PSO Episode I & II
I was supposed to pick this title up the 30th at McVans.. but those plans kinda changed. I\'d actually made two trips into Ft. Wayne on the 28th and 29th to see if I could pick it up a bit early. On Segas site they list WalMart and Best Buy as being priority retail outlets.. however as the 30th came and went neither of these two stores had their shipments in and couldn\'t tell me when to expect it. McVans told me to come back in a week. After a bit of net searching, I find out that GameStop and Babbage inked exclusive deals with Sega at the last minuite to be the sole distributers of PSO for the NGC for a short time. Being on second shift and expecting games to be displayed at midnight (well after the mall closes) I\'d missed out on it\'s launch by two days. Oh well.. I went in yesterday and got my copy.
First off, it seems quite a bit has changed. The game is no longer registered to your game unit, but instead your Seriel # and Access Key are permenantly tied to a password you give them. It might seem a bit inconvieniet at first to have to remember yet ANOTHER password.. but thanks to this friends can exchange characters and even play offline together on the same console.
I immediately went through all the different classes and races and checked them out to see all the new outfits. Everyone has something new.. but generally the additions are pretty weak except when it comes to Androids who\'ve always got the short end of the customization stick. While they don\'t have any new heads which would have been nice.. they now boast far more costumes than anyone else.. nearly 30 total.
I created all my base characters which are listed in my sig.. Tesla, Mana, and Sinue.. and since each memory card can hold 4 characters I created an extra one with the new RAmarl class who I\'ve yet to really play extensively. Since Tesla was my first and primary char on the DC version, I\'ve decided to make him primary on this version as well. As of right now, he\'s the only one who\'s above lvl 2.
I first tried to take on Episode II to see all the new goodies.. but I couldn\'t really get past Pioneer 2 as the first two missions you play are not NGC exclusive levels, but rather jus expanded maps from DC v.2 Battle mode. I really hope these two aren\'t included in the "4 new areas" people talk about. The first two missions are VR "tests" and thus include a hodgepodge of all the monsters from v.1 DC.. making it very difficult to advance without having a few levels under your belt.
So I started off playing through Episode I Normal mode in it\'s entirety. As mentioned elsewhere, it is exactly the same as v.2 for the DC with only a very few minor changes... mainly graphically. Spell effects look a bit different, and the water on the floor actually ripples around your feet and shimmers. I didn\'t even notice this until my second run through the caves. Characters now also cast a full shadow instead of just a round dark spot. All in all, I still prefer the Dreamcast\'s Episode I graphics as the NGC version seems to be blurred and excessively dark.
Gameplay wise, quite a bit has changed. Not all non-android races can learn all the techs. While Forces call still possess them all, other classes have certain restrictions. My HUmar for example can\'t learn Reverser or Shifta & Deban. I will sorely miss those two spells.. but it should make cooperative play all the more inter-dependant and increase the likely hood of people playing together rather than just playin while being in the same room. Item drop rates seem to have been increased as well... only 8 hours into the game and I\'ve found my first rare item - a useless YellowBarrier. Still, a rare none-the-less. Also, I notice that "out of the way" items tend to be less random and more beneficial. No longer do you traverse half a map out of your way to get to a block of boxes only to harvest one monomate. Instead, you\'ll usually find weps harder to find weps and spells.. usually with good lvls or photon effeciency. If nothing else, it makes for good items to sell compaired to the rest of the stuff you\'ll find.
Also, on a side note: I think this is a bug, but for some reason non-android characters can "short circuit".. which is the robot version of parylization comming from electrical shock since they\'re not effected by most status attacks such as poison or parylization.
As for what little I\'ve seen of the new exclusive Episode 2 areas.. mainly just "The Lab" on Pioneer 2.. it looks much much better than the DC version with many NGC specific effects. The city is also much larger and contains teirs and alleyways on which different places like the hospital and item shops are located. Looks very nice, and should lend well to a more "expansive" feel to the game.
I have not seen the new NGC server lobbies however, as I haven\'t been able to get online yet. PSO Ep I & II comes with a 1 free month trial.. but due to it\'s subscription basis I\'ve yet to find anyone who\'s willing to let my use their Credit or Debit card to redeem that first month while I make other arangements with a third party company to purchase my lisence despite being able to cancel at any time and my need of it should only last a week at most.
It\'s just as well as there was no Keyboard at launch.. with no idea of when one will become available. No PS2 to NGC converters will handle a KB yet and there are no Dreamcast or PS/2 to NGC converters out. I tried earlier to splice together a DC PS/2 KB converter into the PS2 to NGC converter with no luck. It seems I\'ll need schematics and possibly some basic Radioshack components before I can make one work.
Anyhow, that\'s my review. Overall, the game seems much more balanced than the DC version was despite adding in three completely new character classes. And while I may have my complaints about not being over to transfer over the basic levels, stats, and models of my DC characters and the lack of a keyboard.. I\'m still very satisfied with how things turned out. PSO Ep I & II for the NGC is the game that Dreamcast v.2 SHOULD have been.. and comes VERY highly recommended, expecially if you\'ve never played the DC version before.
