NewNews - Phantasy Star Online 2 still Delayed

Official Site: http://www.pso2.com/us/
Source: Youtube Channel Grand Tickler

Last Friday, I mentioned that the biggest disappointment of this year's E3 wasn't something that was shown but the lack thereof.  I guess I wasn't alone in hopes of hearing something from Sega about the Western release of Phantasy Star Online 2 as many fans had anticipated a launch date.  Jason Schreier of Kotaku had reached out to Sega for answers and was told that the Western release is still delayed until they are able to announce to the public.  The exact message Schreier got from Sega was:

"SEGA can officially confirm that PSO2 has been delayed. We don't have any specifics but will update everyone as soon as there are more details to share."

So the waiting game continues as the one year anniversary of PSO2's release in Japan quickly approaches.  Sega's resources might have its priority on others games and preparing for E3 and thus has slowed down the localization and launch of PSO2.  I have no doubt that PSO2 will be immensely popular in the West, but I cannot say how profitable it will be for Sega.  This might be another reason why it's taking so long to launch as production figures out what's the best market and course of action to take for the Western Market compared to that in Japan.  Whatever the case may be, I can only hope that PSO2 will release some time this year.

Source:
-Kotaku - Sega Still Says Phantasy Star Online 2 Is 'Delayed'

NewNews - Phantasy Star Online 2 NA Launch gets delayed

Official Site: http://www.pso2.com/us/

I knew this was going to happen when it was announced last year to have a spring launch in 2013 in North America.  Not only has no news been updated on the PSO2 website, but no hints of advertisements or trailers for the West has appeared.  I can only think that Sega is planning something big for PSO2 at E3.  I honestly don't need them to tell me how awesome it is, I already know from playing on the Japanese servers!  I just want to play it in English without having to consort to using patches.

As a tribute to Phantasy Star Online:
Source: Youtube Channel zirconst

Here's hoping it's only delayed till June or July.

Source:
Massively - Sega delays Phantasy Star Online 2's North American launch

NewNews - Phantasy Star Online 2 coming to the West

Official Site: http://www.pso2.com/us/
Source: Youtube Channel freemmogamer

When I saw this video up today, I was thinking "I've seen this many times already."  Judging from the title though, I got excited and looked for some type of clue at the end.  I typed in the website shown at the end and sure enough it was a site revealing a Western launch of Phantasy Star Online 2.  It sure made my day knowing that sometime next year I'll be able to properly play the game.  So according to the video information, the Western version won't be out until 2013 for North America and Europe.  If you still haven't heard about Phantasy Star Online 2, it is a Free-to-Play, Sci-Fi, Action-RPG featuring customizable attack combos, dynamic weather changes, spontaneous events, and much more.  The Japanese servers had launched last Wednesday.  The game is currently exclusively for PC.

VGCulture - A taste of Phantasy Star Online 2

Official Site: http://pso2.jp/
Source: Youtube Channel Keirnoth

Up till now, I've been watching players from around the world participate in the alpha testing of Phantasy Star Online 2 and the videos they've uploaded.  The game eventually went into closed beta and I didn't want to follow it too much anymore since it was such as tease knowing it's playable, but not by me.  Then Sega announced a character creation demo open to the public to mess around with and check out what kind of hunter one can make.  Planning on messing around with the demo, I jumped onto chat a few days ago to join some friends for some League of Legends and I heard them talking about robots and magic.  "What game are you guys talking about?" I asked.  "Phantasy Star Online 2!"  I screamed with excitement just hearing the name and asked them why they were talking about it.  Well, they've been playing it!  Shortly after, my friend offered me a beta invite that ends this Saturday to allow me to participate in the testing.  Needless to say, I was enthralled by the opportunity presented to me.

After about 3-4 hours of registration, downloads, and patching, I started up the game and spent the next "hour" just creating my character.  There's an array of customizable features that a player can choose from such as facial features, body type, clothing, color, hair styles, height, accessories, angles of certain features, length of arms and legs, etc.  Even when the beta ends, I'm probably going to be messing around with the character creation demo all year long!  After having my fun from creating my character, I jump into the game and start checking out every change the game has had from the original Phantasy Star Online game:

-Better graphics (this is a given)
-Being able to jump! (This was also a big deal for Guild Wars 2 when it was revealed)
-Combos can be chained indefinitely
-Different types of combos can be created through various skills and weapon switching
-Stronger attacks can be executed by timing the attacks (A mix from the original and Portable)
-The ability to dodge attacks (from Phantasy Star Zero)
-Capable of chaining combos in the air and attacking after a jump
-Each weapon has their own technique chips (from Phantasy Star Universe)
-Technique chips can be arranged as a combo chain
-Third-Person Style shooting works incredibly well (a variation from Universe's horrid FPS view)
-You can shoot and move at the same time!
-Everyone gets their own loot, no more loot stealing or priority sharing (from Phantasy Star Zero)
-Special events can happen in the middle of a dungeon run
-There are certain situations where 12 players can quest together at the same time
-Enemies have weak points on them where players can specifically aim at
-Classes can be interchanged (from Phantasy Star Universe)
-Each class has their own special skill tree that enhances their abilities
-Lobbies are incredibly large compared to the original

UPDATE:
-I just played a HUNTER class and yes, you can block at will
-You can air dodge after a jump

I think that covers a lot of the new changes.  The only thing I'm not sure about is the ability to block (in Phantasy Star Zero, it's possible to block with a shield equipped while in Phantasy Star Portable 2 it's possible to block an attack with armor attachments).  It's like they took everything that was great about the original, the spin-offs and notated the problems from them to create what Phantasy Star Online 2 is what it is now.  I saw a similar development trend with Koei's Dynasty Warriors 7 where they took all that they've learned and used in spin-offs and past games to put into DW7 which made it refined and great.  With a taste of what's in store, I can only hope that PSO2 is brought over to the Western market.  PSO2 could very easily become one of my favorite games in the future.  No news of a solid release date has been announced for Japan and no news of an international release has been revealed.  Please Sega, give us Phantasy Star Online 2!!!!!

NewNews - Phantasy Star Online 2 Free-to-Play

Source: Youtube Channel VideoGameFrontAgain

You read the heading right: Phantasy Star Online 2 will be released as a Free-to-Play online game!  It seems that the PS Vita version will also be free to download and play to cross-platform play with the PC version.  Since its first announcement of PSO2, I feared that they would follow their old archaic monthly fee model (which failed for Phantasy Star Universe) and so I hoped that they would follow the same model that Guild Wars did by having the player buy the game and play online for free.  So when a friend told me last night about the news that it would be free-to-play, I nearly fainted from the excitement and screaming I did.  Now a new fear has fallen upon all Phantasy Star faithfuls as the community has seen the industry take hold of the free-to-play model by having insane amounts of micro-transactions alter a game's balance or withholding tons of content from the player until they pay for it (but retail games do that too with DLCs).  I have the same fears too as I am very familiar with free-to-play games (played over 50 of them but never spent a cent) and have seen many companies become greedy if they're successful or fail and inevitably shut down their servers which is not fair for those who actually did pay money for the items (which is also why I don't pay for any of them, never know when I will stop playing or when the servers will shut down).  The only other thing we have to fear now (at least in the western market) is that it doesn't get a release for the western audience (like Phantasy Star Portable 2 infinity did).  Still, I am now more excited about Phantasy Star Online 2 than ever before.

For those who have never played played or heard of the Phantasy Star Online series, it is a spin-off series from its original turn-based Phantasy Star games and played as an Action-RPG with other players online.  It is heavily Sci-Fi based and has a futuristic, space-themed feel to the environment.  Players are called "hunters" and are like hired mercenaries to perform various tasks for companies, officials, and individuals.  Rather than a huge open world map, everything is instanced in their own area.  PSO is not to be confused as an MMORPG as players will be grouped up in a party of 4-players and adventure on their own from other players waiting in the lobby.  Some notable aspects that has captured the hearts of many players in the past are: an incredible library of weapons, the addicting nature of feeding a mag (kind of like a robotic pet) and seeing the effects of them in battle, the excitement of looting strong and very rare items, large scale boss battles that tower 10-30x taller than the player, and the unique colorful environment with its atmospheric music.  Phantasy Star Online is a difficult game to find or in some cases very rare for the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo Gamecube (no one cares about the X-box version and it is unplayable now).  PSO's spin-off "Phantasy Star Universe" was met with mixed reviews from critics and players and deviates a bit from the mechanics of PSO.  The portable versions were met with better reception but did not sell as well in the western market.  That is why a lot of Phantasy Star Online faithfuls are so excited about this upcoming sequel.  Here's hoping that it reaches the western market.

Source:
-MMOhut: New details about Phantasy Star Online 2

NewNews - Phantasy Star Online 2 on PS Vita

Source: Youtube Channel playstationjp

So it seems that Sega plans on bringing Phantasy Star Online 2 to the PS Vita platform.  That's fine as a lot of developers seem to make portable versions of console games and such.  This is more than a port though!  It seems that Phantasy Star Online 2 will feature cross-platform compatibility, which means when you're not playing the PC version and are out and about with your PS Vita, you can continue your adventure with the characters from the same account!  Sony has talked about cross-platform play in the past with games like Metal Gear Solid and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 where players' stats, saves, and progression can be played between the console and the handheld; however, I never felt that any of the games were really necessary or worth using that method (especially with having to buy two games on two platforms).  But when I heard the announcement for PSO2's implementation of the idea, I thought "well it's actually a pretty good idea for RPG!"  I know in the past there has been things like "auction house managers" for MMOs or things like the Poké walker for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, but I rarely see a mobile "game" that compliments the actual game all that much.  With the cross-platform compatibility, players can feed their mags (if they have them in PSO2), level up, do some quests when not playing on the PC.  And from the sounds of it, Sega wants to mirror the graphics quality and gameplay of the PC entirely so that those playing on the PS Vita on the go will have the same great experience as on the PC.  There still isn't any word on having a North American release as the past 2 Phantasy Star Mobile games on the PSP did not do as well in the Western market (which is a shame because they're really fun).  I'm still hoping and waiting, but I'd settle for a PS Vita release if a PC release doesn't reach North America (which means I'll have to go buy a PS Vita).

NewNews - New videos on PSO2

PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2!!!

Source: Youtube Channel SEGA

Aside from Diablo 3, Phantasy Star Online 2 is one game I'm most anticipated to see released (hopefully) in English and am willing to buy on the first day.  Sure, there's also other incredible RPGs coming out such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma (hey, it looks like an RPG! I know it's not one), Kingdom of Alamur: Reckoning, Torchlight 2, Mass Effect 3, and Guild Wars 2, but I'm willing to wait for all of those (well, maybe except for Guild Wars 2).  Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 and 2 is still considered one of the greatest games I have played and still holds the most hours played in a game for me.  I did (and still do) enjoy all the spin-offs such as Phantasy Star Universe, Ambition of Illuminus, Phantasy Star Portable 1 and 2, and Phantasy Star Zero; however, none got me as excited as hearing about Phantasy Star Online 2.  There was something about PSO that just made it so magical, so addictive, and completely satisfying while playing it.  It seems that PSO2 will be bringing that back to us gamers.  It won't exactly be the same (which isn't what most of us are looking for), but it will still have the same charm and element that made it so great in the first place.  Some of the changes I see so far is an extensive character customization, the ability to jump, customized combos, a more action orientated combat system, a Third-Person Shooter style perspective and control for guns and rangers (much better system of aiming than the First-Person View used in the Universe series onwards), large parties, and special events that happen in the middle of a dungeon run.  I'm super excited about this!!!

Source: Youtube Channel InitialF7

You can check out more at this site: http://pso2.jp/special/nettv/

GameLight - Phantasy Star Online 2

Phantasy Star Online fans rejoiced at last year's Tokyo Game Show 2010 (TGS 2010) when they revealed that Phantasy Star Online 2 was in development.  During the presentation, it showed the past 10 years of Phantasy Star games and then finally showed the Title logo for PSO2, that's it.  Today, we got actual footage of the gameplay!

Source: Youtube Channel leroykthx

Someone graciously translated the Japanese into English Captions (not sure if this user was the one, it was not stated) to let viewers know what the new functions of this iteration of Phantasy Star has in store.  Here's the list if you were too laz...err busy to watch it:

-Random Areas: Randomly generated levels
-Custom Combos: Creating your own attack combinations
-Third Person Shooter-Style: A Third-Person Perspective with the ability to aim and shoot manually
-Jumping: Players are no longer bound to the ground anymore!
-Combo-Combinations: Huh? Japanese says Hybrid Custom Action. Chained Skills perhaps?
-Seamless Weather Transitions: Weather changes in-game
-Interrupt Events: Challenges that occur in the middle of the level I guess.
-Aiming for an Endless Adventure: Bringing back everything that was great about PSO and then some

Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 on Gamecube is the only game I have invested 1000+ hours in for a videogame (I'm pretty sure) and remains to be one of my most favorite games of all time.  I've played Phantasy Star Universe and Portable (still playing them) and liked them, but did not put as much passion and dedication as much as I did for PSO.  Maybe it's not because of the game itself but perhaps the fact that I am much busier than I once was (surprisingly).  I've liked all the Phantasy Stars in the past 10 years (Universe, Portable, Zero, haven't tried Ambitions of Illuminus, Portable 2, and Infinity yet), but am all psyched out for Phantasy Star Online 2.  I'm a little worried since it's only announced to be out on PC (though it'd be nice to play with mouse and keyboard for Rangers since it's possible to play in a Third-Person Shooter style) and it's very likely Sega will be charging for online play again.  I played PSO offline split-screen with friends instead of paying for online, so I was hoping that if a Playstation 3 version came out, it would have a similar capability (local multiplayer games are dying out in favor of online multiplayer).  I'm also worried about compatibility and graphics demand; however, if it's only going to be out on PC, you can be sure I'll be picking a copy up on the first day it comes out.