PSO2 JP Closed Beta

 I was ridiculously bummed that after signing up around five times and the internet eating invites sent by at least three friends, I just couldn't get into the Japanese closed beta test for Phantasy Star Online 2. Eventually, though, I managed to get a code from my long-time friend and PSO fellow player Will and finally squeezed my way into the closed beta test. Hallelujah!!!

 

 I have been an avid (is "avid" even the proper adjective, here?) Phantasy Star Online fan ever since I first got into the series on the Dreamcast back in 2001... so fair warning -- this will be a long entry. Nonetheless, I'm gonna share the features and impressions I experienced during this CBT to the best of my ability. Please, if you have any questions about the game, feel free to ask me, or head on over to PSO-World.com -- my all-time favorite PSO fansite that I've been an active member of for nearly 10 years; and hey, while you're at it, send me a friend request if you decide to become a registered member; and of course, credit goes to them, as well as Sega, for providing images of PSO2 concept art.

 PSO2 is an action-based hack-and-slash MMORPG with a major emphasis on being a virtual social medium. Sega has taken character customization to a brand-new level; there is no aspect of your avatar that you cannot tweak to your heart's content. I truly have never seen such a detailed character creation system in any game. Ever. Of course, I didn't take proper advantage of this due to wanting to re-create my classic PSO characters: Alena (FOmarl) and Taryn (FOmar).

 As with past PSO titles, the focus is more on community and action than exploration, so those of you who are looking for a vast world to freely roam in, this probably won't be the game for you. Socialites will be right at home, though, and Sega has stepped up the action tenfold, and have truly taken the best elements from the PSO and Phantasy Star Universe games, as well as from the Phantasy Star Portable and Phantasy Star 0 titles. From custom combos, to finally being able to jump, to being able to switch to an FPS mode, they truly wanted PSO2 to be all about the action -- and it is.

 One of the coolest features I found was being able to dodge, jump, and link attacks while doing so, making battles much more immersive and strategic. In fact, as a Force (the magic-using class) I had the ability to temporarily gain invincibility by teleporting, and could launch spells by using the classic "card" weapon type. Being able to throw a card to an ally and cast "Resta" to heal them from a safe distance is an absolutely genius addition to amping up the already-awesome action featured in the series.

Charging a technique grants more damage and new properties, such as areas-of-effect.

 Another notable change is the fact that you don't level up your character, per say, but instead, you level up individual classes, and are able to change classes freely. This means that regardless of your race or gender, you may switch to pursue different vocations at any time, and each class also has a customizable skill tree. Whether this will eventually lead to advanced classes or even hybrids (like in PSU) is anyone's guess, but one thing's for sure -- you can finally create that FOcaseal or RAnewm that you've been dreaming of, after all of these years, and can even focus on a particular area of your choosing. It's definitely a nice touch, although seeing as how I always play a healer-role, the lack of having skills available to boost healing and support techniques was disappointing.

 Most defensive equipment is based on your current class, and has a required base statistic that must be met in order to equip them. The particular parameters are simple to explain: there's Striking, Ranged, and Technique Attack and Defense stats, as well as "Ability", which seems to be required for equipping Units -- which are essentially armor -- and your player may equip a unit on your back, arms, and legs. Your outfit is purely cosmetic; all armor and defensive stats are gained from equipping "Units", and you can wear any outfit you'd like, regardless of your current class -- allowing you to wear the robes of a Force but play as a Ranger, for example. There are also elemental resistances and attributes that can be added to equipment, all of which have been featured in previous titles, with exception to the newly-added Wind element, which I was personally excited to see. However, I didn't see any Wind-based spells ("techniques")... but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Derp-faced Alena without "Units".

Derp-faced Alena with "Units" equipped.

 I also bore witness to numerous perks and bonuses that some items gave, such as statistical bonuses ("Technique I", "Ability II") and resistances to particular attacks (such as "Blowback Resist I"). The ability to customize rare items you find has been expanded upon, allowing you to choose what element and bonuses they possess instead of being pre-assigned at the shopping area's "Tekker", and you are able to change modifications and upgrade stats (called "grinding"), as well. This means that you can customize equipment to suit your wants and needs. Pretty cool.

 As of this closed beta, there weren't too many weapon types available. All three classes have access to the "gunslash", which is essentially the "gunblade" from Final Fantasy VIII. Hunters had the most options, by far, including swords, partisans, and the all-new wired lances (basically a double-whip with blades at both ends), although classics such as daggers and slicers were absent. Rangers had rifles, mechguns (or machine guns), and grenade launchers; surely they will eventually have access to dual pistols and other means of artillery. Forces were limited to rods and cards; I was hoping for wands, canes, and whips to return. Oh, well.

 Up to three weapons may be equipped simultaneously (as part of your "main palette") and can be easily swapped between, so you can switch between weapons to benefit particular situations. Hunters and Rangers can link three "Photon Arts" -- or special abilities -- to their weapon's main palette, and Forces can link three techniques to each weapon. All weapons attacks, Photon Arts, and Techniques can be timed as "Just Attacks" to do extra damage; learning the timing to chain combos between all types of attacks and abilities is crucial, and keeps the action flowing. There's also a "sub-palette", which is essentially a hotkey bar, and allows items and abilities to be linked to keys 1~0; despite what I've read elsewhere, Techniques can be charged even if on the sub-palette, simply by holding down the button until a flash and sound is heard. I haven't confirmed if this holds true for Photon Arts as well, but I would assume so.

We discovered an amusing pose when becoming stuck on the environment.

 One huge change worth mentioning is that Photon Point-replenishing items ("fluids") are no longer in the game, because basic attacks now replenish PP with every hit, making it much more feasible to play Forces without having to spend all of your hard-earned Meseta on your Trifluid-drinking addiction. Of course, this also means that using card-type weapons as a Force is the better option, since it keeps you at range and allows you to "throw" your spells, as I mentioned earlier. I cannot say how AMAZING this concept is, and is ridiculously useful both offensively and supportively. The only perk to using rods over cards (that I found, at least) is a higher Technique Attack stat boost, which, in my opinion, didn't seem to be as worth the convenience of using cards from a safe range. Also, cards are substantially faster than swinging a rod, so it takes less time to replenish lost PP. I never had a problem with keeping full PP by simply chaining two or three card throws between every two or three Technique casts. Yup. Cards rock. Oh, also, you get a cool little "card dispenser" that you hold on your left hand and "pull" the cards out of, similar to the silly devices featured in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.

 Mags -- the well-known mechanical pets of PSO -- also make their triumphant return, although I wasn't able to experiment too much with mine. What is known is that they can be fed all types of items in order to evolve and assist you in battle, not just consumables like it had been in PSO. They attack enemies actively based on their highest offensive parameter -- either Striking, Ranged, or Technique (they share the same stats as player characters do, including "Ability" and defensive stats) and can be used to initiate a Photon Blast, which is essentially a creature-summoning ability, which do everything from attack all enemies to cast buffs on nearby party members.

Alena, her Mag, the Quest Counter, and a rather large HUnewearl.

 Just as in the previous titles, there is a story to unfold as you complete quests and advance in level. Where I got a little lost was the fact that players are no longer "HUNTERS" (as they were in previous PSO games) or "GUARDIANS" (as they were in the PSU titles), but are now "ARKS" -- which, oddly enough, were the group of antagonists in PSO Episode III... or so I thought. Hmm. Unfortunately, I'm not fluent enough in Japanese to have been able to understand most of the dialogue, but I do know that there is not a lack of story, and certainly not a lack of quests. In fact, new types of quests have been added.

 Where in previous PSO titles all quests were picked up at the quest counter, there are now multiple means to acquire them: "client requests", which are received from NPCs who are encountered both on the ship and in story missions, and the "matter board", which is a grid-like piece of technology that your character has in possession upon starting the game; this worked similar to any grid-based progression system, such as the sphere grid system in Final Fantasy X. Most "client requests" seemed to involve killing X amount of monsters or finding X amount of items, while most "matter board" quests involved finding a particular item from a specific creature (which served to be quite frustrating, especially when hunting rarer monsters that drop items quite rarely).

 There is also the traditional "quest counter", but this is used to select which mission you'd like to partake in, and isn't so much about handing out particular quests. A "mission" is essentially an area you'd like to travel to, either solo or with a party, and has a "mission objective" to complete for a bit of Meseta and experience. Most quests are completed while partaking in these missions, sometimes over and over again. However, each mission has "interrupt events" that can randomly occur, and involve everything from having to catch monsters, to slay a boss that suddenly appears, to having to rescue a kidnapped party member! Making progress through all three types -- client requests, the matter board, and mission objectives -- grants access to more quests, missions, and furthers storyline progression. As far as missions go, parties are limited to four players each, but missions have multi-party areas, where groups who are on the same mission are brought together to pursue similar goals, and can even switch members between parties.

 Also, each player has their own unique drops spawned, so there's no worry over who can pick up items the fastest, or sharing loot. There's also a feature called "Photon Sensitive Effect" that occurs as enemies are defeated; this randomly applies buffs such as attack and defense buffs, Meseta and item drop rates, and leads to the possibility for a "PSE Burst", which dramatically increases drop rates and the chance for "boosted enemies" to appear, who also have higher drop rates and can drop extra-rare loot. It's a great incentive to chain-kill enemies and be rewarded for doing so.

One really nifty cutscene involved a black-and-white "flashback" from a previous quest.

 I was ecstatic to learn that Sega developed this game to be a true sequel. Notable features such as the PSO loading screens (complete with movable balls of light), sound effects, music composition, symbol chat (chat images made with various shapes and options), cut-in chat (live close-up windows that show your character with particular expressions), and more are all present. Even the "team" feature from PSO: Blue Burst has returned, allowing players to form guilds. For anyone who played any of the PSO games, even just a tiny bit, this game provides a rush of nostalgia that is absolutely awesome to partake in.

 Similar to its predecessor, PSO2 also features various blocks -- or instances -- where players can socialize, form parties, shop, and access missions. These "blocks" have taken the place of PSO's "lobbies", and a huge number of players can be logged into the same block at once. Some neat social additions were the addition of a universal Player ID for all of your created characters and a "Mimic" emote, which allows players to perform the same emote as a selected player, or the nearest one, resulting in truly epic dance parties!

Check out "Freddy" next to Alena!

...Talk about being "faaabulous"!!!

 New to the series is the fact that the game will truly be multi-platform. Players will be able to log in to their account and progress their characters on either the PC, PlayStation Vita, and on iOS or Android tablets. However, a huge downside is that your character is stuck on the "ship" (or server) you created them on, and are unable to switch them without using "Arks Cash" in order to do so, which I'll get more into later. Not being able to switch from server to server has never been featured in a PSO title before, and I'm not really happy with the decision; although I'm sure Sega chose to have it this way in order to encourage players to spend money on "Arks Cash".

 Sega has ditched their previous pay-to-play subscription fees from past titles in the series, and instead have decided that this game will be, yes, FREE TO DOWNLOAD, and FREE TO PLAY, opting instead for an optional "cash shop" micro-transaction system. Although no player gains a huge advantage by choosing to pay, there will be plenty of perks gained by purchasing "Arks Cash" (or "AC") to activate features such as a customizable personal room for your character, the ability to trade items, access a beauty salon, reset skill trees, gain experience boosters and so on. During the CBT, all of these features were temporarily set to 10 AC, and each participant was given a ton of AC in order to play around with various goodies, so unfortunately, there's no word for how much certain things will eventually cost. However, the most notable optional add-on is the "premium bundle", which grants you a 30-day pass to have a personal room, the ability to open a searchable shop in your room, and permission to trade with other players. Plan to invest in this feature at the very least. I'm gonna make a prediction and say that this will probably end up running from $10-15.

 All in all, PSO2 retains plenty of throwbacks with enough new features that makes me so incredibly excited for this game's release. Even if you're not a fan of MMORPGs, there's enough action in this game to keep diehard action fans immersed, FPS gamers involved, and everyone enjoying what is definitely going to be the game-to-play with your buddies. Although a US release hasn't been announced, I'm predicting it'll be announced at E3.

Here's to hoping.

Again, if you have any questions, please let me know, as I'm certain I could've missed a few aspects that you might be been curious about.

Progress & Perfectionism

 I would like to avoid only writing my completely-biased, admittedly-opinionated reviews of the games I play. Hell, I'd even like to update more often than just on Wednesdays; but for now, that's what you're getting, seeing as how I'm in an extremely lazy mood, and could care less. No, really. I love you all. I swear.

Ahem.

 What I will do, though, is at least give little insights as to what I've been up to, in between reviews. Something is better than nothing, as they say. They... do say that, right? Hrm.

 I suffer from being a perfectionist, and would probably be diagnosed with severe OCD if I decided to actually tell my doctor about my anal tendencies (rimshot!). As a result, I find it necessary to do everything I can in a game, find nearly every item (if not every item), complete every side quest and objective, and plan out my progression in advance. Why? Because I'm probably legally insane, or simply OCD... or maybe it's something else. Hmm. Moving on.

 Where I'm going with this is that I tend to take an exorbitant amount of time completing games, and it usually takes me twice, if not three times the amount of time that it would a normal gamer to complete them (and yes, I keep this in mind when listing game completion time in my reviews). I'm not really going to apologize for doing that, 'cause it's just what I do. Who knows, maybe someone will find it inspiring, or maybe even informative... more than likely, simply a form of amusement; but it's what I do, yo. I do want to make it clear, though, so if anyone happens to be interested in knowing about my gameplay in illustrious detail, I'm in the terrible habit of keeping track of nearly everything.

... and I do mean nearly everything.

 From stats, to personal strategies, to whatever else I end up thinking of. I keep all of this seemingly useless information in the form of Google docs (I really do love you guys, Google) so anyone who wishes to peek at the stuff can feel free and do so in real-time. Oooh, fancy.

 If I'm playing a game that I'm working toward completing, it's likely that I'll have a "game data" document and will be updating it as I play the game. I'll almost always link to these Google docs both on the "game schedule" sidebar and in my "game completion" doc (didja call that one?). My data won't be perfect, nor will it be necessarily complete, but it'll be there. I have an entire folder dedicated to storing this stuff, so if you'd ever like to browse through, you're more than welcome to. Not like you'd want to, but... it's there, if you do -- and if you do, sweet. I feel special, now.

 With that out of the way, I can tell you that I'm making progress on my playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics, which I'm about 50 hours into, and am at the beginning of the final chapter -- and I'm still relatively early into Dragon Quest IX, which will more than likely end up being an long-term, ongoing game, seeing as how it promises endless gameplay after the story mode is completed. I'll surely spend hours upon hours maxing out my characters and working toward 100% completion, even though that's near-impossible with how much content the game offers. Also, simultaneously, I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and haven't made too much progress due to being hopelessly addicted to leveling several characters and playing several time-consuming games at once. Fail.

Sure would've been nice to have gotten into the Japanese Phantasy Star Online 2 closed beta... but then again, that would've slowed down my snails-pace of a progress even further. More fail.

... but it's PSO2. Who am I kidding? THE WORLD STOPS FOR PSO2, I tell you. STOPS!!!

Fanboygasm complete. Games... incomplete. And quite so. I'll... keep working on that. Yeah. Tomorrow.

Long Time No See!

 Indeed, it's been nearly a year since I've made an update... meaning that my "beat a game every week for a year" resolution was an epic failure. Go me, eh?

 Stuff happened, I moved to northern Virginia, and got caught up with life, resulting in the complete neglection of my "gaming schedule" and writing regularly.

 So I apologize for the ridiculous hiatus, and admit defeat. However, that doesn't mean I'm hanging this blog up to dry, oh no, no, no. In fact, I've completely updated this blog, from its general "look" (I'm not too keen on the super-fancy, animation templates that Blogger provides, though, sorry) to its individual posts (I've implemented a more analytical scoring method for my reviews), and even have a new "purpose" in mind.

 As I mentioned before, I moved to live with my boyfriend of nearly three years, Brad aka "Damo", although it is temporary; we'll be moving back to the middle Tennessee area as soon as he's done with his four years of service as a US Marine. Living with someone is a prime opportunity to truly get to know someone, and, despite knowing that Brad is quite the anime-loving, video game-playing guy I fell in love with, there's some things I simply didn't know...

  The best RPGs ever released (in my opinion) -- the "classics", as many refer to them -- are largely unknown to Brad.

 I know, right?! I couldn't even believe it, myself. Never having played Chrono Trigger? Never having heard of the masterpiece that is EarthBound, or spending hours upon hours customizing a massive army of characters in Final Fantasy Tactics?

 I refuse to allow Brad to go on without experiencing what I believe are games that should not be passed up by anyone who thinks of themselves as a "gamer". So... why not do a bit of encouraging?

 Indeed, the new purpose for my blog presented itself to me like a ethereal epitome:. I'm going to continue to play (and re-play, in many cases) games, mostly RPGs, and do so with Brad at my side, in order to share with him what he's been missing out on for all of these years; and I'm going to share the experiences (and potentially frustrations) of doing so with all of you -- sans the crazy game-a-week plan that I had given myself, before. This time, I'm simply going to adhere to a "play-as-I-please" schedule, and I'll make sure to post a minimum of once a week, every Wednesday.

 So, for those of you who, like Brad, never felt like playing through Chrono Trigger (seriously, why haven't you...?), for those of you who've never been able to find a copy of EarthBound, and for those of you who simply don't have the motivation, time or patience to play through some of the best games of all time, I will.

 I'm going to continue to play through games and write about them for Brad, for all of you, and for myself. Games, particularly role-playing ones, are truly amazing experiences, and hopefully I will be able share that passion, or even ignite a new one, for anyone who wishes to pay my geeky ramblings any attention.

 You're welcome to follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to keep up with me and my blog posts.

 Thanks to those of you who're still following this blog after nearly a year-long hiatus, and for your support of my gaming obsession (er... passion! PASSION!!!) and my desire to chronicle my experiences in a blog. I'll be posting again soon about the games I'm currently playing! Game on, everyone!