Here's to the lovely ladies of PSO
It's coming up on Valentine's day... As a geek who spends all his time playing PSO I obviously don't have an actual girlfriend to be celebrating the holiday with. Instead, my affections will be wasted on virtual women who could never possibly return them. Hey, it wouldn't be the first time. ^_~
RICO TYRELL
A.K.A. Red Ring Rico, on account of her characteristic armband. The legendary hunter and talented scientist worshipped as a celebrity by everyone on Pioneer 2. Also the sole survivor of the explosion which caused everyone on Pioneer 1 to disappear. Your goal in PSO is to track this girl down (along with any other possible survivors), but you always seem to be one step behind her. She belongs to the unique HUmarl class, and if you're exceptionally lucky, you can find some of her prototype weapons, or even her glasses & earrings.
PROS: Rico is very cute in a Jeanine Melnitz sort of way. I especially like the little blue streak in her hair - very tass. Since she's a talented scientist, you also know she's very intelligent. Add to that the fact that she's a skilled adventurer (a big plus in my book) and how can you go wrong?
CONS: Withtout revealing too much about the PSO storyline, let's just say that you can never really meet Rico, and your chances of living "Happily Ever After" with her are exactly nil.
ELLY PERSON
Elly is a somewhat innocent & naïve Newman living onboard Pioneer 2. She comes to you with a request when she thinks a penpal of hers onboard Pioneer 1 is in trouble. It turns out her friend is actually a very powerful A.I. which you just barely manage to save from viral corruption. Later, you can go on another mission with her and help her work through some issues with her virtual boyfriend. As a reward for your efforts, Elly gives you an extremely fragile gift, which we have decided is made of Sculpey and duct tape at best.
PROS: Elly is hands-down the cutest NPC in all of PSO. Not only in appearance, but in personality as well, like when she compares Delsabers to scary ex-boyfriends. Also you get to work closely with Elly in episode 2, and get "matched" with her as a compatible partner, a big treat for us Elly fanboys. (Part of me knows everyone playing through the game gets those same messages, but I've worked hard to kill that part of me. ^_~) Even further pseudo-romantic moments can be achieved by going on the "Seat of the Heart" quest with Elly, although she does seem to have a problem expressing her feelings...
CONS: Sometimes Elly can be a little ditzy, but she's good enough with computers that you know she isn't really an airhead. Also, she truly does seem to have an outright fetish for machines, even referring to the CAL terminals as "sexy". However, I might just be willing to get the full bionic conversion for a girl like Elly, if it came down to that. ^_~
NOL RENALE
Nol is a journalist on Pioneer 2. She briefly accompanies you on a mission to try to find out what the government is trying to cover up about what really happened on Pioneer 1. Ironically, she later comes to work for the people running Pioneer 2. She also helps The Lab to design a quest meant to improve the communication skills of hunters. In other words, to encourage people to use the chat functions, rather than just slaughtering all the monsters on Ragol in silence...
PROS: Nol is cute, even if she's not Elly cute, and she sort of reminds me of a girl I worked with on my college newspaper. Also, as someone interested in promoting in-game chatting, she's a girl after my own heart. When I was gaming with strangers, I was the only one to ever toss out a quip, though they were kind enough to usually respond with an "LoL" for me. I'm glad my friends who play aren't that boring.
CONS: Since Nol is a very minor character, we don't get to find out very much about her.
Let's not forget all the other wonderful women (and women-shaped androids) aboard Pioneer 2, Sue, Cecil, Elenor (who's cute in her own sort of Mega-Maid way), the Nurse Joys in the hospital, and the Officer Jennies in the check room. In the immortal words of Baron von Munchausen, "Beautiful ladies... Beautiful ladies..."
RICO TYRELL
A.K.A. Red Ring Rico, on account of her characteristic armband. The legendary hunter and talented scientist worshipped as a celebrity by everyone on Pioneer 2. Also the sole survivor of the explosion which caused everyone on Pioneer 1 to disappear. Your goal in PSO is to track this girl down (along with any other possible survivors), but you always seem to be one step behind her. She belongs to the unique HUmarl class, and if you're exceptionally lucky, you can find some of her prototype weapons, or even her glasses & earrings.
PROS: Rico is very cute in a Jeanine Melnitz sort of way. I especially like the little blue streak in her hair - very tass. Since she's a talented scientist, you also know she's very intelligent. Add to that the fact that she's a skilled adventurer (a big plus in my book) and how can you go wrong?
CONS: Withtout revealing too much about the PSO storyline, let's just say that you can never really meet Rico, and your chances of living "Happily Ever After" with her are exactly nil.
ELLY PERSON
Elly is a somewhat innocent & naïve Newman living onboard Pioneer 2. She comes to you with a request when she thinks a penpal of hers onboard Pioneer 1 is in trouble. It turns out her friend is actually a very powerful A.I. which you just barely manage to save from viral corruption. Later, you can go on another mission with her and help her work through some issues with her virtual boyfriend. As a reward for your efforts, Elly gives you an extremely fragile gift, which we have decided is made of Sculpey and duct tape at best.
PROS: Elly is hands-down the cutest NPC in all of PSO. Not only in appearance, but in personality as well, like when she compares Delsabers to scary ex-boyfriends. Also you get to work closely with Elly in episode 2, and get "matched" with her as a compatible partner, a big treat for us Elly fanboys. (Part of me knows everyone playing through the game gets those same messages, but I've worked hard to kill that part of me. ^_~) Even further pseudo-romantic moments can be achieved by going on the "Seat of the Heart" quest with Elly, although she does seem to have a problem expressing her feelings...
CONS: Sometimes Elly can be a little ditzy, but she's good enough with computers that you know she isn't really an airhead. Also, she truly does seem to have an outright fetish for machines, even referring to the CAL terminals as "sexy". However, I might just be willing to get the full bionic conversion for a girl like Elly, if it came down to that. ^_~
NOL RENALE
Nol is a journalist on Pioneer 2. She briefly accompanies you on a mission to try to find out what the government is trying to cover up about what really happened on Pioneer 1. Ironically, she later comes to work for the people running Pioneer 2. She also helps The Lab to design a quest meant to improve the communication skills of hunters. In other words, to encourage people to use the chat functions, rather than just slaughtering all the monsters on Ragol in silence...
PROS: Nol is cute, even if she's not Elly cute, and she sort of reminds me of a girl I worked with on my college newspaper. Also, as someone interested in promoting in-game chatting, she's a girl after my own heart. When I was gaming with strangers, I was the only one to ever toss out a quip, though they were kind enough to usually respond with an "LoL" for me. I'm glad my friends who play aren't that boring.
CONS: Since Nol is a very minor character, we don't get to find out very much about her.
Let's not forget all the other wonderful women (and women-shaped androids) aboard Pioneer 2, Sue, Cecil, Elenor (who's cute in her own sort of Mega-Maid way), the Nurse Joys in the hospital, and the Officer Jennies in the check room. In the immortal words of Baron von Munchausen, "Beautiful ladies... Beautiful ladies..."