Whats the NGS experience?

[swoohs]

Played base PSO2 and loved it to death from xbox to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Microsoft store and now steam. Played NGS on launch and a little bit after and the spark just wasn't there. Just a couple questions, whats the end game like? Is the community still here? Is there any enjoyment left from the game?

[Requimatic]

1. Endgame is basically Gigantix and now Ancients with the Kvaris release. There's also Rank 2 Dark Falz (L60, 4 players only, much harder), and Battledia Purple Triggers (Gigantix Boss Rush mode).

The thing with bosses in Kvaris is that they can and will one-shot you; so combat now has a skill ceiling to not die. Some classes fare better than others, though; like Hunter and Braver, since they have actual Guard mechanics. Other classes have to outright avoid the attacks or trust in iframes from their weapon action/sidestep dodge to not die. (Gigantix often hit for over 1000 damage, 1400 in a lot of cases, and no one is surviving that outside of a couple of situations, unless you're Guarding like I mentioned above.)

2. Community is still here, yeah, but a lot left after base PSO2's demise. I suggest Ship 2 or 3? I believe, for the most players active at any given time.

3. There is, yes, but once you reach a certain point, there isn't much to do. This is the part Sega is still struggling with, although they're showing.. some.. promise in this regard. Apparently there's a crafting system in the works, although we have zero information on it. Player and Alliance Quarters were just hinted at in one of the last streams, so there's that.

You may enjoy what's here, or you may not. Personally, I do, although when I'm done with dailies, weeklies, and am currently not farming anything (the new 7* Kaizaar series has some serious grinding involved), you're left with.. lobby AFKing, or hoarding materials if that's your thing.

I guess you could also farm the more popular augment capsules and play the market, if you like that sorta thing. Deftness/Mastery farms are very much a thing, and a very good way to earn meseta, too. (Especially if you're F2P and have to work around your 3-day shop pass.)

[Crystal Sharrd]

As a fan of base PSO2, NGS has been a massive disappointment. An annoying mechanic called Battle Power that should never have existed and piecemeal story. Though hopefully the next major update, whenever that is, will get things back on track and start focusing more heavily on the story, which was a large part of what made base PSO2 so incredible.

[Necromancin]

Originally posted by swoohs:

Played base PSO2 and loved it to death from xbox to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Microsoft store and now steam. Played NGS on launch and a little bit after and the spark just wasn't there. Just a couple questions, whats the end game like? Is the community still here? Is there any enjoyment left from the game?

Hot garbage is the verdict for this game

[Alligo]

Garbage and boring experience, it has nothing to do with PSO2...

[Smug Kot]

Originally posted by Requimatic:

1. Endgame is basically Gigantix and now Ancients with the Kvaris release. There's also Rank 2 Dark Falz (L60, 4 players only, much harder), and Battledia Purple Triggers (Gigantix Boss Rush mode).

The thing with bosses in Kvaris is that they can and will one-shot you; so combat now has a skill ceiling to not die. Some classes fare better than others, though; like Hunter and Braver, since they have actual Guard mechanics. Other classes have to outright avoid the attacks or trust in iframes from their weapon action/sidestep dodge to not die. (Gigantix often hit for over 1000 damage, 1400 in a lot of cases, and no one is surviving that outside of a couple of situations, unless you're Guarding like I mentioned above.)

2. Community is still here, yeah, but a lot left after base PSO2's demise. I suggest Ship 2 or 3? I believe, for the most players active at any given time.

3. There is, yes, but once you reach a certain point, there isn't much to do. This is the part Sega is still struggling with, although they're showing.. some.. promise in this regard. Apparently there's a crafting system in the works, although we have zero information on it. Player and Alliance Quarters were just hinted at in one of the last streams, so there's that.

You may enjoy what's here, or you may not. Personally, I do, although when I'm done with dailies, weeklies, and am currently not farming anything (the new 7* Kaizaar series has some serious grinding involved), you're left with.. lobby AFKing, or hoarding materials if that's your thing.

I guess you could also farm the more popular augment capsules and play the market, if you like that sorta thing. Deftness/Mastery farms are very much a thing, and a very good way to earn meseta, too. (Especially if you're F2P and have to work around your 3-day shop pass.)

everything one-shotting you is straight up bad design, pushing people to only play glass cannon since everything is OHKO it is terrible.

[Xaelon]

NGS starts out fun but gets progressively more dull the longer you play.

Leveling to cap and exploring the different zones is somewhat enjoyable, but I definitely don't recommend sticking around after that.

Once you're done with the short story the gameplay loop consists of gathering resources, and grinding mobs in the same combat zone for hours while leaving every so often to kill gigantix or do a UQ. If it was possible to get good drops doing these things it would be one thing, but loot in NGS falls into two categories: extremely common and worthless or impossibly rare. The best weapons and armor probably aren't required to clear whatever the hardest content is but chasing those mythical drops is what NGS's "endgame" has become. You can choose not to chase whatever the super rare drops are but there's really nothing else to do once you hit the level cap.

The game also has an extensive selection of cosmetics, but you may not be able to afford what you want because of how limited F2P shop access is. Unless you subscribe to premium you're limited to one shop ticket(3 days of selling access) per battlepass (roughly a month I believe). It would be one thing if there was were other decent ways to make money but selling things to other players is the only good way to make money in NGS. This issue is further compounded by how selling cosmetics makes far more money than selling anything else in the game. You can spend weeks grinding out affix caps to sell or you can just buy some scratch tickets and probably make more money immediately.

There's also the matter of how Sega is choosing to lock more and more game basic features behind SG or Premium. If you don't have a large stockpile of SG left over from your PSO2 days you're going to have a bad time trying to play this game again.

[Item_Hoarder]

Incredibly repetitive. PSO2 was like that too, but that game's EQs at least gave you excubes or materials for crafting weapons later. NGS EQs give you bad loot even now despite feedback asking for improvements to it. Skip it.

[pseudo]

on paper NGS and PSO2 are mostly the same but in practice there's something really dull and repetitive about it where the predecessor managed to keep everything fresh.

I think my biggest gripe is the gear treadmill effect going on. They're DESPERATE to keep players in the game so they just keep resetting their gear hoping they're stupid enough to farm for the mega rare weapon of that chapter. Soon they're going to have us fishing for RNG on the skills. I just don't think they understand at all that PSO2 was more than a mob grinder, there was at least a sense of teamwork and strategy involved with it.

[HollowGrapeJ]

Originally posted by Smug Kot:

everything one-shotting you is straight up bad design, pushing people to only play glass cannon since everything is OHKO it is terrible.

That's something I can agree with. It's just artificial difficulty and they don't need to do that. You would normally not die that often by these re-skinned enemies. That's why I avoided Giga hunting early on in the game since it was a pure waste of my time. Purple Nogleth is not that interesting.

[UrbanMech]

Originally posted by HollowGrapeJ:

Originally posted by Smug Kot:

everything one-shotting you is straight up bad design, pushing people to only play glass cannon since everything is OHKO it is terrible.

That's something I can agree with. It's just artificial difficulty and they don't need to do that. You would normally not die that often by these re-skinned enemies. That's why I avoided Giga hunting early on in the game since it was a pure waste of my time. Purple Nogleth is not that interesting.

I'm not agreeing with the design approach here but I am wondering, has anyone tried building defensive augments and using a mix of defensive foods to see if these bosses instead chunk health instead?

[HollowGrapeJ]

Originally posted by MoonShrine:

I'm not agreeing with the design approach here but I am wondering, has anyone tried building defensive augments and using a mix of defensive foods to see if these bosses instead chunk health instead?

That would be pretty interesting to see. I don't think many do this. I know with glass canon build, the negative damage resistance definitely makes a difference when you get hit by regular enemies. But, I doubt going defensive would make enough of one for an overpowered Giga.

[HollowGrapeJ]

The game is starting to pick up, but even when the time comes that it becomes really good, it's still going to be awkward trying to explain to new players that the entirety of the first few chapters suck and that it gets good after lvl 75 when we go in space or whatever.

[DRIFTER]

NGS just doesn't have the spark PSO2 had in creativity or community. True, PSO2 had a dripfeed release schedule and still had plenty of AFK lobby parties, but it came alive during UQ's, generally with a populated blocks around the clock. NGS can actually have times where you can't fill a lower level/region UQ party, outside of whatever the highest level content is. And forget about the triggers, pyramid, or other optional content as a solo casual, you won't find anyone to match with. Screaming in the lobby might round up a party but it's a chore, nobody comes to you or openly requests it compared to what we saw in pso2. Most people have their alliances or premades in NGS already.

NGS is populated in the kvaris region, the current "cap," leaving all other regions on graveyard shift, like Korean MMO's. There's little reason to go back and explore, barely any sidequests or story content to do (and it's all one and done), and the grind is quickly undermined by short-lived weapon series or handouts (they gave us gear fully affixed several times as a way to catch up on power creep. Why grind for hours when you can get it free?). NGS' combat is decent but baby mode in comparison to PSO2's massive skill ceiling for XQ content like sodom and masquerade... not to mention phaleg. The OG nightmare fuel.

It's time to get your closure, enjoy the full story, do all the challenges you want, and then say goodbye to PSO2. You can always dip in to see the next region or run a few story quests, but NGS isn't anything like PSO2 was. It's not even a case of too little too late for the global introduction, it's just not a compelling game. Most of the enthusiasts I meet are deep into its dressup simulator which requires grinding or paying to play slots (gacha) for your dream ensemble or cosplay. It's never appealed to me, personally, so I don't have the motivation to fight for cash.

I've kept a positive rating for pso2 in my public review, because i'm filled with nostalgia for what the game was. But it's time to face the facts. This isn't pso2. It will never be. It doesn't have the ambiance, atmosphere, wider variety, and excitement of pso2. I miss the concerts (NGS' is so lifeless in comparison, the animations and choreography feel lazier, the lighting and effects are duller and less complex), collab with limited time quests (FF14 boss complete with FF14 mechanics, evangelion angel mission... [JP only content]), shipwide competitive events with worthwhile rewards, populated PVP and PVE blocks (rest in peace, CMode... populated only by SG farmers these days)...

I miss PSO2.
But life must go on.

[ophie]

Originally posted by MoonShrine:

Originally posted by HollowGrapeJ:

That's something I can agree with. It's just artificial difficulty and they don't need to do that. You would normally not die that often by these re-skinned enemies. That's why I avoided Giga hunting early on in the game since it was a pure waste of my time. Purple Nogleth is not that interesting.

I'm not agreeing with the design approach here but I am wondering, has anyone tried building defensive augments and using a mix of defensive foods to see if these bosses instead chunk health instead?

Not good enough. You sacrifice significant damage output to MAYBE survive one or two weak giga/ancient hits and MAAAAAYBE survive a big one. Barely. While probably getting frozen because ancients do heavy freeze gauge on their attacks.

[Smug Kot]

Originally posted by HazelBunny:

Originally posted by MoonShrine:

I'm not agreeing with the design approach here but I am wondering, has anyone tried building defensive augments and using a mix of defensive foods to see if these bosses instead chunk health instead?

Not good enough. You sacrifice significant damage output to MAYBE survive one or two weak giga/ancient hits and MAAAAAYBE survive a big one. Barely. While probably getting frozen because ancients do heavy freeze gauge on their attacks.

sounds horrible lame.