If you dont atleast play PSU:Ambitions of the Illuminus then you are a big _______ _________ ________-______ ___!!!!!!!
The game is about these four humonoid races that inhabit a solar system called Gurhal. Humans, CASTs(robot made by people), Neumans(a psychic race made by humans), and Beasts(also made by humans). They spent the last 500 years fighting each other which I guess is what the version on the sega consoles were about. PSU starts after all that happened when all four races signed a peace treaty.
There is a military force for the entire galaxy called the Alliance something or other, which i think is predominantly made up of CASTs. But there is also a kind of galactic police force called Gaurdians. Thats what your characters are apart of in both PSU games. You do the things that require only a small force or lone operative to deal with.
In PSU the Gurhal system comes under attack from aliens from out of their system called SEED. SEED are drawn to a type of energy called A-photons. You play as a dude named Ethan Waber and eventually help end the attacks. I think it was only revealed online that after you save the entire solar system the character Ethan Waber trys to assassinate the President of the entire system.
When you start PSU:AI your Gaurdian instructor implys that Ethan Waber is now a wanted criminal but you have more important things to deal with. You wiped out a SEED hiveship at the end of PSU but there are still SEED monsters and infections throughout the system, and reports come in that their are other SEED hive ships.
Soon you discover that not only are there remnants of SEED still in the system but someone is actively trying to reproduce the things SEED can do like turn living things into monsters and stuff.
How does PSU:AI compare to the first one?? Well there are new weapons and new outfits and stuff but mostly its all the same. Nothing was done to change the actual mechanics of the game which some of them desperate need like the AI of your ally's who barely ever lift a finger to actually help you out. Nothing was done to streamline crafting. Weapons still only regen PP when you have them equipped.
One thing that really bothers me is the fact that the guy you create and take through the story doesnt ever say a word. The story gets told through your training instructor.
Besides those bad points the game is still freaking awesome. The weapon/armor crafting is cool because the monsters only drop crafting materials and sometimes recipe's or whole weapons/armor. This is pretty cool because it means it is beneficial to replay stages and it doesnt matter which ones you play. You will always get materials you can use to make stuff.
The graphics are pretty cool except for the weapons. The weapons glow with whatever element they are but im talking about the actual shape and form of them could stand to have some better designs. The level environments are absolutely beautiful, and I think something they added in this one is like bushes and grasses in some of the levels. I dont think they had that in the first one, its cool because it blocks line of sight and makes it feel more realistic.
The character making is pretty awesome, You can pick hair, face, eye color, skin tone, height, weight/shape, and underwear.
They have a totally killer cinema scene that plays every time you launch a new episode. its the same cinema scene every time but it has this awesome rock song in it. Its the same one as the one in one of the game trailers. I get amped every time I hear it.
Anyways you should make every effort possable to at the very least play the PSU games if not own them.
EDIT!!! Theres one more important thing you should know about these PSU games. Apparently they are going to be like .hack and xenosaga where they spread the story out over multiple disks and charge you for each individual one. If I had known that I probably would have tried to get them off ebay instead of paying full price. Who knows how many there will be. Im sure PSU:AI continues the story from offline mode online which means we can expect atleast one more game to let people play it offline.
Unlike .hack and xenosaga though you can make different characters which gives it better replay value. Even though you can change what type of fighter you are at any time I still plan on using a seperate character for the different types.