Damn, I have yet to get that game for the PSP… I guess i’ll go for the sequel right away…
Kimimi you make me very curious what you see as improvements? If it’s preferable then bully for you and have fun, but the only obvious changes just represent a loss of personality to me.
For me, it was all about moving away from the endless “hit…hit…HIT” combo of the old series and onto something new - think the weapon classes have much more to offer now, and I find the skill/PP system interesting, same with new way you cannot access all techs all the time, it creates something which to me is a little more personal, as everyones setup will be different.
I’m actually trying to not compare the two (PSO/PSU) too much whilst I’m playing - I didn’t want more of the same in any sense - I disliked the general gameplay mechanics of the old series from the very start, and although the atmosphere was great, if I wanted to experience “old” Algol I would simply have turned my GC back on.
Well if you didn’t actually like the combat in PSO then that makes sense, and I’ll agree it was very limited, PSU seems just as limited only in different ways though. I also appreciate that they tried to differentiate the professions more, but the game doesn’t carry it through to anything relevant. Rangers have nothing, they replaced “hit…hit…HIT” with “hit… hit… hit… hit… hit… hit… hit…” ad nauseum. Hunters are reduced to combo OR special, and the attack animations have no personality at all now. Forces are much better functionally, but the TECHNICS are further homogenized so initially there’s like 3 basic attack types with the damage being the only other difference. And I just can’t stand the targeting anymore, it could be practiced to perfection in PSO, in PSU there doesn’t even seem to be a consistent criteria for how it picks the primary target, and between the slight extra lag on the control and how anal it is about the angle it loses any sense of empowerment to me.
And again PSO was very basic, but at least there was some sense of setup occasionally. Introducing enemies that make you play a little different than you have before, placing really cheap ones in choice rooms. Most of the enemies in PSU are equally cheap, with the only ones that aren’t being merely retarded. “chargers”, “vanishers” and “zombies” seems to cover the enemy types, and it just throws them at you in endless random waves. PSO stood out for being essentailly a beat-em-up action experience, PSU further loses the action chops in the experience of it since the online latency isn’t hidden the same way, what you see is not what’s actually happening to you. I guess for me anything that’s ‘better’ about PSU comes at the price of losing even more.
Well, I’ve decided to take the plunge, and ordered Phantasy Star Universe. If it turns out to be not so great like you’ve said Heretic, at least I can enjoy for a month or two online just for the social side of things (some guys who I know “in real life” and getting it, so I’ll be playing them online).
It’s the PC version, so unfortunately that means that won’t be able to play any people who got the 360 version (why, Sega? 
). If anyone with the PS2 or PC version is interested in meeting up in the game world some time, however, let me know.
Universe 15 is where the RPGFan and PSOWorld folks hang out, including myself.
PSOW members are , almost as a rule, idiots, though.