Phantasy Star Series

[Mischief Maker]

What are your thoughts on Phantasy Star Zero for the DS?

I'm trying to get into it, but I readily admit I don't "get it."

[GaijinPunch]

A popular theory is that since the western fanbase went ahead and localized it for them and jumped in en masse, they decided it wasn't worth the money to keep another version of the game running.

That was only after what... 2 years of pulling their dicks? They even had a red carpet rolled out for them when SoJ blocked non-Japanese IPs.

Their biggest mistake from the beginning was probably split Western / Eastern games/servers.

Probably, but you can thank thousands of dick holes on the DC and GC versions for Sega never wanting to open that can of worms again.

[GaijinPunch]

I've played so much PSO its silly. I just restarted it a couple months ago on the Ephinea server and easily dumped a hundred hours into it, just grinding for one weapon

Can you play on the GC? I should probably get one and look at my old characters. Maybe next Japan trip.

For me all temptation towards PSO1 is definitely the atmosphere.

For me it's nostalgia. It was atmosphere at one time... but when you've poured a piece of your soul into a game. Fuck... hard to get away. I gotta look for those GC memory cards.

[dunpeal2064]

Can you play on the GC? I should probably get one and look at my old characters. Maybe next Japan trip.

I'm not sure, I think since Ephinea is Blue Burst, its probably PC only. Its cool, though, as it aims to be as close to the original experience as possible, with only minor quality of life adjustments (Individual drops, so no loot scooting, and you don't have to tag enemies to get xp, so you can actually just fight.

I still have a GC memcard around somewhere with a 187 HuMar on it, should dig that up. It probably has some sort of online capability still, I'd imagine.

[GaijinPunch]

My only irk about BB is the server side saves. I want to stop for 5 years and pick up again.

[Squire Grooktook]

What are your thoughts on Phantasy Star Zero for the DS?

I'm trying to get into it, but I readily admit I don't "get it."

It plays like a slightly upgraded PSO1: Slow and clunky, and sadly without the dreamcast titles ineffably exotic audiovisuals. Probably fun with friends, but more of a curiosity these days I'd say.

An english patched PSO2 sounds more like your kind of deal with its fast paced devil may cry esque melee combat. Hell, it even has an unlockable set of time attack stages with dedicated level design, and I believe they even added a challenge mode series of quests where everyone starts out with same XP and equipment. Good times.

Definitely a game you have to chip away at and explore though, and it's definitely not "hardcore action all the time", but even doing the easy stuff is fun and flashy due to the emphasis on speed and aggressive teamwork (there are xp bonuses for clearing waves as fast as possible and shit like that).

[Strider77]

An english patched PSO2 sounds more like your kind of deal with its fast paced devil may cry esque melee combat.

That sounds awesome... are you lying?

[Blinge]

Yes he is, he tried to tell me it was like dark souls...

[GaijinPunch]

An english patched PSO2 sounds more like your kind of deal with its fast paced devil may cry esque melee combat.

That sounds awesome... are you lying?

Watch videos of it. It's far more fast-paced than PSU, and definitely PSO. Has jumping/straffing, all kinds of shit. A few of the classes can "climb" up big ass bosses, effectively.

Damn... wish I had no life so I could play, sometimes.

[ryu]

The reason why Idola has a different setting and worldview from Phantasy Star Online 2 and Phantasy Star Online 2 es, is because it could become a hurdle for people who don’t play PSO2 if it were directly related. Although the game has been made to be easy to get into even for those new to the series, the common elements in the series still remain. Idola is also meant to bring back those who stopped playing PSO2 and PSO2 es, as something “Phantasy Star-like”. That said, there may be some smaller connections to the world of Oracle from PSO2.

http://www.siliconera.com/2018/07/27/id ... t-setting/

What a load of bull.

[Squire Grooktook]

An english patched PSO2 sounds more like your kind of deal with its fast paced devil may cry esque melee combat.

That sounds awesome... are you lying?

Nope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0-O3AU1xsg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBWCLui4Hd0

[BryanM]

http://www.siliconera.com/2018/07/27/id ... t-setting/

I try to pay attention to the press release as much as I can, but it's difficult to focus because I just do not care about the words/empty CR babble they're saying. The entire time I'm just thinking the same two goddamn words over and over again: "Cats?" "Guns?" And by the end, perhaps because I'm feeling a little guilty, "...... robots?"

God, it is like watching a toddler toddle inside a slaughter house. This thing is gonna fold faster than that Puzzle+Dragons clone about anthropomorphic house appliances did.

Let's talk about one of its competitors, and why they're successful, ok?

Granblue Fantasy. #1 most important thing they did - they got the artist and composer from Final Fantasy 6 for this thing. You may not know this, but there are people out there who love the fuck out of Final Fantasy 6, and are willing to blow hobos to get something that reminds them of it.

#2 is it goes pretty nuclear on the sexualization of its characters, for perverts. This is the featured free character for its summer promotional event. But it's not that it's just CARTOON TITTIES here, no. More important from a long term perspective, Dark Angel Olivia is one of the company's core characters - she appears in every Cygames game. Rage of Bahamut, Shadowverse, all of them. Literally every popular character in a Cygames game becomes a "core character" - forwards and backwards into all of their games. So they're always investing in their mythology, brand awareness, while doing very effective real world A and B testing to see what sells, what their customers like. All while still being an ad to their customers for the new summer gacha characters, and the already existing and more powerful gacha version of Olivia (the free event Olivia can be used as a skin for the better version, which is also a reward for players who already have her. A lot of things are being accomplished all at once, here.)

And it also occasionally shows a sense of humor. This is the song that plays during the battle against a kickass tuna, as an example.

On the other hand, SEGA somehow managed to do worse than just taking PS4's battle system and lazily slapping on a gacha with all the PS characters in it.

But if they invested in their characters and franchises, to the point they wouldn't have to resort to having fans make a decent Sonic game for them, they wouldn't be the SEGA we know and love.

(Sonic Mania is similar to the possibility that World of Warcraft's vanilla servers will turn out to be more popular than the latest version of the game. Which is something that terrifies the staff at Blizzard, and would liquefy their egos in a heartbeat. Sometimes... putting a lot of money into something and "trying hard" doesn't get better results.)

[Strider77]

Okay... I'm kinda sold on PSO2. If I picked it up on PS4 is the language barrier manageable?

[ryu]

Okay... I'm kinda sold on PSO2. If I picked it up on PS4 is the language barrier manageable?

I played it for a month or so years ago when my japanese was just enough to figure out how to do quests and what to do to clear them. I had a lot of fun with the game.

My japanese is much better today and I have more free time than I should have. But I'm no longer on Windows.

[Strider77]

My Japanese is non existent... but I've made my way through many a RPG without a translation throughout my life.

I imagine it's not to awful to figure out. I don't have the patience that I use to, but at the same time that was towards trying to play something like FF Tactics in a foriegn language. Something like that I will never do again but I think I should be able to manage PSO2.

Still, was just curious if others had as well.

[GaijinPunch]

My Japanese is non existent... but I've made my way through many a RPG without a translation throughout my life.

There are English patches for the PC -- and it's a free download.

[Sumez]

An english patched PSO2 sounds more like your kind of deal with its fast paced devil may cry esque melee combat.

That sounds awesome... are you lying?

Nope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0-O3AU1xsg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBWCLui4Hd0

When you haven't actually tried the game, those videos make the game look super boring.

[GaijinPunch]

When you haven't actually tried the game, those videos make the game look super boring.

Well, those are one guy kinda dicking around. Now imagine 4 in a party, and some quests allowing up to 3 parties.

[Stevens]

Now imagine 4 in a party, and some quests allowing up to 3 parties.

I spent senior year in college playing PSO on the DC and that was plenty addicting with four people. What you're describing sounds close to heroin.

[Blinge]

heroin.

Reasons I don't play MMOs

[Immryr]

you play monster hunter though, which is just as bad in terms of skinner box addictiveness.

[Squire Grooktook]

When you haven't actually tried the game, those videos make the game look super boring.

It's a combo movie. Like most combo movies, it's more to demonstrate flashy but impractical ways to push the engine as far as possible which are more or less impossible in "real" gameplay.

Realistically in PSO2 you do a quick 2-3 hit combo into a skull crushing special attack on most enemies. Air combos are nice because you get yourself off the ground and out of reach of mobs who would interfere, but in reality you're not going to be fellating a single enemy for anywhere near as long like in those videos. Most enemies don't have the hp to take more then a few hits.

It does demonstrate that you can definitely get extremely creative though in dealing with mobs, mixing up a huge variety of specials and attacks to deal with various situations stylishly.

My Japanese is non existent... but I've made my way through many a RPG without a translation throughout my life.

There are English patches for the PC -- and it's a free download.

Not only that, there's a fan-made english launcher that auto checks for and downloads the most recent update of the english patch for you ^_^

Definitely recommend that.

[Blinge]

you play monster hunter though, which is just as bad in terms of skinner box addictiveness.

Nah MMOs are far worse, the skinner box is multifaceted and scary in its effectiveness whereas MH just does one type well.
I still yearn for a world I exiled myself from over a decade ago.
Haven't touched MH for months.

[BryanM]

DIKU style MMO's are just mediocre to bad Dragon Quest 1 clones with a chat room attached. Unless you hop onto the endgame raid treadmill, then that puts your goal of making the numbers go up into the hands of other people. In other words, a random reward schedule on top of the already random drop rate.

In a way it's not too much different from the gacha genre, where advancement is measured in months, drops are slot machine as all gently caress, and some core sources of power are gotten off of not time played or skill/knowledge used, but by the date on the calender. They're a natural evolution of each other.

While such Forever Games are exploitative of addiction as all hell, there are some design elements/ideas worth learning from them.

[GaijinPunch]

Where does PSO2 fall in all of that... stuff?

[Strider77]

There are English patches for the PC -- and it's a free download.

Yeah but I'm one of those odd console guys. Another reason is I'd need set up a PC rig in my game room if I'm actually going to knuckle down and play it. Something that I've meant to do for YEARS but procrastinate on. I just know if I did install it on the PC in the "PC room" I'd dick around a bit with intentions of getting back to it but never will in reality.

I bought Ys Origin on PC YEARS ago but didn't actually play it till it was released on PS4. I guess I have poor habits but at 41 I know what they are.

All that aside how are the aesthetics and more importantly the atmosphere. PSO's audio and atmosphere did alot for me.

[dunpeal2064]

I'd say you could probably enjoy PSO2 without being able to read Japanese, but probably not to its full extent, as it is a more complex game than the original. If you want to try it, though, just watch a little beginner's guide so you at least know who the main quest givers are, so you can get unlocks and actually progress.

If you end up getting really into it, you'll need guides anyways, as "Grinding" gear is way more complex than it used to be. Honestly, though, PSO2 is most fun as you just plow through early missions, once you get to end game it gets a little too grindy, at least for my tastes (And I play FFXIV, so I'm not unfamiliar with grinding)

Its aesthetics are, at their core, familiar to PSO, but with a lot of weird, quirky stuff thrown in that moves it away from the consistent feel of the original. Running around the hub and jumping in a forest to kill rappy-esk dudes still feels very PSO, but teaming up with people dressed as Lightning or 2B and killing fire trucks in downtown Tokyo, well, does not.

Its certainly a fun game, though. The combat is slick and fast, and feels much more like DMC than an MMO or Diablo-like, and bosses will throw out some really crazy attacks that are actually fun to dodge. The free and English-friendly PC version gets a hearty recommendation, at the very least.

[GaijinPunch]

All that aside how are the aesthetics and more importantly the atmosphere. PSO's audio and atmosphere did alot for me.

Pretty good atmosphere. Many stages PSO-ish... and some new ones. Some of the music and shit is a bit more mainstream this time around, as NPCs are sometimes voiced. But, whatever. It's fun. Play it.

[Despatche]

But if they invested in their characters and franchises, to the point they wouldn't have to resort to having fans make a decent Sonic game for them, they wouldn't be the SEGA we know and love.

(Sonic Mania is similar to the possibility that World of Warcraft's vanilla servers will turn out to be more popular than the latest version of the game. Which is something that terrifies the staff at Blizzard, and would liquefy their egos in a heartbeat. Sometimes... putting a lot of money into something and "trying hard" doesn't get better results.)

Fuck off. Whitehead is not a "fan", he's a professional that built up his skill the way everyone else did. 2D Sonic is not God, that people treat it as God is a problem itself. Actually, Sonic Mania has a lot of the same problems 2D Sonic has, but Mania tries to fix some of those like 3 and the Advance/Rush games did, with mixed results. 2D Sonic is fundamentally fucked, they need to go back to Sonic 1/CD and rethink what they're doing.

PSO2 is good. It's a different kind of game from PSO1 or PSU. It really is a character action game, I'm glad other people are saying that and not just me. Like any long-running online game, it has annoying meta problems and weird old content to deal with, but overall Sega's handling that game pretty well. At some point I'm going to get back on it, hopefully in time for Episode 6.

Sega "invests in their characters and franchises" (a load of NeoGAF/ResetEra-esque pseudo-analyst bullshit) just fine, it's just that people have a pointless hate-boner for Sega just like they do for Capcom. The customer is almost always wrong, and has no idea what they actually want. I don't care about Idola because I'm not pseudo-analyst garbage. It's a game, it'll live or die on a coinflip like any mobile game, who cares. People are making a big deal out of a situation THEY created, so they need to shut the fuck up and accept responsibility. Like there are idiots comparing this to III, a game which has nothing to do with anything to do with this Idola thing. It's like these people are totally detached from reality or something.

Good thing they avoided the vacant harbor of the Nintendo Switch. Octopath Traveler selling a billion copies due to being the only RPG on the system means nothing. No one could foresee that having zero competition could be an advantage.

Oh, and Mr. Pseudo-Analyst, this was fucking impossible. There was very little hype for the game when it was revealed except from the SaGa crowd. Please remember that SaGa is not a particularly popular brand outside of Japan. "new IP" doesn't mean jack because our whole culture is in some shitty fake nostalgia phase and clings to established names harder than before. Please also remember that "no RPGs" didn't really help the few N64 or GameCube RPGs whatsoever, so no, it's not a pattern. Octopath Traveler also isn't really "GOTY material", though it is a good game that's worth the money. There's no fucking reason at all that this game should have sold, especially outside of Japan, but it did somehow. No amount of analyzing is ever going to give you an answer.

[Sumez]

Geeze