Almost 10 years after I played the original PSO on Dreamcast, Sega have announced in what perhaps, may be a a true sequel bearing the original’s name, Phantasy Star Online 2.
This got me thinking back to how flawed and great the original PSO was, the downfall of the series and how the new PSO could possbily fix it.
The original PSO seemed like a relatively simplistic dungeon crawler with little depth, even for that time. There was no open world, there was no indepth class cutomization or levelling up system, there was only running the same 4 maps over and over. The game was riddled with bugs and cheaters, which could destroy your character and items in an instant.
Yet there was something magical about the game that kept people playing. Was it Forest 1? The excitement of finding rate items? The music on Pioneer 2 or that damn sparkly loading screen? Nobody knows exactly, but the game was charming, so much in fact, that I spent a good 2 years of my life playing it, going through the same 4 maps over and over, making new characters to level up after I’d hit the level cap with one.
SEGA went on to create several revisons of the game, adding new maps, weapons, even a horribly unbalanced PVP mode. The game made it’s way to Gamecube, and PC, before finally being rebirthed under a different name, Phantasy Star Universe.
PSU was a large step in the right direction. The game added more MMO elements, a larger world, character customization, class swapping, an economy, and a large variety of outdoor dungeons.
While the game had somewhat captured the magic of the original, it was still plagued with cheaters, which SEGA never really dealt with, and the lack of any end game content. This eventually led to a dwindling playerbase, which eventually killed the game off.
With the annoncement of PSO2, I once again feel a sense of excitement of what is possible, yet I dread the almost inevitable dissappointment thats hit me after each release of PSO, like the hangover after a huge night out.
Anyway, the list of features touted for PSO2, from the TGS trailer:
“Action” and “RPG” re-connected Increased variety of client orders Map functions changing in real time User-created story New interface for environmental interactions Global support Thorough racial balances Full user participation events Seasonal changes New chat system New mail functions Drastic item synthesis overhaul Even wider variety of ways to raise your character New direction of event scenes Approach from NPCs (possibly a new approach to NPCs?) Silhouette changes by add-ons (obscured) New photon arts (obscured) Community supported content (obscured) Additional character customization Category-based weapon training system (obscured) Implementation of asynchronous communication New party system Improved enemy AI / cooperation Limitless content New approach to the game client Implementation of a new “life work” (obscured) Daily surprises “Trump card” system Mutual interaction functionality for new and veteran users
– List taken from PSO World
Will I give PSO2 a go? Probably. Am I going to hold my breath for it? Hell no. The last few games have really died due to a lack of support from the developers, from stopping cheaters, to server favouritism (the Japanese servers had alot more content). Here’s what would sell me:
- A large open world – PSU had this to a certain extent, but some non-instanced dungeons would be great
- SEGA really need to get their ass together and stop/ban cheaters, which is what killed player support for previous games
- Everyone needs a special power that’s somewhat unique to them. Beasts in PSU had that beast form, everyone needs a ‘super’ mode like that, which I’m hoping this Trump card system is.
- End game. PSU had level caps, which people hit too easily, which were later raised bit by bit. Raising caps != end game, nor does playing the same dungeon on a harder diffculty.