What would a modern PSOBB remaster look like?

Drexxin

Drexxin

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Sup guys!

Got some time to kill today and have been playing PSO since DC V1 release and have been a part of Ephinea since inception, basically.

Just kind of had a fun thought exercise not necessarily based on what I want, but if one were to happen, what it'd be like.

(But seriously, please Lord grant us a PSOBB remaster on the Switch. Thanks.)

Here's a few things off the top of my head:

- Seasonal play, boss rush quests disabled
- DLC outfits (because of course.)
- Rework on hit/DEX
- Rework on DMC (damage cancel)
- MAG staggering (for instance, maybe no more than 3-4 mag levels per character level)
- All current Ephinea QoL
- More "token" vendors for loot
- PB Rework

What do you guys think? I think it's interesting to think about. Feel free to leave comments!
 
Ep 3 as a form of pvp (and a way to turn weaps into cards or viceversa)

Remove section id system (segas desperate attempt to create more content where there was none

Some sort of reward for hitting level 200: level 80 exp token (normal-VH are essentially a waste of time)

Mob centric quests (heard rumors the chinese server has something like this)

No rares are reduced (wasnt this a bug/oversight?)

Replacing shit drops with PD in ult (like PC in ep 4)

All classes except hucast +100 ATP

Most weapons buffed (make it so theres reason to use stuff other than excal, df, and hs which were added very late into BB’s life and clearly never balanced)

Have a merge that just boosts all techs (FO are basically useless as it is using most techs maybe mainly boost Simple techs to reduce DMC overall

Add a system where: killing a monster awards a monster part and after xParts you can just trade it for the weap. No more farming 20k spawns to just get nothing while you watch 9 other people get the item you so desperately want

Make it so DP on HP just always does DP or has a selection to switch between its two modes (no more waiting for even beats)

Auction house/Grand Exchange system

Nerf DF or simply make it only work at full HP instead. (The way it works now stifles regular RPG gameplay, “NOOo dont heal me bro”)

Seperate normal, hard, and very hard into their own gameplay modes with improved drop charts and weapons/mags bans for balancing, or something like the mag level staggering you suggested (or something like 1 mag level per your level). With level caps of 20, 40, and 80 respectively

Prestige system, start over at level 200 for a slight boost to RDR or PD drop rate (like %1, maxes at %10)

Make galatines mechanics buffed, add an additional beat windows that provides its max stats. This way north american players can use it at times other that 4 am

Episode 5/6 etc. Episode 2 literally just copy pasted a bunch of monsters. Episode 4 as well with things like asstark just reusing animations from hildelt and some increases to animation speeds etc. Following this format you could easily make a brand new episode by either importing or heavily modifying existing assets and importing or heavily modifying new models for them.

Add the “Forbidden classes”: HUmarl, HUnewm, RAnewm, RAnewearal

With monthly fees being unpopular these days and the current PSO titles being f2p then it could be assumed they would go the MTX route to keep it f2p. Here are things they could add with micro transactions without breaking things too much and making it too p2w:
Donaters status/battle pass: Increases DAR, RMR, RDR and PD rate by %5 each, allows access to donaters only worlds, allows access to new weapons/quests/episodes early, exclusive donaters only quests/leaderboards. Allows more selling slots in the grand exchange. Donaters status is tradeable so f2p players could still obtain them. Adds a “battle pass” kind of system where completing different challenges and just generally playing and progressing makes you progress and earn rewards all culminating to one “uber” kind of reward if you play alot (exclusive skin to the system)
Skins: as you mentioned. weapons and player and frame/barrier particles. NPC or sonic character skins as well.
Pay to save time features: tickets that increase exp, RDR, RMR etc by %200 respectively. Affects the entire party, lasts for 100 beats. Game would also randomly award f2p with them (event drops etc) and also tradeable.

Make hit rates more forgiving while still within uber-challenging levels to find higher hits (something like 2x current rates)

Allow players to un-sphere weapons and revert to PDs/Hoards with a slight fee

Add a few extra selections to sranks, namely charge

Episode 4 challenge mode

Add a way to load in NPC characters like some quests already do and PSO2 had a system for. They could remain with shit levels/stats/AI/weapons as to still reward playing with real players who had better gear/skill.

PSO can already by played online on Sylverant on the Flycast Retroarch core on android. Higher end phones can run the GCN version at full speed. Theoretically BB could somehow be made to run on these platforms. (Which would be easier to do if you were SEGA and had access to the source code) (PSOBB mobile = gg no re real life tho lol)

“Dailies” quest system: Every day offer random criteria to earn random rewards like PDs, boosts etc. Example daily: Kill 200 Hildelt - Reward 1 pd, Kill 3 dark falz - reward 1 pd, kill 1 Hildetorr - reward 1 pd. Complete all for a boost of %5 to RDR for the rest of the day
 
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After seeing what happened with the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles remaster, I'm worried to see what a PSOBB remake would be like. Plus there's lots of things to consider. Does it keep the game more or less the same, but improve graphics and tweak balance and QOL? Or does it do something like the RE2 remake or Yakuza Kiwami and go for a total overhaul while keeping the premise of the game the same?

I think Ephinea itself is what I would dream about for an ideal classic PSO rerelease. SEGA would never put a game like this out again unless they were sure people were going to play it, and because of that I think it would be subject to a lot of annoyances that you see in modern multiplayer games, like a battlepass, daily rewards, and a dripfeed update system that drops every few months to FOMO you into logging back in... Wait, I just described PSO2.
 
redria7 said:
Fastest way to get me to never play.
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Yeah, i much prefer a system that uses quests from a randomized pool “deemed to be less popular or less efficient in general” to essentially be the only quests played on the server for an entire month with the requirement that you play each one 50 times for a combined total of hundreds of hours to see a boost to RDR that then just immediately leaves next month with no guarantee for any rewards at all.

But thats like, my opinion bro. You are welcome to think all my ideas are trash if you want. The topic however is about imagining a modernized PSOBB. If you are looking for things that you already hate about modernized games in a topic about modernizing features being added to a game thats 20 years old then of course you are going to come out of it upset. Lol lmao
 
JackSalad said:
After seeing what happened with the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles remaster, I'm worried to see what a PSOBB remake would be like. Plus there's lots of things to consider. Does it keep the game more or less the same, but improve graphics and tweak balance and QOL? Or does it do something like the RE2 remake or Yakuza Kiwami and go for a total overhaul while keeping the premise of the game the same?

I think Ephinea itself is what I would dream about for an ideal classic PSO rerelease. SEGA would never put a game like this out again unless they were sure people were going to play it, and because of that I think it would be subject to a lot of annoyances that you see in modern multiplayer games, like a battlepass, daily rewards, and a dripfeed update system that drops every few months to FOMO you into logging back in... Wait, I just described PSO2.
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SEGA is a billion dollar corporation whos goal is to make as many sweet sweet dollaroonys as possible. Games can be fun while also turning a profit. Games costed $60 in the 1970s. If you adjust for inflation a game bought in 1974 for $60 would cost $361.23 in 2022 dollars. This is very very bad for the gaming industries whose game budgets have met or exceeded the budget of a box office film like “Star Wars”.

Enter micro transactions, simply put they are a neccesary evil for the industry and games would not be profitable at all without them.

Emulating is great. I personally prefer old school games and im a (filthy casual) game dev myself and have worked on multiple MMOs in the past. I recently turned down a job working for SEGA itself because it would have interfered too greatly with my family and home life (family>money). SEGA and alot of video game companies from japan have a philosophy, to never rerelease games basically “been there done that”. They are always looking towards making NEW games to sell and rarely do they port or update older stuff. Ephinea is a passion project with no sights set capitalistically at all. Which is great for us. But also the Ephinea team is not a billion dollar corporation and should not be compared to one. Ephinea DOES add content when they have zero incentive financially to do so. You could then imagine say, if SEGA was still/restarted running this game there would be an EXPECTATION for content to be added on a regular basis. Call it bad or FOMO or whatever, but its business and the consumers are the ones demanding new content at the end of the day.

Modern (primarily western) Gamers are something i would term as “toxic consumers”. They want everything for free and complain if something costs money with no consideration to what it costs to produce the product. This is why everything simply shifted to a subscription based model (regular games, which alot of people pirate) with MMOs featuring the most MTX of anything and all mostly being f2p and download (some instead stayed true to the oldschool subscription based model).

One model is clearly better than the other. For example Fortnite: makes 3+ million dollars a DAY from the android app alone, offering ONLY cosmetic skins.
 
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Lol it'd be horrible. It's been repeatedly proven that most corporations cannot be trusted with remakes of their titles in current day, At least ones with a potential cash grab focus like PSO. You bet your ass they'd be sellin drop boosters, or if not that, it'd have no online because god forbid they put money into moderation and stopping cheaters. At best it would get remade from the ground up to be a whole different game, and then its like...well is it PSO anymore?
 
It has been interesting to see some elements of PSO factoring into other games in recent years, namely the Borderlands, Destiny, and Monster Hunter series. The grind to find decent gear and level up was excruciating, but also made finding rares and inching toward 200 rewarding. The definitive strengths of the game IMO were the rigid battle mechanics, unique/variable stats on equipment, and the harmony of its aesthetics and soundtrack. The novelty of an MMO that existed on a small party scale while keeping solo play viable would probably be lost at this point.

Any direct or spiritual successor would benefit from expansion of customization, class balancing, and variety among enemies, encounters, and boss battles (perhaps to include raid-esque content). Unfortunately the closest we may get to all of this is seeing some of these elements in other universes. Which reminds me of Phantasy Star Universe and...ugh.
 
I actually made a list of changes I would make to an updated PSO for fun. It covers mostly weapons currently, but one of the universal changes I would make is to make weapons that can't combo stronger. In terms of damage, they can't compete with weapons that can combo.

Beyond that, I'd be OK with a remaster as long as they keep the relative simplicity of PSO, and they don't monetize everything. Here's what I would like to see:

  • More map layouts/actual procedural layouts
  • Bug fixes
  • 60 fps
  • Reduced knock down time
  • Visual effect when invincible during certain actions
  • Buff HUmar
  • New Mags + faster feeding
  • Adjusted drop rates
  • New items
  • Faster leveling (so we don't have to do TTF so much)
  • Drop the ID system, and change the item drops. Monsters would still carry exclusive items, but they would have more than 1 now
  • Rebalance existing items (for example, instead of Phoenix Claw disappearing after death, it goes into a 10 minute cooldown before its effect can be triggered again)
  • More class customization
  • Redesign EP1 & 4 so that you can access the shops faster (or just put in a warp like the latest new quest does)
  • Updated enemy behaviours (e.g. Dorphons/Delbiters no longer spawn in with an attack, Sinows disable weapon usage for a few seconds instead of unequipping the weapon)
I think these are reasonable changes for a remaster. The ID system change might be controversial, but IMO think it's a pain in the ass more than anything.
 
Mommy Rem said:
I'm probably the only person that wants this, but I'd love to see PS0 content remastered and integrated.
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I would both love to see this and also probably end up disappointed.
I would honestly love a remake of PSO with modern-day graphics and stuff because that will be enjoyable in its own right.
... But I also know it would probably transform the game and not be the same glitchy mess we all know and love.
 
Mommy Rem said:
I'm probably the only person that wants this, but I'd love to see PS0 content remastered and integrated.
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PS Zero seems like the closest they ever got to “remaking” or expanding on PSOG. Some of the mechanics could be pretty interesting for a private server maybe. For instance i think theres a system where you can basically add a s rank special to any weapon. It would be interesting to see how that played out in BB. You could have a charge rianov-5 or spirit Orotiagito or demons Cannon rougue etc lol
 
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As someone who has over 2,000 hours sunk into PSO2 and PSO2 NGS Since Japanese release in 2012, a PSOBB Remaster would look bad. Because PSO2 and PSO2 NGS are bad. You do not want the people heading phantasy star division remastering PSOBB.

Not to mention Hackers running rampant.

You want PSOBB remastered? Play Ephinea Classic with Ashenbubs HD Texture Pack. Closest you'll get to a modern vanilla psobb experience.
 
After seeing Sega screwing up PSO2 past EP3 as well PSO2 NGS and having arround 10.000 hours clocked on the japanese client of the game I want to say I'm very against a remaster cus they will just mess it up and make it a lazy cash grab that will be as bad as both PSO2 games or worse. And they can get away with it cus nostalgia hits people always so they dump tons of money into it and it will just be another boring microtransaction game that dies in 3 months aside from some diehard fans that whiteknight everything sega doesn.
 
Wil said:
As someone who has over 2,000 hours sunk into PSO2 and PSO2 NGS Since Japanese release in 2012, a PSOBB Remaster would look bad. Because PSO2 and PSO2 NGS are bad. You do not want the people heading phantasy star division remastering PSOBB.

Not to mention Hackers running rampant.

You want PSOBB remastered? Play Ephinea Classic with Ashenbubs HD Texture Pack. Closest you'll get to a modern vanilla psobb experience.
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Hmm Ashenbub Texture Pack. Sounds interesting.

But I fully agree. Dont wish for a remaster. Play it here on Ephinea. It wont get better than this.
 
Wil said:
A PSOBB Remaster would look bad. Because PSO2 and PSO2 NGS are bad. You do not want the people heading phantasy star division remastering PSOBB.
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Very true.

The best thing I can imagine being one day created that would qualify as a remaster would be some kind of open source fan-developed game client, but the amount of work required to recreate the game down to its minute details would be staggering.

Another interesting thing would be a full PSOBB decompilation which would strive to produce the same exact binary (.exe) as the original game... oh boy that too would be an undertaking, but it would open the way to many wonderful things because people would be able to modify the actual game code without resorting to using debuggers and doing ASM patches.
 
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