Phantasy Star Universe

[Signe]

This game totally sucks.  Offline and online. 

[geldonyetich]

Specifics as to the suckitude? 

Personally, I like it.  But then, I came into it having played Phantasy Star Online, so I knew what to expect.  Which is to say, gameplay complexity just a step up from Diablo (I, not II) with elaborate 3D Jpop Sci-Fi graphics.

I was able to run it at 1024x800 without any slowdown, but (oddly enough) setting it to High detail causes it to reset my computer.  And this is with the WinXP autoreset on blue screen option turned off.

Aside from that, my only gripe with the game so far is that the AI of the partners sucks.  They mostly stand around and do nothing while you fight.  Of course, in multiplayer mode your partners are played by other players, so that's probably why they didn't put much effort into the AI of partners that tag along in the single player mode.   It's possible that the poor AI of the partners is deliberate because the offline game is somewhat a tutorial for the online game, so making the player do most of the work is the only real way to teach em'.

[Signe]

I can run it fine at max settings, has nothing to do with the way it runs.  The cute sucks.  The camera sucks.  The controls suck... I've used KB and a gamepad.  The way they set up the UI sucks.   It doesn't remind me even a little bit of Diablo because Diablo didn't suck.

[geldonyetich]

So, you don't like the style and the GUI is awkward.  Before the gameplay aspect even gets involved, you're turned off from it.  I can understand why that'd generate the feeling that the game sucks.

Personally, I've found that aspects of style appreciation and GUI use can be learned.  Such hurdles are not exactly something people thank the developer for, but are a distinctively different kind of suckiness from the game itself being ill conceived because if you play the game long enough these problems go away.

It's easier for me because I've played the PC versions of PSO and FFXI, so I've somewhat built the neccessary synaptic connections to deal with console interfaces brought over to the PC as well as adequately brain damaged myself as to find Japanese cartoony art to be endearing.  Thus, my interpretation would not be that PSU sucks because I've overcome the involved hurdles.

If you're still even willing to launch the thing, here's a couple tips that might help enjoyment of the game that aren't really specified well enough in the instructions:
Left arrow turns the camera the direction the protangonist is facing.
By hitting down arrow in sequence, you can perform combination attacks.  Takes awhile to get the pattern down for the different weapons.  Right arrow launches the bound learned attack for that weapon.

[Kitsune]

From what I understand geldon, the advanced classes aren't patched into the US servers yet and if the US servers follow the same schedule as the Japanese servers, it'll be about a month.

The way advanced classes work is that you reach a set class level in your base class(es) and you can then switch jobs over to an advanced class with access to better stuff.  There's:

Fortefighter - A hunter specialist that gets the best heavy weapons.
Figunner - A 'light' fighter that gets decent guns and the fast double-weapons.
Fortegunner - A ranger specialist that gets heavy guns like the laser cannon and grenade launcher.
Guntecher - A hybrid with decent guns and a smattering of magic and melee.
Wartecher - A hybrid with better melee and magic than the Guntecher but much less ranged ability.
Fortecher - A force specialist that gets all the super-duper spells along with pretty good ranged attacks from bows.
Protranser - A weird class that doesn't get access to any of the best weapons in the game but in exchange can use the best melee and gun skills and can use traps exclusive to their class.

[Signe]

I'm using a really naff PC gamepad right now, which doesn't help, I'm sure.   Using the KB is just horrible, horrible, horrible.  I've sent for a new gamepad.  Maybe it'll suck less.

[schild]

Really, the only gamepad the games works with is the wired 360 one. Also, it's a Japanese RPG at the core. The online game has... no story and you have to Work for the Fun. Happens sometimes. But being able to press a button and swing a sword makes it instantly better than...ya know. Every other MMOG at this point. I'm going to pick my copy up now actually.

[Trippy]

Can you solo when playing online? How does loot distribution work when grouped?

[schild]

3 Loot options - forgot what they were.

Yes you can solo online. Apparently you can call NPCs in as well.

[murdoc]

This game totally sucks.  Offline and online. 

This quote is correct imo

[Kitsune]

Trying to play the game solely on the keyboard sucks, don't do that.  If only they had a keyboard/mouse setup, but as expected of a Japanese console-based game (I'm looking at you here, FFXI) they didn't bother to take the time to rework the interface to support mouse control.  My 360 controller works great on it, though it helps that I'm used to using a console controller for PSO.

I got off my ass today, left the space station and started exploring.  The two planets that you can go to are nifty, with great atmosphere and shops and their own mission areas.  There's a third planet that's not accessible yet on the US servers, hopefully it won't take a month before it's unlocked like it did on the Japanese servers.

I played around more with the crafting, since all of the monsters in the subway area are dark, I decided to make myself a light-elemental dagger.  I bought the dagger plans off of the Japan-esque planet, had the components necessary from drops in the missions, tossed them all into my little house robot, and let it bake for fourteen minutes while I ran through the subway again to pick up more cash and another level.  (It takes time to craft stuff, apparently some of the high-end stuff can take hours.  That could become pretty obnoxious.)  When I came out, I bought the dagger's special attack from the weapon store, went back home to get the finished dagger from the robot, fortunately for the robot's continued health it didn't fuck up the crafting check and ruin the dagger, equipped it and trotted back to the dungeon.

And holy fucking shit I became the angel of death.  I was hitting twice as hard, twice as often, and the special attack for the dagger was just murdering everything in sight.  I couldn't believe the difference it made; my original sword was a toy in comparison to this thing.

This made me a little cocky, so when I found a level 5 elf chick looking for a party to tackle the level 20 mission, I signed up.  I was level 7 at that point, and it's a good thing I was, because we learned very fast that level 20 monsters are in fact pretty tough for people less than half their level.  A party of two casters and me for the tank (although 'tank' isn't a good term, four hits from most anything in there would have killed me, I was more stabbing them in the back and drawing them away from the casters than absorbing damage) and we were fighting for our lives from the very first second.  Thankfully both of them had the healing technique handy, and we actually managed to finish the mission without any fatalities despite a few close calls.

I also bought fire bullets to use on the pistol I was dual-wielding with the dagger; unfortunately the damage the fire was doing was pretty laughable.  I hear that the rangers at higher skill with fire can do a crapload of DoT damage with it, but having it on the crappy starting pistol was more or less useless except for the comedic value of setting things on fire.  I should get a better pistol and see if that doesn't make a difference.

I'm considering making some grinders for my dagger.  For anyone who didn't play PSO, grinders upgrade your weapon's stats.  Unlike PSO, though, in PSU if the grinder fucks up, it destroys the weapon.  Boosting a weapon one or two levels is supposed to be pretty safe, but more than that and it becomes a gamble between whether the power boost is worth the risk of losing the weapon entirely.  Grinders come in ranks of 1-10, with the higher-ranked ones being less likely to fail in the upgrade; safe bet that the +10 versions will fetch good money in the near future.

You can run a store in your room ala EQ2.  It costs fifteen grand to get a store, and I'm planning on putting one up when I get the cash.  Most things don't sell to vendors for squat, but the other players would probably gladly pay three grand for an item that costs five grand from an NPC.  Money does not come easily from the missions at the lower levels, so getting the other players to give me their money seems a good idea.

Anyhow, day two better'n day one.  I'm getting accustomed to how things work and getting around is less of a struggle.  Now if only those Japanese bastards would put up the Halloween decorations on the US server, I'd be a happy camper.  The Japanese server is of course ful of pumpkins and ghosts and special holiday monsters and loot, none of which they've bothered to give us yet.

[cosapi]

If the controls or navigating the UI stinks, I've found this setup to make things rather convenient with a joypad.

(I'm playing on PC and this was from a short experience with story mode, no clue how well this control scheme will hold up though)

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9625/controlschemepi2.png

If your joypad does not have 6 buttons on the right, just ignore the use of Y and B from the example and use the direction keys on your keyboard. But if your joypad looks similar to that, and contains a select button in the center (in addition to the start button), I would recommend setting that "select" button to Right or Left arrow key.

With this setup you wouldn't have to use the keyboard aside from typing. Although I haven't played online yet so I can't guarantee  it will cover everything. =P

Two reasons why I prefer this setup.

Hold R, then press A to make easy use of the gun with gun/sword combo.

Hold Z, then use R or L to scroll through the quick weapons or quick items menus.

[geldonyetich]

One of these days I'll fish out my PS2-ish pad and give it a try with that.  However, for the time being I'm actually pretty content with the Keyboard interface.  The WASD movement, E to bring up pad, F1 (or home) to bring up the main menu, arrow keys to navigate side windows, that all works pretty well.  About the only thing I'm lacking is fine movement, being able to point in more than the 8 cardinal directions.   But then, I've hours of playing FFXI with a keyboard interface, so I guess I'm unusually well adapted to this.

[Koyasha]

I'm considering making some grinders for my dagger.  For anyone who didn't play PSO, grinders upgrade your weapon's stats.  Unlike PSO, though, in PSU if the grinder fucks up, it destroys the weapon.  Boosting a weapon one or two levels is supposed to be pretty safe, but more than that and it becomes a gamble between whether the power boost is worth the risk of losing the weapon entirely.  Grinders come in ranks of 1-10, with the higher-ranked ones being less likely to fail in the upgrade; safe bet that the +10 versions will fetch good money in the near future.

Luck (as in, in-game Luck) also plays a hand in it and if you wait until the right luck day for your race/sex and use the right level of grinder, you can get pretty high under the 'certain' category and have quite a ways on the 'very high' and 'high' success chance.  Grinder charts: http://www.psupedia.org/index.php?title=Weapon_Grinding

So far I'm enjoying the hell out of the game.  PSO was the game that really made me love the Dreamcast way back when, and PSU is more of the same goodness only better.  The combat system is much more fun than any other game I've played recently.  Being able to physically DODGE attacks by getting out of the way, manual attacks and so on, the console game design is obvious and a Good Thing imo, unlike say, City of Heroes where the success or failure of the attack is determined at the moment of execution.  Aiming is something that's taking a while to get used to though.

My main gripe is that it won't quite go fullscreen at 2048 x 1536 resolution, there's always these annoying little bars at each side when I drag the window open.  Technically I don't play 'fullscreen' at all, I just drag the window size to cover most of my screen.  Alt-tabbing, by the way, for those of you who mentioned it, works fine in windowed mode.  Although there do seem to be occasional hiccups (so far, the game has frozen twice on me coming back from alt-tab, out of the countless times I've alt-tabbed while playing).  Also, the mouse is completely useless.  Completely.  It doesn't do ANYTHING.  Even FFXI had some use for the mouse - it wasn't a very useful way of doing things, but you could click menus sometimes if you felt like it and such.  Second gripe is the chat system.  I seem to have run into a lot of games that have something against sentences lately because they cut off before I can type even 1/3 of a full sentence, much less the same thing.  Having to break up a sentence into multiple lines is a real pain.  Also, language filter cannot be turned off, and it seems pretty draconian.  I've had parts of my sentences get censored for no apparrent reason.  And I very very rarely swear or use profanity.

By the way, for those of you playing....don't forget to hit Z and get your mission reward when you finish a trial.  It's something I didn't learn until I was level 5 on my 4th character.  Perhaps because I crashed during the tutorial and didn't figure out how to start the tutorial again until this morning.  And Type (class), for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, is assigned by race in multiplayer mode.  Casts start out as Rangers, Beasts as Hunters, and Newman as Force.  I have no idea what humans start as, maybe it's random.  Haven't made one.

[Kitsune]

Humans start as hunters.

It turns out that the game has a huge and wondrous chat system, they simply didn't bother to tell anyone about it.  Here's how it works:

1. Put # in front of the text to send the message only to your party.  This overrides the other animations, so don't bother adding them if you do this.  Party text pops up in a window in the corner of every party member's screen.

2. Put /alt(variable) where (variable) is f1-f12, 1-0, or a-z.  This makes the character perform an animation with the speech.  So if you wanted to wave and say hello, for example, you would type /altf3Hello!  Alternately, you can use /salt instead of /alt to use the animation of the other gender, in case you want your guy to look really gay, or your girl to not bounce around like she's twelve.  The animations don't work in missions, however; they're only useful in the cities or in a player's room.

3. Put @(number1)(number2) where (number1) is a 0-9 and a facial expression and (number2) is 0-3 and a camera angle.  This makes your character's face appear in a popup window, with a voice bubble containing the text.  So if you wanted to show an angry face while calling someone a dumbass for getting killed and ruining your mission rank, you'd type @90You stupid bastard!  Amusingly, the robot heads don't have expression, so no matter which emotion you choose you get the same face.  (The humanish heads for the robots do show expression, though.)

4. Put @s if you want the shouting voice bubble, or @c if you want a thought bubble.  This can be combined with number three, so you could get a shouting popup face with @s90You stupid bastard!

5. Add a sound effect with &(number) where number is 0-120.  I don't see a lot of use to that, since most of the sound effects are things like footsteps and beeps, but hey, knock yourself out.

6. Add a character voice effect with !(number) where number is 1-26.  1-12 are apparently only available while in a mission, while 13-26 are usable anywhere.  The Japanese version of the game actually has dialogue in these voice samples, but the US version is just meaningful grunts, hmmms, growls, and laughs, so it's not all that useful for us, sadly.

7. Change the text color by adding {color} before the text you want changed.  {blue}I hope you {red}DIE!

8. You can /random, which apparently generates a 1-1000 number, /roll which makes a six-sided die appear in your voice bubble, or /card to get a random playing card.  These commands do work with party chat, so you can #/random to pop your number into party chat if rolling for an item.


So once you start adding these commands into chat text, it can get a lot more lively than without 'em.  Of course, a lot of these can be obnoxious as hell if someone uses them too often, so hopefully the idiots out there won't ever lay hands on the chat commands.

[raydeen]

At least you cats are able to get online and play. I've tried 2 credit cards 3 times and keep getting a 191 error saying there's inaccurate or incomplete information. I can't wait until my cards are billed $150 for 3 blown tries. You know it's going to happen. Maybe this is just the universe's way of saving me from myself.

[Signe]

Actually, mine returned an error before it gave me a "transaction complete" but it really did accept it. 

[geldonyetich]

Well, I've finally figured out how to play the offline mode, at least.  That is to say, I knew how to play, but I didn't know how to play optimally until I figured out these two things:

Rectifying the AI issue is the realization that the partner NPCs have a tiny aggro range but tend to stay aggro'd once they are.  So to avoid having them just standing around and doing nothing, manuevering them over the other side of your foes causes them to follow you right into aggro range, putting them to work.  Sometimes they inexplicably stop following and get separated from the group, but they'll eventually teleport to Ethan in the most overused developer AI pathing shortcut ever.

That you can dodge attacks in this game has been mentioned.  I didn't really bother to dodge attacks much in chapters 1-3, I just  soaked it.  However, I've since found that trying to actively dodge attacks is actually half the fun.  So, suddenly combat is a lot more interesting to me.  I actually have to observe the monster's behavior and figure out patterns - quite atypical of most ORPGs, but the hybrid console arcade game aspect is what makes Phantasy Star Online/Universe unique.

Haven't tried online play yet.  I might do that this weekend, but I'm thinking I might just complete offline mode first.  I did unlock "extra mode" yesterday, which is sort of like offline mode except it basically resolves around doing the "free" missions.  I'll have to play around with more later.  Running around as a mecha-like Cast is a little more interesting to me than the clique teen warrior.

[Signe]

Terrible game.  I'm returning it tomorrow.

[geldonyetich]

No! Everybody must like the same things!

Heh, sorry you didn't like it Signe.  I shall prepare advance warning for any I recommend the game to that it's got a substantial interface and taste hurdle involved to those who aren't overused to console interfaces and japanese anime influences.  I do stand by it when I say that people who enjoyed the original PSO will love this game, though.

As for something completely different, synethesis in offline mode is instant.  There's also a bit more freedom in which weapons can be wielded by the various classes.  It bares the question, though: "If Synthesis is instant in offline mode, and nobody else is around to notice, does anyone care?"

[Fabricated]

I'm playing it online exclusively and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

The emphasis on synthesis kinda bugs me since it's like you get 600 of every item you need to make anything but you're always missing one ingredient.

[Margalis]

I watched my friend play this for a while today. It's basically a souped up PSO which is fine by me.

[Kail]

I went into Story mode and found out I was some boy on a skateboard and left.  I'm not ready to be a boy on a skateboard.

Well, the game sounds neat to me, but this quote was a bit worrying.  As far as I can tell, the game is Diablo-ish, like the old PSO, which is fine.  What I'm worried about is how much of the content I can access without subscribing.  There is no way I am ever going to subscribe to a Diablo game, much less Phantasy Star Online (I'm still pissed off at the glitches in the original).  So, what's the single player aspect like?  In PSO, it was identical to the online portion, except (obviously) without other players.  In PSU, I guess that's not the case?  You're automatically assigned a pre-generated character?  That sounds sub-optimal...

[schild]

Offline is a full story. 12 Chapters. Pregenerated characters, random loot. You can pick your classes in offline mode though I believe.

[Kitsune]

Offline has two deals.  First is story mode with the pregenerated characters where you're a boy on a skateboard who embarks upon an stereotypical Japanese adventure.  Once you've gone through some of story mode, however, you unlock extra mode, which is basically the online game available offline.  You build your own character and play through however you like.  There are differences between extra mode and online mode in that your character is more powerful to compensate for not having other people to group with, but most things about it are the same.

[Trippy]

Is there a n00b guide to this game anywhere as in "what the heck are the blue, green and yellow objects that drop on the ground sometimes when you kill things"? The manual sucks (at least the PC version does) and the Wiki assumes you've played PSO before.

Edit: okay now that I'm into Chapter 2 I can see what I'm picking up so you can ignore that question. I'm still looking for a n00b guide if anybody knows of one.

[schild]

I've searched through countless pages of wikis, message boards (we're talking from gamefaqs to IC to neoGAF to fucking PA), and official documentation.

There's obviously SOMETHING HERE and I liked PSO on the dreamcast lots. I'm missing it. It's because I suck. I know it.

[Trippy]

Can you get a Rank S in the Story Mode trials?

[schild]

I'm pretty much only playing online. One of my roommates only wants to play offline. When he finishes and unlocks Extra Mode, I may dick around with that.

Which is to say, my problem isn't the actual act of doing missions. I'm fine at that. It just seems like I'm doing something wrong. Leveling was so slow from 1-5 that at level 4 I went to Neudaiz and starting soloing the level 10+ missions.

[Fabricated]

I'm pretty much only playing online. One of my roommates only wants to play offline. When he finishes and unlocks Extra Mode, I may dick around with that.

Which is to say, my problem isn't the actual act of doing missions. I'm fine at that. It just seems like I'm doing something wrong. Leveling was so slow from 1-5 that at level 4 I went to Neudaiz and starting soloing the level 10+ missions.

I don't think you're doing something wrong. Me and my friends were dicking around a lot and did almost everything we could figure out to do and leveling is just that slow.

I don't get how you get more missions myself. There's like 2 missions you can run in the tube-liner system on the Guardian Colony and we just could not find anymore. Is there something you have to do? My friend guesses you need a higher type rank, but the manual was unhelpful. Still very fun though.

[geldonyetich]

According to the manual of general weakness (I guess somebody wanted to sell some hint books), pg. 18, very tiny type on the top it says, "As in STORY MODE, there are two types of Missions: Main Missions and Free Missions.  In general, Main Missions start from the GUARDIANS Branch, and Free Missions from the Flyer Base Mission Center."

The Linear Line is basically a Flyer Base.  Because this is how it works in offline mode, it's a fair guess that progressing the Main Missions will unlock additional Free Missions and even planets (which come with additional cities and flyer bases and GUARDIANS Branches and whatnot).  The GUARDIANS Branch at the GUARDIANS Colony you start off at is on the 5th floor.  You might need to have the leader of the group do the talking to the space-flapper at the counter.

As for your n00b guide, though it may pain you to hear it, the offline story mode with the clique teen-boy-saves-the-universe story also doubles as a gradual tutorial covering everything from basic mission flow to exchanging partner cards, synthesis, clothing, vehicle operation, ect.

[Kitsune]

Which is to say, my problem isn't the actual act of doing missions. I'm fine at that. It just seems like I'm doing something wrong. Leveling was so slow from 1-5 that at level 4 I went to Neudaiz and starting soloing the level 10+ missions.

Two things that weren't apparent to me at first glance that are easy to miss with missions:

1. Get your mission rank rewards.  When you clear a mission, you have to click on the little star-ish icon that appears down by your character's health bar.  Doing so pops up a window that shows you the rank you got for the mission and gives you cash and points towards your job levels.

2. Missions have two or more parts.  When you pop into the area after you've done a mission, head into the exit door and pick 'select mission' rather than 'return to city'.  That will let you access the next branch of the mission, which usually has higher level stuff, a boss monster to fight, and waaaaay more rewards and experience.

[Margalis]

A couple other bits of advice from someone who played PSO a bit as well:

You get XP for each enemy you have hit once. That means everyone bashing each enemy once gives WAY MORE total XP than each person focusing on one enemy at a time. You do get more XP if you get the killing blow but not that much more.

Groups get XP much much faster, and they have a much higher kill rate and the XP split rules are generous.

You should be fighting monsters at higher levels than yourself, and with a group much more so.

Itemization is very important. The $2000 weapons do twice the damage of the $800 ones. Upgrade as soon as you can.

Bosses give a lot of XP.

All that said, be prepared to do the same missions a bunch of times.

[schild]

Two things that weren't apparent to me at first glance that are easy to miss with missions:

1. Get your mission rank rewards. When you clear a mission, you have to click on the little star-ish icon that appears down by your character's health bar. Doing so pops up a window that shows you the rank you got for the mission and gives you cash and points towards your job levels.

Do you have to click on it to get the reward? I'm on the 360 version and know no such way to do that.

[Kitsune]

Do you have to click on it to get the reward? I'm on the 360 version and know no such way to do that.

Um.  I dunno for sure about the 360, but you do have to select it on the PC.  When you do, a window pops up showing how many monsters were killed, how many party members died, your total rank for the mission, and your rewards.  If you don't see that window appear, you probably didn't do something right.  I'm not sure if my 360 controller setup on the PC is the same as it is for the 360 version, but if so, the way I select the icon is to use the back button to hilight that little Z window, then the direction pad to pick the star icon, then X to select it.