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    by Published on Oct 17, 2012 02:42 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    In a massive update to the Phantasy Star Online 2 Japanese players site, SEGA has officially kicked off the festivities surrounding the recently announced one-millionth player ID celebration. An official page for the celebration has been launched, detailing the four events that will take place between October 17th, 2012 and November 7, 2012. The events are listed below.



    Event #1 - 100 Prize Giveaway (10/17/12 to 11/7/12) - Just log in during the event period for a chance to win one of the following prizes:

  • (2) Alienware M14x laptops with an original Phantasy Star Online 2 design
  • (10) Tickets to the 2013 25th Anniversary concert for the Phantasy Star Series
  • (30) Commemorative 1-millionth User ID t-shirts
  • (20) Phantasy Star Posters autographed by the development team
  • (3 Phantasy Star Series 25th Anniversary Collection soundtrack CDs.



  • Event #2 - In-game Item Rewards (10/24/12 to 11/7/12) - Just log in during the event period and receive the following in-game rewards:

  • (1) +50% EXP Booster
  • (1) +50% Rare Drop Booster
  • (1) +50% Meseta Drop Booster
  • +100 Bonus FUN (+200 for Premium) DAILY
  • Additional Bonus FUN for consecutive daily logins during event period (+50 / 100 daily on Day 3, +100 / 200 daily on Day 5).



  • Event #3 - Arkz Museum ATTACK Screenshot Contest (10/17/12 to 11/7/12) - Submit "attack" themed screenshots of your character performing any damaging attack. Screenshots will be selected to be published in a special report at a later date. Players who have their screenshot selected will received a gold Medal of Gratitude exclusive room decoration.



  • Screenshot submissions can be uploaded on the official site for the event.
  • Two screenshots must be submitted (one with your player ID showing, one without)
  • Screenshots may not be showing other enemies or players (photon blast creatures are okay).
  • No chat or UI should appear in the shots
  • Screenshots have a 1MB size limit
  • Do not crop images.
  • Submissions not sent via the official form will not be accepted.


  • Event #4 (3 Campaigns) - (10/17/12 to 11/7/12):


    Matter Board Campaign: Players who obtain the 2nd and 4th matter boards by the end of the event period will receive in-game gifts:

  • (2) +50% Rare Drop Boosters (2 boards)
  • (2) +10% Grind Success Rate Boosters (4 boards)

  • Premium Set Campaign: Players who purchase a 30, 60, or 90 day premium set will receive an in-game gift:

  • (2) +10% Ability Add Booster

  • One-time Password Campaign: Players who set up a one-time password by the end of the campaign will receive a gift:

  • One day premium set

  • This is basically attaching an authenticator to your SEGA ID account. Upon login, you'll need to enter a second password which is only valid for a short amount of time. The code can be generated by software installed on your mobile device. For players comfortable enough to attempt this, additional information can be found on the player site here.


    For more information and discussion on these events, be sure to head over to the PSO2 Forums!

    2 Comments
    by Published on Oct 16, 2012 11:56 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    Phantasy Star Online 2's regularly scheduled maintenance for October 17th, 2012 has completed and is available for download. As part of this update, players should see reduced costs for mates, grinding materials, medical center boosts, and other vendor-related items. The changes were first announced in last week's update from PSO2 producer Satoshi Saki regarding the game economy and player concern about the reduced vendor sell prices.


    After the update, players should be running launcher version 01.03.04 (identified in lower left of launcher) and game version 1.0102.2 (displayed in lower right of the title screen).


    Update: Haven't had a chance to log in yet? New item prices have been posted in the PSO2 Forum! Thanks BIG OLAF!

    1 Comment
    by Published on Oct 16, 2012 03:09 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    If the announcement of the one-millionth registered user didn't tip you off that PSO2 is doing great in Japan, a newly released financial document should help relieve any remaining doubt.


    On Monday, Sega Sammy Holdings released a revision to their earnings forecast, originally posted back in May, for the first half of the fiscal year ending in March 2013. Within the document, Phantasy Star Online 2 is noted for it's success in reaching over one million registered players and earnings from the game are said to be "exceeding projections." In addition, sales of packaged software are said to have been strong.


    It's not all good news, though, as Sega Sammy's other big business division, involving gaming machines (such as pachinko machines), had its sales projections reduced significantly due to a weak market and review of its sales schedule. This dropped the company's consolidated net income forecast by 42.9% (or 1.5 billion yen), despite the strong performance of the consumer business division and PSO2.


    Regardless, it's nice to hear that Phantasy Star Online 2 is doing well and exceeding SEGA's expectations in Japan. This can only be a good sign for the future of the game and it's impending US release!

    4 Comments
    by Published on Oct 12, 2012 02:02 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    In a post on the official Phantasy Star Online 2 players site Friday, SEGA reminded players about Article 10 Section 14 of the PSO2 Terms of Use, which prohibits the buying or selling of in-game items in exchange for real world currency, commonly known as Real Money Transactions (RMT). The post goes on to say that SEGA will take strict actions, such as account suspensions, against any accounts that participate in these transactions, regardless of the circumstances or reason.


    With reports of suspicious characters and potential gold farming exploiters becoming somewhat common, it is probably safe to assume that some of the recent economic changes, made during the the 10/10 content update, will also serve a dual purpose of hindering common practices used when farming in-game currency for RMT sale. While not noted in the official patch notes, SEGA did also implement a new cheat detection system during Tuesday's update. This new system, revealed by PSO2 producer Sakai in a supplemental update to yesterday's emergency maintenance, will help SEGA better detect cheaters and suspend their accounts.


    These problems are certainly nothing new to online games, but it is good to see SEGA taking an active and early approach to dealing with them. Players can help, too, by reporting suspicious activity through a special form on the official Japanese player site. Have any thoughts on how SEGA is handling things so far? Feel free to share them in the comments section, or over in the PSO2 forums!

    4 Comments
    by Published on Oct 11, 2012 12:18 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    In a supplemental news post to Thursday's emergency server maintenance announcement, Phantasy Star Online 2 producer Satoshi Sakai explains the current situation involving experience requirements in the new level 41-50 range. He also addresses the concern over the vendor sell prices, which were lowered in the 10/10 content update.


    On the subject of experience amounts required to level past 41, Sakai explains that the current experience table was created back when PSO2's service went live in July. The original intention was to not raise the level cap this early, but to instead reward level-capped players with special items upon earning a level's worth of experience. In addition, they planned to release more difficult fields/orders at the beginning of next year. During this process, the experience that players earned would gradually be increased as more players hit 50, eventually leading up to a level cap increase.


    Obviously, things did not go exactly as planned, as players rocketed through the levels in a short amount of time, so this experience table did not translate over well to the way the game is currently developing and being played. As a result, they will be adjusting the level curve in the 41-50 range during tonight's emergency maintenance. A side effect of this adjustment is that players may have already earned enough experience to level up, or even gain several levels, under the new experience table. In these cases, a player should retroactively level up upon killing their first enemy once maintenance has been completed.


    Another highly controversial change in yesterday's content update was the reduction of the vendor sell price for most items. In particular, many players expressed concern that the cost of consumable items remained the same, despite the decrease in their income. Sakai acknowledged that they have received a lot of feedback on this and, as a result, will be adjusting the cost of mates, grinding materials, medical center boosts, and other vendor-related items to be more in-line with the current meseta flow. This adjustment will be taking place during next week's regularly scheduled maintenance on October 17th.


    Sakai went on to say that they have a lot of other feedback regarding the recent update, which they will continue to look into.


    Thanks to Mike and Alenoir for clearing up the translations in our forums!


    Update: Server maintenance has completed and players can now update to client version 1.0102.1.

    1 Comment
    by Published on Oct 11, 2012 11:00 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    SEGA has posted a notice on the official site that the Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) servers will be brought down for emergency maintenance on October 12th from 9:00am to 2:00pm (Japan time). For those of us in the US, this is going to happen around 8:00pm - 1:00am EST (5:00pm - 10:00pm PST) tonight.


    The maintenance will address the following two issues:

  • Experience after level 41 being too high
  • Ship order being reversed

  • A big thanks to Mike for letting us know about this news in the forums! Here's a link to the ongoing discussion.

    by Published on Oct 10, 2012 05:58 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    While most of the changes in today's Phantasy Star Online 2 content update were detailed in previous stories (1 & 2), there are some additional details that we now have thanks to today's patch notes on the official JP PSO2 site. For the sake of simplicity, we've gone ahead and combined both the old and new information into one massive list of patch notes that follows the outline of today's official patch notes. You can view the full translated notes below!


    Class Updates:

  • Level cap increased to 50 (unlocked by clearing a specific client order)
  • Subclasses now available (starting at level 20, also unlocked via client order)
  • New skills added to the skill tree for all classes
  • New photon arts added for the following weapons:
    • Wired Lance
    • Knuckles
    • Twin Daggers
    • Double Saber
    • Gunslash
    • Assault Rifle
    • Twin Machine Guns
  • New Technics added with Fire, Lightning, Wind, and Dark attributes
  • Field Updates:

  • New Rare Enemies Added
  • New Very Hard Missions Added (list below)
  • New Interrupt Event Added (Mr. Umbra)
  • New Client Orders
  • New Daily Orders
  • New Items:
    • 10-Star Weapons / Units
    • Level 11+ Photon Arts and Technic Disks

  • New Very Hard Missions:

    Type Quest JP Name Field Lvl
    Free field: Forest Exploration ???? Forest 41+
    Volcanic Cave Exploration ?????? Volcanic Cave 42+
    Desert Exploration ???? Desert 42+
    Arks Quest: Subdue Za Oodan ??????? Forest 40+
    Subdue Fangulf ???????? Forest 40+
    Dagan Extermination: Forest ?????????? Forest 40+
    Nab Rappy Capture ??????????? Forest 40+
    Dragonkin Ecological Survey ?????? Volcanic Cave 41+
    Kartagot Extermination ??????? Volcanic Cave 41+
    Subdue Caterdra'n ???????? Volcanic Cave 41+
    Mech Power Survey: Desert ?????????? Desert 41+
    Cargo Recovery: Desert ??????????? Desert 41+
    Rare Ore Mining ???????? Desert 41+
    Emergency
    Quest:
    Urban Recovery ??????? Urban area 40+
    Urban Mop-Up Operation ?????? Urban area 40+
    Subdue Fang Banther ?????????? Forest 40+
    Guerrilla Warfare ??????? Volcanic Cave 40+
    Gigantic Mech Awakening ???????? Subterranean
    Tunnels
    40+


    System Updates:

  • Rooms that have existed for over four hours will no longer spawn enemies nor will rooms nearing four hours (at 3 hours & 30 minutes) be accepting new parties.
  • Vendor prices for weapons and units will be falling to "combat inflation."
  • Vendor prices for single star weapons and items will be raised (*previous report, unconfirmed in patch notes).
  • 10 star and greater items will not be tradeable in any way.
  • Level 11 disks will not be tradeable in any way.
  • A new default hair style has been added for female characters

  • Balance Adjustments:

  • 7 Star or greater weapons will now drop with elements in the 20% to 45% range
  • Tekked Items will be granted elements in the 25% to 50% range.
  • Bosses will drop more meseta when they drop meseta (this doesn't mean they'll drop more meseta but the value of the meseta they drop will increase).
  • The amount of data required to complete the Level Cap Trial I (?????????) client order has been reduced.
  • 4 Comments
    by Published on Oct 10, 2012 10:51 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    Buried in the plethora of information posted to the Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) players site today was an official announcement for the first-ever PSO 2 offline event and tournament. The event, being held in honor of the one-millionth user ID and hosted by PSO2 producer Satoshi Sakai and director Yuuya Kimura, will take place on October 20th on the 7th floor of the BIGBOX in Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.


    As part of the festivities, a 32-player, 8-team tournament will be held. Participants will be challenged with defeating the boss, Zeshreida, found in the new Ruins field that was unveiled at the 2012 Tokyo Game Show. A registration form has been posted for anyone interested in attending. There will be room for 100 spectators, in addition to the 32 players in the tournament. Registration for the event closes on October 15th. If anyone gets selected to attend, be sure to let us know!

    3 Comments
    by Published on Oct 10, 2012 12:46 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    Phantasy Star Online 2's major October content update, reported on earlier this month, is now live and available to download. Dubbed the "Call of Mortality", this update features some significant additions to PSO2, including a raised level cap and all-new sub-class system. In addition, there will be some major changes made to PSO2's economy, as detailed last week, in an attempt to curb inflation and provide a more rewarding experience for players.



    The update weighs in at 232MB, according to the news post on the official PSO2 JP players site. This brings the total space required for first time installers to 2.4GB. After the update, players should be running launcher version 01.03.04 (identified in lower left of launcher) and game version 1.0102.0 (displayed in lower right of the title screen).


    We'll post more details once they become available. While you're eagerly waiting for maintenance to finish, feel free to stop by the PSO2 Forum, where discussions about sub-class choices and the economic changes are already taking place. Thanks to PSOW member eharima for tipping us off that the patch server went up!

    2 Comments
    by Published on Oct 9, 2012 10:53 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    October marks another milestone for Phantays Star Online 2's Japanese service, as the game has broke one million registered users! According to a news post on the official JP site and additional information found on 4gamer, SEGA will be holding a three week celebration, starting October 17, 2012 and lasting through November 7, 2012, which will include four different events. Among these, will be a massive giveaway where 100 lucky players will win one of the following prizes:



  • (2) Alienware M14x laptops with an original Phantasy Star Online 2 design
  • (10) Tickets to the 2013 25th Anniversary concert for the Phantasy Star Series
  • (30) Commemorative 1-millionth User ID t-shirts
  • (20) Phantasy Star Posters autographed by the development team
  • (3 Phantasy Star Series 25th Anniversary Collection soundtrack CDs.


  • Other events will include special in-game rewards for players (bonus FUN, exp, meseta, and drop rates), a screenshot contest, and various other campaign rewards. The celebration will start immediately after routine maintenance on October 17th. A big thanks to PSOW member jooozek for posting the news on our PSO2 message board!

    7 Comments