Sequel Fails to Beat Prequel
I later got seriously into PSO when I picked up the Gamecube version, all of my friends played, and going over to each other's houses, memory card in hand, to play four player splitscreen was a blast.
Now? PSU gets rid of any type of offline multiplayer. The only way to interact with any other real gamers is to pay an online fee. What's their excuse? On the PS2, Sega claimed the system was not powerful enough to have splitscreen - fair enough, yet on the Xbox 360, a system vastly more powerful than the PS2, the feature is still missing.
The real fun of this game was always the hack-n-slash gameplay combined with building your character. Designing your character, decking them out in unique armor and weapons, becoming more powerful over time - it sounds like standard RPG fare, but the PSO made it addicting. PSU fails to create the same incentive to do so. Sure you can get more powerful, but you can't show off your power to friends, and the world is somewhat dull on your own.
Frankly, I simply judge this game harshly for being worse than its predecessor ... PSO was a great game, the single player was enjoyable if repetitive, but being able to play with your friends gave you an incentive to keep grinding - PSU... the incentive is gone - and the single player storyline is not enough of a trade-off to replace it.