For those of you who watch my Youtube channel, you’ll have noticed among the Animal Crossing and Visual Novels and other random games I’m playing at the moment, there’s been a lot of PSO2 lately. Part of this is because I actually really enjoyed the game, but it just wasn’t as easy to keep up with in Japanese for various reasons, even with assistance. I ended up getting to level 52 despite that and played it with my husband for about 2 years, starting after information on an English release (which had been originally schedule to be about 6 months behind the release in Japan) had essentially vanished.
I mentioned this being one of the reveals I was most excited for and that still holds true. I played the Beta while it was out on Xbox One and even played a bit on and off these last few months before it came to PC. The only reason I didn’t put more time into it is due to wanting to not get too far ahead of my husband as part of the fun is playing together. You can absolutely play PSO2 by yourself (and in some Client Orders, you kind of have to), but it’s definitely not my preferred way to play.
While I am kicking myself for missing out on so many things, especially items I had in my room on the Japanese server that I am desperately trying to re-get, I would’ve felt awful hitting max level and doing so much without him. Considering they decided to fully release around Animal Crossing’s own release, I’ve essentially been hogging our TV and the only time PSO2 really could be played was when I wasn’t playing Animal Crossing. We also had just the one Xbox so we couldn’t play at the same time (often switching out between Urgent Quests for some of the campaigns) and to be blunt, I hate playing the game with a controller. There was only one thing I found particularly easy to do so with one, but I was used to using a keyboard and mouse and ma happy to be back with that.
One of the reasons I really enjoy PSO2 is because it doesn’t really get boring for me. There are parts of it I don’t enjoy (Like… the entire weapon upgrading system– failing is one thing, having your progress completely reset due to a particularly bad failure is not. Some other examples are the amount of things that do not make a return, Star Gems entire existence, the Lillipa Distress Call/Protection Emergency, and the Time Trial quests that are so specific, anything less than perfect footwork is a failure. Also even as a Premium member, 5 items for the “free” room is absolutely pathetic and in general, most of the pre-set storage spaces are just too low, especially as more and more items are in the game), but due to the way the main core of it works, it doesn’t really trigger my Deja-Vu Burn out issues like most games. Maps are randomly generated, Emergencies help shake it up even if you see some more often than others (and there’s only a few I don’t care for), and even the Urgent Quests give you a reason to check in and are often over quickly enough that it’s not really much of an issue. There are exceptions (Like the Mining Defense ones– those are not particularly fun, though, at least more people seem to have a better hold on them now), but for the most part, I just enjoy getting to play with everyone and the more chaotic everything is, the more fun it gets.
Event Quests have always been my favorite quests though. When I say Event quests, I don’t just mean any Urgent Quests, but specifically the ones tied with events such as the one for the current Wedding Event: Gone with the Wind and Rain. It exemplifies my favorite part of PSO2 to an extreme level that can only get crazier based off certain factors.
Within the last two days, I had my favorite run-thru yet, but also my least favorite. Partially due to Mr. Umbral, but also due to party situations.
For those who are not aware, this is Mr. Umbral:
He shows up during Emergency Code: Present. Hitting him is bad. While it no longer causes him to run away, it does decrease the chance of actually getting anything from him. Essentially, you stand around him and hope he hits you with his cane and he’ll usually give you some kind of boost: 100% Rare Enemy rate up or 100% Rare Drop rate up. For everyone who gets hit. He is not a pinata. Please do not hit him.
In the “best” run-thru, we not only saw Mr. Umbral three times, but got the Rare Enemy Rate up and Rare Drop Rates and it was essentially absolute chaos in the best way. The 12 of us in that map stayed for over an hour despite finishing the 1,000 Point requirement in less than 5 minutes. You essentially have 30 minutes to earn 1,000 Points which are earned by fighting enemies and successfully completing Emergencies.
It was so much fun and it kills me that I didn’t record it as I had recorded the event so many times now and didn’t expect it to get that insane AND YET.
We had to go back through slowly for all the loot as it quieted down and even as a few people did leave, most stayed and we got to help some new people too. The big catch with these Event Quests is that the same quest can continue to fill up with new people, unlike most “teleport” quests where once you’ve teleported in (whether to the boss or the map), people will no longer be added even as it empties out.
You can generally get into quests at a much lower level than maybe you should be and having been painfully defeated due to that before, I always like to try and stick around a bit longer incase anyone needs help. If you do not hit 1,000 Points in the allotted time, you will fail the event quest. And when the time for the Urgent quest is over, people can no longer join so if everyone leaves you and you’re alone or maybe just with one other person, depending on how many points you need, you may not be able to do it. You can dodge and weave all you want, but you still need to be able to defeat these bosses and you just might not be able to in the amount of time left.
Some of these Urgent quests, on top of the point total, also have a boss you need to go beat. Unfortunately, unlike the rest of the quest, it is just you and your party who will be up against it so if you only have yourself or one other person, it will be a lot more difficult. This generally puts a damper on things like the City Trials or Floating Continent version where they have some frustrating bosses and it can be a lot to try and get through, especially if not super close to the enemy’s level.
Because of this, if you’re playing solo, it can be recommended to join a Party through someone’s Party beacon or if they have a slot open for anyone to pop in. However, if you are the party leader, please communicate with your party. Out of habit and due to the fact that I can run out of PP, prefer playing healer, and it’s nice to have someone who can save you if worse comes to worse, if I’m playing alone I’ll usually end up joining a party during Urgent Quests. Especially for something like City Trials.
Usually that works fine, but occasionally some Party Leaders will get really Gung-ho and that among other things is part of what my most recent run-thru so bad.
To essentially break things down a bit, my general suggestions on things with these quests:
- If you’re the party leader, make sure everyone is ready to leave. Someone could’ve just found a Rappy they were fighting. Maybe they were emptying their inventory to pick up some more loot. A new event spawned and maybe they wanted to participate. If these don’t align with what you want to do or you want to rush ahead, you can remove them from the party, but heading to the ship and re-queuing the quest without asking anyone isn’t okay as it tears them right out of it with no way to confirm. I lost out on so much loot due to this and really wanted to stick around more. After the second time, I just left the party, but it not only put a damper on things, I missed out on a lot I wanted to do and ended up wasting time.
- STICK TOGETHER! I don’t even just mean with your party, but with EVERYONE on the map. The more people together and fighting, the more spawns in general, but also splitting up will generally split the party in various ways which not only takes longer to earn points, but could mean missing out on something that could help (Such as Mr. Umbral– one of the run-thrus I was on had everyone split up and I ended up being the only one to get his 100% Rare Enemy Rate up bonus). It just works better to travel in a pack.
- Similarly, consider waiting until everyone (or a good amount) is before rushing off. Spawns can happen even right at the start and having everyone start on the same footing lessens the chance of discrepancy later and means more people will finish the event happily over struggling to get it done as the timer counts down.
- As mentioned, do not hit Mr. Umbral!!
- If you’re struggling with inventory space, focus on rares. Rare items can be anything 7 stars and up so there’s not really any point to picking up most other things when rushing through. Quest Items (Gold items) and Discs are really the only other important things outside of Rares. You can always check again later when you’ve hit the allotted point total or as everything winds down.
- Try and get in early. While you can get lucky with a lot of people who will immediately re-queue, some people stick around for the full time and you don’t really want to get in as the event is closing as you may end up being all alone.
- Don’t ruin it for other people. Maybe you don’t care about a certain emergency, but please don’t fail on purpose. I’ve seen too many people refuse to get out of the way of a Visbolt’s target as it doesn’t do enough damage and they’re more focused on whatever they’re fighting to the point where the entire Emergency fails and it sucks. Every point counts and some people may need those points more than others.
Really though, just be respectful, have fun, don’t hit Mr. Umbral, and do you best! And don’t forget to stick together! The event is much more fun when everyone is working as cohesive team than 3-12 separate groups.