[Phantasy Star Universe] Beginner's Guide to PSU

If you want to play PSO nowadays, it's really easy with private servers being widely available. What if you want to play PSU though? In this video, I'll show you how to access PSU as well as go through a beginner's guide for those who've never tried the game before.
If you enjoyed the video, please consider liking or subscribing to the channel!
Server used is Clementine PSU: psu-clementine.net/wiki/index...
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:53 Why you might want to try PSU
02:48 How to access PSU online (Clementine server)
03:08 Making a character
09:50 Clyez City / GUARDIANS Colony
11:25 PPT Spaceport / travelling to other planets
11:53 Where to go when starting out (Linear Line)
15:39 Starting a quest (Unsafe Passage C)
17:00 Breakdown of character stats
18:25 Weapon palette and Item palette
19:48 How one-handed weapons work
21:06 Photon Arts
23:30 Strafing
25:18 How PSU holds up now
28:42 Keys
30:25 Two-handed weapons
32:50 Where's my Mag?
33:21 Synthesis boards
34:00 Sub-lobbies
34:38 Classes
36:14 Your room / Partner Machines
38:54 Outro

[@Kukadin]

I mentioned PSU on Discord yesterday after having not thought about it for a decade, the algorithm is getting aggressive

[@LegendaryBaconator]

I remember putting in HOURS playing the demo on the Xbox 360. Wasn’t old enough to get the main game but I’m so glad to find this and was able to download it. So far I got 2 level 60 characters and haven’t stop binge playing it yet.

[@SectionSkyly]

Have fun with the game!

[@terryluu1713]

I was maybe in 7th grade, my buddy I met on Halo told me about this and I downloaded. Easily hundreds of hours, always one guy sitting with a girl no lifing the demo lol

[@WARnTEA]

I also was a demo kid. I really love the sound design, and the simplicity of the graphics/weapons. Idk, there is something about games made around this time period just hit different because they put more effort into creating a vibe/tone for their games since their graphics weren't particularly high quality yet, so they kind of encouraged players to use their imagination. I feel like so many of these games still hold up despite the graphics quality because of that. Modern games are kind of lifeless by comparison. They look pretty but are incredibly hollow.

[@PieMK6R]

I wish i could get into PSO2... Slower pace ones were the best. Felt more team work, compared, to just destroying a whole mob by yourself as your team watches lol Maybe im just getting old lol

[@SectionSkyly]

I think that's totally valid, a lot of people probably feel the same way. For me personally, I like NGS for what it is, but PSO and PSU will always be what I prefer. Blending through hundreds of enemies without paying attention isn't my kind of thing 😂

[@terryluu1713]

Yep I feel the same, the slow combat was the best. Every game now a days think fast movement are what we want lol

[@WARnTEA]

I agree, this is why I hated modern Call of Duty games past Modern Warfare 2 because with even new game they just made them faster pace which ruined any component of strategy or skill. I think this is why Counterstrike has been able to remain popular despite the game largely being the same as it was 20 years ago. Its like playing chess, the game is simple but there is always something you can do to get better. With a fast paced game, improvements/efficiencies are harder to notice or find, and outcomes become more based on RNG than individual skill.

[@ADarkassassin]

hella late, but since nobody else commented STA (or stamina in full) is your status effect defence, highier STA = less chance of statuses sticking to you. this includes incapacitate from megid, and with enough you can be immune.

[@SectionSkyly]

Thanks for clarifying! It's been so long since I played PSU seriously that I couldn't remember. 😅

[@HaloDJumper]

I'm amazed that I'm not all that worried about the online content I'm missing by playing this on PS2. I just love these games and all the grind that comes with it. I've found it to be more complicated than something like Disgaea, but it's so much more satisfying.

[@JamarstScott]

Good videos man, glad to see more people popping up! Event next week consider logging in!

[@SectionSkyly]

Thanks for the heads up! I played PSU years and years ago but it's great to see it getting support from servers like Clementine! Will definitely check out the event 😄

[@SomeAndrewGuy]

I’m watching this just to remind myself of the game. I played it a lot on the Xbox 360 I really liked a lot of things about the game.

[@Micahlopl]

Very cool, gonna try it out 👍

[@wdfghjkl]

Never thought I would see a recent PSU video. The last time I played PSU was Ambition of Illuminus on my PlayStation2. I remember a server that ruined a 10 star twin saber I was crafting. Pain.

[@milkbucket5647]

Great videos, not only for being information dense but also for being well produced. I'm definitely someone that bounced off of PSU when it released. Coming back now I'm really kicking myself for not giving it a real chance, it really does feel like a great evolution from PSO. And honestly there are some things here that I would consider better than PSO2 (and I *love* PSO2).

[@SectionSkyly]

It does feel like a missing link between PSO and PSO2, even though some elements are very different. Thanks for the kind words!

[@matheuspratinha]

thanks for the video, you could do a guide explaining the bests ways to level up.

[@xrayvisor1]

I just got PSU and will be watching lots of videos for beginners. This being my first one. Sub. Also if you ever see Power Man or Ex Machina in game send me a hello 👋

[@SectionSkyly]

Thanks for watching! I'll be doing some more PSU videos at some point. Have fun in the game!

[@nessonic]

Great video! Started fumbling through this having never touched PSU before, and surprisingly felt a strong charm to it and intuitiveness of play/controls. Still pretty in the dark on...all the item management. Stockpiling most things in storage for now until i learn better what gets used where/what vendor etc; same for trying to dive into either PSO2 honestly, just takes time. If there's any interest I'd say almost a 'part 2' video could be helpful, covering "Okay you have barebones basic, know how to level & get loot, what do you do with it & what to focus on/any gotchas?" That said sounds like I'm first comment who is actually new & interested in add'l content, 'tis very niche 😆

[@SectionSkyly]

PSU is about as niche as you can get 😂 Thanks for the suggestion, I can definitely look into that as I realise PSU's massive amount of items can be overwhelming for a newer player! Might be a little while until I can record it (need to finish the PSO class guides first), but I'll add it to the list!

[@xenomorphphantom8852]

Currently playing this on "Clementine",thanks for the guide! = )

[@SectionSkyly]

No worries! Have fun on Clementine!

[@xenomorphphantom8852]

@@SectionSkyly I do! = )

[@Lessthanpropane]

Im really glad I looked into pso/psu! I've been playing and enjoying both! I still like to play osrs and even fell off of ultima. Psu is great in the way its pretty laid back but still pulls me in!

[@SectionSkyly]

PSU has honestly aged really well. It retains some of the things that made PSO special but introduced new ideas that were kept by future games. PSO is still my favourite but PSU is pretty special in its own right!

[@Lessthanpropane]

@@SectionSkyly do you prefer the PSO system of monsters dropping weapons and armor or the psu system of monsters dropping ingredients for crafting?

[@SectionSkyly]

I probably prefer the PSO system. The main problem I had with the synthesising system in PSU was that even rare boards had a chance to fail. Nothing like finding a super-rare board and it blowing up! That said, I wouldn't be against synthing coming back, provided it was less punishing. Overall though, I like just finding the rare as a drop.

[@picawood]

I got in to the series early in the month, i only played a little of ps portable 2 long time ago but dont clicked until now with the infinite version, and i tried blue burst it is a fun game but i think universe and portable infinity is more for my taste, still beeing able to play those 3 games at the same time is a cool thing and will be a fun journey to dive on to

[@SectionSkyly]

PSP2 Infinity is a great game; probably the most fun I've had with Phantasy Star since PSO! Hope you have fun with the series!

[@nnickplays9713]

I hear they CHANGE a couple of things. But it's mostly but improvements from the original version. I really gotta go back and try this game again

[@SectionSkyly]

Yeah, from what I understand it's very similar to how the official servers were, but with some tweaks. Even just changes like Photon Arts leveling faster is huge, that was one of the big problems with the original game (how many people remember buff parties where you'd all gather round a Photon charger and spam buffs for hours?)

[@skavossis5377]

I miss my Puyoment Aura :

[@00ooo000o]

sick video!

[@DrHakennase]

Hi are there like normal Levels like in PSO where i can just play through the levels without doing missions?

[@SectionSkyly]

In PSU everything is done via missions, there's no freeroam like PSO unfortunately. The way PSU works is that the missions will take you to the next lobby area.

[@kellinwinslow1988]

I was one of the first players on the game when it first cane out on the Xbox 360 around the fall of 2006. Played it for 6 months straight before stopping. Never went back to it ,then the servers shut down. I did play a lot of Phantasy Star Portable 1 and 2 for the PSP though which actually improved on some of the gameplay. My question is can you play using the new server on the Xbox 360 or is it PC only? Since I don't have a gaming PC that would do me no good.

[@SectionSkyly]

As far as I know it's just for PC! I'm honestly not sure if there's a way to play the Xbox 360 version online now...

[@kellinwinslow1988]

​@@SectionSkylyThat's a shame. It would be interesting to go back with my character. But that's not really a surprise. Still good to see it still going.

[@Gl0wStickss]

More stamina more resist to debuffs.. like being stunned, or poisoned etc.

[@SectionSkyly]

Thanks, I'd completely forgotten what it did!

[@shinobuu__]

so is there a set progression system like other mmos, or do I just grind stages to get high enough level to do other stages?

[@SectionSkyly]

PSU is pretty open-ended, so you can choose where to level up a bit more freely. Because of how the quest rank system works, you can grind until you meet the requirements for next rank. On Clementine specifically, there is also a quest you can run once a day called Clem Camp (accessed from Guardians Colony 5th Floor) which has 1000% EXP. If you want to level make sure you run that too!

[@shinobuu__]

@@SectionSkyly thank you so much!

[@Gl0wStickss]

I'm having some issues with controls for this game.. Enter is picking up items, and it seems like it can't be changed in their setting.. I'm trying to play this game with mostly the left side of a keyboard, because disability, but it's not working out too well. Mouse mode seems good enough for moving camera around. Enter for interaction is just can't do it.. Looking for good keys to use for keyboard, hopefully avoiding any of the right side of it.. Thanks if anyone knows!

[@SectionSkyly]

I wonder if you could use a program to allow you to rebind Enter to another key? I'm not familiar with any so might be worth searching for. Theoretically if you can bind Enter to another key on the left of the keyboard it might work?

[@madjik1979]

PSU lagged behind it's JP counterpart by quite a margin. Coupled with the online portion of the game being kinda broken at launch is all the explanation needed to see why the PSO crowd (a decent chunk anyway) didn't latch on to PSU till after PSOBB shutdown. The game did fix these problems over time (all though it did still lag behind JP most of the time) and when illuminati launched it was absolutely a phantasy star game in more than name by that point. Still, PSU found a niche with the newer gamers growing up during that period and I'm grateful for that, because the game did deserve more than it got after all the broken stuff was fixed. Game was ahead of it's time, and if we've learned anything it's that a game ahead of time often sets trends that don't save it from it's own demise.

[@SectionSkyly]

Totally agree. Western PSU didn't even get to the final level cap before it was shut down. At the time I remember base game had a lot of issues which meant the game got negative reviews. It's a shame because the expansion did fix a lot of the problems.

[@Gl0wStickss]

How bad is this game to play with only using the left side of your keyboard? (Crippled) I played this back in the day on xbox 360 with close to 10,000 hours, but I think M&K is rough right...

[@SectionSkyly]

Honestly not sure, if I'm honest I only ever played PSU with a controller so I'm not sure what the keyboard controls are like. The client is free to download though, so you could always download it and see if you can get a control layout that works for you? Hope you can figure something out and sorry I can't be of much help!

[@phantomblade3740]

Does this allow you to play the offline portion as well?

[@SectionSkyly]

Not as far as I know unfortunately. I think to play the offline part you'd need to install the original game. Not sure why PSU decided to do story like that...

[@619Shippo]

I wish they were able to get the online campaign. I missed out on that.

[@SectionSkyly]

That was one of the weird decisions sega made, splitting the story between offline and online. I'm just glad Clementine has most of the content intact!

[@HOWZERGOD]

as far as i know, its currently impossible to recover story mode since the code for it is lost :(

[@jjc5871]

Tried playing PSO2, and actually put quite a few hours into it, but it was not able to draw me in like PSU did. I stopped playin maybe a month after I started. Tried playin again when the game got that expansion, or whatever you wanna call it, and I couldn’t figure out anything lol. Just wish Clementine had more people playing. It didn’t matter when you started playin PSU on the 360, there were always people at every level ready to join pretty much any mission you wanted to play. Seems like you only get like 50-100 people on Clementine at any given time and, as far as I can tell, they all only play high level or hardcore characters. I guarantee a remaster of this game would sell incredibly well. Don’t know about doing monthly subs again, especially if there’s an upfront cost for the game itself, but the game would have a ton of players right from the start.

[@SectionSkyly]

I think part of the problem is that you level so fast on Clementine that you end up at end-game really quickly anyway, so that's why most players are there. The server does feel very geared towards end-game, which is a shame for newer players starting out. It's pretty much the only option for PSU at the moment though!

[@jjc5871]

@@SectionSkyly I thought I was leveling extremely fast. Wasn’t sure if I was just remembering how long it took to level in the original game wrong though. Don’t remember getting Kubara Wood so easily either though.

[@gaiaswarrior6158]

Ive always been a console guy, i was a HUGE PSU gamer, 17k hours, Is this on pc this clementine server?

[@SectionSkyly]

Yeah, Clementine is on PC. At the moment I'm not sure if there's any way of playing the console versions of PSU online.

[@gaiaswarrior6158]

@@SectionSkyly can u send me a link to this game? Wanna makesure its the one i have

[@SectionSkyly]

There's a link in the description that explains how to sign up! PC version is the same as the old console versions, so if you played console PSU then Clementine should feel familiar!

[@blargblarg-jargon9607]

omg there are psu private servers?!?! ok, thanks man!

[@SectionSkyly]

Mainly just Clementine that I'm aware of at the moment, but yeah! There are some changes from the original Sega servers, but it's the closest you can get at the moment. Still highly recommended if you want to check out PSU!

[@Youthinkyoudobutyoudont]

I was trying to make an account be the service seems unresponsive

[@SectionSkyly]

I've heard that Clementine are having some issues with their server host lately. If you can't get connected, it's probably worth trying again later. Hopefully they can get it fixed soon!

[@dabeast1956]

How do I play this game?

[@SectionSkyly]

Check the Clementine website. I know they were experiencing some server problems recently which might impact downloading the client but hopefully you'll be able to download it soon.

[@KushAidMan]

This game seems better then PSO. Is this one more popular?

[@SectionSkyly]

It's probably less popular overall (a lot of people really didn't like PSU back when it launched). I haven't played a huge amount yet on Clementine server, but there always seems to be a healthy enough population there. If PSO's simple combat isn't what you want then PSU could be worth a try. Honestly it still holds up pretty well!

[@ShiroCh_ID]

@@SectionSkyly agreed! psu seems to be a black sheep just because it carries phantasy name yet it was radically different than PSO in some ways but in all honestly though, i like PSO if only it has freedom camera movement just like in PSU, sadly it wasnt

[@SIlent4324]

Wait how are you able to play it? It was shut down Eons ago... Jokes aside I was sure the game shut down ☠️

[@SectionSkyly]

It was shut down yeah! Clementine is a private server keeping it running again!

[@TheEXGamemaster]

The memories

[@asimhussain2344]

Going from PSO to PSU was like going from SA2 to Sonic Heroes. It was a fall from grace, although perhaps in retrospect these games are not necessarily bad. In PSU's case, watching your gameplay doesn't bring up any fond memories... the gameplay is boring, the enemies unresponsive to attacks thanks to a weird delay, the photon art specials--while not ridiculous anime like PSO2--don't look cool. Level and enemy design is bland and uninspired. The one exception was this area called Mizuraki, which was the only memorable song in the whole game. I think it's misguided nostalgia for there to ever be a resurgence or reevaluation of this deeply mediocre game. The great thing in the game was having your own room/shop other people could visit. That was it.

[@SectionSkyly]

PSU was probably a move in the wrong direction back when it released, and I agree that some of the enemies are pretty bland. However, I disagree on the levels and the music. PSU has a great soundtrack overall in my opinion and I thought the level design was fine. The Photon Arts are all over the place; some look decent and some look stupid. I don't think you can lump them all together. I played PSU from launch and yes, back then a lot of players went back to PSO for a while. Honestly though, in my opinion the game holds up fine now. It's never going to be my favourite Phantasy Star but I respect it for what it is, and it still has an active community just like PSO. Don't get me wrong, I would play PSO over PSU in a heartbeat, but I don't think some of the hate that PSU got at the time was justified. Ultimately in 2024 it doesn't matter because there's private servers for both games so you can play whatever you want.

[@thebestbelmont4273]

I've played every Phantasy Star game released in the states and I love the spirit of the game. Because of that perceived spirit, I can't get into PSO2. There's a lot of levels to it but it mostly that the game comes off like a meld between generic weeaboo sci-fi nonsense and Dynasty Warriors. It in no way resembles or feels like it belongs to Phantasy Star for me. PSU was pretty bad, too, really. Bland and boring. I think PSO, while also departing a little from what was established with Phantasy Star at the time, shared enough DNA with the other games that I was still able to enjoy Episode 1 and 2. I wonder what a modern attempt at a more traditional Phantasy Star game would look like, although I hesitate to use the term remake, after what happened to Final Fantasy.