Page 1 of 10 1234 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 95
  1. #1

    Default What made PSO special for you?

    I keep seeing all of these different topics about "Should PSO2 have this?", or "PSO2 better have fixed THIS!", etc.

    How about if we flip it up a bit. Rather then looking at what PSO did *wrong* and we want fixed in PSO2. Instead lets see what made PSO special for you?

    For me, the overall experience of the game was enjoyable. I started playing back on DC with the original. However, at the time I didn't understand the concept of "being legit" so I had duped/cheated items etc. Nonetheless, the game was a lot of fun... and MANY a hours went into playing it.

    I quit for awhile and skipped v2 and didn't come back to the game until PSOGC. This is really where I had the most fun. To this day, I'd say PSOGC was the best game I have ever played. I'll explain why I say that:

    1) The beginning of the game. PSO in itself was very simple to get into. You have a couple buttons to press, you have some enemies to kill. You press your couple buttons and stuff dies or you die. However, as you continue to play, you begin to learn how to properly time your attacks and when you to use weapons in different situations. As you progress you are able to begin developing your MAG, learning about the % of weapons, stats begin to make sense (mats, gear), etc. The game has a logical progression to it and is able to go from being extremely simple to actually having some decent depth to it.

    2) Mags. Mags are by far one of the COOLEST features I have ever seen implemented into an RPG. You have a single piece of gear that you NEVER have to replace that grows with you based on how you want to level it. It changes at certain levels, gives you special abilities and learns different photon blasts. The sheer amount of MAGs was awesome and once you finished one you wanted to jump right into the next one so you could see something different. I've played a lot of different RPG/MMOs and as funny as it seems, this is still one of my favorite things in any game I've played. (Seriously, how many of you remember running MAG timers? I can remember plenty of times when I was doing something else, but every (3 1/2 minutes?) I'd pick up the controller and feed my mag.

    3) Ability to solo/play in groups. I'm a long time WoW player now and the one thing that I truly hate about the game is the lack of legitimate soloable content. For those that don't know what I'm talking about, in WoW once you hit max level (85 now) there is essentially no good gear that you can get by playing by yourself. You either have to run 5-mans or raids, or if you like to PVP then you're BG grinding. The problem with this is that it completely eliminates any hopes of hopping onto the game for say 45 minutes and getting something done. (I literally spend 45 minutes just waiting to get into a group). In PSO you could play 100% by yourself if you wanted to and the only real disadvantage that you had was a smaller amount of mobs to kill in hopes of getting your rare.

    At the same time, if you wanted to group, it was extremely easy to do that. You could hop into the lobby, see a list of active games and just hop in and start killing stuff. The best items in the game were not off bosses, so you were not compelled to stay to the end of the run, you could drop out at any time and not feel like you wasted your time. (Although you'd miss out on a good chunk of XP)

    4) Leveling. I know, I know... you're thinking to yourself, "Leveling? Really dude?". Just hear me out for a second though. In most MODERN MMOs, the game essentially doesn't truly "begin" until you hit max level. The truly fun things to do and all the best gear can not be obtained or equipped until max level. What this does is turn leveling into a complete and utter pointless grind. It's not fun at any point and most people try to rush through it as fast as possible.

    In PSO, there was really no *need* to get max level. It was cool and certainly a fun achievement, but you did not need to be max level to enjoy the game or the best items in the game. Once you reached "Ultimate" it where most people would say the game truly "begins". It's at that point that you can start finding the really good rares and equipped them. Weapons required a minimum stat and armor required a level. This concept made levels still relevant so you can equip the armor, but that sweet new weapon you got could be equipped almost immediately just by using a mag and shifting some of your slot items around. It was a really nice balance so that your sole purpose isn't to just grind out levels, but it also keeps your "hunts" enjoyable because you know you're always getting XP even if your rare doesn't drop.

    5) Rares. This to most people is probably the single best part of the game. I don't think I can argue that point either. The sheer amount of rare items in the game is mind boggling. To add to that, the use of section IDs added some diversity to the runs (even though in the grand scheme of things you're still just killing the same old crap over and over again).

    Every time I'd kill a group of mobs and see a red box on the ground, my heart would race a little bit. Everyone would do a mad scramble for the elusive red box just to see what it was. (Before drop charts this was even more exciting because you truly didn't know what you got until you tek'd it).

    I could go on and on and on about the rares. Like I said before, this arguably was the best part of the game and definitely what made it so addicting.

    6) Challenge Mode. Some of you may have not enjoyed Challenge mode, but I loved it. For two main reasons, which I'll explain in further detail.

    a) It was actually challenging the first few times through. It allowed you take all of your knowledge of the game and put it to real use. Is this handgun better than this saber? Am I better off using a 2-hit combo or a 3? Should I hold off on using a monomate until I level, or should I use it now? The list goes on and on and on.

    b) It allowed you to take a break from your rare hunting and obtain a guaranteed rare drop. For those of you that hunted items with drop rates of 1/1000+ you can appreciate what I'm talking about. It can get really disheartening killing the same thing 10,000 times and not getting your rare. So to be able to invest some time into Challenge mode and KNOW that you will get a good rare of your choice at the end was a nice perk.

    c) For those that enjoyed C-Mode, you could spend untold amounts of time trying to better your overall times. I know players that didn't even really play the normal game, they invested most of their time in just playing C-Mode.

    7) The community. This is a funny one, because prior to playing other games I really took this for granted. PSO truly had/has one of the best communities. People are generally helpful when asked for help. I can't even begin to count the amount of times that people would hop into a run and help me hunt a rare even though nothing in that level dropped anything of use for them.

    People were/are also very nice in terms of allowing people to play their own way. For those of you again that haven't played WoW or any other MMO that requires a lot of group play, people become serious elitists. In PSO terms, unless you were running with nothing but Charge Mechs w/Hit and a Hell Laser w/Hit you would be scrutinized to the ends of the earth. So it's nice to be able to play with people that don't care if you pull out your old Soul Eater for giggles, or start rockin' your Sigh of a God. People played for fun and the content allowed that to a certain extent.

    -----------------

    I'm sure I can add much more, but it's late and I have work in the morning. So I'll leave it at that for now and hopefully see what others really enjoyed about PSO.
    Arkios
    49HU - 58TE - 25FO - 61RA - 44GU - 50BR - 46FI - 29BO

  2. #2
    Trueblade 剣聖 Wayu's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    West Coast of US
    Posts
    4,809

    Default

    I can't remember much about PSO other than having fun blowing up entire rooms with lv. 30 Rafoies and or trolling Ultimate Mines with Megid after Megid (still never beat Vol Opt v.2 solo with a FOnewearl, though).

    But it was overall fun.

    Yeah.

    -Wayu




  3. #3
    [゚д゚] < ナカソネティーチャー Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    Not the Satellite of Love
    Posts
    7,100

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Arkios View Post
    3) Ability to solo/play in groups.
    I remember doors you couldn't pass in the Caves and Ruins unless you had at least two people online. Soloing was only really doable offline. Speaking of offline, the fact that your character was shared between offline and online modes was really great for me, despite being the source of most of the cheating problems.

  4. #4

    Default

    the fact that the game was kinda a new type of rpg it bought as new aspect onto rpg's but still kept relevant to the genre, the weapons, the improvement of weapons from PSO to PSO ep 1&2 instaed of a db's sword being a multicoloured saber it was a different saber, MAG'S! who could forget the mags loads of things i remember and love
    Add me on PSN: darkepyonuk/sega id: dasotine
    Currently playing on the PS Vita
    Tryce, Cast, Male, BR 65, Hu 49, Fi 31
    Dasotine, Human, Female, gu 46/ra 38

  5. #5
    I won the Nobel prize for texting while on duty Ithildin's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    939

    Default

    After the OP's long post I shall say, PSO's simplicity.
    Click On Banner

  6. #6
    warped://perfection Mantiskilla's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Houston, Texas
    Posts
    705

    Default

    The fact that I could play an online game on something other than my PC made the experience pretty cool. That and it got me through stressful college days (or took me away from class) but whatever works.

  7. #7

    Default

    To tell the truth. PSO became special way before I dug in deeper into the game mechanics. Really. PSO's magic happened within the first hour of play. Before mags were raised. Before finding uber rare weapons. Before even getting those higher level techniques.

    It happened because of these main things.
    1. It was a real time, action RPG online. The moment after you put the disc in the Dreamcast and created your character, you moved them around, real time. With a controller. And they trotted down the hallway, allow you to run around dodge, and perform combat motions. In 3rd person. And it was backed by RPG stats? There was just nothing like it, at the time. Not on a console. Not on PC. That alone would grip you. Just because you were able to finally craft a character, with so much control, that you could almost put yourself (literally) in the game, and control them. The connection almost felt like an extension of yourself, in a way.

    2. The Atmophere. Just like Phantasy Star originally did. It really broke the mold throwing in a Space-faring kind. The possible idea of humans using genetics and such (without restrictions) to make real what was previously in our minds as fantasy. Elves aren't real? We'll make them. Magic not real? We'll find a technological method to make us wizards. Etc. Not all of that is exactly what it seemed, but it certainly entertained the idea of Phantasy (the on-purpose misspelling) having another purpose. The idea that we use science to make our world like those in fantasy story books. The ultimate romanticism of the human race. So much of the story hinvolving creatures (including monsters) crafted from biological experimentation.

    3. Language barriers desolved, mostly. SEGA wasn't the only one that thought that having a built-in phrase selector that worked in every major language was a good idea. It was nice being able to play with the Japanese, without even barely knowing the language, and have the capacity to actually have gameplay conversations with them. Ask questions. Listen to and give instruction. I even made some friends on there, and we didn't even speak each other's language. But that translator was enough to get our points across.

  8. #8

    Default

    The unknown. I remember when i first started playing PSO, me and a friend were online and a guy entered our game, PK'd everyone and stole all our weapons and money. He told us that it was a special mag he had found then he left the game. Me and my friend spent weeks trying to find out how to get that mag until we found out it was a hack.

    After this unfortunate event, my friend and I had an agreement that we would steal other peoples items. One of us would pretend to trade with someone asking them to drop the item at their feet across the other side of the room. We would then drop some random crappy rare on the floor and then start walking to pick up the item. As the exchange was taking place, the 2nd friend would jump out from hiding behind a corner, snag both items then run off and quit the game. We would pretend we were not friends of course!

    Now as evil as it sounds, we had some real good laughs doing that and I have no problem admitting to it. Shortly after this, hacked spread needles became common place and we had to get cheat devices to keep up

    It was that initial feeling of the unknown and wondering what a certain rare item was for in your inventory that really got me hooked. "I've been playing this game for 200 hours+ and I STILL have no idea what a photon drop is. This game is endless?"

    I agree with all the OP comments but, to be different, I thought I would tell this little story.


    Playing PSP2i on PSP 6.39PRO-B6 (Online)

    PSOW save games converted: 44. Conversion Service Ended.

  9. #9

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by funkyskunk View Post
    After this unfortunate event, my friend and I had an agreement that we would steal other peoples items. One of us would pretend to trade with someone asking them to drop the item at their feet across the other side of the room. We would then drop some random crappy rare on the floor and then start walking to pick up the item.
    naaahh i remeber making rooms and calling it "i dupe for free" got em everytime
    Add me on PSN: darkepyonuk/sega id: dasotine
    Currently playing on the PS Vita
    Tryce, Cast, Male, BR 65, Hu 49, Fi 31
    Dasotine, Human, Female, gu 46/ra 38

  10. #10

    Default

    The hacking and the duping was pretty much the main ruining experience of the game, for me. I know people say, "I want to play my way." But when it keeps ME from being able to play my way, that's a problem. The worst part was actually the potential for getting your character completely ruined after all the work you did. Once NOL came out, that was it. Nothing but locked rooms and playing with friends. It got too risky to play with randoms anymore.

    I could play the game, but the initial magic of connecting well with total strangers, regardless of the language they speak, for a good dose of PVE was gone.

Similar Threads

  1. Poll: What made PSO better than PSU (if anything?)
    By Ken_Silver in forum PSU General
    Replies: 135
    Last Post: Nov 13, 2007, 08:33 PM
  2. what does luck do for you???
    By Fudge-Ocelot in forum PSO General
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: Apr 4, 2007, 09:55 PM
  3. Gamecube and Xbox: What quests are online for you right now?
    By Getintothegame in forum PSO General
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: Jul 16, 2005, 07:15 PM
  4. What does PSO mean to you?
    By SuperCivilian in forum Lounge
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: May 7, 2003, 09:36 PM
  5. WHAT NEW PSO CHARACTER DO YOU WANT TO USE WHEN IT COMES OUT
    By SHINGEN in forum PSO: Mag, Quest, Item and Section ID
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: Jul 18, 2002, 12:04 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •