An English version of the Phantasy Star Portable demo is now available at the Playstation Store! Players will be able to create a character, play through the first mission, and try out several missions in multi-mode. Also, a few PSP-exclusive weapons are available in the demo as rare drops. The demo is 272 MB and is rated E for everyone.

Credit goes to RisingSun for bringing us this news. You can share your impressions of the demo in this PSO-World forum thread.

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In anticipation of next week's Phantasy Star Portable release, Sega of America was nice enough to provide PSO-World.com with exclusive screenshots of some of the awesome new weapons that will be appearing in the game! This collection includes three weapons from the Phantasy Star Online series, along with two brand new weapon designs! Scroll down to check out pictures and information for these weapons. Be sure to click on the thumbnails to see larger versions!

Demolition Comet	Elec Distortion
Type: Double Saber Description: A double blade that slashes enemies with countless photon blades. No one can escape its death blow.	Type: Saber Description: A single-handed blade used by a certain Guardian who loved music. Old fogeys don't appreciate a raging electric guitar.
Lavis Cannon	Skull Sorcerer
Type: Saber Description: A single-handed blade so rarely seen, it is shrouded in mystery. Its abilities are equally unknown.	Type: Rifle Description: A wicked rifle said to be possessed by the dead. Death will visit all who stand before it.
Twinkle Star
Type: Wand Description: A wand with star-shaped amplifiers at both ends. Its cute design makes it a popular accessory, too.

Many thanks goes to Sega of America and RubyEclipse for providing these screenshots. Remember to visit PSO-World.com for all the latest Phantasy Star Portable news! Feel free to discuss the new pics over in our Phantasy Star Portable forum.

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Gamasutra: I was amused to see the Phantasy Star Portable news, because it was like a lightbulb went off at Sega. "Maybe we should take our idea back from Monster Hunter!"
Simon Jeffery: Right. (laughter) I think that's exactly what happened at Sega!

Gamasutra: Capcom has had difficulty putting that model forward in the west, but Phantasy Star has done okay. Maybe not as well as it should, but okay.
Simon Jeffery: It's done okay, and there's still quite a lot of people out there playing it every month.

Gamasutra: So do you think you can take that market here with that title?
Simon Jeffery: I think that it's not going to be a blockbuster success, but I think it will be a niche success. I'm certainly hopeful that it's more of a success in the west than Monster Hunter has been. There is a built-in audience for it already there.

I think the crossover of the PSP ownership will work quite nicely, so we're fairly hopeful we can make something out of it. It's not going to be huge, but hopefully it'll be interesting.

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