| |
| Welcome to the Video Game Forums forums. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us. |
| |||||||
| Cheat Codes | Arcade-(278 Games) | RPG | Donate | Member Forums | Daily Crossword Puzzle |
 |
| | Thread Tools |
 01-17-2004, 01:20 PM | #1 |
 Game Brain Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 14,262 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts |  *Source: IGN Fans of the hack n' slash, Gauntlet-styled gameplay of Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II are most likely curious, confused, and upset by Sega's decision to convert the PSO franchise into a card battle game. There's a simple reason for it -- Sega didn't want to make the exact same game for a third time. After careful study of Episode I & II trends, Sonic Team realized that even though Episode II looked better and was more difficult few poeple actually played it. A third Episode with the same style of gameplay just didn't seem to make sense, so to revolutionize the series, Sonic Team created C.A.R.D. Revolution. Besides offering a completely new experience for fans, C.A.R.D. adds a lot of strategy to a straight forward game that has previously only been concerned with leveling up and collecting rare items. Now, players will have to actually think about combat. PSOIII is more like a chess game than reflexive button presses. There are several things to manage, like your action points, card balance, moves, and attacks -- and you can't forget about what your enemy is doing, which means you often need to plan a few steps ahead. While it is a lot to think about, getting the hang of the game is actually really easy -- mastering it is what takes a lot of time. To help you get an idea of how this all works, we're breaking down the basics and detailing the five combat phases. Preparation: The trickiest part of PSOIII isn't the actual fighting, but preparing for battles. Just like prior episodes, there are different character classes -- each with its own special abilities. You'll still play as Forces, Hunters, and Rangers (you can have several characters active at once), and it's these classes that determine how you should tailor your decks. Some cards can't be used by certain characters (like only Forces can use staff cards) and it makes more sense to outfit your Rangers with long ranged weapons. You need to think about all these extra things when making decks and selecting combatants because it will be to your advantage to have a deck that can accurately counter your opponent's moves and strengths. You can create several different decks -- all you need to do is select the cards you want to use (maximum of 30). Like previous Episodes, you still want to collect the rarest cards that you can, but how you acquire them is a bit different. No matter whether you win or lose, you'll receive new cards. However, you'll get more cards if you win -- and the better you perform, the higher your ranking (which is based on a combination of turns, combos, damage, and attack points) and in turn you'll receive better cards. To get the rarest of the rare,you're going to have to fight with both brains and brawn to achieve the coveted S-rank. It's All In the Cards Before you can jump straight into card battles, you need to know exactly how to use your cards. There are four types of cards found throughout the game. Character cards display the stats of the squadmates (you play the role of commander) that you've chosen to fight. Here, you'll be able to see his or her Hit Points (life), Attack Power (strength), Technique Power (magic), and Move Range. All these factors are important in determining how to compile your deck and who to choose when you face off against certain character classes. Item and Creature cards serve the same basic purpose. Item cards (like sabers) are the weapons you affix to Heroside characters and the creature cards (like Evil Sharks) are beasts you summon to fight for you if you're playing as a member of the Darkside. All these cards will be recognized by gamers familiar with the Phantasy Star universe, since C.A.R.D technology absorbs the character traits of common day items (and the Arkz know how to capture lifeforms), players who are familiar with PSO will be at an advantage. Each item or creature has a designated amount of hit points and will be destroyed once they reach zero. Action cards will affix special abilities to item, creature, or character cards to modify their attacks or defensive properties. These are usually techniques, like Foie, that will extend the range and increase the attack power of your card. Defensive cards increase the chance of a miss or will decrease the amount of damage you receive. Some cards will also hold properties like paralyze or poison that will affect the creature or character they're cast on for a set number of turns. Assist cards affect you, your teammate, and your foes. These affects vary per card, but since they are both powerful and hard to use you won't encounter them early on in the game. Basically, they're there to aid your friends or screw over your foes. Such as, one card might set the dice roll of your character to always be fives (for both defense and offense). The only way this action can be canceled is if an enemy destroys the card or if you replace it with another card (only one assist card can be active at a time). The cards themselves provide you with a lot of useful information. Along with the card name and visual representation of what the card is, you'll also be able to find out how much it costs to summon, if it has any special powers, and how it affects the strength and range of your character. Fight! Finally, we're ready to discuss the combat phases. You will face off against your opponent on various grided arenas (similar to a chess board). These arenas take all sorts of different shapes and sizes, which will also affect what sort of deck you want to use. Your goal is to destroy your opponent by reducing its Hit points to zero. Once a character's Hit points equal zero, the match is over. You can only hurt your enemy if you're directly attacking the character (other attacks merely destroy the cards). If you're squaring off against an Arkz, this means you just have to skirt around the summoned beasts. Heroes are a bit harder to kill because you have to destroy all the item cards they've cast before you can actually hit the character. At the start of the match, you roll dice. Whoever has the highest roll goes first. You're dealt five cards from your deck, and only before your first turn do you have a chance to return your dealt cards for five new ones if you received a bad hand. From this point forward, all turns will follow this five phase layout. DICE This phase determines how many action points you'll have for the current turn. Hit A to roll the two die -- the higher number determines your action points (which are used throughout your entire turn) and the lower number is your defensive points (used when you are attacked). All actions you make from determining your DICE to the DRAW phase will require the use of action points -- so your roll determines how much you can do in a given turn on both offense and defense. SET This step is where you set up your character for the rest of its phases. This usually involves equipping items or summoning creatures. The stronger the card, the more attack points you'll spend -- so you'll have to gauge whether to equip lots of weak cards or fewer stronger cards. Not only do you have to think about how many attack points you're using during this phase, because if they're all spent you won't be able to move or attack, but there is also a set number of cards you can cast at once. So if you equip a weak card just because you have it, you'll be taking up a slot that could have been used for a better card if you'd been more patient. Also, for players using Arkz, weaker summoned creatures can be placed farther away from your character than strong monsters, so there's a lot of strategy in how you set up your turn. Managing your points is most important. MOVE This phase is where you'll move your character or creatures. Each character and creature has a max number of moves (shown on card). Each space you move costs one action point, so you have to balance moving your character/creature within range of attack and having enough points left over to act. ACTION This is where all your hard planning pays off. You can finally attack your opponent and/or summoned creatures. Each attack (no matter the card) costs one point and you can attack with as many weapons/creatures that you have equipped as you have points to use. If you have any action cards, you can assign them to a weapon to give it added properties (like range or attack power) to create powerful combos. With each weapon you decide to use, you'll be able to aim it at anyone within range, and depending on the weapon's properties you can hit multiple enemies. Once you've decided your attacks, they'll unfold in the order given. During an opponent's action phase, if one of your characters/creatures is attacked you'll be given the opportunity to guard or dodge the attack if you have the correct defense cards (this action uses up defensive action points). Remember that Heroes can only be hit directly once all their equipped cards are destroyed (each card has a set HP). DRAW The DRAW phase is the last portion of your turn. Here, you can discard any cards you don't want to keep in your hand. Remember that you want to keep a good balance of attack, defense, and item cards. After discarding, you'll receive how ever many cards you need to have five in your hand before your enemy's phase begins. Combat is a lot slower than PSO fans are used to and it can seem a bit complicated at times, but it's actually quite easy to learn. Being good...is an entirely different story. Since you actually have to think about what you're doing, there's a surprising amount of depth, strategy, and replayability to be found in Episode III. It's a different game, a different experience, but you'll find a familiar universe and addictive qualities. |
 |  |
| 01-19-2004, 06:14 PM | #4 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Palmdale, California Posts: 3,226 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts | ^ only for the current Rico/Flowen storyline And they could of just change d the combo system a little bit. Instead of changing it into a CCG(crappy card game) |
| | |
| 01-24-2004, 03:01 PM | #5 |
| Game Brain Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 14,262 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts | *Source: IGN IGNcube has been fortunate enough to receive an early build of PSO III, which not only lets us figure out how to use the revolutionized C.A.R.D. system, but we can finally test out the online mode. Since PSO III is such a drastic departure from PSO I & II (the other online GCN title) and the online play is such a key component to PSO (strange huh?), we're going to detail what to expect when you finally get your GCN online. Getting Online Getting online is a very simple task. All you need to do is make sure your broadband or modem adapter is connected to both your GameCube's serial port and an internet connection. Once you've got the basics hooked up, select "Online Game" from the title menu. The first time you attempt to play online, PSO III will detect your network setting and configure them to your memory card (they can also be manually entered). Now, the only component you're missing is a Hunter's License. Luckily for PSO fans, Sega is cutting you a deal. If you happen to own a License for PSO I & II you won't have to pay an additional fee to get online with III and vice versa. (Unfortunately, your Hunter's License isn't transferable across platforms.) All that's left is selecting the character you'd like to use and you'll be entered into the world stream. What You Get Once you connect to the PSO III network, your first option will be selecting the ship you want to play on (for those unfamiliar with the game, it's just selecting what server you want to be on). Unlike the previous episodes, PSO III doesn't require a lot of constant communication, so Sega has allowed you to travel freely between different regions. You can choose from four U.S. ships (although more may be added), six European ships, and ten Japanese ships. Being able to move between regions is a most welcome addition, primarily because you're able to play against a wider array of skilled players (Japan) -- and it's just neat to play against someone across the globe. However, be forewarned, the keyboard was never released in the United States so communicating with anyone can get rather tedious -- and since you can't write in Kana even if you understand Japanese, you'll have a hard time communicating. Unfortunately, PSOIII has only been released in Japan -- so IGNcube had the difficult task of getting anyone to participate in battles. It's hard to get Japanese players to realize you're trying to challenge them -- primarily because of the language barrier, but it also takes far too long to compose an intelligent message by the slow process of selecting individual letters. To help ease your pain, you'll be able to access a simple chat menu where you can select from a series of pre-composed, if limited, phrases and hope that whoever you're trying to talk to understands. Fight Club Previous games in the Phantasy Star Online series featured hack n' slash-styled dungeon crawling gameplay. This made jumping into a game very simple -- you just selected one of the pre-existing games or made your own. However, III's focus isn't about cooperative play, instead its all about dueling with other players. It's basically like playing a card game online or an elaborate form of chess. This means the only time you'll actually be playing (instead of chatting) online is when you're fighting solo or in a team. The easiest way to get a battle started is by finding someone in the lobby that will duel with you. After a short conversation, you should be able to convince someone to take a seat at the battle tables with you. These are set up around the outskirts of the lobby and come in the two or four player variety. Once everyone is seated, you can choose the arena, edit the rule set (alters time, hit points, card limits, etc.), and select whatever deck you want to use. Once this is accomplished, you'll begin a battle that is exactly like the battles you'd encounter in the offline mode, except you're facing a real person instead of AI -- which can lead to some surprising tactics and challenges. Since you and your opponents get better and get more cards with every match played, it's wise not to rush into a battle without a little research. Sega lets you scroll through other player's win/loss record, character level, and overall ranking within the PSO universe before you even engage them in combat. This lets you make sure you aren't getting into anything too over your head. Of course, this is where the thinking part of this game comes into play because even if you're facing someone of your own strength, you can still be taught a rather painful lesson depending on what tactics and the type of deck used. While you don't know exactly what kind of cards your opponent might hold, you will be able to figure out its most likely attributes because each deck is affixed to a character from the offline mode that everyone has access to. If you don't want to go through the hassle of convincing someone to fight you, you can sign up for a tournament. These are auto-generated and occur every 20 minutes. They can hold anywhere from 8 individual players to 16 teams. If you want to enter a team tournament, you'll have to register your team before entering the tournament. When you register, you'll be able to choose from any of the empty positions in the ladder. You don't too much control over who you'll be facing unless you challenge someone when you register. If it winds up that you're going to duel a much stronger player, you can always opt to drop out without penalty. A few minutes before the tournament is scheduled to start, you'll be sent simple mail and a warning will pop onscreen reminding you to head to the proper ship and block. If you happen to win, you'll be advanced to the next round with a pretty prize of meseta and cards. Don't want to be directly involved with a battle or tournament? You also have the option of watching battles and tournaments as an observer, which can help you pick up tactics from better players. Outlook Sonic Team put a lot of effort into making sure all the options you could want (for the C.A.R.D. universe) are represented. The tournament system works flawlessly, and quick battle is very easy to initiate once you convince someone to fight with you. Even such things as rankings and extended Hunter's License accounts are thoughtful additions. Fans of the series just need to keep in mind that this is a very different game. Matches usually last anywhere from 30 to 45 minute and will seem rather slow to PSO I & II regulars. However, if you can embrace the need to strategize (especially once you know what you're doing) and are facing a worthy opponent, battles can get heated and tense. The real concern is whether PSO III will be as fun and addictive online as Episodes I & II. It'll take some more than a few online duels to determine lasting appeal, but Sega touts that the average Japanese player will spend 250 hours a month online in PSO III. That's a good sign. Now if we could only get a keyboard adapter... |
| | |
| 01-24-2004, 03:08 PM | #6 | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Iowa Gender:  Posts: 6,560 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts | Quote:
| |
| | |
| 01-24-2004, 04:51 PM | #7 |
| Guest | Wasn't there a keyboard released for the GC? It was third party but it was still a kayboard. This game looks mroe thn worthy. I can't wait to get online play going!  --------------------------------- ~Gamer Chris  GC's Funny Quote "I use the bible for my rolling papers." ~My friend Matt. |
| |
|
| Bookmarks |
| |
| |
| Thread Tools | |
| |
