NGS Story is Terrible

[Syn]

I realise some may put more stock in gameplay and/or excessive monetisation issues but for me the story and setting is quite important too.

I've enjoyed such since the original PSO, and found their worlds and stories fascinating.
Not perfect, no. But still pretty engaging. This includes PSO2.
Which brings me to NGS' story.

It's awful.

The worldbuilding and setting is already a problem for me.
Halpha is beautiful visually, but completely dead as a setting. There's no believable infrastructure or worldbuilding. Just a tiny outpost labelled as a "city" in Aelio (and Retem's is even worse). I've been to back yards bigger and more populated than Central City.

But none of that would matter if the story was at least decent. It isn't at all. It's boring, meandering and pointless full of characters I don't care about and random predictable events.
Chapter 2 is particularly bad, with a series of ridiculous events and stupid decisions by a terrible character whom the story decides to focus on for no good reason.
But the worst part is that the player character is a complete non-entity. It was somewhat okay to deal with in Chapter 1 as things were being set up, but in Chapter 2 it's utterly egregious. The player character just stands there doing nothing in every cutscene, barely acknowledged, not a single dialogue option, nothing.

Yes, the PC in PSO/PSU has always been silent.
Yes, dialogue options in PSO2 were an illusion of choice and nothing more.
Yes, the PC was subordinate to the waifu of the week's story in PSO2 just like they are to Manon in NGS.

But the difference is PSO2's story still revolved around the player character and gave the impression that you had agency even if you didn't. The story was very much about the PC.
In NGS it doesn't even bother to pay lipservice to that anymore. You could remove the PC from every cutscene in the game and change absolutely nothing.
Even the PC's supposed unique trait of being a Meteorn is immediately made redundant by Manon and it gets worse from there.

It's boring and unsatisfying.

Also while on the subject of cutscenes.
It is the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand and Twenty-Two.How, HOW is it possible that they still haven't learned to equip our character with our own weapons during cutscenes?

[4013]

their main income is from half-naked ac scratch, so they don't care much about story

[ominumi]

I never care about story in online RPG. Most time wasted on cutscenes, less time getting loot. Esc all the time please. Wish there was an option to auto skip it entirely.

[Hermit]

İlk olarak ominumi tarafından gönderildi:

I never care about story in online RPG. Most time wasted on cutscenes, less time getting loot. Esc all the time please. Wish there was an option to auto skip it entirely.

I like a story, but as side content. I hate it being forced on me, which is what PSO2 and NGS does. NGS a lot more than PSO2. It's an annoying gate that is 1% of the overall experience.

Universe did it right. You never had to play any of the story if you didn't want to.

[Crystal Sharrd]

NGS's story has begun to improve, but it's still the worst Phantasy Star game. The base game was way better, even with the missing Matter Board scenes.

[Yu Ryujin]

Pso2 had its moments, but it was really set in young shonen empty ♥♥♥♥ compared to how big and important was PSO lore/ambience in the past; Somebody mentioned PSU, for example: PSU had shonen and stupid characters, but the lore was pretty well done.

I remember hating Matoi and ending up quite liking her to be with me on certain part of the game, because it was nicely done.

Problem with pso2 is story willing to making you lose lots of time with useless dialogs and cutscenes, 50 percent of it is pure filler.

But NGS? NGS story has pretty big issues, and does not have any moments so far. Everything is just empty and unfinished, barebones.

Using underage people as main characters to move stories also makes it extremely hard to be taken seriously, and also hard to write without hating yourself. WHat u'd want at least is to use young adults being moved by adults, Adults always have lots of exp and stuffs to say/build. Kids simply don't.

btw story modes in MMO stinks. Especially when forced.

[Ikagura]

İlk olarak ominumi tarafından gönderildi:

I never care about story in online RPG. Most time wasted on cutscenes, less time getting loot. Esc all the time please. Wish there was an option to auto skip it entirely.

It's a bit sad since it's also a RPG.

I'm not a bit WoW nerd but I feel like the world of Azeroth got a lot to offer.

[Squishy]

Man, this was one hell of a necro.

[SoulsVet]

I liked ep2 in base the best so far. The climax in the mothership with code abyss actually got me immersed in the game. The only thing I wasn't clear on is exactly what Luther's role in ARKS was. I thought the council of 6 were the "leaders" and I never heard any mention of Luther til his first cutscene appearance. He just seemed to come from nowhere and somehow he is in charge of ARKS? Regardless, EP2 was pretty cool. Ep3 harukotan in comparison is pretty uninteresting and the designs are really garish imo.
Oh yeah ngs. Remember the time in kvaris they had you rotate a shape as a puzzle?

[chill out]

Blame the terrible director who took over and ruined PSO2 classic since Episode 4.
SEGA fired all the people who know how to make a game, only codemonkey and egotist and sycophant are left.

[Boneslark]

I wouldn't mind it too much if the pacing of the dialogues wasn't so horrible, i just can't stand it

[Crystal Sharrd]

İlk olarak blimsoon tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Syn tarafından gönderildi:

But none of that would matter if the story was at least decent. It isn't at all. It's boring, meandering and pointless full of characters I don't care about and random predictable events.

You don't need to care for them nor predicting anything, you only need to complete the story once and go do something else.

İlk olarak Syn tarafından gönderildi:

Yes, dialogue options in PSO2 were an illusion of choice and nothing more.

If you prefer a game that provide lots of dialogue options and choice matters.
Try "Baldur's Gate 3" ?

But the story is the only fun thing about NGS.

[Ikagura]

Too bad that Phantasy Star stopped with interesting stories.

[Yu Ryujin]

İlk olarak blimsoon tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Syn tarafından gönderildi:

But none of that would matter if the story was at least decent. It isn't at all. It's boring, meandering and pointless full of characters I don't care about and random predictable events.

You don't need to care for them nor predicting anything, you only need to complete the story once and go do something else.

İlk olarak Syn tarafından gönderildi:

Yes, dialogue options in PSO2 were an illusion of choice and nothing more.

If you prefer a game that provide lots of dialogue options and choice matters.
Try "Baldur's Gate 3" ?

actually when it comes to dialogues and choices->>> consequences, Bg"3 is pretty mid and troll/chaotic.

Id recommend DAO, BG2, TW2, SWtor...

the story is pure pain and a LOT of people stopped playing NGS due to it in just a few hours. Because it is singleplayer, and completely forced... And big poop.

[Ikagura]

İlk olarak Yu Ryujin tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak blimsoon tarafından gönderildi:

You don't need to care for them nor predicting anything, you only need to complete the story once and go do something else.


If you prefer a game that provide lots of dialogue options and choice matters.
Try "Baldur's Gate 3" ?

actually when it comes to dialogues and choices->>> consequences, Bg"3 is pretty mid and troll/chaotic.

Id recommend DAO, BG2, TW2, SWtor...

the story is pure pain and a LOT of people stopped playing NGS due to it in just a few hours. Because it is singleplayer, and completely forced... And big poop.

Choice is an illusion anyway.

[Aumires]

Story on 1.0

Crawford: We must defeat DOLLS!
People from Halpha: We don't know how Halpha works tho
Leciel: You are all experiment. Beware...Starless!

Story on 2.0

Crawford: We must defeat Starless!
People from Leciel: We don't know how Halpha automation works tho
Space station: Guess what in one year and half.

This topic is still very relevant. What a mess.