Phantasy Star Online 2! Open Beta now!

[Remy]

I'm too busy laughing my ass off at the Twin Machinegun animations, that's like the John Woo Weapon type, total gun-kata vibes from the slow motion dives and spins whilst dual wielding uzis. That's the best thing I've ever seen in an online game.

All the new weapons look great though, and the weapons and style, from what I can tell of that translation, of the fighter class seem like just my style. Despite that though, I'm actually eager for everything. One thing that surprised me is that none of the new classes were hybrids. I guess they're saving that kind of thing for the next big update, or maybe they're intending to keep things separate.

[gato]

Okay guys, the day has finally come!

The BIG update is here! And by BIG I mean 4.3GB worth of rewritten and new content!!!

...

...

Well yeah, it's kind of stupid and considering all the previous problems we had with the SEGA downloader it's kind of disheartening for all the players who wanted to try the new stuff (or get stuck with whatever Koffee will ask us to get the new classes).

Normally this is where our comunity comes to the rescue, last time we had a big patch (the desert/Open Beta patch) members fro PSO-World got a patched client up for whoever was having problems with SEGA's option, but sadly, at some point Yesterday PSO-World got hacked and the whole site is inaccessible (and that's actually all the info I have about it, didn't get to dig too deep into this).

According to some reports SEGA's downloader keeps tabs of your progress and even if it disconnects your download will resume instead of going back to zero (and no, the progress bar doesn't show that, it looks like it's starting over when it really isn't), I haven't tested this yet, but considering the way my connection has been acting lately I guess I'll put this into test later and confirm my results in a day or 2.

But enough of my ranting! Ricardo has released a nice post detailing all the good (and bad) stuff this new patch carries!

I feel kind of bad for all those people who were getting Franca's drops in order to get their daily fix of EXP.

I'm too busy laughing my ass off at the Twin Machinegun animations, that's like the John Woo Weapon type, total gun-kata vibes from the slow motion dives and spins whilst dual wielding uzis. That's the best thing I've ever seen in an online game.

All the new weapons look great though, and the weapons and style, from what I can tell of that translation, of the fighter class seem like just my style. Despite that though, I'm actually eager for everything. One thing that surprised me is that none of the new classes were hybrids. I guess they're saving that kind of thing for the next big update, or maybe they're intending to keep things separate.

Positive, hybrid classes will be added next month (actually, they are going to be sub-classes, which will let you pick 2 classes and mix them up! Like Hunter/Fighter, Ranger/Techer, Force/Hunter, etc.). We still don't know a lot of details about how this will work though.

[Coral]

Gosh, I haven't played this in forever! Barely updated my game yesterday which took a massive 2 hours. D: Hopefully Gameguard behaves this time and doesn't do anything to the registry files.

Also, for those who ordered the physical version of PSO2, expect those to be shipped out soon/arriving sometime soon. I got word from the post office that they attempted to deliver it to my house on a Saturday no less. Unfortunately I won't be able to actually take it out and look at it for a good few weeks. Pics please to any who do get it soon!

[Conando]

When does this release in English again? I've played enough RPGs in Japanese to not want to ever do that again.

[gato]

After almost 2 days of downloading (my internet wasn't at it's best) I'm not sure if I can report about the patcher resuming any lost progress, sorry about that. (hence why I dind't post about it)

When does this release in English again? I've played enough RPGs in Japanese to not want to ever do that again.

Sadly, there is no date other than 2013, most people think it's going to be an early spring release but there is no official statement about it. (not like I've been playing much attention to the US version)

Also, tomorrow at 22:00 JST (IIRC 9:00 EST) we will have a pre-TGS stream that will discuss what we can expect to see on the PSO2 booth at that gaming event, this might include some talk about the Vita and IOS version and part of October's update that will show a new field and boss. Bumped has linked here so I guess this is where it will be shown.

In other not so important news, data miners are at it again! If you don't mind spoilers you can check the latest posts of that thread for a look at some unreleased NPC's, items, enemies and a look at PSO2's first big bad. (I wonder what could it be? )

EDIT: Here's a video of the coming updates.

lol at that Jet-alligator-darker-thingy

Edited September 19, 2012 by gato

[gato]

More updates!

In TGS they showed a new field, new PAs, new techs, rare monsters and showcased the subclass system and how it will work. (not to mention one of the weirdest interrupt events I've seen)

Here is a nifty video expanding in all of that:

A you can see, the subclasses will be the first part of the big October update, Ricardo commented a bit about it in his blog, basically, your main class will get all the SP skills, PAs (this is a guess) and techs (this was confirmed) but with an interesting catch, you can't equip the sub class weapons! (so unless you got the flower bouquet from the Pre-Open Beta there is no weak bullet spam for your RAFoie spamming Force )

Also, you get some bonus stats from your subclasses (roughly a 20% of it's original stats).

As a side note, I'm having tons of fun with Fighter, I love all it's weapons! Every single one of them has something that makes me love them, from Double Sabers and their fast attacks, Knuckles and their pretty respectable single hit damage (seriously, I was uppercutting things for more than 1000 dmg) and Daggers, that while not my favorite they pretty much make me invulnerable against some bosses.

Have some screens! (a bunch more in my gallery)

Turrets are the best thing SEGA has added to the game since the troll barrels.

Strike a pose!

Fun with zombies. :V

Contrary to popular belief, the cake isn't a lie.

Kartagots are the best transport medium on Amduscia.

[Coral]

Hah, those Cake Sisters will do anything to earn a quick buck! I wonder if we'll see any returns from other classics like Ash, Montague and his bots or even that annoying guy that died a lot in the De Rol Le escort mission in PSO (I think his name rhymed with gnome or something). Dunno what to make of the subclasses at this point since I can't seem to find any time to play this game unfortunately.

I think I'm more excited for very hard mode more than anything else really because of dem rare bosses! The +10 star items! The GUSTO! I think my mind will blow if they announce an ultimate anytime soon ffff. If Rock Belt is anything like Hidelt, my body will never be ready for those super fast jumps and lightning spammage. x-x

[gato]

We have more news about the October update!

Halloween update! it will include new costumes, items, Rappies and even pumpkin cake! (I wonder what kind of boost that cake might give? Probably EXP/drop/meseta)

And as you can see, the giant, star shielded, jet boosting, lizard thingy isn't the big bad of the ruins, nope! Instead we have this guy over here...

He's called Falz Hunar (that's going to get mistranslated/already is a mistranslation, I'm sure of it) and seems to kick severe amounts of ass...

And he isn't even the final boss XD (contrary to the speculation we had in the datamining post a few days ago). IT seems like it's going to appear at a later date with that dark ruins area hinted near the end of the trailer.

Edited September 23, 2012 by gato

[Coral]

Oh my gawsh, that knight guy reminds me of Svaltus without the sword from PSU. I guess then technically that means it looks like Olga Flow haha. Forget the halloween update, gimme dem ruins!

There's also a whole bunch of new Phantasy Star related merch posted on AmiAmi. Mostly Rappy related, but also general stuff like a character mug, some iron ons, cellphone straps and some parkas. All are up for preorders at the moment too.

I have to wonder how they come up with these things sometimes. I mean look at this thing!

So adorable, so cute, so creepy as it slowly walks toward you but why? xD Good old fashioned Sega. Never change!

[Tori Himemiya]

We have more news about the October update!

Halloween update! it will include new costumes, items, Rappies and even pumpkin cake! (I wonder what kind of boost that cake might give? Probably EXP/drop/meseta)

And as you can see, the giant, star shielded, jet boosting, lizard thingy isn't the big bad of the ruins, nope! Instead we have this guy over here...

He's called Falz Hunar (that's going to get mistranslated/already is a mistranslation, I'm sure of it) and seems to kick severe amounts of ass...

And he isn't even the final boss XD (contrary to the speculation we had in the datamining post a few days ago). IT seems like it's going to appear at a later date with that dark ruins area hinted near the end of the trailer.

OH BOY! I'm excited for October now. Once I get the new costumes from this update I won't take them off. Ever.

Oh speaking of PSO2 and October....

Yeah I'm on PSO2. I go by October Rust and I hang out in Ship 2. So if you run into me, give me a shout or something.

[gato]

Okay guys, we got a new patch and that means new content for us to download, but fear not since this piece only weights you 15 MB.

Having said that, chances are this patch's content isn't of your interest (other than the new costumes and FUN scratch content) since it's centered around teams and time attackers (and I happen to fill both prerequisites >_> )

You can check more info about the patch here. (I believe we also had new costumes but Ricardo didn't have time to post them yet)

A little short of time here so I don't have much else to talk about

EDIT: Here is the updated link.

Edited September 26, 2012 by gato

[gato]

Hey guys, just a reminder, next week we will have the subclasses update! Hooray!

Have a video we've already seen but with better quality:

Sadly, not everything is "good" right now, with the upcoming patch SEGA has some plans to combat a few problems some players have presented to them, unfortunately, these decisions have upset (being mild here) some players, namely most shop owners and some "not so rich" members.

This might not affect any of you, but if you want to take a look (and are too lazy to check the Bumped post) here is a list of the upcoming changes:

The update on October 10th, 2012 will add several tweaks to the way the game’s economy runs. These are outlined below.

Problem 1: Party Rooms that stay up for an extremely long time:

Some players discover random maps where the layout is efficient in such a way where they continue to play it for long periods of time (even in the case of several days). Doing so hinders the “charm” of random maps, and falls into the trap of monotonous gameplay. You lose the opportunity for a once in a lifetime chance in meeting other players. It creates a problem by widening the differences between long time players and newcomers.

Proposed Solution:

* After the room is created and four hours have passed, enemies and interrupt events will no longer respawn.

* This applies to Multiparty areas, and some single party areas.

* New parties will be blocked from joining a particular room mid-way if 3 hours and 30 minutes have passed.

Problem #2: Getting Rare Items in Player Shops:

Players feel the enjoyment and accomplishment of finding rare items is lost since currently, rare items do not have any restrictions (aside from being bound to owner). Players focus on buying expensive rare weapons in player shops rather than finding one in the field. It becomes a high priority to quickly gain lots of meseta by going around and around in a specific field and selling those drops to an NPC. They buy the rare item, the price rises, and inflation occurs.

Proposed Solution:

* Lower the amount of meseta you would earn from selling items to NPCs.

* Again, the selling price for weapons and units to NPCs will decrease. To compensate for that, you can sell 1 star weapons at a higher price so that new players won’t feel too hurt by this system.

* Weapon drops 7 star (or higher) will have 25% ~ 45% elemental attribute attached.

* Special weapons when decided by the Tekker will have 25% to 50%. elemental attribute attached.

* The meseta value rare enemies and boss enemies drop will increase.

* In the future (or in some other update), the amount of meseta needed to grind weapons will decrease.

Problem #3: The Game’s Economy:

Since the selling price is currently too high when selling to NPCs, it tends to create inflation. If it continues to stay in its current form, there’s concern that the average price for items in Player Shops will steadily rise. The economy would become harsh for new and returning players. Meseta’s value will decreases and the joys of acquiring it is lost.

Proposed Solution:

* 10 star or higher weapons/units and Lv. 11 or higher disks will not be tradeable,

* You can not trade nor sell these items in your player shop either.

* This applies only to the items that are introduced on or after the 10.10.2012 update, and will not affect the items that were released before then.

* This will not affect any future weapons 9 star and below, or disks level 10 or below.

Regarding Exploits on the Field

They have confirmed cases of exploits where players would move at an abnormal speed and defeat a wide range of enemies all at once. They have taken steps to ban the accounts but ask you use the wicked user form to report them. They ask you do not contact nor cooperate with them. They are building a detection system, and based on the results of that and your reports, they can ban the accounts.

Frankly, I don't care, but I don't see this changes lasting long considering the amount of players annoyed by it.

Anyway, have some screens! (I made a new gallery so I'll stop uploading pics to the old one, you can check the new one here)

I think I got a nice batch today, Gunner is a class made for people to look cool.

Group pic

Made to look cool!

Behold! Our Photon Tree! Also known as Bon Bons.

That's it for today, tune again next week to see how the drama shitstorm update goes.

[gato]

Oh boy, there is a lot to report... First things first, a few days ago we had a big update that added subclasses, Very Hard difficulty, rare monsters and some other adjustments. And as predicted by many, the update left a lot of people unhappy about the changes in the economy, but what most didn't know is that there was another can of worms ready to be opened with the patch.

It turns out we had a really nice exp curve expecting us... (As an example, you needed the triple of your total EXP to get from lvl 40 to 41)

Needless to say, people were not happy about this, so Sakai had to do an emergency maintenance to adjust this values, nowadays the exp curve is still pretty stupid, but at least it is nowhere near what we had when the update rolled out. (I guess it makes sense, since this is pretty much the last big update we will have this year and SEGA wants it to last).

Another problem that appeared with the economy update is that now that meseta wasn't so easy to get, purchasing basic necessities like a Trimate was becoming a little bothersome (I was losing meseta for each time I had to feed my mag >_> ), Sakai promised to fix this by reducing the cost of basic items and weapon/armor grinding, this change was fairly recent so I don't know how positive it was, we will have to wait and see (I'm no longer turning a loss thought so I'm pretty much fine).

In another news, the second part of this update (the Halloween lobby and scratch) will happen next week, click this link to check some details, or watch the video bellow!

Now that I got all the news out of the way lets end this post with more screens:

Cramped party!

We also found this... thing in a multi party, the code is pretty weird, like one of those duck and goose games (can't remember the name), basically Umbra just spins around doing nothing and randomly decides to beat up someone with his stick, once he hit enough people he goes away and leaves some items with him... Attack him at any moment and he gets angry (and cries) and proceeds to turn himself into a tornado that beats everyone in the vicinity. Umbra is a little sadistic once you think about it.

Strange isn't it?

I also felt a bit camwhore-ish, so have some screens of my character playing different classes.

Ranger:

Force:

Techer:

Fighter:

Annnd that's it for now! See ya next week! I guess.

Edited October 18, 2012 by gato

[Coral]

So they changed drop rates along with the other stuff? Whelp. Guess Imma be poor then. That's cool. What is the level requirement to get in very hard anyway?

I also got a good lol out of your pic of Umbra. Seriously. That's the stupidest yet hilarious code I have ever heard of. xD

[gato]

So they changed drop rates along with the other stuff? Whelp. Guess Imma be poor then. That's cool. What is the level requirement to get in very hard anyway?

I also got a good lol out of your pic of Umbra. Seriously. That's the stupidest yet hilarious code I have ever heard of. xD

Droprates weren't changed, what was changed was the amount of meseta you could receive by selling stuff, so if at some point you could gain around 50k in a multiparty area (can't remember the exact amount of time this took but it was around 30 minutes) now it has been reduced to 5k, to make things "better" now you can't do those endless grinding sessions in a multi party area because after some time (TBH the limit is 4 hours, and I was never that much time in a MPA anyway) the place "dies", monsters stop spawning, codes stop happening and players can't join.

Or course, now things are a bit even now that the prize of the basic stuff was reduced (still checking how much of an effect this has) but nowadays you will either have to wait for that 3 million worth item to low it's price since no one can afford it or wait a looooong time to get it (and pray no one else does it before you).

Also, I'm not sure if this might interest any of you, but Time Attack Client Orders (the ones the NPC called Kroto gives you) can earn you almost 300k per day (if you complete all 6 of them), it's always been a fast way to earn some meseta and nowadays with the economy nerfs it has pretty much become a must for players that want "that extra expensive item". So it might be a good idea to try to learn to how to do this whenever you can.

EDIT: I just realized my pic doesn't really show Umbra in his whole glory, so have a video a team mate did:

Yeah, the guy can be a pain, especially in time attack missions.

(Also, some of us joke about it being a Sakai avatar who likes to beat up Gaijins and RMTers with the ban-rod)

Edited October 19, 2012 by gato

[gato]

So much stuff to buy.

Seriously, that's a pretty interesting list right there.

So yeah, the second part of the Call of Mortality update has finally arrived! This one includes VH mode for Tundra, Mines and Floating Continent, all of this with it's corresponding rare enemies.

This update also adds more weapons, PA's and Techs (not really specific with that, but I think they added RaGrants and that's enough for me >_>).

Also (pretty much like with Michaela) a new NPC called Shii will appear in the lobby for a limited time and give you some client orders, the rewards for completing them haven't been revealed yet so it's up to you guys to go hunt for them (or.. Wait for the rest of the community to do so, if it's something worth mentioning I'll post it here too). There are also rumors (with sufficient evidence to be taken seriously) about another 5 SP quest, keep an eye on that one (even if it'll take most of us forever to get to the required level >_>)

As a side note, not sure if you noticed but those posts weren't made by Ricardo, I frankly think it was about time the guy got some staff, he really needed the extra help. o/

[gato]

Long post incoming!

Tomorrow we have a big update... And I'm not sure if I mean big as in new content but you can be darn sure it means big as in we are pretty much redownloading the game again.

1.6 GB to be exact.

This seems to be the basis as a series of updates that are going to happen across the next days and even months. Here is the list of the most remarkable stuff but for those who don't want to click links and open tabs here is the list itself:

Request: Lower the experience requirements for levels 41+

Staff’s comment: Requirements will be lowered. Measures for the experience points to not go to waste in case of already high level characters will be necessary.

Implementation date: Beginning of November

Request: Lower the number of items required for unlocking the level cap

Staff’s comment: Number of required items will be lowered.

Implementation date: Beginning of November

Request: Increase the appearance rate of Rare Monsters

Staff’s comment: The appearance rate of Rare Bosses and Monsters will be increased.

Implementation date: Beginning of November

Request: Increase the drop rate of Rare Items in Very Hard Quests

Staff’s comment: Drop rate of 7-9 star items will be increased. Additionally, since the appearance rate of Rare Enemies will be increased, the drop rate of 10 star items will be automatically increased as well.

Implementation date: Beginning of November

Request: Increase the drop rate of Matter Board items

Staff’s comment: A change making the drop rate certain about killing a set number of enemies will be introduced.

Implementation date: Middle of December

Request: Make Techers stronger

Staff’s comment: Performance of Wands and Techer specific skills will be increased.

Implementation date: Beginning of November

Request: Fix the strength of some of the 10 star weapons

Staff’s comment: The strength of the following weapons will be fixed: ベルクヴェルカー Berkverger, ノイズブローヴァ Noise Blover, ヴァーダーカノン Vardha Canon, アンブラステッキ Umbra Stick, ヴァーダービット Vardha Beat, マジカルウォンド Magical Wand

Implementation date: Beginning of November

Request: Increase the value of the Premium Set

Staff’s comment: The following additions are planned for the Premium Set: Increase of the amount of FUN gained, Client Order limit raised to 40, increase of the number of the saved Symbol Arts, Premium Set exclusive Drinks at the Medical Center

Implementation date: FUN amount and CO limit increase are planned for the middle of December, but the other changes are planned for a later date

Request: Introduce a system allowing to block NPC summoning

Staff’s comment: An new option allowing to block NPC summoning will be added to quest select options. All parties joining a room with the option set to ON will have it set automatically to ON as well (joining such rooms won’t be possible while using the default random game option).

Implementation date: Middle of December

Request: Allow searching for parties doing the same quest on other blocks

Staff’s comment: An option allowing to search for parties in other blocks will be introduced. After joining a party which is already doing a quest it will be possible to teleport immediately to the quest counter in that party’s block.

Implementation date: Middle of December

Request: Allow turning off the display of team chat bubbles

Staff’s comment: A display setting for chat bubbles will be added to options, allowing user to switch between “Show all chat bubbles”, “Show only the chat bubbles of players in the same area” or “Don’t show any chat bubbles”

Implementation date: Beginning of November

Request: Prevent players removed from the friend list from calling my friend partner

Staff’s comment: Friend partners will not be showing on the list after a player is removed from the friend list.

Implementation date: Middle of December

Request: I want to be able to make a player stop auto following me

Staff’s comment: Auto following system will be changed so that players will only be able to follow party members. An option to make other player stop following you will also be added.

Implementation date: Middle of December

Request: Make Time Attack Quests soloable

Staff’s comment: A way to solo the Time Attack Quests will be introduced along with Client Orders for doing them alone.

Implementation date: Middle of December

Request: Allow us to download big game updates in parts beforehand

Staff’s comment: It will be possible to optionally download the updates beforehand. A system allowing to play while downloading an update will also be introduced.

Implementation date: Middle of December

There’s also one request that won’t be fulfilled anytime soon, although a small change will be introduced:

Request: Introduce partial match search to My Shops

Staff’s comment: Sadly, because of the burden that such search would have on the servers it’s not possible to implement at the current time. Reducing the server load created by My Shop searches has the priority. To achieve that, a few new options will be introduced, starting with ability to check the market price of the item upon selecting it (change planned for the middle of December) which should reduce the number of search queries.

Meanwhile, Rangers traps continue to be useless. :V

But then again, I might be wrong, since SEGA likes to do stealth "fixes" every now and then (like how they buffed the twin machine gun's dodge and gear, and how some techs got some serious buffs after seeing how RaFoie dominated everything)

Also, keep in mind that all those things planned for "Beginning of November" are most likely getting installed tonight, so tomorrow morning you will be able to see those changes...

As an example, here is an updated list about what they plan:

*this list might be updated as the day goes, keep an eye on Bumped for the most up to date info*

Destroyer of History Part 1

* Ruins: VH 42+ / H 35+ / N 25+

* Other VH level requirements will be lowered. (this will be like with Hard Free field,s you might be able to enter but expect a serious EXP nerf so unless you really want to party there I wouldn't bother with it)

* 1 Excube gives 30 Grinders ( o/ )

* 11/7: Rare Boss Appearance Rate UP tenfold!

* 11/7: Items required for the Level Cap CO will be adjusted.

* 11/7: 7 ~ 9 star item drop rate adjusted.

* 11/7: Techer improvements

* 11/7: Some 10 star weapons will be adjusted.

* Head bow apology for the recent LV41+ EXP requirement mess. (LOL)

Some adjustments for Techer include:

* Faster attack speed for Wands and better reach.

* Hitstop reduced (for an explanation…)

* Shifta Advance, Deband Advance improved.

* Shifta Critical, Deband Cut improved.

* Territory Burst’s range and duration improved.

* Wand Gear’s power increased.

I envy fleshies so much right now...

Destroyer of History Part 2

* Falz Hunar Boss! (In a story quest.)

* New Mag Evolution Device

* Female variation of Male Outfits (never the other way around... Not sure how should I feel about that)

* Arks Ceremonial Lobby (until 12/5)

* Arks Trainee Costumes

* Arks Flag Ceremony Scratch

Also, have a video of the update:

dat ending...

Anyway, have some screens (remember to check the gallery for more):

That's a nice aurora... with Icicles on it...

There is something to be said about this kind of room winning a trophy... But I'll just leave it as it is...

CAPTAIN ROCKBEAR! PROTECTOR OF THE FOREST!

Team Raids are best raids.

EDIT: A little more in depth look at yesterday's update.

Edited November 8, 2012 by gato

[gato]

Woo delayed (and not so delayed) news ahoy! o/

First here is a list of the new costumes and accessories introduced in the latest patch,

Which includes things like this:

Bearcaseal

Ninja Power!

Now to the news! We'll start with what was a puzzling development for many, since nowadays the launcher has an English (and others) language setting.

No, this doesn't translate the game to this language, but it does translate the launcher... As of now it's unknown if SEGA would go as far as to make a full translation for an audience it's not supposed to be playing (this doesn't only include English BTW) but the most common conclusion is that they just did this so they can use the same files when the foreign versions arrive.

I've also heard the game keeps conflicting with the "unnoficial" English patch, I don't use it and this reports have been contradictory so I won't expand too much into it, but you can always check PSUMods for any recent development from them.

The other news are about the future of the game, SEGA has promised big things for December and when they say BIG they really mean it.

4 GB Worth of new and rewritten content (pretty much, the whole game... Again...)

Lucky for those players who have a good enough connection (read: not me) SEGA has released a Pre Downloader! The idea behind this program is that you can download a patch while you are playing the game, and you can do it before maintenance so you don't have to wait till Tuesday Night to start and will most likely not take you til Wednesday's evening to finish it!

Of course, this comes with a prize, for starters, you'll need a good connection to run both things at the same time (I think mine doesn't but I'll try it at some point and post my results), also, the minimum space requirement for the game has been raised to 20 GB. All the extra space will most likely be used by the Pre Downloader to store the new files while they wait to be installed (I guess when the launcher updates after the weekly maintenance)

And since we are talking about BIG... *spoilers ahead?*

Bumped updated with some info about this big update, first of all we have some preview of the Christmas costumes, Rappies, lobby and a BIG scary MOFO you'll have to face in an upcoming E-Quest.

There has also been some controversial announcements, in order to make rare weapons more unique (a la PSO) and worth getting over the newer ones they are going to implement a system that unlocks hidden abilities (that AFAIK, can't be transferred)! The example given is the sword Ardillou, whose special ability is a 3% bonus in JA damage, but that's only the first of many levels (it hasn't been told how many)...

Now this sounds all nice on paper right? So why it's so controversial?

Well, for starters, you need to get a weapon +10 in order to unlock it's potential... Whoever played the game long enough will know this is one of the most frustrating and infuriating tasks the game has, since it's a RNG based system... It becomes specially hard with 10 stars weapons (I've heard partners of mine spending tens of millions of meseta on doing it,

)

But that's not the best part (oh boy), if you decide to unlock the weapon's exclusive ability the weapon will reset to +0, meaning that you will have to grind it all over again! And It get's better! Since there are many special skill levels you'll have to go through this process many many times if you want to get that infinity +1 sword!

Isn't that just peachy?

So yeah, players raged, to say the whole community of PSO-World agreed this was a bad move says a lot about this, and I haven't heard the opinions of Japanese players but I don't think they are going to be so favorable. (if the latest idea SEGA had to prolong the game was anything to go by).

I can only wait and see how this is going to play out, but unless SEGA thinks of a way to make this new system more.... uhhh... Less impossible I can see it's going to cost them.

And it's not like this was necessary since players trash everything the game throws at them with minimal effort anyway... (Though I believe Sakai promised something more difficult for the next year)

EDIT: Woo! All that ranting made me forget about the screens, have some rare boss encounters!

Ahh, what a lovely place to re-HORYSHET!!!! AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!

I didn't know Mizers could do that...

No Frank! I said shoot Terra!

Edited November 27, 2012 by gato

[Coral]

Oh man, I just can't keep up with all these updates! @~@ Love that they're going full speed ahead and releasing lots of things every week it feels like, but my goodness. I have a feeling I'll be waiting a looooong time just to play it again with how badly I've gotten behind on getting the updates. Darn you ASRT, why must you be so fun?! >:[

Can't say I agree with their hatred of the player market. I guess people will just have to hope and pray that their weapon gets a decent secret tech. I didn't have much meseta to begin with, so my chances of getting a fully grinded rare weapon is slim. Weak weapons for life!

Also I must say...

...that Saint Rappy is just the cutest! ;A;

Edited November 29, 2012 by Coral

[gato]

Tomorrow we have the big update, but while the recently announced upgrades are not too thrilling that doesn't mean they are the only ones.

Ricardo made a nifty compilation of all the things these months updates will bring (IT doesn't come this week, it's the next one IIRC)

There are many interesting system changes (some of them were promised a while ago) but I'd like you guys to take a look at the new cast parts:

Aren't they like... The most amazing thing ever?

...

Anyway, this isn't all we have in terms of news, this morning Sakai had another live stream where he showcased some of the things we can wait in this month, he also talked about the Vita version and showed us a pretty awesome intro for it.

Teamwork! o/

I'm still waiting for the record of the whole stream to become available (

), keep an eye on this thread (or you know, other places) for when it appears.

EDIT: And yeah, jokes about Master Hand and Final Destination were made. :V

Edited December 4, 2012 by gato

[Candescence]

Okay, those parts are pretty cool. I'm gonna have to get them somehow...

Also, now that I've started playing this game again, it's a bit weird, but doesn't Ship 2 seem a bit empty, now? There's still people, but...

Edited December 5, 2012 by Masaru Daimon

[gato]

Okay, those parts are pretty cool. I'm gonna have to get them somehow...

Also, now that I've started playing this game again, it's a bit weird, but doesn't Ship 2 seem a bit empty, now? There's still people, but...

I can tell you ship 2 is quite healthy, it just happens that our side of the community (Block 20) faded.

This happened for a variety of reasons, some of them are the typical (taking a rest, quitting, etc) but there is another problem that arose the moment VH became available. It turns out now we have different blocks for different places and difficulties and for this most people got divided between block 09 (general grinding IIRC) and blocks 40 and onward (Very Hard Ruins)...

Since the playerbase (mostly those who don't mind playing with JP people and their friends) got divided between at least 3 blocks the population of number 20 faded (IIRC block 20 is currently Hard Forest, but most English players and JP players who want to play with us just ignore that, haven't been there for a while so I could be wrong though).

Annnd we have some problems right now in the game, as lovely as the new update could be this brought some nasty bugs to the table, numerous teammates have been reporting graphical glitches in their faces, skin color, even the text that announces a code.

But that's far from the worst of our problems, even more players (this time myself included) have been victims of the aptly called "Loading Screen of Death" when a player gets stuck in loading limbo and is forced to alt+f4, this has also been reported to happen in boss teleports but I haven't experienced that one.

I guess it's a good thing that SEGA catches up with this problems rather quickly, because we have an emergency maintenance planned for tonight!

I'll try to keep you informed if anything else happens.

EDIT: With all this mess going on I forgot to mention we will have a very... Interesting update in the future.

Edited December 6, 2012 by gato

[Meow]

I still play this, on Ship 10 though now.

Can't wait for the Falz E-quest to start - there is even a nifty little remix in the boss track for that fight

[Potada]

Just started downloading this. I was wondering, does it support the 360 controller?

Edit:

Never mind. You have to do one of those "type in this thing so you're not a bot" things in Japanese, so I don't think I can do it. -.-

Edit 2:

Well, never mind again! Figured out how to get things working, so my question still stands.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Potada

[Coral]

Just started downloading this. I was wondering, does it support the 360 controller?

Yes you can! I mainly used the 360 controller when I played the game and it worked perfectly for me. As far as I know, it should work as soon as you plug it into your computer. It might take getting used to where the buttons are mapped, but it's pretty alright. :}

Here's what everything does, from everyone's favorite blog:

And here's a starter guide. Most of the stuff's remained the same since the Beta, so most should still be correct. Hope you enjoy the game! That blog has answers for pretty much everything haha. If all fails, you could most likely find your answers if you browse PSO-World's help forums.

There's also the error code list in case anything funky might pop up. If all of this is overwhelming, I apologize hehe.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Coral