Im so glad this game still lives on. When life gets tough I often look to nostalgia to get those happy little chemicals moving again lol. I've been on this game daily for months 🤣
Y'know, credit where credit is due. Whilst there's plenty to complain about with Sega, one thing they've never been scared of is making huge changes. PSO to PSU and PSO2 to NGS are huge jumps and changes, for better or for worse is debatable but at least they're not churning out the exact same game over and over again. At the same time, I think it's a sign of how much the community all want more Phantasy Star that has lead to a lot more looking backwards more favourably at the older games. PSU will always hold a special place for me, as starting with PSP1 my mind was blown that all those 2D 'photograph' lobbies were actually 3D environments in the first game. Whilst I didn't have Internet on my 360 when I first played it, 'free mode' in PSU gave me a taste of the potential of an online game like this, and eventually lead to me discovering the PSO private servers. The games have evolved and changed, and part of me hopes NGS gets more love when we're all complaining about PSO3 😂 Great video!
While I started on PSO with the Gamecube version, PSU is always something I get an itch to go back to, likely since it was my first time playing the series in online co-op. Glad to see it's been getting a bit of a new surge of players and thankfully a change to the new player experience, hopefully that'll help ease people into getting adjusted to the game and general progression. In regards to newer games getting flak no matter what they do, I do wonder how much of that is purely just as you mentioned in the video...the next title is very unlikely to meet the expectations we set for it. I'm guilty of that with NGS. I spent so much time thinking about and anticipating refinements across the board from what had been implemented with PSO2, and we kinda got that with some things like augmenting, I felt we went too far with regards to the PA/Tech limitations. But hell maybe it's actually better? I dunno, I do know that plenty of people DO like the game though and have spoken positively about those changes. I think the biggest thing for these games though for me, is finding people to play them with. It can be hard to get people to try this and BB out due to the sheer shift in speed compared to what people are used to playing nowadays. While PSO2/NGS has the speed of combat that people would probably enjoy more, the systems tied to them can be a turn off for many. And while I appreciated the help with getting started in Ephinea with higher level players running me through TTF to level, or similar occurrences happening in Clementine, I don't really want to just sit around doing nothing to earn exp all the time lol. As I said before, I'm glad that this game is getting more attention and people are giving it another shot, or even a shot for the first time. I hope this continues not just for PSU but all the games, this franchise is one that I feel deserves so much more love from the gaming landscape as a whole.
this game was awsome ,so much thing to discover , lot of class , skill , job , and a lot of hiden feature like casino etc , the fact that your room can become a shop , all the customisation
Glad to see your still making videos on this game, I love PSU so much, it’s a shame it’s so empty but I’m glad that there is people still around, even tho I played this game so much as a kid there’s so much I don’t know about it
As i said some times mu first phantasy star that i started for real was psp2i so i have alot of attachment towards ghural and some of the characters and gameplay, when i got in to PSU and create my character and start exploring the malls, cities and planets i end up falling in love with the game and having alot of fun
I think the biggest issues with games after PSO was the tone. PSU/PSP, PSO2 and NGS are all steps ahead of the original gameplay-wise but nothing since has captured the tone and atmosphere of PSO in my opinion. I had a great time playing PSU when it was out but i remember even back then hating the more anime-esque style of story-telling and the fact that it was more of a focused narrative. I felt the same about PSO2. I think thats why I enjoy games like Skyrim or the Souls games when it comes to story-telling. You as a player are discovering the world along with everyone else opposed to being a side-kick to characters like Ethan. You could literally go through the whole game not even realizing there was a connected story in PSO if you wanted to.
I remember really liking the game up until I started to notice the ghost effect they used to make places appear more full than they really were. Then i started to see places as empty and it hurt my enjoyment. Plus i played this game around the time Adult Swim was running Bleach and I started to pay attention to the voices.
I think the ghost effect was noticeable particularly because a lot of people crammed into the same areas (Guardians HQ, Pavilion of Air for White Beast etc). Everywhere that wasn't a common traffic location looked very empty. The ghosts helped to keep a sense of population in those areas, but you did become acutely aware of them after a while.
It's kind of different, because with PSO2 and NGS you can freely jump back and forward between the two. For PSOBB and PSU, nothing carried over between the two (so players who preferred PSO were more inclined to stick with PSOBB). There is still a bit of a playerbase split (some people only play PSO2 classic, some only play NGS), but I don't think it's as much of a problem as it was back with PSO and PSU.
I am so torn. I started playing Ephinea last week and am having sooo nuch fun. Then i find out about this 2 days ago!!! Idk what to do haha i cant decide which game to play!
Bought psu for 360 to check out the Campaign. Not too bad at all! The next chapter is on PS2 but it is a solid price to get. The final episode was online only unfortunately. I did enjoy the private server of clementine, but really enjoyed the progression of the story mode events.
I'd never played PSU. I'd heard bad things from PSO world like you'd mentioned so I never bothered. I forget what one of the main contentions was, but I think it had to do with PAs.
It's easy to look back at PSU now and be forgiving for what it ultimately became, but bear in mind that PSU had a really terrible launch which haunted the game throughout its life. No Just Attacks, terrible PP economy, expansive empty spaces in combat areas, an expensive, obtuse and risky crafting system, extremely limited clothing options, just three mission sets across planets, "updates" that were just data already on the disc alongside a standard MMO monthly subscription fee. Also, an online story that virtually did not exist til the AOTI expansion (which was actually a pretty decent narrative, and what PSU's online component desperately needed.) SEGA also offered virtually no Global support for the game, outside of a very sparse GM team. They were very openly milking their audience for the first year of its existence. Several of these issues were later addressed, as your video demonstrates, and the PSP games are absolute gems by comparison. However, innovations with game development were much closer together in the mid-aughts than they are today as well, so by the time PSU found its sea legs it was already on the backfoot against its own reputation, competition and the expiring gaming platforms that hosted its releases. On the flipside, PSU had a far more enjoyable community to spend time with than the modern PSO2 community from my perspective. Beach parties and various themed activities were not uncommon. RP groups were fairly regular. Parties were actively formed for missions. Outside of a few farming missions that later spoiled the diversity of the experience (something all PSO games seem to fall into at some point), it was a pretty good time so far as playing alongside other people was concerned.
Interesting seeing Nanoblast and SUVs eventually evolve into Dark Blast and MARS. I think PSU was in the unfortunate twilight zone of being too different from PSO for the die hards, and yet also too incremental and not revolutionary enough (and at the time, too Japanese) for the gaming press.
What's really interesting (I realised this after the video) is that the perception of PSU by the Japanese press was for the most part much more positive. A lot of the negativity came from the western side (which curiously enough is the same as what's currently happening with PSO2 NGS).
@@SectionSkyly in japan psu was given kusoge of the year (trash game of the year) for 2006. it was recieved very badly until the gameplay changes in the ambition of the illuminus expansion fixed a lot.
My Problem was back on the Xbox 360 that it felt like a action rpg with a meh Story. I played PSO offline but it always felt like a offline mmo. PSU felt like a normal arpg and once you finished the story there was no reason to go further. I got the game 2 weeks for the PS2 with the Expansion and will try it one day. Big problem (but maybe it is just me) is that this game seems way harder to install on PC then PSO. Tried it some days ago and it wont start. Have to look further into the guides because the big fixes did not work for me
sega need to bring this back officially. Like why not just server cost. I know clemtine is a thing, but I don't want to run AHK scripts, and all this weird program anymore.
@@SectionSkyly started playing clementine last summer and i finally got to play past lvl 50 lol. So much faster exp, meseta. Large amount of cosmetic options and outfits. Room decoration its great. Only lacking proper mags. Edit: Even tho the story mode had cringe characters, i think its solid, and the world felt lived in and authentic. This games OST is up there with PSO
I loved PSU. Clementine made way too many changes for me though. It's no where near the original. I play Phantasy Star Portable if I wanna scratch the PSU itch.
![[PSO: Blue Burst] Section ID Overview - Which Should You Choose?](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wc4ZMhHqO9c/mqdefault.jpg)
Im so glad this game still lives on. When life gets tough I often look to nostalgia to get those happy little chemicals moving again lol. I've been on this game daily for months 🤣
Y'know, credit where credit is due. Whilst there's plenty to complain about with Sega, one thing they've never been scared of is making huge changes.
PSO to PSU and PSO2 to NGS are huge jumps and changes, for better or for worse is debatable but at least they're not churning out the exact same game over and over again.
At the same time, I think it's a sign of how much the community all want more Phantasy Star that has lead to a lot more looking backwards more favourably at the older games.
PSU will always hold a special place for me, as starting with PSP1 my mind was blown that all those 2D 'photograph' lobbies were actually 3D environments in the first game. Whilst I didn't have Internet on my 360 when I first played it, 'free mode' in PSU gave me a taste of the potential of an online game like this, and eventually lead to me discovering the PSO private servers.
The games have evolved and changed, and part of me hopes NGS gets more love when we're all complaining about PSO3 😂
Great video!
While I started on PSO with the Gamecube version, PSU is always something I get an itch to go back to, likely since it was my first time playing the series in online co-op. Glad to see it's been getting a bit of a new surge of players and thankfully a change to the new player experience, hopefully that'll help ease people into getting adjusted to the game and general progression.
In regards to newer games getting flak no matter what they do, I do wonder how much of that is purely just as you mentioned in the video...the next title is very unlikely to meet the expectations we set for it. I'm guilty of that with NGS. I spent so much time thinking about and anticipating refinements across the board from what had been implemented with PSO2, and we kinda got that with some things like augmenting, I felt we went too far with regards to the PA/Tech limitations. But hell maybe it's actually better? I dunno, I do know that plenty of people DO like the game though and have spoken positively about those changes.
I think the biggest thing for these games though for me, is finding people to play them with. It can be hard to get people to try this and BB out due to the sheer shift in speed compared to what people are used to playing nowadays. While PSO2/NGS has the speed of combat that people would probably enjoy more, the systems tied to them can be a turn off for many. And while I appreciated the help with getting started in Ephinea with higher level players running me through TTF to level, or similar occurrences happening in Clementine, I don't really want to just sit around doing nothing to earn exp all the time lol.
As I said before, I'm glad that this game is getting more attention and people are giving it another shot, or even a shot for the first time. I hope this continues not just for PSU but all the games, this franchise is one that I feel deserves so much more love from the gaming landscape as a whole.
this game was awsome ,so much thing to discover , lot of class , skill , job , and a lot of hiden feature like casino etc , the fact that your room can become a shop , all the customisation
Glad to see your still making videos on this game, I love PSU so much, it’s a shame it’s so empty but I’m glad that there is people still around, even tho I played this game so much as a kid there’s so much I don’t know about it
Hopefully more people give Clementine a try. it seems like you can only find people to play with at max level sadly
They are meant to be doing a 'New Player Experience', which could help newer players get started but it's been delayed a bit unfortunately.
As i said some times mu first phantasy star that i started for real was psp2i so i have alot of attachment towards ghural and some of the characters and gameplay, when i got in to PSU and create my character and start exploring the malls, cities and planets i end up falling in love with the game and having alot of fun
LOVE PSU!!! LETS GOOOO!!!!
Thank you for this video! I'm making 2025 the year of PSU. Got a ton planned!
Oh nice, always great to see other people covering Phantasy Star too! Interested to see what you have planned!
I think the biggest issues with games after PSO was the tone. PSU/PSP, PSO2 and NGS are all steps ahead of the original gameplay-wise but nothing since has captured the tone and atmosphere of PSO in my opinion.
I had a great time playing PSU when it was out but i remember even back then hating the more anime-esque style of story-telling and the fact that it was more of a focused narrative. I felt the same about PSO2. I think thats why I enjoy games like Skyrim or the Souls games when it comes to story-telling. You as a player are discovering the world along with everyone else opposed to being a side-kick to characters like Ethan. You could literally go through the whole game not even realizing there was a connected story in PSO if you wanted to.
I remember really liking the game up until I started to notice the ghost effect they used to make places appear more full than they really were. Then i started to see places as empty and it hurt my enjoyment. Plus i played this game around the time Adult Swim was running Bleach and I started to pay attention to the voices.
I think the ghost effect was noticeable particularly because a lot of people crammed into the same areas (Guardians HQ, Pavilion of Air for White Beast etc). Everywhere that wasn't a common traffic location looked very empty. The ghosts helped to keep a sense of population in those areas, but you did become acutely aware of them after a while.
What you said about the split player base between this and BB, is that the same thing happening with PSO2 and NGS?
he did talk about it at 14:30
It's kind of different, because with PSO2 and NGS you can freely jump back and forward between the two. For PSOBB and PSU, nothing carried over between the two (so players who preferred PSO were more inclined to stick with PSOBB). There is still a bit of a playerbase split (some people only play PSO2 classic, some only play NGS), but I don't think it's as much of a problem as it was back with PSO and PSU.
I am so torn. I started playing Ephinea last week and am having sooo nuch fun. Then i find out about this 2 days ago!!! Idk what to do haha i cant decide which game to play!
Haha, I try and play both but it's a balancing act sometimes 😂
Do both and stick with the one you like more. Its not like you made any real progress in the other one yet.
Bought psu for 360 to check out the Campaign. Not too bad at all! The next chapter is on PS2 but it is a solid price to get. The final episode was online only unfortunately. I did enjoy the private server of clementine, but really enjoyed the progression of the story mode events.
I'd never played PSU. I'd heard bad things from PSO world like you'd mentioned so I never bothered. I forget what one of the main contentions was, but I think it had to do with PAs.
I seem to recall that as well. It just shows that no matter the Phantasy Star, people will always find something they don't like
It's easy to look back at PSU now and be forgiving for what it ultimately became, but bear in mind that PSU had a really terrible launch which haunted the game throughout its life.
No Just Attacks, terrible PP economy, expansive empty spaces in combat areas, an expensive, obtuse and risky crafting system, extremely limited clothing options, just three mission sets across planets, "updates" that were just data already on the disc alongside a standard MMO monthly subscription fee. Also, an online story that virtually did not exist til the AOTI expansion (which was actually a pretty decent narrative, and what PSU's online component desperately needed.)
SEGA also offered virtually no Global support for the game, outside of a very sparse GM team. They were very openly milking their audience for the first year of its existence.
Several of these issues were later addressed, as your video demonstrates, and the PSP games are absolute gems by comparison. However, innovations with game development were much closer together in the mid-aughts than they are today as well, so by the time PSU found its sea legs it was already on the backfoot against its own reputation, competition and the expiring gaming platforms that hosted its releases.
On the flipside, PSU had a far more enjoyable community to spend time with than the modern PSO2 community from my perspective. Beach parties and various themed activities were not uncommon. RP groups were fairly regular. Parties were actively formed for missions. Outside of a few farming missions that later spoiled the diversity of the experience (something all PSO games seem to fall into at some point), it was a pretty good time so far as playing alongside other people was concerned.
Interesting seeing Nanoblast and SUVs eventually evolve into Dark Blast and MARS.
I think PSU was in the unfortunate twilight zone of being too different from PSO for the die hards, and yet also too incremental and not revolutionary enough (and at the time, too Japanese) for the gaming press.
What's really interesting (I realised this after the video) is that the perception of PSU by the Japanese press was for the most part much more positive. A lot of the negativity came from the western side (which curiously enough is the same as what's currently happening with PSO2 NGS).
@@SectionSkyly in japan psu was given kusoge of the year (trash game of the year) for 2006. it was recieved very badly until the gameplay changes in the ambition of the illuminus expansion fixed a lot.
My Problem was back on the Xbox 360 that it felt like a action rpg with a meh Story. I played PSO offline but it always felt like a offline mmo. PSU felt like a normal arpg and once you finished the story there was no reason to go further.
I got the game 2 weeks for the PS2 with the Expansion and will try it one day. Big problem (but maybe it is just me) is that this game seems way harder to install on PC then PSO. Tried it some days ago and it wont start. Have to look further into the guides because the big fixes did not work for me
Hope you can get it running! It worked ok for me, but I know some people do have problems getting it to work
Love this game
sega need to bring this back officially. Like why not just server cost. I know clemtine is a thing, but I don't want to run AHK scripts, and all this weird program anymore.
I think I'll give PSU another chance. I played for a few hours last year and it was a litte confuse for me as a new player to get into the game
I do have a beginner's guide on my channel which might help if you're new to PSU! I do think it's worth at least trying out, the game is pretty fun 😄
Spent my days on the PSU demo on xbox360 (couldn't afford the sub ontop of xbl)
The need for Xbox Live and a subscription probably hurt Xbox360 PSU. It's a shame there was no other way around it for Xbox players.
@@SectionSkyly started playing clementine last summer and i finally got to play past lvl 50 lol. So much faster exp, meseta. Large amount of cosmetic options and outfits. Room decoration its great. Only lacking proper mags.
Edit: Even tho the story mode had cringe characters, i think its solid, and the world felt lived in and authentic.
This games OST is up there with PSO
I loved PSU. Clementine made way too many changes for me though. It's no where near the original. I play Phantasy Star Portable if I wanna scratch the PSU itch.
I can understand that. For PSU, Clem is basically the only option but you're right in that it has changed a lot.
The portable games are really solid!