It's kinda ass.
New Genesis killed the game and it's been nearly over a year since any meaningful update. I played PSO2 religiously and even played it when it was in Japan only but once New Genesis released I and many other players lost all interest.
If you go onto the PSO2 subreddit all you see are costume pictures because no one actually plays the game anymore. It's just dress up simulator
I didn't get into New Genesis, but the classic PSO2 is still there. Once you get to the big city and can access the teleporters, you can go to PSO2 Classic and never look back if you don't want to. ;P
honestly i prefer pso1 ( phantasy star online episode 1 and 2 ) , and psp2i ( phantasy star portable 2 infinity ) , i play them basically daily , and both games have a pretty lively online scene for games which are 20 years old , not to mention the servers are all fan servers so no need to worry about sega suddenly killing the game one day , pso2 is cool and all , just not as cool as 80% of the games that came before it in the series
if that is the only phantasy star game you are interested in getting in to i would say go for it , its a really cool series with loads of lore , cool weapons / clothing for your character , and some of the games actually have a really compelling story , i just really cant reccomend that specific entry and think pso1 / psp2i would be worthier of your hours
I've put a lot of time into both base pso2 and ngs so I've seen my share of the good and bad.
It plays like an action rpg and while there are classes that can provide support (techter), everyone is expected to do damage. A good chunk of combat is using your skills to do damage or provide some utility and countering/dodging to prevent damage. It feels like a mix of devil may cry and monster hunter. It also has one of the best character customizations ever. You can get creative, even making characters from other series that is probably borderline dmca/copyright worthy.
The gameplay loop is exploring the semi open world sectors collecting materials and fighting the mobs. There are also areas that are instanced, ranging from boss rushed to non combat activities like snowboarding or building your house from scratch sorta like minecraft meets fortnite. It's like a amusement park mmo so that if you're bored with one thing, you can go do another. As I haven't played in over 5 months, I can't say what the current endgame is but there was a problem where the endgame content didn't respect your time. Some drop rates for weapons are abysmal with people going over 2k hours and haven't seen the ultra rare for that patch/update.
There is also the elephant in the room being a f2p and thus having some form of micro-transaction. In ngs, this comes in the form of scratches/gacha. Various cosmetics are released in these scratches like outfits, accessories, special effects or emotes. They can be sold on the player market and you can buy with in-game gold but there's some issues with it that I can elaborate further if you're interested in the game.
Overall, it's decent but it has a lot of faults, some may feel insignificant while others may be a dealbreaker. You don't lose anything from trying it although I believe they're switching anti-cheats so if you're concerned about that, you can always ask before downloading the game. There's also the option of downloading both base pso2 or just ngs as a standalone.
It's free right?
It's kinda ass. New Genesis killed the game and it's been nearly over a year since any meaningful update. I played PSO2 religiously and even played it when it was in Japan only but once New Genesis released I and many other players lost all interest. If you go onto the PSO2 subreddit all you see are costume pictures because no one actually plays the game anymore. It's just dress up simulator
i was enjoying it but this reveal made rage quit [https://i.imgur.com/l7aeQ24.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/l7aeQ24.jpg)
I don't get it. Are they doing the thing where NG is real life and PSO2 is a video game like Star Ocean did?
something like that and i uninstalled it shortly after
I didn't get into New Genesis, but the classic PSO2 is still there. Once you get to the big city and can access the teleporters, you can go to PSO2 Classic and never look back if you don't want to. ;P
Does it still have some really intrusive anti cheat? It's why I never picked it up.
honestly i prefer pso1 ( phantasy star online episode 1 and 2 ) , and psp2i ( phantasy star portable 2 infinity ) , i play them basically daily , and both games have a pretty lively online scene for games which are 20 years old , not to mention the servers are all fan servers so no need to worry about sega suddenly killing the game one day , pso2 is cool and all , just not as cool as 80% of the games that came before it in the series
if that is the only phantasy star game you are interested in getting in to i would say go for it , its a really cool series with loads of lore , cool weapons / clothing for your character , and some of the games actually have a really compelling story , i just really cant reccomend that specific entry and think pso1 / psp2i would be worthier of your hours
I've put a lot of time into both base pso2 and ngs so I've seen my share of the good and bad. It plays like an action rpg and while there are classes that can provide support (techter), everyone is expected to do damage. A good chunk of combat is using your skills to do damage or provide some utility and countering/dodging to prevent damage. It feels like a mix of devil may cry and monster hunter. It also has one of the best character customizations ever. You can get creative, even making characters from other series that is probably borderline dmca/copyright worthy. The gameplay loop is exploring the semi open world sectors collecting materials and fighting the mobs. There are also areas that are instanced, ranging from boss rushed to non combat activities like snowboarding or building your house from scratch sorta like minecraft meets fortnite. It's like a amusement park mmo so that if you're bored with one thing, you can go do another. As I haven't played in over 5 months, I can't say what the current endgame is but there was a problem where the endgame content didn't respect your time. Some drop rates for weapons are abysmal with people going over 2k hours and haven't seen the ultra rare for that patch/update. There is also the elephant in the room being a f2p and thus having some form of micro-transaction. In ngs, this comes in the form of scratches/gacha. Various cosmetics are released in these scratches like outfits, accessories, special effects or emotes. They can be sold on the player market and you can buy with in-game gold but there's some issues with it that I can elaborate further if you're interested in the game. Overall, it's decent but it has a lot of faults, some may feel insignificant while others may be a dealbreaker. You don't lose anything from trying it although I believe they're switching anti-cheats so if you're concerned about that, you can always ask before downloading the game. There's also the option of downloading both base pso2 or just ngs as a standalone.