Together Retro: Phantasy Star Online

[Fragems]

One hit from that dragon would have knocked cute little level 3 dish right on his ass!

We were in cave 3 when he first joined at lvl 1 which didn't go to well for him .

He held his own against the dragon though.

[dsheinem]

One hit from that dragon would have knocked cute little level 3 dish right on his ass!

We were in cave 3 when he first joined at lvl 1 which didn't go to well for him .

He held his own against the dragon though.

Things got better once I had a ranged weapon.

Glad I played, will probably do so again. Can't say I like it much as a game, but I liked playing with the people I did.

[Gunstar Green]

A big problem with PSO is the learning curve is kind of vertical. On the surface it's a very simple game to play, and anyone could beat the game on the lower difficulties.

But things really get interesting once you reach Ultimate difficulty. Unfortunately that's also where the game tosses you off a cliff if you don't have the proper character build and equips.

And the game doesn't do a good job of teaching you how to build or equip your character, in fact it doesn't really teach you at all, so you have to rely on information outside of the game. That's not even getting into some of the more complicated strategies that people have come up with over the years such as the niche uses for particular weapons or how to be a Force without pissing someone off (a lot harder than one would imagine).

On top of that getting the equips you need to remain competitive in the end game is extremely difficult and could take months or even years of hunting if you're lucky. The only reprieve being when Schtserv, being a private server, hosts events that allow for higher drop rates and occasionally high-tier event item drops.

But this means once you've reached this end game level it's almost not worth playing the game outside of the events because you're not likely to find anything you need or that you could trade. Unless you already are totally equipped out and can run with other well equipped players. It's also caused the server to have a bit of an elitism problem that has died down a little bit since the server's population has dropped significantly, but it's still there.

It's still fun to play through the lower levels from scratch, but there's so much more to it that a good 95% of players will never see because the barrier of entry and level of commitment is just too high.

You've also got to be able to tolerate the repetitiveness of it, but much like other genres such as beat'em ups it helps a lot to have friends along for the ride. I probably wouldn't have stuck with it had I not been playing with my girlfriend the entire time.

This probably doesn't mean much to anyone here, and probably won't apply to any of your experiences during Together Retro, but I thought I'd bring it up. After years of playing on Schtserv I've noticed the retention rate of new users going south, excepting the users who started playing during events and have an interest in trading and the game's (rather volatile) economy. Most players tend to be either brand new or veterans with very few in between.

TL;DR the early game and late game on Blue Burst are practically two different games, and while the late game is pretty rewarding, making it there takes more dedication than most people are going to be willing to give.

[Omerta]

^ I can handle it on TR for a month. I was awestruck as a teenager by this one, but I there are a few things I've been spoiled by in the 10+ years between now and the height of my PSO career that makes it hard to go back to.

[BoneSnapDeez]

For some reason I thought this game was only 15-20 hours long. I think I put in 16 hours so far and I'm still in the caves.

All of the quests available have been completed so I guess it's time for the dreaded cave boss. Tomorrow that is. Time to hit the sack.

[pierrot]

Probably unlikely to get a response at this time of night, but I bought a range extender to try to get my DC running online with this game with my BBA. I'm playing the US ver. 2, go into "Website," change DNS 1 (and only DNS 1) to the server's main IP (96.31.74.190) and when I go to connect to online mode, I eventually get an error message saying 'Line was disconnected due to server(s) error. Please try again later.'

I've tried resetting my connection settings, and going through the process again, but always get the same result. What am I doing wrong?


EDIT: I never unlocked Ultimate mode, apparently, so I took a quick jaunt through the forest, offline, in the meantime. Only got one material, and it wasn't even from the boss. Almost leveled to 104. It's sure been a long time since I played this game. I thought it looked good back in the day through RF. If I had ever seen it in full VGA mode, I might've died from shock.

[alienjesus]

Oh my god, did someone other than me chose a class other than ranger!?

Typical American obsession with guns

I'm going to do some levelling tonight to get to a point where I can survive a single attack from the 2nd boss. I wish I new exactly how high a level I need to be though.

I just want to go to the mines. From my brief levelling trip there (whilst Fragems and Booger killed the 2nd boss on their own) I could absolutely slaughter the enemies - my lightning spell knocks them all on their asses

[noiseredux]

sorry, Pie. Every time I attempted w/ BBA I had issues. So all my DC PSO multiplayer was via dialup. I agree though... absolutely stunning in VGA mode, eh?

[BoneSnapDeez]

Oh my god, did someone other than me chose a class other than ranger!?

Typical American obsession with guns

I'm a hunter because that was the first one on the list.

But...... I'm using guns.

In retrospect I wish I had chosen ranger.

Looks like I also missed an opportunity to play as a.......... Newman?!

[alienjesus]

Hopping on to do side quests for levels and money. If anyone wants to join me, post on here because you might not be able to join a mission in progress.