I've been seeing a lot of folks playing PSO2 expecting to play it exactly like PSO1. So, I decided to make a thread where we can help struggling PSO1 veterans better understand the gameplay of PSO2. Along with what similarities there may be and what things are wildly different.

No Offline Mode

This isn't a retail game, it's a free to play online game. That's how it's been designed from the ground up, to focus on multiplayer and populated ships. The only way you can really play solo is to lock your games with passwords or choose an empty block. To have this experience, you're going to have to stick with PSO1, Universe or the portable games. This isn't that game and will never be that game.

Mags

In PSO1, our mag set up had a lot more variety and evolutions were a lot more coveted. PSO2 has some nice evolutions, but the game doesn't revolve around having those evolutions as the main purpose of the mag. A lot of build focus on pure stats and less so about distribution. Outside of stats, Abilities and PBs are changable on the fly with items, allowing for greater customisation.

What other things can you think of?

PSO1 will always hold a dear place in my heart and the memories of my times with it will never die. But, at the same token, it's unhealthy for us to put expectations on games to be something they're not. A game will never flourish if it's living in the shadow of a game you've put on a pedestal.

Remember that Time we heard a complaint that PSO2 was not and exact replica of PSO1? And that it wasnt some arbitrary generalization of the greater playerbase based on the viewpoint of a few people?

Yeah me neither.

Hmm, I can't say much about the marketing the original 2013 release of PSO2 would have had, but what little buildup there was prior to the delay really emphasized parallels to PSO1 with one of the SEGA staff at PAX even stating such things like:

"As you can see the series has really returned to its roots"

If there's anything I like about the current marketing is the fact that at least the 2020 release is treating the game as its own thing. Like was said, it doesn't stop people from comparing it to it or people wanting the game to be "PSO1 but with better graphics" but at least SEGA isn't adding fuel to those flames (tho in hindsight, simply giving the game a different name that would build up on "Universe" like "Phantasy Star Dimension", "Phantasy Star Galaxy", etc would have done the trick).

@AnamanaAU , you might wanna bring up the whole Splitscreen thing that GC had. I had seen some people wanting it back... (only a few here tho)

@Leonkh99 said in Get over it! PSO2 will never be PSO1!:

Like was said, it doesn't stop people from comparing it to it or people wanting the game to be "PSO1 but with better graphics"

I had one person quit FFXIV because they didn't like the fact it wasn't slower paced or "casual" like FFXI was. (IE: a few buttons could do everything for you for a day or more.) Or how SMN on FFXI was more pet-based than it is in FFXIV.

I can relate to people not liking the fact this game isn't like PSO1, but that's fine by me. They can play other games.

@coldreactive , definitely can agree though I think the issue is less to do with original series' fans not liking this game and more to do with the fact that many suggestions and demands seem to be focused too much on bringing back older features which just aren't compatible with the new direction and style the series is going. Many of these suggestions seem to be based simply on the fact that... this game is called "Phantasy Star Online 2"...

@Leonkh99 said in Get over it! PSO2 will never be PSO1!:

and more to do with the fact that many suggestions and demands seem to be focused too much on bringing back older features which just aren't compatible with the new direction

FFXIV devs can put macros in that do everything for you like in FFXI, but they just don't want to, because they want people to be engaged, etc. They want people to be able to feel the battles, feel the music, etc. The developers also don't know how to balance pets properly, so they basically made them what they are now, invulnerable support pets that do limited actions based on your position in a rotation and your gauge. The developers even stated that if they added a new pet job (jokingly: Beastmaster) that it would be a limited job, period.

So it's mostly a mixture of not just them not wanting old features, like you described in your reply, but also because they simply don't know how to deal with it in the game's mechanics/world. I would continue onward about how some people don't like Red Mage, and how they can't balance healing classes, but that would go into the game's history, FFXI, more in depth. I just don't feel like doing that right now.

Pso1 will always be a game that I remember and will go back to from time to time, but for me I was fully prepared for this not to be like PSO1 in fact I feel like they took some of the best parts from pso1 and games like ffxi and found a nice new system

As for wanting the game to have an offline mode, nah this one doesn’t need it, it was nice in pso1 but for me I feel like there is a need to have the multi player interactions in this one

I mean, I still like the fact they took the concept of the timed 3-hit attack that you had in PSO Ep.1 & 2 and made it actually do more damage/ shorten reload time, etc. if you maintain that, even though you can button mash to attack in this game.

As for the offline mode, I think it was fun in PSO 1 & 2, but it made the most sense in PSU/ PSU: AotI with how dense the story was, mixed with the exploration aspects. In this, again I think it'd be fun, but doesn't seem to make as much sense to me. I think the only benefit would be not having to rely on internet connection to go through cutscenes and whatnot (huge problem I'm having atm).

Well, there's not just bad changes, there's all sorts of things that changed:

You can jump and there are more lobby areas that aren't just fifty pallet swaps of the same three, including a casino. There's no public jukebox, there's player housing, there's no connecting to a GBA to download Sega-related minigames, there's no Chu Chu Rocket themed go go ball, Go Go Ball doesn't have a soccer field anymore and is instead stuck in a part of the shopping area (really these go go ball ones seem like a fairly easy fix, I'm actually a little disappointed by these, you'd think they'd have expanded more on the minigame when they brought it back but it just seems more like an afterthought).

Also there's more than one planet and you can't use free exploration to explore an entire planet or an entire episode's worth of content within a single quest, the time trials take you through condensed versions of each planet (save for Hakatoran onwards as the rest didn't have much to explore in the first place) so they're hardly a decent substitute.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. There's tons of other changes, both good and bad and some that came from PSU and the portable games (the player housing system is SO much better).