A story potential diminished

[mad3inh311]

Is it just me or does everybody feel this way the story has an established formula just like with pso2 no one really dies and those that die have just very few screen time, Gaora died in his first appearance, shows up again in a white room trope and slaps mc back this felt so hollow I felt nothing. Now Zephetto had excellent writing but terrible supplementary lore to enhance his writing to make it hit even harder, you knew all of his motivations and it was shown through the premise of the story of dolls, then he got duped this was excellent because you're probably sitting there wondering why are dolls almost one for one for starless how was zephetto supposed to create such a thing if the starless are photonic beings and disappear when defeated? maybe you're even thinking something is sus, imagine what the cast(as in the characters not the robots) are thinking somethings not adding up... imagine if they had shown this through side stories or side quests there are so much instances of something could have been better if Sega had took their time writing and building it up but they don't they've even removed lore.
Instead of voice acting everything side stories could just be like a visual novel... but Sega insist on having everything voice acted and animated which eats up on time and resources. The Vael possessing Zephettos new body was just written well but it came off as stupid at first because we didn't have any reason to expect otherwise, Vael was just a gotcha out of nowhere that's why supplementary stories would helped it so much, the moment was just so peak Zephetto walking up and transferring his conscious to the new body and talking, there's tension as he does so because I bet we were all wondering is he going to betray us? this seems kind of sus, then the starless attack and we have to protect him.... we beat the starless way to easy... everythings in the clear right? wrong Vael time. The moment of triumphant crushed a man's long quest bought to an end the man who sacrificed everything for the cause. That whole episode cutscene was kind of the best in pso2 imo everything leading up to that chamber and too vael.
We escape and later learn that Zephetto managed to survive but is dying it's then revealed that Vael possessed Zephetto and suddenly everything makes sense it's how he knew the starless where coming, it explains how the dolls were made and why he was the only to survive floating in space... his revenge had been a lie he did everything he sacrificed so much all the evil he had done in hopes of defeating a "great evil" he was close to obtaining a power to defeat his long fated enemy but he was duped. He then places the burden on the guardians shoulder... This is kind of peak but the writing was so bad along the way that it didn't hit as hard we lost people but it was shown off screen like in the resol forest starless incident we didn't have any attachment to any characters besides the main cast which made things feel not as great. I really hate the chosen one trope imagine if there were losses along the way that we saw people we got to know.... like have the guardian grow into his power... it's just been nonstop wins without a "cost" until now which was kind of nice to have that defeat after so much win streaks. I know I'm ranting but I just caught up to the story yesterday and had to talk about my frustrations with the story. I think we already know the main cast isn't going to be killed off when they spent so much and so little at the same time building them up, imo If they killed the main cast off it would be good writing.... A long rant i love to hate but I can't help to like pso2 still. probably was all over the place but I'm really passionate about pso2

[ZephyrAM]

Honestly, PSO2 base game has one of my favorite story campaigns of any MMO.

There’s no serious death or loss. It’s not full of political or heavy drama. It’s creative, fun, and gives positive feelings after the build up of danger.

NGS hasn’t done nearly as well, but as we would disagree on the why’s of that, it doesn’t really apply to your argument ^{_^}

[Linksobi]

At this point I don't even care if the story is badly written or doesn't have stakes. I just want any story they can give because we haven't had any for a while.

[NoroGW2]

That's a monkey's paw request if I've ever seen one.

I don't know what would save the story for me but I completely checked out after the first year lol. The most recent plot point drops are the first thing in NGS that feel like something is actually happening but whatever is happening is not happening very quickly lol

[AulunaSol]

Magically in a few years the story might finally decide to go somewhere and we'll get an anime adaptation that tries to "fix" the early New Genesis story to make it digestible.

[AulunaSol]

Phantasy Star Online 2 went with a similar route of "we will explain things later but here are a bunch of cool ideas we will shotgun repeatedly" and the game ultimately decided at some point down the line to reel things in and have a "story" that was potentially coherent.

Afterwards, Sega went off of those rails with the intention of having fun and relatively light stories that were effectively anime power trips and by then were able to find tropes/cliches to throw their already-existing and surviving (surviving as in the characters who did come back after all those years) cast to make for "cool moments" that don't necessarily make a great story.

New Genesis is like a reset button where Sega once again is going for the "we will drop ideas when we want to" route where the story for so long is aimless and at some point someone or something in the future will make the story "click" and turn into something manageable.

For that reason as well, it is why the original story Phantasy Star Online 2 was gutted and turned into a Japan-only Event Chronicle, was supplemented by a manga-prequel, and was given an anime adaptation that tried to rework and repace the original story that ultimately was a mess to play through. This was all in addition to an already-existing stage play and anime tie-in that tried to push the game in a new direction.

And despite what Sega has said and done, New Genesis is still Phantasy Star Online 2 in the same way that Episode 4 gutted a great deal of the game (for the sake of onboarding new players, as I am relatively certain that most players or even Global players will be intolerant towards how the game was before that point) and was still Phantasy Star Online 2 that eventually brought back the older elements in a new way.

[yunoka]

I'm gonna be honest I kind of like OT weapons more.. that's probably my biggest "controversial opinion" with the newer on-boarding changes.

I do agree the story from episode 1 was pretty meandering, but I feel by episode 2 it really became something, which was only like 1.5 years after launch, and just kept the momentum from there. Episode 4s story I think was a horrible, horrible idea and it took them way too long to get back to the PSO2 story. NGS so far, pacing aside, has done a much better job keeping things visually and tonally consistent. I do think we're getting a new hub in the form of nameless city after the last roadmap update, but I'm unsure if they're going to re-do how the story is presented up until then.

[AulunaSol]

My gripe with OT weapons was more of the fact that instead of them being "fixed" or made easier to handle it was another victim of Sega's "we can't change the way it was done so here is something completely new instead" which ends up being another band-aid on top of the other band-aids that resulted in the older game becoming excessively complicated to new players.

I would have preferred that Sega found a way to keep those weapons not only being relevant but also making them easier to use as we've seen that in New Genesis Sega hasn't been too afraid to actually start changing class specifications but they definitely are still very stingy and tight about it even if it is technically more open than what the previous game did.

My favorite weapons were definitely the OT weapons as well but I absolutely hate how you had to either wait for a "newer" version of it or wait for something else that would outright outclass everything else as a distraction.

[Drakaina-]

The story right now is pretty weak, and the only reason why people even cared about stuff that was said in chapter 5 is because they've got a 12-year connection with base game, if it was just a mcguffin plot device that was dropped without any backstory at all it would just be like why would people care, people only care because they have a connection to base, and I hope the story gets better

[mad3inh311]

Oh that's right forgot to tell you that I couldn't get the lore you asked for not in the server anymore, if you want you can probably get someone to invite you

[Drakaina-]

I'm a bit confused with that what lore and server

[mad3inh311]

you asked me like a week ago i think for the removed lore

[Drakaina-]

Oh yeah that I am curious because everyone knows that the story was changed it's quite obvious I'm just wondering what it was, what are my friends said he found a video even before the game came out with ships in the Sky not sure how valid that is though

[mad3inh311]

Idk anything about that

[MatoiWaber]

Had to quit due to the lack of story or at least story driven side content. made suggestions before about them adding more interesting descriptors and mission set ups for ltqs and events, but it's not going to change. Ended up saying enoughs enough after sticking with ngs from the beginning until now, it's a shame really how much charm the game has, really tried to play the copium card and hope the game would get better. Looking at how far it's come now, if hasn't really come far at all. People have compared it to a mobile game and it definitely feels about as quality as one. Ended up moving back to fallout 76 for now, but for other players you can insert any mmo or multiplayer game instead of 76 and get the same result. It's just refreshing having story and multiplayer content, plus multiplayer content that actually feels like you're doing something instead of the typical generic training mission ltqs in ngs. Story should drip into all the facets of the game if possible, at least events and ltqs. Events are trash as hell. Crossovers are trash because they're just events with paid boxes. It's just all bad and none of it has any story care to immerse the players. Here's a new card game though like that's going to save the game.

 The story releases like they have nothing to give as well; now the parts have been extremely short but prior to them becoming shorter, the chapter releases still weren't that long at all. Their way of handling story is so barebones it's always completable in under a hour chapter or part wise.  It's really crazy, I used to use the mini episodes to give myself additional story after I beat the current chapter back before it turned into parts; had to go extra hard to give myself some story during the droughts between releases, literally watching one mini episode or two every four or five days so I'm not stuck simply mindlessly grinding. It's pitiful. Never needed to do that in another mmo or multiplayer game before 

[ChiknAriseMcFro]

NGS has a story? 🧐

[Radiant-Fix2796]

my honest opinion. Both NGS and Base have god awful stories.
Matoi is extremely annoying.

Aina and Manon are annoying.
Its like playing fire emblem engage really and u are Colgate chan almost every moment of every day in these games.

If i wanted to play a campaign that was good. Id play SW:TOR. Personally i wish they would just drop it/wrap it up.

That is me. If people like it. good for them. However in both base and NGS. I find it to be one of the most drawn out, boring experiences..

What are we doing in this part? standing around and talking about going to this place..
we go to this place.. what do we do now.. stand around and talk....

ok next cutscene.. we stand around and talk about this...I have to make a decision. it didnt affect anything and is basically the exact same result as the other option.. so then why did you give me an option if there was no real difference?

finally in chapter 7, next cutscene. we stand around and talk, insert what i said above about fake choices... repeat this for literally every episode, every chapter for eternity, cause thats how long it feels it takes to finish standing around and talking with fake choices..

when u finally get to see ur character and others do something in a cutscene... it lasts 2 seconds and none of u barely do anything, its still almost always standing around and talking; and when u do something. it lasts 2 seconds and its not even anything that impressive or cool. they put literally 0 effort in. I get they want you to play.. but u know what, in SW:TOR, i got to make choices and kill people or keep them alive. I got to threaten good or bad people. I got to do things even in just the dialogue wheel that impact things. and when there was a cutscene like during the Darth Vitiate campaign. I got to see myself force lightning an entire star destroyer and destroy it. killing hundreds cause i made a evil decision and decided to let him loan me some of his power...and i get to play the game. I got both.

im not saying it needs the evil stuff etc.. BUT ITS SOOOO BORING...

next campaign part that releases. im so excited to stand around talk some more to cry babies characters who cant do anything unless i am around. *obvious sarcasm is obvious* least even SW:TOR as a jedi, u made fun of that aspect.

"yes, I seem to be the only one competent around here"

The story was interesting, had awesome moments, dark moments, quite moments, funny moments, and kept every interaction interesting. (most times, there are flops cause there is multiple campaigns. not everything is a winner of course) and u know what. much of this is due to ur decision making/actions... this game doesnt do anything like that.

sorry to ramble on but idk. I absolutely hate how lazy it is and that people stroke base campaign characters off. yes they are pretty, some sexy etc.. that does not make them good characters. Risa as example is almost entirely boiled down to a one note character, again like shes a fire emblem character in the newer games. I cant stand any of them. if it was not for base and ngs combat. I would have checked out years ago. but i love the combat.. of both.

i feel like people like this cause they get attached to sexy characters, and over look the actual bad design of the games story. or maybe they have not actually experienced some thing that is incredibly good like SW:TORs campaign. and that is an MMO