Old fan, new Ephinea player

[Mendacii]

Hello, I'm Mendacii [men-daw-chee]. I've loved Phantasy Star for decades. I have a lot of memories playing episodes 1 and 2 with friends through our summer breaks and being enamored with the mystery of Red Ring Rico.

Now that I've found this beautiful and wonderful server, it feels like I never left. It brings a happy tear to my eye that there's a committed and enthusiastic group of people both working on this server and playing this game.

I've gotten a few of my friends interested in joining me after watching me play some. I'm incredibly excited to be there with them as they experience the story for the first time, but I have three questions for the community.

1.) Is it possible to stay inside Episode 1 from beginning to end without having to return to the lobby after every request both in team and solo play sessions?

2.) What are things that may be different about this version from the original version that I should keep in mind when showing the game to my friends?

3.) Are mods supported, and if so, does everyone need matching mods to play? How does that impact gameplay?


Thank you for taking time to read and consider my post. I hope you are all doing very well and are living your best lives. Cheers, and happy new years!

 

[Ryan]

1.) Is it possible to stay inside Episode 1 from beginning to end without having to return to the lobby after every request both in team and solo play sessions?

No. This was the behavior for every online version of the game as well. I'm assuming your summer break shenanigans with your friends were offline-only.

2.) What are things that may be different about this version from the original version that I should keep in mind when showing the game to my friends?

You mentioned Episode I & II, so I'm assuming you played on GameCube. Blue Burst has an entire new episode that comes with additional areas, items, enemies, etc. We also have a bunch of quality-of-life tweaks like instanced drops and not having to tag enemies for experience anymore, among others.

3.) Are mods supported, and if so, does everyone need matching mods to play? How does that impact gameplay?

Mods are supported and you don't need matching mods to play, on account of every mod being either client-side (in the case of things like the drop checker) or cosmetic (in the case of skins). Mods don't affect gameplay at all, aside from maybe reducing lag on really crappy old machines or making it so you aren't picking up every item to check its stats.

Welcome to Ephinea, and happy hunting!

 

[Mendacii]

No. This was the behavior for every online version of the game as well. I'm assuming your summer break shenanigans with your friends were offline-only.


You mentioned Episode I & II, so I'm assuming you played on GameCube. Blue Burst has an entire new episode that comes with additional areas, items, enemies, etc. We also have a bunch of quality-of-life tweaks like instanced drops and not having to tag enemies for experience anymore, among others.


Mods are supported and you don't need matching mods to play, on account of every mod being either client-side (in the case of things like the drop checker) or cosmetic (in the case of skins). Mods don't affect gameplay at all, aside from maybe reducing lag on really crappy old machines or making it so you aren't picking up every item to check its stats.

Welcome to Ephinea, and happy hunting!

Right on all accounts!

Thanks for all the helpful information. So far, one friend that has joined me really enjoyed running through all of Forest.

We're going through some of the new quests; the extermination missions are hard for newbies, but we are making it through!

 

[Detharious]

Welcome bud! I'm also brand new to the server and there is a couple of others here as well that recently joined. You'll find plenty of groups and if you can't then hit me up in the forum/discord, we can figure out a lot of the stuff together.

I was originally hesitant myself to join random lobbies due to my level/unfamiliarity with pso online but even being low leveled I haven't found anyone rude or passive aggressive. In fact the opposite- I got swarmed by a couple of Japanese players I couldn't understand handing me a ton of gear to help me out. Or players around my level wanting to just chill and level or do a quest.

 

[Harborer of Hope]

Right on all accounts!

Thanks for all the helpful information. So far, one friend that has joined me really enjoyed running through all of Forest.

We're going through some of the new quests; the extermination missions are hard for newbies, but we are making it through!

Please tell mew while introducing your friends here, NO Kicking and SCREAMING was involved? It's so hard to often convince friends to "try out" a 24 year old pixelated Gem of a game! Stuff like "Dude, where's the Jump button?" or "Is there a Sprint option?" or "Are these the Only outfits to choose?" or "These graphics suc....WHY DON'T MY BOOBS BOUNCE???!"....Soooo many little things new players are so familiar with on 'modern games and MMO RPGs...not realizing THIS was the Game that Started it ALL~! Even before/after you discover a few 'mods' to enhance the gameplay, your friends will prolly notice some unfamiliar warm hand on your shoulder that this game has that others don't.... 'CHARM~'. =')

 

[Mendacii]

Please tell mew while introducing your friends here, NO Kicking and SCREAMING was involved? It's so hard to often convince friends to "try out" a 24 year old pixelated Gem of a game! Stuff like "Dude, where's the Jump button?" or "Is there a Sprint option?" or "Are these the Only outfits to choose?" or "These graphics suc....WHY DON'T MY BOOBS BOUNCE???!"....Soooo many little things new players are so familiar with on 'modern games and MMO RPGs...not realizing THIS was the Game that Started it ALL~! Even before/after you discover a few 'mods' to enhance the gameplay, your friends will prolly notice some unfamiliar warm hand on your shoulder that this game has that others don't.... 'CHARM~'. =')

Howdy! Sorry for the late reply.

No, it was really wonderful actually. Immediately the words were a mix of "wow!" "Oh, this looks so sick!" And "How did I never play this?!"

The conversations that followed were praises for the community of people that keep this game going, the activity in the lobbies, and the exceptional work done by the modders for mods and skins.

I am personally using skins and mods from Soly, Tornupgaming, Rienne, and Cashmira. Also using ReShade after finding a thread from Echelon. Just gorgeous work, really and truly.

My friends remain enthralled by the story of Red Ring Rico and are coming up with their own theories. So far we've only made our way through Forest and one extermination mission. It remains a bit difficult to figure out what quests to do in order to level up, if any. Regardless, the hpoks are set, we will be enjoying this server for many days to come.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

 

[elf]

welcome in ♡
it's always heart-warming seeing returning pso veterans run around our lil server like kids in a candy shop ^^; enjoying themselves with nostalgia~
we're leaving it up to u to discover what happened within the mysterious case of Red Ring Rico .... don't let us down !!!

 

[ProjectK777]

Please tell mew while introducing your friends here, NO Kicking and SCREAMING was involved? It's so hard to often convince friends to "try out" a 24 year old pixelated Gem of a game! Stuff like "Dude, where's the Jump button?" or "Is there a Sprint option?" or "Are these the Only outfits to choose?" or "These graphics suc....WHY DON'T MY BOOBS BOUNCE???!"....Soooo many little things new players are so familiar with on 'modern games and MMO RPGs...not realizing THIS was the Game that Started it ALL~! Even before/after you discover a few 'mods' to enhance the gameplay, your friends will prolly notice some unfamiliar warm hand on your shoulder that this game has that others don't.... 'CHARM~'. =')

Hah reminds me of recently how I introduced this game to my 10-year-old nephew...let's just say he wasn't impressed with how difficult it is