Old PSO Player, How much is it like the originals?

[Rook]

I played PSO on the Dreamcast with a broadband adapter and a keyboard, but have not touched it since way back then. I adored the game, how you would run dungeons with a small team in a quick timeframe. The cadence to fighting was great, and I still haven't found a game that imitated the MAGs that you would feed items to in order to evolve them.

I saw this pop up on the homepage of Steam and wondered... does it share the same bones? Are MAGs still a thing? Is the combat still rooted in the specifically timed button presses for combos? And is it an easy drop-in/drop-out that doesn't eat your time (unless you want it to)?

[Kevz]

MAGs exist in both PSO2:NGS and the older PSO2 (available as free DLC)
Combat in PSO2 had Just Attacks which is probably similar to what you are referring to however, in later updates they became less and less relevant for end game classes.
NGS on the other hand, other than dodging/countering enemy attacks, that mechanic is completely absent.

Yes, the game is easy/drop-in drop out. You can sink a large amount of time hunting for rare items in combat zones, or spend 10-15 hours to finish the story and max your main class in gear. Tbh, the game doesn't have a ton to do at end game unless you are into character fashion, role playing or grinding the same enemies for countless hours for exceptionally rare weapon drops. No harm in giving it a try though, within a few weeks you'll be caught up to current content and have a good feeling if playing the game is right for you.

The original PSO2 game was amazing, even if flawed, but the main problem you'll face when playing it is a severe lack of players. It is still worth checking out for its story, leveling characters and urgent quests (boss battles) if older style random dungeon gameplay is your thing.

NGS on the other hand...has potential. It is finally getting randomized dungeons after 2 years of a severe lack of content, whether they are good or worth running has yet to be seen.

[Yu Ryujin]

The art was also godlike!
Used to watch a buddy older than me playing it, never got the courage to try blue burst.

classic is better and more PSO than NGS, got also the timed attack button.
randomized instant dungeons via quests. a lot into frenetic action. Mag still eat trash, you gotta lvl them and customize them, they do stuffs to help you. the classes are very rewarding to learn and play, combat is very fun and has lots of variety. It eats a lot of time leveling tho, especially if you have not an alliance on your back.

Sadly it has a very low population, and getting into , especially leveling, might get extremely hard, especially partying with other people. You got bots and people's bots (you can create a bot of yourself which people can use in their game) but... its not the same, and Ai is very bad.

I dont recommend NGS at all if what you seek is an experience similar to PSO pilars.
But its free to try it.

[Null_User]

What has changed most is movement and combat. Original PSO was much slower and forced you to plan attacks or risk getting hit. And even early level mobs felt deadly until you overleveled them. In PSO, characters moved first by walking, then running. And if enemies and floating traps were close, characters slowed down to a near crawl in ready stance. Some people felt PSO's combat had a ring similar to a Souls game.

These movement restrictions started to be lifted in Phantasy Star Universe. But here in PSO2 and now in NGS, combat feels more like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. On emphasis, NGS more than PSO2, has become extremely fast, with a dedicated i-frame dodge button and the ability to burst into a dash at any moment, disengaging yourself from combat whenever you want. PSO2 allowed players to jump, but NGS allowed them to jump and also glide. Attacks are also very fast and super flashy, with only standard techs feeling a tad bit closer to the old stuff, yet still giving more freedom of movement.

As visuals go, both PSO2 and NGS are average for the times, with as much emphasis on colorful assets as the old games, just adding more polygons. The biggest difference is that these games allow for much more character customization than the old ones, and with such freedoms, people will stretch things into the realm of the weird.

As for weapons and gear, PSO had weapon, shield and mag. PSO2 has weapon and 3 units which serve as both shields and various passive buffs, which can be customized further by using augment capsules. NGS continued the same trend, so while it's easy to procure a good weapon and units/shields, customizing them will be a tad more complicated.

Mags work a tad different in PSO2 and in NGS. PSO2 mags act closer to original PSO ones, with having to feed them for them to give you back stats. PSO2 mags have photon blasts, but they are not the screen filling time stopping spectacles of PSO mags. PSO2 mags also change shape when leveling them like PSO ones, but you have a bit more freedom to change how they look by using mag form consumables.

NGS mags lost the ability to buff players, and are more like personal assistants. They have a sonar function that allows you to find items easier, and you can also select some background music tracks you unlock. Changing the NGS mag appearance is easy. There are mag forms for you to collect, which are added to a list. To change form, just access that list and select the form you'd like from those you have unlocked. Even forms you unlocked on PSO2 will get ported. NGS gives the photon blast function to the player character, similar to Phantasy Star Universe. But unlike PSU, your photon blast changes depending on your current weapon.

Hope this wall-o-text helps with some of the questions.

[Rook]

Some great comparison notes here. Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

[Hermit]

NGS is basically Phantasy Star in name only. It doesn't feel anything like a Phantasy Star game.

[Cute Anime Fencer]

As Hermit said, it's Phantasy Star in name only. It's basically nothing at all like the original. Shirokami mentioned it's no longer a single player game with an online mode, which while true, is also ... Kind of false. It now has a single player mode that HAS to be done before you can do anything with friends, in a way that's far worse than the original, so depending on how you feel about solo play...

Also, there's basically no loot. There's turbo rare drops that never drop yes, but unlike PSO and PSU, there's no gear treadmill. It makes grinding intensely boring.

[chill out]

Originally posted by Rook:

I played PSO on the Dreamcast with a broadband adapter and a keyboard, but have not touched it since way back then. I adored the game, how you would run dungeons with a small team in a quick timeframe. The cadence to fighting was great, and I still haven't found a game that imitated the MAGs that you would feed items to in order to evolve them.

I saw this pop up on the homepage of Steam and wondered... does it share the same bones? Are MAGs still a thing? Is the combat still rooted in the specifically timed button presses for combos? And is it an easy drop-in/drop-out that doesn't eat your time (unless you want it to)?

It's completely different.
PSO2 classic has timed button presses, but it's not like PSO1 where you only need to press the button during the prior attack animation to get the combo, and the punishment is missing the combo. You can hold the button and auto-attack, but you get a 20% damage bonus + some skill-tree related additional bonuses and very(sub 30ms) tiny speedup in the animation for timing your attacks correctly.
The action is much faster, and very dodge, counter, chain, and special-ability centric, rather than the very basic 3 hit combos in classic PSO. There's a lot less randomness, too, with normal attack variance being pretty much locked at a range of 80~100%, criticals always hitting 100%+whatever skill tree bonus you have, accuracy and evade have both been replaced by dexterity which is completely irrelevant and pretty much not even checked 99% of the time despite being a pretty cool idea on the inside, weapon special abilities are all exposed and streamlined with every weapon having some kind of conditional damage bonus and special effect, elements apply the weapon's attack bonus to all damage as elemental damage to all enemies with elemental resistances being extremely rare, and weaknesses providing 20% damage boost or such, jellen and zalure have been relegated to ranger and, in the case of jellen, phantom and some weapon special abilities, weapon customization is far, far deeper, but also far more difficult to learn, and actually much LESS grindy than PSO classic was...

Yeah, it's a very different game. And that's PSO2 retro. NGS is a watered down graphical update spun off into a separate game mainly centered around mindless floppy combat and daily chores, with content gated by a downright awful generic fantasy isekai anime plot with all the usual trash writing, mostly just to force everyone to start the grind over from level 1.

Both games will demand a lot of time with time-limited cycled fomo chores to get anywhere, but PSO2 classic has a lot of that cut out now, including some of the more important power creep gated behind it, making it much easier to pick up and put down. If you want end-game progress, though, you need to complete your weekly chores for a fixed set of tiered rewards that can take some hours to do, and then aren't worth doing anymore until the rewards reset next week.

Mags exist in classic and basically work the same as PSO1, but with three attack and defense stats alongside dexterity, and no real reason to make a mag other than strike attack or dexterity, depending on what subclass you want late-game.
If they'd put all the defensive stats as a single stat to boost all three, it would have made some sense to go with a def mag, and if they hadn't nerfed dexterity back in the closed beta test, dexterity could have been relevant too... Lots of weird balance changes based around a very poor understanding of the underlying mechanisms they put in place for the game, almost like they were copying someone else's homework.

In NGS, a mag is just a thing that floats behind you and can point you in the direction of some types of loot sometimes, or play music, and there's giant mags that sit around in the overworld and provide temporary buffs to drop rate for being fed resources. Mags in name only, basically.

[Cute Anime Fencer]

It's probably worth noting that combat in PSO was also very positional and tool based. What weapon you're using at what moment from what position relative to your enemies is what made a smart HUNTER. That game design philosophy carried over more to Monster Hunter and D**** Souls than PSO2, which leaned more into the action. If you enjoyed the variety of multiple weapon types that all functioned differently, you won't find that here. You'll likely pick one single weapon that can do everything and stick to it (which is one of my biggest gripes with PSO2/NGS.)

There's a good game here. Sega just hasn't unearthed it.

[Cynicalkatt87]

Originally posted by Rook:

I played PSO on the Dreamcast with a broadband adapter and a keyboard, but have not touched it since way back then. I adored the game, how you would run dungeons with a small team in a quick timeframe. The cadence to fighting was great, and I still haven't found a game that imitated the MAGs that you would feed items to in order to evolve them.

I saw this pop up on the homepage of Steam and wondered... does it share the same bones? Are MAGs still a thing? Is the combat still rooted in the specifically timed button presses for combos? And is it an easy drop-in/drop-out that doesn't eat your time (unless you want it to)?

whoooo boy bro, its really ftp-mmo, and the avatars are really weird now

[EggBread]

The game is essentially nothing like it used to be. While there are some mechanics or concepts that have survived the test of time, most of the legacy stuff has been stripped or reworked of their original forms. What was more of a co-op dungeon crawling spree is now more of an open-world action game where you have to kill either a big boss or large groups of spawning enemies kind of similar to ARPG's.

If you're looking for something like old PSO, I don't think you're going to find it here. But, you do have options. PSO2/NGS is free so if you want to try it, there's nothing holding you back other than a potentially lengthy download time. There's also private servers of other Phantasy Star games such as PSO (Blue Burst) or PSU (Clementine). Personally I play Clementine to relive Universe from time to time. It definitely still retains the Phantasy Star feel.