#dreamast

Home is a feeling, not a place. This is where Phantasy Star Online 2 fits in my life. There was a huge gap in time since the original release back in the year 2000 and then the Blue Burst release on PC back in 2005. PSO2 released in Japan during July of 2012. Almost eight years later from that release and even more time since the nostalgia with the original release and its rebirth of sorts through Blue Burst, the feeling of home remains.

We will get probably my only negative point out of the way, which was to be expected in a closed beta. There were issues getting online for the first five hours the game was live. An Error 37 issue, if you will. Expected problems…but they KNEW how many people would be excited for this. It has been almost eight years for a proper US release. Being that it is a closed beta, they knew exactly how many people were going to be logging on. Not being properly prepared from the start is inexcusable and they were silent on the issue until almost an hour into being live. Now that this is out of the way, let’s forget about that and get into what the game has in store.

What people enjoy with Monster Hunter World combat wise, started here. The Action-RPG style of combat. I always look at Phantasy Star Online as the MMO before MMOs were cool since it existed before World of Warcraft. I’ll get back to this point in a minute. PSO2 has a lock on that isn’t perfect but just works. In Monster Hunter World you have to switch up some options to get it to work (IMO) better than it does with default settings, and even then, it feels a bit funny. Said system may have improved with this one due to being able to swap targets. There also seems to be a free aim of sorts as well and more precise targeting options with Rangers. I don’t play a Ranger however, so I can’t entirely confirm that last bit. Personally, I made a Techtor/Hunter named Dimidia who I got to level 30 before the closed beta period ended.

Phantasy Star Online did not technically start as an MMO as the main parts of the game were very much not that. However, the lobbies and player interactions in them very much functioned like traditional MMOs do today. Phantasy Star Online 2 embraces this and fully realizes an MMO style within the sci-fi world of Phantasy Star. The basics from the first are there to enjoy but there is so much more to grasp with this game and I look forward to learning it. People legitimately just hang out here to chat in game at times…and have fun doing it. It is hard to put this into words when this really seems like something many have gotten used to already in whichever MMO of choice already. This spirit of community has not faded since the dial-up connection days through the Dreamcast.

Drops in the game have much variety and the game will launch with all previous missions from the existing game in Japan. The character creator has been significantly improved to make characters look different from one another and MAGs (familiars with abilities and stat boosts for your character) are still a thing. PSO2 also carries over a great feature from Final Fantasy XIV in which you technically only need one character for all your classes. Couple this with a subclass system that allows you to have stat bonus and abilities enjoyed from whichever one you pick to combine with your main class. There are some returning weapons from the first Phantasy Star Online (hi Lavis Cannon) that many will have their eyes on and newer ones too I’m sure. I’m still trying to understand how armor and gear works in the game. You can swap between equip sets relatively easy for different weapons and spell setups. I assume this will be easier down the line when PC becomes an option to play on. This current closed beta was only on the Xbox One but the game release will be playable with Xbox One and PC players enjoying cross-play. I’m hoping they test this in an open beta, should they do one in the first place. Four races and nine classes in-game make for pretty good build variety too with up and close or ranged melee builds, support builds, casters, or hybrid versions of everything just mentioned. I think there may be hidden classes of sorts not included in that total but I’m unsure on that.

When playing the closed beta, there was some lag in select areas. Was to be expected with multiple people playing and all, but nothing that took away from the flow of the game. The combat feels very smooth, the addition of a dodge is very welcome, and being able to not just get timed hits with your melee damage, but spells as well is amazing. I forget if you can do timed hits with spells in the first game. If you could, feel free to ignore that bit. The areas and quests didn’t feel samey from what was played, and this isn’t even everything…so there will naturally be much more to enjoy. I can’t speak in regard to voice chat as I think only one person used it total. Can’t speak much about chat UI either but I wouldn’t dare without a keyboard anyway. Gonna have to look into that for console play.

Beta tutorial images for E-102 Gamma in Sonic Adventure, used at the Tokyo Game Show.