What Would it Take to Return to PSU?

[Mike]

Free would be nice. Just take the GC to the next level and make the rest of the game free. Either way, I won't be playing until I fix my computer. If I could do that, then I'd be perfectly happy either way.

[autumn]

- Racial, type, enemy and mission changes. A reason to play human / newman, force types and hybrid types being worthwhile, improved enemy AI, and an overhaul to enemy levels and drops in older missions. And I don't mean S3 variants, new players have a hard time leveling up anywhere other then White Beast because its the prime spot to level up low characters.
- Actual rare items. When I started playing the psycho wand was the must have for me. Me and the fiance put in the effort to hunt and hunt, then we had to hunt some more for materials. My first psycho wand [b] was the most awesome feeling, I was hopping around my living room (it subsequently failed in its synthesis but that's for the next note) There isn't too much that is rare in PSU anymore and the few things that are really aren't worth finding unless you must have the 1337est gear. I want some epic equipment that is nigh impossible to find.
- Synthesis changed. I spend over a million meseta into this pointless little loli robot only to have her still fail in making my high end equipment? Last I was on synthesis wasn't cheap for S rank items. You pay in either time or money for the board, the materials, and the PM to make it in. With items based on % a good portion of the time you'd be better off selling the board and materials and using the profits to purchase what you wanted already made. There is little else in PSU that feels worse then when your hours of work to get an item results in an okiku doll.
- Grinding. Mostly pointless, if they must have it make it similar to PSO. You get the grinder, it works, done. I'd prefer if they just scrapped it altogether.
- People to run with.

I think at this point it would better to just put down PSU and work on a new PS game. I haven't had the chance to see if the changes made in PS:P2 are as good as they look so I don't know whether to say implement those changes. I'd like to either see all players playing together or have the US/EU side either 1:1 with JPs updates or with a different update schedule altogether. There is very little exciting in US/EU PSU because everything that will come in the future already has guides written for it, youtube videos showing how to run it most optimally, pictures for the new items with all the stats listed, what missions are coming, I'm sure you guys get the idea. The only changes made between US/EU updates and JP ones are generally for the worse and take longer to get here. If this continues it is sure to make for fail in a game.

I know there is a ton more but I've lost the will to keep this up.

[Seira7]

Better Enemy AI. No waves of different enemy races moving toward me in a triangular robotic pattern. Put some elbow grease into designing enemy AI please. If the Sinow Beat in PSu2 loses
its traditional moves I give up on SEGA. really.

Take ideas from PSu2/PS0 implement them in PSU. ATA = bullet power? Hollly **** Ive wanted that a long time, then Newmans can be great rangers.

MAGS. I know some people will hate this one, but its something from PSO that I think should have stayed. They were a fun little "side game" in addition to being there to boost your stats. Include random rare forms to give people even more incentive to breed them. Yay pokemon. Nay loli-bots.

THeres a lot I love about PSU. But there wasnt enough to keep me around to play. However, with great ideas and innovation (or, copying a tried and true formula ala-PSO) the newer handheld titles have succeeded in wow-ing me. Bring a bit of that handheld goodness over into the console game thx. It does after all have a monthly fee.

[BFGfreak]

Put at least the full online component on Xbox Live's "Games on Demand", that way, those 2 full universes on the demo can actually find the game. Now granted most are playing the demo because they feel it's better than the full game (ie actually hard bosses to take on) or for the free payment and lack of sega's harmful influence, but still, some of them simply can't find the game in stores.

Hell, it's one of the top rated demo's on Xbox Live for crying out loud, if sega is unwilling to put time and effort to keeping this game afloat, Don't even bother with a sequel. They way I view it is one's an anomaly, two's a trend. if the first 2 online phatasy star games died from lackluster support, what makes you think a third one would have a different fate?

Speaking of that, get better support. sega sucks at it.

[garjian]

all it would take...


is fixing white beast...


even if only the AOTI missions were balanced... i could at least get a party AND have fun.

[panzer_unit]

I don't know what the game balance in PSU is like these days, but I'd feel a little sad if Sega decided that the next thing to do with their franchise was port PS:P2 to PC and Consoles and say that's the state of the art for Phantasy Star as a MMO.

1. the game needs to make every enemy encounter challenging for a team of players again. THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE PLAY ONLINE RPGS FOR, AM I RIGHT?
Realistically this is like 2-3 groups of 4-6 targets each, all coming from different directions. Then we can start talking about characters needing to fill specific roles for their team in a fight.

2. make synthesis and grinding work 100% of the time with a small chance of getting EVEN BETTER results instead of working most of the time and then letting you down every now and then.

3. equipment needs random special effects. PSO's low-level gear had a diablo-style item system. PSU ditched it in favor of something more controllable, which is a plus, but took the magic away.

4. GBR style bonuses for doing missions in lobby order should always be in play, to fix the problem of everyone in the game farming the same mission forever.

5. frequent content updates and events and special stuff. Like EVERY WEEK. It doesn't need to be good... it can be really wierd, that's fine, as long as people have something to log on and do every week. I mean geez, just pick a map and throw a random assortment of enemies on it, and think of some ridiculous reason for players to do it. Have it drop the board for a blue pallet swap of Gur Bazga with like 150 PP and silly-high attack power. Then a week later take it away in favor of something else.

[Deissa]

I was never comfortable with the fact that Sega was still going with "unlocking stuff on the disc slowly over the years = updates lolz"

They should have left the PS2 in the dust and use consoles that were guaranteed to have HDs so they could actually patch in new content regularly over the years... or they'd just run out eventually. And then we get this.

[Skye-Fox713]

I agree with what most of the people have already said. I think that sega has saved some of the features that should have been in PSU from the start, and instead they have put it the DS and PSP titles such as PS:P2 with the sheild, charged range shot, and a SIDE ROLL. You would think these features should have been in PSU from the start, yeah.

I might end up taking a break from PSU till the next PS comes out, then Sega might have their stuff straight from the get go.

[Cathbar]

Note to the forum: Sorry guys, somewhere in here in went from "What I'd like to see fixed" to "Ranting at the game creators and operators"... So don't think I'm yelling at anyone here.

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Character customization needs to be better. Yes, this game had extremely good (to my knowledge) customization for the time. But now, it just seems pretty lame. "Create your own Barbie or Ken!" Everyone, no matter how "different" they look in this game, all look the same... Kick it up a notch by giving certain traits to specific races. As an Example: Beasts! They're humans that are part animal! So why not give different types of animals to choose from? It doesn't have to be 50 different choices, but say 4 or 5 would be nice. They could even have unique abilities based on which animal you choose. Who knows! But it would be fun, yeah?

Techers... make them useful for once. I mean, really! You make a hunter and he not only has the best offense, but he has great defense as well! And after a certain level, accuracy is pointless and they hit everything anyway, regardless of racial stats. SERIOUSLY, fix the class stats.

Which reminds me. Races! Why do some work and all the rest don't? Newmans have great evasion!.... except everything else has way better accuracy... to sum it up in 1 word, Worthless. They're only good a 1 class type anyway and even then that entire class branch is not nearly up to snuff. Humans? Only slightly better.... depending on class, but at least they don't get 1 shot'd all the time. Beasts and Casts are the only real worthwhile race. Good defense AND good power. Guaranteed to take anything down in 1 or 2 hits after a certain level.... especially with those SUVs and Nanobalsts... <_<; SERIOUSLY, fix the racial stats.

How about we get some skill type mechanics in this game? Personally, I'm a Monster Hunter fan. I like how the fight isn't necessarily won by being the highest level, or having the most powerful PAs, Armor, and Weapons. Don't get me wrong, those certainly play their part, but when you're just scooting around the floor and trading blows... it gets REAL old REAL fast. How about adding Dodging, rolling, jumping, and swimming? Any or all would add a new dimension to the fights. Heck, even adding a block mechanic would work. (And I don't mean the evasion animation that most people hate, but a move or "attack", if you will, that would block or lesson the damage you receive from incoming.)

As has been mentioned, exploration. At the very least, let's get some original level designs. When maps start looking like the mazes you find on the back of a cereal box that 3-year-olds can do, you know something's wrong. I don't expect an 'ENTIRE WORLD TO EXPLORE AT YOUR FINGER TIPS!!!!' like some games out there, but, I don't know, less of the "follow the simple paths in each level to get from City A to Level/Lobby X". It gets old, and has no draw. Or, if that seems too difficult to comprehend or change, why not make each lobby have more than 1 level attached to it? Like Paracabana Beach... It has 1 level which leads to it, and 1 level that leads out of it (This may have changed since I was last able to play, but I doubt it).... Give us some options! <_<; ;>_> SERIOUSLY, fix your maps/levels/lobbies.

Bad guys/mobs. They're all the same. They act the same, they move the same, they spew forth the same attack (albeit a different flavor occasionally), and they look the same. I know there are some problems with fitting information on the discs, but shouldn't that tell you it's time to beef up your information storage medium? IE console and disc. When you get that all worked out *cough* PS3orsomething *cough*, make the monsters different from area to area. Even boosting the AI would be better than what we have now. "There's a player, lets walk towards it from wherever we happen to be standing and then attack in a uniformed manner" Really? Because that hasn't been done in every game up till now, anyway? Why not make them run around the players? You know, try to confuse them. Make 'em attack in a direction in which the enemy no longer is at? Or *gasp* introduce simple battle strategies! The horror o_O; Oh, and having the monster attack, walk around in a circle... in front of the player...., and attack again is NOT a strategy. It doesn't even have a point except to make it easier for the player to kill it... which is already pretty easy.

Levels... They need to be updated just like anything else in the game, especially since these levels give bonuses depending on how well the player gets through them and the like. But the "Year 1" levels versus something like "White beast", just seem pitiful. There's no point doing them except to chat with friends about the "Good ol' days" or something. The mission rewards need to be fixed and updated so people will start doing more than the same level over and over and over and over and over an- You get the idea... We like having multiple places to run and kill things. If there's only 1 level that gives the best rewards, and everyone knows it, they're all going to be at the same place doing the same thing and everyone will hate it because there'll be 2 types of people that form out of this huge mass of players. Those who want to form a team with other people and play the game but can only find team mates in this 1 place, and those who just want uber stats so they can rub it in everyone else faces. It's not pretty and it's very dull....

Updates. I don't care who thinks it's a good idea, but when you have 2 major servers, each containing a half of the world, and 1 updates, and the other sputters and idles around pretending to be productive, the players of that server are going to riot and complain and stop playing. It's pretty simple. Customer support is equal and proportionate to how happy and how many players you'll have. Regular updates, content updates, advertisements, and communication with the player base, are going to make us happy and want to stick around. We'll even pay you our hard earned money. However, No updates, no new content, no advertising, and no information on what is going on will have an equally opposite effect. It will make us irritable and not play. Not playing means no money for you from us. And I know you like our money, because otherwise you'd have shut the US/EU server down a LONG time ago, if you had even bothered sending the game our way in the 1st place.


I'm not even going to bother listing "Item Rarity", "Item Synthesizing", "Ease of Leveling Up" or "Voice acting", but just so they're at least mentioned, they need to be fixed too.

Rant recap:

Here's what we like

Timely updates
Content
Space enough to hold and create content as needed
Good fighting mechanics
Good enemy AI
Unique enemy looks and actions
Unique character customization
Unique levels and or world
Balanced mission rewards
Balanced racial stats
Balanced class stats
Originality

Here's what we don't like D:

How you're currently running things.....

[Delete]

OHHHH man, where should I begin...

- merge ALL the servers, ALL regions, ALL consoles. Make everyone get their updates simultaneously so that there's no segregation. There'd be PLENTY of people to play if we were all together in the first place.

This is what I was thinking. If not all regions then at least all consoles.