Lots of new information 12/15/11 [Archive]

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Ark22

Dec 15, 2011, 01:22 PM

I just copied and pasted

IF you wanna see it go to this site.

http://bumped.org/psublog/

Also if you want to edit it go ahead.

Phantasy Star Online 2: Alpha Test 2 Interface Changes

A new enemy called キャタドラン Kyatadoran
Morning! Today Sakai wants you to check this week’s Famitsu Weekly because you can see information about PSO2′s Mags and My Room. In addition the article talks about a new Item Grinding feature called Item Lab, and a new field and enemy.

And of course today it was announced that they are taking in 50,000 new applicants to participate in the Alpha Test 2. Alpha Test 2 not only plans to introduce the changes people requested in the previous test, but will also introduce a new feature called My Room. Their goal is to check and see how the server handles more simultaneous connections than the last time. So those of you who already participated will be joined by 50,000 more testers to assess server stability.
Furthermore, anyone’s class level that’s higher than level 10 will be given the opportunity to participate in future tests.

PSO2 Fansite Kit

Sakai has given out a fansite kit to add to your websites and blogs, as well as twitter icons you can use as your icon.

New Interface Improvements

Sega will bring PSO2 to Akihabara Game Festa on December 24th. If you are attending you should watch the 14:00JST presentation and the 16:00JST presentation because some of the content will be different. You can try out just the Alpha Test 2′s new character creation features.
But let’s look at today’s Porori image!

Aha! It looks like the HP bars have now moved to the lower left corner just like PSU and PSP2. Since the eyes will be focusing on that part of the screen anyway, it will be easier to read your HP status now.
This screenshot was actually taken two weeks ago, and more adjustments have been made since then. In fact, everyday with the development team, Sakai can make minor changes and improvements to the game. See you next time!
My Room in PSO2

Phantasy Star Online 2 has a feature you are already familiar from PSU called My Room. This is where you and your friends can chill and hang out in your room between adventures. The My Room is located in the residential area inside the dome of the Arcs Ship. Details provided by Shougai.

You can have up to 12 players in your room.

There’s also a terrace.

Item Laboratory “Item Customization”

PSO2 introduces a new feature called Item Lab, it will let you customize your weapons and armor (units). You will be able to increase the stats of your weapons as well as the attribute level, and you can add special abilities to your items. Details provided by Shougai.
Item Grinding
Boosts stats for weapons
Boosts stats for armor
Striking Power
Shooting Power
Force Power
(Armor grinding details were not included in the article, this will probably be explained at a later time.)
Boost Level
When you grind your item, the weapon will have a value added onto it like “+1.”
Gunslash +1
You can strengthen it to +10
Required Items needed for Grinding
Meseta
Grinder
You may be required to use multiple grinders when you are strengthening your weapon.
For example when grinding from +3 to +4 you could use something like 2 grinders.
Failing A Grind
When you are grinding a weapon and it fails, you do not lose that strengthened weapon.
(Speculation: Shougai thinks you will just lose the meseta and grinders you used for grinding but details about this are unknown. I assume your grind levels stay the same if you fail but I’m not so sure about this subject at the moment.)
Item Attribute Grinding
You can increase the attributes of..
Fire
Ice
Lightning
Wind
Light
Dark
Process for increasing attributes.
By joining multiple items you can increase the attribute level. (Kind of like the weapon synthesis of PSP2i)
You will use “Meseta” and an item called “Synthesizer” to increase your attribute stats.
Adding Special Abilities
You can add special abilities to your weapon or armor (units) like:
Flame Resist
Rockbear Soul
Shoot II
An item’s special ability could be passed on to another item.
(Speculation: Based on the screenshot it seems adding special abilities can also fail but the details are unknown.)

Category: Phantasy Star Online 2 No Comments
Thursday December 15, 2011 01:26

Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test 2 Signup
Sega is now accepting recruits for the Alpha Test 2 page. Head to http://pso2.jp/entry/ to register! They will be taking recruits starting from today December 15th, 2011 through January 17th, 2012. After the completion of this test, (based on how well it does) they will continue to the closed beta test. If your character reaches level 10 in any of the classes, you will continue on to the closed beta test. However if you are caught violating the terms of this alpha test you will not get that privilege.

In Alpha Test 2, Sega will be adding a new feature called My Room.

Recruiting Info
12/15/2011 through 1/17/2012
50,000 people to be added
You must be a Japanese resident to participate.
You do not need to re-register if you signed up for the newsletter already.
Alpha Test 2 Minimum Requirements
Windows XP / Vista / 7 32bit or 64bit
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 or higher
1.5GB (XP) 2GB (Vista/7) of RAM
8GB HD Space
1280×720 Resolution
Nvidia GeForce 78000GT or Similar or Higher
Direct x 9.0c

More information as of 12/16

Today the official site updated with some vague information about Mags and My Room and Item Lab. But the conciseness of the update made some information clearer than before.

Those familiar with PSO should remember Mags, they are mechanical life forms that grow when you give them items.

They will grow into various forms, and will support the player on the battle side and status. (“ステータスや戦闘面?” I’m not going to read too much into this.)

Not only can you customize your character but you can also customize your living spaces with the My Room feature. My Room can accommodate 12 players at the same time. Make your room by customizing it with various items.

Furthermore, you can customize your weapons and armor in the Item Lab. Not only can you strengthen the power and defense of your items but also by composing the same weapon, you can increase the attribute rate.

With the feature to “Add a Special Ability”, you can transplant special abilities from other weapons.

Comments

The Item Lab itself so far is split into THREE distinct features. The first one is to increase your stats on items. The screenshots show all the stats an item has and what it can increase to. For example when grinding the Rifle to +3 to +4 it listed its Striking and Range Power and tech power, although the Rifle’s tech power is zero making it irrelevant. Grinding it to +4 would increase its Range Power to 136.
The second feature is to increase the attribute rate which by the way the description is written sounds exactly like Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity’s weapon synthesis system.
The third feature is to add special abilities on weapons which shows a possible list of abilities you can add onto a weapon.
As for the mags, well, it could be referencing a photon blast, I’m not going to think of PSU’s PMs until more information is revealed.

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/9199/castcharacreate.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/685/castcharacreate.jpg/)

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7435/pso2myroomcarpet.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/267/pso2myroomcarpet.jpg/)

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9779/pso2itemlab.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/233/pso2itemlab.jpg/)

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3336/pso2itemlab2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/696/pso2itemlab2.jpg/)

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9664/pso2cityarea.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/829/pso2cityarea.jpg/)

New Information 12/20/11

Christmas Eve 2011 Phantasy Star Online 2 Event

Phantasy Star Online 2 will be presented at the Akihabara Game Festa 2011 where you can play PSO2′s updated character creation feature. Since the previous alpha test in August, character creation has added new costumes and cast morphing. Characters created at the event will be showcased at the official site at a later time.
There will be two presentations:
14:00 JST (Saturday, December 24th, at 12:00AM Eastern)
16:00 JST (Saturday, December 24th, at 2:00AM Eastern)

These presentations will cover new information including details about the alpha test 2 version, and a talk show presented by the development staff with prizes in store. This stage event will be streamed live, the details will be announced at the official site at a later time.
Event Notes
You can only play the Character Creation portion.
Each stage presentation will be different so you should watch both!
The contents of the event may change without notice.

New changes
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4963/beforeafterj.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/209/beforeafterj.jpg/)

Beast looking FOnewmen
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3629/newfonewm150x150.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/221/newfonewm150x150.jpg/)

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4607/darkragne300x168.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/darkragne300x168.png/)
A new area revealed in the last promo movie is the city area. Though currently details about this area are unknown, this location utilizes the Arks font on street pavement. There is a boss enemy for this location, according to Famitsu and reported by Shougai, his name is ダーク・ラグネ Dark Ragne (Dark Lagne)

When Dark Ragne is down you can jump on its back and attack its weakpoint directly.

The Christmas Eve Fan Briefing is now over, so here are Famitsu, GPara, and Game Watch‘s recap of the event. They note that some of the content featured in the screenshots may not appear in Alpha Test 2.

Hideaki Kobayashi, the guy who does most of your Phantasy Star music presented his Orchestral theme for PSO2 which is based on the original melody of Phantasy Star Online’s main theme. The Opening CGI movie features the Short Version, and the second trailer showing the contents like My Room features the Long Version of the theme. This orchestral theme was recorded in November, 2011.
PSO2 Alpha Test 2 has two main goals, to inspect the improvements and new elements added to this test, as well as assess server stability and load by adding 50,000 more people.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7875/pso2expressiontest300x1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/684/pso2expressiontest300x1.jpg/)

New features in character creation include an “Expression Test” that lets you test out facial expressions. You can now change your eyebrow color to match your hair, the min/max range for your height has increased, casts body parts can now morph, and casts can have humanoid faces.
Female Casts now have access to modify their breasts, and you can change the “skin” color of Casts using a color picker.
One minor feature that was introduced is the undo and redo functions so you can fine tune your unsightly creation for the world to see.

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/5597/pso2bosskyatadoran300x1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/846/pso2bosskyatadoran300x1.jpg/)

There’s a new enemy called Kyatadoran. A dragon-type enemy with a long body, it can freely expand and contract its body giving you a long range attack. Famitsu thinks this is a boss grade enemy. (His boss status was mentioned in the Fan Briefing though.)
Alpha Test 2 reintroduces boss teleporters so you can fight the boss on its own stage. However, not all bosses will have this feature, some of them will just unexpectedly appear in a quest like before. In addition each quest has been revamped with thicker content than before.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/497/techcharging300x183.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/techcharging300x183.jpg/)

There were new improvements made to the battle portions of the game. Rangers and Forces can now Just Attack using their weapons. You can stop some of the enemy’s attack ( for example: a powerful rush attack), by using Just Attacks. This was demonstrated with a Ranger who used Just Attacks to stop an enemy from charging at him. Your movement speed while charging techs is now faster than before, you can now charge technics through the sub-palette too.

Item Lab, you can customize your items by grinding, increasing attributes, and adding special abilities.
With grinders you can strengthen the power and defense of your items. When you strengthen your weapon you get a +1 grind value by the item’s name. You can increase this value to +10, however, if you fail a grind, the grind’s value goes down. Fortunately your item will not be destroyed.
You can increase attribute values like (20% Fire) by composing the same weapons. The amount you can increase is influenced by the other weapon’s attribute and attribute values. You will need an item called “Synthesizer” to perform this action.
When you acquire a weapon or unit, it will sometimes have an ability attached. You can transfer this ability to other weapons and units with the “Add a Special Ability” feature. But be careful, rare special abilities have lower chances of transferring over.

My Room is a feature taken from Phantasy Star Universe where you can have up to 12 players in your room. You can set room furniture on the ground to whatever location you choose. You can change the designs of the whole room with a remodeling ticket. An item can be used to expand your room to 3 separate rooms individually.
The three rooms consist of your main (center) room, and 2 adjacent rooms, one on the left and right. Each room can separately have its own distinct look by using a remodeling ticket.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7969/pso2humarwithmag300x183.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/pso2humarwithmag300x183.jpg/)

Mags are machine life forms, when you give them items they grow into various forms. Famitsu wants to talk more about mags in a follow up report to see whether or not they have photon blasts (To me it sounds like Famitsu is holding out on information.). Famitsu states Mags are not implemented in Alpha Test 2.

The new futuristic city is being invaded by the Darkers. But is this a city on a planet? If you look at the sky you can see some ridges circling around the city. Famitsu thinks this city could actually be a colony or an Arks ship.
There’s a boss enemy here that looks like a spider. If you jump on its back when it is down, you can attack its weak point. Famitsu states this new city area is not in the Alpha Test 2.

His name is Dark Ragne!

Commentary

Weapon Synthesis works the same way in Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity, you take a “Rifle” and combine the attributes of other weapons named “Rifle” to increase the percentage. I’m not able to officially determine how each attribute influences the amount you gain. But my observations are:
Attribute + Different Attribute below 30 = +1
Attribute + Different Attribute above 30 = +2
Attribute + Same Attribute = ???
The Skill Tree underwent a revamp. There’s now a lock system that requires the previous skill to be of that level before you advance to the next skill.
For example:
Step 0/1 > Step Advance 0/10 > [3 Lock] Step Attack 0/1.
In the demonstration, after they used Skill Points and leveled Step Advance to 3/10, it unlocked the passageway to the Step Attack skill.
My Room, almost Sims like this time, a cool feature is how remodeling tickets not only affect the visual style of the room, but also the size.
Remodel Room L (Makes Room Larger)
Remodel Room S (Basic Room)
Gothic Style (Makes Room Gothic Look)
Basic Style (Default Room)

Copy and pasted from http://bumped.org/psublog/

Give props to the dude not me.

Cred goes to http://bumped.org/psublog/

Yamishi

Dec 15, 2011, 01:40 PM

That's really awesome. So, does anyone know the steps to apply for a test position? Or are they going to be checking for JP IP addresses? :(

Malachite

Dec 15, 2011, 02:10 PM

Aha! It looks like the HP bars have now moved to the lower left corner just like PSU and PSP2.

That is extremely disappointing to me lol. I always very much prefer to have my HP and whatnot in the top left.

Especially being someone who plays in 4:3.. I don't know how all that stuff is gonna fit down there without being totally smooshed.

Macman

Dec 15, 2011, 03:14 PM

Oh great, PSU elemental weaponry returns. :barf:

Enforcer MKV

Dec 15, 2011, 03:21 PM

Drag friendly UI, yes?

....please?

Norco

Dec 15, 2011, 03:36 PM

Oh great, PSU elemental weaponry returns. :barf:
I would like to see a combination of PSU Elemental weaponry and the PSO monster types. Would make it quite interesting imo.

NoiseHERO

Dec 15, 2011, 03:45 PM

Drag friendly UI, yes?

....please?

DIS...

It's 2011!

ALL THE PSO FANS ARE SAD GROWN MEN NOW, WE CAN DECIDE WHAT UI PLACEMENT IS COMFY FOR US.

And yeah I liked top left better as well

Hope there's some wind techs and it's not just a silly element that only has some wind theme related buffs, and like 1 crappy attack tech.

Zyrusticae

Dec 15, 2011, 04:04 PM

I like the item customization.

Even the elemental attribute system is more than acceptable now that I know there is more than one way to raise attributes (as opposed to crafting weapons over and over and over again hoping to get a decent roll).

Arkios

Dec 15, 2011, 04:09 PM

No new MAG information, yet.

;-;

Lyric

Dec 15, 2011, 06:17 PM

Oh great, PSU elemental weaponry returns. :barf:

Actually, it seems more like a fusion between PSU and PSO. Yes, you have elemental weaponry, but the weapon can also have an ability. I don't see a problem with this.

ThePendragon

Dec 15, 2011, 06:38 PM

No new MAG information, yet.

;-;

It's a bit early to be worrying about events yet, don't you think? ;-)

relentless

Dec 15, 2011, 06:44 PM

It's a bit early to be worrying about events yet, don't you think? ;-)

He meant Mags and not MAG.

Lyric

Dec 15, 2011, 06:45 PM

It was a joke.

relentless

Dec 15, 2011, 06:46 PM

I have to adjust my sarcasm detector, brb.

Love the possibilities to upgrade your weapon and armor btw.! And I agree, top left for HP was better.

Randomness

Dec 15, 2011, 07:44 PM

A good upgrade system? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

RemiusTA

Dec 15, 2011, 08:10 PM

Actually, it seems more like a fusion between PSU and PSO. Yes, you have elemental weaponry, but the weapon can also have an ability. I don't see a problem with this.

I dont know if it's a problem yet.

It'll be a problem if instead of attribute, enemy defense is based on element. This means weapon damage being raised against one enemy and lowered against another, making each weapon alot less useful in reality than it should be. I HATED that in PSU.

However, this would be a non-issue if either:

a) you were able to choose to use the element on the weapon. In other words, if there was an Extra Attack button. PSO did this.

or

b) There's no penalty for using the wrong element.

Elements can't replace attributes, because there was one very important feature about PSO's attributes that was absent in PSU: they were used as bonuses only. Using the incorrect attribute did nothing to your damage output, but instead made some otherwise useless drops on the map to become instantly useful for that situation. PSU's elemental system blew so hard because it just wasn't thought out very well. There were WAY too many of them. It's much better to classify enemies by a simple 3 elements like PSO did. (There were no light enemies in the game. And the only light attacks were Grants and Mag Blasts.) Also, PSU's element system blew ten times as hard if you were a force because it multiplied the fuck out of your workload.

I liked it better when Forces were made to exploit elemental damage, and hunters were made to exploit attributes. Hopefully they'll do it right this time. You know, like not letting 300 defense points be absolutely useless in the wake of a 20% element attribute on your armor. Or with a damage forumla that doesn't allow a 40% elemented A rank weapon to surpass a neutral S rank in raw damage.

Hopefully they'll allow weapons to have special skills once again that are activated by a seperate attack button so we can finally have our Lavis Cannons and Tsumikiri's and Heavens Punishers back at last. No more of this "LOL AGITO REPLICA SPECIAL ABILITY = 1 EXTRA TARGET AND A NAME CHANGE". They downgraded SO badly on PSU with that whole "passive ability" bullshit. I mean, they're cool and all, but you have to draw the line somewhere, especially when PSO had far, FAR superior rare weapon functions, with the blade beams and death waves and holy satkill strikes and freeze cannons and shit.

Dinosaur

Dec 15, 2011, 09:32 PM

Adding Special Abilities
- An item’s special ability could be passed on to another item.

Oh snap. OH SNAP.

ShadowDragon28

Dec 15, 2011, 11:51 PM

IMO the Item Laboratory “Item Customization”. Sounds awesome.

It could potentially make rare and semi-rare weapon drops that have has 5% in an element, no special affect, able to upgrade it so it can be made alot more useful for a change!

So say if I find something like a "Dragon Slayer" i could boost up it's elements and the give it the ability to freeze with it's extra attack (hypothetically)...

Mizunos

Dec 16, 2011, 04:55 AM

The official wbesite has been updated with some pictures, some of them featuring Mags

http://i.imgur.com/es8Ns.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DTTdZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/h3rZV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0b6li.jpg

http://pso2.jp/concept/

NoiseHERO

Dec 16, 2011, 06:20 AM

Cooooll...

I think.

I dunno, I'll never be hyped for mags.

Angelo

Dec 16, 2011, 06:45 AM

What were those tickets in PSP2 called that basically made all rares a viable option for end game?

I want those.

NoiseHERO

Dec 16, 2011, 07:51 AM

Extend codes?

Extend codes!

Yeah those things were my heroes, but I think part of what made them fair was the upgraded weapons level requirement.

So even if you SOMEHOW got an extend code, you couldn't just be level 30 running around with S ranks and stuff, Especially on an online game. D:

Norco

Dec 16, 2011, 11:28 AM

Pictures of mags up on the bumped blog.
http://bumped.org/psublog/phantasy-star-online-2-mags-and-my-room-and-item-lab/

kyuuketsuki

Dec 16, 2011, 11:57 AM

Cooooll...

I think.

I dunno, I'll never be hyped for mags.
I'm totally hyped.

Looks like they're going for a pretty robotic look. I hope there are some more "organic" looks, but I can live with robo-mags. The FOnewearl's mag reminds me quite a lot of a PSU PM.

RemiusTA

Dec 16, 2011, 12:27 PM

hellooooooooo slowly but surely updated graphics! The city still looks...significantly worse than everything else, though.

I love the look of the Hucaseal. I really wish all the casts followed her simplistic model design. But NOOOO, Racast looks like a damn cancerous refrigerator, and Hucast looks like some kind of cheap gundam. Focasts just look.....meh.

I like how the mags are further customed to your outfit, and not just recolors. Hopefully their evolution system will be intricate as it was in PSO.

Im not getting excited for item synthesis yet though. Nor mags, because there are so many ways they can mess them up.

stilllllll waiting for my unique class animations. Ramarl without her shooting animations, Hucaseal without her unarmed / dagger animations, Fomar/Fonewm/Fonewearl without her casting animations? It'll never be the same.

Although I remember during the alpha test, they had skills on the tree called "Stances". Perhaps that'll do something neat per class. Probably not though.

Ark22

Dec 16, 2011, 12:29 PM

Time to update my graphics card.......FUCK!

RemiusTA

Dec 16, 2011, 12:30 PM

Uh, don't get too excited, they haven't improved that much lol...

But you can go ahead and do it anyway, a little extra power never hurt

Ark22

Dec 16, 2011, 12:31 PM

Updated the post with new information at the bottom. Just a FYI but I dunno how to update the topic title to New Information 12/15-12/16. They better have not. =/ I just spent $100 on dual graphics.

maxx69

Dec 16, 2011, 01:06 PM

WTB mag evolution guide on release day. I don't want to be like everyone else and spam mates on my mag.

Randomness

Dec 16, 2011, 01:43 PM

Updated the post with new information at the bottom. Just a FYI but I dunno how to update the topic title to New Information 12/15-12/16. They better have not. =/ I just spent $100 on dual graphics.

I figure if your machine can handle current games, it won't have an issue with PSO2.

God I want this to come out over here SO BAD.

RemiusTA

Dec 16, 2011, 01:49 PM

WTB mag evolution guide on release day. I don't want to be like everyone else and spam mates on my mag.

pfftttt the surprise is half the fun.

Ghost Inside

Dec 16, 2011, 02:16 PM

... I want that purple carpet! Gimmmie!

>.> I mean... Mags, yay.

ThePendragon

Dec 16, 2011, 03:30 PM

It was a joke.

I have to adjust my sarcasm detector, brb.

Love the possibilities to upgrade your weapon and armor btw.! And I agree, top left for HP was better.

Yeah, hence the smilie, but good times either way. :p

lostinseganet

Dec 16, 2011, 04:12 PM

Time to update my graphics card.......FUCK!Don't slack on the vram coop needs it

pikachief

Dec 16, 2011, 04:13 PM

... I want that purple carpet! Gimmmie!

>.> I mean... Mags, yay.

I want those Mags!

... I mean that purple carpet! :D

Ark22

Dec 16, 2011, 04:45 PM

If I can run DCUO on max settings it should work

RemiusTA

Dec 16, 2011, 04:48 PM

you know on second glance that is a pretty nice carpet...

landman

Dec 16, 2011, 05:24 PM

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9664/pso2cityarea.jpg
So I see a dome here (I hope it's not a graphic glitch lol), I was wondering if the Oracle reached civilized planets, but that's one of the ships.

WBMike

Dec 16, 2011, 05:35 PM

So I see a dome here (I hope it's not a graphic glitch lol), I was wondering if the Oracle reached civilized planets, but that's one of the ships.

I agree, Darkers are probably attacking one of the Arks ships

RemiusTA

Dec 16, 2011, 05:59 PM

it is the ship. IIRC the planet isn't colonized yet. The dome gives it away.

Although it could be compounded by an ugly skybox.

Ce'Nedra

Dec 16, 2011, 07:39 PM

Where is that dome on the picture? I don't see it o.o

ShadowDragon28

Dec 16, 2011, 07:54 PM

Mags looking great so far, Item Lab sounds fraking awesome.
ALL Room Decorations better be buyable from a shop, I dont want to spend 5 days hunting for materials to make a simple room decoration...
That carpet does look damn cool though.

Raven5_1

Dec 16, 2011, 08:08 PM

wait, have they fixed the Cast's feet yet?

Lyric

Dec 16, 2011, 09:42 PM

Where is that dome on the picture? I don't see it o.o

It's encasing the city. Look up in the sky, you can see that there's a dome around the entire landscape.

NoiseHERO

Dec 16, 2011, 10:23 PM

Still wished the city looked a little more...

What's the word...

Thicker? Iono... like...

what I'm saying is instead of running through ruined and abandoned buildings, (maybe a better example would be Sonic 06's crisis city...) everything's kind of just this big wide open space. The only thing city like is pushed into the background as if this was some old videogame and it'd be too complicated to put the characters in the middle of an actual city, so they just put big buildings in the background and you run around in empty plazas or simple roads.

I don't wanna say it looks boring this way. But it looks boring. At least with how I'd imagine a city overrun with parasite monsters. Hopefully there's more parts to the city/space colony area that look a little more.. cramped even. Damn still can't find the right words for that, ima just say that all the cool cities in the world look NOTHING like that. I know it's a quickly produced space station city but still...

It's more bland than a slice of bread AND you can't explore it?-LOOK SEE? NOW IT HAS ME RANTING.

TL;DR: city looks like it may as well be an invisible giant empty box filled with monsters from how wide open and non-explore worthy it looks.

Dhylec

Dec 16, 2011, 10:34 PM

Things sound like the mix of PSU & PSO, hopefully of the best features - for the better.

Angelo

Dec 16, 2011, 11:11 PM

wait, have they fixed the Cast's feet yet?

The hovering? It's optional now.

Ark22

Dec 16, 2011, 11:19 PM

The hovering? It's optional now.

I wished they made it more fluid like skating.

RemiusTA

Dec 17, 2011, 02:46 AM

Macman

Dec 17, 2011, 04:36 AM

Maybe they're afraid to make a bustling busy city map. Do you know anyone who liked those super-cramped rooms in VR Temple?

landman

Dec 17, 2011, 04:44 AM

NoiseHERO

Dec 17, 2011, 05:30 AM

Or maybe the big bulidings don't work well with the random generation of maps, or we have only seen one specific big area of the map. Think it the other way, Rozenom city feels hardly as a city, at least in this one we can think we are in a bus station or something like that.

Yeeeaaahhhh...

I think rozenom city actually did a better job, infact it was one of my favorite missions because of it. It seemed like you were at least running through a series of futuristic apartment buildings, (other than the rooms being empty) Could've used some alleyways and run down shops or something but yeah.

This city looks like they just took one of the towns from classic phantasy star 2 or something, and remade it in supersized 3D.

Otherwise, I HOPE it's only one part of the area.

GCoffee

Dec 17, 2011, 07:43 AM

I believe we will mostly see stages with very open spaces; it just works better for the random generating of maps, the also random interrupt events, and the randomly placed bosses which would simply not quite fit into a narrow hallway...

NoiseHERO

Dec 17, 2011, 08:34 AM

What television have you been watching?!

A dark alley in a dark city is the perfect place to get jumped by monsters!

kyuuketsuki

Dec 17, 2011, 12:07 PM

I don't get the complaints about the city. I mean, all the environments are just backdrops to spruce up what are essentially a series of rooms. It's not like you're navigating through massive trees and whatever in the forest levels. It's rooms with a forest-y backdrop. Same with the volcano levels. It's not any different than it was in PSO or any of the other games, except there's jumping so you have some different elevations.

I don't think it'd be very fun fighting in cramped alleyways or through some cramped ruined building. This kind of game works a lot better with open spaces to fight in. Which, in a city, means... fighting on roads and in plazas.

RemiusTA

Dec 17, 2011, 12:28 PM

There are tons of ways to make a city level as interesting as a forest level. Especially a RUINED city level. Then you're basically able to make terrain out of any material you want. Im not going to nitpick the dev team of this game about this, but most "ruined city" levels are just a bunch of cracked up streets, burning cars, and perhaps a few toppled buildings, but for the most part the only place you're able to explore are the streets / subways themselves, which feels like a waste to me.

PSO Ep2 had some very nice areas that really made you feel like you were where it looked like you were supposed to be. Like during the second half of Ep2, the shore in Seaside, or the fight on the big hill with bushes or the long bridge from some kind of machine (where the Sinow jumps you) in the Mountians area, or the moss caves / flowing water steps / waterfall expanse in the Jungle area. They worked out ways to try and remove the obvious barriers from Episode1 when you were playing, so most of the Episode 2 areas did what they could to make it feel better. It was an illusion of openness, and for the most part, it worked very well.

And don't even get me started on Episode 4, which put pretty much every level in PSU's series to shame. I really liked the final stage in PSP2, but it still didn't hold a candle to even one of the stages from Episode 4. For instance, that room in Subterranean Desert 3, where you run through the volcanic area with the fireballs flying through your path?

Just because it's an action game doesn't mean the game has to give you open space or a specific terrain everytime you have to fight. What kind of boring crap is that?

Most importantly, this game is like PSO where it has set random rooms that can be pieced together, and then a group of instanced, "landmark" areas that always find their way in. This is where they can program scripted sequences, or put interesting terrain in. I'd like to run through a few rooms in a ruined, crumbling building. That would be awesome.

Ark22

Dec 17, 2011, 01:19 PM

I can see myself getting hit with cars being thrown or falling buildings landing on me.

Jinketsu

Dec 17, 2011, 02:23 PM

What television have you been watching?!

A dark alley in a dark city is the perfect place to get jumped by monsters!

And raped!

NoiseHERO

Dec 17, 2011, 02:37 PM

And raped!

That can still go under jumped!

But since this game has moe characters anyway, it may as well be relevant.

RemiusTA

Dec 17, 2011, 02:47 PM

That can still go under jumped!

But since this game is japanese, it may as well be relevant.

Fixed'd

pikachief

Dec 17, 2011, 03:14 PM

It's a destroyed city and there's jumping! I want to climb a building that toppled over and is leaning over another building to the top of a tall building, do a random event on the roof then drop down to a freeway overpass or something then drop down a hole in the freeway back to the streets.

I'm sure if they really tried they could've thought of some good ways to make it open but still interesting and make it open areas but still like your exploring through the ruins of a destroyed city.

maxx69

Dec 17, 2011, 03:18 PM

They should just import Left 4 Dead maps.

BlackCosmic

Dec 17, 2011, 03:24 PM

new screen shots from the Pso2.jp site.

Ark22

Dec 17, 2011, 03:33 PM

Thanks for the update man

Ark22

Dec 17, 2011, 03:41 PM

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/7435/pso2myroomcarpet.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/840/pso2myroomcarpet.jpg/)

Ranger: Hehehe Got deez white girls in mah pimp room, but who first.......

Hunter: Forever alone.....!!!!!

Girl: (Rambles about something pointless)

Had to do it.

NoiseHERO

Dec 17, 2011, 03:47 PM

lol they really did recycle a lot of basic things from PSU...

Makes me wonder if a LOT of games do that...

Of course not as extreme as megaman 1 to megaman 2.

NoiseHERO

Dec 17, 2011, 03:51 PM

MUDGRIP

Dec 17, 2011, 03:53 PM

will this game be playable on windows 95?

maxx69

Dec 17, 2011, 03:57 PM

will this game be playable on windows 95?

Yes. Most screenshots were actually taken from PSO2 running on a Windows 95 computer.

MUDGRIP

Dec 17, 2011, 04:01 PM

ok thats great news. i wont need to update my computers at all than. Will they come out with this game in a floppy disc format because I dont have a cd rom drive.

Malachite

Dec 17, 2011, 05:05 PM

Of course it will. All modern games come out on floppy disks. That's common knowledge.

Randomness

Dec 17, 2011, 05:10 PM

Of course it will. All modern games come out on floppy disks. That's common knowledge.

Yep, I got my box of floppies from PSU sitting next to me right now. I use it as furniture.

•Col•

Dec 17, 2011, 05:49 PM

Hope there's some wind techs and it's not just a silly element that only has some wind theme related buffs, and like 1 crappy attack tech.

Same here. Wind is my favorite "element" in these games, and I was pretty disappointed when it didn't turn up in PSU.

Anyway, some nice new info.

Also.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI

Anon_Fire

Dec 17, 2011, 05:50 PM

ok thats great news. i wont need to update my computers at all than. Will they come out with this game in a floppy disc format because I dont have a cd rom drive.

Of course it will. All modern games come out on floppy disks. That's common knowledge.

Yep, I got my box of floppies from PSU sitting next to me right now. I use it as furniture.

All three of you are wrong. Floppy Disks are ancient history now.

@MUDGRIP: No, but it could be a digital download.

NoiseHERO

Dec 17, 2011, 05:52 PM

Wow when did "don't copy that floppy" go viral?

and LOL anonfire, you have a terrible sense of humor...

I mean it's obvious that a floppydisk couldn't even hold a anything bigger than a super nintendo game.

Malachite

Dec 17, 2011, 06:20 PM

All three of you are wrong. Floppy Disks are ancient history now.

...NO WAY?

Come on, it's PAINFULLY obvious that we're all joking.

I HOPE it's a digital download, seeing as I don't even have a working CD drive.

Angelo

Dec 17, 2011, 06:41 PM

All three of you are wrong. Floppy Disks are ancient history now.

@MUDGRIP: No, but it could be a digital download.

I... I don't understand.

Are you a master of counter-sarcasm or are you actually a CAST in real life?

Malachite

Dec 17, 2011, 07:14 PM

He reminds me of Data from Star Trek.

RemiusTA

Dec 17, 2011, 08:08 PM

All three of you are wrong. Floppy Disks are ancient history now.

Duh. PSO2 uses ZIP Drives.

dont copy that floppy

I havent laughed this hard in a while

will this game be playable on windows 95?

Yes, the game was made for Windows 95, just make sure you hold down the turbo button while you play.

You probably want to upgrade to Windows ME to get the best experience. And to get full performace out of Windows ME, you'll need the new potato rig; watch out though they get pretty hot. Don't forget the graphics card made of corn. And if you're feeling expensive, i hear that new lettuce monitor gets a pretty nice refresh rate.

Ark22

Dec 17, 2011, 08:43 PM

I want my box =)

SolRiver

Dec 18, 2011, 02:14 AM

Speculation: Looking at the system requirement... I am guessing the engine is basically complete and already optimized. Usually standard procedure is to have alpha/beta to have high system spec requirement because it is not yet optimized. So... they are focusing purely on art and game design... this is going to be a good game.

A game with proper design? Who do that anymore? lol!

... this is why I stop coming to PSO-world recently... IT HURT TO READ GOOD NEWS >< I wanna play now!! D=

lostinseganet

Dec 18, 2011, 09:33 AM

RemiusTA

Dec 18, 2011, 02:01 PM

No it wasn't, i think we found out they were talking fiscal year 2011, which goes months into 2012.

If this game released this year, i wouldn't even bother buying it for another 2, honestly. Everything about it's look if released now would get "budget game" from me...

Kent

Dec 18, 2011, 04:03 PM

Duh. PSO2 uses ZIP Drives.
Oh snap. Maybe we can play it on the Dreamcast then.

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/8863/dreamcastzipdriveyp5.jpg

Ark22

Dec 20, 2011, 03:24 AM

New Information 12/20/11

Christmas Eve 2011 Phantasy Star Online 2 Event

Phantasy Star Online 2 will be presented at the Akihabara Game Festa 2011 where you can play PSO2′s updated character creation feature. Since the previous alpha test in August, character creation has added new costumes and cast morphing. Characters created at the event will be showcased at the official site at a later time.
There will be two presentations:
14:00 JST (Saturday, December 24th, at 12:00AM Eastern)
16:00 JST (Saturday, December 24th, at 2:00AM Eastern)

These presentations will cover new information including details about the alpha test 2 version, and a talk show presented by the development staff with prizes in store. This stage event will be streamed live, the details will be announced at the official site at a later time.
Event Notes
You can only play the Character Creation portion.
Each stage presentation will be different so you should watch both!
The contents of the event may change without notice.

Jinketsu

Dec 20, 2011, 11:56 AM

Now that is exciting. Merry Christmas indeed!

Dragwind

Dec 20, 2011, 08:41 PM

Oh boy, I wonder what they added?

BIG OLAF

Dec 20, 2011, 09:35 PM

Don't know if anyone mentioned this alreeady, but "My Room" isn't a new feature; it was in PSU/P/P2/i. I'm glad to see it return, though. It should be better this time around, I hope.

r00tabaga

Dec 20, 2011, 10:16 PM

Elemental attributes for weapons??? Yeah, PSU2. Just add mags and call it PSO2. :-? Guess I won't need to buy a gaming rig after all. Phew!
I hope that they weren't lying when it was said that a console game was "in the pipeline".

Malachite

Dec 21, 2011, 12:37 AM

Macman

Dec 21, 2011, 02:07 AM

Soo.. having elemental power rather than just being strong against a certain enemy is bad, just because it was in PSU?It's bad because it cripples your choices. You get this weapon with a really high element that makes it awesome in this one area, BUT WAIT ITS TOTALLY USELESS IN THREE OTHERS. I don't like the idea of having to juggle around 6 copies of the same weapon with different elements.
PSO/Z's idea of attributes were good in the fact that they were purely bonuses; there was no drawback for having a 40% Machine attribute on a weapon.

BIG OLAF

Dec 21, 2011, 02:19 AM

I always liked the elemental system in PSU, so I'm glad it's coming back. Adds a bit of depth to the striking weapons, I think.

maxx69

Dec 21, 2011, 04:40 AM

It's really annoying to cycle between 2-3 weapons every 10 seconds to deal with varied groups of enemies. Especially in PSPo due to the weapons having loading times. In addition, ICE BEATS FIRE is not strategically deep at all. All you're doing is selecting a weapon from a menu.

In the end, I dislike the system for being an inconvenience more than anything.

Fayorei

Dec 21, 2011, 04:58 AM

Looking good, looking good.:)

Has it been confirmed that a weapon having an elemental stat on it will make it useless against certain enemies yet? If not, I guess don't worry. If so, I am in the camp of being slightly annoyed at having to carry 3-6 copies of the same weapon with different elements. Hopefully though, it will just be a flat-out bonus without consequences if the element isn't exact for each enemy pack.

Also, the mags look pretty excellent. And I want an angry HUmar on a purple rug. I almost feel compelled to make a Dr. Seuss-like storybook parody illustration featuring grumpy HUmar on a purple rug.

drizzle

Dec 21, 2011, 05:44 AM

Are you excited? I am excited!

Although some of those screenshots reminded me of http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=222 for some reason!

Angelo

Dec 21, 2011, 07:20 AM

NoiseHERO

Dec 21, 2011, 07:39 AM

I also hated having to use an unfitting color on a weapon I like just for it to be useful... D:

All the lightning weapons looked like bananas...

Zyrusticae

Dec 21, 2011, 12:22 PM

Eh. I didn't carry around elemental copies of the same weapon, I just carried 6 different weapons with all different colors.

Not like you ever need a particular type of weapon to take down a particular enemy anyways.

Of course, this system in particular is subject to feedback as much as anything else in PSO2. If we would dislike it, chances are pretty high the JP players are going to feel the same way.

BIG OLAF

Dec 21, 2011, 12:24 PM

I never had a problem with inconvenience regarding switching elements in PSU, so I'd imagine it'll work out for me in PSO2. Not wanting to switch weapons rings as a bit lazy to me, but whatever floats other people's boats.

As for lightning weapons looking stupid, yes they did. Hopefully they dumb it down a bit to not look so bright and sickly in PSO2.

GCoffee

Dec 21, 2011, 12:43 PM

I had a lightning Mugunruc as my signature weapon... black+yellow looked so cool...

Though I agree that the element switching in PSU was just downright stupid. Even the developers seemingly noticed that and toned down the missions to have only enemies of a single element type later on, which meant that in the end every mission played as if there were no elements to begin with. Super stupid, imo.

What made the attributes in PSO much more convenient was the fact that you were not limited to only having one for a weapon.

NoiseHERO

Dec 21, 2011, 02:11 PM

@ Olaf and Zyru

If I wanna use an Light 13* saber the whole mission, I will!

It's just annoying when proper 50% element 9* majarra equipped spear does 4X the damage.

RemiusTA

Dec 21, 2011, 02:20 PM

Soo.. having elemental power rather than just being strong against a certain enemy is bad, just because it was in PSU?

Did you really just imply you won't get the game because it has elemental attributes? Wow.

Its bad because of how badly done it was in PSU. It wasn't a terrible idea, but forcing EVERY weapon to use the system was.

It was terribly implemented. Forcing 99% of the enemies in the game to be Elemented pretty much insured you were going to be shifting through weapons more than you needed to. This wouldn't be an issue if there were only 3, but that wasn't the case. Fire Ice Lightning Earth Light and Dark. This makes equipping armor a tedious, inventory filling wreck, and makes playing Force the equilivent of playing single mommy to newborn sextuplets.

Force was its own trainwreck of fail, but 6 elements to choose from was just ridiculous especially when there were usually no fewer than 5 techniques (with their own fucking PA EXP) to deal with, and only 4 assigned per weapon, meaning if you had one good weapon you were screwed because you could only bind 4 to one, and mixing them impacted your damage.

blah blah blah, simple fact is, everything worked better when Hunters
exploited attributes and Forces and a few rangers exploited elements. Forcing EVERYTHING around elements made using them tedious and made exploiting them nigh-impossible, hence force being a pretty shitty class until you're like, level 130 or something.

For defense, in Phantasy Star Online had "elemented" armors, but it had a separate attribute for all of them...you didn't have to only use one. Barriers also could have been used for specific element defense (complete with a neat block effect). But no matter what the case you never were penalized for using the wrong armor. DEF was badly implemented in PSO too (10 HP points were greater than like 600 DEF points), but the CONCEPT was far superior.

And finally, PSO also had elemented Weapons but you could CHOOSE to use them, with the Extra button. They wern't very useful to hunters, but it immensely helped Rangers cope with bad damage at lower levels. Forces didn't need them; they had techniques.

tl;dr PSO's concept system had all the same traits of PSU's, it was just far more in-depth, with alot more control and way less stupid drawbacks for FAKE complexity like in PSU. It's like PSU said "OH HEY LOOK cool bloom effect, LETS USE IT FOR ELEMENTS!" and then ran with it, completely forgetting that the ideas were stupid.

Malachite

Dec 21, 2011, 02:31 PM

Yes, I understand everything that was terrible about PSU.

But just because it has elemental attributes on weapons doesn't mean that they're gonna handle it the terrible way that they did in PSU. Maybe they will, maybe they won't.

Point is, nobody knows if it's bad yet. So far, most of the information released about PSO2 has been relatively 'good', and they've even fixed most of the big problems that the fans had. So I'm gonna give it the benefit of the doubt that it won't be as terribly broken as it was in PSU, until I see more information on it.

It's just ridiculous that someone would say they're not going to get the game simply because of the mention of elemental attributes.

pikachief

Dec 21, 2011, 02:48 PM

Personally I like the element system in PSU a lot. I actually don't get the attribute system in PSO with the mechanical and dark and beast and all that stuff.

There was hardly ever even more than 3 different elements in a mission, usually just 2 sometimes with a very few amount of a 3rd element.

WBMike

Dec 21, 2011, 02:49 PM

Looking good, looking good.:)
Has it been confirmed that a weapon having an elemental stat on it will make it useless against certain enemies yet?

Nope, we should wait until we have more information on how elements work unless someone who played alpha test 1 could explain it.

I wouldn’t write off elemental attributes just yet. So far PSO2’s direction on how it handles elements is slightly different from PSU.

This is all hypothetical based on Alpha 1 screenshots: :-?

PSU places heavy emphasis on element colors when you select armor and weapons.
You will visually know a blue weapon icon is ice.

PSO2 instead has colors based on weapon type, so a blue weapon icon is a ranged weapon.
There’s no visual way to know what element your weapon is through the icon unless you consult the weapon list in the item pack.

http://i.imgur.com/jkKuB.jpg

If you look at this list of weapons you’ll see some weapons have elements and some do not.

http://i.imgur.com/m14cN.jpg

In addition some enemies have elemental weak points 弱点, and some do not.
(Based on this it looks like they want you to use elements to attack elemental weakpoints. They did not give any indication yet showing the Rappy is ICE element since it is weak to fire.)

The biggest change is how PSO2 handles element resistances.
A unit in alpha test 1 has access to change any of your physical and element resistances and your defensive stats.
Since you get 3 units to mix and match you can essentially stack elemental resistances of your choosing.
(Compare this to PSU where Line Shields affected your defense stats and ONE element resistance.)

http://i.imgur.com/qdm0D.png

This armor in PSO2 adds +5 DEF +5 EVA and +5 MIND and +1 Striking Physical Resistance to your base stats.'

http://i.imgur.com/S3etB.jpg

This unit adds +43 DEF +43 EVA +43 MIND and +1 Striking Physical Defense, +1 Range Physical Resistance, and +2 Fire and +2 Light Elemental Resistance to your base stats.

Full Picture (http://i.imgur.com/3Xct3.jpg)

* The Reaction stat here is known as EVA for simplicity purposes.

Ark22

Dec 21, 2011, 03:24 PM

New changes
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4963/beforeafterj.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/209/beforeafterj.jpg/)

Beast looking FOnewmen
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3629/newfonewm150x150.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/221/newfonewm150x150.jpg/)

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4607/darkragne300x168.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/darkragne300x168.png/)
A new area revealed in the last promo movie is the city area. Though currently details about this area are unknown, this location utilizes the Arks font on street pavement. There is a boss enemy for this location, according to Famitsu and reported by Shougai, his name is ダーク・ラグネ Dark Ragne (Dark Lagne)

When Dark Ragne is down you can jump on its back and attack its weakpoint directly.

Cred goes to http://bumped.org/psublog/

Malachite

Dec 21, 2011, 03:53 PM

Honestly.. I think I liked the ship in the original alpha test a little more.

NoiseHERO

Dec 21, 2011, 04:04 PM

Hmm some of these more recent images for the city area looks better.

http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PSO2-City-Hunter.jpg

RemiusTA

Dec 21, 2011, 05:01 PM

Jesus, that looks much better. God, it was so ugly before.

City level + Lacking textures = Always ugly. Doesn't matter what game it is.

This unit adds +43 DEF +43 EVA +43 MIND and +1 Striking Physical Defense, +1 Range Physical Resistance, and +2 Fire and +2 Light Elemental Resistance to your base stats.

Yeah, i saw that. Im just happy they aren't sticking with that "lol1element on your armor" BS from PSU/P2/i. It was so annoying...

Ark22

Dec 21, 2011, 05:44 PM

The game graphics got boosted.....DAYYUUMM and for the lazy people who hate links.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/6669/pso2cityhunter.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/23/pso2cityhunter.jpg/)

Thank MICH FOR IT!

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/3108/grindininmyskin300x166.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/683/grindininmyskin300x166.jpg/)

Shougai posted minor info about grinding from this week’s Dengeki Playstation. The grind’s (+value) goes down and you’ll have to pay again to strengthen the weapon.

SnowfoxZero

Dec 21, 2011, 06:05 PM

Its bad because of how badly done it was in PSU. It wasn't a terrible idea, but forcing EVERY weapon to use the system was.

It was terribly implemented. Forcing 99% of the enemies in the game to be Elemented pretty much insured you were going to be shifting through weapons more than you needed to. This wouldn't be an issue if there were only 3, but that wasn't the case. Fire Ice Lightning Earth Light and Dark. This makes equipping armor a tedious, inventory filling wreck, and makes playing Force the equilivent of playing single mommy to newborn sextuplets.

Force was its own trainwreck of fail, but 6 elements to choose from was just ridiculous especially when there were usually no fewer than 5 techniques (with their own fucking PA EXP) to deal with, and only 4 assigned per weapon, meaning if you had one good weapon you were screwed because you could only bind 4 to one, and mixing them impacted your damage.

blah blah blah, simple fact is, everything worked better when Hunters
exploited attributes and Forces and a few rangers exploited elements. Forcing EVERYTHING around elements made using them tedious and made exploiting them nigh-impossible, hence force being a pretty shitty class until you're like, level 130 or something.

For defense, in Phantasy Star Online had "elemented" armors, but it had a separate attribute for all of them...you didn't have to only use one. Barriers also could have been used for specific element defense (complete with a neat block effect). But no matter what the case you never were penalized for using the wrong armor. DEF was badly implemented in PSO too (10 HP points were greater than like 600 DEF points), but the CONCEPT was far superior.

And finally, PSO also had elemented Weapons but you could CHOOSE to use them, with the Extra button. They wern't very useful to hunters, but it immensely helped Rangers cope with bad damage at lower levels. Forces didn't need them; they had techniques.

tl;dr PSO's concept system had all the same traits of PSU's, it was just far more in-depth, with alot more control and way less stupid drawbacks for FAKE complexity like in PSU. It's like PSU said "OH HEY LOOK cool bloom effect, LETS USE IT FOR ELEMENTS!" and then ran with it, completely forgetting that the ideas were stupid.

Completely agree, and weapons in PSO could also have multiple attributes, like dark and a.beast, not just one, and some even had negative stats, which increased the range of weapon value and use quite a bit.

Angelo

Dec 21, 2011, 07:50 PM

Completely agree, and weapons in PSO could also have multiple attributes, like dark and a.beast, not just one, and some even had negative stats, which increased the range of weapon value and use quite a bit.

Well I didn't like PSO's system either, but a least you weren't penalized for using the wrong weapon type, and eventually you could add more % to multiple types with photon spheres iirc.

r00tabaga

Dec 21, 2011, 11:41 PM

Malachite

Dec 21, 2011, 11:57 PM

Ark22

Dec 22, 2011, 12:35 AM

Pso was balance, because No one used elements except for forces pretty much :P

•Col•

Dec 22, 2011, 02:32 AM

Pso was balance, because No one used elements except for forces pretty much :P

PSO.

Balance.

HA, good one.

Also elements wut. Are you talking about Fire/Ice/Lightning/Light/Dark? Because many weapons had elemental attacks.... And even the ones that didn't still had basically the equivalent in the form of percentages for extra damage against certain enemies.

Angelo

Dec 22, 2011, 02:44 AM

Pso was balance

Are we talking about the same PSO? Phantasy Star Online?

RemiusTA

Dec 22, 2011, 03:06 AM

I personally think PSO was balanced far better than PSU was. They're both broken ass videogames, but it required more to become a broken asshole in PSO than in PSU.

The moment you obtained the high-tier PA in PSU, you were kung-fu jesus. The nature of both of them makes it pretty easy to be OP, though.

On second thought, there's really no reason comparing the two in levels of broken. I DO, however, respect the nature of the "broken" qualities of PSO, though.

I think for the drop rate of some of the weapons on that game, being able to expend the PB gauge to annihilate a boss, or sacrificing HP to shoot death waves, or spending 200 meseta a shot to drop rooms in seconds...doesn't really bother me all that much. It was annoying, but so is PA spam.

One was just more satisfying. LoL. Hell, i WISH i could do that stuff with PSU's rares. It would have been epic.

r00tabaga

Dec 22, 2011, 01:53 PM

...You're basing your decision on a phrase. Nobody has any real details about how it's going to work. You don't know whether or not it works like it did in PSU, and it probably doesn't.

If you don't have a gaming PC, or if you really don't care, fine. But because it has the phrase 'elemental attributes' in it? That's kinda silly.

I don't enjoy elemental gameplay. What is silly is that they are going to make you farm 6 different of your favorite weapon and over encumber your inventory. I won't enjoy swapping out armors every five minutes either.
I wouldn't mind weapon and armor FORGING though. So if I had a certain ice saber, then find a matching fire and dark one, I could forge the 3 into 1. So it could be capable of having multiple elements while only taking up 1 spot in my inventory. It would visually look the same just with a different hue depending on what you were facing. Same thing with armor.

I much rather prefer PSO's broken system over PSU's. All day.

RemiusTA

Dec 22, 2011, 02:33 PM

Shougai posted minor info about grinding from this week’s Dengeki Playstation. The grind’s (+value) goes down and you’ll have to pay again to strengthen the weapon.

Why?

Why is there even a failure system? It's so stupid. At the worst, just lose your items and start again, why does every game today have to try its hardest to ruin your shit when you try to improve it? Is it not enough to just raise the rarity of grinders and let the market limit how difficult it is to grind things?

I thought one of the developers was going on about fake complexity in game systems. Upgrade fails are just annoying, it's like the cheapest thing ever. I don't even bother with upgrade systems that fail.

inb4 "+9 to +10 == 1/lol success rate" and "YOU CAN PAY TO MAKE IT NOT SO BAD".

r00tabaga

Dec 22, 2011, 03:09 PM

Why?

Why is there even a failure system? It's so stupid. At the worst, just lose your items and start again, why does every game today have to try its hardest to ruin your shit when you try to improve it? Is it not enough to just raise the rarity of grinders and let the market limit how difficult it is to grind things?

I thought one of the develo Passc0de pers was going on about fake complexity in game systems. Upgrade fails are just annoying, it's like the cheapest thing ever. I don't even bother with upgrade systems that fail.

inb4 "+9 to +10 == 1/lol success rate" and "YOU CAN PAY TO MAKE IT NOT SO BAD".

Agree 100%

•Col•

Dec 22, 2011, 04:06 PM

I don't enjoy elemental gameplay.

But.... PSO had elemental gameplay... :l

Anyone who says otherwise is in denial...

EDIT:

Two cool new images...

http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PSO2-Main-Menu-Change.jpg

I'm really digging the main menu display here.

http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PSO2-Status-Display.jpg

Ark22

Dec 22, 2011, 04:34 PM

THUUUNNNDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

RemiusTA

Dec 22, 2011, 05:45 PM

very nice.

I hate the new HUD.

Okay, i don't hate it, but why on earth did they stick it all the way down where the GROUND is? You know, the place where your eyes are going to actually need to see?

The top left corner was perfect. I understand the icon changes, but the HUD taking up the entire bottom half of the screen is pretty annoying to me.

I hope that's Razonde they're showing. I would really enjoy seeing the old Gizonde again, that arc'd between specific enemies. It was a really neat attack concept.

r00tabaga

Dec 22, 2011, 08:10 PM

But.... PSO had elemental gameplay... :l

Anyone who says otherwise is in denial...

Ummmkay...I guess I'm in denial if I don't remember carrying 6-7 different colored armors in my 7 years of playing PSO. If you think they are the same then good for you. I'm in the holiday spirit and don't want to argue. I miss my SPECIAL WEAPONS like Bloody Art, Musashi's, Heaven's Punisher, Demolition Comet, the Lavis family, etc, etc that didn't need to be locked with an element. They had...gasp...original attributes.

Nice pics tho... :)

Aumi

Dec 22, 2011, 08:51 PM

Looks nice, though I hope that we'll be able to change the HUD size and perhaps position.

•Col•

Dec 22, 2011, 09:21 PM

Ummmkay...I guess I'm in denial if I don't remember carrying 6-7 different colored armors in my 7 years of playing PSO.

Probably because you, like many others, didn't even fully understand the elemental system.

That and the fact they didn't punish you for having a particular element. Plus you could have multiple "elements" on one weapon. Which is totally how PSO2's system could work out. WBMike already pointed out that you can have multiple elemental bonuses on one equipment item in the Alpha....... So who knows.

All I'm saying is that you're flipping shit over a gameplay aspect that you don't even understand yet.

Randomness

Dec 22, 2011, 09:35 PM

Probably because you, like many others, didn't even fully understand the elemental system.

That and the fact they didn't punish you for having a particular element. Plus you could have multiple "elements" on one weapon. Which is totally how PSO2's system could work out. WBMike already pointed out that you can have multiple elemental bonuses on one equipment item in the Alpha....... So who knows.

All I'm saying is that you're flipping shit over a gameplay aspect that you don't even understand yet.

Armor had fixed resists, so people just went for base stats, and used units for elemental coverage if needed (Like ELT on Falz).

Weapons had random percents, and could not be adapted with units.

•Col•

Dec 22, 2011, 09:45 PM

Armor had fixed resists, so people just went for base stats, and used units for elemental coverage if needed (Like ELT on Falz).

Weapons had random percents, and could not be adapted with units.

Uh.... What's your point? o.o

What you just said is still in accordance with what I said.

r00tabaga

Dec 22, 2011, 09:45 PM

Probably because you, like many others, didn't even fully understand the elemental system.

That and the fact they didn't punish you for having a particular element. Plus you could have multiple "elements" on one weapon. Which is totally how PSO2's system could work out. WBMike already pointed out that you can have multiple elemental bonuses on one equipment item in the Alpha....... So who knows.

All I'm saying is that you're flipping shit over a gameplay aspect that you don't even understand yet.

Fair enuff...and I could care less really. I just said I'll wait for a console PS game. Not worth forking over loot for a new PC just to play this game. If it was truly PSO (2) then I would however. Not a big deal. I just get tired of seeing so many PSU similarities.

I hope it's great for all of you guys here who have followed the series and are planning on buying this.

Edit: And HaPpY HoLiDaYs everyone!

Macman

Dec 23, 2011, 03:37 AM

Probably because you, like many others, didn't even fully understand the elemental system.It had elements, but it really only applied to Forces. (who seriously used shock/heat/frost specials?)
Even then it only had 3 or 4 elements (Grants was rarely a factor except in episode 4 and I can think of only 2 monsters Megid is effective against)
Elemental defenses were also negligible 90% of the time because 90% of attacks in PSO were either physical or set-damage. Except Megid, fucking Megid. :etongue:

relentless

Dec 23, 2011, 03:59 AM

Weren't the attributes in PSO similar to PSU's elements? The higher % on a wep the more damage. The less % the less damage. Just in PSU the elemental penalty was bigger and the system was more complicated because in PSO you could have a wep with different attributes (A.Beast, Native etc.). But still, it basically means PSU just elaborated on that principle and yes, it used elements instead of attributes but that's just a name change (besides the fact that PSO actually had elements for Forces).

And like someone pointed out before, it looks like you can have several elemental bonuses along with many other features on just a single weapon / armour, so I don't see anything wrong. Well, I guess it would be stupid if your elemental bonus turned nil for example if you used a fire / ice bonus wep against a fire or ice mob, since then the elements would cancel each other out. But I hope it's not the case, I find it positively complex enough.

I also imagine the melee, ranged and TECH resistances and bonuses on mobs will play a bigger role than the elemental issue. Just a feeling, maybe because the colour icons represent type and not element.

kyuuketsuki

Dec 23, 2011, 05:10 AM

Why?

Why is there even a failure system?
Because a lot of players enjoy the risk. It's a gamble, rather than a constant handout.

PSU's was an issue because the price of failure was so high. But PSO2's system sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

RemiusTA

Dec 23, 2011, 11:32 AM

What?

Who enjoys going to upgrade their weapon just to watch it downgrade instead?

It's such cheap concept used to prolong crap that shouldn't take nearly as long as it does. The only time you'll really see such a system is in an MMORPG because they're trying to squeeze playtime out of you. When's the last time you played an RPG or Action RPG you paid for ONCE where you had to actually risk your character progression moving backwards?

Not too many -- most game developers aren't that retarded, especially when you only have to pay for the game once. They could do better, honestly, why are they still sticking to the other garbage that kills every other game on the market?

Spending time finding items and time to grind the weapon only to make your shit weaker (or not at all) is the most discouraging bullshit ive ever had done to me on a videogame. Weapon Breaking and Upgrade fails are just lame. If you don't have a cash shop then i have NO clue what the hell you're even doing using it...

But my main reason for enjoying Subscription based games is that you USUALLY don't have to deal with such annoyances. Yeah, one of the biggest pet peeves in gaming to me. There was NOTHING wrong with Photon Drops being rare, gathering up a decent number of them through gameplay or player trade, and using them in bulk to add powerful attributes, WITHOUT random "failure", to your weapon. It sets a clear goal, its fair, its easy to limit, and it doesn't cheat your players out of their victory with a f--ing random percentage.

Weren't the attributes in PSO similar to PSU's elements? The higher % on a wep the more damage. The less % the less damage. Just in PSU the elemental penalty was bigger and the system was more complicated because in PSO you could have a wep with different attributes (A.Beast, Native etc.). But still, it basically means PSU just elaborated on that principle and yes, it used elements instead of attributes but that's just a name change (besides the fact that PSO actually had elements for Forces).

No, they were not the same. First off, negative percents were bloody rare, in fact i dont remember even seeing them that often. Second, you could have more than one attribute on one weapon.

Third and most importantly they're completely different, as Elements and Attributes are two completely different things and could be combined. There was no penalty for using the wrong attribute weapon on the wrong attribute enemy. There WAS a pretty nice penalty for using the wrong ELEMENT on the wrong enemy, but seeing as there were only three elements and Forces had easy access to all of them, this was not an issue.

It was also not an issue because Hunters had no real use for elements in the game, aside from defense, if you had no HP units. As such, Elemental damage was far easier to balance for Force usage since you didn't have people doing 12 hit combos to 3 areas on one enemy with ridiculous damage multipliers AND funny element %s on one weapon.

I'll just go ahead and say it; pretty much EVERY system in PSO was better designed than PSU's aside from network interface and character customization. And i do mean just about everything. Everywhere PSO had depth, PSU just replaced it with some cheap imitation that probably just annoyed the fuck out of people yet still offered not even a fraction of the gameplay additions.

r00tabaga

Dec 23, 2011, 12:23 PM

It had elements, but it really only applied to Forces. (who seriously used shock/heat/frost specials?)
Even then it only had 3 or 4 elements (Grants was rarely a factor except in episode 4 and I can think of only 2 monsters Megid is effective against)
Elemental defenses were also negligible 90% of the time because 90% of attacks in PSO were either physical or set-damage. Except Megid, fucking Megid. :etongue:

Thank you.
I remember playing PSO and keeping a Frozen Shooter around even though the stats were not as good JUST b/c it had the ability to freeze mobs. In PSU, any Fuc&ing weapon can be "blue". Takes the fun away from what PSO was. PSO had many more weapon traits besides this sword is yellow, this sword is red, etc etc...
I was hoping they would go back to that. Gameplay to me is more important than character customization and boob sliders.

RemiusTA

Dec 23, 2011, 12:33 PM

element specials were extremely useful if you found a decent one at a lower level. If you came across an enemy weak to it, you could do pretty amazing damage for your level.

Of course my ranger was able to exploit this well because i mained forces on PSO, so I know all the enemy weaknesses.

But generally, most of them were useless by VHard mode because your regular damage probably surpassed the set elemental damage.

kyuuketsuki

Dec 23, 2011, 01:16 PM

Jonth

Dec 23, 2011, 02:30 PM

RemiusTA

Dec 23, 2011, 04:17 PM

With regards to the grinding system thing, I can only disagree. I don't think all game systems should be a series of linear, risk-free upgrades. That's boring. If you don't want to take the risk of de-grinding should you fail, don't grind.

I wonder if they're going to have a PSU-like system where you have a "photon fortune" that increases your chances of success at certain times.

Well first off, assuming an upgrade system devoid of constant failure is "linear" or "risk-free" is pretty shallow. If you sat down for about 60 seconds, im pretty positive you could come up with more than a few ways to make an upgrade system not linear.

PSO used Photon Drops almost exclusively for S-rank weapon upgrades and was multiple times more in-depth than PSU's entire synth system. Grinders for easy + damage. There was zero chance of failure. Final Fantasy XIII had a crapton of useless drops that you could use to upgrade your weapon, but each item had a small value towards giving you a bonus multiplier, so certain objects made it easier to raise levels. There was Zero chance of failure.

Final Fantasy X had a system where you could pay spheres and items towards giving your weapons special abilities. The depth of the system came from the different objects acquired on the game with their own special abilities to add. It was hard to get what you wanted because some of the better items were scarce, or dropped by difficult (or rare) enemies. There was zero chance of failure.

TL;DR

Cheapness =/= Difficulty

Tedious =/= Complex

Lots of steps =/= Depth

Unfortunately, most upgrade systems that include failures are all of these by design. PSU's system most definitely was. Giving you what you deserve for obtaining what you work for is not linear or risk-free, its fair and rewarding.

I dont understand how people enjoy gameplay systems that have a greater chance of punishing you than helping you when using them.

There's nothing innately wrong with using Failures in their grinding system, but when the chance of, oh say +9 -> +10 has like a 80% chance of not working, putting you back to 8, and taking 100,000 meseta from you....seriously. There's no way to tell the game will be like that, but if this game is F2P, expect that simple failure concept to be madly exploited later on.

Cayenne

Dec 23, 2011, 04:54 PM

They're trying to improve a system that just shouldn't be there instead of doing something completely new or already been created successfully by other developers.

Stick with grinders, it worked.

maxx69

Dec 23, 2011, 06:39 PM

PSO2's grinder system is just OK. The point of having upgrade failure is to add more value to high grinded weapons so people can wave their e-peen around. It's the same concept as rare items drops. You can't just hand out rare weapons or high + levels from grinders because that ruins the elusiveness of them. You need a system of chance to keep them special.

But of course, you don't have to have failure. Other games handle them with item drops that have to be used or synthed to make/upgrade rare weapons.

Looks like I just repeated what other people said, but my point is PSO2's system is just OK. Not great or bad. Just kind of half assed.

r00tabaga

Dec 23, 2011, 07:23 PM

Enforcer MKV

Dec 23, 2011, 07:24 PM

NoiseHERO

Dec 23, 2011, 07:38 PM

I'd rather have something where grinding and upgrading was for weaker weapons, but rare weapons would have their own upgrading system.

You have do you modifying and grinding on your typical mass produced gun, and if it blows up in your face, your feeling aren't hurt but you lost some cash.

But then actual rare weapon could have like a more special completely different upgrading process, that's not gambling, but still takes a lot of effort and being strong enough to use it's upgraded form...

With this it's like you can still "enjoy" working on making a powerful or decent weapon through upgrades or gambling on things that are replaceable. But rares that no one would want to lose, but they still want to upgrade they'd have to earn it.

And of course I'm not complaining if extend code's return.

Cayenne

Dec 23, 2011, 07:57 PM

Guess I'll add my two cents to the pot.

I, like many others here, do think that the system currently implemented is...less than perfect. While the system IS an effective money sink (at least it has that over PSU, as well as not lowering the number of max grinds...bleh) it also manages to upset what seems to be an increasing percentage of the community.

Though, there really is a simple way of fixing this: Implementing an item or method that requires a large sum of money to guarantee a successful grind. The benefits for this system are threefold; those who don't want an all-time 100% success rate can gamble for a lower price, those who want a risk less way to upgrade their weapons have their wish, though they need to work harder for it, and we have yet another money sink to help regulate the economy.

It's win-win-win, really. Though, I know it won't be implemented, hopefully once I get into the industry I'll be able to make a game that'll use this system...

^ I like that idea much better, let me add to that system:

-Large sum of money = 100% +1 Grind Level
-1/2 the price = 50% chance +1 Grind Level
-Gamble: 1/3 (1/4?) price = Random Generator +1/-1/No Grind

Optional: When gambling, your character makes a small animation with/without a faint sound when you win/lose only you hear without annoying people in the lobby.

I'm thinking about submitting this to SEGA right now.

RemiusTA

Dec 23, 2011, 08:10 PM

I dont see how there was ever anything wrong with Meseta or Grinders. PSO's system or PSP2's system is simplistic, predictable and it works. There really isn't anything else to it.

I'd love it if they took PSU's synth system, removed the requirement for shitty boards, the failure rate, and instead made it like PSO's photon drop system, where, lets say 150 Kerseline would add HP Damage to your weapon or something, or 10 Zon photons would add 1% Thunder Element to your weapon/armor. The higher level the weapon, the more Meseta per upgrade.

And that would be it; pretty much the same as Final Fantasy X's weapon system, except with a few more choices. Same thing with Armor -- elemental resistances, casting/attack speed, knockdown resistance, ect ect.

Real customization, no stupid random chance, 100% fair. People would be able to modify rare weapons to their liking. The 90% of useless crap in your inventory in PSU could be made useful. All that shitty De Ragnus Dorso crap and you already have the room decoration? Put 3 of them into your weapon for fire element / extra Damfoie damage / whatever, you know something FUN, creative, unique.

I just dont care for them trying to sugar coat dumb stuff.

Ark22

Dec 23, 2011, 08:16 PM

Morning everyone! Phantasy Star Online 2 will be having a live stream on Christmas Eve 2011 at 14:00 JST and 16:00 JST. You should watch both because the content will be different in each event.
Broadcast Details
Live on Sega Ustream
14:00 (12.24.2011 12:00AM EST) featuring Sakai with Sound Director Hideaki Kobayashi
16:00 (12.24.2011 2:00 AM EST) featuring Sakai with Game Director Kimura
This is especially interesting that Sega uses an international site instead of Nico Nico to stream the event, I wonder what that means? Anyway, each part will feature new information and new media for the fans so you definitely should watch both.

Just a reminder

RemiusTA

Dec 23, 2011, 08:17 PM

KOBAYASHI

im there homie im there

Im lazy and am about to chill, anyone know what time that is for East Coast USA?

And it means Sega is full aware of foreign fan interest in this game. As if english updates and facebook wasn't enough to tell people that lol.

Ark22

Dec 23, 2011, 10:43 PM

Guessing 13 hour different if I am not mistaken. So...add 13 hours

Cayenne

Dec 23, 2011, 10:55 PM

1 hour from now.

There now no more thinking of when.

Ark22

Dec 23, 2011, 11:10 PM

Yay I was correct =D

r00tabaga

Dec 23, 2011, 11:36 PM

Yay I was correct =D

Congratulations sir. You get to pick any prize from the top shelf. :-P

Ark22

Dec 24, 2011, 01:14 AM

All I want is a girlfriend, some friends and my life back. Gaming and school took all that away.

Enforcer MKV

Dec 24, 2011, 01:28 AM

haha, what Ark said. :P

RemiusTA

Dec 24, 2011, 01:51 AM

All I want is a girlfriend, some friends and my life back. Gaming and school took all that away.

so epic

BIG OLAF

Dec 24, 2011, 02:56 AM

All I want is a girlfriend, some friends and my life back. Gaming and school took all that away.

I don't know about school, but gaming is better anyway.

Ark22

Dec 25, 2011, 02:14 AM

The Christmas Eve Fan Briefing is now over, so here are Famitsu, GPara, and Game Watch‘s recap of the event. They note that some of the content featured in the screenshots may not appear in Alpha Test 2.

Hideaki Kobayashi, the guy who does most of your Phantasy Star music presented his Orchestral theme for PSO2 which is based on the original melody of Phantasy Star Online’s main theme. The Opening CGI movie features the Short Version, and the second trailer showing the contents like My Room features the Long Version of the theme. This orchestral theme was recorded in November, 2011.
PSO2 Alpha Test 2 has two main goals, to inspect the improvements and new elements added to this test, as well as assess server stability and load by adding 50,000 more people.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7875/pso2expressiontest300x1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/684/pso2expressiontest300x1.jpg/)

New features in character creation include an “Expression Test” that lets you test out facial expressions. You can now change your eyebrow color to match your hair, the min/max range for your height has increased, casts body parts can now morph, and casts can have humanoid faces.
Female Casts now have access to modify their breasts, and you can change the “skin” color of Casts using a color picker.
One minor feature that was introduced is the undo and redo functions so you can fine tune your unsightly creation for the world to see.

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/5597/pso2bosskyatadoran300x1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/846/pso2bosskyatadoran300x1.jpg/)

There’s a new enemy called Kyatadoran. A dragon-type enemy with a long body, it can freely expand and contract its body giving you a long range attack. Famitsu thinks this is a boss grade enemy. (His boss status was mentioned in the Fan Briefing though.)
Alpha Test 2 reintroduces boss teleporters so you can fight the boss on its own stage. However, not all bosses will have this feature, some of them will just unexpectedly appear in a quest like before. In addition each quest has been revamped with thicker content than before.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/497/techcharging300x183.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/techcharging300x183.jpg/)

There were new improvements made to the battle portions of the game. Rangers and Forces can now Just Attack using their weapons. You can stop some of the enemy’s attack ( for example: a powerful rush attack), by using Just Attacks. This was demonstrated with a Ranger who used Just Attacks to stop an enemy from charging at him. Your movement speed while charging techs is now faster than before, you can now charge technics through the sub-palette too.

Item Lab, you can customize your items by grinding, increasing attributes, and adding special abilities.
With grinders you can strengthen the power and defense of your items. When you strengthen your weapon you get a +1 grind value by the item’s name. You can increase this value to +10, however, if you fail a grind, the grind’s value goes down. Fortunately your item will not be destroyed.
You can increase attribute values like (20% Fire) by composing the same weapons. The amount you can increase is influenced by the other weapon’s attribute and attribute values. You will need an item called “Synthesizer” to perform this action.
When you acquire a weapon or unit, it will sometimes have an ability attached. You can transfer this ability to other weapons and units with the “Add a Special Ability” feature. But be careful, rare special abilities have lower chances of transferring over.

My Room is a feature taken from Phantasy Star Universe where you can have up to 12 players in your room. You can set room furniture on the ground to whatever location you choose. You can change the designs of the whole room with a remodeling ticket. An item can be used to expand your room to 3 separate rooms individually.
The three rooms consist of your main (center) room, and 2 adjacent rooms, one on the left and right. Each room can separately have its own distinct look by using a remodeling ticket.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7969/pso2humarwithmag300x183.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/pso2humarwithmag300x183.jpg/)

Mags are machine life forms, when you give them items they grow into various forms. Famitsu wants to talk more about mags in a follow up report to see whether or not they have photon blasts (To me it sounds like Famitsu is holding out on information.). Famitsu states Mags are not implemented in Alpha Test 2.

The new futuristic city is being invaded by the Darkers. But is this a city on a planet? If you look at the sky you can see some ridges circling around the city. Famitsu thinks this city could actually be a colony or an Arks ship.
There’s a boss enemy here that looks like a spider. If you jump on its back when it is down, you can attack its weak point. Famitsu states this new city area is not in the Alpha Test 2.

His name is Dark Ragne!

Commentary

Weapon Synthesis works the same way in Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity, you take a “Rifle” and combine the attributes of other weapons named “Rifle” to increase the percentage. I’m not able to officially determine how each attribute influences the amount you gain. But my observations are:
Attribute + Different Attribute below 30 = +1
Attribute + Different Attribute above 30 = +2
Attribute + Same Attribute = ???
The Skill Tree underwent a revamp. There’s now a lock system that requires the previous skill to be of that level before you advance to the next skill.
For example:
Step 0/1 > Step Advance 0/10 > [3 Lock] Step Attack 0/1.
In the demonstration, after they used Skill Points and leveled Step Advance to 3/10, it unlocked the passageway to the Step Attack skill.
My Room, almost Sims like this time, a cool feature is how remodeling tickets not only affect the visual style of the room, but also the size.
Remodel Room L (Makes Room Larger)
Remodel Room S (Basic Room)
Gothic Style (Makes Room Gothic Look)
Basic Style (Default Room)

Copy and pasted from http://bumped.org/psublog/

Give props to the dude not me.

Fayorei

Dec 25, 2011, 03:34 AM

Woohoo. Even so, thanks Ark.:D

Cayenne

Dec 25, 2011, 03:48 AM

Awesome, thanks for the details Ark.

Ark22

Dec 25, 2011, 02:11 PM

Lol I just copy and pasted. If you want go to http://bumped.org/psublog/ and thank Richardo. The least I can be thanked for is getting all the pictures (Stupid imageshack.com).

Fayorei

Dec 25, 2011, 11:39 PM

Lol I just copy and pasted. If you want go to http://bumped.org/psublog/ and thank Richardo. The least I can be thanked for is getting all the pictures (Stupid imageshack.com).

Ugh... imageshack is a pain and a half. I do need to comment on the actual blog more.:) It's absolutely excellent to have such a well-organized and up-to-date news source for PSO/U/P/P2/0/2.:)

NoiseHERO

Dec 26, 2011, 12:32 AM

Fayorei

Dec 26, 2011, 01:12 AM

Photobucket is working my nerves too.

Resizing images that are large for a reason. e_e

Wonder if flickr is any good...

Then again maybe I use enough hipster favorited sites.

Next I'll be using vimeo. e_e

It's not too useful for having stored galleries of images, but Tinypic lets you upload any size pretty much and won't re-size the image.:)

AzureBlaze

Dec 26, 2011, 01:58 AM

CrunchyRoll does PSO2 Article!
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2011/12/24/whats-up-for-phantasy-star-online-2-alpha-test-2

Good to see publicity in English...Crunchyroll's pretty big too. Figured it didn't deserve whole topic, so in here it goes...with just a dash of new info that I'm pretty sure I didn't see elsewhere here...:

"If you fail your grind, it will ungrind BUT future grind will become CHEAPER" (but never free)
"Entries until Jan 17th" <--- might of been old news

They also have some screenshots & a good recap of the event. That they argued over the songs was interesting-ish. I do like the one they ended up with.

The grind news is the best news I think we've had out of it, since finding out grinds can fail in the first place. As long as cash is plentiful I'll just throw money at things till it works. I don't care farming up money so long as it's not psu's dithering stupid system--at least this way we can eventually get the result.

Ark22

Dec 26, 2011, 04:18 AM

Forgot to add this.

Alpha Test 2 Features [Blurry Contents]
Room Items
Customize Your Room
(Blurry) Visiphone?
Item Lab Functions
New Default Costume
New Boss Kyatadoran

My Room
Set Objects in the room, rotate them.
Three rooms, the center, left, and right.
A theme can be applied to each room, like gothic style.

Item Lab
You can grind weapons or units.
Weapons increase Power
Units increase Defense

Shop Counter Changes
You can buy a list of multiple items at the same time.

Camp Ship
A counter where you can buy and sell items.
Storage Box
Quest Counter functions.

Battle
Force and Ranger can now use Just Attacks
Increased moving speed while charging techs.
Charge Techs in the subpalette.

More will be added later on. Will keep this updated. (Or if they already updated this but hey better to see).