The Japanese Phantasy Star Online 2 character creator and system benchmarking program was released earlier today. It is available for download from the Japanese website. It can also be downloaded from the 4gamer mirror. The download is 446 MB.
 
Credit goes to Mike for bringing us this news. You can share screenshots of your characters in this forum thread.

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• A "Pre-open Beta" will be held late in late June.
• Open Beta pre-registration for new accounts will start tomorrow. This will also allow you to play the Pre-Open Beta.
• Existing accounts should be able to participate in both the Pre-open and Open Betas.
• There will be a reward for participating in the Pre-open Beta.
• If the Pre-open Beta is successful, the Open Beta will likely start soon after Pre-open Beta concludes.

• The client was downloaded approximately 147,000 times.
• Approximately 131,000 people (70% of the accepted testers) logged in sometime during the closed beta testing period.
• The highest number of simultaenous connected users occured on April 21st with 23,500 users.

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• Free to Play and Cash Shop - Access to the game and executable will be free on all platforms. The game will be supported by an in-game item transaction shop.
• iOS and Android Versions - Phantasy Star Online 2 will be released on iOS and Android platforms. These versions will use the same data as the PC and PlayStation Vita versions. However, they will be single player only.
• Symbol Chat - Symbol Chat will return in Phantasy Star Online 2.
• Character Creator Demo - A character creation demo will be released on April 5th.
• PC Release Date - The Japanese PC version of Phantasy Star Online 2 is scheduled to be released during the Summer of 2012.
• Japanese PC Beta Test - A beta test for the Japanese PC version is scheduled for late April. To sign up for the beta, visit the Japanese Phantasy Star Online 2 website and click on the golden beta button.

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The official Japanese Phantasy Star Online 2 blog was updated with new details about the Sony PlayStation Vita port of Phantasy Star Online 2. The purpose of the new information was to clear up some of the concerns that people had expressed about the Vita version. Here is a summary of the information:

• Vita Updates - It will be possible to distribute updates and make balance changes to the Vita version.
• Online Security - Phantasy Star Online 2 will be an online only game. All data will be stored on the servers. Also, the Vita version will use the same security measures as the PC version.
• 3G Connections - It will be possible to play Phantasy Star Online 2 using a wireless connection or 3G network. However, the connection method for a 3G network will be different.
• PC/Vita Compatibility - The current plan is to allow PC and Vita players to play together. However, there is a chance that the PC and Vita players maybe separated depending on early testing results.

Credit goes to Mike for bringing us this news. You can discuss this news in this forum thread.

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• The game is less than 10% complete. It is scheduled for release in 2013.
• It will use the same servers and character data as the PC version.
• Gameplay will be online only.
• It is possible that cross-platform parties between PC and Vita clients will be allowed. This is briefly shown in the video.

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Bandai has announced that it will be releasing a Phantasy Star Online Elenor RAcaseal figure in its Soul of Chogokin line. According to the pictures, this figure will include a beam rifle, handgun, Mag, meseta, rare item box, item container, and text bubble stand. Elenor is scheduled to be released in July for 6,500 yen.

Bandai Soul of Chogokin Elenor RAcaseal Statue with Accessories

Credit goes to Aumi for bringing us this news. You can discuss this news in this forum thread.

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It's the day many of you have been waiting for! No, PSO2 isn't out yet, it's the other day you've been waiting for. The Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity demo is now officially available! You can now download the PSP2i demo, which weighs in just under 600MB, from both PSN and the official JP website (red button). It is also available on UMD and at select demo kiosks at participating Sega arcades (for those of you in Japan, of course).

The Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity demo includes some pretty cool features and offers a LOT of content for players to enjoy. In addition to being able to raise your demo character to level 100, you can also raise your types to level 20, experience the new visual lobbies, try the new Infinity Mission system, download missions, participate in collaboration missions, take screenshots, play some battle and challenge missions, customize your room, and enjoy three chapters of the game! In addition, you'll get bonuses for importing your existing characters!

Online play for the demo will be enabled starting January 20th, but only a limited number of trial licenses will be available on PSN. For more information on the demo and what features are currently enabled in it, be sure to check out this thread, posted by our very own Mike in the PSP2 forum!

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• Raise a character to level 10 on any ship: Weapon Hologram room decoration
• Raise a character to level 20 on any ship: 500 FUN item code
• Raise a character to level 10 on Ship 6: 500 FUN item code

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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.

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