It says "You've played for 400 hours, would you recommend this game to other players?" and I guess I really ought to, right? It's fun, and I like it.

That's actually the combined time of PSO2 and PSO2:NGS. I didn't actually play the whole story of PSO2 before NGS came out, and I haven't caught up on NGS either since I came back. Working on the Kvaris region right now. There's a lot of really good multiplayer action combat gameplay in this, both in PSO2 and NGS. They're effectively an MMO and its sequel jammed together in such a way you could have either installed, and move your character between the two. Many things can be moved forward, and those can also be moved back, though you mostly can't move new stuff back, apart from the NGS newbie gear I think?

PSO2 is a lobby game rather than an MMO, so you don't see very large groups or have a world to explore, there's a literal lobby and you sign up for missions that are usually made of procgen maps and get transported to them. NGS you have a world to explore that is static, but it's also sectioned into relatively small 'rooms' for players. So, if you and another player leave 'town' at the same time, you're not guaranteed to end up in the same area. Those areas, I think they normally have four players in them? So you can run into others, but often won't. If you're in a party, you'll stick together, and there are special "Urgent" missions where you'll usually be with a bunch of players all at once fighting a bunch of stuff.

The gameplay is a lot of fun. The story is bonkers in an "Anime!" way. I described it as "Like Elden Ring but Easy" not that long ago, and that's half-true but it kinda goes for both the gameplay and the story as well. You can lock on to enemies or not. You have a variety of moves you can use. The enemies are generally 'slower' and super easy alone or in small groups, but there's usually a lot of them so it adds up. "Perfect Dodging" one attack gives you brief invincibility for the rest that are hitting at the same time, so you can actually use dodging the weak enemies to defend against the big ones if you want.

I'd say that in combat I'm usually either using wide area attacks on big groups, or focusing on single targets with counter attacks and big single-target attacks, no matter what class I play.

You choose a main class and a sub class from those available, and you can swap any time you want. These modify gameplay somewhat, though there's no need for a 'holy trinity' or 'group composition' that I've encountered. Hunter has some ability for 'tanking' like taking aggro and being able to do a perfect block as well as perfect dodges, but rather than taking damage you'd want to just get everything's attention so the rest of the players hit their backs, and that's only in multiplayer. The 'support' class is Techter. It's a weird name, right? It used to be Techer. I think it's like, "Technique User", or that way in the Japanese language they'll add "er" to the end of a thing to turn it into a profession or something, like ESPer or Decorer. Force and Waker also have some support abilities. Everything else is DPS I guess? But everybody is DPS and everybody can perfect dodge. There's no class or class combo (since you pick two) that can't stand on its own in all solo content. Even in the multiplayer content, they'll drop a bunch of NPC helpers if you're alone, and I haven't had to rely on them. Well, I can't do Mining Rig Defense solo, I suppose. ^.^;;

A big part of the game is appearance. There's a lot of customization options. Most of them you get from gachapon mechanics from the cash shop. You can sell these in a 'player shop' in game, which is a weird tricky way for them to have the wealthy players buy extra copies of the same things and put them for sale for regular game currency, so the poor players can buy them... but only if they're available. So, you aren't guaranteed to get the things you want just by gameplay, but you can get a lot of it that way. If you have money, you can spend it, but there's not a lot of things you can buy straight out for irl money.

I'd say the biggest flaw is the FOMO. Like most modern games, it has things like daily rewards, daily missions/quests, that sort of thing, where if you don't play 'a little' every day, you'll miss out, and then when you're playing it's hard to stop, right? But also you feel bad if you don't, it becomes a responsibility or something you're dedicated to, and that can be a problem. None of it is required to play the game and succeed at game tasks or go through the story or have fun fighting enemies, so you could ignore it, if they didn't throw it in your face every time you play and remind you, and then you forget it's unessential and it'd still help and oh those clothes are nice etc.

If you can keep in mind that the daily stuff isn't required, and don't have self-control or gambling issues, you won't have problems. If you do have issues, I think those problems are manageable. If not, avoiding just this game won't help, you need professional help; this world of ours will wreck you.

One of my favorite features in PSO2 and NGS is the Lookbook. With all of the character customization in the game, it'd be nice if other players saw you, right? You can post looks in the lookbook, showing your character and doing an emote animation, with some messages. The game rewards you for using this system by offering five star gems each day, one for each of five 'likes' you give to other players. I usually go to the "Recent" tab to show the latest lookbook updates and scroll through twenty or thirty, and mark each of the ones I like. You have four options. Like, Cute, Cool, Interesting. A lot of folks dress up in cosplay, or do really cute or cool fashion. There's actually pretty good fashion for both masculine and feminine types, as well as mecha that are masculine, feminine, or I guess enby? Enby would be the default for mecha, I think.

While PSO2 has genders and 'races', they reworked that system in NGS. Body Type 1 is masculine, Body Type 2 is feminine. They don't assign gender to either. The four 'races' are mostly appearance now, and lore. Human, Newman, Deuman, and CAST. Newman have pointy ears, Deuman have heterochromia and often weird patterns in their eyes, and also have horns, and CASTs are mostly-mechanical cyborgs. I think they're all related to humans, no aliens. It's science fantasy. There ARE aliens, but the players are those races, or whatever you want to roleplay, I'm not your boss and you can have weird coloured skin or be a furry. I'm a furry, but I don't have the 'parts' in game to look it. There's a lot of kemonomimi type ears and tails, along with some proper furry heads like masks. You can also have a photorealistic-looking Marlin.

One of the more popular accessories is a pair of feminine breasts. You can have multiple accessories on at once and position them all over your body, connect them to different 'bones' and such, and scale them. So, it's not abnormal to see someone max out the scale on these and run around like that. I've seen folks put them on their rear instead. I'm not sure I've seen anybody wearing two at once, which seems odd; maybe a forced limitation?

This is a game where an Anime Protagonist, a Furry, a Big Titty Goth Girl and a Gundam can work together to save the day, what more do you want? Cel shading? They're adding cel shading in the next update, as an option you can turn on.

It says "You've played for 400 hours, would you recommend this game to other players?" and I guess I really ought to, right? It's fun, and I like it. That's actually the combined time of PSO2 and PSO2:NGS. I didn't actually play the whole story of PSO2 before NGS came out, and I haven't caught up on NGS either since I came back. Working on the Kvaris region right now. There's a lot of really good multiplayer action combat gameplay in this, both in PSO2 and NGS. They're effectively an MMO and its sequel jammed together in such a way you could have either installed, and move your character between the two. Many things can be moved forward, and those can also be moved back, though you mostly can't move new stuff back, apart from the NGS newbie gear I think? PSO2 is a lobby game rather than an MMO, so you don't see very large groups or have a world to explore, there's a literal lobby and you sign up for missions that are usually made of procgen maps and get transported to them. NGS you have a world to explore that is static, but it's also sectioned into relatively small 'rooms' for players. So, if you and another player leave 'town' at the same time, you're not guaranteed to end up in the same area. Those areas, I think they normally have four players in them? So you can run into others, but often won't. If you're in a party, you'll stick together, and there are special "Urgent" missions where you'll usually be with a bunch of players all at once fighting a bunch of stuff. The gameplay is a lot of fun. The story is bonkers in an "Anime!" way. I described it as "Like Elden Ring but Easy" not that long ago, and that's half-true but it kinda goes for both the gameplay and the story as well. You can lock on to enemies or not. You have a variety of moves you can use. The enemies are generally 'slower' and super easy alone or in small groups, but there's usually a lot of them so it adds up. "Perfect Dodging" one attack gives you brief invincibility for the rest that are hitting at the same time, so you can actually use dodging the weak enemies to defend against the big ones if you want. I'd say that in combat I'm usually either using wide area attacks on big groups, or focusing on single targets with counter attacks and big single-target attacks, no matter what class I play. You choose a main class and a sub class from those available, and you can swap any time you want. These modify gameplay somewhat, though there's no need for a 'holy trinity' or 'group composition' that I've encountered. Hunter has some ability for 'tanking' like taking aggro and being able to do a perfect block as well as perfect dodges, but rather than taking damage you'd want to just get everything's attention so the rest of the players hit their backs, and that's only in multiplayer. The 'support' class is Techter. It's a weird name, right? It used to be Techer. I think it's like, "Technique User", or that way in the Japanese language they'll add "er" to the end of a thing to turn it into a profession or something, like ESPer or Decorer. Force and Waker also have some support abilities. Everything else is DPS I guess? But everybody is DPS and everybody can perfect dodge. There's no class or class combo (since you pick two) that can't stand on its own in all solo content. Even in the multiplayer content, they'll drop a bunch of NPC helpers if you're alone, and I haven't had to rely on them. Well, I can't do Mining Rig Defense solo, I suppose. ^.^;; A big part of the game is appearance. There's a lot of customization options. Most of them you get from gachapon mechanics from the cash shop. You can sell these in a 'player shop' in game, which is a weird tricky way for them to have the wealthy players buy extra copies of the same things and put them for sale for regular game currency, so the poor players can buy them... but only if they're available. So, you aren't guaranteed to get the things you want just by gameplay, but you can get a lot of it that way. If you have money, you can spend it, but there's not a lot of things you can buy straight out for irl money. I'd say the biggest flaw is the FOMO. Like most modern games, it has things like daily rewards, daily missions/quests, that sort of thing, where if you don't play 'a little' every day, you'll miss out, and then when you're playing it's hard to stop, right? But also you feel bad if you don't, it becomes a responsibility or something you're dedicated to, and that can be a problem. None of it is required to play the game and succeed at game tasks or go through the story or have fun fighting enemies, so you could ignore it, if they didn't throw it in your face every time you play and remind you, and then you forget it's unessential and it'd still help and oh those clothes are nice etc. If you can keep in mind that the daily stuff isn't required, and don't have self-control or gambling issues, you won't have problems. If you do have issues, I think those problems are manageable. If not, avoiding just this game won't help, you need professional help; this world of ours will wreck you. One of my favorite features in PSO2 and NGS is the Lookbook. With all of the character customization in the game, it'd be nice if other players saw you, right? You can post looks in the lookbook, showing your character and doing an emote animation, with some messages. The game rewards you for using this system by offering five star gems each day, one for each of five 'likes' you give to other players. I usually go to the "Recent" tab to show the latest lookbook updates and scroll through twenty or thirty, and mark each of the ones I like. You have four options. Like, Cute, Cool, Interesting. A lot of folks dress up in cosplay, or do really cute or cool fashion. There's actually pretty good fashion for both masculine and feminine types, as well as mecha that are masculine, feminine, or I guess enby? Enby would be the default for mecha, I think. While PSO2 has genders and 'races', they reworked that system in NGS. Body Type 1 is masculine, Body Type 2 is feminine. They don't assign gender to either. The four 'races' are mostly appearance now, and lore. Human, Newman, Deuman, and CAST. Newman have pointy ears, Deuman have heterochromia and often weird patterns in their eyes, and also have horns, and CASTs are mostly-mechanical cyborgs. I think they're all related to humans, no aliens. It's science fantasy. There ARE aliens, but the players are those races, or whatever you want to roleplay, I'm not your boss and you can have weird coloured skin or be a furry. I'm a furry, but I don't have the 'parts' in game to look it. There's a lot of kemonomimi type ears and tails, along with some proper furry heads like masks. You can also have a photorealistic-looking Marlin. One of the more popular accessories is a pair of feminine breasts. You can have multiple accessories on at once and position them all over your body, connect them to different 'bones' and such, and scale them. So, it's not abnormal to see someone max out the scale on these and run around like that. I've seen folks put them on their rear instead. I'm not sure I've seen anybody wearing two at once, which seems odd; maybe a forced limitation? This is a game where an Anime Protagonist, a Furry, a Big Titty Goth Girl and a Gundam can work together to save the day, what more do you want? Cel shading? They're adding cel shading in the next update, as an option you can turn on.