Phantasy Star Online 1

Then you were propably absent from planetside 2 and project reality sessions.

If you just want to play through the story play on Ultima. It's easy mode with the extra xp

Well what can I say? It didn't age well.
And I'm not talking about the graphics. As a matter of fact game looks quite good considering just how goddamn ancient it is. Probably thanks to art style and decent resolution of textures.
Why just doesn't fly with me is obviously combat. Hit box based collisions and auto targeting just don't mix very well, unless it's some 1-on-1 high speed duel like V-On or Gendum VS.
Here enemies will just side step the shit out of you. Stiff attack animations don't help either. Poses that your character strikes after each attacks are cool, but hitting anything fast for more than one hit at time is frustrating as shit. I would assume weapons with wider ranges like great swords help to circumvent that, but in the beginning you're only given a saber and its moveset is one of the shittiest I ever encountered.
Probably if you played it back then and got accustomed to it - it's not a problem, but after portable games going back to this is almost painful.
I'll be playing it for a while, but chances are I'll drop it in the day or two. Music is fucking amazing though, much better than later games.

Let's be honest, PSO2 to PSO1 is what PSO1 to PS1-4. Apart from shared terminology and muh references they have nothing in common.

Silly question

was the last boss of PSO on ultimate difficulty any different besides recolor? I remember grinding with friends to beat the game on ultimate and we never did

I fucking loved PSO 1 so much.
Still play PSO every so often to this day, either through emulation, natively through Blue Burst, or I'll fire up the ol' GC with my PSO ep 1&2 disc to play for some time, but the memory is always corrupted on my cards because both memory cards are well over a decade old now.

I know the game has aged like shit but I still adore it.

i tried PSO2 the other day and it kinda sucked.

its a huge pay2win weeaboo grindfest, there are RPers all over the place dancing their loli sluts. gameplay is mediocre ARPG at the very best. upgrading your weapons fails unless you pay for meme "chance boosts". and also the game is japanese mostly, theres no real translation patch beyond menus. you can play with english players on ship 02 but that doesn't help you understand the story any better.

exactly how I felt as well. community sucked dick and the game had a ton of actual fucking advertisements infesting it as well.

I was about to go into a tirade about how much I loved PSO1 and how absolutely dogshit PSO2 is but you saved me the trouble.

I think even if they had have released it in the west I still wouldn't have bothered after seeing how it turned out.

And don't even get me started on that shitty anime.

Ditto.

ultima has pso2 drop style now. No one uses it because u get lower drop rates.

I recommend Ultima because of 3x/5x exp rates. Still takes a while to level up. Ultima has an HD HUD in settings, and 1080p. Graphics actually are not dated. psobb is still only a decade old.
Got tons of gear just ask and i'll boost u from lvl 1 to 80 in 3 hours.

I was raped that day.

not that it mattered in the end since I played on the xbox hueg and had the memory card exploit from Action Replay to duplicate anything I ever wanted.

Also Universe was better than PSO2.

Also how's that ephinea going, you 2 anons from a year ago who wanted muh 1x rate immersion. Got your tjs yet? (ephinea sucks, has lower population, etc)

Only thing that sucks on Ultima is the pgf only drops for 2 weeks in Christmas time, and its .2% drop rate on ep 2 boss (takes 30 mins per run through)

i played PSO1 couple of years back and it wasn't that good either. but yeah "good because playing with friends" kind of bullshit.

honestly i think the franchise just sucks in its entirety. the old 16 bit games were awful too.

didnt think i would ever say this about any anime JRPG franchise, but i think its worse than star ocean

I view pso1 differently. Endgame PvM is the most exciting thing any Dreamcast/gamecube era achieved, and its an mmo.
Positioning, weapon selection, evasion, timing, feels good.

so basically any other "action" mmo of today. its really nothing impressive enough to say "hey, i'd rather play this 15 year old game than any of the newer ones because it so good!"

i mean im not shitting you or anything, but i think you're looking at it with nostalgia glasses.

I can't convince you, there are many mechanics here that are pioneered, unique. Simply put, in a way it feels like counter strike 1.6 to me when you have muscle memory, doing fun flashy combat . I'm not here to write an analysis or critique, but to affirm my nostalgia and experience.

yeah, i get you. i feel similarly for FFXI, except that no friends to play it with.

how so? I always found the mechanics really solid and they still stand up today, even over PSO2. Nigga if anything PSO2's aged like shit and it's not even half as old as PSO1

What's with all of the disposable weebshit being posted lately?

PSO2 has numerous issues. It's not pay2win in the slightest however. The most you can do is cooldowns and shit and maybe influence RNG in your favor but it's not legitimately pay2win. Can you cite any examples of it?

I'd tell you to go back to /fo4g/ but that's literally just because I wanna squidward post in it again

I should have specifically said the combat and obviously the graphics as well but that's to be expected seeing as the game is well over a decade old now.
that's not to say I still don't enjoy the game but the combat most definitely has shown it's age.

The rest of the game though now that I think about is has really stood the test of time.

how is that NOT pay to win?

No it wasn't. Universe was trash.

The best thing to come out of PS Universe was PSP2/PSP2i, and even then it was held back by being a PSU spin-off which managed to have actual great gameplay. All the PSU legacy areas were still boring as fuck, but the new areas were fairly interesting and fun to run through repeatedly - and the new mechanics kept the game feeling engaging and fun to grind through without getting slogged down in a bunch of artificial progress barriers. For example, rare weapons and armors didn't used to drop - you had to grind for the boards and materials, which were all rare themselves. If you got them all, then you had to wait several hours to a day in order for your incompetent little robot buddy to complete fuck them up and present with a pile of smouldering ashes. If by some miracle it did actually present you with a decent weapon at a decent %, then it'd only ever get to be about +4/+5 grind because much past that and you ran the risk of breaking your fucking weapon permanently. I hope whoever thought that was a good idea died in a runaway trash fire.

Also, PSU was a huge offender of the sin of "content locked on disk" - because game consoles at the time didn't have HDDs (except, they did, but Sega didn't want to tie the game to a feature that only was available if you bought a much better online RPG), but they still wanted to have content updates to keep those monthly subscription fees rolling in - Sega just stupidly locked 95% of the content away on the disk so they could slowly unlock it at a rate of about 2% every two weeks. What made it even more asinine was the fact that offline mode already had the locked content available in the base game. So all those planets, areas, bosses, weapons, clothes, etc were available to the player day 1 - you just couldn't access any of that shit online because fuck you, that's why.

I feel like all the hating on PSO2 comes from kids who couldn't actually play the game and only saw videos on youtube and posts on our and halfchan's /vg/.
It does have shitton of problems, none of which mentioned itt.

I disagree with you on the part where portable games suffer from being PSU sequels. If anything PSU laid solid base gameplay foundation while piling layers of shit over it.
Portables were great game exactly thanks to that basic foundation.

Unless you want to play with friends, get the Tethealla Server. Use the nosql patch so you don't have to run a database server.

Found the salty weeb who couldn't play PSO2. Use that fucking proxy like everyone else.

PSO2 is the ultimate comfy dress-up game.

but couldn't someone make the same arguement for PSO2?

You could make the same argument about any game really.
Most of the games can be accustomed to and played in skillful manner. Question is whether game was designed with that in mind, or just clunky piece of shit that people overskill and then stay in their comfort zone.

For example classic 8bit Castlevanias, specifically 1 and 3. Any modern baby wouldn't be able to play them regardless of amount of experience in say platinum games or meat boy. Because it feel clunky and unhandy.
Yet those games are purposefully designed for uncontrollable jump and lengthy attack animations, thus making it possible to flawlessly without taking a hit complete them even on hard modes, where enemies are replaced with harder and faster versions.
Is PSO1 designed in the same way? I'd say yes.

To compare there is Castlevania 2 or nes version of Ghouls'n'Ghoblins where game is not designed in accordance with control scheme and player character's abilities, spawning enemies in places where you can get guaranteed damage unless you exploit it in some manner, like doing specific not obvious actions at specific points because fuck game design lol. Is PSO1 like that? Definitely no.

What about PSO2 then? It's the other way around really, we have Castlevania 4 or SOTN situation with it - player character is super strong, fast and agile and almost nothing in the game poses threat to even a moderately experienced player, let alone tryhard elitists who perfected original ninja gaiden or some shit.
Games like that are easy from get go, I dunno if you can say if they age poorly, or there is just nothing to age.
Sega tries to fix this by adding supposedly hardcore shit in current PSO2, like solo EQs or solo XQs, but really that's just 1% or less of the game's total content. You'll probably be done with it in a day or two, once you reach it.
The rest you can just faceroll through.
I just hope somebody will read my shit tbh.

So I'm bored and want to play PSO, should I hop on a BB private server, or just play PSP2? I don't remember the differences between them.

Follow the steps here, you can essentially play Blue Burst offline:
theisozone.com/downloads/pc/windows-games/phantasy-star-online-blue-burst-offline-mode/

FOR NEWFAGS TO THE SERIES

Phantasy Star Online is a lot of fun, for those of you who don't know what it is. Originally it was released for Dreamcast, then it was released on Game Cube (muh nostalgia) and Xbox. The Game Cube and Xbox versions include Episode 1 and a new Episode 2 that wasn't on Dreamcast. Episode 3 is an entirely different game that was only on the Game Cube and it's retarded and no one cares about it. It's like a card game or something. Blue Burst was the final and superior version of the game that was released on PC. It has the best graphics, best controls, some misc. additional content and has Episode 4, along with the first two episodes. The servers were taken down years ago, but you can play on private servers like Ultima, Ephinea and Schthack (I wouldn't recommend Schthack though cause they fucking reset everyone a while ago, so I guess they're unreliable). Or you can download what I posted above and play by yourself. Honestly the game can be enjoyably played completely solo, and is arguably better that way. But if you like playing with other people, then you might enjoy a private server. The communities tend to be very small (like less than 100 people online at any given time). I don't know if they're good or bad.

Phantasy Star 1 through 4 and Online are classics that have aged like wine and should definitely be played. They are forgotten gems and were all very ground breaking and influential, despite rarely being given recognition. Phantasy Star 1-4 pioneered JRPGs, and Online pioneered gameplay, graphics and the use of online on consoles.

Universe and Portable 1 were shit, put quite bluntly (Portable 1 was less so, but still quite bad). Universe was so bad in every way it will actually give you cancer. It's the single greatest example of everything a game SHOULDN'T be. The gameplay was lackluster (Drakengard is more enjoyable) and the voice acting, story and characters will traumatize you for life. Portable 2 and Portable 2 Infinity are very fun and solid PSP games and I'd recommend them, if you can handle a very anime-esque, cringe worthy story. I would say just play 2 Infinity because it perfected the Universe style gameplay (the Portables are indirect sequels of Universe and build/improve on the mechanics of their predecessors with every game) and has another story in addition to that of 2, but unfortunately it was never released in the West. If you can read moon runes then you should easily be able to find a rom, and I'd recommend you do. An English patch is being worked on (it's not dead: gbatemp.net/threads/phantasy-star-portable-2-infinity-english-translation.368328/), but it's been in the works for YEARS and it's unknown when it's going to be released.

I don't know about Phantasy Star Zero (for the DS) but I've heard it was lackluster.

Phantasy Star Online 2 is… uh, complicated? What I can tell you is that it's basically a weeb shit MMORPG (most people play as lolis and dance in the lobby, it's worse than Universe in this regard) with gameplay that some people really like, but others hate it. Also there are in game advertisements. Watch some gameplay on YouTube to determine if it's your thing or not. Although it's free, it's a gargantuan pain in the ass to get because it's only available in Japan and southeast Asia (I think). There are guides online on how to get it working in whatever white piggu country you're living in. Just beware that it really is a pain in the ass and it's a VERY large download (like 40 GB I think). So really consider if you want to get it or not. I'd honestly only recommend it to diehard fans of the series. As much as it pains me to say, it's probably going to be the last Phantasy Star we ever get. Once SEGA milks it for all it's worth, the servers will get shut down and the IP will probably never see the light of day again. ;_;

Besides reoccurring terminology, themes, creatures, and some other stuff, each series has nothing in common with the others. So if you play Online then go to play Online 2, or play Universe then play the original four games, don't be all like "what the fuck" when you realize they're entirely different besides Rappies and space elves known as "Newmans". Anyway, final note: This series is mostly forgotten but dearly loved by those who remember it. Hopefully, some day when SEGA inevitably goes under, some diehard fan with too much money will buy the IP and make Phantasy Star great again. That's probably a pipe dream but I can always dream.

Is it worth playing PS1-3 or should i start with 4? I enjoy oldschool JRPGs but i heard PS1-3 are too oldschool for their own good (unlike something like FF4 that is still enjoyable today)

It's kind of up to you, user. I'd recommend just emulating them and seeing if you like the old ones. If they're too dated for you (which is understandable, but they're still great games), then just played the fourth one.

For PSO:BB, is there any form of level scaling/etc. that makes it easy to party with other people, or is that ~100 people playerbase going to make the game basically solo-only anyway?

Not sure what you mean. If you're talking about everyone else being highly leveled, well, yeah, a lot of people will be and it might be better to just play through maybe normal and hard mode of Episode 1 by yourself the first time, so you can get some experience. However, there are plenty of people who start new characters and are at noob levels like you'll be, but they can help you out with the mechanics of the game.

Because nobody on Holla Forums has actual taste. It's like walking into a vineyard in Sudan and expecting anything of value.

Pretty much. It wasn't horrible, but it certainly isn't as good as PSP2/PSO. Graphics are pretty much what's expected from a DS. Worth a quick playthrough if you want more Phantasy Star in your life.

I was mainly referring to like, for example, I'm level 80 and a friend is level 25, so I temporarily scale my stats down to the 25 range so we can play together without me just one-shotting everything.

Oh. Err, no, I don't believe that's possible.

did you think that maybe people realize the game sucks before being invested on it?
once you're fully invested in a game, you will hardly ever criticize it, as an instinctive mechanism of self-defense at the fact you spend tens of hours consuming a bad quality product.

to put it bluntly, its not fun. the combat is clunky and quite simplistic, you see an attack coming? dodge it, you see an enemy not attacking? get close and throw some SICK SKILLZ at it. PSO2 gameplay is by far, clunkier than something like say, Dragons Nest, or Blade & Soul.

also forgive me if i am oversimplificating the gameplay, i didn't spend 500+ hours grinding and completing orders from anime looking sluts to reach the "actually complex" part of the game, i don't hate it, im merely stating the obvious, its basic of base hack & slash with sparkly effects.

its a japanese grindfest on space, BB was clunky but its acceptable because it was the fucking gamecube gen, still not very fun unless you're playing with friends, but that isn't really a positive, ANYTHING is fun with friends. you'd have to be a huge fan of the PS franchise to play this offline when tons of better games already exist.

yeah you're straight up retarded, not even gonna bother with a serious reply, but i will give you a (you)

Those are two different games with different stories, settings and even core combat mechanics. PSO1 is more of a space diablo where the most important thing is your stats, while PSP2 is something akin to monster hunter, since you have special attacks, dodge rolls and what not, so you can win even if you're undergeared and underleveled.
I'd say play both.

PS1 has the best atmosphere, but obviously is ancient and simplistic.
PS2 is god tier overall, but is pretty short and looks very dated.
PS3 is an odd horse, and can put off you at first, but it has the best story, if you care about that in RPG, and the best enemy sprites in the series.
PS4 has the highest overall production values, and easily outshines most JRPGs ever made, but it has extremely bland characters and very simplistic story.
PS3 is by far my favourite, but that might be imprinting thing, since I played it first

Quality post, I agree on every aspect, except I'd call PSO2 bloated rather than complicated. It's the same formula as ever game - you go in dungeons and kill shit. But it has your modern mmo cancer of endless amount of stones, chips, currencies, materials and so on and so forth to make users buy storage and inventory space. Otherwise it's pretty simple game, I'd say even simpler than PSP2.

You sound angry user, most of PSO2's drawbacks are obvious from first couple of hours and indeed nobody mentioned them before and you.
I'd say it has no difficulty, bloated with mmo collectathon cancer and is so very anime it puts psp2 to shame. You don't need to play for 1000 hours to get that.
I don't agree that combat is clunky though. I mean depending on weapon, your character can be very responsive and fast and feel almost like you're playing a platinum game. But as you said enemies just stand there waiting to be killed, it's very easy game, to the point of combat system being wasted on it.

I think PSO1 and PSP2 are the best in action PS series for different reasons. PSO2 is well, I don't think it will ever get massive difficulty changes which is a shame.

I've had nothing but good experiences playing with Holla Forums. Maybe the problem is you.

I've sunk 700+ hours into off and on since closed-beta and PSO2 stops being fun once the flair wears off and the grind gets stale for the nth time. You can rush to level 20 in a couple of hours nowadays. Buying sexy clothing would be more fun if the textures looked better. PSO2 grind feels less satisfying than PSO1 grind oddly enough and it may be because the damage in PSO1 doesn't scale to obscene numbers in no time. So PSO2 damage feels so inconsequential and its potential is held back from being a real hack n slash that it sometimes wants to be but it has to balance the other playstyles. Also on a really and admittedly personal note I can't get into the lore. Even though it's just a rehash of the old, it's delivered in such a boring and drawn out way. I think a couple years ago they just gave up and started going lolrandumb and began milking things harder than ever instead of delivering a really solid mmo.

It wouldn't hurt as much:^) if you actually played all the 3 games before rageposting.

Game got major graphic update since PS4 release as well as tons of QoL shit including reduced RNG and grind. Combat is piss easy on lower difficulties but currently on XH you really notice the difference in class/weapon mobbing/bossing ability as well as playstyles, I'd say the combat in the game is currently at peak point with most classes both balanced and fun. As for lore, I kinda agree, ep1-3 were fun but ep4 is retarded bastard child tier, if you thought pre-ep4 is "lolrundumb" then with ep4 you'll understand how much you have underestimated the game. The game also gets peeweepee today. Don't ask anything.
sage because it's PSO1 thread
PSO1 threads with comfy hub screenshots kinda makes me want to play it, but isn't it nostalgia speaking? It doesn't seems the game is as good and perfect as people make it out to be

Shit taste detected.

You forgot phantasy star 1 & 2 remakes for ps2.

I've actually played PSO2 a ton myself and can criticize it on a ton of points, what are you talking about? Stop being an armchair psychologist for 10 seconds and start being logical.

I used to play SCHThack PSOBB server. I think they released the server kit so you can play solo.
schtserv.com/

here's a (you)

Those are terrible.

Tbh past first few scenes ep4 becomes much better than anything in 1-3. Instead of trying to be everything at once light sci-fi space fantasy dragon ball clone with time travelling and forced love story but also clones and internal conspiracy what the hell I don't even story finally focused at what it wanted to be from get go - a traditional henshin hero drama.

What's wrong with her face?

It's an elf.

I read your post and I pretty much agree with you. PSO's enemies were designed to test your mastery over your weapon's move set and your character's maneuverability (or lack thereof).
PSU however, didn't seem to have any regard for the player's ability to move around at all. I didn't play much of PSO2, but I was pretty much Superman right from the get-go, as you say. I dropped it out of boredom.

Phantasy Star 4 is amazing. 1-3 are mediocre though, I'll give you that.

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