Phantasy Star Cave Message Board

I've been considering whther or not to buy PSU, I've heard mixed reviews, but maybe you guys could help me out?

its not as engrossing as PSO. I've put it down for good. Others will disagree. With exception to story mode, i feel there is no focus or direction for the online portion.

I've seen my friend play it while Iwas at his house one time. It didn't seem so bad in single player mode. I haven't seen any online play. Thanks for your opinion.

I liked the offline Story Mode a lot. As for online... Depends if you find friends to play with or not.

The combat is good, except if you're a Force. It takes ages to level up Techniques, and enemies are always on the move, so targetting is hard. What bothers me the most is the network latency I experience.

Overall I find it less charming than PSO, with some needless complexity thrown in.

Well, it would be kind of hard to top PSO. there's just an appeal of it's simplicity. Even in single player mode, you can get drawn into the simple stories with their recurring characters, such as the one with Montague and the android. Plus, it'd be tough to leave my pimped-out guild card lol.

Played offline, I find it to be a lot better than PSO. Never played either of them online so I don't know how it compares in that area.

Well, I just bought it yesterday after I left. From what I've played in one-player, it's not too bad.

As far as combat goes...I feel it completely blows PSO out of the water. Its just got more style and variance.

Not sure what version you bought...but some people do have issues with latency, as Benoit had mentioned. I am on the other side of that wall though fortunately. I have smooth gameplay everywhere. My system specs are way above the minimum however (if that will matter).

The single player is a good experience. Its easy to experiment with different weapon classes and the Photon Arts level extremely quickly.

The unfortunate part about online mode is that once again it has become a grinding game. That isn't to say the actual grinding of weapons is bad. Grinding has improved I think, it takes some common sense, and a bit of luck/guts. But if you want to get to level 140 fast then you are going to have a lot of repeat killing.

If you bought Ambition of the Illuminus you will have the opportunity to play Episode 2 online and 5 Chapters of Episode 3 so far. Also, there are a lot of locations to check out. I wont say different quests because like in PSO, the only thing that really changes is the enemies/locales. It will all still be killing and going from A to B no matter where you are.

There are however some "challenge mode-ish" missions (three I think?) that are available at the Guardian Branches. However you need a party to do them. Thats where your version comes into account. If you have the PS2/PC version then you will be hard pressed finding a group to do these missions (or any missions in particular). Since the community is small, the only place to really find a party is at the hot-spots (places where the newest weapons can be found or where the most EXP is available). If you have the 360 version then you should be in good news. I was just over at PSO world and the recent statistics show that the 360 has the highest population.

Thats the meat and potatoes of the whole experience. Of course, since this is Phantasy Star, there is a lot of toppings on the whole meal. Its that appeal that keeps people sticking around. You would learn within a month or two whether or not the PSU food is for you.

Too much metaphor, later folks.

You can play Episode 2 online without the expansion. With the expansion, you can play it offline. Episode 3 is still online, though.

I've played the demo for the Xbox 360. I liked the melee combat, but the ranged and magic isn't the greatest. Personally, I liked PSO's combat better. Though, PSU is more stylish.

I liked how extremely tough the enemies looked, even in the first area. It makes you feel lucky you beat them, even though they're weak... I liked the monster design here more than any other game I've ever played.

I've always thought that PSU neutered a very important aspect of PSO that completely made the game mediocre. Please correct me if I'am wrong but if I remember correctly the item finding system in PSU is almost entirely purchasing, even the rare weapons are just purchased at a certaint point instead of the addicting system of PSO that you hunt down specific enemies with low drop rates, ect. That ruined PSU for me. I've only played either one offline so I don't know if there is a huge difference or not.

The focus in PSU is to find synthesis boards and materials that drop from enemies, instead of rare items. Then you use your Partner Machinery to synthesise them, which may fail. That kind of sucks.

Of course, other people can set up shops, and sell what they have successfully synthesised. That's probably what you mean.

Personally, I never found hunting for rare items all that addicting or fun, especially if the drop rate is low. I'd rather play for fun than hunt for fun.

Due to PC/PS2's economy, purchasing has become the way to go. One can buy Gudda Hon boards for near NPC selling price. It is even efficient for buying Stormlines and filling all 4 slots with decent A rank Units.

As for finding:

Due to the prices on super elite gear they are more worth finding. Kind of sad really. Some weapon boards still sell for a lot, Like Agito Repca, but mostly you will spend time finding S rank units and 12*+ armor boards. Depending on your class, you can bulk up pretty easy with cash.

But now, think of it this way. At higher levels meseta meant nothing in PSO. I know I constantly held a full bank. And all it was ever good for was filling mates...not a big expense. Finding those rares sure was something though. It sure felt like PSO when I found my Lumirus/Chaos Knight.