Oh man that was nuts! I wonder if Zephetto and company piggybacked off of Luther's cloning research. I totally hear you on those criticisms of Zephetto. Kinda reminds me of other RPGs where the real "big bad" isn't revealed until near the end of game.
I actually didn't even think of piggybacking off of Luther, that's actually super smart! While I'd say it's a possibility, I'm also pretty down for the idea of "synthetic humans" kinds of things... After all, we're pretty sci-fi right Or perhaps we're just all Tunas lmfao
@@Azelyra We ourselves are just near perfect Clone of the former Guardian we are back in 1000 years ago and I guess that is a nice explanation for why we can be go back to PSO2 and back lol
Wasn't that the case with Golbez in FF4? Where he's believed to be the main antagonist but it was actually a bigger threat pulling the strings behind the scenes?
Zephetto wasn't a villain, but an antagonist. He's the kind of character that did what NEEDED to be done, even if it was unpalatable (i.e. Illidan from WoW). Near the end of the cut-scenes there's a response prompt for our character and both choices are clear defiance of him, but as a player at that point I was ready to join up with him to prepare for the Starless. I'm fine with everything as far as moving the plot along, but an ideal ending for me would have been Aina jumped in the DOLLZ exosuit and flew off for a final hurrah, and Zephetto became our new "Crawford" leader role person.
I'LL BE HONEST I'M NOT A FAN OF HIS DOLLS EXOSUIT OR WHAT YOU WANNA CALL IT LOL When I saw his design I was squealing, and when he got in the Doll Suit I literally turned into a yoghurt
@@Azelyra I agree, I really like how the gold "teeth" on his headgear make it look like he's wearing a crown and the glowing blue highlights of his armor is amazing. I specifically dislike Aina, which is why I say I would gladly have traded her death to keep Zephetto around. Alas, she is the main character so.... *shrug* guess I'll deal with it.
I was annoyed that the little time we had with Zephetto was kinda wasted with the 3 of them randomly accusing him of being insane and “playing games”. Yeah you don’t have to like his methods but his reasoning if what he says is true is completely sound. Also his boss form just looks like he added DOLLS mods to an AIS Vega. Which begs the question why not use DOLLS tech to fight the Starless? It seems pretty robust.
Number 1.. 909 is such a cool nick name. 2.I'm surprised we are a clone of our OG MC. I hope they dive into this more with Manon. Hopefully she explains why we exist and who we were designed after.
We players are third generation clones of the original. What's the point if the original failed whut the heck are copies gonna do? Least Horizon Zero Dawn mankind had a chance. Here we just screwed cause we keep making the same mistakes.
I just find the implication that no, the MC never left Matoi but that they probably died together in a fiery explosion via a Stellaris endgame crisis rather funny.
I had goosebumps when I found out there is a connection on Casra's epilogue in Ep6, where he talked about the possibility of banning the weaponization of photon energy in exchange for peace, and now it became a reality... 500 years ago when we were powerless against the Starless. I am with you Azelyra, when they should've sprinkled foreshadowing of Zephetto here and there, since chapter 3, when the game introduced Dark Falz. Plus, with the Starless too, I feel like there's so muuuuch potential waiting. Funny enough, SEGA sure knows how to hype on many many things, but sadly.... not in the story.
In 4 we found out that dark falz is sending data to leciel so we can assume the head is up there. And now we see the head. Let's also think about the world and we can tell that there is no reason we should even stand a chance. If the dolls wanted to win the war, they could have just bulldozed each region before we ever united. Send dark falz, renus, nex and more to retem then central then stia all before we get the central cannon. It's clear we aren't in a serious destroy them all war. And when we find out the data being gathered (which should have been a bigger note), we can deduce someone is doing something. But I also think someone should have figured it out as well in game and ask why we are standing a chance. Get that question in the players hands and then oh its an experiment. I mean we have training cocoons so that was on the nose. There should be some data pads alluding to a larger threat like the starless too I guess by some signs or something in stia.
@@zephyr8072 I'm sorry, but I have to be honest: I laughed at your comment of using Gundam Wing as an anology. I probably wouldn't if I knew the context of Gundam Wing being used as an analogy though.
I'm actually excited the story finally goes into space again. I hope we'll get to have a space station hub, visit a new planet, and meet whoever survived the Starless. I also hope someone like Matoi from the base PSO2 can make a return. Still, ANY foreshadowing would've been really nice as a post-credits scene right there! Urgh, I wonder why they didn't do that?
If you want Matoi to somehow appear, just pray that she became as Godly as the 1st Klariskrays and became immortal or just a Goddess alongside with the Trio heroines that somehow managed to save you from Primordial Darkness.
@@AzariusRonestly, considering that Matoi was created by Xion to be some sort of ultimate life form, I wouldn’t be too surprised if she is somehow immortal. It certainly wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen in universe.
Zephetto is such an interesting name since it's the first time they're really pulling from Grimms fairy tales, particularly that of Pinocchio. His name can also be translated as Geppetto. It makes sense, he was a wood carver, a DOLL maker. The starless are an interesting enemy. When I first saw them I thought they were the SEED. At this point now we have several questions that need to be answered both as players and as characters. As characters we need to know how to fight back against the starless, and had to bring the fight to them. As players we need to know what remains of the original ARKS fleet such as the status of Xiao and Xierra. There's also still the matter of the dolls. What are we going to do with them? Do we have the power to now switch them from kill mode to support mode and turn them into the fifth playable race? I'd want that kind of support at my back even if from a numbers standpoint. I guess we'll see how all this plays out soon, and just what secrets still lie within H-alpha. We'll find out soon enough I guess if this planet is actually supposed to be a world ship or a mothership or something like that or if we're just going to get off this rock and forget it
@@Azelyra I think it's a purposeful double (or triple?) entendre, H-Alpha being a kinda photon reference, Halphas being a daemon from the Ars Goetia / Lesser Keys of Solomon who is "described as a hoarse-voice stock dove who supplies weapons and ammunition for towers, sends men to war, and commands 26 legions of spirits". And also Alpha being the first letter of the greek alphabet, hopefully first of many planets to come in NGS.
I think you are right about the Pinocchio reference, since the new doll enemies in the final quest are called ‘Marioness’ (marionette). Since Zephetto was called a general, there might be more generals, maybe themed after a fairytale?
My friend described it as, we had one story chapter, then 2 filler regions, then continue the story which is why it felt werid LOL But yeah, this is not a bad introduction to Ultra Evolution per se, I just wanted to see a little more
If we had panned out of the top of Leciel to reveal that we were on an ARKS ship I would’ve upgraded this from decent to awesome but alas. Things still look hopeful at least.
Man I feel this. We finally had a villain for like 3 whole seconds in Zephetto then they took him away by redirecting into him being on our side. NGS story has been completely bland because we don't have an antagonist to hate. This story entry great for a minute but left me feeling jebaited. We need an antagonist not some faction threat that no one cares about.
100% Agree about needing an Antagonist of sorts, if you think of any of the bigger stories in cinema, even if there's a huge faction of enemies, I think it helps a lot to have the central people that REPRESENTED THOSE IDEALS as the leaders of the antagonist side per It's not easy for u to focus on a "whole faction" as an enemy, comparatively to looking at a central figure representing said faction
Guess we gotta wait for the new updated brings to the table,seems like the starless will be the hateble antagonist you will be looking for Hope they have sentient commander,cuz dolls being tottally silent was very boring
To be fair to Manon, it's different when a bunch of people die almost like a statistic such as Aelio Town (even if it was horrible) and then someone personally sacrifices themselves for you like with that nameless ARKS,
Oh for sure, sometimes it's really some small things that breaks the camel's back as I mentioned, but I do still find it pretty funny to put it into perspective- That being said it would have been so much cooler imho if it was something like, Manon thought Aina died or something (even though she didn't), there's a lot of potential for the narrative there is the point I'm trying to make
I couldn't read the text so I definitely missed a lot of points. But one thing which I noticed and gave me a wide eye was that Zephetto's pauldron has "Observer Group ARKS" written on it in the old pso2 font.
White part on Chest: "Connection" Black Part on Chest: "Origin" Arm: was what you said Carbon fiber-like surface on Back: Caution Below the carbon fiber thing: "The Original and The Best" the "st" in best was a bit smidged
I think the biggest flaw of the story was not having a speaking villain. Dark falz is mute and at best was just a bigger dolls. Meanwhile, Elder, Persona, and Luther spoke and made the story interesting. Even just having one cutscene every chapter like the one where Zephetto just comments to himself about the progress of the experiment would've been 10x more interesting for the story. Introducing a character for 5 minutes and then yeeting him into space just ain't sitting right with me. I also noticed that they did kinda retcon part of the 1000 years later story, where we're now just a clone of ourselves instead of the same character like they initially said. I'm hoping the game moves back to an oracle ship at some point in the future if we're going back to space. I don't think the 4 hubs are working out too much imo, and having one big hub in pso2 was just great for the community. Also cuz spaceships are cool.
At the very least, they're moving away from the whole Open World thing and implementing new ways to add content into the game, I think we'll see soon in the next headlines to come!
I kinda like how much is left unsaid, even though I think the story felt a *bit* rushed at the end. I'm gonna chalk that up to the nature of the game being online only, since I feel like they've been finding the balance for storytelling vs game progression since launch. I wonder if the Starless inspired the look for the dolls? And whether the Starless are related to the original arks, or it this is a new photoner situation, or another manifestation of the Dark Falz stuff. also, the amount of tech that just got dropped in their laps from this entire situation is likely the catalyst for the Ultra Evolution, so I'm really excited to see how Halpha changes. It also likely gives them the ability to further develop on the concept of trainia, and a bunch of other stuff they were trying to figure out, like those Kvaris side missions. I'm also curious about what happens with the dolls on Halpha, since I'd assume they might be able to control them now. will they end up using Dark Falz as a weapon to fight the Starless?! So many possibilities!
Indeed with the possibilities, I think it's at least a good thing for them to set a baseline for a lot of the narrative and event to be something a lot more interesting than what it is right now, and that's probably the best takeaway I got from this.
The pacing of the whole story so far has been seriously bad, with Ch5 alone pretty much covering many times more information than Ch2-4 comibned. I think they kind of had to spread out the story to introduce the regions one by one, but it feels like pretty much nothing happened between Aelio town and defeating DF. But still Ch5 was amazing and it's finally starting to feel like a proper PSO story! Regarding Creative Space, I think the explanation could be either that we're going on to create our own floating islands, or that us taking control over the existing floating islands granted us the power to terraform Halpha. Either way, that would make the idea of creating our own space a lot more fun imo :) *Regarding Zephetto, I think a big issue they've been having with the story is that it's really hard to tease a character like him without spoiling the whole background, which if spoiled can take away a lot from the DF fights. But the way they've done it isn't particularly helpful either :/
The thing is as has been pointed out it was very very very obvious that this was some sort of sim or training situation. It was obvious right from the start that DOLLS were artificial and very close to ARKS tech and this only became even more obvious over time. And we already know ARKS isn’t above messed up experiments on it’s own people for the “greater good” because they’ve done it before. Hell Zephetto’s actions are rather tame compared to the awful things they’ve done.
Dude i loved zhephetto and the conclusion to ep 1 of ngs. I admit i may be bias cuz i adore morally gray characters in stories,i feels much more interesting than"good guys vs bad guys"
@@Azelyra even though this conclusion may not been a story telling masterpiece,and they should have sprinkled some clues and more hints of the big revelation I was very satisfied,that they finally ditched the old formula and tried something new,can't wait to be able to fight the starless
Yeah Chapter 5 is really amazing chapter, honestly i expecting things get to be continued before we get into the tower or before we faced Zephetos (also boss fight?!) thats really unexpected I just like how Aina trash talk Zephetos with just few words, but yeah i was hoping if we can see what starless look like that be best but nope sadly, or they said that lot of starless unit heading halpha but nothing happen? idk whats going on lmao
Is it just me or do I find the fight with Zeph kinda super unnecessary story wise? Well I think it's ok gameplay wise but, it's a bit weird how we just beat him and he's like k fam imma sit here and explain everything and 5 mins later everything he talked about came crashing down on us, literally, without us even having the time to absorb all the information LOL
@@AzelyraZephetto wasn’t gonna explain; they only explained ‘cause of Aina. And since they know errything about all of us, it makes sense they’d wanna explain for her, given all she’s been through. Zephetto clearly has a heart for humanity.
@@Azelyra I believe it's a battle to test if we can at least take him down, who is a former ARKS who is literally full of Base PSO2 stickers on his armor so to check if we have the Fashion to defeat his Drip. (Jk I mean his ultimate form of Dark Falz mobile suit) and then after defeated he did confirm that we are able to face the Starless alright, that is why he leaves the future back to us.
Are we clones are are we simply created. And are we randomly created into being the guardian or is it a coincidence if your character looks the same but not a canon plot point. If anything I want confirmation or confirmation of being ambiguous on it which I'd prefer since some player may just have another character for ngs even on the same character. Like a base outfit and a ngs outfit.
Hey my character’s a Cast so mine should still be around long after you inferior mammals passed on. Assuming she didn’t go down in flames with the entire Oracle fleet that is.
I kinda like not knowing what to expect from the "Starless", all we know is they're apparently from beyond the galaxy and that they nearly completely wiped out ARKS. An unknowable enemy is always intriguing, at least until a writer decides their motivations have to be known, then it's a bit like showing the monster in your horror movie, it almost never lives up to expectations. Maybe they're not conventionally intelligent, some sort of invasive species, space locusts, that consume stars or planets... That's just the vibe I got for some reason, disappearing for 500* years seems like it could be some sort of life cycle thing, hibernation or cicada-like emergence. Maybe later on it could be revealed that someone is manipulating them and they can be our scenery chewing villain. * I don't remember if they actually said when the Starless vanished, I know they appeared 500 years ago, and I know the Halpha experiment has been running for 300. That leaves a couple hundred years, some or all of which could've ARKS been fighting a long but losing battle, or the ARKS could've been wiped out very quickly but it still took Zephetto 200 years to get Halpha up and running.
They said something along the lines of after they attacked, they just completely disappeared without a trace, so they decided to make the whole Resurgent ARKS thing to prepare for "The Day To Come" when the Starless returns..... which just happens to be RIGHT AFTER HIS MONOLOGUE LOL
Yeah, the vibe I got from Zeph's description of the Starless is the same vibe I got from the Reapers in Mass Effect. Just uberpowerful alien insects hellbent on eradicating all forms of life every couple hundred years, just cause lol.
Oh good god if we end up having to talk with the Starless leader in the form of an irritating child who tells us the Starless are extra-gala tic invaders who need to kill us all so we won’t be killed by extra-galactic invaders then asks us to pick a colour then I quit forever.
If the game delivers narratively on the same way as this chapter for the rest of its lifespan, then I think we're in for one amazing MMO. It sucks it took us almost 3 or so years to get to a point where I can say the game feels fun to play, but alas, what can you do. I'm hoping this is only a small taste of this UEU (Ultra Evolution Update) they're teasing, this game needs to go bigger and better to stand against these heavy hitters about to drop. But by far, I loved this chapter and all the QoL updates it brought with it. NOW WE JUST NEED SEGA TO GIVE US SOME CRAZY CONTENT LIKE INSTANCED DUNGEONS (not these trania cocoons, like some actual unique dungeons lol), and maybe something reminiscent of Divide Quest? But yeah, this update reignited my hype for the game, and I'm looking forward to June all the more. FINGERS CROSSED!
@Azelyra oh yeah, most definitely. SEGA has always had an issue with its narrative within this game, even back in base pso2. I feel like this chapter is the way it is because the team really decided it was time to step up, and they had to do it in such a short amount of time. I'm not saying they pulled this idea out of their ass, but at the same time, I'm highly doubtful they had THIS planned out to the extent it currently is. There are so many potholes from the start of NGS to now, so I'm more thinking they knew they had to go crazy from here on out. So now it all falls on June and the future of this game to really deliver narratively.
As much as I was expecting the plot being, "oh everything was simply an experiment" plot point, i was still genuinely satisfied enough with how it all unfolded. Some plot points reached all the way back from the base game which is a nice touch for any lore wanters. And with Leciel still left in tact and with Zephetto only being a general, the story is now even wider that ever before. We can now entertain the idea that there could be more people like Zephetto who chose to go a different route with their experiment to bring ARKS back to their prime, either in a different continent in the same planet or simply a different planet all together.
The fact that there's barely a foreshadowing might be because they didn't plan the story in advance and more future story hasn't even been thought of... I bet Starless doesn't even have a design right now which is why they only appear as some random red comets It feel as if they just put whatever they have on the table but only when the time come because they didn't prepare for it and that's bad There could've easily been a scene where if our player cleared EP6 of OG PSO2 it'd trigger a flashback to our time we had with Matoi and etc,.. to make the scene way more impactful However, if anything I'm glad they choose to go back with the darker tone of the story After 2 whole years of skipping story, Ch.5 is the only one I binged the entire chapter without skipping Maybe they realized that choosing to appeal to new players too much is a bad idea now
That being said, I don't know if our character could have said flashbacks due to being a clone, and not the real deal... BUT If our characters DO retain memory (if our player has Cleared Legacy PSO2 story) that would be such an amazing detail addition.
Yeah that's not how game development works, lol. They don't just wing it or do stuff on the fly. There's storyboarding/design choices made/etc. for things many, many months in advance for stuff like this. There are models (unrigged) for Starless enemies in the data among other things. To think that they would just throw whatever they have scribbled on a napkin out at the last minute is pretty silly, haha 😂 what a weird assumption.
@@ganymede4030 You are not wrong, it's only a mixed feeling combined with one weird assumption that I made. They wouldn't just do exactly what I assumed. Especially with the game this big.
I love that it creates context why elements of the world feel provided. So many of the ARKs and event people are like "We don't know how it got here, but here it is!" It makes Aelio town seem more quaint because they were actually cultivating their own livelyhoods like making food for each other and farming instead of having everything given to them in liquid for like quick food. It's surreal to find out that everyone was living like pets in an enclosure.
i think they where teasing classic-style tileset content with those levels on leciel. ultra evolution is probably going to be a return to roots since they already confirmed it will move away from the current ngs formula (open world), so a return to the base formula is likely. also the zephetto fight gave me exegul vibes and makes me want to see divides in ngs.
@@Strykerx31 before datamined channel closed, it confirmed we gonna back to space and abandon whole halpha setting. return to root of pso2? that i cannot confirm
@@Strykerx31 was in the headline when they announced ultra evo with the roadmap. they said ultra evo will divert from the typical ngs formula. so that likely means a shift away from open world at least for a while. this is now backed up by the fact that they literally just gave us a sneak peak at their new tileset level system so i would expect to see more of it in june.
Unfortunately I can literally summarise the ending, it's literally like how Sonic Frontier's Ending basically, we are left with more questions as to who the antagonist is and in the end, the real threat is still out there kinda ordeal. Still considering the fact that they realize how unsustainable their region to region story was so low stakes, I am able to forgive them actually concluding all this simulation and experiment nonsense and finally reveal the truth behind it all and why we are ARKS DEFENDER PRIME to prepare for the day the Starless will return. There is only 1 more month to go through before June arrives and I just can't wait for what they will bring with Base PSO2 finally being connected and brought up.
I have not gotten to play Sonic Frontiers yet, however I've had many people brought that up as well, where the ending here is really familiar- BUT At the very least, I think it sets us up for something bigger, and hopefully, much better.
@@Azelyra Yeah in terms of Setup it does better than the one Sonic Frontier's had. Still actually there are already Leaks or datamines about Starless existing for quite a long time already in the game files but I'll stop right there.
My only question i have is are we going to be staying on Halpha? The 'Starless' seem like a galactic threat and are we supposed to fight them on a single island? I kind of doubt it. My guess is that EP 2-3 will revolve around getting into space and visiting other planets like base PSO2 but with open world spaces for different planets. I hope so because that boss arena was pretty.
Halpha will continue to exist, but come Ultimate Evolution, we'll have a new form of content rather than the new Open World areas or so- It's what they said at least
What most interests me are the clones Zephetto mentioned after we fight him. Is Sega going to introduce new characters into the story that are at the level of our character? It would be pretty interesting at the very least.
Maybe the 4th gen are based around the scion trainers. If 909 is based off of the Guardian which is also a 3rd gen ARKS. Not that I'm hoping of those classes to return.
Okay so I just finished and I gotta say: Where the heck was this story telling at since NGS started XD The entire story was a massive tourist trip and it felt really awkwardly implemented cept for this last part My biggest issue is how Aina and Manon are portrayed and their individual personal growths Aina is scared then gets over it instantly and her emotional growth gets shelved Mannon seems for the most part unfazed until the rando sacrifices himself Both of these story *arks* could have been more fleshed out over time Aina feeling that she's responsible for the last two villagers of Alieo town almost to an obsessive degree Seeing Mannon and the Player as people she needs to protect at all costs which eventually gives her the strength to overcome her fear Afterwards she could be overbearing in her desire to protect you two and have to realize that she should trust her friends to be okay As there are other people who might actually need her help in larger battles Mannon of the other hand should start off like she does but around Retem she should start acting just a bit more rushed like she's trying to hurry things along while retaining her normal atmosphere for the most part but she starts letting things slip a bit that she knows more than she lets on Later in Kvaris she should slip up a bit more while helping repair things in lost central Noticeably trying to move things along faster Then in Stia she finally reaches a point where she seems almost desperate as the Stia arks are sacrificing themselves more and more Until the point where she loses her composure mid fight and one of them Sacrifices himself because of her rushed mistake That's when she should full on break down the straw that broke the camels back being "her fault" someone sacrificed himself Afterwards she should be sent back to Central to heal psychologically only after you return from Stia you realize that she had gone missing I feel the biggest issue with the story is that character growth that should take time does not take time
@@Azelyra It's definitely a good thing that they did something at the end I hope they can take the time to increase the overall quality of the story Also it'd be nice if the english voice direction was given a kick in the pants There are some moments when characters need to emote but fall extremely flat I kinda want to check the JP dub to see if the issues are the same there
I think the story premise they went with is fine. I like the clone idea because of how it blends with the ending of PSO2 (and doesn't immediately explode it the moment you're not looking, to create another conflict). I just think it isn't exactly sustainable at this rate of content. While we should be getting the next chapter sooner this time around because Ch.5 wasn't part of the 6 month interval, if we keep getting the same amount at that rate, it just won't add up to all that much for several years. It needs more, and specifically, I think it needs more characters in the story to have ongoing troubles to deal with, ones that can weave into the main plot and extend its pacing and playtime. However, with none of the cast having their own problems at the moment, if they tried to extend playtime, it'd just be nonsense like 'attack at X location' over and over. We really need these other characters to have their own stories and interests to investigate. If they're worried about people complaining about story taking too long, then don't require it anymore, like in Base. No point writing a story based around people that don't want it, is there? Just excuse them from it instead.
Yeah, they literally excused to make story a bit shorter cuz they want people to not have to worry about story- But then it's like, IT ALREADY WORKED PERFECTLY FINE IN LEGACY WHY NOT JUST COPY THAT SYSTEM LOL
tons of the foreshadowing could have been done with environmental telling such as the use of datapads that use to always give tiny bits of lore but in ngs everyone of them was just wasted on tutorials...
There is definitely some telling that the whole thing is a bit of a test/experiment of sorts, but it definitely wasn't clear enough to put in the picture of what happened in the past 1000 years or so, since it was heavily marketed as "THE STORY IS 1000 YEARS AFTER..." even in the main trailers
From what I heard, those kind of story arc are usually all planned out in advance, and for live service games like Destiny, Warframe, FF14 and so on, those individual arcs are usually written in chunks of 2 years at a time. So yeah, it's very likely that the whole story of NGS EP1 was already written ages ago, hence why they HAD to see it through regardless of how people felt about it because the whole game and its upcoming updates were likely already built around it. But now that we're entering a brand new arc, Sega likely already have incorporated the playerbase's feedback into that new story, which is likely already written and planned out by now.
That does sound about right- Usually in Legacy PSO2, SEGA is already finished with the next episode and working on the one after while one episode is currently on live- Which means for example, as Episode 3 was on Live, Episode 4 was basically already done and finalizing, while Episode 5 is being worked on.
Has anyone read Battle Angel Alita/Gunnm? I imagine many are familiar with the premise of the movie and anime - it's the future, warriors used to be stronger, a war happened, but now everyone is stuck on the surface and there's a big floating structure that nobody can get to. I can't really elaborate without lots of spoilers, but, in the manga, Alita does get to enter the floating thing, and after that story just keeps going, with societies on other planets basically having done their own things for centuries while Earth was in an oblivious bubble. I'm not really going anywhere with that regarding NGS predictions, as there are lots of differences as well. But, the Earth prologue part of the story was made interesting by there being lots of villains/antagonists that exist for a myriad of reasons that have nothing to do with what happens later, like just people wanting a better life for themselves when resources are scarce, or are cruel or became unhinged. NGS had none of that. Plus, for me the aspect of Leciel that I really wanted to see expanded was the ARKS operators that were completely unphased when we turned up, but didn't seem to care to help either. What's their story? I'm a bit torn on this. From an RPG gameplay experience point of view, I think Dark Falz and maybe some other Dolls should have been given some dialogue. But, maybe creating such interactions would have been too unbearable for those on Leciel, so it needed to be this way. So I don't know as to whether chapter 5 could have easily been better or not. The preceding chapters could have perhaps just had some ARKS go bad. Certainly betrayals have been a thing in Phantasy Star since, well, the opening sequence of the 1987 game. But maybe us players would have seen through it as obvious filler anyway.
Personally for me I've never played a prior Phantasy Star title, but so far I've been getting quite a number of comments since Dark Falz Aegis came out that there's a lot of homage to the original games, I think it'll be cool to continue that way for both older and newer players!
Pre chapter 5, I alwayd wonder why Halpha Arks made a big deal about the (back then) mysterious tower in the sky. Like, couldn't they have just called in support from the Oracle fleet way up in space and go have a look. This did eventually lead me into thinking everything on Halpha was artificial and controlled by ARKS with Halpha being a training planet to combat some true enemy. Chapter 5 gave me my answer, there is no Oracle fleet. They're dead Jim.
Another thing, it occurs to me that the DOLLS should be on our side now we’re going to fight the Starless. Can you imagine some big event where we ride Dark Falz Aegis into a giant space battle against them? Plus Glen’s seething rage at having to fight alongside them would be.. interesting.
I mean personally I want to know specifically what happened to everyone, like the guardian, the earth branch, Matoi, everyone. Your telling they just got zapped and that was it? Also I do hope we get to go other planets
My theory is that Xiao might had concealed or transported them to somewhere safe back when the Starless Incident happened, hopefully this is true because if we were to lose them to the Starless then what's the point of us being a clone of a failed Guardian of Base PSO2 lol.
I assume they’re leaving vagueness there in case they want to bring anyone back or tell some story about it later on. Hell if they did some event in base PSO2 somewhere down the line that’s be pretty cool.
It could take time, but at the very least I'm happy with a foundation that's at the very least, a lot more how do I say, interesting than what we had the past years?
Yeah as a person who dislike chapter 1 - 4. I like how chapter 5 at least steer the game towards an interesting story. I do hope they do explain what happen to our characters though. If NGS is like 1000 year in the future and everyone died 500 prior. We still have questions like what happen to us? To Matoi? To the council? Like do they died due to old age or are these enemy are that strong that they just kill all of us. It could get into an interesting point like what if turns out our OG is alive somewhere in cryo sleep and imagine you meeting your OG XD. Gonna be weird but the story can be interesting. And i totally agree on how they should've tease us with one of the Starless enemy. Like isnt when we finished Eps 5 we have that cutscene of Shiva and the gang attack the ship. And both Maria and Regius cant do anything to attack em. This gives goosebump like "HOLY THEY SO STRONG" and stuff. But yeah proly they just snap this story on top another planned one so they cant show those stuff yet. But i dont care if they did. Im just glad they did. Welllll lets wait for the next headlines i guess and hope the story can be as good as Base PSO2.
Dude same here! Chap 1 - 4 are painfully bland repetition of"go to new region,fend off big scary mysterious alien monster with barely any information on them and save the day" Chap 5 on the other hand introduces grey morality(which im such a big fan of) alongside more information on what happend during this 1000 years gap Even though i enjoyed it still has ita flaws like lack of foreshadowing
What I'm really waiting for is hopefully we'll have some flashback chapters where we can actually get to see/experience the first invasion of the Starless
You know what I would like to see some of the more immortal characters in the story who don't age still being alive like xiera an arks ship comes to halpha and xiera is driving sees us gets emotional thinking were the guardian but knowing the guardian is dead and we get the option to say we're not them or get the option to "remember" xiera honestly I wouldn't be against classic us being reincarnated into 909 clone
Well he did say The starless destroyed a fleet of research ships and said nothing about the other ships just the research ships So we can hope maybe some old peeps still alive on other ships maybe some people were putting cryosleep for a thousand years All we can do is hope
I mean if I were a general of a secret research team doing secret experiments And I only cared about the betterment of humanity as a whole I would have a distress beacon installed so that when i succeed I can beacon for the rest of my military to come and pick u my super soldier I mean he obviously didn't care if he lived or died so long as humanity lived I don't think he care if any other old arcs condemn him for what he did So long as they had their super soldier
I don't mind Zephetto not being shown that much but I feel like the MC and Aina act too much like an npc and it's so frustrating reading their dialogues. Manon is probably the most interesting character out of the bunch despite not knowing everything. Pharia is fine.. but the problem is it felt rushed and the pacing and writing feels awkward at times.
I quit like a month after launch, has there been any plot thread connected to the original PSO2 story? I was super disappointed they didn't leave any crumbs about that. The fact that they goad us on into thinking this is the same universe as the OG PSO2 but never refer to it left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't mind spoilers so if someone could tell me that would be great.
I did go over this in the video a little bit, but basically they went the dark route, and 500 years after the legacy PSO2, more or less everyone died due to a prolonged period of peace, and new enemies suddenly appeared. We're literally a clone of our own characters from 1000 years ago, and not the real deal.
Was thinking it would do just like base how we get what happened in the past next like how episode 5 was where we went back in time or something then to come forward idk just a thought
Im trying not to hype myself as i wish to enjoy playing ngs. I honestly dont find it as bad as everyone else says since it seems it had similar issues to what ep 1 of base pso2 had (from what i understand). When it comes to chapter 5, the arena used to fight zephetto was similar to the character creation area in base pso2 and with the old arks logo in the center i wonder how did the old arks terraformed or built a planet in the first place. Also considering ngs takes place a thousand years after base, that's more than enough time for newer generations to live, and the knowledge to be passed on with likely some changes. Zephetto for me screams Phantom and i wonder if Kyokuya's philosophy on being a phantom influenced those after him especially after the arrival of the starless.
One thing to get out of the way first. As a CAST ~Master Race~ main, I'm happy that we get a CAST character in the story with a unique design (Regius and Maria use default set, their upgraded set is good but still similar to the old default set. Saga got a pass, but he's a really minor character. Bruder go back to default set instead). That said, the whole story feels like Base PSO2 Eps 1 shortened times 5. Each region got short arc with 0 weight. Now, the story's suddenly picking up, but the build up from all the past arc is almost non-existent (I think the only one discussing Leciel and Halpha's nature is just one throwaway sidequest in Kvaris). It doesn't help that we somehow doesn't see this 'Starless vanguard units' despite some seems to be crashing down (with a special cube effect to boot). It just feels like they're suddenly trying to switch to a darker tone in a panic because the old lighthearted one doesn't work. That said, just as how Base PSO2's eps 2 and 3 brought the golden era of PSO2 story, I'm somewhat hopeful this switch will be a success. But the whole 'not going to focus on the story because it becomes a requirement for progress' thing is keeping me skeptical that the golden era will ever come back.
I like the ending a lot because of 1. I don't know there is the ending 2. Giving me Nier series vibe when humanity is all gone and all the androids keep fighting for nothing. Not the perfect ending but enough to make me hyped for ultra evolution. And I'm not sorry for Manon that I made fun of you having period, it Sega's fault for not foreshadowing.
Right now i don't know how to say Chap 5 story is getting dark And many things no explain only wait EP2 of extra ex chap And what new enemy we go to face it
Its also a shame they didn't show the starless. If they want to make the big bad guy, look better because an even bigger evil was about to happen (Which is a cheap excuse in itselve) and then not even show any of it, that is a big no no, its like Zephetto was like: Look up there! and the team just looks up to the sky and there's nothing there and they look back and Zephetto just used the time to get out of the situation. XD "Oh damn, they want me to explaine to them why I conducted those terrible tests over the last 300 years? damn... Better make something up and gtfo!" XD I mean, apparently, a couple of days has gone by after the zephetto fight. No reason, arks hasn't seen any of the Starless, in that time, especially when they are supposedly that evil and dangerous...
I have so many question about what happened to other places...what happen to naberius, harukotan, people at eps 5, people at earth, how about the real dark falz since all dolls and dark falz on halpa is all just an imitation to the real ones. What about guardians and it's counter forces. What happened to the oracle fleet then, what is resurgent arks really is, is it a branch or they just made it on they own. And where is this halpha exactly ? just in another arks fleet or it is it's own planet.
Basically, after TPD was defeated 1000 years ago, there's the whole story about Casra putting down a lot of the photon weaponry, and with the 500 years of peace, and suddenly a huge Profound Darkness level threat (the Starless) RANDOMLY APPEARING OUT OF NOWHERE, they just couldn't react and that's how everyone basically died The Resurgent ARKS thing here is just, them trying to revive the ARKS to fight back against the Starless, when "The Day To Come" happens AKA the Starless comes back, which is now
I imagine all those places we knew got hella torched. Ravaged. Destroyed. Exploded. Possibly except for Earth given it’s in a separate universe and the population of Earth in the 2500 a just got really annoyed when the servers for PSO93 crashed spectacularly.
Yeah definitly something wrong happened with the Direction of the story writing Dont know if its SEGA's fault, The NGS Directors Fault(Who is EP5 Director so its expected honestly), or the writers dont know what to do Oh well, the series really never known for story just gameplay Unfortunately the fanbase especially newer ones REALLY dont want to share just how great NGS gameplay actually can be.... doesnt help Content Clearing Reward Directions are also just weird and demotivative
@@Azelyra At least i have more faith than Blue Protocol at the moment, which is a miracle since last year people been unfairly treat NGS And now seems like the tide is mostly equal since NGS is still in the same state but BP is doing worse despite not even being out yet
@@RenoKyrie Blue Protocol had issues from it's Closed Beta and actually improved alot in the recent beta by player feedback though. Do I think Blue Protocol will steal players away from NGS? Sure but at the same time, when another Japanese Anime Game is successful, NGS will definitely follow suit, which is a good thing because NGS is very casual while Blue Protocol looks like it is going to be even much grindier than it seems. Also Blue Protocol is T rated so there is not going to be Ballooned Bosoms anytime in that game, while our game is M Rated lol. But as an NGS player, I can still play both because NGS is just that generously casual lol.
It makes me sad that all our mc’s friends from base might be dead… like Matoi, Xeno, and everyone else… we had such a happy ending after episode 6 finished just run into oblivion possibly a few years after 😢
I still think Luciel is also a mothership anchor. Like they said; Oracle fleet was destroyed in the attack of the Starless, 1k years prior. So if our character is more or less a carbon copy, then the normal ending of episode 6, rather than the "true ending", is the canon ending to PSO2. While the primordial darkness was defeated by hauling it back to the beginning of the universe, it also means at that very moment, the Starless came to existence (We can also take into account one antagonist in episode 5, which was not fully fleshed out). The starless destroy the Oracle fleet, so ARKS scatters. Resurgent ARKS comes to be as those with knowledge, do all they can to get the new generations ready to properly fight the starless, which are more or less the fallspawn incarnate. which started 500 years prior to awakening on Halpha. All of this culminates to us as the protagonist, meeting the photon saturation requirement to reach phase 3. Does this mean now that some have reached the photon saturation level, that they now need some to be altered in order to become the soul of Halpha, Become a new Oracle Mothership, while the main character, defends the mothership while fighting off the starless as being among the only capable of fighting them off? These are my thoughts.
@Azelyra I see it as a mothership anchor, also because of the design looking so similar to the connecting points in base PSO2 and the anime, to mothership Xion/Xiao. All of the old ARks tech being there in near disrepair. I've speculated this day 1. We shall see how wrong I am as more of the story progresses.
I wonder what happened to mother ship? Like, Zephetto told us that the research fleet was destroyed by starless, but you can't just erase or destroy akashic record since it's the whole universe core. It can be depleted or control take, but not destroyed. Also, question comes what happened to Xiao. They can rip and travel through time with akashic powers, so it might be that experiment conducted by Xiao itself to form new ARKS generation to even compete with future calamities. (And don't forget broken seals with true Dark Falzes chaotic energy along with Primordial resurrection). Dumb plot twist, but what if starless destroying photon wielders just to ensure that Primordial won't have a body with enough photon sensitivity to resurrect and now universe will be at much dangerous position as before? (Like in original PSO2 there were only 2 persons with 100% sensitivity (MC and Matoi) and due to Halpha experiment now we have a bunch of those who 4th generation). It also explains why starless disappeared after massacre of Arks fleet, reappeared after our MC reached 100% sensitivity again and attacked Leciel tower straightforward.
@@Azelyra It makes more sense if remembering why all DF's and primordial appeared. Getthemhurt was a crazy lad who wanted to fight, loser wanted to control and know everything with photon powers, doubles wanted to play (A child who will never grow up to be responsible for his actions.) Apprentice wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the universe. All of them were high photon users. And they also created a lot of other calamities (Ether, Omega). Heck, even primordial was created because of Photoneers actions. (It was also stated that Shiva wanted to destroy all ARKS firstly because they created all of this lately primordial wanted to consume whole universe through her as a host, but it's also side effect of Photoneers actions). So it might be that Starless are those who want to end all those multiverse threat level calamities by completely eradicating photon wielders.
I think sega are going to knock it out of the park! I agree with ur takes and im so hyped to see where the lure side of ngs goes, during story 5 I felt that awe-inspiring potential our characters could be part of, ala original pso2🔥. Especially in regards to the bosses, i think the enemies will get weirder too. like zeph is soooo sick! im hopeing for a yamato type mission in june at most. I hope they go warframe on it and do some mind boggling stuff lol
i agree to what ya said but at the same time, the guy that died at the very beginning, we barely knew him and this isn't different from the suppose "bad guy" was shown to us was something like Spiral King from Guren Lagaan. Think about it, we might see him again, he's not dead, he seems to smart to just be killed off, it would be a such a waste for him to just get off screen killed. : / Sega has the ball now in the story, anything can happen and I hope Sega does good with what's gonna happen next for pso2 ngs. I am excited even though there was some good points you brought up.
The thing with Garoa at the very beginning prologue is at the very minimum he had "SOME CHARACTER" and well, stakes wise he's Aina's father, at least comparatively to the random soldier guy from Stia haha but yes! He's kind of effectively a stranger, it would have been much more impactful if the whole Dark Falz thing happened at like, the end of Chapter 1 after we really start to bond with Garoa and the gang and Aelio Town blows up
Zep character i know was short but ita understandable where he come from. He witness the massive destruction on Arks fleet. His character design looked like an old king trying to regaing back of its former glory. It hurts when we are experiment but it was a neccesary to bring back of who we were originally. Now that the story face a new frontier and it need to bring old power back and re balance the universe. Also im gonna call Pso2...2...episode 2 😂
Since Dolls is made by Zephetto, I'd love it if some day we get to fight Starless together with Dolls. Imagine get Aegis to support us when fighting, that would be cool. Actually, if Starless were to spawned in the field and Dolls begin to fight it like how native and darkers are in base. The whole thing would be cool too.
First thing's first- we need a way to go to space lol. There shouldn't be anything stopping Halpha's ARKS from developing aircraft and SpaceX now... inb4
The problem with chapter 5 for me is that there wasn't enough proper build up. There was foreshadowing of the dolls true nature with them behaving like drones and dark falz...not being falspawn. The pieces were all there. But we never got the story treated like a proper mystery to unravel. Retem alnothe's powerplant was a good place to start talking about the Dolls connection to Halphas. But we didn't even acknowledge the possibility of underground factories until chapter 4 when crawford was like "How could we have known they were coming from underground!?" I mean...come on. You really expect me to believe that no one ever bothered to investigate the big floating ISLAND in the sky? The whole story felt sloppy to me.
It's a neat setup, but it really did need more meat on the bones. NGS making the story mandatory has them literally trimming as much as they can get away with so people aren't too annoyed with progression, but here it _really_ bites what they want to do in the butt. There's so many ideas and so many things that would've been better handled and explained in base PSO2's story but are just summed up in a plot dump here and then you gotta wait half a year at minimum to get any payoff. I know the big update in June isn't that far off, but it still bites.
While the pacing was real bad (story should have had at least twice the pace), I still think it was typical Phantasy Star. PSO1’s story could be completely missed actually. You could simply run trough all areas and defeat dark falz without knowing what the story was, and that was kind of the point. In PSO1 you were investigating what was going on the planet. You had to read messages from Rico, talk to NPC’s and do side quests. As for Ch5, I really liked it and I think it’s a good place to move forward from. Some things I noted from this chapter: 1. Aina being a second generation just like Matoi, makes me believe Aina is gonna stick with us. Aina having red eyes, made me suspect that from the start, since all PS sidekick NPC’s have red eyes (Rico, Vivienne, Emilia, Sarisa, Matoi). 2. I think Prince Brightstar mentioned this in his stream, but he mentioned a Pinnocchio theme when hearing the name Zephetto (Geppetto). Might be unto something seeing the name of the new dolls ‘Marioness’ (Marrionette?). Zephetto puppeteering everyone in the experiment? Hmmm Maybe there are other Arks generals themed after a fairytale? Who knows!? Maybe it’s the new council of six? 3. I kind of fear we are stuck on Halpha for a year, preparing for the actual day of judgement. So I don’t have high hopes of going to space, but I do hope this will give the team room to flesh out the current regions with more interesting quests and more lore/character building. Conclusion: I would’ve preferred more story content. At least a chapter every 3 months and maybe more background lore, either trough lore we can collect or mini stories. I still found it somewhat interesting, and I think the team did a good job in the story telling trough the environments. Can’t say I found Base PSO2’s Episode 1 amazing either. Especially thanks to the matterboards. Base PSO2’s story really started picking up with Episode 2 and I think the final story quest with the mothership and Luther was the first time people actually praised a story mission to begin with. It’s been a real long time ago, but from what I remember, Ep1 ended with us fleeing from the Falz Hunar fight, leaving Zeno behind. I don’t think we solo’s Elder during the story. It was just the EQ that dropped. But we actually got elder within like 6 months? (Think it was December back then), so yeah… pacing… I guess this is what gaming has become thanks to this whole ‘live service’ thing they do to games (stretching a game with meaningless FOMO content).
The problem is at the beginning they said they wanted to make the story a bit short so people can focus on playing the game but.... They already got the system right where story is a bit optional in Legacy PSO2 and then now it's a requirement in NGS? So why not just make the story system the same where you can just enjoy a full story IF YOU WANT, and don't need to force everyone to do it to unlock the world...?
@@Azelyra yeah, I think that was a big mistake on their side, but it is quite typical for live service games because they want this ‘persistent world’ that evolves as the story progresses. In the end it usually leads to lacking story content that is shallow with a new ‘villain of the week’ each new season/expansion so they can keep the game going forever. Destiny has been having this exact same problem for it’s entire run. PSO2 had a good solution indeed where it was separated. (Though at the start of PSO2 you had to do all arks quests and free field to unlock the next area. That was changed later, but I forgot which episode)
We may not be a carbon copy. Global calls us ARKS defender prime. JP calls us True ARKS. Global makes it sound like we're the next candidate for Guardian. JP makes it sound like we just hit the average power level of a PSO2 EP6 ARKS. Regardless, both makes it sound like Zep is planning to mass reproduce us, making our characters a drop in the bucket. I am still very worried that we're going to continue to be the dagger in the back pocket of the writer's DMPCs.
@@Azelyra i think the gigantix are kinda closer to the starless than the Dolls themselves but I'm thinking since Zappheto can control them and Leciel is still running, maybe why not make it so that the Dolls become part of our army
that should be. because doll made by ARKS for training in the fist place. and it end of experiment now. they should be our tool to fight with Starless.
@@fiftyfive5459 exactly, and yet in the game we still fight them haha but i hope Sega will make them as npcs, at least outside of halphs, like partner system
I hope Zepheto survived that starless attack. A hole pso2 has been since EP4 its how ephimerous villains are, i mean they die to quickly. In EP6 i really wanted Shiva and hechmens long last 2 Episodes. Now to NGS: the reveal wasnt worth the 2.5 years of waiting . Writters (if they really had before Stia) dont take advantage of the argumental resources. Should i remind everybody how Retem factory was ignored in the main story , not even a quick comment about it? Hell that could be related to the 1st DF fight at least as an speculation from the characters. Lastly Kvaris joke as story: short, felt like the progression was almost none, and the worst part: asumes you played the 1st DF EQ when there is nothing guaranteed.
And you know because the ngs story update is slow because it's tied to the content update, I wouldn't have a problem if they gonna just do a more often standalone story update without anything acompanying it.
Oh man ARCY 😂 You know that SHONEN are thrash but you admit with your your conscience that you like THEM ! You have my total respect !!!! This is what we call assuming your one life choice !!! Total RESPECT !!!! 🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇
ch5 is definitely a crapton of asspulls especially the starless apparently being a thing and pharia(?) conveniently dropping and telling you everything you need to know and activates the teleporter to leciel, but I'll take it over the absolute nothingburger of ch1-3. Zephetto (?) is at least foreshadowed a bit with sussy manon and the side stories talking about how dark falz seems to be studying the arks. Here's hoping episode 2 gets decent writing and pacing. P.S. fighting zephetto in ugly mech actually disappointed me, I was expecting we finally get a humanoid boss. At least he has voicelines.
Matoi also went through quite a bit of change and character development over the years, perhaps we'll get to see Aina get some drastic changes too come Ultra Evolution
@@Azelyra at first I thought aina's father did not die and he became the main antagonist. or he did die but he was a clone of zephet. in the first story aina inherited her father strength through bloodline. I just speculated wildly since I can't understand japanese writing. so our character is a carbon copy of the guardian in the past?
It would be funny if the starless was actually our original pso2 chara, who got bored after the centuries of peace, and then got disappointed how arks got weak and then be like, "y'know what, I'll turn shit up to eleven and turn myself into something akin to PD (starless) to make things exciting". And the rest of arks got the "your photon so thin you're barely alive in my eyes, therefore I have no trouble killing all yall" treatment. The reason starless remains dormant until this point is bcos starless was bored cuz nobody can challenge them, until our batch of arks show up.
Man I would have loved to see the starless or atleast what we would be up against. Most people had predicted that this was some kind of training. But what are we training for... Why did dude sacrifice himself if he deduced we are strong enough to fight. We could have repelled the first wave, seen an enemy general and prepared for war while getting answers from Zep. He did not have to die. That was wild..
Sega: "The real story starts now" Players: "It's been 2 years, FINALLY" No offense Dark Falz, you were a cool boss and probably best thing about ngs so far. However we what we really needed a villain. But yeah, looking forward to where Sega takes the story. Maybe we'll actually go to space and get to see the star part of Phantasy Star. Fingers crossed!
Gonna be honest, I really like zep, but if the starless are gonna be the big bad, I would have liked if sega made them seem less like the unbidden from stellaris and more like the flood. Instead of judt killing everything and everyone, they just started taking over and controlling the members of arks. And maybe while we are fighting through the floating island, zep is monologing about the stuff he yold us, trying to show his reasoning for what he did, then the starless could invade during the kvaris, stia sections. which interrupted his monoglouge and forced him to turn the dolls to our side as starless invade the island. And while it's nice to know arks still technically lives, I've no idea of zep and his team are all that is left or not, but I'm pissed at how sega handled this. We waited two years to get to this point, and sega just goes, "zep is a morally gray character, and uh oh heres a nigh unstoppable force that your near god like character could not stop". I want to know what the fuck is going on, why did ark get so devastated, how do they know the starless travel galaxies destroying everything. Why do the starless do this, and why the hell does manon sing better than fucking Nadereh WHOS ENTIRE GIMMICK IS IF SHE SING WE GET BUFF. I'm not disappointed with the story, just...why do you gotta be this lame sega.
It just feels empty because we don't have the "big figure" that represents the Starless to look towards, we only know them by name, but as I said about show and tell, we've only got a tell and really almost nothing of a show
Me, I figured we were a copy pretty much from the start given the time jump and complete lack of PSO2 characters. I just imagined that we were Persona who somehow came back to assume their original role. But ah well.
100% the ending without showing us what the new enemies at least look like was probably the biggest cop out they could of done. The story structure is improving well, seeing result. I just hope they focus more on story quest where things actually happen than pointless filler content.
I started in ngs, before I played any of base. Wasn't episode 1 of base story a little underwhelming also? Then it built up and became real good? That's what I heard anyway. Finished episode 1 base story a few months ago, it was alright. I'll get around to episode 2 eventually. Hopefully ngs will have the same outcome, just getting better overtime.....hopefully 😒
Yup! It's something like that, Episode 1 was generally just worldbuilding for Legacy, and the story really only got really good near the end of 2, and 3 was just great.
Zephetto hilariously and sadly enough, is actually the best character in NGS. He literally had 10 minutes of screen time, told us his backstory and gave us a lore bomb, and then zipped to his death. I fucking hate Aina as a character. She reminds me of Sakura in Naruto where she is completely useless and is just there to whine about how weak she is. At least in Episode 1 of base pso2 with Matoi she was just a massive question mark until we got the reveal later that she was actually a super badass top tier ARKS. With Aina theres literally nothing they can do like that because we are experiencing her backstory in real time meaning theres not even a what if to look forward too. All we can do is hope to god Sega can pull something out of their ass and do something good with her at some point. Either that or we just leave her on Halpha and meet up with the clone of Matoi in space so shit can actually start getting done lol. Episode 1 ending was (for NGS standards where it was basically in the ground before this) amazing and i hope it can keep the momentum throughout Episode 2.
Your shonen trash analogy is so interestin’, considerin’ there’s no way to foreshadow a character no one knows exists. We knew somethin’ was behind Dark Falz, from in-game lore. Granted, we should have had more of dat lore in da main story, but Zephetto wouldn’t have worked as well (nor da story beats) had we knew more of them.
I have this very question for a while now "Why ARKS look so weak?" this answer every single thing. ARKS bring WEAK is a foreshadow of how the past glory already went in flame... this really heartbreaking moment... imagine we broken the universe reset cycle Just to face another one that is more sinister... like a natural phenomenon. I can related with "necessity evil" in Zephetto action but the character definitely have enough of this BS. this clearly make the character their own individual, they so more that enough in this Halpha journey from the first Dark Falz theme as a confuse Meteoin to the real event reveal
It's definitely quite interesting to see how everything panned out, but in the end it's a bit like I've mentioned about show and tell, I really would love them to show more of it, rather than having Zeph tell the whole thing and that's it (for now)
Actually this PLOT TWIST OF "EVERY ONE IS FAKE OR EVERYTHING IS NOT REAL "is not that surprising ... Honestly it is standard in RPG. From Japan these days... I just hope that SEGA will innovate a little more or they will make it more funny since we started in a casual way even if people died ... It is like SEGA was saying " Here just take you plot twist and shut up !!!" 😂😂😂 Man it is so strange , especially this new enemy ... So let's be direct on that one : Are You kidding us SEGA !? So the ARKS , the one who destroyed the true PROFOUND DARKNESS. They are the peak of photon Mastery and power in the entire UNIVERSE at the end of EP 6 !!! AND NOW : "A new dude. Just come out of nowhere and NUKE THEM ALL , just one shot the entire ARK FLEET !!!" YOU SERIOUS SEGA !? You could have said things like ARKS fight among themselves and create factions and we are one of those factions and each faction has his unique classes and unique weapons and the DOLLS are one the faction advance unit of attack like "automated AIS " And for the "DARKFALZ" LOGIC maybe we can say that someone will recreate clone of Luther and the DARKFALZ just for war purpose among factions ... Something like that man !! You know there is so much potential for story on NGS ... Man , It is just sad they just gave us something so flat ... Knowing that 1/5 of the game life cycle is already over. And we are still waiting for that good hype !!! WE KNOW , YOU ARE PLANNING SOMETHING SEGA !!! SEGA PLEASE DON'T JUST SURVIVE TILL THE NEXT HEADLINE , JUST LEVEL UP THE SPEED HARD WAY , JUST RISE THE BAR HIGHER ONCE AND FOR ALL !!!😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅 Players are begging SEGA , BEGGING for this !! Sorry for the long text guys ! Don't hesitate to reply and see you around ! 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
Zephetto was cool. too bad you had to crank up your volume to max, just to be able to hear him, because the devs haven't figured out how to do sounds. XD
We gonna ignore the fact that Zephetto called Aina a second generation? if the PC is a third generation, Manon already was way head of us. Who else was he talking about?
Aina is probably the off spring of the 2nd generation of people that existed in Halpha. Remember there were three tests done in Halpha regarding Dolls. First test, everyone died. 2nd test wasn't nearly as devastating but it barely produced results. Aina and everyone that isn't current meteorn are offsprings of that 2nd test subjects.
I wouldn't say that I've watched those series myself, but I have heard good things about Sidonia no Kishi, so perhaps we're starting to get a better direction hum.
My main complaint with this ending/story is that so far there has been very little to NO explanation of anything. From the actual world itself to even many of the enemies/zones. And i hate to rag on it, but the naming of certain creatures is so much of a red-flag that i am surprised NO ONE on Halpha throughout roughly 300 years caught on to it. From the name of the main enemies called "DOLLs" to even Formers and Alters. Those do not seem like a typical naming convention for any sort of species or so on that would be made on the spot. It gets even more laughable when you have some of the characters going "I thought the DOLLs were born naturally on Halpha". Like . . . excuse me??? We have literal Robots in the desert (a point that is still not even touched upon, especially since they are labeled as Formers), and you think that DOLLs are some sort of natural entity? Though it WOULD be interesting if they touch upon that and say that certain DOLLs units can become Alter type creatures. That would be such a nice little bomb-shell to add. Otherwise it just raises way more questions than answers. And let's not even get me STARTED on the technology level/disparity. We have people that are wielding Photon infused weapons and tech with relative ease and almost HALF of that technology is barely understood. Which begs the greater question of "How did Zephetto imagine this "project" to succeed?". The guy is literally pitting barely cognizant and aware people against the wall and hoping to hell they figure half of this shit out. With little to no information. Just "do or die". At least with the ARKs Fleet we had SOME level of basic training and were eased into tougher assignments/jobs rather than just "thrown to the wolves" so to speak. Had he taken the time to at least "educate" the test subjects on what EXACTLY is going on and how to survive i think this "project" would have completed ages ago. Then again, it is kinda funny how ARKs tends to bring in the more Sociopathic and Deranged personalities into it's ranks. So that about checks out. In short while i am excited to get back to Stellar travel/adventures, they REALLY need to show us HOW we are even going to get to that point. As of right now, the inhabitants of Halpha are barely trained humanoids wielding ancient artifacts that they can barely replicate. If we're going to be traveling the stars, we need to see how the people of Halpha evolves past that initial limitation. What I would personally like to see? Maybe there is a wreck of one of the old ARKs fleet ships on Halpha, maybe deep in the water/ocean. And we have to go in and clean it up/restore it to some semblance of functionality and learn things along the way. That way you can introduce ancient logs/records of the ages past and maybe tug along the thread of the mystery of how things even GOT this bad. That'd be awesome to see.
I think in the PSO2 universe, you can resurrect the dead. Or, your original character was something worse than dead and your NGS character is just a carbon copy. I don't know.
Well to be fair. Some of us who pay attention to the lore kinda already on the tail of we genuinely in a simulation. The why though, now that's unexpected, and the reason why our character is basically a copy paste of our NGS characters. Let's just say color me intrigued
The narration needs a clean up, what really happens and what did not Are we having a peaceful 1000 years since shiva or things went to sh*t 500 years ago
It was explained they had a peaceful period for a really long time (1000 years ago to 500 years ago), and when the Starless attacked said 500 years ago, everything went to shit because of being too used to said era of peace
Oh man that was nuts! I wonder if Zephetto and company piggybacked off of Luther's cloning research. I totally hear you on those criticisms of Zephetto. Kinda reminds me of other RPGs where the real "big bad" isn't revealed until near the end of game.
I actually didn't even think of piggybacking off of Luther, that's actually super smart!
While I'd say it's a possibility, I'm also pretty down for the idea of "synthetic humans" kinds of things...
After all, we're pretty sci-fi right
Or perhaps we're just all Tunas lmfao
@@Azelyra We ourselves are just near perfect Clone of the former Guardian we are back in 1000 years ago and I guess that is a nice explanation for why we can be go back to PSO2 and back lol
THERE MUST BE SOME GARBAGE IN THE FORMULA
Wasn't that the case with Golbez in FF4? Where he's believed to be the main antagonist but it was actually a bigger threat pulling the strings behind the scenes?
Uh well Zephetto isn’t an antagonist at all. In an overarching sense I mean.
He’s technically on our side just using really terrible methods.
Zephetto wasn't a villain, but an antagonist. He's the kind of character that did what NEEDED to be done, even if it was unpalatable (i.e. Illidan from WoW). Near the end of the cut-scenes there's a response prompt for our character and both choices are clear defiance of him, but as a player at that point I was ready to join up with him to prepare for the Starless. I'm fine with everything as far as moving the plot along, but an ideal ending for me would have been Aina jumped in the DOLLZ exosuit and flew off for a final hurrah, and Zephetto became our new "Crawford" leader role person.
Yeah,he basically sacrificed hundreds to try save millions
I'LL BE HONEST I'M NOT A FAN OF HIS DOLLS EXOSUIT OR WHAT YOU WANNA CALL IT LOL
When I saw his design I was squealing, and when he got in the Doll Suit I literally turned into a yoghurt
@@Azelyra I agree, I really like how the gold "teeth" on his headgear make it look like he's wearing a crown and the glowing blue highlights of his armor is amazing. I specifically dislike Aina, which is why I say I would gladly have traded her death to keep Zephetto around. Alas, she is the main character so.... *shrug* guess I'll deal with it.
@@Azelyra Bruh I was so disappointed I thought he was gonna be a humanoid boss😢
I was annoyed that the little time we had with Zephetto was kinda wasted with the 3 of them randomly accusing him of being insane and “playing games”.
Yeah you don’t have to like his methods but his reasoning if what he says is true is completely sound.
Also his boss form just looks like he added DOLLS mods to an AIS Vega.
Which begs the question why not use DOLLS tech to fight the Starless? It seems pretty robust.
Number 1.. 909 is such a cool nick name.
2.I'm surprised we are a clone of our OG MC. I hope they dive into this more with Manon. Hopefully she explains why we exist and who we were designed after.
Definitely needs a huge dive! But I guess our default Player IDs make more sense now
Hi, I'm RA9G3-T909 how are you?
@@Azelyra Warning Test Subject Resurgent ARKS 9th Squad Generation 3 - Test No. 909 has entered the facility.
We players are third generation clones of the original.
What's the point if the original failed whut the heck are copies gonna do?
Least Horizon Zero Dawn mankind had a chance.
Here we just screwed cause we keep making the same mistakes.
I just find the implication that no, the MC never left Matoi but that they probably died together in a fiery explosion via a Stellaris endgame crisis rather funny.
@@zephyr8072 I like to think we are they reason they retreated
I had goosebumps when I found out there is a connection on Casra's epilogue in Ep6, where he talked about the possibility of banning the weaponization of photon energy in exchange for peace, and now it became a reality... 500 years ago when we were powerless against the Starless.
I am with you Azelyra, when they should've sprinkled foreshadowing of Zephetto here and there, since chapter 3, when the game introduced Dark Falz. Plus, with the Starless too, I feel like there's so muuuuch potential waiting.
Funny enough, SEGA sure knows how to hype on many many things, but sadly.... not in the story.
In 4 we found out that dark falz is sending data to leciel so we can assume the head is up there. And now we see the head. Let's also think about the world and we can tell that there is no reason we should even stand a chance. If the dolls wanted to win the war, they could have just bulldozed each region before we ever united. Send dark falz, renus, nex and more to retem then central then stia all before we get the central cannon. It's clear we aren't in a serious destroy them all war. And when we find out the data being gathered (which should have been a bigger note), we can deduce someone is doing something. But I also think someone should have figured it out as well in game and ask why we are standing a chance. Get that question in the players hands and then oh its an experiment. I mean we have training cocoons so that was on the nose. There should be some data pads alluding to a larger threat like the starless too I guess by some signs or something in stia.
I do love the implications and all, but now we'll just have to wait for more! Haha
yeah i wish they like introduced zephetto like in end of chapter 2 or 3 atleast
Casra went full Gundam Wing.
You never go full Gundam Wing.
@@zephyr8072 I'm sorry, but I have to be honest: I laughed at your comment of using Gundam Wing as an anology. I probably wouldn't if I knew the context of Gundam Wing being used as an analogy though.
I'm actually excited the story finally goes into space again. I hope we'll get to have a space station hub, visit a new planet, and meet whoever survived the Starless. I also hope someone like Matoi from the base PSO2 can make a return. Still, ANY foreshadowing would've been really nice as a post-credits scene right there! Urgh, I wonder why they didn't do that?
Same! Im glad we gonna leave halpha and visit the stars once again
STARS: EPISODE 6 I mean what
If you want Matoi to somehow appear, just pray that she became as Godly as the 1st Klariskrays and became immortal or just a Goddess alongside with the Trio heroines that somehow managed to save you from Primordial Darkness.
@@AzariusR I was half expecting Matoi to be in that pod in Retem for some reason :D
@@AzariusRonestly, considering that Matoi was created by Xion to be some sort of ultimate life form, I wouldn’t be too surprised if she is somehow immortal. It certainly wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen in universe.
Loving on how Zephetto design showcasing the inside of CAST character, been curious about CAST anatomy for a while
HE'S WAY TOO COOL AND I LOVE IT
Revealing the secrets of the CAST Supremacy.
This will be brought up in our next clandestine meeting.
Zephetto is such an interesting name since it's the first time they're really pulling from Grimms fairy tales, particularly that of Pinocchio. His name can also be translated as Geppetto. It makes sense, he was a wood carver, a DOLL maker.
The starless are an interesting enemy. When I first saw them I thought they were the SEED. At this point now we have several questions that need to be answered both as players and as characters. As characters we need to know how to fight back against the starless, and had to bring the fight to them. As players we need to know what remains of the original ARKS fleet such as the status of Xiao and Xierra.
There's also still the matter of the dolls. What are we going to do with them? Do we have the power to now switch them from kill mode to support mode and turn them into the fifth playable race? I'd want that kind of support at my back even if from a numbers standpoint.
I guess we'll see how all this plays out soon, and just what secrets still lie within H-alpha. We'll find out soon enough I guess if this planet is actually supposed to be a world ship or a mothership or something like that or if we're just going to get off this rock and forget it
That's a very interesting trivia regarding the name! That's actually amazing.
@@Azelyra I think it's a purposeful double (or triple?) entendre, H-Alpha being a kinda photon reference, Halphas being a daemon from the Ars Goetia / Lesser Keys of Solomon who is "described as a hoarse-voice stock dove who supplies weapons and ammunition for towers, sends men to war, and commands 26 legions of spirits". And also Alpha being the first letter of the greek alphabet, hopefully first of many planets to come in NGS.
I think you are right about the Pinocchio reference, since the new doll enemies in the final quest are called ‘Marioness’ (marionette). Since Zephetto was called a general, there might be more generals, maybe themed after a fairytale?
Best chapter so far. Now I'm hopeful that Ultra Evo will deliver.
My friend described it as, we had one story chapter, then 2 filler regions, then continue the story which is why it felt werid LOL
But yeah, this is not a bad introduction to Ultra Evolution per se, I just wanted to see a little more
If we had panned out of the top of Leciel to reveal that we were on an ARKS ship I would’ve upgraded this from decent to awesome but alas.
Things still look hopeful at least.
Man I feel this. We finally had a villain for like 3 whole seconds in Zephetto then they took him away by redirecting into him being on our side. NGS story has been completely bland because we don't have an antagonist to hate. This story entry great for a minute but left me feeling jebaited. We need an antagonist not some faction threat that no one cares about.
100% Agree about needing an Antagonist of sorts, if you think of any of the bigger stories in cinema, even if there's a huge faction of enemies, I think it helps a lot to have the central people that REPRESENTED THOSE IDEALS as the leaders of the antagonist side per
It's not easy for u to focus on a "whole faction" as an enemy, comparatively to looking at a central figure representing said faction
They ruined the story to NGS because of chapter 5. They should just kept dark falz and the doll a mystery. It would been fine.
@@demeptrion8932 honestly i disagree,it was so boring like this
Guess we gotta wait for the new updated brings to the table,seems like the starless will be the hateble antagonist you will be looking for
Hope they have sentient commander,cuz dolls being tottally silent was very boring
To be fair to Manon, it's different when a bunch of people die almost like a statistic such as Aelio Town (even if it was horrible) and then someone personally sacrifices themselves for you like with that nameless ARKS,
Oh for sure, sometimes it's really some small things that breaks the camel's back as I mentioned, but I do still find it pretty funny to put it into perspective- That being said it would have been so much cooler imho if it was something like, Manon thought Aina died or something (even though she didn't), there's a lot of potential for the narrative there is the point I'm trying to make
I couldn't read the text so I definitely missed a lot of points. But one thing which I noticed and gave me a wide eye was that Zephetto's pauldron has "Observer Group ARKS" written on it in the old pso2 font.
Yup! There's a lot of old oracle font around ~
White part on Chest: "Connection"
Black Part on Chest: "Origin"
Arm: was what you said
Carbon fiber-like surface on Back: Caution
Below the carbon fiber thing: "The Original and The Best" the "st" in best was a bit smidged
I think the biggest flaw of the story was not having a speaking villain. Dark falz is mute and at best was just a bigger dolls. Meanwhile, Elder, Persona, and Luther spoke and made the story interesting. Even just having one cutscene every chapter like the one where Zephetto just comments to himself about the progress of the experiment would've been 10x more interesting for the story. Introducing a character for 5 minutes and then yeeting him into space just ain't sitting right with me.
I also noticed that they did kinda retcon part of the 1000 years later story, where we're now just a clone of ourselves instead of the same character like they initially said.
I'm hoping the game moves back to an oracle ship at some point in the future if we're going back to space. I don't think the 4 hubs are working out too much imo, and having one big hub in pso2 was just great for the community.
Also cuz spaceships are cool.
At the very least, they're moving away from the whole Open World thing and implementing new ways to add content into the game, I think we'll see soon in the next headlines to come!
I kinda like how much is left unsaid, even though I think the story felt a *bit* rushed at the end. I'm gonna chalk that up to the nature of the game being online only, since I feel like they've been finding the balance for storytelling vs game progression since launch.
I wonder if the Starless inspired the look for the dolls? And whether the Starless are related to the original arks, or it this is a new photoner situation, or another manifestation of the Dark Falz stuff.
also, the amount of tech that just got dropped in their laps from this entire situation is likely the catalyst for the Ultra Evolution, so I'm really excited to see how Halpha changes. It also likely gives them the ability to further develop on the concept of trainia, and a bunch of other stuff they were trying to figure out, like those Kvaris side missions. I'm also curious about what happens with the dolls on Halpha, since I'd assume they might be able to control them now.
will they end up using Dark Falz as a weapon to fight the Starless?!
So many possibilities!
Indeed with the possibilities, I think it's at least a good thing for them to set a baseline for a lot of the narrative and event to be something a lot more interesting than what it is right now, and that's probably the best takeaway I got from this.
The pacing of the whole story so far has been seriously bad, with Ch5 alone pretty much covering many times more information than Ch2-4 comibned. I think they kind of had to spread out the story to introduce the regions one by one, but it feels like pretty much nothing happened between Aelio town and defeating DF. But still Ch5 was amazing and it's finally starting to feel like a proper PSO story! Regarding Creative Space, I think the explanation could be either that we're going on to create our own floating islands, or that us taking control over the existing floating islands granted us the power to terraform Halpha. Either way, that would make the idea of creating our own space a lot more fun imo :)
*Regarding Zephetto, I think a big issue they've been having with the story is that it's really hard to tease a character like him without spoiling the whole background, which if spoiled can take away a lot from the DF fights. But the way they've done it isn't particularly helpful either :/
It's definitely at least, there's a baseline for something interesting in the future now,
The thing is as has been pointed out it was very very very obvious that this was some sort of sim or training situation.
It was obvious right from the start that DOLLS were artificial and very close to ARKS tech and this only became even more obvious over time.
And we already know ARKS isn’t above messed up experiments on it’s own people for the “greater good” because they’ve done it before.
Hell Zephetto’s actions are rather tame compared to the awful things they’ve done.
Dude i loved zhephetto and the conclusion to ep 1 of ngs.
I admit i may be bias cuz i adore morally gray characters in stories,i feels much more interesting than"good guys vs bad guys"
100% Agreed with the gray areas being interesting!
@@Azelyra even though this conclusion may not been a story telling masterpiece,and they should have sprinkled some clues and more hints of the big revelation
I was very satisfied,that they finally ditched the old formula and tried something new,can't wait to be able to fight the starless
Yeah Chapter 5 is really amazing chapter, honestly i expecting things get to be continued before we get into the tower or before we faced Zephetos (also boss fight?!) thats really unexpected
I just like how Aina trash talk Zephetos with just few words, but yeah i was hoping if we can see what starless look like that be best but nope sadly, or they said that lot of starless unit heading halpha but nothing happen? idk whats going on lmao
Is it just me or do I find the fight with Zeph kinda super unnecessary story wise? Well I think it's ok gameplay wise but, it's a bit weird how we just beat him and he's like k fam imma sit here and explain everything and 5 mins later everything he talked about came crashing down on us, literally, without us even having the time to absorb all the information LOL
@@AzelyraZephetto wasn’t gonna explain; they only explained ‘cause of Aina. And since they know errything about all of us, it makes sense they’d wanna explain for her, given all she’s been through.
Zephetto clearly has a heart for humanity.
@@Azelyra I believe it's a battle to test if we can at least take him down, who is a former ARKS who is literally full of Base PSO2 stickers on his armor so to check if we have the Fashion to defeat his Drip. (Jk I mean his ultimate form of Dark Falz mobile suit) and then after defeated he did confirm that we are able to face the Starless alright, that is why he leaves the future back to us.
@@adamdevereaux2713 SIMMMPPPPP i mean what
I'm just gonna call it NGS EP2. Also, it's crazy that we all been dead.
omae wa mou shindeiru
It's more like we died or passed away because of old age I mean it's like 1000 years since lol.
Are we clones are are we simply created. And are we randomly created into being the guardian or is it a coincidence if your character looks the same but not a canon plot point. If anything I want confirmation or confirmation of being ambiguous on it which I'd prefer since some player may just have another character for ngs even on the same character. Like a base outfit and a ngs outfit.
Hey my character’s a Cast so mine should still be around long after you inferior mammals passed on.
Assuming she didn’t go down in flames with the entire Oracle fleet that is.
I kinda like not knowing what to expect from the "Starless", all we know is they're apparently from beyond the galaxy and that they nearly completely wiped out ARKS. An unknowable enemy is always intriguing, at least until a writer decides their motivations have to be known, then it's a bit like showing the monster in your horror movie, it almost never lives up to expectations.
Maybe they're not conventionally intelligent, some sort of invasive species, space locusts, that consume stars or planets... That's just the vibe I got for some reason, disappearing for 500* years seems like it could be some sort of life cycle thing, hibernation or cicada-like emergence. Maybe later on it could be revealed that someone is manipulating them and they can be our scenery chewing villain.
* I don't remember if they actually said when the Starless vanished, I know they appeared 500 years ago, and I know the Halpha experiment has been running for 300. That leaves a couple hundred years, some or all of which could've ARKS been fighting a long but losing battle, or the ARKS could've been wiped out very quickly but it still took Zephetto 200 years to get Halpha up and running.
They said something along the lines of after they attacked, they just completely disappeared without a trace, so they decided to make the whole Resurgent ARKS thing to prepare for "The Day To Come" when the Starless returns..... which just happens to be RIGHT AFTER HIS MONOLOGUE LOL
Yeah, the vibe I got from Zeph's description of the Starless is the same vibe I got from the Reapers in Mass Effect. Just uberpowerful alien insects hellbent on eradicating all forms of life every couple hundred years, just cause lol.
Oh good god if we end up having to talk with the Starless leader in the form of an irritating child who tells us the Starless are extra-gala tic invaders who need to kill us all so we won’t be killed by extra-galactic invaders then asks us to pick a colour then I quit forever.
If the game delivers narratively on the same way as this chapter for the rest of its lifespan, then I think we're in for one amazing MMO. It sucks it took us almost 3 or so years to get to a point where I can say the game feels fun to play, but alas, what can you do. I'm hoping this is only a small taste of this UEU (Ultra Evolution Update) they're teasing, this game needs to go bigger and better to stand against these heavy hitters about to drop. But by far, I loved this chapter and all the QoL updates it brought with it. NOW WE JUST NEED SEGA TO GIVE US SOME CRAZY CONTENT LIKE INSTANCED DUNGEONS (not these trania cocoons, like some actual unique dungeons lol), and maybe something reminiscent of Divide Quest? But yeah, this update reignited my hype for the game, and I'm looking forward to June all the more. FINGERS CROSSED!
Definitely need extended story narratives though- I'm happy this is a base to build something even greater upon! Hum.
@Azelyra oh yeah, most definitely. SEGA has always had an issue with its narrative within this game, even back in base pso2. I feel like this chapter is the way it is because the team really decided it was time to step up, and they had to do it in such a short amount of time. I'm not saying they pulled this idea out of their ass, but at the same time, I'm highly doubtful they had THIS planned out to the extent it currently is. There are so many potholes from the start of NGS to now, so I'm more thinking they knew they had to go crazy from here on out. So now it all falls on June and the future of this game to really deliver narratively.
I will hold my judgement till June. But the ending of chapter 1 was the first interesting thing since launch.
As much as I was expecting the plot being, "oh everything was simply an experiment" plot point, i was still genuinely satisfied enough with how it all unfolded. Some plot points reached all the way back from the base game which is a nice touch for any lore wanters. And with Leciel still left in tact and with Zephetto only being a general, the story is now even wider that ever before. We can now entertain the idea that there could be more people like Zephetto who chose to go a different route with their experiment to bring ARKS back to their prime, either in a different continent in the same planet or simply a different planet all together.
I suppose Halpha might just be the new base hum.
The fact that there's barely a foreshadowing might be because they didn't plan the story in advance and more future story hasn't even been thought of... I bet Starless doesn't even have a design right now which is why they only appear as some random red comets
It feel as if they just put whatever they have on the table but only when the time come because they didn't prepare for it and that's bad
There could've easily been a scene where if our player cleared EP6 of OG PSO2 it'd trigger a flashback to our time we had with Matoi and etc,.. to make the scene way more impactful
However, if anything I'm glad they choose to go back with the darker tone of the story
After 2 whole years of skipping story, Ch.5 is the only one I binged the entire chapter without skipping
Maybe they realized that choosing to appeal to new players too much is a bad idea now
That being said, I don't know if our character could have said flashbacks due to being a clone, and not the real deal... BUT If our characters DO retain memory (if our player has Cleared Legacy PSO2 story) that would be such an amazing detail addition.
Yeah that's not how game development works, lol. They don't just wing it or do stuff on the fly. There's storyboarding/design choices made/etc. for things many, many months in advance for stuff like this. There are models (unrigged) for Starless enemies in the data among other things. To think that they would just throw whatever they have scribbled on a napkin out at the last minute is pretty silly, haha 😂 what a weird assumption.
@@ganymede4030 You are not wrong, it's only a mixed feeling combined with one weird assumption that I made. They wouldn't just do exactly what I assumed. Especially with the game this big.
I love that it creates context why elements of the world feel provided. So many of the ARKs and event people are like "We don't know how it got here, but here it is!" It makes Aelio town seem more quaint because they were actually cultivating their own livelyhoods like making food for each other and farming instead of having everything given to them in liquid for like quick food. It's surreal to find out that everyone was living like pets in an enclosure.
That's a great way to look at it tbh, it's quite dark and I like it
i think they where teasing classic-style tileset content with those levels on leciel. ultra evolution is probably going to be a return to roots since they already confirmed it will move away from the current ngs formula (open world), so a return to the base formula is likely. also the zephetto fight gave me exegul vibes and makes me want to see divides in ngs.
Give me Execour/Exegul in NGS and import Phantom and I'm playing this game for 40000 more hours, no one can stop me
I see that source?
@@Strykerx31 before datamined channel closed, it confirmed we gonna back to space and abandon whole halpha setting. return to root of pso2? that i cannot confirm
@@Azelyra yes to this, rod phantom for life~
@@Strykerx31 was in the headline when they announced ultra evo with the roadmap. they said ultra evo will divert from the typical ngs formula. so that likely means a shift away from open world at least for a while. this is now backed up by the fact that they literally just gave us a sneak peak at their new tileset level system so i would expect to see more of it in june.
Unfortunately I can literally summarise the ending, it's literally like how Sonic Frontier's Ending basically, we are left with more questions as to who the antagonist is and in the end, the real threat is still out there kinda ordeal.
Still considering the fact that they realize how unsustainable their region to region story was so low stakes, I am able to forgive them actually concluding all this simulation and experiment nonsense and finally reveal the truth behind it all and why we are ARKS DEFENDER PRIME to prepare for the day the Starless will return. There is only 1 more month to go through before June arrives and I just can't wait for what they will bring with Base PSO2 finally being connected and brought up.
I have not gotten to play Sonic Frontiers yet, however I've had many people brought that up as well, where the ending here is really familiar- BUT At the very least, I think it sets us up for something bigger, and hopefully, much better.
@@Azelyra Yeah in terms of Setup it does better than the one Sonic Frontier's had. Still actually there are already Leaks or datamines about Starless existing for quite a long time already in the game files but I'll stop right there.
My only question i have is are we going to be staying on Halpha? The 'Starless' seem like a galactic threat and are we supposed to fight them on a single island? I kind of doubt it.
My guess is that EP 2-3 will revolve around getting into space and visiting other planets like base PSO2 but with open world spaces for different planets. I hope so because that boss arena was pretty.
Halpha will continue to exist, but come Ultimate Evolution, we'll have a new form of content rather than the new Open World areas or so- It's what they said at least
I like Zephetto's character but I didn't like how the writers justify mass genocide and eugenics as a way of responding to a crisis
We still don't get a lot of the details, perhaps we'll just have to wait and see the real truth first
What most interests me are the clones Zephetto mentioned after we fight him. Is Sega going to introduce new characters into the story that are at the level of our character? It would be pretty interesting at the very least.
THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!
Plot twist! That "4th clone" - Matoi replica!
The 4th generation clone will be Ash and we’ll get to beat him to a pulp for taking credit for our actions in the anime.
Maybe the 4th gen are based around the scion trainers. If 909 is based off of the Guardian which is also a 3rd gen ARKS.
Not that I'm hoping of those classes to return.
@@sengurren Maybe, but then wouldnt it be odd that he needed our character's photon output to complete them?
Okay so I just finished and I gotta say: Where the heck was this story telling at since NGS started XD
The entire story was a massive tourist trip and it felt really awkwardly implemented cept for this last part
My biggest issue is how Aina and Manon are portrayed and their individual personal growths
Aina is scared then gets over it instantly and her emotional growth gets shelved
Mannon seems for the most part unfazed until the rando sacrifices himself
Both of these story *arks* could have been more fleshed out over time
Aina feeling that she's responsible for the last two villagers of Alieo town almost to an obsessive degree
Seeing Mannon and the Player as people she needs to protect at all costs which eventually gives her the strength to overcome her fear
Afterwards she could be overbearing in her desire to protect you two and have to realize that she should trust her friends to be okay
As there are other people who might actually need her help in larger battles
Mannon of the other hand should start off like she does but around Retem she should start acting just a bit more rushed
like she's trying to hurry things along while retaining her normal atmosphere for the most part
but she starts letting things slip a bit that she knows more than she lets on
Later in Kvaris she should slip up a bit more while helping repair things in lost central
Noticeably trying to move things along faster
Then in Stia she finally reaches a point where she seems almost desperate
as the Stia arks are sacrificing themselves more and more
Until the point where she loses her composure mid fight and one of them Sacrifices himself because of her rushed mistake
That's when she should full on break down
the straw that broke the camels back being "her fault" someone sacrificed himself
Afterwards she should be sent back to Central to heal psychologically
only after you return from Stia you realize that she had gone missing
I feel the biggest issue with the story
is that character growth that should take time does not take time
But hey, better late than never right! At the very least, they're building a foundation for something newer and better, and at least, it's a start
@@Azelyra It's definitely a good thing that they did something at the end
I hope they can take the time to increase the overall quality of the story
Also it'd be nice if the english voice direction was given a kick in the pants
There are some moments when characters need to emote but fall extremely flat
I kinda want to check the JP dub to see
if the issues are the same there
What if Zephetto is Xiao's offspring, or what became / what was left of Xiao after the starless rampaged through ARKS
I'm down for that! Haha
I think the story premise they went with is fine. I like the clone idea because of how it blends with the ending of PSO2 (and doesn't immediately explode it the moment you're not looking, to create another conflict). I just think it isn't exactly sustainable at this rate of content. While we should be getting the next chapter sooner this time around because Ch.5 wasn't part of the 6 month interval, if we keep getting the same amount at that rate, it just won't add up to all that much for several years.
It needs more, and specifically, I think it needs more characters in the story to have ongoing troubles to deal with, ones that can weave into the main plot and extend its pacing and playtime. However, with none of the cast having their own problems at the moment, if they tried to extend playtime, it'd just be nonsense like 'attack at X location' over and over. We really need these other characters to have their own stories and interests to investigate. If they're worried about people complaining about story taking too long, then don't require it anymore, like in Base. No point writing a story based around people that don't want it, is there? Just excuse them from it instead.
Yeah, they literally excused to make story a bit shorter cuz they want people to not have to worry about story- But then it's like, IT ALREADY WORKED PERFECTLY FINE IN LEGACY WHY NOT JUST COPY THAT SYSTEM LOL
tons of the foreshadowing could have been done with environmental telling such as the use of datapads that use to always give tiny bits of lore but in ngs everyone of them was just wasted on tutorials...
There is definitely some telling that the whole thing is a bit of a test/experiment of sorts, but it definitely wasn't clear enough to put in the picture of what happened in the past 1000 years or so, since it was heavily marketed as "THE STORY IS 1000 YEARS AFTER..." even in the main trailers
From what I heard, those kind of story arc are usually all planned out in advance, and for live service games like Destiny, Warframe, FF14 and so on, those individual arcs are usually written in chunks of 2 years at a time.
So yeah, it's very likely that the whole story of NGS EP1 was already written ages ago, hence why they HAD to see it through regardless of how people felt about it because the whole game and its upcoming updates were likely already built around it.
But now that we're entering a brand new arc, Sega likely already have incorporated the playerbase's feedback into that new story, which is likely already written and planned out by now.
That does sound about right- Usually in Legacy PSO2, SEGA is already finished with the next episode and working on the one after while one episode is currently on live- Which means for example, as Episode 3 was on Live, Episode 4 was basically already done and finalizing, while Episode 5 is being worked on.
Has anyone read Battle Angel Alita/Gunnm? I imagine many are familiar with the premise of the movie and anime - it's the future, warriors used to be stronger, a war happened, but now everyone is stuck on the surface and there's a big floating structure that nobody can get to. I can't really elaborate without lots of spoilers, but, in the manga, Alita does get to enter the floating thing, and after that story just keeps going, with societies on other planets basically having done their own things for centuries while Earth was in an oblivious bubble.
I'm not really going anywhere with that regarding NGS predictions, as there are lots of differences as well. But, the Earth prologue part of the story was made interesting by there being lots of villains/antagonists that exist for a myriad of reasons that have nothing to do with what happens later, like just people wanting a better life for themselves when resources are scarce, or are cruel or became unhinged. NGS had none of that. Plus, for me the aspect of Leciel that I really wanted to see expanded was the ARKS operators that were completely unphased when we turned up, but didn't seem to care to help either. What's their story?
I'm a bit torn on this. From an RPG gameplay experience point of view, I think Dark Falz and maybe some other Dolls should have been given some dialogue. But, maybe creating such interactions would have been too unbearable for those on Leciel, so it needed to be this way.
So I don't know as to whether chapter 5 could have easily been better or not. The preceding chapters could have perhaps just had some ARKS go bad. Certainly betrayals have been a thing in Phantasy Star since, well, the opening sequence of the 1987 game. But maybe us players would have seen through it as obvious filler anyway.
Personally for me I've never played a prior Phantasy Star title, but so far I've been getting quite a number of comments since Dark Falz Aegis came out that there's a lot of homage to the original games, I think it'll be cool to continue that way for both older and newer players!
Pre chapter 5, I alwayd wonder why Halpha Arks made a big deal about the (back then) mysterious tower in the sky. Like, couldn't they have just called in support from the Oracle fleet way up in space and go have a look.
This did eventually lead me into thinking everything on Halpha was artificial and controlled by ARKS with Halpha being a training planet to combat some true enemy.
Chapter 5 gave me my answer, there is no Oracle fleet. They're dead Jim.
Another thing, it occurs to me that the DOLLS should be on our side now we’re going to fight the Starless.
Can you imagine some big event where we ride Dark Falz Aegis into a giant space battle against them?
Plus Glen’s seething rage at having to fight alongside them would be.. interesting.
DF Aegis Mount when? I mean MO: Glide: DF Aegis I mean what
I mean personally I want to know specifically what happened to everyone, like the guardian, the earth branch, Matoi, everyone. Your telling they just got zapped and that was it? Also I do hope we get to go other planets
My theory is that Xiao might had concealed or transported them to somewhere safe back when the Starless Incident happened, hopefully this is true because if we were to lose them to the Starless then what's the point of us being a clone of a failed Guardian of Base PSO2 lol.
That's the thing with Show and Tell and my issue with the reveal, we got more of the tell but not the show sadly
It’s 1000 years though….would they even still be alive? Lol granted it’s a game so anything can happen but weren’t they just human?
@@Cyberr_mp4 humans lived relatively long in the pso2 universe, also people could just become cast and live longer
I assume they’re leaving vagueness there in case they want to bring anyone back or tell some story about it later on.
Hell if they did some event in base PSO2 somewhere down the line that’s be pretty cool.
The story could go into a darker turn, but here's hoping they don't take years to bring out story relevant stuff as they did with NGS at the start.
It could take time, but at the very least I'm happy with a foundation that's at the very least, a lot more how do I say, interesting than what we had the past years?
Yeah as a person who dislike chapter 1 - 4. I like how chapter 5 at least steer the game towards an interesting story.
I do hope they do explain what happen to our characters though.
If NGS is like 1000 year in the future and everyone died 500 prior. We still have questions like what happen to us? To Matoi? To the council?
Like do they died due to old age or are these enemy are that strong that they just kill all of us.
It could get into an interesting point like what if turns out our OG is alive somewhere in cryo sleep and imagine you meeting your OG XD. Gonna be weird but the story can be interesting.
And i totally agree on how they should've tease us with one of the Starless enemy. Like isnt when we finished Eps 5 we have that cutscene of Shiva and the gang attack the ship. And both Maria and Regius cant do anything to attack em. This gives goosebump like "HOLY THEY SO STRONG" and stuff.
But yeah proly they just snap this story on top another planned one so they cant show those stuff yet. But i dont care if they did. Im just glad they did.
Welllll lets wait for the next headlines i guess and hope the story can be as good as Base PSO2.
Dude same here!
Chap 1 - 4 are painfully bland repetition of"go to new region,fend off big scary mysterious alien monster with barely any information on them and save the day"
Chap 5 on the other hand introduces grey morality(which im such a big fan of) alongside more information on what happend during this 1000 years gap
Even though i enjoyed it still has ita flaws like lack of foreshadowing
What I'm really waiting for is hopefully we'll have some flashback chapters where we can actually get to see/experience the first invasion of the Starless
@@Azelyra ohhhh flashback yeah legacy pso2 got tons of those and they sre really good. I hope they do lots of it in the future.
You know what I would like to see some of the more immortal characters in the story who don't age still being alive like xiera an arks ship comes to halpha and xiera is driving sees us gets emotional thinking were the guardian but knowing the guardian is dead and we get the option to say we're not them or get the option to "remember" xiera honestly I wouldn't be against classic us being reincarnated into 909 clone
Hopefully they're all good and alive first haha
Well he did say The starless destroyed a fleet of research ships and said nothing about the other ships just the research ships So we can hope maybe some old peeps still alive on other ships maybe some people were putting cryosleep for a thousand years All we can do is hope
I mean if I were a general of a secret research team doing secret experiments And I only cared about the betterment of humanity as a whole I would have a distress beacon installed so that when i succeed I can beacon for the rest of my military to come and pick u my super soldier I mean he obviously didn't care if he lived or died so long as humanity lived I don't think he care if any other old arcs condemn him for what he did So long as they had their super soldier
I don't mind Zephetto not being shown that much but I feel like the MC and Aina act too much like an npc and it's so frustrating reading their dialogues. Manon is probably the most interesting character out of the bunch despite not knowing everything. Pharia is fine.. but the problem is it felt rushed and the pacing and writing feels awkward at times.
The saddest part is our character even feels like a side character :
I quit like a month after launch, has there been any plot thread connected to the original PSO2 story? I was super disappointed they didn't leave any crumbs about that. The fact that they goad us on into thinking this is the same universe as the OG PSO2 but never refer to it left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't mind spoilers so if someone could tell me that would be great.
I did go over this in the video a little bit, but basically they went the dark route, and 500 years after the legacy PSO2, more or less everyone died due to a prolonged period of peace, and new enemies suddenly appeared. We're literally a clone of our own characters from 1000 years ago, and not the real deal.
Was thinking it would do just like base how we get what happened in the past next like how episode 5 was where we went back in time or something then to come forward idk just a thought
I would still LOVE to get flashback episodes to the first Starless invasions or so
@@Azelyra that's what I mean the next episode we will play in the flash back like how episode 5 was in the past or whatever lol 😂 starless arc
Im trying not to hype myself as i wish to enjoy playing ngs. I honestly dont find it as bad as everyone else says since it seems it had similar issues to what ep 1 of base pso2 had (from what i understand).
When it comes to chapter 5, the arena used to fight zephetto was similar to the character creation area in base pso2 and with the old arks logo in the center i wonder how did the old arks terraformed or built a planet in the first place.
Also considering ngs takes place a thousand years after base, that's more than enough time for newer generations to live, and the knowledge to be passed on with likely some changes. Zephetto for me screams Phantom and i wonder if Kyokuya's philosophy on being a phantom influenced those after him especially after the arrival of the starless.
One thing to get out of the way first. As a CAST ~Master Race~ main, I'm happy that we get a CAST character in the story with a unique design (Regius and Maria use default set, their upgraded set is good but still similar to the old default set. Saga got a pass, but he's a really minor character. Bruder go back to default set instead).
That said, the whole story feels like Base PSO2 Eps 1 shortened times 5. Each region got short arc with 0 weight. Now, the story's suddenly picking up, but the build up from all the past arc is almost non-existent (I think the only one discussing Leciel and Halpha's nature is just one throwaway sidequest in Kvaris). It doesn't help that we somehow doesn't see this 'Starless vanguard units' despite some seems to be crashing down (with a special cube effect to boot). It just feels like they're suddenly trying to switch to a darker tone in a panic because the old lighthearted one doesn't work.
That said, just as how Base PSO2's eps 2 and 3 brought the golden era of PSO2 story, I'm somewhat hopeful this switch will be a success. But the whole 'not going to focus on the story because it becomes a requirement for progress' thing is keeping me skeptical that the golden era will ever come back.
Here's Hoping!
I like the ending a lot because of
1. I don't know there is the ending
2. Giving me Nier series vibe when humanity is all gone and all the androids keep fighting for nothing.
Not the perfect ending but enough to make me hyped for ultra evolution.
And I'm not sorry for Manon that I made fun of you having period, it Sega's fault for not foreshadowing.
Here's to better character development all around!
Right now i don't know how to say
Chap 5 story is getting dark
And many things no explain only wait EP2 of extra ex chap
And what new enemy we go to face it
I really wish we got to see more of the Starless and stuff, rather than having everything explained in a barely 8 minute dialogue scene
Its also a shame they didn't show the starless. If they want to make the big bad guy, look better because an even bigger evil was about to happen (Which is a cheap excuse in itselve) and then not even show any of it, that is a big no no, its like Zephetto was like: Look up there! and the team just looks up to the sky and there's nothing there and they look back and Zephetto just used the time to get out of the situation. XD "Oh damn, they want me to explaine to them why I conducted those terrible tests over the last 300 years? damn... Better make something up and gtfo!" XD I mean, apparently, a couple of days has gone by after the zephetto fight. No reason, arks hasn't seen any of the Starless, in that time, especially when they are supposedly that evil and dangerous...
To be fair the explanation was they literally appeared and disappeared out of nowhere lol
I have so many question about what happened to other places...what happen to naberius, harukotan, people at eps 5, people at earth, how about the real dark falz since all dolls and dark falz on halpa is all just an imitation to the real ones. What about guardians and it's counter forces. What happened to the oracle fleet then, what is resurgent arks really is, is it a branch or they just made it on they own. And where is this halpha exactly ? just in another arks fleet or it is it's own planet.
Basically, after TPD was defeated 1000 years ago, there's the whole story about Casra putting down a lot of the photon weaponry, and with the 500 years of peace, and suddenly a huge Profound Darkness level threat (the Starless) RANDOMLY APPEARING OUT OF NOWHERE, they just couldn't react and that's how everyone basically died
The Resurgent ARKS thing here is just, them trying to revive the ARKS to fight back against the Starless, when "The Day To Come" happens AKA the Starless comes back, which is now
I imagine all those places we knew got hella torched. Ravaged. Destroyed. Exploded.
Possibly except for Earth given it’s in a separate universe and the population of Earth in the 2500 a just got really annoyed when the servers for PSO93 crashed spectacularly.
@@Azelyra Can't wait to see what is Sega cooking now !
Yeah definitly something wrong happened with the Direction of the story writing
Dont know if its SEGA's fault, The NGS Directors Fault(Who is EP5 Director so its expected honestly), or the writers dont know what to do
Oh well, the series really never known for story just gameplay
Unfortunately the fanbase especially newer ones REALLY dont want to share just how great NGS gameplay actually can be.... doesnt help Content Clearing Reward Directions are also just weird and demotivative
Here's hoping everything gets better from here~!
@@Azelyra At least i have more faith than Blue Protocol at the moment, which is a miracle since last year people been unfairly treat NGS
And now seems like the tide is mostly equal since NGS is still in the same state but BP is doing worse despite not even being out yet
@@RenoKyrie Blue Protocol had issues from it's Closed Beta and actually improved alot in the recent beta by player feedback though. Do I think Blue Protocol will steal players away from NGS? Sure but at the same time, when another Japanese Anime Game is successful, NGS will definitely follow suit, which is a good thing because NGS is very casual while Blue Protocol looks like it is going to be even much grindier than it seems. Also Blue Protocol is T rated so there is not going to be Ballooned Bosoms anytime in that game, while our game is M Rated lol.
But as an NGS player, I can still play both because NGS is just that generously casual lol.
@@RenoKyrie I've been saying for the longest time "It'll get there. It needs time". Low and behold, we're getting there.
@@AzariusR Personally think Blue Protocol is going to be rivalled INSTANTLY by Wuthering Waves
I've always wanted some story Azel came through
Glad you enjoyed it!
It makes me sad that all our mc’s friends from base might be dead… like Matoi, Xeno, and everyone else… we had such a happy ending after episode 6 finished just run into oblivion possibly a few years after 😢
Or... They could have just died from natural causes a LONG TIME AGO since it is 500 years after the whole happy ending after all!
@@Azelyra except, Xiao. Yeah, he had to watch all the hard work his dead friends has done.
Oh okay. I am in the right path. The only difference is that I never broke the level 80 cap.
I still think Luciel is also a mothership anchor. Like they said; Oracle fleet was destroyed in the attack of the Starless, 1k years prior. So if our character is more or less a carbon copy, then the normal ending of episode 6, rather than the "true ending", is the canon ending to PSO2. While the primordial darkness was defeated by hauling it back to the beginning of the universe, it also means at that very moment, the Starless came to existence (We can also take into account one antagonist in episode 5, which was not fully fleshed out). The starless destroy the Oracle fleet, so ARKS scatters. Resurgent ARKS comes to be as those with knowledge, do all they can to get the new generations ready to properly fight the starless, which are more or less the fallspawn incarnate. which started 500 years prior to awakening on Halpha. All of this culminates to us as the protagonist, meeting the photon saturation requirement to reach phase 3. Does this mean now that some have reached the photon saturation level, that they now need some to be altered in order to become the soul of Halpha, Become a new Oracle Mothership, while the main character, defends the mothership while fighting off the starless as being among the only capable of fighting them off? These are my thoughts.
You can also somewhat see Leciel floating up into Space and being attacked of sorts, so I think it's not a bad idea for it being a Mothership of sorts
@Azelyra I see it as a mothership anchor, also because of the design looking so similar to the connecting points in base PSO2 and the anime, to mothership Xion/Xiao. All of the old ARks tech being there in near disrepair. I've speculated this day 1. We shall see how wrong I am as more of the story progresses.
I wonder what happened to mother ship? Like, Zephetto told us that the research fleet was destroyed by starless, but you can't just erase or destroy akashic record since it's the whole universe core. It can be depleted or control take, but not destroyed. Also, question comes what happened to Xiao. They can rip and travel through time with akashic powers, so it might be that experiment conducted by Xiao itself to form new ARKS generation to even compete with future calamities. (And don't forget broken seals with true Dark Falzes chaotic energy along with Primordial resurrection).
Dumb plot twist, but what if starless destroying photon wielders just to ensure that Primordial won't have a body with enough photon sensitivity to resurrect and now universe will be at much dangerous position as before? (Like in original PSO2 there were only 2 persons with 100% sensitivity (MC and Matoi) and due to Halpha experiment now we have a bunch of those who 4th generation). It also explains why starless disappeared after massacre of Arks fleet, reappeared after our MC reached 100% sensitivity again and attacked Leciel tower straightforward.
Starless destroying photon wielders... I quite like that theory!
@@Azelyra It makes more sense if remembering why all DF's and primordial appeared. Getthemhurt was a crazy lad who wanted to fight, loser wanted to control and know everything with photon powers, doubles wanted to play (A child who will never grow up to be responsible for his actions.) Apprentice wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the universe. All of them were high photon users. And they also created a lot of other calamities (Ether, Omega). Heck, even primordial was created because of Photoneers actions. (It was also stated that Shiva wanted to destroy all ARKS firstly because they created all of this lately primordial wanted to consume whole universe through her as a host, but it's also side effect of Photoneers actions). So it might be that Starless are those who want to end all those multiverse threat level calamities by completely eradicating photon wielders.
photons gonna get 'em hurt
I think sega are going to knock it out of the park! I agree with ur takes and im so hyped to see where the lure side of ngs goes, during story 5 I felt that awe-inspiring potential our characters could be part of, ala original pso2🔥. Especially in regards to the bosses, i think the enemies will get weirder too. like zeph is soooo sick! im hopeing for a yamato type mission in june at most. I hope they go warframe on it and do some mind boggling stuff lol
The potential is there heh
i agree to what ya said but at the same time, the guy that died at the very beginning, we barely knew him and this isn't different from the suppose "bad guy" was shown to us was something like Spiral King from Guren Lagaan. Think about it, we might see him again, he's not dead, he seems to smart to just be killed off, it would be a such a waste for him to just get off screen killed. : / Sega has the ball now in the story, anything can happen and I hope Sega does good with what's gonna happen next for pso2 ngs. I am excited even though there was some good points you brought up.
The thing with Garoa at the very beginning prologue is at the very minimum he had "SOME CHARACTER" and well, stakes wise he's Aina's father, at least comparatively to the random soldier guy from Stia haha but yes! He's kind of effectively a stranger, it would have been much more impactful if the whole Dark Falz thing happened at like, the end of Chapter 1 after we really start to bond with Garoa and the gang and Aelio Town blows up
Episode 6: Chapter 2: The Guardian, The Star, The Light, and The Blade
Zep character i know was short but ita understandable where he come from. He witness the massive destruction on Arks fleet. His character design looked like an old king trying to regaing back of its former glory. It hurts when we are experiment but it was a neccesary to bring back of who we were originally. Now that the story face a new frontier and it need to bring old power back and re balance the universe. Also im gonna call Pso2...2...episode 2 😂
I LOVE THE KING-LIKE DESIGN!
Since Dolls is made by Zephetto, I'd love it if some day we get to fight Starless together with Dolls. Imagine get Aegis to support us when fighting, that would be cool.
Actually, if Starless were to spawned in the field and Dolls begin to fight it like how native and darkers are in base. The whole thing would be cool too.
Nex Aelio Mount when?
if we're just copies then is it possible that we might see familiar faces?
I'd like to think that's definitely how they'll go at it
First thing's first- we need a way to go to space lol. There shouldn't be anything stopping Halpha's ARKS from developing aircraft and SpaceX now... inb4
Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace
The problem with chapter 5 for me is that there wasn't enough proper build up. There was foreshadowing of the dolls true nature with them behaving like drones and dark falz...not being falspawn. The pieces were all there. But we never got the story treated like a proper mystery to unravel. Retem alnothe's powerplant was a good place to start talking about the Dolls connection to Halphas. But we didn't even acknowledge the possibility of underground factories until chapter 4 when crawford was like "How could we have known they were coming from underground!?" I mean...come on. You really expect me to believe that no one ever bothered to investigate the big floating ISLAND in the sky? The whole story felt sloppy to me.
It's a neat setup, but it really did need more meat on the bones. NGS making the story mandatory has them literally trimming as much as they can get away with so people aren't too annoyed with progression, but here it _really_ bites what they want to do in the butt. There's so many ideas and so many things that would've been better handled and explained in base PSO2's story but are just summed up in a plot dump here and then you gotta wait half a year at minimum to get any payoff. I know the big update in June isn't that far off, but it still bites.
I still think that it'll be a foundation, and the story might get substantial a year or so later
While the pacing was real bad (story should have had at least twice the pace), I still think it was typical Phantasy Star. PSO1’s story could be completely missed actually. You could simply run trough all areas and defeat dark falz without knowing what the story was, and that was kind of the point. In PSO1 you were investigating what was going on the planet. You had to read messages from Rico, talk to NPC’s and do side quests.
As for Ch5, I really liked it and I think it’s a good place to move forward from. Some things I noted from this chapter:
1. Aina being a second generation just like Matoi, makes me believe Aina is gonna stick with us. Aina having red eyes, made me suspect that from the start, since all PS sidekick NPC’s have red eyes (Rico, Vivienne, Emilia, Sarisa, Matoi).
2. I think Prince Brightstar mentioned this in his stream, but he mentioned a Pinnocchio theme when hearing the name Zephetto (Geppetto). Might be unto something seeing the name of the new dolls ‘Marioness’ (Marrionette?). Zephetto puppeteering everyone in the experiment? Hmmm Maybe there are other Arks generals themed after a fairytale? Who knows!? Maybe it’s the new council of six?
3. I kind of fear we are stuck on Halpha for a year, preparing for the actual day of judgement. So I don’t have high hopes of going to space, but I do hope this will give the team room to flesh out the current regions with more interesting quests and more lore/character building.
Conclusion: I would’ve preferred more story content. At least a chapter every 3 months and maybe more background lore, either trough lore we can collect or mini stories. I still found it somewhat interesting, and I think the team did a good job in the story telling trough the environments. Can’t say I found Base PSO2’s Episode 1 amazing either. Especially thanks to the matterboards. Base PSO2’s story really started picking up with Episode 2 and I think the final story quest with the mothership and Luther was the first time people actually praised a story mission to begin with. It’s been a real long time ago, but from what I remember, Ep1 ended with us fleeing from the Falz Hunar fight, leaving Zeno behind. I don’t think we solo’s Elder during the story. It was just the EQ that dropped. But we actually got elder within like 6 months? (Think it was December back then), so yeah… pacing… I guess this is what gaming has become thanks to this whole ‘live service’ thing they do to games (stretching a game with meaningless FOMO content).
The problem is at the beginning they said they wanted to make the story a bit short so people can focus on playing the game but.... They already got the system right where story is a bit optional in Legacy PSO2 and then now it's a requirement in NGS? So why not just make the story system the same where you can just enjoy a full story IF YOU WANT, and don't need to force everyone to do it to unlock the world...?
@@Azelyra yeah, I think that was a big mistake on their side, but it is quite typical for live service games because they want this ‘persistent world’ that evolves as the story progresses. In the end it usually leads to lacking story content that is shallow with a new ‘villain of the week’ each new season/expansion so they can keep the game going forever. Destiny has been having this exact same problem for it’s entire run.
PSO2 had a good solution indeed where it was separated. (Though at the start of PSO2 you had to do all arks quests and free field to unlock the next area. That was changed later, but I forgot which episode)
We may not be a carbon copy. Global calls us ARKS defender prime. JP calls us True ARKS. Global makes it sound like we're the next candidate for Guardian. JP makes it sound like we just hit the average power level of a PSO2 EP6 ARKS. Regardless, both makes it sound like Zep is planning to mass reproduce us, making our characters a drop in the bucket. I am still very worried that we're going to continue to be the dagger in the back pocket of the writer's DMPCs.
Honestly maybe we are gonna be able to use the Dolls to fight against the starless, that'd a short theory I have
That would be kind of interesting I think, because, the Dolls are meant to be... Well, replicate the Starless no?
@@Azelyra i think the gigantix are kinda closer to the starless than the Dolls themselves but I'm thinking since Zappheto can control them and Leciel is still running, maybe why not make it so that the Dolls become part of our army
Also it's sad how far the arks have fallen after the starless incident, honestly it's a new low for the arks history
that should be. because doll made by ARKS for training in the fist place. and it end of experiment now. they should be our tool to fight with Starless.
@@fiftyfive5459 exactly, and yet in the game we still fight them haha but i hope Sega will make them as npcs, at least outside of halphs, like partner system
I hope Zepheto survived that starless attack.
A hole pso2 has been since EP4 its how ephimerous villains are, i mean they die to quickly. In EP6 i really wanted Shiva and hechmens long last 2 Episodes.
Now to NGS: the reveal wasnt worth the 2.5 years of waiting .
Writters (if they really had before Stia) dont take advantage of the argumental resources.
Should i remind everybody how Retem factory was ignored in the main story , not even a quick comment about it?
Hell that could be related to the 1st DF fight at least as an speculation from the characters.
Lastly Kvaris joke as story: short, felt like the progression was almost none, and the worst part: asumes you played the 1st DF EQ when there is nothing guaranteed.
And to think it's only Episode 1 and it's been a year or two. :U
Two! Since they're releasing Ultimate Evolution (Ep2) basically as the 2nd year anniverasry
And you know because the ngs story update is slow because it's tied to the content update, I wouldn't have a problem if they gonna just do a more often standalone story update without anything acompanying it.
I'd be more than happy with standalone and meaningful side stories!
@@AzelyraAt least let us Talk to the other NPCs after the ending to see what they REALLY think about all this.
@@Strykerx31 AGREE!
Oh man ARCY 😂
You know that SHONEN are thrash but you admit with your your conscience that you like THEM !
You have my total respect !!!!
This is what we call assuming your one life choice !!!
Total RESPECT !!!!
🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇
Hey, sometimes you just like that little bit of junk food in your life y'know >:3
ch5 is definitely a crapton of asspulls especially the starless apparently being a thing and pharia(?) conveniently dropping and telling you everything you need to know and activates the teleporter to leciel, but I'll take it over the absolute nothingburger of ch1-3. Zephetto (?) is at least foreshadowed a bit with sussy manon and the side stories talking about how dark falz seems to be studying the arks. Here's hoping episode 2 gets decent writing and pacing.
P.S. fighting zephetto in ugly mech actually disappointed me, I was expecting we finally get a humanoid boss. At least he has voicelines.
I WANTED THE HUMANOID BOSS FIGHT SO BAD, WHEN HE SAID "FIGHT" I REALLY WANTED A PHALEG-STYLE FIGHT LOL
like matoi is build up from the very first chapter, chapter 0.
Matoi also went through quite a bit of change and character development over the years, perhaps we'll get to see Aina get some drastic changes too come Ultra Evolution
@@Azelyra at first I thought aina's father did not die and he became the main antagonist. or he did die but he was a clone of zephet.
in the first story aina inherited her father strength through bloodline. I just speculated wildly since I can't understand japanese writing.
so our character is a carbon copy of the guardian in the past?
@@Azelyra There was the quick mention to the computer voice about implementing our data to the 4th generation, maybe Matoi's still in the test tube
The ending was ok but I'm disappointed we didn't get to fight the Starless.
AT LEAST LET ME SEE THEM :
@@Azelyra Me too
It would be funny if the starless was actually our original pso2 chara, who got bored after the centuries of peace, and then got disappointed how arks got weak and then be like, "y'know what, I'll turn shit up to eleven and turn myself into something akin to PD (starless) to make things exciting".
And the rest of arks got the "your photon so thin you're barely alive in my eyes, therefore I have no trouble killing all yall" treatment.
The reason starless remains dormant until this point is bcos starless was bored cuz nobody can challenge them, until our batch of arks show up.
I'D LOVE THAT
Man I would have loved to see the starless or atleast what we would be up against.
Most people had predicted that this was some kind of training.
But what are we training for...
Why did dude sacrifice himself if he deduced we are strong enough to fight.
We could have repelled the first wave, seen an enemy general and prepared for war while getting answers from Zep.
He did not have to die. That was wild..
Zephetto: “I have to go now, my planet needs me.”
*Note: Zephetto died on the way back to his home planet.*
Sad times for Zeph
Sega: "The real story starts now"
Players: "It's been 2 years, FINALLY"
No offense Dark Falz, you were a cool boss and probably best thing about ngs so far. However we what we really needed a villain. But yeah, looking forward to where Sega takes the story. Maybe we'll actually go to space and get to see the star part of Phantasy Star. Fingers crossed!
We'll see how dark it gets heh
I always enjoyed PSO2 story when it was being campy and over the top, NGS just hasn't been doin' it for me. Hoping things get wild soon
Cool, but now, we need to have Zephetto CAST parts
BIG AGREE
Gonna be honest, I really like zep, but if the starless are gonna be the big bad, I would have liked if sega made them seem less like the unbidden from stellaris and more like the flood. Instead of judt killing everything and everyone, they just started taking over and controlling the members of arks. And maybe while we are fighting through the floating island, zep is monologing about the stuff he yold us, trying to show his reasoning for what he did, then the starless could invade during the kvaris, stia sections. which interrupted his monoglouge and forced him to turn the dolls to our side as starless invade the island. And while it's nice to know arks still technically lives, I've no idea of zep and his team are all that is left or not, but I'm pissed at how sega handled this. We waited two years to get to this point, and sega just goes, "zep is a morally gray character, and uh oh heres a nigh unstoppable force that your near god like character could not stop". I want to know what the fuck is going on, why did ark get so devastated, how do they know the starless travel galaxies destroying everything. Why do the starless do this, and why the hell does manon sing better than fucking Nadereh WHOS ENTIRE GIMMICK IS IF SHE SING WE GET BUFF. I'm not disappointed with the story, just...why do you gotta be this lame sega.
It just feels empty because we don't have the "big figure" that represents the Starless to look towards, we only know them by name, but as I said about show and tell, we've only got a tell and really almost nothing of a show
Me, I figured we were a copy pretty much from the start given the time jump and complete lack of PSO2 characters.
I just imagined that we were Persona who somehow came back to assume their original role. But ah well.
I would have loved to see somehow Persona being back and we're playing as Persona haha
If sega was smart they can hook us tô a multiplanet system like warframe and we need to fight the starless around the universe
Multiplanet would be cool! Something like Phantasy Star Universe, yah?
100% the ending without showing us what the new enemies at least look like was probably the biggest cop out they could of done.
The story structure is improving well, seeing result. I just hope they focus more on story quest where things actually happen than pointless filler content.
Here's hoping everything will be great come Episode 2 haha
I'll be honest, the Run up to Him, felt Nostalgia in a way, since it kinda felt like it was shaped in a Old School PSO2 layout.
reminded me of the VR training worlds in base
literal preview of Creative Spaces xD
I started in ngs, before I played any of base. Wasn't episode 1 of base story a little underwhelming also? Then it built up and became real good? That's what I heard anyway. Finished episode 1 base story a few months ago, it was alright. I'll get around to episode 2 eventually. Hopefully ngs will have the same outcome, just getting better overtime.....hopefully 😒
Yup! It's something like that, Episode 1 was generally just worldbuilding for Legacy, and the story really only got really good near the end of 2, and 3 was just great.
Zephetto hilariously and sadly enough, is actually the best character in NGS. He literally had 10 minutes of screen time, told us his backstory and gave us a lore bomb, and then zipped to his death. I fucking hate Aina as a character. She reminds me of Sakura in Naruto where she is completely useless and is just there to whine about how weak she is. At least in Episode 1 of base pso2 with Matoi she was just a massive question mark until we got the reveal later that she was actually a super badass top tier ARKS. With Aina theres literally nothing they can do like that because we are experiencing her backstory in real time meaning theres not even a what if to look forward too. All we can do is hope to god Sega can pull something out of their ass and do something good with her at some point. Either that or we just leave her on Halpha and meet up with the clone of Matoi in space so shit can actually start getting done lol.
Episode 1 ending was (for NGS standards where it was basically in the ground before this) amazing and i hope it can keep the momentum throughout Episode 2.
Here's hoping the momentum continues, and properly expanded upon and explained through more of showing and less of telling
Your shonen trash analogy is so interestin’, considerin’ there’s no way to foreshadow a character no one knows exists.
We knew somethin’ was behind Dark Falz, from in-game lore. Granted, we should have had more of dat lore in da main story, but Zephetto wouldn’t have worked as well (nor da story beats) had we knew more of them.
I do still think there's a lot of narrative potential that could have been build off of the whole thing with Zeph
I have this very question for a while now "Why ARKS look so weak?"
this answer every single thing.
ARKS bring WEAK is a foreshadow of how the past glory already went in flame...
this really heartbreaking moment... imagine we broken the universe reset cycle
Just to face another one that is more sinister... like a natural phenomenon.
I can related with "necessity evil" in Zephetto action but the character definitely have enough of this BS.
this clearly make the character their own individual, they so more that enough in this Halpha journey
from the first Dark Falz theme as a confuse Meteoin to the real event reveal
It's definitely quite interesting to see how everything panned out, but in the end it's a bit like I've mentioned about show and tell, I really would love them to show more of it, rather than having Zeph tell the whole thing and that's it (for now)
@@Azelyra and hopefully this is not the last time we see Zehpheto
HERE'S HOPING
Actually this PLOT TWIST OF "EVERY ONE IS FAKE OR EVERYTHING IS NOT REAL "is not that surprising ...
Honestly it is standard in RPG. From Japan these days...
I just hope that SEGA will innovate a little more or they will make it more funny since we started in a casual way even if people died ...
It is like SEGA was saying " Here just take you plot twist and shut up !!!" 😂😂😂
Man it is so strange , especially this new enemy ...
So let's be direct on that one :
Are You kidding us SEGA !?
So the ARKS , the one who destroyed the true PROFOUND DARKNESS.
They are the peak of photon Mastery and power in the entire UNIVERSE at the end of EP 6 !!!
AND NOW :
"A new dude. Just come out of nowhere and NUKE THEM ALL , just one shot the entire ARK FLEET !!!"
YOU SERIOUS SEGA !?
You could have said things like ARKS fight among themselves and create factions and we are one of those factions and each faction has his unique classes and unique weapons and the DOLLS are one the faction advance unit of attack like "automated AIS "
And for the "DARKFALZ" LOGIC maybe we can say that someone will recreate clone of Luther and the DARKFALZ just for war purpose among factions ...
Something like that man !!
You know there is so much potential for story on NGS ...
Man , It is just sad they just gave us something so flat ... Knowing that 1/5 of the game life cycle is already over. And we are still waiting for that good hype !!!
WE KNOW , YOU ARE PLANNING SOMETHING SEGA !!!
SEGA PLEASE DON'T JUST SURVIVE TILL THE NEXT HEADLINE , JUST LEVEL UP THE SPEED HARD WAY , JUST RISE THE BAR HIGHER ONCE AND FOR ALL !!!😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
Players are begging SEGA , BEGGING for this !!
Sorry for the long text guys !
Don't hesitate to reply
and see you around !
😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
arks go boom
We don't even know we will get ep2
Im pretty sure the ultra evolution update is when we get episode 2.
It's pretty obvious that we are going to fight the real enemy that the DOLLs are based on, the Starless.
Episode 2 is basically Ultra Evolution update in June yup! The name is tentative for now however
Zephetto was cool. too bad you had to crank up your volume to max, just to be able to hear him, because the devs haven't figured out how to do sounds. XD
I think the Sound Balance was fine (at least in JP with my settings)
I changed the voice volume in the settings
We gonna ignore the fact that Zephetto called Aina a second generation? if the PC is a third generation, Manon already was way head of us. Who else was he talking about?
Aina is probably the off spring of the 2nd generation of people that existed in Halpha. Remember there were three tests done in Halpha regarding Dolls. First test, everyone died. 2nd test wasn't nearly as devastating but it barely produced results. Aina and everyone that isn't current meteorn are offsprings of that 2nd test subjects.
In the end, everything was kinda just said in a very short amount of time... It really could have been fleshed out so much
So basically daemon x machina and sidonia no kishi have a lovechild.
I wouldn't say that I've watched those series myself, but I have heard good things about Sidonia no Kishi, so perhaps we're starting to get a better direction hum.
My main complaint with this ending/story is that so far there has been very little to NO explanation of anything. From the actual world itself to even many of the enemies/zones. And i hate to rag on it, but the naming of certain creatures is so much of a red-flag that i am surprised NO ONE on Halpha throughout roughly 300 years caught on to it. From the name of the main enemies called "DOLLs" to even Formers and Alters. Those do not seem like a typical naming convention for any sort of species or so on that would be made on the spot. It gets even more laughable when you have some of the characters going "I thought the DOLLs were born naturally on Halpha". Like . . . excuse me??? We have literal Robots in the desert (a point that is still not even touched upon, especially since they are labeled as Formers), and you think that DOLLs are some sort of natural entity? Though it WOULD be interesting if they touch upon that and say that certain DOLLs units can become Alter type creatures. That would be such a nice little bomb-shell to add. Otherwise it just raises way more questions than answers.
And let's not even get me STARTED on the technology level/disparity. We have people that are wielding Photon infused weapons and tech with relative ease and almost HALF of that technology is barely understood. Which begs the greater question of "How did Zephetto imagine this "project" to succeed?". The guy is literally pitting barely cognizant and aware people against the wall and hoping to hell they figure half of this shit out. With little to no information. Just "do or die". At least with the ARKs Fleet we had SOME level of basic training and were eased into tougher assignments/jobs rather than just "thrown to the wolves" so to speak. Had he taken the time to at least "educate" the test subjects on what EXACTLY is going on and how to survive i think this "project" would have completed ages ago.
Then again, it is kinda funny how ARKs tends to bring in the more Sociopathic and Deranged personalities into it's ranks. So that about checks out.
In short while i am excited to get back to Stellar travel/adventures, they REALLY need to show us HOW we are even going to get to that point. As of right now, the inhabitants of Halpha are barely trained humanoids wielding ancient artifacts that they can barely replicate. If we're going to be traveling the stars, we need to see how the people of Halpha evolves past that initial limitation.
What I would personally like to see? Maybe there is a wreck of one of the old ARKs fleet ships on Halpha, maybe deep in the water/ocean. And we have to go in and clean it up/restore it to some semblance of functionality and learn things along the way. That way you can introduce ancient logs/records of the ages past and maybe tug along the thread of the mystery of how things even GOT this bad. That'd be awesome to see.
Yes! We need more of the seeing, please show us and not just tell us from some monologue that lasted less than 10 minutes :
I think in the PSO2 universe, you can resurrect the dead.
Or, your original character was something worse than dead and your NGS character is just a carbon copy. I don't know.
Imagine if our "Copy" AKA now, meets our "Original" from 1000 years ago that was resurrected, that'd be hilarious no lie, I'd love it
I've seen everything so far, and similar from what other people have mentioned, this does feel like a Gurren Lagann plot.
where all da mechas at (tho we do have Zeph now lmao)
Well to be fair. Some of us who pay attention to the lore kinda already on the tail of we genuinely in a simulation. The why though, now that's unexpected, and the reason why our character is basically a copy paste of our NGS characters.
Let's just say color me intrigued
The "why" is always the important part, and I'm pretty happy that there's at least a pretty good base for something greater
The story was a great ending to the open alpha. Sega finally finished the game.
>:3c
Maybe the Starless are just asshole aliens that like to kill stuff. (seems most likely)
I hope it's something cooler tho
I'm down for unstoppable alien bugs wanting to nom everything in the universe tho! >:3c
The narration needs a clean up, what really happens and what did not
Are we having a peaceful 1000 years since shiva or things went to sh*t 500 years ago
It was explained they had a peaceful period for a really long time (1000 years ago to 500 years ago), and when the Starless attacked said 500 years ago, everything went to shit because of being too used to said era of peace
Can I get a hey 😢