mostly flat terrain, there was some cool stuff. Remember, Topography is more than just elevation. Room shapes play a big role. I loved the small modular rooms in Temple, the ones that sometimes had a hole in the middle, with a little platform there. Or the raised center variation. I also seem to be only one who liked the tight labyrinths. It was pretty easy to navigate them once you got the hang of things. Spaceship also had some interesting elevation changes that mostly went unnoticed. You can see a lot of them from walkways and windows. I think though, in terms of tight passages, again Central Control Area wins points. There was a secret cave in the second Jungle area, where you break a rock and wiggle back into a water filled cave. I think there's a sinow beril fight down there.

The only accomplishment that made PSO stages so noticeably unique, was that they had animated life. If water is present animating it is a must, but plants area easy to ignore as static. Yet many plants in Ep2 shift subtly in the wind. Or wave drastically in the Gal Gryphon fight. Every area has some kind of floating, flying, or crawling life form in the background. Or creepy bulgy flesh webs, like in Ruins 3. They even did that fog in CCA or the blowing dust in the crater. These details get over looked when comparing PSO and PSU. One had them, the other didn't, and the later suffered because of it.

Although PSU did have some nice falling leaves and swirling darkness in some areas. Mizuraki CD felt more alive than Raffon Field for it. I think my favorite stage from PSU was Rozenome City. It had some swirling dust effects and used that dead desolate feel most PSU levels had to its advantage.

I'm hearing the original creator has his hands back on the game why did ever leave?

Yeah, I have NO clue why Sakai didn't hold the reigns with PSU. All I know is he's back, and delivering rolled gold. Delicious PS pretzels. Ha ha.

[Ragrappy99]

I don't think I've ever seen so many people browsing the PSO board.

[S N K]

Just knowing it's being made at all is a huge relief, honestly, just because, with the shutting down of the PC/PS2 servers, there's been nothing there to fill the void (unless you go on the JP servers and deal with the language barriers there).

There was plently to fill the void. Other games besides PSO which have had real support and content that hasn't fizzled out in a couple of years.

Plus the PSP series has been going really strong lately; strong enough that an HD, spruced-up version of PSP2 would probably be quite welcome for many of us.

Portable online gaming was never my thing but PSO in general was a ninch market. It's something I loved to play but, after getting immersed into a game like FFXI, Sega's gonna have to do better then that to keep me interested.

But the PSO name is something of a holy grail for sega; it was their first real online title, and a successful one, at that.

Lol No. It was a clusterfuck. With the rampant hacking, cheating, Noling *Props to you if you remember that bullshit* duping, and overall no real GMing whatsoever, It wasn't even close to a success as it could have been. A fun game to play was it's success mark but it was a total failure as an Online Role-Playing Game.

I get the impression there's probably a ton of pressure on the team's shoulders to deliver... the question is whether or not they have the competence and confidence to pull through.

That's a no brainer.....

I doubt they'd risk tarnishing the brand's good name.

I don't know about that, They sure as shit didn't have a problem tarnishing it with the last few games already.

[coreyblueexclusive]

Although Temple and Spaceship had mostly flat terrain, there was some cool stuff. Remember, Topography is more than just elevation. Room shapes play a big role. I loved the small modular rooms in Temple, the ones that sometimes had a hole in the middle, with a little platform there. Or the raised center variation. I also seem to be only one who liked the tight labyrinths. It was pretty easy to navigate them once you got the hang of things. Spaceship also had some interesting elevation changes that mostly went unnoticed. You can see a lot of them from walkways and windows. I think though, in terms of tight passages, again Central Control Area wins points. There was a secret cave in the second Jungle area, where you break a rock and wiggle back into a water filled cave. I think there's a sinow beril fight down there.

The only accomplishment that made PSO stages so noticeably unique, was that they had animated life. If water is present animating it is a must, but plants area easy to ignore as static. Yet many plants in Ep2 shift subtly in the wind. Or wave drastically in the Gal Gryphon fight. Every area has some kind of floating, flying, or crawling life form in the background. Or creepy bulgy flesh webs, like in Ruins 3. They even did that fog in CCA or the blowing dust in the crater. These details get over looked when comparing PSO and PSU. One had them, the other didn't, and the later suffered because of it.

Although PSU did have some nice falling leaves and swirling darkness in some areas. Mizuraki CD felt more alive than Raffon Field for it. I think my favorite stage from PSU was Rozenome City. It had some swirling dust effects and used that dead desolate feel most PSU levels had to its advantage.



Yeah, I have NO clue why Sakai didn't hold the reigns with PSU. All I know is he's back, and delivering rolled gold. Delicious PS pretzels. Ha ha.

Maybe he didn't like where PSU heading and now he wants to start fresh,but I could wrong,but whoever took over PSU ran this game into the ground deep.I'm hoping he starts fresh and it has that PSO smell to it,and if it's global that would be even better.(More people is gonna equal more fun.)I'm praying it's not PSU with a PSO2 title slapped on it.They should update the old engine or something.

[coreyblueexclusive]

I don't think I've ever seen so many people browsing the PSO board.

PSO2 thats why .If the first gameplay video is good people are gonna flock here and I think many people are not staying because of PSU.(I dont blame them,PSO was good for it's time but PSU kinda didn't have that feeling to it.I look at old videos now and compare them to PSU.PSU doesn't draw me into it.PSO on the other hand still looked fun,I dont how they did it,but that old looked had something special about it.(Kinda like how WoW people still play,WoW it's just has something about it that keeps people playing.

[Palle]

Hm, I look forward to hearing more about this. Don't really want to build a PC for one game... but I suppose if they return to something more akin to the PS roots, I may have to. Time will tell.

Think I'll play some PSO today.

[MegaZoneXE]

i prefer Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Zero Ranger class over Phantasy Star Univers Ranger any day. i just couldnt enjoy or get into Ranger(s) or any long range weapon class in PSU.

The combo system in PSo/0 for rangers ( i prefer PSU fighting system for hunters in PSU) is just simple unique....!

[Puppet_Papaya]

. With the rampant hacking, cheating, Noling *Props to you if you remember that bullshit* .

Can I get a "HEL YEH!"

[Zyrusticae]

(stuff)

Okay... seriously... what the hell are you on?

Whatever it is, you need to lay off it. Seriously. This is ridiculous. I can't even type up a detailed reply to this because all I hear is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, you're wrong and so very wrong wrong everything sucks they suck it's gonna suck wrong and, really, what the hell do I have to say to that?

I will say this: There hasn't been another game that looks and plays like the PSO series yet. How you failed to understand that is beyond my comprehension. There has been nothing to fill the void. I mean, what could you possibly be referring to? There is nothing like it. Nothing. Period.

[Heartz]

I don't think I've ever seen so many people browsing the PSO board.

Heck, I joined this site yesterday just so I can get in on the discussion of PSO2. Fans are ready for something new. This is PSO2, not a spin-off like PSU was. If Sonic Team is willing to bring Phantasy Star back to the roots of the original online game, then I can expect some excitement.