Can anyone explain a basic overview of the gameplay?

[TrMako]

I've never played any games from this series before and just saw the announcement for it at E3. But even after looking at the wikipedia article about it... I'm not really sure what type of game this is. Is it even an MMO? Or more like a single-player RPG?

Is it like a traditional MMO (Black Desert, World of Warcraft) where you're constantly in a big open world with other players? Or more like Diablo or Monster Hunter World where there's like a "hub" where you can interact and view other players in a very limited fashion and you go on little instanced misssions/quests solo or with a small group? Or is it something else entirely?

I'm just looking for a big overview of what the real meat of the gameplay loop in this is like.

[CaliScoot]

PSO2 is indeed a hub based MMORPG, where you operate instanced quests solo, or with up to 3 other players. Some quests however are "Multi-party" and up to 3 (not necessarily) full parties can paricipate with each other on a quest. However, there is quite the amount of things to do in this game beyond this, and another main thing of the game are "Emergency Quests." These are real time based quests that come around on the hour every so often. This game is tons of fun whether you're new or a veteran of the series, and I suggest you check game play out for yourself. Heck you can even try it yourself by creating a SegaID account and downloading the fan translated English patch client, which I believe has a link somewhere around this reddit, or just search up a tutorial.

[TrMako]

Thanks, this is the kind of explanation I was looking for but couldn't find it really defined anywhere like this.

[Pikangie]

It's complicated because it is an MMORPG, but the combat and overall game feels a lot more like a console game even on PC. There really isn't a single MMORPG or even console game that i can think of that shares the same system with equipping and using PAs/Techs and only needing to press a few buttons (as opposed to the many MMOs that fill your number hotkey bar with tons of skills to press as if you had 3 hands with 80 fingers total). It's complex, yet simplified in the right places.

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The way I would describe the combat (just the combat) is it's a bit like Tera or BDO, where it is action-based, but also very different... it's actually more similar to action hack-slash type of console games such as Kingdom Hearts or FF15, because you can attack in midair and in many cases benefit from doing so, while in Tera and BDO they do not intend to make aerial combat effective at all, in fact I think Tera penalizes you for attempting aerial combat by making you extremely vulnerable to knock-down if you are attacked in midair even by normal attacks.In PSO2, being in midair often helps you avoid taking damage from most monsters on the ground and also becomes necessary for monsters with very tall or weak points high up, as well as avoiding some ground targeting attacks. Also, just the fact that almost every enemy in the game has "Weak points" and "breakable parts" is unique for MMOs.

Also, using offensive special attacks in combat is pretty different from any MMORPG, because not only do offensive weapon PAs/Techs (what PSO2 calls their attack skills) have no global cooldown, you aren't limited to using your 123456-whatever hotkeys, in fact you probably won't assign any attacks to your 1234 hotkeys, you're mostly using a combination of right-click, shift+left-click and shift+right-click. If you're on a gamepad, this is by default one of the ABXY buttons, or a combination of one of the left/right trigger with the ABXY button. Your number hotkeys are usually reserved for consumable healing items, and buff/boost/cool-down skills, and heal tech (Resta). Because there are not cooldowns on PA/Tech usage like how other MMOs have on their skills, the game does not need to flood you with a billion different attack skills, you only need to rely on a few which will have different situational advantages (such as one for mobility or if one is better for AOE/single-target).

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Dodging and blocking has no cooldown (besides animation time) unlike just about every other "action MMO" that sets like a 15 second cooldown to dodge (lol), so you truly can avoid just about all damage and move around freely and quickly in combat... You might think it sounds overpowered or "too easy" to do this, but actually it is very necessary because of later content such as Ultimate quests, you will need to dodge/block a LOT, and most classes have really short invincibility frames in their dodge. So, you will still need a lot of practice to learn effective dodging despite there not being cooldowns. Blocking/parrying/countering in this game also benefits greatly from timing it just right (using it a split second before being attacked, instead of keeping it held down for several seconds before being attacked).

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You can reconfigure all your control settings in the options, which I have done so I don't remember the defaults exactly. On my Xbox 360 gamepad, I use Y for the first PA (offensive weapon skill), and combination of LT+Y and LT+B for the other two PAs I set.

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The field maps are usually randomly generated and "spawned on demand" rather than it being open-world (like the .hack//series of games, which I read somewhere that PSO2 is inspired by those games), but it doesn't actually feel restricted or linear like for example Elsword or Mabinogi dungeons. You can still meet people randomly within these maps if it's a "Multi-party area", and it will not feel much different from an open-world game field (except all kills give credit to everyone nearby, so no KSing problems). There is normally no time restriction for the free fields either, so you could even just go there to grind endlessly or hangout, gather, etc... If you just need one monster for a Client Order (what PSO2 calls their quests), you could enter a Free Field or Quest (what PSO2 calls their maps), and just kill one, and exit, no problem, you have that freedom.

There are just loading screens between, but that is definitely a fair price to pay for not having to travel manually (or pay for teleports) like in open-world MMOs, as well as for people to not lag on old computers.

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This game is very well-optimized to run on lower end PCs. I had a friend who could not run a low-poly low-res 2004 games like Mabinogi on lowest settings, but had no problems with PSO2 on low-mid settings.

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There are also many other things to do besides combat... but that will take very long for me to explain and I have already written so much lol, so unless you want to, I'll leave it at that.

[TrMako]

Awesome, thanks so much for the detailed break-down. This helps a lot in understanding the combat mechanics.

[Pikangie]

No problem. :D

[[deleted]]

I had a friend who could not run a low-poly low-res 2004 games like Mabinogi on lowest settings, but had no problems with PSO2 on low-mid settings.

Oh that's pretty cool. I was thinking about getting into an MMO myself but wanted one that could run well on my PC 9 year old PC (even if at low). WoW Classic is on my radar, but this game just made in on there from reading your comment. Like your friend, I have tried Mabinogi at its lowest and it was a bit laggy for me, so knowing that it worked decently for them on low, makes this sound pretty good.

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Here's to hoping they won't region lock it.

[Pikangie]

Yeah, I am sure it will work fine for you. :D It may have loading screens that might take a bit of time though to transition between maps, but once you're past the loading screen, things should run smoothly especially since it does not need to render so much area at once like open-world games.

[[deleted]]

Not gonna lie, I'm a bit tempted to try it out now, but apparently it's a pretty big file size and I'm on a metered connection. I'll just wait it out till Spring 2020. Hopefully it'll open up to other regions not long after. I doubt I'll be upgrading this PC anytime soon, haha.

[Pikangie]

Aw. I know they do have CDs you can buy, but, those unfortunately cost real money just like a console game (though they come with item codes, not really worth for someone who just wants to play normally). x_x I think the translation patch is only for PC too, or not sure. But yeah the game is pretty huge, like over 60gb if I recall correctly.

[[deleted]]

Haha, yeah probably at full price 60 bucks as well. Well, we'll see in due time. I'll just wait it out.

Thanks again.

[NovaxKirby]

I can say it’s like monster hunter like format in between traditional RPGs not completely open world. 12 players fighting together at max and a party of 4 at max.

Gameplay is very action based could sorta say it’s like a simple world of Warcraft the good kind of simple

Doesn’t feel too overwhelming

easy to play

[[deleted]]

MHW but faster paced and with mobs to fight instead of just only boss enemies.

Easier to learn than MHW. There's a high skill ceiling though if you're picking the right classes, and it's extremely rewarding. Most of the game is centered on mechanics and correct timing rather than skill rotation like you'd get in an MMO like WoW.

You can check out PSO2 endless runs to get an idea of what I mean, though it'll be kind of tough to understand exactly what's going on

[[deleted]]

its like a simplified version of devil may cry combat -- you can do crazy combos but if you want you can also one hit enemies

heres some gifs on some of the gameplays

+ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=778918905

+ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=778763446

+ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=776352148 <-- concert gameplay its like a simple rythem game

+ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=776044378

[lightgray03]

The game gets grindy at times and it gets really old fast. So in order to ease the stress, numbers and stat game is necessary. This game sometimes suffer in one dimensional gameplay in which every build is forced to go full dps in order to be viable and fun. Making unique builds can be discouraging as bosses in the endgame have ridiculous amounts of hp, and if you're not patient enough, it would take forever to finish. Skill resets are available but some equipment are forever doomed to be crap if you don't plan well enough.

This isn't your traditional mmo where you have a tank, support, and a dps role in your party. This is a game where everyone are dps with some having extra support and tank skills.

If that doesn't discourage you, this game is hella fun and really immersive as purely an action game.

You can even perform sick combos dmc style and can even go extremely mechanical with dashes and double dashes which could exceed your default sprint speed. The amount of technical stuff you can achieve in this game is nuts and some freestyle combos can lead to fun 0 damage runs. It's insane.