Phantasy Star Online 2 - Official Pre-Release Topic

[Happy Cat]

finally got it working, but now its time for me to go )= that's always how it goes xD

and when I get home that game will probably be under maintenance xD

had to downclcok my GPU quite a bit, i guess it's fan must be dirty or something oh well. just glad I can play it now

[Radrappy]

Ive been so busy I havent even gotten a chance to try it.  Hopefully tonight?

[CrazyT]

So yeah, impression time  :p

Not gonna lie that this game is friggin awesome and is so true to its name. The towns and socializing is only improved upon. The town is really great and huge full of great places to hang out. There is alot of fun to have by jumping around, platforming etc. I managed to get on this high spot which didnt really have a road towards it. Felt like a bawss standing there as well

I went in with the PSO system in mind, but the way they inovated it, is really done well.
Alot of my complaints have been debunked. The fighting mechanics may seem easy and spammable(as u can hold down the attack button and the character will unlimitedly keep atacking with no pause in between), but once you get to know the AI, that wont be the case anymore, because they will attack you harshly.

The forest's difficulty isnt that great, but i'm noticing good AI behavior, it is just not very agressive yet I think, so i am giving that they just made the learning curve easier for the bigger croud.

This game is awesome. Only gripes I have are with the visuals. It looks great in the forests, but in town there is this weird blue tint that makes everyone look white even if their character are more brownish. Its less pixelated than before as i managed to turn up some settings. I don't know but I think the visuals just seriously lack overall. Low polygon environments with great textures. Bad animations on NPC's. It's not really "that" great, but passable i guess.

Nonetheless however, this game is awesome. Been playing with ezo the whole time heh. You've been a great guide lol

A funny screen:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/559813634596260333/92B9B57E01F70E94261A6DD658091857E5E1DA5A/
Also a good demonstration of what i meant with the blue tint

[ezodagrom]

Some really useful info from the Phantasy Star fan blog, related to unlocking more quests after the initial 4.
To unlock more quests, there's a client order that has to be done, but client orders can only be done after completing B-3 in the Matter Board. It's possible that the two yellow circles from the matter board might have to be completed, but I'm not sure about this.
EDIT: For the forest free field client order, looks like the only requirement is level 7.

List of the Matter Board goals:
http://bumped.org/psublog/#goals

First, how client orders work. NPCs that have new client orders to give have a blue icon above their head, and when a client order is complete, they will have a green icon. When talking to an NPC that has a client order, click the 2nd option.

Here's a picture of the NPC that gives the more important client orders, she's in one of the quest counters:



The client orders that she gives:

自由探索許可申請・森林  (Forest Exploration Request)

- Requirement 1: ダガン殲滅任務：森林 S Rank Dagan Forest Mission (3rd quest)
- Requirement 2:  ナヴ・ラッピー捕獲任務 S Rank Nab Rappy Forest Mission (4th quest)
- Requirement 3: Acquire  5x 森林観測用素子 Forest Devices drops
- Notes: 森林観測用素子 Forest Devices will drop in yellow boxes randomly in those quests.
- Time Limit: Each mission must be cleared within 20 minutes.
- Prize: Free Field Forest.

マグライセンス授与申請試練 (Mag License)

- Requirement: 2 Rockbear horns ロックベアの角の調達
- Notes: Play last forest quest or free field forest.
- Prize: Mag

探索許可申請試練・Ｉ(Search Request for *Caves*)

- Requirement: 森林探索 S Rank the Free Field Forest Quest.
- Notes: Forest Exploration Client Order must be cleared.
- Time Limit: Mission must be cleared within 20 minutes.
- Prize: Planet Amduscia (Caves) Unlocked

武器携帯数拡張申請試練・Ｉ (Weapon Palette Expansion)

- Requirement: 3 Catadran Souls キャタドランの水晶の調達 (Caves Missions)
- Prize: 1 extra weapon palette

http://bumped.org/psublog/#order

[Happy Cat]

So yeah, impression time  :p

Not gonna lie that this game is friggin awesome and is so true to its name. The towns and socializing is only improved upon. The town is really great and huge full of great places to hang out. There is alot of fun to have by jumping around, platforming etc. I managed to get on this high spot which didnt really have a road towards it. Felt like a bawss standing there as well

I went in with the PSO system in mind, but the way they inovated it, is really done well.
Alot of my complaints have been debunked. The fighting mechanics may seem easy and spammable(as u can hold down the attack button and the character will unlimitedly keep atacking with no pause in between), but once you get to know the AI, that wont be the case anymore, because they will attack you harshly.

The forest's difficulty isnt that great, but i'm noticing good AI behavior, it is just not very agressive yet I think, so i am giving that they just made the learning curve easier for the bigger croud.

This game is awesome. Only gripes I have are with the visuals. It looks great in the forests, but in town there is this weird blue tint that makes everyone look white even if their character are more brownish. Its less pixelated than before as i managed to turn up some settings. I don't know but I think the visuals just seriously lack overall. Low polygon environments with great textures. Bad animations on NPC's. It's not really "that" great, but passable i guess.

Nonetheless however, this game is awesome. Been playing with ezo the whole time heh. You've been a great guide lol

A funny screen:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/559813634596260333/92B9B57E01F70E94261A6DD658091857E5E1DA5A/
Also a good demonstration of what i meant with the blue tint

Maybe the blue tinting is global illumination ;p you know how sonic gets a green tint in green levels.

i really do think that PSO2 is still using some form of the hedgehog engine still.

[CrazyT]

Perhaps.

After a few days i do gotta say that it has grown on me. The visuals are nice in their own. Its probably just western standards being different. Lets say guild wars. That game has great animations etc and now gw2 will be coming out looking even better today. But pso2's strength would never be in the graphics, but its artstyle instead, which is really exactly how i remember it. It feels like im back home :p

[Happy Cat]

how do you get skill points in this game? apparently the only way you get shift and demand is through the skill tree

[ezodagrom]

how do you get skill points in this game? apparently the only way you get shift and demand is through the skill tree

You get 1 Skill Point per level.

[Happy Cat]

You get 1 Skill Point per level.

ok, can you confirm to me if thats how you get those techs? I haven't found them anywhere else.. and its driving me nuts cause they would help me a lot ;p

[Mengels7]

Anyone wanna play later?


Edit: I'm on Ship 2.  My character's name is SophieEllisX7, just send me a request if you wanna play!!! :D

[ezodagrom]

ok, can you confirm to me if thats how you get those techs? I haven't found them anywhere else.. and its driving me nuts cause they would help me a lot ;p

No idea how to get shifta and deband, in the beta I've been only playing as Ranger. :\

EDIT: Here's a translated force skill tree, there's no mention of shifta and deband (note that MST UP probably should have been T-DEF UP):
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh113/subarashee/PSO2/FOtree.jpg

EDIT2: Video of me going through the Forest area:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZm_eepvo-w

[Sieghardt]

how do you get skill points in this game? apparently the only way you get shift and demand is through the skill tree

you get shifta and deband as discs like the other techs, they seem oddly rare though, hours of play and our force only had deband but that's enough to confirm this

Really enjoyed the hell out of the beta, sega have a killer game right here but they need to nail the payment options and content releases too

[Happy Cat]

you get shifta and deband as discs like the other techs, they seem oddly rare though, hours of play and our force only had deband but that's enough to confirm this

Really enjoyed the hell out of the beta, sega have a killer game right here but they need to nail the payment options and content releases too

ah i see, well thanks for the info...

btw.. 6 hour maintenance tonight.. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[ezodagrom]

Really enjoyed the hell out of the beta, sega have a killer game right here but they need to nail the payment options and content releases too

Sakai mentioned that they're planning on releasing new content every 3~4 weeks once the game is launched.

[Radrappy]

Hey, so I'm lv 5 now and have been playing for a couple days.  Thought I'd contribute some thoughts

Pros

-combat is pretty satisfying.  You really have to keep an eye on your health given that there's no knockdown.
-the enemies are fun to fight.  Some have really nice touches like being able to shoot the boulder out of a monkey's hand to have it fall and stun said monkey. 
-Blocking is useful.
-Item shortcuts work beautifully
-the campship works great with having all your shops/functions available in one room.
-multiplay areas are pretty brilliant.  The idea that you could run into someone randomly is exciting and rewarding. 

cons

-feels like not very much content stretched out between lots of mini missions. 
-few bosses if any
-too complicated for its own good.
-really bad performance issues in multiplayer
-the visuals can compete with the action.  In one area the shadows cast by the trees on the ground were so busy and complex that it was really hard to keep track of the enemies I was fighting.   
-the story is hohum in execution so far.  Nobody really wanted one either.   
-cat ears are a clothing option (obviously personal)

I'm having a good time over all.  Given the lag issues with multiplayer, I tend to stick to soloing and doing the occasional multiplay map.  As an over all note, I'd really like to say it feels like they tried to hard to please everyone with the gameplay and crafted something a little confused as a result.  You can strafe, dodge, block, enter a 3rd person mode, chain combos together, and even jump.  It's all just too much.  It doesn't ever feel like a streamlined experience.  In choosing to include every gameplay convention under the sun the game has become a jack of all trades, master of none(that rhymed).  It's not a BAD thing per se.  After having played the game I think it's definitely a good idea that the game is going F2P though. 

this is completely separate from pso2 but I had a helluva time getting this thing to run on my computer.  For reference, I run a windows 7 bootcamp partition on my mbp 15.