Thread: PSU's lack of the 'It' factor

... or maybe it has too much "it" factor.

Before I start off, let me say that I'm very addicted to PSU and enjoy the gameplay very much. But holy shit is it missing something that PSO had.

A few minutes ago I was messing around with my personal settings on here and was looking at some of the old headers. Look at some of the old fan art, it REALLY hit me that PSU can not compare with the "tight" style that PSO had. Style wise, everything in PSO is very different, yet fits together in some unexplainable way. While PSU everything is either grossly similar or grossly out of place.

Try it yourself. Look at header1, header2, and header3. You have the RAmar with the sort of weird body armor and strange square collar. Next, you have the FOnewm with her wide, made up face, excited expression, and interesting accessories. Then the somewhat average looking HUmar who seems to be conveying animosity and maybe even sadness for whatever it is he has to do. All these characters give off a sort of anonymous appeal, that this is there job, (that you're not the ONLY hero).

It's not just the character designs, either. PSO's story was told through logs and through the struggles of pioneers who were never intended to set ground in the first place. It was a setting that developed, rather than a character. PSU, you follow around some twat generic character and his twat generic comrades on their twat generic sci-fi adventure.

And how about emotion, man. When Alys dies in Phantasy Star 4, it really hits you. And if you played any of the story of Episode III, you know what this series is capable of. So why is that in PSU, when the stupid ass doctor dies from some cliche nano virus I find myself saying, "thank fucking god I don't have to see him anymore".

I know, I know, PSU ISNT PSO, but... it is a Phantasy Star game. The earlier Phantasy Star games had style. PSO had style. PSU just reminds us all that this is a game made by Sonic Team (see Sonic Adventure style).

Blah, I guess I'll just go play Hundred Swords and be satisfied...



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: butzopower on 2006-12-17 22:31 ]</font>

Do I even need to make the point that almost every song sounds like it's from a Sonic Adventure game as well?

WHO the hell made this game?

(Though I guess you can't afford an orchestra for every game...)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: butzopower on 2006-12-17 22:35 ]</font>

I almost wonder if PSU's offline being ruined by there being party members with you. PSO (Episodes I - III at least, never played IV) gave you a sense of aloneness, sort of like a Metroid game. You were following people who went alone to figure out the truth and learn the story as they became corrupted by the immense power of darkness. Even in Episode III where there were team battles and you were usually facing other people, the final plunge against the darkness was done by yourself.

I know that's really Phantasy Star-esque, but I think there was something to it.

On 2006-12-17 22:34, butzopower wrote:
Do I even need to make the point that almost every song sounds like it's from a Sonic Adventure game as well?

I LOVED how the Moatoob Mountains sounded like you came STRAIGHT out of Knuckles Red Mountain Stage. PSU has GREAT music.

Weird. At first people complained that PSO had no Story. Now people like the, "Bit by bit," set up?

That thing took like 5 years and STILL didn't finish. I mean, I liked what story PSO had too, but just not... to say it had a better one than PSU.

I, personally, never complained about the bit by bit story, and totally embraced it. I really liked how everything moved through quests. Granted, it is sort of convoluted the first time through. Look back on some of those logs, and some of the text dumps and maybe the story will make a little sense.

And anyone who complains about the series not having character development and the like, DID NOT play Episode III.

Compared to a lot of games PSU has alright music, but when compared to the PSO series and PS4, the music is total crap. The only thing I've found standable so far is the music in Lab Recovery. Otherwise it's awful power chords or solos on a spanish guitar.

I guess I'm just bothered by the fact that over the 5 or 6 different versions of PSO, Sonic Team managed to maintain a sort of quality that few games had (in everything but the coding ), whereas this has dropped substantially to the quality of, as I said before, a Sonic Adventure game.

Everyone's focused on this main character...

Sure Ethan and Chaz are equivalent in being bothersome, but PS4 (and the other PS games) had characters to make up for it. PSU has twat dates-too-much, twat blue-haired-girlfriend, and twat-titties.

Games these days? That's how it's been for the past... 15 years?

On 2006-12-18 11:49, butzopower wrote:

Compared to a lot of games PSU has alright music, but when compared to the PSO series and PS4, the music is total crap. The only thing I've found standable so far is the music in Lab Recovery. Otherwise it's awful power chords or solos on a spanish guitar.

Personally - I think that it is absolutely awesome!