Phantasy Star Online 2! Open Beta now!

[JezMM]

Part of me is wondering if part of this is localisation issues.  There is a LOT of text in this game.  Everything story-related is voice acted too.  Then there's the fact that setting up servers all over the world for a MMORPG is a lot different from setting up in one country.  Honestly I'm bracing myself for them one day saying "it's getting a western release!  America only" or something.

 

 

Though thus far I've had no lag issues connecting to Japan so...

[Junko]

At this point, I''m going to download the JP version. So be it.

[PSI Wind]

Well, most of the game is translated anyways, and the stuff that isn't has guides all around the internet like on Cirnopedia.

[JezMM]

So an "official" English translation is now out in east-asian countries produced by Asiasoft.  It's not too good.

 

http://bumped.org/psublog/the-differences-in-the-pso2-sea-closed-beta-version/

 

 

The differences in terminology, as outlined in the PSO2Blog, brought up an interesting change to the Force class. Forces have become Wizards, who excel in Photon Magic. Techniques—a long tradition in the Phantasy Star series—are suddenly no more. Photon Arts, on the other hand, turned into Photon Moves, removing the PSU, PSP, PSP2, PSZ, and PSP2i reference.

 

Rangers have skill names that are somewhat close to the Japanese text. However, we’re not too sure over their choice to rename Weak Bullet to Crippled Bullet, which could surely lead to some unfortunate implications.

 

Monomates, Dimates, and Trimates, were probably too confusing for players, so instead they’ll get to sip on a Health Drink, Health Drink Plus, and Full Health Drink. Nevertheless, they can’t go on adventures alone without carrying the Area Purify Kit and Revival Kit. But before they start their next quest, they can drink some tonics at the Sick Bay or Medical Centre.

 

 

Pretttyyy bad.  Most of the name changes are not an issue, like "My Room" becoming "My Quarters", "Just Attacks" becoming "Perfect Strikes" which is a much nicer name actually and minor character name changes or differences in English spelling (Koffie became Cofy, Lisa is straight translated as Risa)...

 

But changing stuff like "Force" and "Monomate"... for those who aren't familiar with the Phantasy Star games, this would be like bringing out a new Mario game and calling Super Mushrooms "Power Up Mushroom" and Koopa Troopas "Evil Turtles".

 

I have to say I hate the font they used too.  Much prefer the bold one the fan translation uses.

 

The Asiasoft version blocks foreign players anyway so, stick to the Japanese release and English patch folks.

[gato]

Yeah, I chalked most of the translations as silly at worst (I'm actually okay with the location names and Risa, risa meaning laughter in Spanish which is something the RAcaseal does a lot), even the change of Forces to Wizards made me laugh but then I read Techniques were renamed as Magic and I freaked out.

 

Over the course of the Phantasy series it's stated over and over again that magic is a rarity only practiced by the nowadays (long since) extinct Espers (well, actually, a lot of people could use it back in PS1), Techniques on the other hand were a mix of technology and psychic powers used to manipulate the photons in a certain way that produce the effects you see in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh well, not like I was going to bother with an IP locked SEA version... We'll see what happens once they announce a North American one. (if such a thing ever happens)

 

 

 

EDIT: This made me realize Theodore is the only character with a "normal name", isn't he? 

[gato]

Bumped for great justice!

 

I hope you have been doing your matterboards because:

 

 

1) The last one gives you a 10* Katana that is only weaker than the 11* ones and Susanoo Guren (it has the same average stance boosting latent), is also all class and like most late matterboard items it comes affixed with enough stuff that you wouldn't want to modify unless you were a min-maxer (Lucky Rise being one of those).

 

 

 

2) The second coming of Dark Falz is here!

 

Spoilers ahoy!

 

 

Trailer of the last Matterboard. (and the ongoing Easter event)

 

Trailer of a story event that happened 10 years ago, you get to meet the second Claris Claire.

 

 

Some spoiler-y music too!

 

 

 

 

Check out that chaos-controlling mofo! (and other stuff)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHwH-qYACSg

 

 

 

And later in June we'll have the anniversary scratch, that includes Sanic, Valkyria Chronicles, Yakuza and Space Channel 5 stuff.

 

Warning: Try to see this with a low volume because the sound goes awfuly wrong at the 1:05 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW_ppnsWx7I

 

I can't express with words how much I freaking want that Goro costume!

[Candescence]

So, I'm curious, I haven't touched this game in ages, are the Fate/Stay Night costumes/weapon camos from last year still available? I only just found out about them, and I'm slightly worried that it was part of a limited-time event, but there's no indicator of this.

[JezMM]

So, I'm curious, I haven't touched this game in ages, are the Fate/Stay Night costumes/weapon camos from last year still available? I only just found out about them, and I'm slightly worried that it was part of a limited-time event, but there's no indicator of this.

 

I'm sure you'd still be able to buy them from Player Shops.

[Candescence]

I'm sure you'd still be able to buy them from Player Shops.

Yeah, I know, but that takes a LOT of money. Maybe when the semester is over, I'll give it a shot, I've already got Dark Souls II, Everquest Next Landmark and Sanctum 2 on my plate already.

[ElectricAngel]

So it appears that a lot has happened since I last played, which was around February I think? Once I update my game I'll be playing it more regularly. Now I have a question for Steam users playing this game. I've been trying to get this game to work with the Steam overlay, because I'd be really convenient and helpful. However, I can never get it to work. For whatever reason Steam only detects the launcher. How do I make it work?

[JezMM]

Yeah, I know, but that takes a LOT of money. Maybe when the semester is over, I'll give it a shot, I've already got Dark Souls II, Everquest Next Landmark and Sanctum 2 on my plate already.

 

I dunno if they didn't exist when you last played or not since I'm fairly new, but if you're levelled up enough to handle Hard or Very Hard fine, you can rapidly earn money by running time attacks with Klotho's Client Orders active (cowboy hat dude upstairs in gate area).  Since you can do them every day you can rapidly earn like a million every day if you know what you're doing and have the time to spare.  If you go to block 20 there's a surplus of english players there so it's easy to form a party by asking around the gate.  The majority of the player base refers to this activity as TACOs (Time Attack Client Orders).  Up to you though, it does take a good 30-40 minutes to run through all 5 and it sure as hell gets repetitive after a few days lol.

 

Apologies if you knew all this already.

[Vic Boss]

*sigh* we're never gonna get this on ps3/ps4 for realz are we? my hope at playing PSO on a console again is pretty much diminished >_<

[JezMM]

*sigh* we're never gonna get this on ps3/ps4 for realz are we? my hope at playing PSO on a console again is pretty much diminished >_<

 

There was never anything to say they were ever planning to I'm afraid.

 

 

Honestly I'm not sure how well this game would play on a console, though it does support controller on PC with a few tricks to provide shortcuts to frequently used actions.  There's a horrific amount of menus which I assume the PS Vita version can handle thanks to the touch screen capabilities.

[Meta77]

The new dark falz is a pain in the bum.

[JezMM]

The new dark falz is a pain in the bum.

 

What are you having trouble with?

 

 

 

I quite like the new boss, pretty satisfying to beat and yay PSO1 victory pose screen returns.  Also (yeah I pretty much live for PSO1 references since they're not that frequent), the little bits of Olga Flow's theme and the Episode III main theme in Dark Falz Loser's boss theme also make me haaaappy.

[PSI Wind]

https://twitter.com/ShenmueFans/status/470128694561095680/photo/1

SEGA shows that they can't answer about the PSO2 localization in a Powerpoint Presentation.

Can I just I love the community managers at SEGA America/Europe? 

[gato]

Put your belts on guys...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOVdOrVv3HE

 

 

We Border Break now. 

 

 

 

Might edit later with more info.

[JezMM]

I was like Oh new boss?  New AI controlled event that you can spend crystals on...?  New.. OH MY GOD THAT IS BEING CONTROLLED BY A PLAYER ISN'T IT

[MegasonicZX]

Man why hasn't sega ported this game over yet, it looks so good and that new mech thing looks even more awesome than what monolith is doing with X...japan gets all the good stuff .

[Meta77]

What are you having trouble with?

 

 

 

I quite like the new boss, pretty satisfying to beat and yay PSO1 victory pose screen returns.  Also (yeah I pretty much live for PSO1 references since they're not that frequent), the little bits of Olga Flow's theme and the Episode III main theme in Dark Falz Loser's boss theme also make me haaaappy.

no one mirrors. even then no one breaks the neck gems. And we always either time out or all die. Ive yet to beat him once in 5 runs.

Put your belts on guys...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOVdOrVv3HE

 

 

We Border Break now. 

 

 

 

Might edit later with more info.

What is this godly magic. XD

Ive heard rumor of pvp in ep3

[JezMM]

no one mirrors. even then no one breaks the neck gems. And we always either time out or all die. Ive yet to beat him once in 5 runs.

 

I don't actually know what the mirror thing is about since I don't think it's Hunter/Fighter-related.  My job is to just wail on the arms.  Weird though, I've never failed any Loser runs yet.  Been dead at the end of one, but that's it.  Are you playing the most popular blocks with english players?  Can always just tell people to do it, they may not know.

[Meta77]

I don't actually know what the mirror thing is about since I don't think it's Hunter/Fighter-related.  My job is to just wail on the arms.  Weird though, I've never failed any Loser runs yet.  Been dead at the end of one, but that's it.  Are you playing the most popular blocks with english players?  Can always just tell people to do it, they may not know.

Well atm im on my third character in ship 2 block 6. The mirror thing I think makes his clock stay open the entire fight. No idea truthfully. I dont use a english patch and been playing for 2 years.

[gato]

I bring good and bad news...

 

The bad news is that Code:Episode 2 ends in the incoming updates, turning it into a pathetically short thing story-wise with only 6 chapters compared to EP1's eleven (plus an extra).

 

 

 

The good news are...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awPYb8cXpVU

Mission: Episode 3 has been announced for late August! And to the disappointment of many, is not a card game

 

 

 

But what is this update bringing to the table?

 

1 ) New Class: Bouncer! Combining the strengths of melee and tech casting classes! Use Dual Blades for agile and aerial moves with a mid range or equip Jet Boots that allow you to truly mix tech casting and close combat (support techs can be autocasted while wearing them), boots also allow hovering and double jumping (but that whistle might get annoying).

 

2 ) Several lobby improvements! Lobbies will receive some minor face lifts whenever an event is going on and we have a Casino lobby! Where people can play some minigames.

 

3 ) New Planet: Neudaiz Harukotan! Explore this Japanese themed area inhabited by giant Oni's both in your and the enemies side. A point on the planet's story is that it's in the middle of a war between 2 main tribes and Dark Falz [Double] seems to have a role in here.

 

4 ) Matter Board Improvements!

 

5 ) Make Up Counter upgrades! Now you can have 4 accessories instead of 3 and you can also change their position! The days of floating hats in my cast's head are over \o/ (I've been reading it'll cost AC tho)

 

6 ) Stuff!

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xso0u1BsoYQ

New Class Video!

 

 

 

They announced some other stuff as well. Check Bumped for more details about the updates coming before EP3.

[PSI Wind]

Aw yiss.

Motha

fuckin

Jet boots.

I'm gonna try those out the moment they come out. Oh, and if you haven't read the tweaker, there's a nude patch now...........Why.

[JezMM]

So psyched for this new stuff, especially the lobby and minigames.  Funnily enough I only had a dream the other day about finding they'd updated PSO2 and added water guns and a waterpark for the lobby and you could run around playing watergun tag with each other and go down the slides.  =D  This seems... sort of similar lol.

 

 

I'm loving the current Limited Quest on the Mothership too.  With some Tri Boosters on, I've levelled up once per day at Level 50+.  The music is significantly less dramatic compared to what I expected of the Mothership (only recently started Ep 2) but it's very pleasant and catchy.