Can SEGA turn Ngs around?

[Lt. Apple Cobbler]

I've been wonder what other people genuinely think of this game, and if anyone believes if SEGA can turn things around cause it seems less and less people seem to be playing this "game" not that there's much to do in it anyway but I was just curious to hear what other's are thinking. Honestly I hope they can but I don't think they want to kinda sad cause the base game looked like so much fun.

[Acode]

I just started to play this game a few days ago, and maybe I'm just special, but this game is great fun to me right now. More fun than any other MMO at the moment for me.

Grinded through story in two days and now the real grind began after that. ... The Grind for fashion and better gear. Which is honestly still great fun to me. But it could be just me, as I said in my opening statement there.

I would never say no to more good things in pso2 but right now, this game is basically checking every box I expected and like and I can see myself grinding for a long time (just as I did in BDO when I played that game) because I enjoy that in general and it seems worth to me.

[Luxaeterna]

best MMO character customization

best MMO housing creativity

best MMO aerial combat

all that is left is wait for fishing and farming management feature.

[🎃 Claire 🎃]

I think the game is in a state where content could certainly be added to it to put it in a great direction in both just that initial update and then subsequent updates. It's never too late to start adding some fun and complex fights with meaningful mechanics, and I'm gonna be honest, the Leciel Exploration type quest could be a great base for these. Just change it up a bit.

I don't think SEGA can turn it around themselves, though. I just don't think they have the right mindset for it, and won't get that mindset either. The game seems? pretty profitable, where I'll see a whole bunch of people with hyper-recent AC scratch items, so I don't really feel like they're going to do much to really change things. What they have "works" for them, which makes me pretty sad, but whatever.

[Axelhander]

Can they? Yes. Will they though?

[Tazz]

-Can SEGA turn Ngs around?
-THE ANSWER IS>>>>> NO THEY CANNOT
what already done is done they cannot turn back time because time machine doesn't exist in human history only history of destruction human civilization from world war that is huge human mistake to destroy them self same story with SEGA they destroy them self from making NEW GENESIS from abandon base PSO2

[saintessgraph]

Originally posted by Luxaeterna:

best MMO aerial combat

are you talking about aerial combat in base? tbh it was kind of lackluster but i haven't played any other mmo with aerial combat

[Crystal Sharrd]

The gameplay is still pretty bad but the story's definitely gotten better, and that's the most important part.

[Null_User]

Sega had several hit games with great gameplay long ago. They still have some, but Phantasy Star hasn't been more than a niche with a token story and casual combat since the franchise tossed out the story rich turn based formula. I can't really say what the majority of current players really want, but I see at least two camps.

On one hand, the game hubs have a small amount of players who feel content with posing around and being social. A vast amount of cosmetics and animations are available both paid and for free, for people to create a vast amount of things. I'm not sure if this game holds the record of most aesthetic content, but is has a much greater amount of it than any other game I've personally played.

Then there are some who post in this forum and seem to want lots of hard combat content and rewards only obtained through said combat, something I really haven't seen Sega focusing on in these games. When I see this game's version release videos, a larger part of them are dedicated to showing off cosmetics and character animations for sale, with a short part dedicated to showing up any new variation of the current combat stages while adding the "more difficult" tag to them.

Yes, there's some hard combat (remember Phaleg?), but nothing like the dungeons and raids of other mmos like WoW and FFXIV, which push players to dedicate themselves fully to learning mechanics and maximizing their characters. This content is displayed as the main part of those games, with cosmetics being a side gig at most. Not having this kind of game loop in NGS prevents some of the elitism and toxicity associated with it, but it creates a game with not much to do for players who want to actually play a game.

[Hermit]

No, they can't turn it around. The resources aren't there and SEGA are content with what the Phantasy Star series brings them. It's blindingly obvious at this point that Phantasy Star is not one of their A tier series, it's B or C tier. NGS is a filler game, they aren't looking for a massive player base out of this game, it's just there to tick along. The games development isn't structured in a way to keep players playing and SEGA aren't going to change that now unfortunately.

Also, the same part of SEGA's studio that are working on this game are also working on the Jet Set Radio reboot, the Jet Set Radio live service game and one of SEGA's so called "Super Games". The "Super Games" are everything to SEGA going forward, they are potentially putting their company on the line for them. I just don't see how Phantasy Star gets much of a look in.

Originally posted by Crystal Sharrd:

The gameplay is still pretty bad but the story's definitely gotten better, and that's the most important part.

The story of any online multiplayer game is not the most important part. Online multiplayer games cannot succeed with the story as it's main focus. It can enhance the experience and I much prefer one with a story than without one, but it's not the most important part. I would argue the same for offline games too. The gameplay is what matters most, always has and always will be.

Most people will take a bad story with good gameplay, but the majority won't take a game with a good story and bad gameplay.

Originally posted by Null_User:

Trimmed for those that don't want to scroll

I agree and disagree with this post. I agree that SEGA has split their playerbase in this series. You have those that stick around for the cosmetics and those that are looking for a more traditional PSO experience, but I don't necessarily think we're looking for hard content specifically. I'm not really somebody that enjoys hard gameplay, it's one of the reasons why PSO and PSU appealed so much to me. They weren't overly difficult, they were very easy to get into.

I think the reason why people ask for harder content in NGS is because it's the only content we have had that has been worth investing our time in, so we want more of it. Leciel is by far my favourite content we have had in this game, and I consider that to be pretty easy. It's because the gameplay is fun and engaging and it's rewards were good until SEGA decided something else needed to take the focus.

The new content, Nameless City, is easy but again, really boring. Running around the same map that never changes collecting points and clearing trials isn't very fun. I got bored after my second run.

It doesn't feel much different from running around the open world. There are also periods where it can be difficult to build up your points, like when a trial doesn't pop for a while. The starting spawn points are annoying too. You're too far away from the action. It can feel very slow starting out.

The rewards are overrated too. Eradi Soul IV's are nice, but anybody that has been paying attention knows that we are going to need 150 of them to create the next Soul Augment from the next Duel Quest. Eredim weapons are nice for those EX Augments, but outside of that, it's mostly trash items. Nobody needs Ice Cubes anymore, I have LC augments in their thousands now and the same goes for Growthment and Arms Refiner's. Once again, there are no Meseta rewards, something I would find far more valuable. For some reason (I think we all know why) SEGA are reluctant to add any Meseta rewards to their content.

Nameless City, like the majority of the content in this game, needs that little extra something that keep us engaged. It's just not enjoyable enough to keep running over and over again. If I am going to be expected to play a quest for 15 minutes (minimum) then they need to give me more than this.

[Sacred Heart]

I doubt it, it will take a realm reborn type of overhaul to make this game popular again. for now, just accept it for what it is, a fashion store with some gameplay.

Creative space is kind of fun even if it is very clunky. i think that is the only thing keeping me coming back, everything else is just as it always has been, short lived and quickly outdated.

[Null_User]

Originally posted by Hermit:

...snip

Yeah, I can't really just create two camps since there are many grays in between. But I've seen people here treating the game's gear scene with more seriousness than a casual game would usually need. But I guess every game has it's dedicated group because if there's nothing else, there's always speed running.

As for nameless, I never really went into it. Saw a few videos and like the cereal guy meme, I just pointed at the screen and said "It's Tokyo 2.0"

[ingueferroque]

Originally posted by Luxaeterna:

best MMO character customization

best MMO housing creativity

best MMO aerial combat

all that is left is wait for fishing and farming management feature.

This is all true. In my opinion - what PSO needs is to bring back the giant PSO2 style hub, the casino, and do unique, instanced dungeons that are not normally accessible through the overworld.

[Divine Weapon]

There is a specific set of things needed to fix this game's popularity collapse. A to recognize and B to fix the problems.

1A, they need to recognize that the greatest reason behind the collapse was due to the change in gameplay mechanics between PSO2 and PSO2NGS. I really prefer the original combat mechanics, as do many. Sure, people love the new stuff, but honestly PSO2 classic gameplay is by far the best MMO combat system I've ever played, although I have not played too many MMOs to be fair.

1B, the two possible solutions are either to fully integrate the environment and new mechanics of NGS into the original game, or to move the classes and their mechanics over from PSO2 into PSO2NGS; fully integrating these two games into a single actual game.

2A, they need to recognize that the biggest flaw in PSO2 is just how generic its story is. To be honest, this game has one of the most pathetic stories in the Phantasy Star franchise, and their inability to value and grasp how much RPG players love story is tragically ignorant. They often waste good stories on bad ideas and bad stories are used to ruin great games. To put this into perspective, PSO EP3 C.A.R.D. Revolution had a story of was a freaking card game and it had a better story than the first Phantasy Star 1, 2, 3, and the original Phantasy Star Online.

2B, the solution to this is GIVE US A REALLY FREAKING GOOD STORY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. We JRPG players love good stories. Do you really think Final Fantasy Tactics is liked because of it's gameplay? Hell no; people love FFT for it's story not its crappy combat.

3A, they need to understand that most people, including myself, are willing to pay for good content, but many of us, including myself, hate freemium content. By making PSO2 and NGS free to play, they are essentially cutting off their legs to wear shoes. Furthermore, by concentrating on "whales", it causes a handful of irresponsible perverts with to be given special treatment, slowly making others feel left out. Most players value the dollar they spend, as well as the relationship they have as a silent customer to a game company, and this is especially true of longtime fans who have been around since the early days of this franchise when games were sold on cartridges in a pay once model of purchase.

3B, they could have easily sell us an offline version of this game for $40, and they could do something similar for the original PSO, PSU, and the DS/PSP spinoffs of them. We won't even need the freemium costumes, because we can mod them, so they SEGA won't need to worry about contractual stipulations regarding such. Online play for these versions could easily be handled via Hamachi or some other tool.

[tvtoon]

The biggest flaw on base PSO2 is gameplay, NGS nailed it until some changes recently broke the game to "base state", leaving us with no time for recovery and bad camera instead of the wide zoom we had. Most people play NGS because it is different than "DPS freak" Diablo clones such as base, true to anyone whom I chat in the game, now if all you need is power, and simple ideas, Nameless City is a step in the right direction.

Will they keep doing it right? That is the question we probably don't even have the time to answer, as they kept breaking stuff and not improving what exists, pretty much like base PSO2, soon we will have another version of the game with the same mistakes.

[Luxaeterna]

Originally posted by saintessgraph:

are you talking about aerial combat in base? tbh it was kind of lackluster but i haven't played any other mmo with aerial combat

NGS

All other MMO have abilities that gives your character wings or levitate or ride a flying mount. Your combat is still similar your character is on ground level. You have no worries of falling or getting into the right height, since its just a buff that melee enemies cant attack you.

But in NGS you glide and fall, you manage your height depending on how high the enemy is or where the weakspot is located.

Unless you know an MMO that has better mid air combat than NGS? then I shall recant my opinion.

Originally posted by ingueferroque:

This is all true. In my opinion - what PSO needs is to bring back the giant PSO2 style hub, the casino, and do unique, instanced dungeons that are not normally accessible through the overworld.

Sega already said they wont return the Casino in a interview 2 years ago I think.

I dont think the base PSO2 terminal hub make sense, base PSO2 was mock as a lobby multiplayer because of it.

However this is what I think where Sega could go next.

1. Leciel like daily quest with random generated tiles.

2. Exploration like zone like Nameless city / Tokyo / Las Vegas

The map visuals will modified to look like NGS version of Naberius, Amduskia, Wopal, Lilipa, etc.

If this is the case the terminal hub in a NGS Arkship might be the last "player city".