I'm going to preface this by saying that I searched and found no new threads. This was discussed yesterday in the
Phantasy Star Portable 2 US Demo thread and I felt that it warranted it's own thread.
Anyway, an
image of "the Best" version of Phantasy Star Portable 2 emerged yesterday and it teased an upcoming new version/faux sequel titled "Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity". Shortly after that, scans of a Japanese magazine appeared on the web with some information. I've cleaned up a translation found on the web and formatted it a bit for GAF's viewing pleasure.
Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity info
- New Single Player Scenario dubbed "Episode 2."
- Difficulty level Infinity has been added. Harder than S Rank difficulty.
- All existing default characters for each race have been redesigned.
- This game will have aHUGE CONNECTION with PSO.
- The game is currently 50% finished.
The Dumans
- New Race: Dumans. 5 races now.
- Dumans are mutated humans. Their mutation is related to the SEED attacks from 3 years ago. The power of darkness is hidden within them, and are overwhelmingly more aggressive than the other races. They are noted for their pale skin and eye patches.
- Dumans have an ability called Infinity Blast which shoots a huge laser beam. Dumans are proficient with Hunter and Force weapons. They seem to be very weak defensively.
Infinity Blast
- A new blast that can only be used for a limited time. If you want to use it longer, you need to attack enemies continuously. Basically, keep on attacking to extend the blast.
- The blast alters the aura of the weapons attack (not sure what this means yet) and can also be charged. There are 4 kinds of different effects which are based on your battle type.
Story Mode
- The new Story mode is supposedly 1.5 times the length of vanilla PSP2's which is now dubbed "Episode 1." An epilogue explain what happens 1 year after the events Episode 1 and then Episode 2 picks up.
- Episode 2's story will span the length of 1 year. The game's producer Satoshi Sakai calls this a "blank 1 year story."
- Episode 2's story is centered around a new character, 15 year old Duman girl "Nagisa."
- Nagisa has a eye patch on her right eye and carries a HUGE SWORD. She is wandering around the Gurhal system for some reason. Nagisa joins up with Little Wing and starts to argue with all of the staff. Her motives are unknown.
- Nagisa is voiced by "Nana Mizuki."
Visual Lobby
- Visual lobbies from the PSO series make a comeback.
- The number of people who can join a lobby is the same as in PSO (100 people in a block, 12 people in a lobby).
- That number may change in the final version.
- You can chat with others and recruit people to your party.
Enemies
- From PSO Ruins: Chaos Bringer
- From PSO Mines: Garanz
- From PSOe2: Olga Flow.
- There is expected to be many more PSO monsters than vanilla PSP2.
Camera
- Take Screenshots
- Players will have the ability to take in-game screenshots. Pressing Select will activate Screenshot mode. After that, a player can take a screenshot by pressing the Start button.
Rebirth
- The level cap for Infinity will be 200. Once a character hits cap, a "Rebirth" option will appear. Your character level will be reduced 1, but your character will have bonus stats. When you reach to Level 200, your rebirth character's stats would be over the normal limits.
Friend Search
- When you pass by another player, you can exchange your character and mission code. This means your friends characters data is in your game. Essentially, you and your friend can join missions together and your friend's character will become an NPC you can add to parties.
- Mission codes allow you and your friend to do missions where the rare drop rate has significantly increased.
Import PSP2 Save
- You can transfer your previous characters level and items.
Satoshi Sakai Producer says:
- Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity is not just a mere upgraded version.
- The games title refers to how it will break limits
- The game itself will have 50% more story than psp2 itself.
- The game will make an appearance at this years Tokyo Game Show.
Release Information
- Platform: Sony PSP
- Release Date: Winter 2011
As I see it, if you were planning on buying PSP2 there are two ways you can react to this. A) You become excited at the prospect of more content and more throwbacks to PSO and buy PSP2 now and join the online community (it has free infrastructure play after all). Or B), you can skip PSP2 and go for PSP2i instead. (Maybe you've got a huge backlog you want to work on. I don't know.)
Personally, this hasn't deterred me from buying PSP2 now. I really want to support the game and demonstrate to Sega that I prefer this over Phantasy Star Universe. That's my two cents.
