It is hard to feel like I am right, but I want to be wrong. We want greatness from PSO2: New Genesis, we hurt when headline comes and proves that SEGA is just buying time as it keep playing with us (like a damn fiddle) but we are still there (just to suffer, every month) spending our time wanting it to be better, wanting it to excel what PSO2 has achieved in its lifespan. Wanting better character development, wanting MORE story, wanting content that justifies story, more maps, more engaging content that make us desire new cliffhangers so we stay longer online and that introduces us to new interesting characters, like Phaleg, for instance. It doesn't need to make sense. We want the thrill while we power creep the game. That is what PSO2 reached as the new minimun standard. It is natural to feel anger, sorrow, and sadness with such a out-of-touch direction on NGS lifespan that insists on this scratch-galore "delivery-system".
Yes, It is past that time, but NGS feels like a huge ferris-wheel of copium. Great Content Creators quit NGS coverage for good due to huge hype down the drain ( Ingenoire and PrinceBrightstar come to mind), which SEGA looks to be pretty good at, I wonder how worse it is on JP side or if the salarymen are just happy with dunking yens on phashion every week.. Maybe it is the gamers fault all along.
The game plays good, it keeps me there liking the overall presentation, but the amusement park is delaying new attractions and introducing us new ways to just stay and chill and "not want it to be anything more than that" (or so I heard on a very dedicated discord). Criticizing it is fine as long as it is logical. No dogpiling, no shaming. It is OK with not being satisfied. I like the game, I just feel it dazzles around mediocrity. And we don't know the cause (?)
Of course there is a lot of romanticism when veterans talk about PSO2 on JP and how hype it was. There is no room for nostalgia, we should always strive for cold analysis when delving into comparison territory, which, by the way, is extensively discussed in full force by syberdrones doomposting on Reddit every Tuesday, and counter-coped on Discord "safe-spaces" by idlers in negation.
EOS will come. May take 10 years, may take 2. It does not matter, really. But what matters is that that NGS lacks any meaningful merch, and this does not bode well. Hear me out, it may sound ludicruous. If, by any means, you still nurtured feelings that we'd still get back to riding Mechas like real chads, just the way we did on base, or even better, I think the current LTQ gives us enough that It is safe to assume that it is over. I want to be wrong, but I'm playing with the cards at hand
MARS System is essentially a Dark Blast mechanic-wise, but thematically it delves into mecha-esque territory. Let me refresh your memory on the biz side of things. PSO2 was a huge boutique in and out of the game for SEGA. It pushed its marketing hard with collabs and cross-promotion in real life. Everything is done with intentions.
And so was A.I.S. Though starting on Episode 4, it was also expanded and used in 4 UQs that I love, and even on crossover UQs on mecha-like collabs like SEGA's game Virtual On event, and the PVP mode on 2018 that promoted Border Break - SEGA's now deceased Mecha combat game - and more importantly, the Evangelion UQ.
Mechas are pretty dope. Big fucking machines fighting monsters and other mechas makes anyone's testosterone go sky high. It is just that good. Now imagine your favorite action online gaming add huge fricking mechas facing enemies 5 sizes your own arks operator, and feeling the Power Phantasy. There is no words I can put to convey how amazing the defense rig or the angelus UQs are in the general sense of things to NGS-Only players. It is something we as NGS players need for the future, less than that is just lowering the bar because "open world garbo" limitations
SEGA went legs to implement that not only for that Hype factor, but mainly to SELL TOYS. Yes, a mechanism in game proven to be a licensing steadly income source and kind of a gold mine. Don't believe it? A huge driving force in sales for hobbysm is mecha merch in form of plasmos. Who can blame them? Kotobukiya is, and has been for many years, a pretty good partner of SEGA's on this regard dating back to their endeavours together since Project Diva's merch in the end of the 2000s. Just like they did eventually with Border Break - which, by the way, had the Koto's flag plastered all over some combat areas in that game.
SEGA had some collabs in pso2 with them for Frame Arms and Frame Arms Girls, but nothing comes close to how much they bank with the
Oh boy, A.I.S's alone, there are 3 versions that are constantly restocked out of 5 produced, and you can check it for yourself on their website:
Grey one
VEGA
Red
EXORD
VEGA Black Version
Also, I did buy one for myself and I plan to stream me building it next month:
Why am I mentioning all of this? If they still make money off these pso2/es/IDOLA merch to this very day, it means licensing has been one of the reasons behind designing elements in game as they are from the get go, besides Gené and Matoi sexy figures and eventual cast figmas.
The bottom line is that in 3 years and a half of NGS, there hasn't been a single piece of NGS premium merch (or even prize merch at all). Not even a single Nadereh figure (I need them milkers asap in my shelf). More merch and more physical presence does communicate engagement and how much devoted is given business owner is to the product. If we haven't had much beyond those towels, there might not be more in the near future, unless i'm out of the loop
That could be argued that NGS still is too new and there isn't too much popularity among the cast of characters in the same timespan, but PSO2 received tons of prize figures in their first 4 years beyond the ones given away in limited department store events largely covered on Ingenoire's collab video.
Moreover, Japan produces tons of figures, and SEGA themselves have the SEGA Prize line and UFO Catchers, and they themselves order figures for the factories so they stock their crawl games all over Japan. There is no way out of this. No excuse. NGS is completely in the dark. And this has everything to do with possible A.I.S. 2.0. We didn't even get humanoid stuff, so really SEGA doesn't seem to show interest in spending money to make money on NGS as a thing right now. Let alone fix its main crippling issues.
For what reason?
It seems there is no desire for long licensing plans for NGS, which fuels doomposters and the roadmap drama. And if waifus are not being licensed, there is little hope for new mechas showing up in the game to justify new merch. And to add more fuel to the fire, if the new Zenith Firefight LTQ (Don't get me wrong, i'm loving it) with its UQ music is paying homage to the AIS battle against Angele usign MARS System, it doesn't seem that mechas are coming to NGS, as we are now facing a literal boss faced by the AIS before, in a kinda homage that feels sour. Yes, correlation does not mean causation, but who can blame me? Or anyone feeling a little bit of mediocrity in the air about the overall course of the game. I love PSO2, and I kinda love NGS. I want it to be better, but if the future is a next installment, so be it.
It makes me wonder if NGS has always been really just a buffer game that would just be a 5-year plan since day one. That would explain the lack of consistency in delivering content in many fronts. That's just a way to see it. Hopefully I am wrong, and we really get a Episode 2. I wouldn't like to see a PSO not having a single big expansion. Even Universe had one so, yeah.... Regardless of what is PSO's future, i'll be there, no matter what.
About A.I.S, I don't know, it might still happen, there might some mecha parked somewhere in Nameless City. I just wish we could take it for a ride in epic Starless space fights or in new planets with mixed environment (and please, bosses that are not dolls or Starless, we are really starving for a Bar Lodos UQ)
GrayFoxRJ
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