[PC/PSV] Phantasy Star Online 2

[MeisterBabylon]

This looks quite good. I don't mind paying for player market access. Is there also a personal credit cap that I have to raise with AC?

If the grind is fun (nice monsters to kill, no player idiots to ruin your game with), then playing the same mission repeatedly isn't that bad.

Side question: Do you get your own starship?

[Klashikari]

Regarding Credit Cap, nothing I've heard of. However, please be aware that foreign credit cards are blocked by Sega JP, so you will have to get through webmoney if you want AC.

The grind is easy, but nothing particularly fun (as at some points, the vast majority of regular bosses are easy and predictable, save few exception like zech)

And no, you don't have you own starship. The gameplay is solely on foot as of now.

[Sister Princess]

Originally Posted by MeisterBabylon

If the grind is fun (nice monsters to kill, no player idiots to ruin your game with), then playing the same mission repeatedly isn't that bad.

The following warning are serious business.

1. Grinding 7* weapons or higher are generally not fun when you keep hearing すばらしく運がないな君は. Unless you really like 秋元羊介's voice. Grinding units (as of today) are as easy as 6* or lower weapons. Adding affixes are equally as bad since they will cost 20000-35000 for each TRY later on.

Spoiler for BEWARE:

2. In general, running around with equipments that doesn't fit the difficulty is not recommended. You could get blacklisted. アキシオン, ブラオレット and ザンバ are the current culprits. (ラムダブラオレット should be all right but I can't guarantee the risk) These days, japanese players would think you are a locust when running around with above equipments.

3. There are too little people playing in lower difficulty. Please remember this.

4. Making equipments too godly could ended up accused to be a cheater. Even if you are somehow very rich.

[MeisterBabylon]

No starship? Well... Damn.

Whats the likelihood of failing to upgrade? And does your equipment break?

[Sides]

Originally Posted by MeisterBabylon

Whats the likelihood of failing to upgrade? And does your equipment break?

No it won't break, it just drops 1 or 2 grinding levels. For example if you have a lambda aristin at +9 and you want to grind it to +10 it could drop to +7, without grind risk reduction and grind improvement items.
Affixing abilities to units and weapons are even worst, you will lose a slot or more if it fails, and it is pricey.

Originally Posted by Sister Princess

2. In general, running around with equipments that doesn't fit the difficulty is not recommended. You could get blacklisted. アキシオン, ブラオレット and ザンバ are the current culprits. (ラムダブラオレット should be all right but I can't guarantee the risk) These days, japanese players would think you are a locust when running around with above equipments.

4. Making equipments too godly could ended up accused to be a cheater. Even if you are somehow very rich.

These two points are really new to me.
Weapons that have exp boost like zanba, and axeon are one thing, but fortunate omen (increases rare drop) like vraolet and lambda vraolet are pretty much used by everyone at the moment, especially in MPAs that are set to hunt for rares.
Since auto follow can be disabled now, weapons that have another history are a non issue. Before that, exp leechers use to tag others in MPA with axeon or zanba equip for faster leveling and were afk for most of the time, but now it is really gone.
Once you reached a certain level you can use any weapons and units and it won't give you much disadvantages. If you want to hunt for rare items you will have to use lower spec equipment, but that is the challenge, surviving with low level gear. However if you do that, using exp boost or rare boost weapons and units in MPA, don't expect other gamers to revive you, if you are down, unless they are in your party.

Grinding and making godly weapons, yes or no?
Yes, you want them, because it shortens the kill time for enemies, which is necessary for PSE bursts, which benefits everyone, and of course for Time attack, which is probably the less time consuming way to make meseta for gamers who don't have a myshop. Reason why you want to complete Time attack courses as fast as possible is you just want to get it done, as it becomes boring really fast.

BTW you an get 3day tickets for myshop and myroom from fun scratch, if you are lucky.

[Klashikari]

Guh... that discussion reminds me how I spent like 1M to just add Shock III on my Quartz Soul affixed Lambda Aristin. This was a nightmare. I can't even imagine how much it would cost me to put Power III and Spirita Boost...

I really wish Sega would get rid of that random upgrade system for weapons and units: really, it is beyond frustrating to start with a +7 item and after 100-200 grinders and 1-2M meseta, you are back to square one or even worse.
The compromise would be increasing grinder rarity and grinding fee by a big margin, but make it 100% possible.

Really, if you don't have 100% grinding/affix chance, your chances aren't as big as the game implies it to be (failed 8 times a row an affix of 80%? Really?)

I thought having more than 1-2M meseta was quite rich before, but now with 8.5M, I feel like I barely have enough for proper gearing... and that's someone with Luxe black unit set and Lambda Aristin saying that...

[Kona]

Too bad this game is PC only.

[Xacual]

Originally Posted by Kona

Too bad this game is PC only.

Isn't it coming out on the Vita. Or did it already come out for Vita, well either way.

[Sides]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Guh... that discussion reminds me how I spent like 1M to just add Shock III on my Quartz Soul affixed Lambda Aristin. This was a nightmare. I can't even imagine how much it would cost me to put Power III and Spirita Boost...

Urgg, I just lost all three abilities (Quartz, Power I an Poison I) on my lambda aristin. I was trying to upgrade power and poison to power II and poison II. Dodo said all of them had 85% of success... but yeah like usual if it ain't 100% it is bound to fail and I lost all 3 slots. I had to spend a lot of meseta to get it back to... 1 ability, because it kept failing affixing even 1 simple ability and it costs around 23k for each try.
No matter what percentage it currently shown during affixing, unless it is 100%, it is really just a 50:50 chance that it can succeed, which is really bad imo. You can get Ability Success Rate+20% and +30% items, but there is an issue with them.
To get Ability Success Rate+20% you have to purchase 8 AC items with real money, which would be 1600 yen, or with meseta from people who sell AC items on their myshops, you are looking at 1.2million to 2.2million meseta, depending on how much AC trash is currently on the market. To get the +30% item you have to collect 30 excubes, which can be done by exchanging 30 10*+ weapons or overlevel 15 times, unless they upgraded the reward with the new level cap.
The game can be fun, but customising weapons atm is really hell, because it is time consuming to save up meseta and also sourcing items.

Vita version is currently in beta and will be out in next month actually.

[MeisterBabylon]

Thanks for telling me guys, I'm not going to be playing this game any more. I was hoping such a cool looking game would not have a random item grinding system, but looks like it does.

Why can't items just level NORMALLY like people do? Do they actually have to break in some way?

[Sides]

Originally Posted by MeisterBabylon

Thanks for telling me guys, I'm not going to be playing this game any more. I was hoping such a cool looking game would not have a random item grinding system, but looks like it does.

Well a good thing is that SoJ do listen to peoples whining (i'm not joking) and have made a lot of changes since the game went public. This weeks maintenance for example will make grinding weapons/units easier, or at least that is what SoJ are saying.
The game is still fun to play, despite the horrible grinding system. I would say give it a go.

The only thing they seem to ignore is the usage of gameguard, a lot of people have and still are complaining about this horrible piece of software.

Grinding system didn't changed as far as I can tell. What has been changed is the amount of grinders needed for each attempts, so currently you need:
1 grinder for 7*,8* and 9*
2 grinders for 10*
4 grinders for 11*
5 grinders for 12*

Some news on the PDvita version.
It will feature trophies, 8GB memory card recommended (without sharing with other games), source: gematsu.com

[Zexas]

[Klashikari]

I sure hope the final game will feature the same graphics as shown in the trailer, as the textures in the Vita CBT was sort of lackluster (the lamest was probably Big Vardha during the EQ).
That said, I feel sorry for Force, because the gameplay on the Vita is quite tedious due to technics on the touch screen.

EDIT: it seems Chrome Dragon will be available only on vita blocks for a while... Not a very smart move as a lot of PC players will clog the blocks to check out the boss as result...

[Sides]

New update in a couple of hours time.
New contents are:
-advance quests
-new pyroxene shop items
-new AC scratch items, including lilipa costume

To take part in those advance quests you need to be at least level 45, and you have to pay an entrance fee each time, in form of capsules, which can be purchased which meseta.

More information are on : http://pso2.jp/players/, http://bumped.org/ and http://pso2blog.wordpress.com/

Originally Posted by Klashikari

EDIT: it seems Chrome Dragon will be available only on vita blocks for a while... Not a very smart move as a lot of PC players will clog the blocks to check out the boss as result...

There will be 3 type of blocks now, PC, PC+PSV and PSV, the PSV only block has been announced recently.
As for PSV getting content first, I reckon it has to do with the retail pack, it is highly likely that it has a newer client on it. You don't really want to force people to download a 1st day update and the PSV memory card are currently expensive, so i kind of makes sense to release it with as much content as possible.

[Hemisphere]

Originally Posted by Sides

Urgg, I just lost all three abilities (Quartz, Power I an Poison I) on my lambda aristin. I was trying to upgrade power and poison to power II and poison II. Dodo said all of them had 85% of success... but yeah like usual if it ain't 100% it is bound to fail and I lost all 3 slots. I had to spend a lot of meseta to get it back to... 1 ability, because it kept failing affixing even 1 simple ability and it costs around 23k for each try.
No matter what percentage it currently shown during affixing, unless it is 100%, it is really just a 50:50 chance that it can succeed, which is really bad imo. You can get Ability Success Rate+20% and +30% items, but there is an issue with them.
To get Ability Success Rate+20% you have to purchase 8 AC items with real money, which would be 1600 yen, or with meseta from people who sell AC items on their myshops, you are looking at 1.2million to 2.2million meseta, depending on how much AC trash is currently on the market. To get the +30% item you have to collect 30 excubes, which can be done by exchanging 30 10*+ weapons or overlevel 15 times, unless they upgraded the reward with the new level cap.
The game can be fun, but customising weapons atm is really hell, because it is time consuming to save up meseta and also sourcing items.

Vita version is currently in beta and will be out in next month actually.

Oh god three abilities. I just brute-forced Tech 3 and Elder Soul on my weapons each time. The costs were...not fun. Apparently ability synthing was actually bugged before (hence the failures even at 80% and 90%), and they've supposedly fixed it now.

I was thinking of brute forcing Tech 3 and Elder Soul on my armor units as well on my Te/Fo, but oh god the costs, sub units with Tech 3 alone are so expensive. That and getting my Tsukuyomi to +10 seems freaking impossible, thinking of the upgrade chances alone makes me cry.

[Zexas]

Source

Sega will release Phantasy Star Online 2 for Vita on February 28. The Vita game will be a free download and it will also be sold in stores. The packaged version includes virtual items and costumes from Phantasy Star Portable 2 as a bonus.


A new Ice Silver color will be available on February 28, as well. The Ice Silver model includes Phantasy Star Portable 2 and a AC 1000 ticket for Phantasy Star Portable 2 worth 1,000 yen.

do want that Ice Silver model.

[Sides]

Yay, I finally got cloned!
I have to say it is much easier to clear it, if you know what to do.
I only got abducted twice, ever since it was introduced. First time around my party managed to clear all areas besides finishing off hunar in time. But this time as duo, we managed to escape, with a lot of spare time left over. If I remember correctly, just like TA if you enter some section of the maps (or jump on unmarked switches) it will trigger extra mini-bosses or an area will be locked until you cleared the mobs, which costs time. If you avoid those you can probably clear the dens under 30mins.
But unfortunately access to the den is completely random.

[Zexas]

[Sides]

PSV client launched !
PC gamers aren't getting the full benefits of this weeks update/maintenance. But try sneaking onto the mixed servers and you might be lucky to encounter chrome dragon (a psv gamer has to be present in the mpa or party i think, not 100% sure.)

Other than that, next weeks update will expand on the story and gives us the time limited EQ for white day. Furthermore new costumes, including blue rappy costume, will be featured next week.

Edit:
PSV client is 4.5GB in size! So get a big memory card if you planning on gaming it on the PSV in the future. If you have the cartridge you still have to download a 1.2GB patch. For the reference the PC client is now over 10GB, it used to be just around 4GB, so it will get bigger and bigger in future.

[Sides]

Knew this was going to happen. The popular ships are full again. As such sega is currently running a campaign from the 28/02-27/03, to promote the less overcrowded ships 6 and 7.
If you create a new character/account, not an additional character slot, on one of those ships you will get some items, if you reach following conditions.
For reaching level 10:
4 x +50% exp boosters

For reaching level 30:
4x +50% Rare drop boosters
1x FUN1000
1x 3 days MyRoom ticket

source: http://pso2.jp/players/news/?id=1040