Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis - Frozen Resolution and Kvaris Region Impressions

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maskedweasel

Aori said:

NGS just feels like an empty shell. I don't like the open world for this game, its mostly empty. It's gameplay to me feels floaty and off. The carrot and stick is barely there. Combining the PSO2 inventory with NGS was the dumbest thing ever, so you start a 'new game' with no inventory space.

NGS just doesn't grab me the same way PSO2 did and it is unfortunate.

I really wanted to like it and I gave it a shot several times, but a lot of it doesn't make sense. You're pretty much right on all points. I have no inventory and managing it seems like a full time job. The combat feels off, mostly because half the classes only need two skills. One to build energy and the other to do the most damage. 

I hope the game sticks around. Maybe one day they can fix it. 

eoloe

maskedweasel said:

Aori said:

NGS just feels like an empty shell. I don't like the open world for this game, its mostly empty. It's gameplay to me feels floaty and off. The carrot and stick is barely there. Combining the PSO2 inventory with NGS was the dumbest thing ever, so you start a 'new game' with no inventory space.



NGS just doesn't grab me the same way PSO2 did and it is unfortunate.

I really wanted to like it and I gave it a shot several times, but a lot of it doesn't make sense. You're pretty much right on all points. I have no inventory and managing it seems like a full time job. The combat feels off, mostly because half the classes only need two skills. One to build energy and the other to do the most damage. 

I hope the game sticks around. Maybe one day they can fix it. 

Yes, inventory managing is a mess. I have a tendency to blindly "shift/select" everything and convert everything to cash or almost. They "solved" this problem versus payment with a configurable auto-sell feature...

Yes, the open world is under-exploited, but pretty(except everything that is a building or some kind of architecture)

The "stories" are short and uninteresting at best (to be polite).

And the game overall offers not much but a glorified grinding thingie (no PvP no competition).



That said let's give this game a bit of justice.

The combat when done right is dodge/counter based. The two skill gameplay you mentioned is a little bit uninformative. It is like saying Elden Ring has only 2 attacks and is bad.

So when you are in an instance with seven other players, most of the time it is steamrolling/relaxing (and why not?). However if you look for a challenge and do some content solo, it is a full action combat system in which timing and positioning is way more important that the number of skills.

Personally I like the glorious amount of enemies to kill during the PSE bursts. It reminds me of old arcade games. It is stupid fun and spectacular. The over-sized boss battles are also interesting with breakable limbs, weak spots, and so on.

For the digital dolls people, the game offers a lot of customizations, possibly the most I have seen in a game. Unfortunately, despite this wealth of possibilities most of players are creating sexy anime girls, which is not the taste of everybody. But you can create any kind of character (even mechs/robots) and some people actually manage to recreate their favorite anime character.

The monetization is quite good. Which nowadays is not that simple (DI anyone?). It is a F2P title in which even the cosmestics are free! Of course you can pay for them, and a lot of people seems doing it, but you can also buy them on the free currency market.

All the game content is free. There is no power paywall either.

They try to twist your arm on QoL features like the one I mentioned previously. They especially prevent you to sell your stuff on the market (which can be alleviated by a free battlepass item once a month or about).

The community also seems to be a plus. I see them as a bunch of kind hippies.

"Peace and love man!"
EDIT: Ingrish

Uwakionna

I absolutely loved playing the Braver in NGS. Very engaging style of play.

It just got so boring after a while though, waiting between grinding up the next tier of weapons and units with only a little narrative fluff sprinkled in.

KSib

Aori said:

NGS just feels like an empty shell. I don't like the open world for this game, its mostly empty. It's gameplay to me feels floaty and off. The carrot and stick is barely there. Combining the PSO2 inventory with NGS was the dumbest thing ever, so you start a 'new game' with no inventory space.



NGS just doesn't grab me the same way PSO2 did and it is unfortunate.

It's truly a shame because I was in love with PSO2. NGS was supposed to be the game that got my other friends into the IP but all it did was chase them away. A real shame...

Dattelis

It seems like the base game stopped receiving updates all together, not even a battle pass update or rerun, which is pretty said. I personally preferred the base game over NGS (but also NGS doesn't have summoner yet so maybe I biased).