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Phantasy Star Online 2 – Closed Beta Test Impressions - MMORPG.com

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  • seeyouspacec0wboyseeyouspacec0wboy Member UncommonPosts: 714
    Whoa. So many positive responses here! Looking forward to trying this as well. Nice preview.
    maskedweasel

    Originally posted by Scagweed22
    is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life
    Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.

  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    edited February 2020
    jdnyc said:
    If anyone knows, curious about a couple questions. So how close is this game to the Dreamcast version? Also is it only slated for Xbox and PC?
    Not especially close. On Dreamcast the combat was much slower. You only really ran into players in lobbies or non-combat areas. There weren't really any "special events" like they have now. Some of the stuff, like having your own room, the Mags, and some ability names are similar. The look is similar. The story is.... pretty dark for some cutscenes in PSO2.  

    Everything has been expanded. Combat is fast paced, they've increased the weapon sets you can use, and opened up classes and sub classing, and added a lot more classes. They added harvesting and crafting, and it feels like there is a much wider array of RNG weapon drops. You can run into players out in the missions, or you can even create your own auxiliary (bots) to join you. 

    I wouldn't say this is the end all of Phantasy Star games, because I think there is a lot still left undone in the series that could use another sequel, but it's a good jump forward from the original. 
    jimmywolf



  • NanfoodleNanfoodle Member LegendaryPosts: 10,875
    I was excited for this game in 2013 but in 2020? I think this was delayed too long. 
    [Deleted User]
  • XAleX360XAleX360 Member UncommonPosts: 516

    Hariken said:

    This review means nothing to me until it's on PC where it belongs.



    It's launching on PC too this Spring.
    [Deleted User]

    Executive Editor (Games) http://www.wccftech.com

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    I did not see any positives in this game other than the world textures are photo real but aside from that the game is junk.To me it looks like a f2p game.
    A bunch of empty spaces then some boss just spawns out of thin air,this is a very cheap game design.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    Nyctelios said:
    jdnyc said:
    If anyone knows, curious about a couple questions. So how close is this game to the Dreamcast version? Also is it only slated for Xbox and PC?
    Not especially close. On Dreamcast the combat was much slower. You only really ran into players in lobbies or non-combat areas. There weren't really any "special events" like they have now. Some of the stuff, like having your own room, the Mags, and some ability names are similar. The look is similar. The story is.... pretty dark for some cutscenes in PSO2.  

    Everything has been expanded. Combat is fast paced, they've increased the weapon sets you can use, and opened up classes and sub classing, and added a lot more classes. They added harvesting and crafting, and it feels like there is a much wider array of RNG weapon drops. You can run into players out in the missions, or you can even create your own auxiliary (bots) to join you. 

    I wouldn't say this is the end all of Phantasy Star games, because I think there is a lot still left undone in the series that could use another sequel, but it's a good jump forward from the original. 
    Doesn't it have a sudo sequel involving cards?
    I haven't heard anything about that, but I don't doubt that they would, they have done card games in the past. I have never tried them though. 

    Wizardry said:
    I did not see any positives in this game other than the world textures are photo real but aside from that the game is junk.To me it looks like a f2p game.
    A bunch of empty spaces then some boss just spawns out of thin air,this is a very cheap game design.
    I humbly invite you not to try it. The appeal seems to be lost on you. 

    But I will say, the story explains why enemies appear as they do, and how they appear.  In the older PSO games, levels had specific enemies, with no real random encounters. At least, not in the way PSO2 does now. You can actually have multiple emergencies (encounters) happen at the same time, with different objectives. Sometimes halfway through an encounter, the objective can change. 

    It can change the way you handle situations entirely. In the middle of an attack encounter, it switched to a collection encounter, forcing me to fend off enemies while activating a drilling machine that was time gated. If I didn't completely activate 2 of the rigs in less than 3 minutes I failed the event. Fending off a bunch of enemies while trying to consistently time my drill activation (or else it resets progress) was challenging and fun, and not something I've ever seen in other games.

    The possibility that your entire objective can change without warning, or an event can roll into other random encounters when enemies suddenly appear in the middle of an ongoing battle, is fun. 

    Whatever it may look like to other people, I don't know, but I know that it's a ton of fun to actually play it.



  • nomadienomadie Member UncommonPosts: 172
    Always find reviews for a "new" old game to be funny. This game is what 8 years old now? It's depressing how people get so happy over such an old game releasing in a new region after all these years.
  • ValdheimValdheim Member RarePosts: 705
    When I look back, I think Phantasy Star Online on my Dreamcast was my first real online game addiction. I loved that game. Definitely excited for this one.

    Same here only that back then we didn't have internet so I dialed in directly through the telephone and had to pay minutewise. Then the bill came and my parents where quite confused but somehow I don't remember getting into any trouble ^^
    maskedweasel
  • vtravivtravi Member UncommonPosts: 400
    I loved PSO on Dreamcast and the PS games are huge favorites of mine. My question is under price it says "free" What does that mean? Is it F2P or do you buy expansions? I would rather they just charge $40 and be done with it.
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    vtravi said:
    I loved PSO on Dreamcast and the PS games are huge favorites of mine. My question is under price it says "free" What does that mean? Is it F2P or do you buy expansions? I would rather they just charge $40 and be done with it.
    It's free to play, with some limitations. There may be a subscription option, or a la carte enhancements depending on what you want to do. From what I gather, it'll be pretty generous, you won't have to worry about lack of progression, and the main issues you may encounter are storage space and player housing space. 

    razor247 said:
    Overall I thought it was average. It seemed very easy especially the summoner. Swing the dog around never get hit is ez mode. Nothing challenging ever came up so there wasn't a compelling reason to come back. Didn't feel very open world either they put you on rails thru the maps in a linear path. Didn't need anything that dropped nothing touched me. Several things were very confusing like getting in a party. Again go to hub, fly to linear map, click click, back to hub.....Doesn't seem like a loop I want to repeat.
    If you've only played through normal mode, or you've only made it from forest to tundra, you pretty much won't ever see a challenge. It's like saying "I played through easy mode and it was easy".

    Even on the hard difficulty, which rates enemies around level 40 can be done at level 20.  Most hardcore players ended the CBT around level 35 -40. Very hard difficulty is rated for 40+ and it's no joke. 

    Maps are also random. While in most cases they are corridor type maps, some have secrets, some will spawn very tough enemies. As you progress the likelihood of that happening is pretty high. 



  • UnrealRpgUnrealRpg Member UncommonPosts: 138
    I cant believe in this age of gaming, it took them THIS long to bring it to NA. The Japanese version has a ton of content and recently had the level cap pushed to 95. I wonder how they will release content for the NA version. I just want this to be out already. We've been in such a slump of mmo releases.
    maskedweaseljimmywolf
  • MaridMarid Member UncommonPosts: 128



    Marid said:

    Wow! Over 8 years old? I'm going to pass on this one...even though it's "free".


    To be fair, the game has been ported and revamped somewhat over the years. By comparison, Guild Wars 2 launched the same year. I find it a little funny that so many will consider playing one but not the other.  Especially since so many people would probably enjoy PSO2 more, as they have way more RPG systems and progression opportunities than other MMOs.



    I'm already heavily invested in GW2 and I have zero motivation to begin investing in a game that was created 8 years ago...a game, btw, that is inferior to GW2 in every possible way.
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    edited February 2020
    Marid said:



    Marid said:

    Wow! Over 8 years old? I'm going to pass on this one...even though it's "free".


    To be fair, the game has been ported and revamped somewhat over the years. By comparison, Guild Wars 2 launched the same year. I find it a little funny that so many will consider playing one but not the other.  Especially since so many people would probably enjoy PSO2 more, as they have way more RPG systems and progression opportunities than other MMOs.



    I'm already heavily invested in GW2 and I have zero motivation to begin investing in a game that was created 8 years ago...a game, btw, that is inferior to GW2 in every possible way.
    I play gw2 quite a bit, and no PSO2 is not inferior in every way, in fact, it's quite superior in many ways.



  • MaridMarid Member UncommonPosts: 128
    Marid said:



    Marid said:

    Wow! Over 8 years old? I'm going to pass on this one...even though it's "free".


    To be fair, the game has been ported and revamped somewhat over the years. By comparison, Guild Wars 2 launched the same year. I find it a little funny that so many will consider playing one but not the other.  Especially since so many people would probably enjoy PSO2 more, as they have way more RPG systems and progression opportunities than other MMOs.



    I'm already heavily invested in GW2 and I have zero motivation to begin investing in a game that was created 8 years ago...a game, btw, that is inferior to GW2 in every possible way.
    I play gw2 quite a bit, and no PSO2 is not inferior in every way, in fact, it's quite superior in many ways.

    Well? Name them!
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    edited February 2020
    Marid said:
    Marid said:



    Marid said:

    Wow! Over 8 years old? I'm going to pass on this one...even though it's "free".


    To be fair, the game has been ported and revamped somewhat over the years. By comparison, Guild Wars 2 launched the same year. I find it a little funny that so many will consider playing one but not the other.  Especially since so many people would probably enjoy PSO2 more, as they have way more RPG systems and progression opportunities than other MMOs.



    I'm already heavily invested in GW2 and I have zero motivation to begin investing in a game that was created 8 years ago...a game, btw, that is inferior to GW2 in every possible way.
    I play gw2 quite a bit, and no PSO2 is not inferior in every way, in fact, it's quite superior in many ways.

    Well? Name them!
    Lets start with progression.  GW2 sucks horribly at progression, there IS NONE. At max level how do you progress? You really don't.  You can grind and grind all day.. for no reason... maybe you want a legendary.. maybe you want a new skin in the shop and want to grind out that gold to get gems.  But ultimately, progression is pointless at 80. 

    In PSO2, you still have a ton of progression left. You can grind out specific drops to increase stats, you can feed your mag to increase your power or evolve multiple ones for multiple situation and hatch new pets, you can multi and subclass, work on different skill trees. You can do so much more in PSO2. 

    GW2 gives you the ability to drop items in an auction house.. with every other item of the same type, and the market is pretty much decided. 

    In PSO2 you can run your own shop, put up items that you've found, set the prices, and be an actual individual instead of just one of a million of the same items on an auction house. 

    In GW2 housing isn't evenr eally a thing. You have your own personal instance, but it generally doesn't look great. You can have some harvesting things there, but the customization is abysmal. 

    In PSO2 you can create an awesome looking home! You can even change the view outside your window. 

    In GW2, you run around and sometimes see players, sometimes you don't. If you hit a quest that requires a group, you can't do anything about it, you just have to hope someone comes along, or you have to grab a group of friends and do it. 

    In PSO2 you can bring along NPCs. Not just the story NPCs, but you can create your own Axiliary NPCs and customize their classes to fit your team.  Do you usually team up with a buddy but they aren't available? You can even recruit your friend AS AN NPC and play with them while they're offline.  In this way PSO2 is much closer to what GW1 was than GW2 is. 

    In GW2, you're stuck with sets of abilities, on specific classes.  Not just that but you're stuck with specific abilities in specific spots! Do you really use that elite ability? Do you really need a heal ability?  Who cares, you can't choose. Abilities go exactly where they are forced to. 

    In PSO2 you can put whatever abilities on your bar as are allowed between your class and subclass.  You can come up with some really wild builds.  Do you want to buff your allies and heal? Do you want to swap between ranged and melee combat? Do you want to be a crazy mobile caster? You can have all attack abilities, all support abilities or a mix of everything. 

    In GW2 if you're a ranger (or any class), you can be swap to 3 "specializations" outside of combat if you want. Druid, Soulbeast, Ranger. Then you have to log in to a different class if you want to play something else, with equally limited specializations.

    In PSO2 one character can swap to whatever class they want. Subclass, use multiple weapons and abilities, and look and play however they want.


    I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.  PSO2 has a ton of systems GW2 doesn't have, and many of the ones they both share are done better in PSO2.



  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    PS2 could have a bazillion progression ideas,the game is incredibly CHEAP,it looks and plays like a f2p mobile game.
    I personally don't like GW2, but to me there is no comparison,GW2 is a heck of a lot better game than PS2 will ever be.Well if i rated GW2 a 4/10 PS2 would be a 2/10,meaning would not touch it with a ten foot pole,couldn't pay me to play it.

    I gave GW2 idk it was 3 or 4 tries,i would last about 2 minutes in pso2 and then delete it .I would rather compare PSO2 to FFXI because that is the game it has to beat if i was to get into such a game but for me PSO2 is not even a rpg experience,it looks way more like a cross between MHW and Sword art online only the worst of both.

    Yes i preach systems and yes a sub class design is  the way to go but this game just smells of super cheap looking,like i said it looks like a mobile ported game.
    maskedweasel

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    Wizardry said:
    PS2 could have a bazillion progression ideas,the game is incredibly CHEAP,it looks and plays like a f2p mobile game.
    I personally don't like GW2, but to me there is no comparison,GW2 is a heck of a lot better game than PS2 will ever be.Well if i rated GW2 a 4/10 PS2 would be a 2/10,meaning would not touch it with a ten foot pole,couldn't pay me to play it.

    I gave GW2 idk it was 3 or 4 tries,i would last about 2 minutes in pso2 and then delete it .I would rather compare PSO2 to FFXI because that is the game it has to beat if i was to get into such a game but for me PSO2 is not even a rpg experience,it looks way more like a cross between MHW and Sword art online only the worst of both.

    Yes i preach systems and yes a sub class design is  the way to go but this game just smells of super cheap looking,like i said it looks like a mobile ported game.
    Well, first of all, I don't know if you even play MMOs at all anymore.. but your opinion on the subject is still an interesting one I guess.

    Second, you're not wrong, PSO2 was ported to all platforms including mobile in Japan. 

    The third thing is, you're talking a lot about how it looks. Looks mean nothing. One of the highest grossing games of all time? Minecraft. It looks much worse than PSO2, that's a fact, but looks aren't everything. 

    Finally, PSO2 has a long life ahead of it, especially if it became a "cheap mobile game" in the US, because mobile games are where the money is at.   It could one day become a mobile game, and I'd still play the hell out of it. I'd probably play it more! 




  • MaridMarid Member UncommonPosts: 128
    Marid said:
    Marid said:



    Marid said:

    Wow! Over 8 years old? I'm going to pass on this one...even though it's "free".


    To be fair, the game has been ported and revamped somewhat over the years. By comparison, Guild Wars 2 launched the same year. I find it a little funny that so many will consider playing one but not the other.  Especially since so many people would probably enjoy PSO2 more, as they have way more RPG systems and progression opportunities than other MMOs.



    I'm already heavily invested in GW2 and I have zero motivation to begin investing in a game that was created 8 years ago...a game, btw, that is inferior to GW2 in every possible way.
    I play gw2 quite a bit, and no PSO2 is not inferior in every way, in fact, it's quite superior in many ways.

    Well? Name them!
    Lets start with progression.  GW2 sucks horribly at progression, there IS NONE. At max level how do you progress? You really don't.  You can grind and grind all day.. for no reason... maybe you want a legendary.. maybe you want a new skin in the shop and want to grind out that gold to get gems.  But ultimately, progression is pointless at 80. 

    In PSO2, you still have a ton of progression left. You can grind out specific drops to increase stats, you can feed your mag to increase your power or evolve multiple ones for multiple situation and hatch new pets, you can multi and subclass, work on different skill trees. You can do so much more in PSO2. 

    GW2 gives you the ability to drop items in an auction house.. with every other item of the same type, and the market is pretty much decided. 

    In PSO2 you can run your own shop, put up items that you've found, set the prices, and be an actual individual instead of just one of a million of the same items on an auction house. 

    In GW2 housing isn't evenr eally a thing. You have your own personal instance, but it generally doesn't look great. You can have some harvesting things there, but the customization is abysmal. 

    In PSO2 you can create an awesome looking home! You can even change the view outside your window. 

    In GW2, you run around and sometimes see players, sometimes you don't. If you hit a quest that requires a group, you can't do anything about it, you just have to hope someone comes along, or you have to grab a group of friends and do it. 

    In PSO2 you can bring along NPCs. Not just the story NPCs, but you can create your own Axiliary NPCs and customize their classes to fit your team.  Do you usually team up with a buddy but they aren't available? You can even recruit your friend AS AN NPC and play with them while they're offline.  In this way PSO2 is much closer to what GW1 was than GW2 is. 

    In GW2, you're stuck with sets of abilities, on specific classes.  Not just that but you're stuck with specific abilities in specific spots! Do you really use that elite ability? Do you really need a heal ability?  Who cares, you can't choose. Abilities go exactly where they are forced to. 

    In PSO2 you can put whatever abilities on your bar as are allowed between your class and subclass.  You can come up with some really wild builds.  Do you want to buff your allies and heal? Do you want to swap between ranged and melee combat? Do you want to be a crazy mobile caster? You can have all attack abilities, all support abilities or a mix of everything. 

    In GW2 if you're a ranger (or any class), you can be swap to 3 "specializations" outside of combat if you want. Druid, Soulbeast, Ranger. Then you have to log in to a different class if you want to play something else, with equally limited specializations.

    In PSO2 one character can swap to whatever class they want. Subclass, use multiple weapons and abilities, and look and play however they want.


    I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.  PSO2 has a ton of systems GW2 doesn't have, and many of the ones they both share are done better in PSO2.

    Overall, I'm not a big fan of Auction house systems...I played FLYFF for quite a while and one of the things that I loved about it was the player-shops. In its heyday, you would have hundreds of shops set up in each town...you never knew what each shop might have - the anticipation was through the roof! Very exciting to find some really good bargains...the only downside was the enormous amount of time it took to peruse every shop, which could take anywhere from 4-6 hours depending on how bad the lag was.

    Player housing in GW2 is dumb; they should have made it more cozy, like an actual living space...same with the guild halls; way too big.

    We've been having a discussion about the need for NPC mercs in GW2...in the daytime the game is practically dead, so if you want to do an event you're just SOL because there isn't anyone around to do them with. NPC mercs would be a very welcome addition to any MMO, imo.

    In another thread I said that I was going to get PSO2 when it came to the PC...then I changed my mind, for the reasons I mentioned previously. You have reconvinced me...I'll be getting PSO2 as soon as it's available on Steam! :)


    maskedweasel
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    Marid said:
    Marid said:
    Marid said:



    Marid said:

    Wow! Over 8 years old? I'm going to pass on this one...even though it's "free".


    To be fair, the game has been ported and revamped somewhat over the years. By comparison, Guild Wars 2 launched the same year. I find it a little funny that so many will consider playing one but not the other.  Especially since so many people would probably enjoy PSO2 more, as they have way more RPG systems and progression opportunities than other MMOs.



    I'm already heavily invested in GW2 and I have zero motivation to begin investing in a game that was created 8 years ago...a game, btw, that is inferior to GW2 in every possible way.
    I play gw2 quite a bit, and no PSO2 is not inferior in every way, in fact, it's quite superior in many ways.

    Well? Name them!
    Lets start with progression.  GW2 sucks horribly at progression, there IS NONE. At max level how do you progress? You really don't.  You can grind and grind all day.. for no reason... maybe you want a legendary.. maybe you want a new skin in the shop and want to grind out that gold to get gems.  But ultimately, progression is pointless at 80. 

    In PSO2, you still have a ton of progression left. You can grind out specific drops to increase stats, you can feed your mag to increase your power or evolve multiple ones for multiple situation and hatch new pets, you can multi and subclass, work on different skill trees. You can do so much more in PSO2. 

    GW2 gives you the ability to drop items in an auction house.. with every other item of the same type, and the market is pretty much decided. 

    In PSO2 you can run your own shop, put up items that you've found, set the prices, and be an actual individual instead of just one of a million of the same items on an auction house. 

    In GW2 housing isn't evenr eally a thing. You have your own personal instance, but it generally doesn't look great. You can have some harvesting things there, but the customization is abysmal. 

    In PSO2 you can create an awesome looking home! You can even change the view outside your window. 

    In GW2, you run around and sometimes see players, sometimes you don't. If you hit a quest that requires a group, you can't do anything about it, you just have to hope someone comes along, or you have to grab a group of friends and do it. 

    In PSO2 you can bring along NPCs. Not just the story NPCs, but you can create your own Axiliary NPCs and customize their classes to fit your team.  Do you usually team up with a buddy but they aren't available? You can even recruit your friend AS AN NPC and play with them while they're offline.  In this way PSO2 is much closer to what GW1 was than GW2 is. 

    In GW2, you're stuck with sets of abilities, on specific classes.  Not just that but you're stuck with specific abilities in specific spots! Do you really use that elite ability? Do you really need a heal ability?  Who cares, you can't choose. Abilities go exactly where they are forced to. 

    In PSO2 you can put whatever abilities on your bar as are allowed between your class and subclass.  You can come up with some really wild builds.  Do you want to buff your allies and heal? Do you want to swap between ranged and melee combat? Do you want to be a crazy mobile caster? You can have all attack abilities, all support abilities or a mix of everything. 

    In GW2 if you're a ranger (or any class), you can be swap to 3 "specializations" outside of combat if you want. Druid, Soulbeast, Ranger. Then you have to log in to a different class if you want to play something else, with equally limited specializations.

    In PSO2 one character can swap to whatever class they want. Subclass, use multiple weapons and abilities, and look and play however they want.


    I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.  PSO2 has a ton of systems GW2 doesn't have, and many of the ones they both share are done better in PSO2.

    Overall, I'm not a big fan of Auction house systems...I played FLYFF for quite a while and one of the things that I loved about it was the player-shops. In its heyday, you would have hundreds of shops set up in each town...you never knew what each shop might have - the anticipation was through the roof! Very exciting to find some really good bargains...the only downside was the enormous amount of time it took to peruse every shop, which could take anywhere from 4-6 hours depending on how bad the lag was.

    Player housing in GW2 is dumb; they should have made it more cozy, like an actual living space...same with the guild halls; way too big.

    We've been having a discussion about the need for NPC mercs in GW2...in the daytime the game is practically dead, so if you want to do an event you're just SOL because there isn't anyone around to do them with. NPC mercs would be a very welcome addition to any MMO, imo.

    In another thread I said that I was going to get PSO2 when it came to the PC...then I changed my mind, for the reasons I mentioned previously. You have reconvinced me...I'll be getting PSO2 as soon as it's available on Steam! 


    haha I didn't expect that! But when you pop on, hit me up! I'll be happy to team up :smile:
    Marid



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