OPEN BETA HAS STARTED. CHARACTERS WILL CARRY OVER TO THE RETAIL VERSION.
!!Maintenance incoming. Starting on Thursday at 11AM and ending on Friday, 2PM JST. They're going to add new hardware to fight the lag.!!
MAINTENANCE WILL END ON:
From bumped.org:
BETA REGISTRATION (in Japanese)
Registration and a much appreciated registration guide.
CLIENT DOWNLOAD
Link. If you plan on playing, download the client ASAP as updating can take quite a long time.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
OS: Windows XP 32bit | Windows Vista or Windows 7 32bit or 64bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 or above
RAM: Windows XP:1.5GB+ | Vista or Windows 7:2GB+
HDD: 8GB or more
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT or similar or higher
Direct X: Direct X 9.0c or higher
GAME OVERVIEW
Phantasy Star Online 2 is an online action-rpg, with structure similar to games like Monster Hunter and Vindictus. You select quests and get character specific tasks called Client Orders while on the ship acting as the game hub and then group together with up to 3 other players to play the game. Combat wise, the game varies greatly between the three classes available. Going from hack and slash style combat for the Hunter to Lost Planet style third person shooter combat for the Ranger.
RACES
There are three races in the game, each with their weakness and strenghts (Human's main weakness is being boring) but they all have access to the same classes.
Human
Usual, boring, well-balanced human race. They fit for all three classes available.
Newman
Physically weak elf-like race of photon (magic) users.
Cast
Robot-like man-made race with artificial bodies. They excel in Ability, HP and to a degree in Striking and Ranged Strength. (Thanks to SuperAngelo64 for the correction)
Brand new to PSO2 is the inclusion of FOcast which allows Cast's to finally play as Force characters, a first for the series.
CLASSES
All 3 classes are available for all the races. Switching between classes is possible while in the Arks Lobby and is free. Each of the jobs comes with it's own skill tree which can be advanced at the rate of 1 point per level. All class skills are learned through skill discs and can only be set to certain weapons (excluding the Force class).
Hunter
Close combat warriors who can equip swords, wired lances (blades on wires allowing to throw enemies around), partisans etc. This gives brand new playing styles for every single weapon type, making the game feel as fresh as possible.
Their "dodge move" is a side step. Allowing players to quickly dodge and avoid enemy attacks at will. This combined with Guard is one of your most important assets during boss battles.
Ranger
A ranged class which can enter an over the shoulder aiming mode for better accuracy and breaking specific parts of enemies' bodies.
Rangers have access to three main different types of ranged weapons including: Rifle, Launcher and Gunslash. Gunslash is a unique weapon available for all classes that combine together a ranged weapon with a sword that can be swapped at will.
Force
A powerful magic class using devastating techniques on enemies along with the ability to heal allies.
Forces have a wide range of magic abilities, covering all of the elements in the game along with specific moves tailored to certain styles of play (AOE attacks for example)
MAGs
- MAGs: are raisable pets that follow you in battle and provide usefull assistance such as passive stat boosts, support fire, and healing. Mags will charge up 'Photons' during combat. When the Mags have reached their Photon capacity, Mags can invoke powerful, single-use abilities:
GAME FEATURES
- Real time action combat utilizing a unique, customizable combo system;
- Parties up to 4 people/Player + 3 NPCs;
- You can invite your in-game friend's character to the party as an NPC even if they're not online.;
- Interrupt Events are randomly generated side-quests that can appear at anytime, and anywhere outside of boss areas. Interrupt events are presented in an easy-to-understand way using voiced text that appears over the screen consisting of: "ATTACK", "DEFEND", PROTECT", "COLLECT", and etc.;
- Quest performance grading;
- My Room, which can be decorated and expanded. This gives you an area to invite over friends and team mates with surprisingly robust customization (Cisce's My Room album);
- The ability to switch classes for free while in the Lobby;
- Class-specific skill trees;
- Hard mode available for quests;
- Story, which can be progressed through the "Matter Board" feature after meeting certain conditions;
- You can break specific parts on the enemy's body;
PREMIUM SET PRICING (available in retail):
PREMIUM SET CONTENTS
- My Room
- My Shop
- Premium Storage Box
- Item Trader
- Premium Block
- FUN Points Boost
IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT THE BETA AND THE JAPANESE VERSION
- Open beta characters WILL transfer to the "retail" version of the game.
- No IP block of any kind was present during the previous tests
- Ship 02 is the "official" server for the non-Japanese players
- The game is almost completely in Japanese but an unofficial English patch was released during the previous tests and a new version should be around this time too.
- There hasn't been any announcement of the game releasing in the US/Europe
- Buying the in-game money (Arks Cash) during the beta won't be possible, so My Room and My Shop will be available to all players
- If you took part in any of the previous tests you're all set and don't have to register anywhere
PRE-OPEN AND OPEN BETA CHANGES HIGHLIGHTS (complete notes can be found on the bumped blog along with details about the paid content):
- You can level up your character to Level 30 in Open and Pre-Open Beta.
- You can now obtain a mag at level 5 instead of 10.
- Instead of Level 50, a mag can evolve to its second form at Level 30.
- Hard mode is available for each quest if the character is level 20 or above. However, in order to access hard mode you must complete a specific client order.
- The second matter board was added. The matter board completion screen will also be shown in the camp ship after the quest results screen is shown.
- 16 button gamepads are now supported and configurable.
- Planet Lillipa will be added along with new Robot type enemies and brand new Darkers.
- Using the Aesthetics counter, the following features are free: Eye Pattern, Eye Color, Eyebrows, Eyebrow color, Eyelashes, Makeup Pattern 1&2.
- The Item lab and Tekker shop has moved down a floor.
- To reduce server load, there will be less chairs to sit on in the lobby.
GUIDES AND THE ENGLISH PATCH
- Beta registration guide
- Client Orders
- MAGs
- Closed Beta mini guide
- Controls
- The English patch link will be added after the translation's relese
USEFUL SITES
- Bumped.org blog, the best source of information regarding PSO2
- PSO2 information thread on the PSO-World forum
COMMUNITY IRC AND MUMBLE
MEDIA
Videos
TGS 2011 trailer
Closed Beta Trailer
Game intro
Abilities overview
Screenshots
Credits
Thanks to Cisce for helping me create this thread and to Ricardo (author of bumped.org) for allowing to copy some information from his blog, like the system specs, premium set contents and pricing among many more. Be sure to visit his blog, it's awesome.
Also, thanks to everyone who contributed by making a guide, they've been of great help!
Cisce: Special thanks to the Community IRC for moral support, suggestions, and proof-reading
NeoGAF GUILD (TEAM)
NeoGAF team was created on Ship 2. If you want in, get in touch with (Character name - Player name)
Guide how to whisper to anyone and a guide what to do when invited to the team have been added at the bottom.
You talk to the team by selecting the 3rd option in the chat window - ３．チーム.
OPEN BETA PLAYERS:
List format is GAF name - Character Name. All are on Ship 2 unless stated otherwise.
GUIDES #2
-Translation of the window that appears after selecting a quest (thanks Jubern):
- Whispering to anyone through the visionphone:
-What to do when invited to a Team, plus the team chat mode (by Blueblur2):
This is a visionphone. There are many of those scattered around the ship.
First, select アクスサーチ (Arks Search)
Options here (from top to bottom): search by character name, search by team name (we're NeoGAF), search by player name.
After selecting the search type, type in the name, click the button under it and when the name pops up, click on it with the LMB and select the first option, which is "Whisper"
- Interface translations (thanks Skyfireblaze):
Once the invite is sent, you'll see this window pop up. Click the left button.
Then you will see this window. Go ahead and close the tutorial text box.
Next, click the top option of the two selections to the left. Then click the next top option that appears (as highlighted above).
Finally, this final prompt will appear on-screen. Click the left button to complete the team joining process.
Chatting with the Team
Enter chat mode (by pressing enter) and open the drop down menu above the text input field. Select option 3 to chat with the team. (Pressing O opens the team chat mode - Keii)[/img]
Menu Bar:
Sub-menus:
Party & Quests:
Mag:
Character Creator:
Options:
Keyboard:
IMPORTANT
- Bumped.org guide to the beta which includes Mother Board guide, Mag guide, item upgrading guide etc. can be found here
