• PSO2

    by Published on Jan 9, 2013 12:26 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    SEGA has launched their official player's site for PSO2 Vita's closed beta test and emails to all 50,000 selected testers (chosen by lottery out of more than 100,000 applicants) have been sent out. If you were one of the lucky ones to get invited, there are some details posted on the new site that you'll want to be aware of and below is a brief rundown for your convenience.



    For starters, players will only be able to access the test servers on six designated testing days, and only during certain hours on those days. Those days and times are as follows:

  • January 15th, 2013 from 3:00pm - 11:00pm JST
  • January 17th, 2013 from 3:00pm - 11:00pm JST
  • January 19th, 2013 from 3:00pm - 11:00pm JST
  • January 23rd, 2013 from 3:00pm - 11:00pm JST
  • January 25th, 2013 from 3:00pm - 11:00pm JST
  • January 26th, 2013 from 3:00pm - 11:00pm JST
  • January 25th @ 3:00pm JST - January 26th @ 11:00pm JST (32 hours, Updated!)
  • For those of you in the US, that eight-hour testing window is going to start at 1:00am EST (12am CST / 11pm MST / 10pm PST) and end at 9:00am EST (8am CST / 7am MST / 6am PST).


    If you received an acceptance email, you'll need to enter the included code into the Japanese Playstation Store to download (Wi-Fi only) the client. The game will require that you have more than 2GB of free space. SEGA also mentions that accounts with chat restrictions due to parental controls will be unable to play the game and that setting will need to be disabled.



    During the beta test, players can report any issues using a special form that SEGA has set up here. Also be sure to check out this thread in the forums if you want to meet up with other testers from PSOW and the EN community (thanks Crystal_Shard).

    by Published on Jan 7, 2013 06:42 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    SEGA's latest update on its war against cheating indicates that a whopping 188,683 accounts were suspended during the month of December for malicious activity. In related news, somebody, somewhere, has got to be getting ridiculously tired of making new accounts for Phantasy Star Online 2.


    We're assuming that the vast majority of these accounts are a result of bots or other automated nuisances, but the number does also include players trying to purchase or sell in-game currency through RMT, as well as those attempting to use cheat programs or commit fraud. While the number does still appear quite large when considering the recent milestone of one-million registered users, SEGA's waves of mass suspensions likely have cheaters and RMTers in a continuous cycle of creating new accounts (it is a free game, after all).


    Nonetheless, it's good to see that SEGA continues to bloody its ban hammer in an effort to keep PSO2's servers clean. We'll be hoping to see the same efforts once the game inevitably releases in the West this year!

    15 Comments
    by Published on Dec 27, 2012 05:22 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    The official Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) player's site has been updated with new information regarding January 9th's upcoming content update, which is being called something along the lines of "A Future Worse Than Death". This will be the update featuring the much talked about Arkz clones and corresponding quest that will have players trying to escape from the Darker's Den. In addition to the new info, which we'll cover below, a new video has been released which highlights the content updates for late December and early January, check it out:



    Okay, so back to those clones. Briefly covered in a previous story, a new quest will be added in January in which the camp ship may be taken over by Darkers (this quest may be called, "Abducted & Cloned"). In this event, players will be transported to the Darker's Den and must escape without being able to return to the camp ship. Upon successfully completing this new "escape quest", players will be cloned by the Darkers and may appear to fight future players running the quest.


    During the quest, players may encounter an emergency trial where they will battle clones of other Arkz, and possibly even themselves or friends. These clones will drop items, just like any other enemy, but defeating clones of yourself or friends will yield even better drops. The clones will have the same appearance, weapons, and even auto-words as their original player. The probability of getting this emergency trial is said to be low. It's also worth noting that it was previously mentioned that defeating a clone of yourself might also give a special title.



    Thanks to mailsonds for posting the news about the new video in our forums, where a discussion is already underway!

    2 Comments
    by Published on Dec 26, 2012 01:09 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    There are a number of news updates from yesterday and today for Phantasy Star Online 2, including new videos for PSO2 Vita, New Year's scratch rotation, and some new campaigns. If you've been following the latest discussions in the forums, you probably already know about most of these, but here's a convenient recap for everyone who has had a busy (and hopefully happy) holiday so far:


    PSO2 Vita - Intro and Promo Videos Released



    The above intro video for PSO2 Vita is pretty fun and exciting, so be sure to check it out. A promotional video for the game was also released, highlighting some of the features in the Vita version of PSO2 (which are basically the same features you'll find in PSO2's PC counterpart, aside from some of the differences we previously covered):



    December 26th Client Update:

    Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) underwent regularly scheduled maintenance on the 26th, bringing and end to Christmas content and making way for New Year's AC & Fun Scratch rotations. The new costumes can be seen on our previous article here and a full listing of costumes and accessories can be seen on the official PSO2 JP player's site. In addition, players will now receive (5) grinders instead of (1) through FUN scratch. Here are the technical details of this latest patch:

  • Update Size: 15MB
  • Launcher Version: 01.05.01
  • Game Version: 1.0201.3
  • First Time Download Size: 5.4GB
  • New Holiday Campaigns & Player Survey:

    SEGA has launched several new campaigns for new player registration, AC purchase, and Webmoney. The new player registration campaign will reward all new SEGA ID registrants who sign up for PSO2 game service (between December 26th, 2012 and January 23, 2013) with a Miniature Rappy room decoration. Prizes will be distributed in February 2013.



    The AC purchase and Webmoney campaigns will both run from December 26th, 2012 through January 16th, 2013 at 11:00 JST. Anyone purchasing 2000AC or 5000AC during the campaign will qualify for the following rewards:

  • 2000AC: (99) Grinders, (1) Photon Sphere, (1) EXP +50% booster
  • 5000AC: (1) Rappy Suit
  • 5000AC+ (through Webmoney only): Entry into Webmoney drawing
  • The Webmoney drawing will feature (5) Grand Prize winners, each receiving 50,000 points of Webmoney. An additional (100) winners will receive 1,000 points. Remember, you must purchase AC through Webmoney to qualify for the drawing, but this method is not required for the grinders & rappy suit rewards.


    Lastly, SEGA is holding their 2nd player's questionnaire for PSO2, giving players a chance to send in their suggestions and ideas. The questionnaire will be available from December 26th, 2012 through January 15, 2013 and everyone who participates will receive an item code for a 500 FUN ticket (to be distributed in February 2013). Sega also would like to remind everyone that item codes distributed from previous events throughout the year will be expiring on December 31st, 2012, so be sure to redeem them before then!

    by Published on Dec 21, 2012 06:06 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    In an update on the official Phantasy Star Online 2 player's site today, SEGA apologized for the large number of issues resulting from December 5th's maintenance, which included a number of server optimizations to better support PSO2's Vita release.


    The issues, which ranged from infinite loading screens to crazy character and texture glitches, were patched in an emergency update on December 6th and again in this week's December 19th update.


    To appease the masses and say "sorry" in a way that people generally respond well to, SEGA is giving out tons of free grinders; 50 per person, to be exact. The grinders were delivered today to players' storage boxes. In order to have received them, you must have logged in sometime between the December 5th and December 19th server maintenance periods. Enjoy, everyone!

    5 Comments
    by Published on Dec 20, 2012 02:42 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    The official Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) player's site has been updated with new info and screenshots for the December 26th content update, which will cycle out the current Christmas content and add New Year's content.


    At the moment, it looks like there will be at least seven new costumes added to the AC scratch pool (pictures below). In addition, the lobbies will be changing over to the New Year's lobbies in real time on December 31st at 11:59pm JST (10am EST / 9am CST / 8am MST / 7am PST). Check out the gallery below for a peek at what's coming:


    27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="quickgallery-4061" width="490" height="350">Get Adobe Flash player


    The New Year's lobby will run from January 1st through January 23rd. Also coming in January, will be the new "Arks Clones" content, previously revealed early this month. We'll keep you updated with more information on the these updates as it becomes available!

    8 Comments
    by Published on Dec 19, 2012 02:25 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    SEGA has revealed three new Christmas & New Year campaigns for Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP), all of which are sure to make the holiday season a little bit merrier for everyone. That is, everyone except for Dark Falz, who will be getting beat up quite a bit more often than he's used to, thanks to our first campaign:


    Defeat Dark Falz - During this campaign period, which is broken up into Christmas and New Years segments, the "Dark Arms Approaching" emergency quest will be appearing with increased frequency.

  • Christmas segment - December 23rd - December 25th @ 11:59PM JST
  • New Years segment - December 30th - January 1st @ 11:59PM JST

  • In addition, there will be several guaranteed appearances of the emergency quest for each segment of the campaign. Those times are as follows:

  • Christmas - December 23rd, 24th and 25th at 8:00pm JST
  • New Years - December 30th, 31st and Jan 1st at 8:00pm JST
  • Limited Time - Login Bonus FUN - The second campaign will be rewarding players with increased daily FUN for logging in during the campaign period (+100 FUN for normal and +200 FUN for premium), with increased bonus fun for logging in consecutive days:

  • December 26th (post maintenance) - January 9th @ 11:00am JST.

  • The continuous login FUN bonuses will be the following:

  • Day1 - 200 FUN (Free) / 400 FUN (Premium)
  • Day2 - 200 FUN (Free) / 400 FUN (Premium)
  • Day3 - 250 FUN (Free) / 500 FUN (Premium)
  • Day4 - 200 FUN (Free) / 400 FUN (Premium)
  • Day5 - 300 FUN (Free) / 600 FUN (Premium)
  • Class Level 10 or Higher - The third and final campaign will simply be rewarding any players with a class level of 10 or higher, who log in during the designated campaign window:

  • December 26th (post maintenance) - January 9th @ 11:00am JST.
  • Reward: (99) Grinders & (1) Photon Sphere

  • Also, don't forget that the current Christmas content will be going away on December 26th to make way for New Years content, including a new batch of scratch items and the real-time lobby transition that will be taking place on New Year's Eve.

    by Published on Dec 19, 2012 12:58 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. Sega,
    3. PSO2

    To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first release in the Phantasy Star series, which took place on December 20th, 1987, Sega is having a special art event. They are calling this event the "Illustration Festival" and are asking fans to submit original, unpublished artwork covering any game in the Phantasy Star series.



    The guidelines for submission are as follows:

  • Submission period: 12/19/12 to 1/16/13
  • Art relating to any game in the Phantasy Star series
  • Works must be original, unpublished, and created by the submitter
  • Accepted format is JPEG, up to 1MB in size
  • Image dimensions must be 1280x720
  • Multiple submissions from the same person will be accepted
  • There is extra emphasis on the fact that submissions should not have appeared anywhere else (including other web sites, blogs, social networks, etc.). The selected entries from this event will be published by SEGA in February 2013. There is no mention of any prizes or awards at this time, but we'll keep you updated on any further information that comes in!


    For those looking to submit an original work, SEGA has provided a submission form on the official PSO2 JP players site. A SEGA ID is not required to participate, though the form does require an email address, artist name (or pseudonym), title, and comments.

    3 Comments
    by Published on Dec 18, 2012 02:29 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    This week's server maintenance for Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) is taking place earlier than normal, and is scheduled to last for approximately 13 hours. The maintenance times are as follows:

  • Wednesday, December 19th from 4:00AM - 5:00PM JST
  • (Tuesday, Dec. 18th from 2pm-3am EST, 1pm-2am CST, Noon-1am MST, 11am-Midnight PST)

  • Update: The patch is up and available for download. Here are the technical details:

  • Update Size: 32MB
  • Launcher Version: 01.05.01
  • Game Version: 1.0201.3
  • First Time Download Size: 5.4GB

  • During the maintenance, SEGA will be making various adjustments to the servers. While you're waiting, be sure to drop by our Phantasy Star Online 2 forum for the latest news and discussions!

    1 Comment
    by Published on Dec 13, 2012 03:31 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. PSO2

    Our friends over at Shogai PSO have posted some interesting snippets from an interview with PSO2 producer Satoshi Sakai and director Yuya Kimura. In the interview, which was released today (Dec 13th) in the Phantasy Star Online 2 Master Guide Book, the developers talk about some of their plans for the future of PSO2.


    Specifically, they mention that they intend to release more high level content and a new boss sometime in March 2013. They also intend to put together a new road map for the next 6 months of the game's development by the end of the year. Combined with the Arkz Clones update coming in January, it sounds like the stream of PSO2 content will continue to flow well into 2013. In fact, the interview seems to indicate that the development team has enough to keep them busy all the way to December 2013, and that content updates should continue monthly.



    In addition, Sakai and Kimura talk a little about the weapon potential release ("Latent Ability") system that was added on December 5th. According to the interview, they plan to expand on this system and would like to make abilities available on more existing weapons as well. It also looks like they are considering having weapon abilities that will boost the power or effectiveness of certain PAs while that weapon is equipped.


    A big thanks to Shogai PSO for posting the info and Mike for the translation clarifications!

    4 Comments
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