Post by Zeiram Wing on Dec 9, 2008 16:23:22 GMT -5
Before I get to the pics, i'm going to do a mini review as to why I'm really into this game.
I've sorta had a love/hate thing with the original PSU. the combat was improved from PSO but it lost a lot of the feel and was very repetitive. after playing AotI, I'm starting to come around to the series charm. This is how the original (universe) should have been.
This is why the game is better than the first PSU. First, they added a "just hit" and "just counter" system where by timing your strikes correctly, you can either do a strong attack from PSOt, or counter an attack with a strong attack. It helps keep the battles from just being button mashing. They also re-introduced the MAGs. they aren't exactly the same as they used to be, but its still nice to have them. They now are an equippable item, that works like a one handed gun (in this game, you can equip different one handed weapons in each hand, so say, a handgun in one, and a saber in the other.) Some are ranged MAGs, that shoot at the enemy and can put status conditions on them, and some are TECH MAGs, that use TECHs whenever an enemy is within range.
There are a ton of new items, 2 new weapon classes (whips and slicers) and they improved the drop rate and difficulty of the game. the loads of new clothes, and the classic PSO gear are great (especially for a character creation junkie like myself.) But the #1 improvement that has me enjoying this "expansion" way more than PSU is a simple one... they removed the timer from most missions. In the first game, every mission worked like this
time taken to beat mission = x amount of points
enemies killed = x amount of points
1000 points = S Rank for mission, double exp, cool loot, etc
and anything less than an s rank was pretty much worthless. so i would just run the missions as fast as possible, just grabbing anything that would drop not even looking at what it was. and that was boring. now, when i take a mission, I can enjoy myself. Take screenshots, check what i pick up (and you have to now, as the drop rate has been cranked from the first) let pp recharge and such. and the missions seem to be a bit longer as well, and there are a lot with bosses at the end, giving the levels a PSO feel.
The game is so much better now because, and this doesn't happen often, they listened to all the fan complaints, and fixed every one of them. They tried to include as much PSO into the game that they could, and if the engine wouldn't allow it, then they found a workaround to include it (like the MAGs.) Its still not flawless, and its not 100% PSO, but its damn close, and one more expansion and they will probably have the PSO replacement fans have wanted.
I've been enjoying this game so much, that i decided to get a month subscription to try it online and see if it still has that classic PSO charm to it, taking screenshots all the way to document it. Figured this would be a nice way to show the PSO fans the state of the series that they enjoyed, and for some of us, brought us together...
I've sorta had a love/hate thing with the original PSU. the combat was improved from PSO but it lost a lot of the feel and was very repetitive. after playing AotI, I'm starting to come around to the series charm. This is how the original (universe) should have been.
This is why the game is better than the first PSU. First, they added a "just hit" and "just counter" system where by timing your strikes correctly, you can either do a strong attack from PSOt, or counter an attack with a strong attack. It helps keep the battles from just being button mashing. They also re-introduced the MAGs. they aren't exactly the same as they used to be, but its still nice to have them. They now are an equippable item, that works like a one handed gun (in this game, you can equip different one handed weapons in each hand, so say, a handgun in one, and a saber in the other.) Some are ranged MAGs, that shoot at the enemy and can put status conditions on them, and some are TECH MAGs, that use TECHs whenever an enemy is within range.
There are a ton of new items, 2 new weapon classes (whips and slicers) and they improved the drop rate and difficulty of the game. the loads of new clothes, and the classic PSO gear are great (especially for a character creation junkie like myself.) But the #1 improvement that has me enjoying this "expansion" way more than PSU is a simple one... they removed the timer from most missions. In the first game, every mission worked like this
time taken to beat mission = x amount of points
enemies killed = x amount of points
1000 points = S Rank for mission, double exp, cool loot, etc
and anything less than an s rank was pretty much worthless. so i would just run the missions as fast as possible, just grabbing anything that would drop not even looking at what it was. and that was boring. now, when i take a mission, I can enjoy myself. Take screenshots, check what i pick up (and you have to now, as the drop rate has been cranked from the first) let pp recharge and such. and the missions seem to be a bit longer as well, and there are a lot with bosses at the end, giving the levels a PSO feel.
The game is so much better now because, and this doesn't happen often, they listened to all the fan complaints, and fixed every one of them. They tried to include as much PSO into the game that they could, and if the engine wouldn't allow it, then they found a workaround to include it (like the MAGs.) Its still not flawless, and its not 100% PSO, but its damn close, and one more expansion and they will probably have the PSO replacement fans have wanted.
I've been enjoying this game so much, that i decided to get a month subscription to try it online and see if it still has that classic PSO charm to it, taking screenshots all the way to document it. Figured this would be a nice way to show the PSO fans the state of the series that they enjoyed, and for some of us, brought us together...
