Here's another instance where the delayed release of the US/EU version of PSO2 might actually benefit players. Sega has announced that the game will be receiving some upgrades and improvements that have been heavily requested by Japanese players.
One such improvement (which I happen to agree with very strongly) is the reduction in the number of items needed to complete the level cap client orders. This is a great decision by the developers; the level cap orders are incredibly tedious, and any improvement here is welcomed. Currently, the required items drop far less frequently than I would expect for the number needed (90, in each of three different areas). I would suggest that the developers also improve the drop rates of these items, but some progress is better than none. Regardless of what they decide to do with these client orders, US/EU players will certainly appreciate not having to endure these quests in their current states.
Other requests from players include drop rate and rare enemy spawn rate improvements, as well as class rebalancing and system-related fixes. With any luck these fixes will be incorporated into the US/EU game on day one, so players won't know that they were ever a problem! Let's just hope it's enough...
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Where's the Western PSO2 News?
Back in July, Sega of America revealed that PSO2 would be coming west. However, there has been virtually no news or information about the game since then. As November approaches and we get ever closer to the vague "early 2013" release, I can't help but wonder why Sega has not started to provide players with a taste of what to expect in US/EU PSO2.
I assume that Sega chose not to release PSO2 in 2012 in order to avoid having the game buried in a deluge of other holiday game releases. If that's actually the case, then I would expect the final release of PSO2 to be sometime in January or February (possibly with a short open beta test several weeks prior to test server loads and things like that). In my mind, that means it's time to start reminding players that the game is on the way. Maybe that's why I expected that Sega would have started talking by now. Perhaps they consider "early 2013" to be a bit later than that, though.
Regardless of what's going on with the game right now, it would be nice to see some acknowledgment that it still exists. A more specific release date would be great – maybe not an exact date, but one at least narrowed down to one or two months when we could expect to start playing. At the very least, some new information would probably go a long way in maintaining players' interest in the US/EU version of the game.
I assume that Sega chose not to release PSO2 in 2012 in order to avoid having the game buried in a deluge of other holiday game releases. If that's actually the case, then I would expect the final release of PSO2 to be sometime in January or February (possibly with a short open beta test several weeks prior to test server loads and things like that). In my mind, that means it's time to start reminding players that the game is on the way. Maybe that's why I expected that Sega would have started talking by now. Perhaps they consider "early 2013" to be a bit later than that, though.
Regardless of what's going on with the game right now, it would be nice to see some acknowledgment that it still exists. A more specific release date would be great – maybe not an exact date, but one at least narrowed down to one or two months when we could expect to start playing. At the very least, some new information would probably go a long way in maintaining players' interest in the US/EU version of the game.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
PSO2: (Temporary) King of the Grind
This week's content update for the Japanese version of PSO2 added a new difficulty and raised the level cap to 50. However, apparently not all went as planned – thanks to an oversight on Sega's part, players were in for a nasty shock upon reaching level 41.
The XP required to go from level 40 to 41 is 92,000 – a pretty hefty amount but generally in-line with the game's experience curve so far. (I probably won't make it that far in the Japanese game, so I can only report based on what other players say.)
However, to get from level 41 to 42, a player needs to earn a staggering 2.8 million XP (roughly) – an almost 3000% increase over the previous level! If you thought 20-30 was a grind, then this one's guaranteed to make you jump with joy.
Sega is aware of the problem and has planned an emergency maintenance this evening to correct the error. The issue apparently stems from the fact that the game's experience table was created at launch, with the expectation that the level cap would not need to be raised so soon. That's what Sega says, anyway.
So there's proof that Sega doesn't always screw solely with the English community. In fact, there's a good chance that the English game will never see this little glitch. Yes, the English game is being released several months after the Japanese game, but look at it this way – the Japanese players are helping iron out all the mistakes so that the English game can be perfect! (Yeah, right)
The XP required to go from level 40 to 41 is 92,000 – a pretty hefty amount but generally in-line with the game's experience curve so far. (I probably won't make it that far in the Japanese game, so I can only report based on what other players say.)
However, to get from level 41 to 42, a player needs to earn a staggering 2.8 million XP (roughly) – an almost 3000% increase over the previous level! If you thought 20-30 was a grind, then this one's guaranteed to make you jump with joy.
Sega is aware of the problem and has planned an emergency maintenance this evening to correct the error. The issue apparently stems from the fact that the game's experience table was created at launch, with the expectation that the level cap would not need to be raised so soon. That's what Sega says, anyway.
So there's proof that Sega doesn't always screw solely with the English community. In fact, there's a good chance that the English game will never see this little glitch. Yes, the English game is being released several months after the Japanese game, but look at it this way – the Japanese players are helping iron out all the mistakes so that the English game can be perfect! (Yeah, right)
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