Yea, lag..and disconnects. Some of the missions are pretty fun when you start lvling up your character though. This is certainly more fun than traditional timed MMO combat for the most part..

This isn't really structured like a classic MMO, more of a game like Guildwars/Diablo..but so far I dig it. I like a good dungeon crawl..and I like the Sci-fi+Fantasy theme.

Yea..that might be pretty difficult to pull off though. Hey, atleast this version has voice chat. I think you're best bet is to plug in a keyboard, it's worth having for public chat.

My only real gripe about the graphics is the lighting. Round character shadows? On xbox 360? I understand it being so segmented--it has to be the same game on PS2..but ROUND SHADOWS? Heh..otherwise I actually sorta like the way it looks..not impressive by any technical means but I do like the style.

I still think they're sort of ridiculous..with the number of people you generally see in this game in any one instance, it shouldn't be pushing this engine hard. Especially in mission instances, where the most player characters you'll encounter is like 6 in most of the areas I've been in thus far. Still very fun..just hit lvl 8 and did the most fun mission (16+ monsters, some crazy big ones) yet.

Well, it depends. If you have a keyboard plugged in I know you can hold SHIFT or CTRL when you hit enter for different text bubble effects. If you're typing with the gamepad those are located on LT and holding the left analog clicked as you send the text/use the shortcut.

If you want a face to go with that you hold R when you send the text. You get to select from a number of different angles and facial expressions, but really, regardless of what you choose it's just bizarre and hilarious.

I haven't figured out how to get the face on the keyboard though.

Well, sparkle just seems to go away with time/lvl, I didn't do anything to get rid of it..you certainly can make your portrait show up on peoples screens, just not sure how.

There must be a way to trade too--you can giftwrap things after all..I think the "shops" you can access from your room are user shops too? Also there's a shared storage between your characters..which is pretty helpful. Anyway..I'll be back on playing some more in a bit..want to spend some more time with SC4 too.

Edit: Ah cool Simon, thanks.

I wish rangers could use bows, they look so badass.

Well, aside from the resolution improvement there are some other things going on, the depth of field is a nice touch atleast..it would have been nice if they could have improved the light model and perhaps added things in like real time reflections on certain surfaces..stuff like that. Still enjoy it--I agree about the value though, it's just not there..I do think I might play it for a couple of months, but one of the advantages of this being a console release is I can rent it through gamefly, play for a couple months and avoid ever paying near $60 for it.

If they wanted to charge a monthly fee they shouldn't have priced it at $60, that's my take.

Graphically, I just think it looks really clean and fresh. Sure, it doesn't pull any fancy tricks, but its art direction comes across beautifully, and you can't claim that any of it is actually ugly. It's a wee bit unfortunate, perhaps, that the PS games in recent years have managed to end up between generations, not taking the least bit advantage of the latest tech.

I don't believe for a second that people would feel more inclined to shell out a monthly fee for something that's just prettier though. If there's something here to be concerned about it's the fact that it's so similar to PSO, and that we actually enjoyed that free of charge on Dreamcast.. fiveish years ago. That seems a little odd.

However, I've really just scratched the surface so far, and there's clearly more to it, so I'm confident that it could offer plenty of incentive once you dig deeper.

Me? For me it's enough that it's the successor to PSO. Its design and atmosphere, interface and terminology, its hypnotic combat system and sense of community, those are things I knew I would find here and I'm not even slightly disappointed.

It's weird, because when this was first unveiled as being part proper RPG, part PSO-like onlineness I wasn't keen at all on the thought of being devoured by an online RPG again. Especially if it would dominate my life like PSO did back in the Dreamcast days. Single player however sounded delicious. Realtime combos and stuff with a proper story on top, count me in!

Now that it approaches I find myself caring less about the single player stuff, partly because I can't shake the feeling that it might be a forced story on top of mechanics that were essentially built for online play, but partly also because the demo gave me that same chill that PSO did way back. Maybe some of it is deep seeded relentless Sega love, but it surely has to be more than that too. Something about the design and music just inspires awe with me, I dunno why.

Justifying a full price tag is the fact that officially, this is a proper Phantasy Star story aswell. It does have a proper story with characters and cutscenes and prolly some death and misery, but you also get an online chunk that is PSO x 20. A friend of mine that's been playing the japanese PC version for a long time assures me that there's LOADS more to this game than PSO, and I don't even know if there had to be for me to like it. :>

Anyway, we all have our reasons for our respective stances on this. I hope everyone gives it an honest shot though, because when could you ever watch a video of a grind based RPG and understand half of what makes it enjoyable?

I expect to see some of you around in november when it's finally out here in Europe, and I look forward to it.

Well, if you start the party yourself it's of course up to you.

I wouldn't really dream of playing PSO with people other than friends anyway. You know, diplomatic "I don't need this so you can have it" type friends. :)