Due to life being a bit....Uncooperative, my blog posts will be slowed down even more and I won't have as much time to go through games as well.
That's why we're having a Game Opinion section for the list of games that I feel I've played enough of but haven't quite reached end-game yet(So these 'reviews' need to be taken with more pinches of salt than usual).
That being said, let's begin.
Phanstasy Star Online 2 is a Massively Multi-player Online Action Role-Playing Game played in a third-person camera view by SEGA. The players are known as ARKs, best described as inter-planetary explorers who explore the reaches of space and investigate incidents caused by D-arkers, beings of dark energy that corrupt.
Character creation lets the player choose from 4 races: Humans, Newmans(Bio-engineered humanoid elves ), Casts(Mechanical beings) and Dewmans(Humans with recessive Darker genes). The character creation is also rather extensive in the sense that besides the presets of faces and hair, customization includes armour colours and proportions of the face and body. There are a total of five starting classes to pick from:Hunter, Ranger, Force, Braver and Bouncer, though previously level-locked classes(Fighter,Gunner and Techer) are also available for use at the start now so it should be eight.
Combat in the game is simple and reactive. Basic 3-part attacks are executed with the assigned button(depending on what control the player is using i.e mouse and keyboard or game controller). Special attacks called Photon Arts or Technics are integrated differently depending on the weapon. Striking weapons(colour-coded orange) have their Arts attached in a 3-block interval alongside the attack command, meaning that they can be chained into while Ranged weapons(blue) are individual attacks. Technic weapons are basically the 'spells' that are also cast individually(Except when using Jet Boots). Arts and Technics are learned via Discs, which are items and spend no resources to be learned. Weapons also have secondary functions that are assigned to the Shift key, usually involving dodging or accessing more Photon arts. There are also Weapon Gears, of which are usually gauges that add an additional feature such as improved performance.
Classes in the game can be freely accessed and changed, removing the need to create a new character if the player wants to try a new class. Another feature is the Subclass, which allows the player to pick a secondary class which arguments the stats of their main class and allows access to their class skills.
Assuming a player also possesses a rare weapon that can be used by all classes, they can also access the Photon Arts of the subclass.
In the game, there are various missions on different planets that can be taken. During a mission, Emergency Orders can appear randomly , which are events and tasks that occur in that instance. Completing all of it for a certain planet unlocks the 'Free Exploration' for it. Beating the boss located in the final area of it would unlock a new planet. As a player gets deeper into the game, challenge modes such as Extreme Quest and Time Attack Quests(The former which I have no experience in and the latter being incomplete).
The game's Premium currency Arks Cash(AC) is used for improving a player's experience more than improving the player's character. It's mostly used for aesthetics and expansion of item storage, removing the danger of power-creeping in the game.
The game's battle system provides a good sense of depth and accomplishment, since it's very customizable. The game modes give content that manages to maintain interest as harder versions of the missions get unlocked as a player's Class level gets higher.
Because AC is used to merely enhance a player's experience, it doesn't feel like the game forces players to pay in order to catch up to paying players.
But the game does have a slight issue involving the weapons as the secondary function of some weapons are useless unless the Weapon Gear is learned. The harder version of the missions basically increase enemy health and damage as well as the density of enemies. On the difficulty of Very Hard and Super Hard, the values make the missions quite punishing.
Overall, PSO2 is a very well-made game and it's business model of using it's premium content to bolster game experience makes it feel more inviting than most.
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