Short version: I've enjoyed this game quite a bit over the years. The combat, the character customization, and the players have all been rather entertaining. 

\*\*Introduction\*\*

PSO2 was a game I'd heard about off and on for years at one point. An artist, \*XXIII\*, drew a fair bit of fanart of their PSO2 character, and there was even a minor collab with Gravity Rush 2. Heard lots of praise for it's style, it being an MMO with action based combat, and unfortunately how it was available in Japan only unless you jumped through some hoops.

So I was really, really surprised one day when I was browsing PSN out of boredom and saw NGS just sitting there in the free games section. Needless to say, I was rather excited. So excited that it took me a while to realize that this wasn't quite the game everyone had been praising back then. Not that I have any complaints about that, as I've had quite a bit of fun with this game over the years. But enough preamble, let's get into the actual review.

\*\*Story\*\*

It's fine. It gives you context and explanation for why this or that event is happening, why you're fighting these particular enemies, and why you need to go to various locations. It does have some bits that I find interesting, every now and then they add in a genuine mystery, some nice lore, or flesh out characters in ways I find enjoyable. Also the occasional hype moments. But overall the writing is absolutely not why I play this game.

\*\*Music\*\*

Ranges from "nice for the content I'm doing" to "I'm literally just gonna chill here for ten minutes to enjoy the BGM". There's a lot of music, and I think there's exactly one track that I've actively disliked. Fortunately that one track can be overriden by playing a Music Disc from your Mag...which I suppose I should briefly cover.

Each and every player has a Mag. They are little drones that follow you around and can help you locate specific items. They can also play any Music Discs you've used on a given Ship, pretty much anywhere and almost anytime. Music Discs are easy enough to get, especially older tracks from throughout the series. But moving on.

\*\*Graphics\*\* 

Game has a ton of options to tweak your graphics so I can't really give a solid assessment here. I think it looks pretty good for an anime, F2P MMO, but I've never seen the game will all the shit maxxed out(my system would probably combust). And then the cel shading option adds a whole other layer to what the game \*can\* look like based on your choices.

\*\*Gameplay\*\*

The good shit, and a good part of why I have played this game so much. 

\*Classes\*

Starting out I had a choice of six classes(out of 9, now 10). I went for the Gunner, because dual wielding SMGs in a sci-fi game sounded cool as hell. And it absolutely is, by the way. Took me a while to get used to it but once I got that down I was cartwheeling through the air, dumping dozens of rounds into a giant's chest while it tried to fry me with enough lasers to make a Star Wars capital ship blush. I ran Gunner almost exclusively for quite some time, though I used Braver(Katana & Bow) as well. 

Where Gunner is all about attacking nonstop to build up a gauge that'd let you amp the fuck out of all your attacks for a brief period, Braver ie all about fishing for counters. The Katana is by far the stronger weapon of the two if range is no issue, and it had this neat little gimmick. After every attack you have a \*very\* brief moment where you're in a guard state. Get hit during that time and you can unleash an extremely powerful counter, then follow up with a series of ranged slashes. Your bread and butter was to briefly pause after every attack just to try and trigger that. There was also a manual parry you could do, though the damage was less than the auto guard one.

It was powerful as hell and very stylish, but not nearly as entertaining. To me. These days I use Slayer, the Gunblade class, which is something of a glass cannon class with two built in nukes. High mobility as well, so it's not uncommon for me to be duking it out in the air with colossal bipeds or flying mechanical wizards or whatever the hell else needs killing that day. And looking really goddamned cool while doing it. 

\*Other goodies\*

So I rambled about classes a bit, but these some other stuff in combat that's worth mentioning. 

First, my beloved giant robot weapons, M.A.R.S. It's an Armament system that passively charges up in battle, and drains during use. Two melee options, two ranged options, and three automated support options. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Scylla. It's a long ranged weapon with an orbital nuke. You can generate "stars" that will increase the power of that nuke(and add a nearly impenetrable barrier), but to do so you need to keep landing hits at a certain range of your targets, while not getting hit and not using any dodges or jumps. 

Mostly this involves flying around on the thing like it's a hoverboard while blasting your targets, changing your positioning regularly while launching normal attacks, and occasionally using a guard frame ability to negate damage and make space. It feels \*really\* fucking good to successfully and consistently pull that off. And hitting monsters with a giant laser from space is exactly as cool as it sounds.

Second, EX Styles. One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that every weapon has a Photon Blast. It is, quite simply, an ultimate attack that charges over time and in combat. EX Styles assist with that, and provide other benefits besides. Notably, the After Blast. A follow up nuke to the PB, that then gives you a ramping overall damage boost for the next 45 seconds. These Echoes, as they're called, combine \*very\* nicely with any other heavy hitting attacks your class may have. As a Slayer I do love my ridiculously big numbers.

\*Enemies\* 

Of course, what good are classes & giant robot guns without enemies to use them on?

NGS has quite a few, and I find most of the bosses very fun to throw down with. The ten foot tall, floating ballerina that summons spectral bats to attack is a good one, especially under her High modifiers. The mechanical dragon I believe I mentioned earlier is a favorite of mine just for the consistent aerial combat. The various absolutely fucking enormous bosses, the Dark Falz, are pretty good. But my absolute favorite is the martial artist type, Ams. Or, in it's most recent version, High Agni. I really want that bastard to hit public rooms so I can see a bunch of players die repeatedly. 

\*Social\*

So combat is one major part of the equation for any MMO. You're gonna kill a lot of shit, it needs to be entertaining. But you also need some social aspects, otherwise you'd do much better grabbing some offline title more often than not. With that said, I do like what NGS has to offer.

Pretty much any day I log on I chat a bit with whatever Alliance members are online at the time. I'll see people goofing off in Central City and join them for a bit. Doing emotes, setting out Portable Holograms(my alliance has made a game of ambushing each other with Prisoner Cages), firing off Stamps & Symbol Art. I'm always impressed by people using that system to recreate memes, by the way. Also stumbling across impressive character Looks or Creative Spaces and leaving compliments or taking notes has been a constant thing for me.

\*Appearance customozation\*

So this normally wouldn't get it's own mini segment, but NGS is definitely an exception. I won't go so far as to say "the sky's the limit", but there is a hell of a lot you can do in this game if you have the right parts and creativity.

I have seen people recreate a hilarious amount of anime characters with impressive detail. I've seen players turn their characters into tanks. Building sized robots. Pokémon for days. A sentient dinner table was probably my favorite surprise design.

Then we get to player housing, where I find far more original and creative designs. And man, people do some fucking beautiful work here. Restaurants run be elves set up in the crowns of trees, graveyards with a mystery you can solve leading you deeper in, a race course spanning four small floating islands, even extremely detailed modern homes. It's all possible because the game has a ton of individual cosmetic items, many of which can be resized and colored. 

Another aspect of the customization I enjoy is the \*Motion Changes\*. In MMOs I played before stumbling upon NGS, if a character stood or walked a certain way, it was usually because of their class or gender. In NGS it's down to whatever animations you select from whatever you've bound to your account. 

Want your character to sit on a levitating witch broom while idle? Or sit on a star? Maybe try to soothe their bad back?

Do you want their dashing animation to be some standard running? Or becoming a moving puddle of shadow? Or cartwheeling non stop?

Do you want their swimming to be a crawl? Or instead of swimming they surf? Or have them assert dominance by freezing the water under them and walking on the ice?

There's a ton of options that can take whatever style you're going for even further. 

\*\*Ending\*\*

So, if my rambling hadn't made it clear, I'm rather fond of the game. One particular reason that I couldn't find a place for above: The game doesn't demand much of you.

It's super casual. Most days I hop on, grind for an hour, goof off with my Alliance and random players for a bit, and then I'm off to do something else with the rest of my day.

The review didn't cover everything, mainly because there's a fucking lot to go over and Reddit posts have character limits. 

But the tl;dr is: I love the game for what it is. If you're interested in a casual action based MMO, and downloading the game isn't an issue, then I suggest grabbing it and giving it a shot. 

Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. A review after over 3,200 hours.