I don't know where to start.

Phantasy star universe service ended March 31, 2010.
During this time i lost so many friends and went separate ways cause of the platforms at the time were the console itself
or you lucked up and managed to keep in contact by phone.

At the time this happened pso2 the base game trailer was leaked and brought great things with it. My friend let me use their gaming pc for the first round of closed beta testing. Then after that I worked really hard that summer to get a core i5 2500k , 16gb of ram , a 650w psu ,1 tb of space and gtx 550.

I was so excited to be in the second round of closed beta testing . This is when i met more people during the closed beta and tried to keep and contact with them when ventrillo and teamspeak became more frequently used along with skype.

this time frame is very important important because it was when i was ecstatic to have friends to play games with.
we roll into open beta and you see the 4chan board light up in vg. instructions to play the game eng patches constant people expressing builds and mag guides. This become core community members and the people that brought different energy when introducing the game to other people.

I played the game on jp for 5,000 + hrs watched the gameplay evolve , weapon options change , damage creep , class optimization and watched how the people that wanted to explain to new people how to play the game become more prideful and in a sense toxic. This slowly started to turn the community in way that leaves a bad taste in your mouth cause a game that made me happy turn into a chore to play optimally.

I didn't mind grinding i grinded until i passed out at the keyboard and someone in my headset the next day yelling at me to wake up was the best part cause they also fell asleep grinding. Pso2 base game early stages was peak fun.
slowly turned toxic over the years from open beta to ep 6 in a nutshell. But the base game is an amazing milestone.

I felt ashamed to be excited for NGS because it's no longer the game i once fell in love with. Yes it looks visually stunning ,
yes the combat is more fluent but it's just a shell of game that was more innovative in the long run. I don't know if NGS will improve and i probably won't know for a long time. But i will say if you want to play this game play the base game , enjoy the story it tells. take on the older content , farm and make some friends.

Don't think of NGS as an extension of the base game . Because it is unfinished rushed product used as a cosmetic cash grab with big maps with nothing in it.

I wish all players the best but as of now sega doesn't respect your time commitment or your happiness , they just want your money cause without it they have nothing.