• PSO2 Closed Beta

    From Mike's earlier post, the official blog has a huge list of what is actually going on in the closed beta. It is more or less as follows:
    • There will only be 5 ships (servers) in the closed beta. Ships 6 - 10 will also show up but these ships are not online so you won't be able to log in to them.
    • A "premium set" will be available in 30 day periods. This includes the use of your room, the ability to open a shop, expanded storage, and the ability to trade.
    • Buying items via a player owned shop is free (as in you don't need to buy access to it)
    • Players who purchase the premium set can join a block especially for those members and get bonus FUN from activites that provide it (kinda sounds like PSU)
    • The game has bee tuned so you don't gain levels as quickly as you did in the second alpha.
    • A menu option has been added for cash shop and FUN related purchases.
    • Scratch terminals have also been placed around the lobby
    • Since the AC cost of cash shop items has been set to 10 AC, the amount of AC given to testers has been reduced from 10,000 to 1000.
    Arks Cash
    • All Arks Cash (AC) items are set at 10 AC for the closed beta
    • Each tester will receive 1000 AC to use.
    • You can't purchase more AC during the testing period
    • The items in the store and scratches (Gatcha) will be limited during the beta and will change for the official launch

    FUN
    • FUN can be gained by logging in, using AC, using certain aspects of the game (Good Job!), and as a reward for being in the top three for the weeks ranking
    • FUN can be used in a FUN scratch
    • The contents of the FUN scratch will change for the official launch

    Races
    • Human, Casts, and Newmen will be available, just like the official launch

    Character Creation
    • Only a limited amount of costume items will be available in the closed beta
    • Players will only have one character to begin with.
    • New character slots can be purchased with AC
    • New costumes, accessories, and character voices
    • The "Cat Ears" accessory will now match your hair color
    • Characters can be saved and loaded as files on your computer
    • New facial variations for male and female characters
    • The Beauty Shop will allow you to change your character in game
    • You can now get parts and clothing in game (you couldn't do this in the alphas.)
    • Parts and clothing can be equipped from the equipment menu

    Classes
    • The max level for the closed beta is 20
    • Classes can be changed at the class counter
    • Raising a character to level 10 in any class will mean that account will receive a "Weapon Hologram" room decoration in the open beta

    Skill Trees
    • Skill trees for all classes have been completely changed
    • New skill trees can be added by spending AC allowing you to take you character in a different direction

    Play Records
    • Titles are now available from the title counter
    • Item collections and player records are visible from a visi-phone

    Player Related Battle
    • Partisans, launchers, and talis weapons are now usable
    • On death, you can choose to return to the camp ship or use a scape doll if you have one
    • You can now switch between different sub-palettes like you could with your main palette

    Enemy Related Battle
    • Several new enemies including the new boss Dark Ragne
    • Boxes appear after defeating bosses instead of bosses dropping items
    • Destroying parts of boss enemies increases the number of boss boxes
    • Boost enemies will appear
    • Starting enemies are weaker because they were found to be too strong
    • Some enemies have been tweaked graphically to better fit the PSO2 world
    • Some dragon-type enemies now have voices

    Mags
    • By raising any class level to 10 and completing a specific client order allows you to obtain a mag license. This lets you own and use a mag
    • Mags evolve in to their second stage at level 50
    • Mag levels are capped at 99 in the closed beta

    Lobby
    • New lobbies have been implemented in the closed beta

    Quests
    • 2 new quest types: Story and Emergency
    • You can invite NPCs and friend characters from the new Partner Terminal in the camp ship
    • It is now easier to join other parties in an MPA than it was in the second alpha
    • You can see more information about quests at the quest counter, including 7 days worth of data on drops, special effects, and enemies
    • The Medical Center will sell temporary (1 mission) stat boosting drinks
    • Certain missions now feature smaller maps than before

    Interrupt Events
    • There are new and different types of Emergency Trials
    • A bug where enemies spawned indefinitely has been fixed

    PSE
    • New PSE variations exist
    • The various PSEs have been renamed
    • An "omen" system has been added to predict PSEs
    • PSE effects, chances, and PSE bursts have been rebalanced

    Story
    • The prologue and first chapter of the story will be available
    • Starting a new game starts a tutorial story quest
    • The matter board will be available
    • Story events can happen anywhere

    Client Orders
    • The client order system will be available.
    • Rewards for completing client orders include things like items, exp, and expansions to your palettes
    • Accessed by completing parts of the matter board

    User Interface
    • The main menu has been made easier to navigate
    • PAs now say what weapon they are used for on the first line of the item description
    • Disks for PAs and techs already learned will appear grayed out in your inventory and storage
    • Units can now be customized while equipped
    • Chat shortcuts will now show the first line of their settings when displayed with the quick menu
    • An icon in the middle of the main palette will show what mode weapons like gunslashes are in
    • The "message received" icon was made larger
    • A tab for system messages has been added to the message system
    • A message will appear in the chat box after a screenshot has been taken to assure you it actually happened

    Controls
    • More compatible game pads
    • You can now switch between normal and direct chat with the scroll-lock key
    • Holding control and pressing a number key will let you use your sub-palette while in direct chat mode
    • Camera speed can be changed in the options menu
    • Sped up the switch to character front function
    • Added the option to change zoom setting for the mouse wheel
    • Removed auto-run as a default for game pads
    • Added a "switch targets" option for game pads
    • No more virtual full screen
    • Increased the number of player models that can be displayed on-screen to 160
    • Added several formats for screenshots
    • Added the option to not use auto-words or show auto-words in the log

    Communication
    • Arcs Cards
    • Ability to create teams added
    • Can send "Good Jobs" to players with comments
    • Symbol Art system
    • Whispering added
    • Friend Partners, the ability to take friend's characters on missions
    • Item trading is now possible for those who spend purchase a Premium Set with AC
    • Items that you equip are bound to your character and can not be traded or sold in player stores
    • The ability to imitate another player's lobby actions has been added
    • New emoticons have been added
    • Added new rule variations for auto-words
    • New lobby animations
    • When word bubble combine, they now use the last person's word bubble
    • A party history function has been added to let you see who you played with before
    • You can now receive notifications when specific friends log on

    My Shop
    • Must rent the ability to open a shop with AC
    • You don't need a room to open a shop
    • The lowest price you can set on an item is 1000 meseta
    • You can search by special ability when searching player shops

    My Room
    • My Rooms need to be rented with AC
    • 3 Day room tickets are available in the FUN scratch
    • Player rooms now have locks where groups of players can be prevented from entering
    • New Scenery Passes allow you to change the view from your apartment
    • Weapon Hologram items allow you to display a weapon you have as a decoration in your room
    • A juke box room decoration will allow you to change the background music in your room
    • Some decorations now have special actions when you use them
    • You can now place small decorations on tables or desks
    • The Shop Counter decoration allow players to access the shop of the owner of the room it is placed in

    Item Lab
    • The option to use an item to reduce the failure penalty when grinding items has been added
    • An item to change the element of a weapon to whatever you'd like when strengthening elements has been added
    • An item to add an additional special effect has been when moving special effects has been added


    Tekkers
    • Weapons that drop during a mission have a chance to show up as "SPECIAL WEAPON"s
    • Tekking these weapons allows you to pick the element and a special effect for it. An additional special effect will also be added to the weapon at random

    Rankings
    • Only a portion of the ranking system will be available in the closed beta
    • Players are ranked against other members of the ship they play on
    • Two rating types exist: "Interrupt Ranking" and "Weekly Ranking"
    • Interrupt Rankings are rankings announced randomly several times a day. In the beta, these will be who can defeat the most of a certain enemy in an hour.
    • Weekly Rankings include things like number of room visits and number of rare containers destroyed
    • The top three players in any ranking receive FUN as a reward

    Specs
    • The game has been optimized to run better on PCs that meet PSO2's minimum specs

    Balance
    • The balance in the closed beta represents what will likely be the balance for the launch version of PSO2 but this is subject to change

    Character Data
    • Character data from the closed beta will not be carried over in to any upcoming version.

    Check out more information, updates, videos and screenshots at the PSO2 forum.
    Comments 5 Comments
    1. Kevin PSO's Avatar
      Kevin PSO -
      I stopped being an MMO guy a while ago, and everything I know so far about PSO 2 isn't doing much to bring me back. Have it on console with an offline mode and a semblance of a story; then I'll consider it. Until then I still have the original PSO.
    1. slipknotver's Avatar
      slipknotver -
      I have no need for an offline mode. i will say i can enjoy playing pso offline but much rather play online. i try to play offline games but they get so boring. The character creator has got me even more excited for the game. So many ways to create your look and in a pso world this will be fun. I hope they only release on PC so i can hear everyone that doesnt have a PC cry lol.
    1. Alena Zouryx's Avatar
      Alena Zouryx -
      While I agree that having a story mode to play through would be nice, it is ultimately Phantasy Star -Online- 2. I rarely have played PSO titles (or even PSU) in offline mode, even for the story, because its draw and premise is to be an online multiplayer experience. As with other online multiplayer games, there's very little (if any) single-player elements, because that's not the focus; this is especially true in PSO2's case, since the online, multiplayer aspects are their complete source of profit for this title. Since buying "AC" is their only source of income, it doesn't make sense for them to focus on an offline story mode. Perhaps, though, there will be story-driven missions and such... of course, I'm sure that they'll be online-only. Again, I reiterate that the word "online" is in the title...
    1. metatime's Avatar
      metatime -
      PSO was fun but you can only have so much fun offline by yourself unless you have some friends that play but nowadays its easier to just meetup online than anything.
    1. PSOWii's Avatar
      PSOWii -
      I have been playing in the beta and it feel ALOT like PSO. I am pleased with how it has developed. I dont speak japanese so there are some drawbacks and alot of trial and error with the menu's. But the game isn't as complex as most of the articles here may make it look. It easy to just jump right in. I can't wait to play it over here in the states.
    Untitled Document