-1- PREFACE

First of all, I want to say that I've started playing PSO2JP on Day 1 (July the 4th, 2012) and that I haven't stopped playing PSO2/NGS until today. I've reached Lv100 on all Classes, I've obtained endgame gears with the rarest affixes, I've validated all the quests and I've even defeated Ultimate Primordial Darkness. I've also spent a lot of real money in the game in ten years to get many Premium stuff and fashion elements. Anyway, that doesn't mean my review must have more value than any other one but that it's based on a lot of experience about PSO2/NGS at any level and that it's not a free rant.

-2- OVERALL

When everybody thought SEGA was about to announce the "Episode 7" of Phantasy Star Online 2 after 8 years of an uninterrupted success, we were presented "New Genesis". A brand new extension of PSO2 which would use many elements from the base game while being an independent game. Being both an extension and a standalone game at the same time ? Weird but why not. Sadly, the surprise of this announcement was short lived. In fact, after one year of existence, it is now clear that at none point during the development of this game (and not even today) has SEGA ever wanted to create a worthy successor to Phantasy Star Online 2. Everything has been skilfully studied to ensure that all the elements of PSO2 would be profitable a second time and that the aging cow would be milked one last time to the bone before the end.

-3- STORY

The story we are served in PSO2NGS is abysmal. It's distressingly mediocre, both in terms of characters (who are as stupid as they are empty) that about the story itself (bland and totally dispensable). Even Peppa Pig's scenarii are more interesting and better tied together. For example, the game has been out for a whole year at the moment I'm writing this review and we still haven't exchanged the least word with an antagonist (because there is none). We just mindlessly fight tons of DOLLS, the main enemies of the game, and that is all. Why ? We don't know. And I'm convinced the devs don't know either. Why are we on Planet Halpha ? What's the origin and the story of this planet ? Where do DOLLS come from ? What are their motives ? Their hierarchy structure ? Their society model ? SEGA didn't even try to relate us something enjoyable. Laziness in all its glory.

-4- GAMEPLAY

Let's get straight to the point. Gameplay wise, NGS is terribly boring and unbearly repetitive and it's clear that it has been done on purpose. It's as if every aspects of the game, like the places to explore or the number of daily activities, had been voluntarily 95% sucked out of the game. To be sure to provide minimum service while putting all the efforts into paid cosmetics. And the combat system, which could have been epic, has been particularly affected. The Skill Trees of NGS, determining a good part of the actions you have access to in order to fight enemies, are empty and restrictive (unlike its older brother PSO2 where you could mix them relatively freely to get lots of unique combinations). Same goes for the Photon Arts (i.e. Special Moves) which are an incredible number of 4 for each weapon. Without mentioning many of them are just an effortlessly copy/paste of other existing ones. What a regression.
This means that besides the normal attack, you'll end up using only 4 attacks when using a melee/ranged weapon. Yes, only 4 attacks from start to end. It was only 3 at first but SEGA graciously gave us a new attack half-way through the first year of existence of New Genesis... and they don't plan to add more until late 2023 according to their public schedule. It's miserable already but the palm of absolute emptiness goes to the gameplay of magical weapons. The Tech Classes (i.e. Magicians) have access to 8 Techniques (i.e. Magics) but because they are divided into 6 elements, because enemies all have a predefined elemental weakness and because there's always 1 single-target Tech (for bosses) and 1 AOE Tech (for groups of mobs) for each element, you'll end up having to spam one single Tech for each situation if you want to be efficient with Techniques. It's literally the gameplay of the century, isn't it ?

-5- VISUAL

If there's only one thing people can't criticize about New Genesis, that's its photography and its artistic direction. The world is visually amazing and gorgeous. Alas everything is ruined because, technically speaking, the game is incredibly bad. Not only PSO2NGS is very unstable and can easily give players a dozen of crashes/freezes/disconnections a day, but you cannot enjoy the true beauty of the game in such poor conditions.
There are also serious lags and frame rate drops (even with top-tier hardware) with FPS often going from 60 to 20/25 without any particular reason. Of course, SEGA promised they would fix everything. But because those problems are not linked to the game itself but to the game engine, it wasn't possible. Unless without making heavy sacrifices... And that's what SEGA did, one maintenance after another. Downgrading the quality of textures, reducing the viewing distance (the world is practically being built under our feet), removing many visual effects, ... Without patching/fixing the incredible amount of visual bugs, clipping and MIP mapping errors in the front line. All in all, the game ends up being a true visual trash bin. It's totally unworthy of a game released in 2021, even for SEGA.

THE VISUAL GARBAGE OF NGS - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ys8i2uXLmncq4s-J5UP2HIfcOtlxlf_

-6- CONTENT

The main problem here is that not only there's really few actual game content in NGS but the available one is shamelessly reused ad nauseam following the "maximum profitability with minimum effort" motto. Seriously, SEGA should be hailed by Greenpeace because they recycle every inch of PSO2's assets. It would be bad faith saying SEGA didn't recycle some content in PSO2 too. But it was done intelligently, sparingly and without constantly having the word "PROFIT" in mouth. Because in NGS, everything is just an excuse to add new paid cosmetics.
And because only paid cosmetic content matters to SEGA now, any animation of your character has been monetized. From the way you walk/run/jump/glide/swim to even the movement of your character's fingers. That's precisely why most of people who still play the game don't connect to actually play an MMORPG and to fight enemies during epic battles but only to pimp their waifus/husbandos and to spend hours and hours taking screenshots/videos of them... This is reflected in the total loss of interest of true players who wanted actual game/gameplay content, who have deserted the game. Do a little experiment and type "PSO2NGS" on Twitter or Reddit for example. Among the results you will get, count the topics/images that will relate to true game content and the topics/images that will relate to cosmetic content. The miserable ratio, of around 1/100, will speak for itself.

-7- CONCLUSION

SEGA decided to make PSO2NGS profitable to the extreme, even if that meant turning this product into a low-effort/low-cost cash grab game. In fact, the game is fundamentally unhealthy in its operation, by thirsting the players regarding real game content (one small update every two months) but by watering them with mountains of paid cosmetic content (two major updates every week). The result is a very bad and unequal MMO, which is no longer a RPG worthy of the name. Sadly, because SEGA-Sammy had already revealed that PSO2NGS would mainly serve as an income stock for the development of Sonic Frontiers in one of their press releases, we should have known what was going to happen. And how do you ensure some significant cash inflows when you're SEGA ? By creating the best possible game experience ? No, by soiling the legacy of your franchise and turning Phantasy Star Online 2 into a pathetic and expensive low-quality bimbo simulator.