Phantasy Star Universe - PS2/PC bound! Options

[Vitamin D]

Damn Kaz... that's tight. I'd love to get my hands on it. Dont know how much longer my patience can hold O_O.

[HC82]

So, I headed down to the Javitis Center and attended the expo called "Digital Life." Screw all the crap they had there and I'll get straight to PSU.


PSU PLAY GET!

Anyway, They had 4 PSU units there and each unit was being played on a "TEST PS2." There were tons of Sega games, but I mostly played PSU. I actually pressed the eject button on the PS2 and was looking at the disc. It looked like a bootleg copy. The disc looked like a regular white labeled readable/writable disc, so it seems like they probably have assloads of copies just lying around. In marker, the words "PSU PS2" was written on it. I seriously could of taken the disc and just walk out, since no one really cared. I certainly would of liked to have myself a PSU demo disc, and it was so incredibly tempting to do so. Perhaps if I were drunk I would of; although, I wouldn't of wanted to get the cute female attendant in trouble, now? Seriously though, I really wanted the demo disc...

WARNING, the DEMO was GLITCHY!


Moving on to the gameplay:

A lot of what Kaz mentioned covers the basics, but I'll get into some other points. First of, the AI is pretty different. In the forest stage, the AI was total ass, but in the ruins stage, the AI was far more aggressive. This time around, they just don't just walk toward you and swing at you over and over. When I played it, they weren't that aggresive at all in forest, but that's because I was always moving around a lot. If you stay still and just swing away, they will gang up on you.

Pressing down the R3 button puts you into 1st person mode and you can manually aim the cursor and shoot enemies directly. It also allowed you to target specific parts of an enemies body this way, assuming it has numerous body targets. It was possible for me to shoot just the dragon's head if I wanted to, although you're a sitting duck while in this POV.

There weren't any boxes in this game, but instead there are these bushels of hay, which actually looked like the scenery. Wacking it leaves behind items and interestingly enough, some of the items seemed kind of crafting based. Items like "tanned leather" and "nuts" were left behind at times.

You really have to move around a lot and in my opinion, character mobility is way faster and more loose. I found it pretty easy to actually run behind an enemy and attack them from certain angles and the animation was super fluid. When fighting this big ruins like electric-stone soldier, it would often times block my attacks with an energy field and you the player could run around it's attacks.


I have no idea how to block attacks, but there is a slim possibilty that it is manually triggered by the player and not stat based. That would rock if it were the case.

Weapon switching:
Holding down R1 lets you use your secondary weapon. Holding down the circle button brings up a quick menu and you can switch to different weapons by pressing up and down. Pressing left and right actually lets you switch to another submenu, which I imagine would allow you to use items. When I started messing around with the quick menu's submenu, my character froze,(ie. stopping walking and attacking) so this demo was really unfinished.

Weapon switching problems:
When you hold down circle, you must press the direction pad to move the cursor up and down. This is problematic, because your thumb can no longer move your character around on screen, since it is fiddling with the directional pad. The R3 button moves the camera in and out, but when using R3 in the quick menus, it doesn't function in anyway to move the quickmenu cursor. If it did, you could still run around while changing weapons and items. BELIEVE ME, you won't give a damn about the camera angle when switching weapons, only getting your ass out the way of a flying dragon's breath.

This should be fixed in the final version, because the GC version of PSO used its right analog stick to access the quickmenu when you were in the quickmenu. I don't see why PSU can't either.


Weapon switching problem part 2 (probably temporary):
When you switch weapons in the middle of or toward the end of a combo, the weapon doesn't switch after the combo is over, yet the cursor is still on new highlighted weapon. In otherwords, weapon switching in the demo was slower then it was in PSO, because you had to leave the cursor on the wepaon intill the switch took place. This only applies for switching weapons in mid combo and not when you're passive. When you're not attacking, weapon switching is instant. This is just a demo, so it will probably be fixed.

Combos:
Different weapons have different combos and the amount of times you get can hit differs. Daggers and sabers were stuck to only 5 hits(3 normal + 2 special), but the sword was 6 hits(3 normal + 3 special). The "special" attack functions the exact same as the "Hard" attack from old PSOs. Slower, yet more damaging was the name of the game for special attack, and it would totally blow your opponents back. The only difference is that it drains a lot from your weapon's endurance.

Combo comments and gripes:
The combos, while longer then PSO, feels limited. You can't mix and match normal with special hits back and forth. Special hits will always be the combo ender. Sometimes, doing a long combo is not the best option. Special hits in the demo dealt way more damage and blew the enemy back. Sometimes letting lose a small combo that consisted of just special hits, then backing away was the best option. It was always at times a better option to blast away with one normal hit, then specials galore. Now, this is balanced by the fact that specials suck up so much weapon endurance, compared to regular hits.

Guns don't combo anymore, which is awesome. You just pop away as much as you want and you are free to strife and move about. I'll be honest, it was boring but incredibly effective for damage. In fact, the gun was better then the dagger, but I am guessing it's because the game is a still demo.

The saber was about the same speed as the dagger, so the dagger wasn't that useful in the demo. The sword was sooooo slow, yet it totally blew dudes away. Against faster enemies, you can get ganged up on if you try to use your sword up close. Despite the length of the sword, its reach is MUCH longer then the actual appearance of the sword.


Tech it up... slowly:
Techs are slow, but once you cast it, regardless if you get hit, the spell flies out. Tech useage was really limited, so I won't judge it much. I remember in PSO, beginner techs were slow, but get faster. It might be the same case. The tech was like a Gifoie that came up from the ground. It blew enemies away and would sometimes hits enemies twice in a row. Anyway, tech casting seems unchanged to be honest, yet melee combo is totally revamped. Tech Casters should be right at home, but it also might seem too much of the same thing.

I have this feeling that this game can get WAY more intense then PSO, because the character mobility is way more loose and fluid. If sega does it right, this game can ROCK, due to it's enhanced fluidity with movement. Combos are still rigid. If the AI is not up to par, then it will feel like PSO ver 3.5

[Wiryu]

i think it should be released now. But so I hear it got pushed back to may -.-

[Crushinator]

It sucks that you can't move while you're in the first-person mode, but otherwise sounds fantastic.

Thanks for the awesome impressions guys.

[hamstar]

[DarkEpyon]

There's also a rumor going around that it got pushed back to May. I really hope this isn't the case.

[Wiryu]

Who knows for sure, i'm just saying off the info i got from work(EBGames). It could be inaccurate regardless because the PC ver. isn't listed at all, only ps2. I just assumed they would be released together.

EDIT: However on the site it says winter 06 -.-;

[Alisha]

new psu video and info!
im to lazy to link it all so just click here :D

http://www.planetdreamcast.com/psoworld/vi...190&forum=20&10

edit: shit that photon bow looks awesome
edit2: i cun spall gud

[HC82]

Here is a link to some of the translated info on sega's PSU website.

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~japangaming/fo...topic.php?t=615

This doesn't have anything to do with the above link, but supposedly it is possible to link techniques to photon arts for elemental damage.

[Alisha]

[Crushinator]

[unitself]

a-freakin'-men Mr. Chrushinator!
As a former gun totin' HUcast, I am 100% looking forwards to the day when I can run and shoot and run and shoot and set a trap and shoot and run and shoot again.

But, if you read her equation, it says that HUcasts with guns are GREATER than RA(casts, i am assuming) with guns. Which, as a former HU yourself, you can completely agree with. even if the little quote had nothing to do with either HU or RA casts.

[HC82]

Are there even classes in this game anymore? You'll notice that Ethan can use pretty much every weapon in the game.


It seems like your weapons determines everything about your character. You need to have wands/canes/staves equiped in order to use techniques. Thus, you really can't run around with a big sword, casting rafoie.

Switching weapons on the fly is a reality, so it almost seems like you can switch your class on the fly. That might be an overstatement; although, seeing as the aspect of weapon proficiency is supposed to be implemented in this game(or so say rumors), it might be possible to focus in the areas you want.

Race seems to determine class focus, more so then anything else.

[Crushinator]

*puts 1000 proficiency points into Mechgun*

Man, its less than 4 months before this game is out (supposedly)! When is Sega going to throw us a few bones and get more damn game info?

[Alisha]

quote from psow front page