It has been almost 5 months since the the Japanese version of SEGA’s new online game - Phantasy Star Online 2 was officially released. We still don’t have any information about the English version of the game other than the planned “early 2013” release date. I’ve made this thread since a lot has change since the Japanese release in July (also because the in-game NeoGAF Team has around 50 inactive members who stopped playing after the first few hours). Since the PSO2 OT (I suggest going there for a basic info about the game) is now buried in the community forum, I’ve decided that making this thread will give the information much better exposure.
Since we don’t know the state of the English version upon release, it might be necessary to play the Japanese version to enjoy the following features even for some time after the Western launch.
Everyone who was kind of interested but didn’t want to play it 100% in Japanese and people who lost interest in this title a few months ago – this compilation was made for you, enjoy!
Unofficial English patch is here! (LINK)
No more moonrunes for the interface/enemy/quest/client order names! Sadly, the patch doesn’t translate everything, since the item names are server-side and Story is too much work, but it’s enough to enjoy the game and not have to check the text translations all the time. Of course since it’s an unofficial modification it can theoretically get you banned, but I personally haven’t heard about such cases.
Changes in buying AC from overseas
This is important for anyone who wants to buy premium or any other in-game items/services requiring real money. Sadly, it’s now impossible to use foreign credit cards, but you can still use your card to buy Japanese web money on sites that provide such service and use it to buy the PSO2 in-game currency.
Links to make your PSO2 virtual life easier
- Need help with setting up account, downloading the client, in-game Client Orders or are looking for a best place for PSO2 news? The Bumped blog is your friend.
- Want to know what drops that awesome weapon you’re hunting for or just need a translation of something? This google spreadsheet is a place to go.
- Annoyed with missing the Emergency Quests? Follow this twitter bot and get a heads up on the emergencies 15 minutes before they happen. It’s not perfect and misses them sometimes, but still it’s better than nothing.
- Want to get more drops from boss crystals? Read this post explaining how the additional drops are generated.
Content updates and new features:
New level cap, Excubes for no more EXP FULL and Photon Drops finally being usable
So you hit 40 with all classes and quit because there was no more grinding to do? Fear not, the level cap was raised to 50! As a bonus, item requirements for both 30 and 40 lv cap unlock quests have been lowered. You may have heard about a crazy experience requirement for levels 41+. That’s no longer the case, as the exp requirements for those levels have been lowered (twice) and are really casual-friendly at the moment (can be checked here). Real end-game content is yet to come though.
Speaking of experience points, one can’t forget about the new Excube system, all the surplus experience points gained after hitting it will go toward items called Excubes, which can be used at a new shop to get things like a 250% drop boost.
With the introduction of the new NPC shop, Photon Drops finally got some love – they can be traded in for 75% Exp Boosts among other things. Full list of items available in both Excube and Photon Drop shop is available in English here.
3 new classes
The September update added 3 new classes to the game – Fighter, Gunner and Techer. Unlocking each of them requires reaching level 30 with a certain “basic” class (Hunter for Fighter, Ranger for Gunner and Force for Techer) and doing a specific Client Order. Each of those new classes can use a new weapon/set of weapons along with new Photon Arts/Techs - Fighters got Twin Daggers, Double Sabers and Knuckles, Gunners have access to Twin Machine Guns (bullet time included) and Techers are basically Forces who can fight in melee range using Wands.
The Subclass system
Because SEGA things that being able to change your class at will between quests just isn’t enough (and they want people to level up more classes), a subclass system was introduced. After completing a certain client order on level 20, it’s possible to set up any class as a “subclass”, receiving 20% of its statistics, all passive and active skills. There’s a catch though – if an active skill requires a certain class-specific weapon, you will need a class-free weapon to use it.
Example:
If you set a Ranger as your subclass and Hunter is your main class, you will have to equip (for example) the Bouquet Rifle, which all classes can use in order to activate/use Weak Bullet.
New fields and bosses
As you may remember, the beta to retail update introduced the Tundra field with big Mamooth and 2 Snow Panthers as bosses:
Next big update gave us access to the Mines, where players can fight a transforming robot “Transmizer” and the huge “Big Vardha”:
After that, we’ve got to visit the Flying Continent, aka. the land of recolors, since most of the enemies are blue versions of dragons known from the Caves, including the mid-boss Caterdra'nsa. Still, we’ve got a new huge boss – Quartz Dragon:
Last, but not least, the newest big update allowed us to enjoy Ruins, place that feels really fresh, despite the amount of the new Darker filth polluting the place. Also – two new bosses which can appear in all (?) other fields.
It seems that it’s not the end of new fields – according to the Road Map, the early December (probably 05.12) update should introduce a new field with a new boss. Rumors say that it’s going to be Darkers’ Nest, inside of the huge red/pink tower visible from the Ruins field.
New difficulty levels
For all who are looking for a place to level between 20 and 30 or past 40, two changes has been made. The one for low level players is an addition of normal difficulty for all fields. No more running Forest/Caves until you drop, it’s now possible to visit all zones.
Level 40 players wanting to level up as fast as possible got access to the Very Hard difficulty setting. Though nothing has changed in the monster’s AI, they now have more HP and hit harder. While playing on Very Hard it’s also possible to encounter rare enemies and rare bosses which have their own drop tables:
New Photon Arts/Technics and balance of the old ones
With the introduction of new classes all the new weapons got their shares of new PAs. That’s not all though. Rare enemies can drop rare discs, which allow you to learn awesome PAs like “swinging on your wired lance” or “slashing stuff with a giant laser sword”. New Dark/Light/Wind technics aren’t any less cool, because they allow players to shoot wind razors similar to Dark Ragne AoE attacks or fire a huge laser (with a pretty disappointing range).
As for the balance, with inclusion of the lv 11+ (non-trade’able) discs, the weak ones got a pretty decent boost and the overpowered ones got soft-nerfed (small damage change between levels).
10 star items
Since SEGA doesn’t want us to trade the strongest items, so that we can farm for them ourselves, the non-tradeable 10 star rarity items have been introduced. Luckily, the drop rate isn’t as terrible as some predicted (at least when it comes to units).
New Emergency Quests (which can now happen every 30 minutes)
Handful of new Emergency Quests has been added to the game. Those include:
- Full multiparty (12 players) infected Big Vardha fight
- Forest emergency with recolored Snow Panther/Banshee as bosses
- Volcano “kill everything you see” emergency
- City “kill 500 points worth of enemies” emergency
- “Trick or Treat” limited time Emergency (ending on 21.11) with Naura sisters in Halloween Dresses at the end
It’s also important to note that the emergencies are only accessible for 30 minutes (except for Vardha, which is 15 minutes) but can also happen every 30 minutes.
New Emergency Codes
This little mini-quests we get while doing normal quests? Yeah, there’s more of those now. The new ones include objectives like:
- Protecting the Naura Sister’s cake shop! (And pay full price for the cakes after that anyway)
- Protecting the Lillipians (?) from enemies! (Or kill them “by accident” with a Photon Burst or a AoE attack)
- Destroying a darker orb! (Or it will cover the whole area in blood rain that will poison you)
- Destroying multiple darker orbs! (Or you will get poisoned when coming near to its remains)
- Standing like an idiot around a weird fish-like Mr. Umbrella in hope of getting hit and receiving an item.
Team Room, Orders
Although Teams have been in the game since the beginning, they’re now something more than just an additional chat channel. One of the previous updates introduced Team Rooms, where members can gather, along with a Photon Tree, which can give random EXP/drop rate/attack etc. boosts. The tree needs constant nourishing with team points, which can be obtained by doing a new type of orders – Team Orders (can be repeated daily and they change every week). Points can also be used to upgrade boosts given by the tree.
Daily Orders
If all your Client Orders are on cooldowns, you may want to check Daily Orders at the quest counter. There’s one for every difficulty level and as the name suggests, they are changing on daily basis. It’s possible to turn it in later though, so no rushing is required.
Time Attacks
If you want to earn 630 000 meseta every day, time attacks are the way to go. There are currently 3 time attack courses available – one for each planet. Completing them under the time required for client orders giving a hefty amount of meseta requires 4 people, good deal of skill teamwork and knowledge of the courses (multiple shortcuts and dead ends). Time attacks are available for all difficulty levels.
New Matter Boards and Story Quests
There are currently 7 story quests, with the 8th coming this Wednesday (21.11). Completing them gives access to new NPCs for Client Orders/as NPC partners. The quest coming in this week’s patch is said to be the “climax” of the current story arc and it introduces a story-exclusive boss – Falz Hunar:
Recycle Shop
For everyone who tried the PSO2 version of real money Gacha - the AC scratch, Recycle Shop is a place to trade in unwanted items for mag devices etc. Since the introduction of this shop, 100k meseta has become the lowest price for an AC item in My Shop.
New Mag Evolution Devices (Sato!)
Tired of your mag’s old look? Use one of the new mag evolution devices which can be acquired from Scratches, My Shop, Recycle Shop etc. Those include: mini-gundam Mag, Rappy Mag, Sato Mag etc.
Friend Recommendation System
If your friend wants to join the game, he can enter your referrer number and you’re both going to get badges that can be exchange for various items once he/she reaches certain levels.
NPC AI upgraded
NPCs are no longer using only the weapon in the first slot of the palette among other changes (details can be found here.
Team NeoGAF
Team NeoGAF created on Ship 02 is still open to every Gaffer (and friends), so feel free to message one of the Managers in game, using the Character/Player search in the Visiophone (computer with a violet thingy) in game.
We have a room and a photon bush (still can’t call it a proper tree), so be sure to visit the team room.
Manager list (Player names):
- Keii
- Killthee
- wunderblizz
- Netto-kun
- djplaeskool
- skyy
- Twentytwo
If no one is online, you can always shoot me a PM or a tweet.
We're waiting for You!
Future Changes
We know a Vita and Smartphone versions of the game are coming in near future. Having played them both on TGS, I have to say that they’re well thought expansions of the PC version of the game (well, the Vita version is the same game). There’s a new field/boss/new system update coming in early December and a Western version coming in early 2013. Since the road map available on the official PSO2 site ends on “early 2013”, we will probably get a new one soon explaining plans for 2013 in more detail.
The development team has also said that they're thinking of ways of making the monthly Premium Set more attractive to players. Some of the new features that are planned include increasing the CO limit to 40, adding Premium-only Drinks etc.
Screenshots
Screenshots with new enemies, zones etc. More can be found in my minus folder:
Frequently Asked Questions!
Q: Is this out in the West?
A: Not yet, the Western version is supposed to be released in early 2013, but that's all we know now.
Q: I think I've heard something about a Vita/Smartphone version?
A: They're both going to be released in early 2013 in Japan and will use the same accounts as the PC version. Both haven't been announced for a Western release yet. You can read my TGS impressions after playing both the Vita and Android versions here.
Q: Do I have to pay?
A: No, downloading the game client and playing the game are both free. There are premium services and items that can be bought with real money.
Q: So... Pay to win?
A: Not really. You get bigger item storage, ability to sell/trade items to other players etc., but there's nothing there that will make your character stronger. Leveling without XP boosters isn't a drag as well. It's much easier to make money with premium though, because of the my shop access.
Q: How do I sign up? Where can I download the client?
A: Registration ad a guide). Client download. The download can take quite a long time.
Q: Are there any regional restrictions preventing me from playing?
A: No! You're free to create an account, download client and play. Not being able to use non-Japanese credit cards is the only thing restriction.
Q: Is SEGA listening to players?
A: Actually, yes. A long list of changes inspired by players' comments can be found here.
Q: I want new stuff! Is the game updated often?
A: Yes, there is a big update every month.
Q: I have stopped playing a while ago, but I want to visit the new areas.
A: No worries, 42 is the highest level necessary for for any new content to date and that means very hard Ruins. Still, the zone itself can be visited on the normal difficulty level on 20+.
Q: Does PSO2 have endgame content?
A: Aside from looking for rare items - not really. You can run Time Attack client orders for money and do story, but that can be done on lower levels as well. Mr. Sakai said they're working on endgame content though, so I guess we'll just have to wait for more information.
Feel free to point out any mistakes/things I forgot about. I'll be more than happy to correct stuff that's wrong. If you have any questions about the game/Japanese version/changes - feel free to ask.
Since we don’t know the state of the English version upon release, it might be necessary to play the Japanese version to enjoy the following features even for some time after the Western launch.
Everyone who was kind of interested but didn’t want to play it 100% in Japanese and people who lost interest in this title a few months ago – this compilation was made for you, enjoy!
Unofficial English patch is here! (LINK)
No more moonrunes for the interface/enemy/quest/client order names! Sadly, the patch doesn’t translate everything, since the item names are server-side and Story is too much work, but it’s enough to enjoy the game and not have to check the text translations all the time. Of course since it’s an unofficial modification it can theoretically get you banned, but I personally haven’t heard about such cases.
Changes in buying AC from overseas
This is important for anyone who wants to buy premium or any other in-game items/services requiring real money. Sadly, it’s now impossible to use foreign credit cards, but you can still use your card to buy Japanese web money on sites that provide such service and use it to buy the PSO2 in-game currency.
Links to make your PSO2 virtual life easier
- Need help with setting up account, downloading the client, in-game Client Orders or are looking for a best place for PSO2 news? The Bumped blog is your friend.
- Want to know what drops that awesome weapon you’re hunting for or just need a translation of something? This google spreadsheet is a place to go.
- Annoyed with missing the Emergency Quests? Follow this twitter bot and get a heads up on the emergencies 15 minutes before they happen. It’s not perfect and misses them sometimes, but still it’s better than nothing.
- Want to get more drops from boss crystals? Read this post explaining how the additional drops are generated.
Content updates and new features:
New level cap, Excubes for no more EXP FULL and Photon Drops finally being usable
So you hit 40 with all classes and quit because there was no more grinding to do? Fear not, the level cap was raised to 50! As a bonus, item requirements for both 30 and 40 lv cap unlock quests have been lowered. You may have heard about a crazy experience requirement for levels 41+. That’s no longer the case, as the exp requirements for those levels have been lowered (twice) and are really casual-friendly at the moment (can be checked here). Real end-game content is yet to come though.
Speaking of experience points, one can’t forget about the new Excube system, all the surplus experience points gained after hitting it will go toward items called Excubes, which can be used at a new shop to get things like a 250% drop boost.
With the introduction of the new NPC shop, Photon Drops finally got some love – they can be traded in for 75% Exp Boosts among other things. Full list of items available in both Excube and Photon Drop shop is available in English here.
3 new classes
The September update added 3 new classes to the game – Fighter, Gunner and Techer. Unlocking each of them requires reaching level 30 with a certain “basic” class (Hunter for Fighter, Ranger for Gunner and Force for Techer) and doing a specific Client Order. Each of those new classes can use a new weapon/set of weapons along with new Photon Arts/Techs - Fighters got Twin Daggers, Double Sabers and Knuckles, Gunners have access to Twin Machine Guns (bullet time included) and Techers are basically Forces who can fight in melee range using Wands.
The Subclass system
Because SEGA things that being able to change your class at will between quests just isn’t enough (and they want people to level up more classes), a subclass system was introduced. After completing a certain client order on level 20, it’s possible to set up any class as a “subclass”, receiving 20% of its statistics, all passive and active skills. There’s a catch though – if an active skill requires a certain class-specific weapon, you will need a class-free weapon to use it.
Example:
If you set a Ranger as your subclass and Hunter is your main class, you will have to equip (for example) the Bouquet Rifle, which all classes can use in order to activate/use Weak Bullet.
New fields and bosses
As you may remember, the beta to retail update introduced the Tundra field with big Mamooth and 2 Snow Panthers as bosses:
Next big update gave us access to the Mines, where players can fight a transforming robot “Transmizer” and the huge “Big Vardha”:
After that, we’ve got to visit the Flying Continent, aka. the land of recolors, since most of the enemies are blue versions of dragons known from the Caves, including the mid-boss Caterdra'nsa. Still, we’ve got a new huge boss – Quartz Dragon:
Last, but not least, the newest big update allowed us to enjoy Ruins, place that feels really fresh, despite the amount of the new Darker filth polluting the place. Also – two new bosses which can appear in all (?) other fields.
It seems that it’s not the end of new fields – according to the Road Map, the early December (probably 05.12) update should introduce a new field with a new boss. Rumors say that it’s going to be Darkers’ Nest, inside of the huge red/pink tower visible from the Ruins field.
New difficulty levels
For all who are looking for a place to level between 20 and 30 or past 40, two changes has been made. The one for low level players is an addition of normal difficulty for all fields. No more running Forest/Caves until you drop, it’s now possible to visit all zones.
Level 40 players wanting to level up as fast as possible got access to the Very Hard difficulty setting. Though nothing has changed in the monster’s AI, they now have more HP and hit harder. While playing on Very Hard it’s also possible to encounter rare enemies and rare bosses which have their own drop tables:
New Photon Arts/Technics and balance of the old ones
With the introduction of new classes all the new weapons got their shares of new PAs. That’s not all though. Rare enemies can drop rare discs, which allow you to learn awesome PAs like “swinging on your wired lance” or “slashing stuff with a giant laser sword”. New Dark/Light/Wind technics aren’t any less cool, because they allow players to shoot wind razors similar to Dark Ragne AoE attacks or fire a huge laser (with a pretty disappointing range).
As for the balance, with inclusion of the lv 11+ (non-trade’able) discs, the weak ones got a pretty decent boost and the overpowered ones got soft-nerfed (small damage change between levels).
10 star items
Since SEGA doesn’t want us to trade the strongest items, so that we can farm for them ourselves, the non-tradeable 10 star rarity items have been introduced. Luckily, the drop rate isn’t as terrible as some predicted (at least when it comes to units).
New Emergency Quests (which can now happen every 30 minutes)
Handful of new Emergency Quests has been added to the game. Those include:
- Full multiparty (12 players) infected Big Vardha fight
- Forest emergency with recolored Snow Panther/Banshee as bosses
- Volcano “kill everything you see” emergency
- City “kill 500 points worth of enemies” emergency
- “Trick or Treat” limited time Emergency (ending on 21.11) with Naura sisters in Halloween Dresses at the end
It’s also important to note that the emergencies are only accessible for 30 minutes (except for Vardha, which is 15 minutes) but can also happen every 30 minutes.
New Emergency Codes
This little mini-quests we get while doing normal quests? Yeah, there’s more of those now. The new ones include objectives like:
- Protecting the Naura Sister’s cake shop! (And pay full price for the cakes after that anyway)
- Protecting the Lillipians (?) from enemies! (Or kill them “by accident” with a Photon Burst or a AoE attack)
- Destroying a darker orb! (Or it will cover the whole area in blood rain that will poison you)
- Destroying multiple darker orbs! (Or you will get poisoned when coming near to its remains)
- Standing like an idiot around a weird fish-like Mr. Umbrella in hope of getting hit and receiving an item.
Team Room, Orders
Although Teams have been in the game since the beginning, they’re now something more than just an additional chat channel. One of the previous updates introduced Team Rooms, where members can gather, along with a Photon Tree, which can give random EXP/drop rate/attack etc. boosts. The tree needs constant nourishing with team points, which can be obtained by doing a new type of orders – Team Orders (can be repeated daily and they change every week). Points can also be used to upgrade boosts given by the tree.
Daily Orders
If all your Client Orders are on cooldowns, you may want to check Daily Orders at the quest counter. There’s one for every difficulty level and as the name suggests, they are changing on daily basis. It’s possible to turn it in later though, so no rushing is required.
Time Attacks
If you want to earn 630 000 meseta every day, time attacks are the way to go. There are currently 3 time attack courses available – one for each planet. Completing them under the time required for client orders giving a hefty amount of meseta requires 4 people, good deal of skill teamwork and knowledge of the courses (multiple shortcuts and dead ends). Time attacks are available for all difficulty levels.
New Matter Boards and Story Quests
There are currently 7 story quests, with the 8th coming this Wednesday (21.11). Completing them gives access to new NPCs for Client Orders/as NPC partners. The quest coming in this week’s patch is said to be the “climax” of the current story arc and it introduces a story-exclusive boss – Falz Hunar:
Recycle Shop
For everyone who tried the PSO2 version of real money Gacha - the AC scratch, Recycle Shop is a place to trade in unwanted items for mag devices etc. Since the introduction of this shop, 100k meseta has become the lowest price for an AC item in My Shop.
New Mag Evolution Devices (Sato!)
Tired of your mag’s old look? Use one of the new mag evolution devices which can be acquired from Scratches, My Shop, Recycle Shop etc. Those include: mini-gundam Mag, Rappy Mag, Sato Mag etc.
Friend Recommendation System
If your friend wants to join the game, he can enter your referrer number and you’re both going to get badges that can be exchange for various items once he/she reaches certain levels.
NPC AI upgraded
NPCs are no longer using only the weapon in the first slot of the palette among other changes (details can be found here.
Team NeoGAF
Team NeoGAF created on Ship 02 is still open to every Gaffer (and friends), so feel free to message one of the Managers in game, using the Character/Player search in the Visiophone (computer with a violet thingy) in game.
We have a room and a photon bush (still can’t call it a proper tree), so be sure to visit the team room.
Manager list (Player names):
- Keii
- Killthee
- wunderblizz
- Netto-kun
- djplaeskool
- skyy
- Twentytwo
If no one is online, you can always shoot me a PM or a tweet.
We're waiting for You!
Future Changes
We know a Vita and Smartphone versions of the game are coming in near future. Having played them both on TGS, I have to say that they’re well thought expansions of the PC version of the game (well, the Vita version is the same game). There’s a new field/boss/new system update coming in early December and a Western version coming in early 2013. Since the road map available on the official PSO2 site ends on “early 2013”, we will probably get a new one soon explaining plans for 2013 in more detail.
The development team has also said that they're thinking of ways of making the monthly Premium Set more attractive to players. Some of the new features that are planned include increasing the CO limit to 40, adding Premium-only Drinks etc.
Screenshots
Screenshots with new enemies, zones etc. More can be found in my minus folder:
Frequently Asked Questions!
Q: Is this out in the West?
A: Not yet, the Western version is supposed to be released in early 2013, but that's all we know now.
Q: I think I've heard something about a Vita/Smartphone version?
A: They're both going to be released in early 2013 in Japan and will use the same accounts as the PC version. Both haven't been announced for a Western release yet. You can read my TGS impressions after playing both the Vita and Android versions here.
Q: Do I have to pay?
A: No, downloading the game client and playing the game are both free. There are premium services and items that can be bought with real money.
Q: So... Pay to win?
A: Not really. You get bigger item storage, ability to sell/trade items to other players etc., but there's nothing there that will make your character stronger. Leveling without XP boosters isn't a drag as well. It's much easier to make money with premium though, because of the my shop access.
Q: How do I sign up? Where can I download the client?
A: Registration ad a guide). Client download. The download can take quite a long time.
Q: Are there any regional restrictions preventing me from playing?
A: No! You're free to create an account, download client and play. Not being able to use non-Japanese credit cards is the only thing restriction.
Q: Is SEGA listening to players?
A: Actually, yes. A long list of changes inspired by players' comments can be found here.
Q: I want new stuff! Is the game updated often?
A: Yes, there is a big update every month.
Q: I have stopped playing a while ago, but I want to visit the new areas.
A: No worries, 42 is the highest level necessary for for any new content to date and that means very hard Ruins. Still, the zone itself can be visited on the normal difficulty level on 20+.
Q: Does PSO2 have endgame content?
A: Aside from looking for rare items - not really. You can run Time Attack client orders for money and do story, but that can be done on lower levels as well. Mr. Sakai said they're working on endgame content though, so I guess we'll just have to wait for more information.
Feel free to point out any mistakes/things I forgot about. I'll be more than happy to correct stuff that's wrong. If you have any questions about the game/Japanese version/changes - feel free to ask.
