I really didn't expect with all the buildup to what seems like it will be the last story content in PSO2, that chapter 6 would be this short. I've seen clips of chapter in the past of people playing through it from the JP version, but didn't realize that was most of what there was.

It left me feeling like I'm missing more story that probably won't ever be made on PSO2. I hope there is more story content added to PSO2 still even with NGS coming, even if there isn't an entire additional Episode. I wish we had some more optional quests we could go through with more battles alongside our favorite characters that give more cutscenes with them.

I'm going to miss the characters from PSO2, and we didn't get to talk to a lot of them in the epilogue for episode 6, so I hope we get some more chances for that at some point (and to have more interactions with the ones we did get scenes with in the epilogue).

The end also felt like SEGA knew they were going to make NGS when they first finished episode 6 and rushed to complete it (having Shiva's powers feel like mostly talk, and not much reason to actually believe we couldn't fight her before, they should have made us lose an actual fight to her and not just cutscenes). But yet I find it unlikely we'll see even those characters again, despite the fact they mentioned seeing the future through with the player character (I hope I'm wrong though).

I'm hyped for NGS of course, whenever we get it, but I also feel sad to leave PSO2 and probably not see the characters from it ever again. I got attached to these characters (especially Matoi), and feel like we didn't get enough time fighting alongside them and being able to just talk with them.

Episode 1 just dumped story about some characters in a way that didn't mean much. But our connection to a lot of other characters in the other episodes actually felt much more meaningful, but too short.

It wasn't only short but it also didn't really feel like a proper closure either (except for the PD plotline itself) with Aurora bringing new stuff like "the twenty goddesses" up. They also emphasized multiple times that there are still falspawn out there (and maybe even some Dark Falz). If they ever wanted to expand on base PSO2 again then there are certainly many things they could go for here.

One of the things that I feel the global players did not experience and instead were streamlined with was how much of the story from Episode 6 was unloaded at once. In the Japanese version I recall the beginning of Episode 6 started at the end of 2018 with the story having the prologue and then the first chapter. You would have to anticipate gaps of at least two-to-four months worth of waiting until the next chapter comes along with content being sprinkled along (Divide Quests were introduced and expanded over time as the story progressed) and it was only about halfway through 2020 that Episode 6 had its last chapters released that essentially wrapped up what was largely a very slow-moving plot that wasn't exactly going anywhere. On the global side we got most of the story's pacing sped up so that you weren't stuck waiting so long for the next part of the story but it definitely came in racing on our side where Japanese players who were invested in the story would have either been playing the content at the time or be distracted with filler content and side-content (such as the Evangelion collaboration which took place during Episode 6) while the actual story was still in the works.

I have had the impression that ever since Episode 5 Sega had been wanting to work on New Genesis and unveiled the Hero as the means to try and push that but the immediate pushback and backlash they got from the players put a stop to most of that which resulted in Episode 5 dropping plans for larger content that only the Hero can engage in and ended up with numerous changes to the classes and core gameplay to polish up the original gameplay further. I recall this left much of Episode 5 being very "barren" in terms of content due to how Enchanted Forest Exploration and the Buster Quests were effectively the majority of content you would play outside of the Emergency Quests and in Episode 6 this scales down even further when Endless Quests were introduced between Episodes 5 and 6 to give high-end players a challenge. I feel that Divide Quests were definitely Sega's answer to trying to renew all the relevant content in the game and give players something to come back to reliably but I feel Sega was definitely winding down on the scale of the content they wanted and we were able to confirm it at least in March of 2020 that it was for the "Not Episode 7" update.

Personally to me for I would have liked to have seen Episode 6 address the world, I would have loved to have seen the Delta Valiant crew (Phantasy Star Nova) being given some sort of role or cameo due to their whole adventure of learning to combat the Darkers/Falspawn without the use of Photons and developing a new form of power as a substitute instead. I would have also loved to have seen nods or even whole cameos from PSO2es because of how that game's story tied into the earlier story (between Episodes 1-3) and how the characters are also relatively popular mascots and guests on the Japanese side. When I first played through Episode 6 I was surprised to see that even Itsuki and Rina were involved despite them barely having a role in the actual Episode 4 story (though you would know them immediately if you saw "Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation" so that I was hoping for more potential cameos. Despite that, I feel Episode 6 really did end up nailing the "last hurrah" vibe for the game's eight years worth of world-building and story even if it really wasn't all that great in retrospect. The experience of having played the game and being pushed through the story (even if it was only condensed to a year for global players) has an effect I like where it was still definitely a journey for the players involved. Thankfully we did not suffer the fate of some of the previous games and iterations of Phantasy Star Online 2 (such as the Southeast Asian servers) that ended up completely missing out on story content or never fully got an experience that had a conclusion of some sort to it other than pulling the plug.

i wondered how match damage should they take before shiva gives up on nomal

Yeah, it was completely rushed. I feel like they wanted to move on to NGS so bad they neglected PSO2. And I'm sorry, I see no connection between PSO2 and NGS, it's basically just transplanting your character in a completely separate game and universe. Is there even ONE other character from PSO2 still around? Matoi even? I mean she's the love interest of the protagonist and we're just gonna wipe the slate clean? Hell, Risa was already millions of years old in PSO2, and she's gone too? And Xiera, also a CAST? After 1000 years? Glad I'm passing.

@BloodyKyona said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

Is there even ONE other character from PSO2 still around?

Out of the ones we know of: Mother, Al, Phaleg, Xiao, Xiera, Ro Kamiz, Alma, Aurora, Hariette, Klariskrays (the original one), Atossa, Wolf, Sukunahime, Magatsu, Deus (constantly returning through the Ether).

Also, depending on how long their lifespans are: some of the Draconians like Ko Rela and other people from Omega like Varuna.

@BloodyKyona said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

I mean she's the love interest of the protagonist and we're just gonna wipe the slate clean?

The MC from base PSO2 and the MC from NGS are lore wise not the same person.

@BloodyKyona said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

Risa was already millions of years old in PSO2

No, she's "the age she was when they turned her into a CAST + ≈50 years".

@Ryoga said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

The MC from base PSO2 and the MC from NGS are lore wise not the same person.

So it's confirmed no connection between the two games? Cuz they said originally that it's the SAME PERSON. I guess that changed when I wasn't looking. Also, I can't find one word of any of those characters appearing in NGS. In fact, it seems so far nothing is back. Hence why I say "it feels like a completely separate game and universe". Why even put the PSO2 label on it at that point?

@BloodyKyona said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

Cuz they said originally that it's the SAME PERSON. I guess that changed when I wasn't looking.

Do you have any source for that? I don't recall them ever saying that they are the same person. If anything they were probably talking about it more from a gameplay perspective than from a lore perspective.

@BloodyKyona said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

Also, I can't find one word of any of those characters appearing in NGS.

That's because they never said anything about who they are going to bring back but the characters I named are the ones with lifespans of more than 1000 years so lore wise bringing either of them back wouldn't be an issue here as they should "still be around".

@Ryoga said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

@BloodyKyona said in Chapter 6 Was Really Short (Spoilers):

Cuz they said originally that it's the SAME PERSON. I guess that changed when I wasn't looking.

Do you have any source for that? I don't recall them ever saying that they are the same person. If anything they were probably talking about it more from a gameplay perspective than from a lore perspective.

During the reveals, and the CBT, the Guardian literally crashes on the planet 1-000 years later, now called a Meteoran, with no memory of the previous battle with the Profound Darkness or involvement in ARKS. This has been stated several places. Now if you have proof that they have changed this, I'll take a look, not that it matters. Either way, there is basically no connection to PSO2.

@BloodyKyona I haven't really watched the entire videos of that, but did they specifically state the Meteoran is the Guardian from PSO2? Or are people just assuming that because they look similar?

SEGA seems to like to reuse the same general look for the main characters lately, generic anime protagonist looking guys with dark hair that use swords and/or dual sabers, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same thing here.

Plus while Ash was used in the Episode Oracle anime too, he was always kinda a placeholder for our character, so unless you were saying they literally confirmed he's the same Guardian, they may just be continuing to use him for that purpose.

They even literally reused the general idea of the introduction of the male protagonist that resembles Ash in the second episode of Idola (He was suspended in cryosleep in space and woken up and sent down to the planet with the detection of Dark Falz). So that's what makes me wonder about whether that's correct or not, and not just another character that just looks like Ash, but isn't him.

Far as I know, all they say is that the Meteorans arrive by pod and have no memories of what happened beforehand. Which would basically put it in the same place as FFXIV, where the player character in the now-defunct 1.0 is the same as the one in 2.0+ if you played both, but with memory wipes/generalized amnesia for everyone involved to make it so that the plots are disconnected enough that even for people who started in 2.0 the story's the same (since for 1.0 players, even though they're the same person nobody actually remembers who they were beforehand).

So it could easily be something like the pods in NGS are just random ARKS people who got cryo'd, but if you played base PSO2 then canonically you're still the Guardian, but you just won't remember it so you may as well be just another random ARKS guy like the rest of the Meteorans.

Basically, dumb no matter how you look at it. I'm gonna enjoy retirement from MMOs.