Phantasy Star Online 2! Open Beta now!

[Coral]

lol it's fine. It was really fun killing things with you and so many others in all the madness. x'D

Dat ballistic coat... ffff so much want! Would be cool if they add in some new cast parts eventually. I'd end up throwing my money for days if they did that! If they put them in the Arks gacha then... rage and so many sads. ;-;

[Pawn]

Last pics from the Open Beta:

Sorry little guy. D:

Not his best angle.

Leaving all to the Mag. =p

I've only just played City and unlocked Desert and it's already time for full release lol.

That's right! Arks Cash Shop is up and running and here is a nifty (yet still not completed) tutorial for all your purchasing needs.

There is also a little sneak peak of what can we purchase with it.

I like the Angriff parts and Adventos and Ballistic Coat outfits but I'm not sure if I'd actually use them. The Rappy Doll giveaway reminds me that I had a code e-mailed to two addresses for it the other day (the same code). I guess it's for anyone who registered at all, since I didn't even use the first e-mail in the end and decided to sign up with a different one.

Edited July 3, 2012 by Lungo

[Candescence]

Okay, so PSO2 had opened up properly, and I got in a bit of playtime in the open beta before it went down yesterday...

Oh, for pete's sake. Looks like they changed up all the blocks. I'm pretty sure Ship 2 is still the English community's preferred server, but does anyone know what blocks you guys still hang out in?

[Remy]

Whichever block you can get into, seeing as pretty much all of ship 2 is full right now.

I'm amazed. The servers are so busy but the game is still running smoothly. Nice one SEGA.

Seriously though, I think most english players are in blocks 20-23 ish. Although seeing as SEGA have designated these as high level grouping lobbies that might change in future.

[Candescence]

Yeah, I noticed. Sheesh.

At any rate, I might as well throw up a pic of my character. I tried to get the colour scheme and parts to be as close as possible, but PSO2's character creator doesn't give much options for Casts - it's basically a Cast with a VictoryGreymon paint job.

Edited July 4, 2012 by Masaru Daimon

[gato]

Okay, so PSO2 had opened up properly, and I got in a bit of playtime in the open beta before it went down yesterday...

Oh, for pete's sake. Looks like they changed up all the blocks. I'm pretty sure Ship 2 is still the English community's preferred server, but does anyone know what blocks you guys still hang out in?

Sakai Twitted a few days ago that he was going to try to reorganize the blocks and rename them so players from different skill levels knew where to hang out with each other (this is something I feel it's not going to work with us, even less considering every freaking block is full right now... But let's see how it plays out).

As for the fullness, it's launch day and we are getting into Japans primetime, you will have to be patient if you want to move to another block (PSOWorld hasn't decided on a block change yet but the idea of going to any of the "free level" blocks sounds tempting).

As for me, I'm missing all of this because I have to pay some bills today... Oh well, hopefully some new guides will be there when I get back.

But enough moping, Ricardo has posted some really interesting tidbits for all of you... Have a sneak peak at Mines (and HORY SHET! DAT BOSS)

And here is a very interesting info of the future plans SEGA has for us...

Early Summer:

* Mid July: Large Mechanical Battleship’s Awakening (?) (probably Big Vader, but I'm not sure why would they mention it twice)

* New Field: Subterranean Tunnels (mines)

* New Boss: Tranmizer and Big Vader

* New Drop Items

* New Client Orders

* New Interrupt events

LOL

Summer:

* Summer! Festival! Scratch

* New Costumes, Hairstyles, Accessories, Voices, and Lobby Actions

Summer:

* Mid Scale Update: Soaring Crystal Dragon

* New Field, New Enemy, New Boss

* New Interrupt Events

* New Emergency Quest.

* New Story Quest

* New Fashion

* Event Lobby

Fall:

* Large Scale Update!

* 3 New Classes (watch this be AC required)

* 5 New Weapon Categories

* New Photon Arts and Technics

* Very Hard Mode

* Level Cap 50!

* Rare Enemies and Rare Bosses added!

* New Interrupt Event, and New Emergency Quest

* New Story Quest.

Mid Fall:

* New Field

* New Enemies

* New Boss

* New Story Quest

* New System Update

* Fashion Update

* Event Lobby

Winter:

* Smart Phone Version Release

* Gigantic Boss Added

* New Field

* New System Update

* Fashion Update

* Event Lobby

Next Spring

* PlayStation Vita version Release

Gottagopaythebillzbye! *runs away*

[Candescence]

Well, I guess we'll see what happens, then... I'd like to be able to add some of you fellas as friends, in the meantime, though I cannot figure out how to open the friends list, or where it even is, despite the guide.

Also, during a low-level mission, a massive goddamn horde of those evil bug things showed up (including some big ones). I thought it was just part of the mission, but it must've been an emergency interruption or whatever the hell you call it, because it was way out of my league at first... Then a party of dudes showed up and started wrecking shit left and right, and saved my ass. I was a little bewildered as to what just happened, but I was able to mop up the rest of the bugs by myself, including one of the big-ass flying ones. Man, I felt awesome.

[Remy]

Well, I guess we'll see what happens, then... I'd like to be able to add some of you fellas as friends, in the meantime, though I cannot figure out how to open the friends list, or where it even is, despite the guide.

Also, during a low-level mission, a massive goddamn horde of those evil bug things showed up (including some big ones). I thought it was just part of the mission, but it must've been an emergency interruption or whatever the hell you call it, because it was way out of my league at first... Then a party of dudes showed up and started wrecking shit left and right, and saved my ass. I was a little bewildered as to what just happened, but I was able to mop up the rest of the bugs by myself, including one of the big-ass flying ones. Man, I felt awesome.

Yeah that was an emergency code interruption. Which are pretty crazy but give awesome rewards.

The worst one I've had happen is 3 of them stacking up in the Caves. First up we had the bigass cave Dragon boss, only with one of those infected tubes sticking out of it's head. Which made it even more massive and even more aggressive. On top of him we had the sub boss, who showed up next to an event with a swarm of Darkers. Absolute insanity, which turned a normal 15 min ish run into a 40 min marathon.

I really wanna fight that massive battleship thing. That boss fight looks amazing and the Mines look as good as they always do.

Also gato, I really doubt they're going to charge with class switching, I remember them saying core game features like weapons and the like would never be locked behind a paywall. But then again I guess SEGA might just change their mind on that one.

The extra classes is probably how they're going to add weapons that are notably missing, like the Slicer, Doublesaber, Claws and hopefully the Whip. although I guess whips are kind of redundant with the Wired Lance in.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Also here's a new trailer

[Candescence]

Just ran into another insane Emergency Code. A whole bunch of regular enemies started showing up, which is kind of a pain since they're goddamn swarming me, but the kicker?

"Wait a minute, isn't that the huge rock boss monster from the Giant Bomb vide-OH FUCK"

Now, I might've been able to take him somehow, but with all the enemies swarming me? No way in hell. Thankfully, there was another player who joined the fray, so I once again avoided having my ass handed to me.

[Sami]

Downloading the game now. Any particular way I can meet up with you guys? I've never played Phantasy Star before bar a few minutes with PSP2 at a friend's house, so this is all new to me.

[redhellc]

I'm considering playing this game, but I'm leaning to wait for a possible english version.

[Coral]

There really isn't anything to lose if you decide to play now as opposed to wait. There's new content flooding in every few months from the looks of things and you'll always have that free slot to create your first character for either version I'd imagine. I'd love to play with anyone! If ya'll see me around, feel free to send a friend invite or come along. ^o^

Here's a simple menu translation for friend invites, whispers, party invites. Press the T button, then click on someone. You'll see a menu like this:

There's also the Bumped website to answer all your Phantasy Star questions. It's quite popular so if you get an error on a screen, just refresh and it may come back up:

http://bumped.org/psublog/pso2-guide-list/

Also can't wait until the Mines come up! That was my fave stage from the original PSO so akdjlsad.

So apparently I somehow unlocked the tutorial mission, yet when I play it the enemies are at level 15. Much higher than I remember lol

Here's how my mission list looks now including the emergency city mission at the bottom.

Killing Ragne Hard Mode. Nothing else to see here. x'D

[redhellc]

I'm starting the download now.

I hope I have some fun with this game.

I never played any phantasy star games, but I always wanted to try one.

[Sami]

Okay, I need help.

What program am I running, what do these bars represent, and why is it taking so damn long? I thought I already installed the game.

[Remy]

Okay, I need help.

What program am I running, what do these bars represent, and why is it taking so damn long? I thought I already installed the game.

That's the game launcher, The bars are download/install progress, it's taking forever because the patch is massive (around 2 GB)

[Sami]

That's the game launcher, The bars are download/install progress, it's taking forever because the patch is massive (around 2 GB)

Thanks. 8D

... It seems to have crashed halfway through the patch though. It was running when I suddenly got some dialogue box with a big button in the middle. I hit it, and suddenly the whole thing closed. I'm running it again now; I'll take a screencap if it happens again.

[gato]

So apparently I somehow unlocked the tutorial mission, yet when I play it the enemies are at level 15. Much higher than I remember lol

Here's how my mission list looks now including the emergency city mission at the bottom.

That's a Story quest, it unlocks the moment you complete all the yellow spots in your matter board.

I'm going to be a bit brief and tell you what happens here.

- You and Afin start your first mission as Arks in Naberius

- Then you get surrounded by Darkers and saved by Xeno (Xeno thinks he knows you from somewhere, but can't tell where)

- Get out of the planet but you hear a voice asking for help

- Go to the lobby, meet Shion, she tells you she has programmed a lot of "chance meetings" in a device called a matter board, make this meetings occur and there might be a chance of altering a future event.

- Complete the three yellow meetings, Shion appears again and mentions about a change in events that happened thanks to you, that maybe there is a chance of avoiding the future event and thanks you (and excuses for not being able to tell you a lot about what's going on, apparently she can't directly interfere in this)

- Go to Naberius again, mission is suspiciously similar to the tutorial (might be) but instead of getting saved by Xeno you clear the Darkers by yourself (and Afin), hear the voice asking for help and go to a cave.

- Meet a girl who lays unconscious, doesn't seem to be from the Arks... You take her to the Oracle.

- Later the lady in the hospital calls you to talk about the girl, there are no registers of the girls existence and there is no way to tell who she is and where does she come from (she doesn't seem to know that much either) but she seems strangely fixated on you, like if she knew you from somewhere. (she only seems to openly talk to you).

- Meet Shion in the Lobby, get second matter board.

That's as far as I reached.

Thanks. 8D

... It seems to have crashed halfway through the patch though. It was running when I suddenly got some dialogue box with a big button in the middle. I hit it, and suddenly the whole thing closed. I'm running it again now; I'll take a screencap if it happens again.

Lot's of players got annoyed by this one, either try to not do much else with your connection while the thing is downloading or download a client already patched (IIRC this is the POB version so it will have to patch again but it won't be as heavy, haven't tested it myself but if it made it to Bumped and has PSO-Worlds approval then I guess it must be legit).

Also, take a look at mines and nostalgia all over your keyboard.

In another news, I can't test this since I can't log in right now (busy) but some people are saying block 20 died, if you have more info about this feel free to share it.

[Coral]

Seconding that link. I downloaded one like it from PSO-W from a recommendation and didn't have any problems. People have also said that using File Check instead of launching the game to get the patches works. Much luck at any rate!

So lately I have been messing around with the settings. During Open Beta my computer could run the game fine, but since the major retail update I have been getting massive amounts of slowdown, horrible loading times and scratching music. I have a really good video card so I know my computer can handle to graphics, but I'm also playing this on a laptop so I'm thinking it's a memory issue. I lowered the setting to 1 in the launcher and switched to fullscreen. This seems to have worked thankfully! Gonna miss pretty graphics but at least I can still play the game.

And for any curious, block 20 has risen from the grave!

That's a Story quest, it unlocks the moment you complete all the yellow spots in your matter board.

I'm going to be a bit brief and tell you what happens here.

- You and Afin start your first mission as Arks in Naberius

- Then you get surrounded by Darkers and saved by Xeno (Xeno thinks he knows you from somewhere, but can't tell where)

- Get out of the planet but you hear a voice asking for help

- Go to the lobby, meet Shion, she tells you she has programmed a lot of "chance meetings" in a device called a matter board, make this meetings occur and there might be a chance of altering a future event.

- Complete the three yellow meetings, Shion appears again and mentions about a change in events that happened thanks to you, that maybe there is a chance of avoiding the future event and thanks you (and excuses for not being able to tell you a lot about what's going on, apparently she can't directly interfere in this)

- Go to Naberius again, mission is suspiciously similar to the tutorial (might be) but instead of getting saved by Xeno you clear the Darkers by yourself (and Afin), hear the voice asking for help and go to a cave.

- Meet a girl who lays unconscious, doesn't seem to be from the Arks... You take her to the Oracle.

- Later the lady in the hospital calls you to talk about the girl, there are no registers of the girls existence and there is no way to tell who she is and where does she come from (she doesn't seem to know that much either) but she seems strangely fixated on you, like if she knew you from somewhere. (she only seems to openly talk to you).

- Meet Shion in the Lobby, get second matter board.

That's as far as I reached.

Thanks for this! That actually explains a lot hehe. Guess I can expect something else like this when the third matter board pops up. And that Mines. I notalgia'd. So very hard. ;A; So hard it's tough to keep the fangirl in me in check askldjaslk.

I will level and grind as much as necessary to play that level! Speaking of unlocking things.

Gonna be a fun Summer.

Edited July 5, 2012 by Coral

[Sami]

Could someone please upload a mirror of the pre-patched client? Google Docs isn't working.

[gato]

Here is the thread in PSOWorld containing the client, it's GDocs again but unlike the one I linked before this one seems to be working. (the second link I believe it's the patch, Coral might be able to explain this in more detail since I haven't used it)

Also, not sure if you already got told this but once you get the game running you have to pick a ship, be careful with that because once you pick one you can't change it (you can change blocks inside the ship without problems, but changing ships is a no no), number 2 and 10 are kind of the english player's flagships (with most of us being on 2) but it's up to you, you are bound to find players in all of them (especially in 2, as you've seen in some posts, we are actually having some problems at times with the game not being able to handle the sum of the English and Japanese communities )

Also keep this guide open before you do anything, lots of players made the mistake of putting their passwords as player ID's, those things are public and displayed next to your nick so you don't want that.

Edited July 6, 2012 by gato

[Sami]

^That is awesome. Thanks a ton for the help, bro.

[Remy]

Also keep this guide open before you do anything, lots of players made the mistake of putting their passwords as player ID's, those things are public and displayed next to your nick so you don't want that.

I got in an argument on PSOW after I went over there and told some people the reason people could see their password is because they fucked up.

A guy refused to admit that's what he did, and chewed me out because OF COURSE HE CAN READ JAPANESE AND I WAS A BAKA GAIJIN FOR SUGGESTING OTHERWISE hahaha. I'm not much better though, in the POB I blacklisted a bunch of people I wanted to add as friends.

Is the game down for maintenance right now or is there something wrong with my connection?

[Invictus Ordo]

The game is having special maintenance from 10:00 ~ 17:00 JST to change the way ship congestion is displayed, the number of recommended blocks, the number of premium blocks (to relive congestion on other blocks), and to patch a player shop bug.

http://bumped.org/psublog/pso2-special-maintenance-762012/

[Coral]

The servers are back up! Some people have said that they went up an hour earlier than expected. Didn't really notice any changes made to blocks' displays or anything at first glance. 1 thing in particular though is that Ships 1 and 3 seem to be under a bit of stress right now.

[gato]

Bad news everyone!

Character creation has been blocked on ship 02 for at least one week.

Whoever wants to play the game with english speaking people will now have to play a really long session of the waiting game or switch to Ship 10 (they give you a Rappy plate to put in your room and 1000 FUN points if you go to ship 10 BTW).

And yes, before any of you asks most of us think that this "characters restricted to 1 ship" thing is stupid but I don't think SEGA could fix it even if they wanted to (something tells me it would require an insane amount of recoding).

EDIT: Have some screens, just because...

Staring at the empty space is one of our guild's favorite activities.

Cool CASTs don't look at quickly decaying dragon corpses.

This was an odd situation...

This one was a bit odd too...

Edited July 6, 2012 by gato