I was always unsure about PSO2 esp. after such a long wait. Im fairly certain the success of Monster Hunter World prompted this U turn so you should thank capcom for that. Im kinda glad its regionally locked as this has stopped me from suffering buyers remorse at some point this next week or so.

I spent a few hours on the game yesterday and it felt like star trek online without the ability to visit different planets.

Dated , spread sheety confusion with a side of boredom. Im not writing this game off just yet but I'd have preferred an overhaul of PSU tbh Oh well now Im looking for something else to spend my money on I guess.

And you know what? the very same thing happened when PSU was released, people that could not let go PSO said the same things about PSU.

The dozens and dozens of lobbys in PSU where cool for... the offline part of the game, but they were atrocious for the party system, people would gather at one lobby meaning they would only do ONE mission over and over, until another mission got popular then migrate to another lobby. If you think that's actually better than summarising everything in one counter, with mutiblock party search, then your nostalgia is taking over your better judgement.

@landman said in I might give this one a miss and wait for ... PSU2 !?!:

And you know what? the very same thing happened when PSU was released, people that could not let go PSO said the same things about PSU.

The dozens and dozens of lobbys in PSU where cool for... the offline part of the game, but they were atrocious for the party system, people would gather at one lobby meaning they would only do ONE mission over and over, until another mission got popular then migrate to another lobby. If you think that's actually better than summarising everything in one counter, with mutiblock party search, then your nostalgia is taking over your better judgement.

Wow someone is calling out White Beasts 2

This reads more like you didn't know what you were actually doing in game. Should try again with some friends.

@Geordie-P

This game was developed as a followup to Phantasy Star Universe with the name of the game not really playing a role in the overall design decision. In some alternate universe, this SAME game as it is would be called Phantasy Star Universe 2 and we would be asking for a return to PSO1 in a similar way to how right now there are those who want a proper PSU2.

Now then, about this issue... I would argue that PSO2 is the most streamlined game in the series and definitely one that's aged better. As the developers admitted, the issue with PSU was that it was designed with a Single Player game in mind without taking into account the effects this would have on the Multiplayer. PSU is not bad, but its seriously rough around the edges (though I won't deny that PSO2 is also rough around the edges in some places... like the way it handles the Story Mode), a mishmash of good ideas that just aren't executed to their full extent.

Overall, as many others have suggested here, do try playing with others and learning the game's dynamic. I would throw an extra suggestion of trying to directly compare the game to PSO or PSU, trust me it will make things a lot better to deal with. I imagine a lot of the nostalgia related issues would be avoided if PSO2 was called something like.... Phantasy Star Galaxy or Phantasy Star Multiverse, building up on the successor naming scheme between Online and Universe xD

They did kind of do a PSU2 it was just on PSP and under portable instead of universe .