Phantasy Star Online

[Tweeg]

On the same day that I made the previous post in this topic, Phantasy Star Portable 2 - English Language Version - Trial Demo launched on PSN. I downloaded it two days ago and have to say I'm quite impressed. It's exceptionally better than the original PSP title. Online play works well, lots of new features, just a solid title. Only improvement I see that would have been nice would have been if they could have somehow made an actual keyboard/keypad peripheral for the PSP, and/or given the option for voice chat. Though the inclussion of voice chat might have hindered my ability to play it over dial-up internet.

PS0 Has limited communication if playing in a random online game and full communication by means of writing (a novel concept) on the touch screen if your in a team with people you've shared your guild card with. Writing wasn't as bad as you might imagine it to be, worked quite well. Ideally there would have been an on screen touchscreen keyboard, but Nintendo won't allow Sega, or anyone other developer, to implement such blatant means of communication into games for their systems... yet. Likewise, voice chat would have been a nice as yet a secondary communications option, like with Xbox PSO. But there agin, Nintendo doesn't allow third party developers to have voice chat in their games... yet.

As far as PS0 (that's a zero there folks) as a game goes. My stance is this. Sega did a great job of pushing the DS hardware to it's limits. It's doubtful they could have done any better with such a low specification, low resolution, game system and the crazy stupid communications regulations that Nintendo imposes on the DS. PS0 is one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played on the DS.

I have one major complaint with PS0. The last bosses are way to easy. Mother Trinity & Dark Falz, the final pair of bosses in the game, are the easiest bosses in the entire game. Once you get to be about level 60 or so they yeild almost no challenge. It's more challenging jsut trying to get to them than it is actually to fight them. And that's another thing, Mother Trinity is a rather impressize looking boss at least, but Dark Falz gives the impression of being designed by someone who has some manner of packadermphobia (fear of elephants), as Dark Falz looks like some malformed elephant.

Word has it that Nintendo has done away with the crazy communications developement restrictions on third parties for 3DS titles. Hopefully that rumor is true and we'll get a PS0 V2 with enhanced online mode in the years to come.

[disilusioned]

Tweeg do you have a link to a pick or vid of the PS0 version of Dark Falz? Just for comparison and
curiousity

[Tweeg]

This was the only decent screenshot of it I could find on the internet.

[disilusioned]

That's Dark Falz? It's hard to make out what i'm seeing here.  Is it supposed to resemble the
one from PSO?  Is that it's final stage?

[Tweeg]

That's Dark Falz's primary form in PS0. He can morph into something that remotely resembles the Batmobile (circa 1989) and darts around the battle area running into you, but he changes back into this hideous looking elephant-esque creature whenever that attack ends.

[Tweeg]

Behold! PSO Archive has been updated for the first time this year.
http://www.segaforums.com/psoarchive/

[disilusioned]

Nice Tweeg, i'll check it out tomorrow, need sleep now.

[kosmos]

Holy shit, I didn't even know you still messed with that Tweeg.

[Tweeg]

Yeah, but as noted, that's the first time I've done anything with the site in fourteen months. I'm hoping to get one more update in during my vacation period. Updating the "Museum" part takes longer than anything else because I have to type up accurate descriptions of real items, which involes research. And on top of that there's the actual aquiring of said items which takes time, money, and patience as most of the stuff is rare or at leasthard to find.

But, I have been back logged for quite some time now. I still have one item remaiing in my posession that will go in the US section of that part of the site, then several dozen items more for the JP section, and then a couyple of items for the PAL/EU section that doesn't even exist yet. And then there are the multiple magazine articles awaiting to be scanned in and added to the Magazine Articles section, several video recording of online play, and the close to a thousand screenshots still remaining from the good old days of the official DC PSO servers waiting to be sorted into chronoloical order.

So all that plus a planned, but not yet made, PS0 (that's a zero) section of the site. Take into account that I have maybe 15MB of webspace left left once I clean out the junk files that are not related to PSO Archive and that gets more than a little bit cramped for space. At the snails pace I've been going for the last three years though it may be several months before the site actually hits the webspace cap placed on it by Dick, so I'm not really concerned about it at the moment.

[disilusioned]

Hey guys it seems that Eji Yoji has joined the forums.  I'm sure at least myself, Tweeg and Nog
remember him.  Welcome mate.

[disilusioned]

Did you guys hear that they are making a PSO 2 for the PC?

[Tweeg]

Yay! Another fellow PSO player has found his way here. Good to see your still around Eji Yoji!

Indeed, PSO 2 is in development. It's very early yet though. One of the lead programmers was interviewed and quite upset that they were rushed, by company higher ups, into revealing it at TGS 2010. They had to do a rush job on creating a logo for the game because nothing yet exists that could be shown of the game itself as it was still in the planning stages when announced. Could very well be 2012 before it gets released even in Japan.

Meanwhile, PSP2: Infinity Trail Edition for the PSP releases in Japan on January 11th. The full version game is slated for release their sometime in March.

[disilusioned]

Eji messaged me and told me he will drop in to say hello from time to time, so may
be a while before he sees your message Tweeg.

Ah that's a shame, when it said 2011 I had high hopes

[Tweeg]

I see.

Well, 2011 is speculative wishful thinking on the part of SOJ higher ups. Truthfully I don't think anyone, except for a handful of former Sonic Team developer/programmers, has any clue as to what stage PSO2 was in pre-production prior to that announcement. It could very well be that the game was already in planning since back in '04 or '05 when the Episode IV expansion was released for PSO: BB. All hinges on how much planning was completed as to how quickly they can make the actual game.

Even if it does end up only being for PC, I do have a wishlist of feastures I'd like to see implemented.
1. Dual/Multi Monitor support. Imagine having a clean game screen on one monitor and your chat log and menu/options screen displayed on a second monitor.
2. Higher resolution graphics. 640x480 Still looked great even back in 2007, but it's been ten years now since PSO first launched on the DC. I'd like to see some vastly updated, higher resolution, graphics that look more like something on par with or better than that of the PSU franchise.
3. Native controller support options that allow mimicking of the DC PSO Keyboard and Controller configuration. PSO: BB natively supports controllers with the option to assign buttons, but will not allow you to change from the default keyboard hot key setup... which is a pain.

[Tweeg]

Does the trailer make you cry tears of joy? Squeel ike a grade school girl? Inappropriately dampen your pants? Curse your PC for not meeting system requirements? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you might be a PSO fan.

http://pso2.jp/