Sega Nerds

14 opinions for Top Ten Fridays: Suggestions for the next Phantasy Star Online title

• landman
  Jul 4, 2008 at 11:36 pm

  lol

  Play wow… or play pso xD

  Sadly I disagree with almost all your points.

• George
  Jul 4, 2008 at 11:43 pm

  … you didn’t even read the article. …..

• t
  Jul 5, 2008 at 1:02 am

  why is the overworld section the same thing repeated?

• t
  Jul 5, 2008 at 1:06 am

  also the 360 version of PSU does have voice chat for parties.

• Sharkone
  Jul 5, 2008 at 2:39 am

  I think now SoA customer support is okay. Gm are great guys and help everyone, if you are scammed or if you have problems. There are weekly events where you can talk with them and ask questions.
  Maybe the real problem now are in technical issue where they need an hand.

• George
  Jul 5, 2008 at 2:53 am

  Nah I think they are great guys, just wish they’d have more of them. But maybe I was picking at straws at that one. Technical issues are rather unacceptable, especially how long these have occurred. Your money is suppose to be used for issues like this, I don’t know whats going on really, so I shouldn’t open my mouth. Just wish they’d fix it.

• Saphion
  Jul 5, 2008 at 3:55 am

  I completely agree. Phantasy Star Online remains to this day, my favourite game of all time. Phantasy Star Universe… not so much.

  Things I’d change include the terrible Mission Points system - mainly because 99% of the people in PSU keep doing the same, most rewarding mission over and over again. It’s great for those who want mission points, granted, but it’s horrendous for those who y’know, actually want to enjoy themselves.

  My favourite part of PSO was meeting new people, doing random quests and having fun on the way. In PSU, it’s do the same mission, with people who barely say a word. It’s really boring.

  Mind you, I did like PSO’s lobby system purely because it was easy to find people and organise groups. And also mess around.

  And while I’m at it, bring back the battle-sensitive music from PSO!

  God, I miss PSO. :(

• Angelo
  Jul 5, 2008 at 8:34 am

  I’ve heard these all somewhere before, and I’ll address them as I’ve always have:

  Overworld: I agree to an extent. Each planet should have its own personality, fashions, items, etc. The Guardians Branch on each planet should provide nearly everything that the headquarters does.

  The game, however, should remain true to PSO and PSU, with real-time combat in small groups in instanced areas. I’m more in favor of a refinement of the current system rather than moving closer to the MMO model. The Guardians Branch on each planet could provide a list of active parties on the planet, what they’re doing, joining them, etc.

  Different Models/Character Customization: Lower rarity weapons from the three major manufacturers represent “common mass-produced garbage”, more or less. PSO did precisely the same thing with its weapons–but since you leveled up relatively quickly or could twink a character with an appropriate MAG, most people zoomed right by these. There’s plenty of variety at the higher end, not to mention the special event items.

  I *like* how they’ve completely divorced clothing appearance from the actual armor items. You see much more capped people with unique looks rather than everyone using the same “best” stuff. I wouldn’t be opposed to a few choice accessories affecting stats and appearing, though, either. But keep main “bases” separate.

  I haven’t messed around with City of Heroes specifically, but the character customization in PSU is probably the best out of what I *have* played as far as MMOs go.

  Customer Support: Yes. Although, I’d say they needed to work on their horrid PR more than anything else, really.

  Hard Drive: I agree. But there seems to be a very common misconception here on how mission updates on PSU actually work. New fields aren’t simply “unlocked”–missions are created to actually put together the raw assets (the area itself, its configuration, the enemy spawn patterns).

  I’m not entirely convinced the updates would have been all that different, if HDD support had been required. The game may very well have released with all the same stuff, but instead of just a mission update to the servers every few weeks we’d likely see large, several hundred megabyte patches to add those areas anyway.

  In fact, that’s exactly how Blue Burst worked, going from the beta to the final, which “added” Episode II, and later on other missions which existed long before in previous versions of the game. Sega, for some reason back then, decided that a monthly fee for these *blatant* retreads was acceptable.

  The Connected World/Different Versions: Yes. Even if we don’t really play together, having the option would be nice, and it would help force everyone in sync as far as updates go. There might be some weirdness regarding special events (real-life prizes are often distributed in Japan, then there’s the regional issues surrounding sponsorship). I suppose it might be possible to separate them during such things. Or something else entirely.

  Sega (clusmyorchid specifically) has stated the main reason why Xbox 360 does not play with PC and PS2 gamers is more platform politics than anything else. Before FFXI having an online game span multiple platforms would have been unthinkable. Arguably, the only reason FFXI gets by is because of the clout Square Enix possesses.

  Monthly Payment: They should definitely explore different business models if they seriously want to compete in the Western markets. They get away with it in Japan more or less due to an utter lack of such competition.

  Voice Chat: As said before, standard on the Xbox 360 version. Bubble chat (especially with cut-ins) is entertaining in its own way, though, and I hope they don’t abandon that any time soon.

  Missing Features: I suppose they could come up with SOMETHING for PvP. I’m of the camp that it’s entirely impossible for any online game to be truly balanced between both PvE and PvP, though. PSO’s PvP was outright terrible. Yes to clan support, if nothing else, to serve as a second friends list of sorts.

  The lack of telepipes is just a result of the way things have changed from before, though. In PSO, opening one would make it appear in the (instanced) Pioneer 2. An instanced “hub” doesn’t exist anymore. In addition, they were often abused (although usually hilariously) by setting them on top of rare items, underneath smash traps, etc. These issues aren’t completely irreconcileable but they have to be addressed.

• DiGi Valentine
  Jul 5, 2008 at 8:38 am

  I played this offline only to realize that you can’t take the same character online and i was pissed off about this. The old PSO on Dreamcast allowed you to play with the same character offline if you were unable to go online therefore you’d still be leveling up and getting items. I wish they would have somehow kept that as a feature. The offline mode for PSU sucks balls and is boring as hell and it’s even more pointless when you know you can’t take the same character online.

  Also, i don’t like the fact that all the items are already on the game yet Sega shaft us monthly payment bullshit just to play online yet we don’t get to use 70% of the items stored in the game.

  I have not played PSU in a few months now because i feel cheated when i play it…however it’s the only online RPG that has any kinda apeal to it. The whole setting and the weapons and clothing are really well designed and it sets a different kind of atmosphere from most other online RPGs.
  I wish Sega would stop ripping us off with this game. :(

• Ryan
  Jul 5, 2008 at 9:26 am

  PSU is shit, No over world? No PVP and I’m supposed to pay £9 a month for something that has about 3 days worth of content before im repeating myself? Maybe in 1999 but in 2008? Hell no.

  fuck that.

• yoyo
  Jul 5, 2008 at 10:57 am

  !st off..
  You must understand that when a game like this with heavy mechanics deep personalization, its going to deal with a confined area. On top of that when this game was made, it was made WITH IN the limitations of the ps2. With that being said, this pushes a lot of shit on screen, taxing the ps2 to its ends.

  Speaking of the personalization.
  Clan markings??you know the bad thing about psu? you cant draw clothes and textures. You wanna know the good thing? Most idiots cant draw 4 shit! 99% of the characters I see in psu look pleasing t the eye, the ones in city of heroes look like shit on latex. Sega has given us more then enough when it comes to this for something on the ps2.
  The game is made at a triple A level as well as it could be made on ps2. We all know that if strictly on a PC the thing would be godly! but for console dungeon crawler its fine!
  we have all seen Sega make amazing looking games like Panzer dragoon orta and jet set future.
  It would not be hard for them to make something that is current gen looking at all. What many have to realize its all limitations of the system!

  The only thing this game could really use, is..

  -A better story and narration.

  -More support with online content.

  -Stronger ties to the original Megadrive series.

• Taco Lord
  Jul 5, 2008 at 9:57 pm

  Keep the music, SEGA always has wonderful music. Bring back the Mags!

  I didn’t like how they carried out the TP system and how the information around the character was given too much breathing space where it affects the gameplay.

  For the TP system, if projectile weapons rand out of TP, it wouldn’t shoot photons out until it has charged up enough. For non-projectile weapons if it ran out of TP, the photons would still work.

  Also unlike PSU you have to hit the enemies around 50 times to kill them where in PSO you would take around 3 to 12 (except for ultimate mode, bosses, and large enemies).

  There are several things about the interface that I have against such as the item and weapon selection. When it came to PSO, switching weapons, selecting Items, or searching through techniques not customized was easy. PSU has a limited set of slots to place things and hendered movement to search and select the item or weapon needed.

  There are other technical things, but I’ll stop here

• Fan of NiGHTS
  Jul 5, 2008 at 11:33 pm

  Phantasy Star Ultimate!

• landman
  Jul 6, 2008 at 10:53 am

  I did read the article George, but I was not in the mod typing a kilometric reply with my arguments in a blog lol

  1. Useles. PSU is based on missions, an overworld would be or empty or with enemies you would ignore or farm, PSU is a multyplayer action game, not a MMORPG, I hate the last ones.
  2. I’m ok with what we-ve got now
  3. 1* to 8* are crap novice weapons, what’s the point in having all of them a different form? A ranks are different from C and B and every S rank has it’s unique form, plus there are the special weapons not from the manufacturers.
  4. Yes I hope the next game requires a HD, but PSO didn’t require a HD for those who always have it in your mouth.
  5. I don’t have any problem with that, but provably it can be improved, as everything.
  6. I play with people of all over the world in 360 lol but this is not sega fault, this is cheaters fault and japanese players don’t whant to play with cheaters.
  7. PSO had a monthly fee since the beginning for the japanese players, and this game didn’t have any maintenance, now I am having new stuff at least once per month.
  8. Yes they could make the effort…
  9. 360
  10. Yes anything can be improved, but PSU is not PSO you know

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