Phantasy Star Online 2 - Official Pre-Release Topic

[ezodagrom]

Another video, like the other one it's likely this will be down soon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQuN9T_IX24#noexternalembed-ws

[Happy Cat]

Aww yeah! finally some force gameplay

looks awesome

[ezodagrom]

And one more:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkloy0_yyyyyyyyyyyyyy2-yyyyyyyyyyyyy_videogames

[Radrappy]

dude ezo that video was sick.  More excited than ever for this now.  This player employed a lot of calculation to his play style and was great to watch.  Looking good guys.  I may be more into this than Generations. 

[CrazyT]

That last video is removed. Please tell me that someone's got it re uploaded

I re uploaded the first one btw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKYllwRDt0Y&feature=player_embedded#!

[ezodagrom]

Someone from PSOW re-uploaded it into megaupload:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MQ9V51TS

[ezodagrom]

Ranger gameplay videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEZq3zCp9Yk#noexternalembed-ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vHDeGVxGzM#noexternalembed-ws

A 40 minute stream with force gameplay:
http://www.multiupload.com/0QLICHO7SL

[Sharky]

Ew that guy is playing on low graphics settings... Do not want!

[Radrappy]

the outfits look great too.  I think its safe to say anime frills are not joining us this time.  Hoho. 

[Sharky]

They'll be downloadable payed for outfits, I bet you any amount of Meseta. Not that I care at all, if people want to wear frilly pink dresses or matcho space marine armour that should be their choice.

[Radrappy]

It's not their choice.  It's the developer's.  I'm not going to argue with you again about the whole thing.  But hey, you got the devil may cry gameplay you wanted though right?  It seems like I'm getting the consistent atmosphere that I wanted.   

[ezodagrom]

Another alpha video with ranger gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F10Uf6x4WW8#noexternalembed-ws

EDIT: Video is gone, but someone on PSOW has already uploaded it to multiupload:
http://www.multiupload.com/PEWKAR29YU

[Radrappy]

Rangers seem too strong. They can dance around enemies and fire from long distances while doing great amounts of damage. In that 6 minute video I don't think the player got hit once. Needs adjusting. Either the dammage they do needs to be way less, they need to have to stop moving to shoot, or the enemies need faster and more responsive projectiles.

Also PP recovers too easily.  Make it so you need to actually conserve those special bullet strikes. 

[ezodagrom]

The phase 1 of the alpha test is now over, here are the reports from both players and the assistant producer.

Original alpha test schedule:

On the official Facebook page, Bonkohara announced the dates of the PSO2 Alpha Test.

Alpha Test Start Dates
August 18th, 16:00 ~ 23:00 [Test 1]
August 19th, 18:00 ~ 23:00 [Test 1]
August 23rd, 16:00 ~ 23:00 [Test 2]
August 26th, 16:00 ~ August 27th 23:00 [Test 3]
Please note the schedule above may change.

The alpha test is separated into 3 phases. In Test 2 and Test 3, more participants will be added towards the alpha test.
On a side note, It’s just a bit more to the alpha test.  Bonkohara would like to welcome you all,  in fact the  ______  also opens very soon! (Ya she censored it)

Alpha test agenda:

First Test (Inspection Items)
- Inspect for bugs that occur in specific situations, with many people logging in, and general gameplay.
- Inspect for bugs occurring within the lobby, forest, and the  general gameplay system.
* When there’s no problems in the first test, switch over to the second test.
* More participants are added.
* Fix bugs that occured in the first test...

Second Test (Inspection Items)
- More people are added, (Continue) inspecting the same items from the first test.
- Inspect bugs that were corrected.
* When the second test continues to have no problems, switch over to the third test.
* More participants are added.
* Perform an Update inspection.
* Correct bugs that occurred from the second test.

Third Test (Inspection Entries)
- Inspect an update with (new) field “Volcano Caverns”
- Inspect the logins of even more people.
- Inspect for bugs occurring within the lobby, forest, volcano, and the general gameplay system.
- Inspect bugs that were fixed, and inspect the continuous operation of the server.

PSO2 Keyboard Control Scheme:

Keyboard Scheme (Game)
Character Movement: (W S A D)
Jump: (Space)
Auxiliary Action: (Shift)
Sub Palette: (1 ~ 10)
Hold Lock On/Off (Q)
Hold Lock On Switching (Tab)
Pick up Item/ Conversation (E)
POV Change (Z)
Auto Run (Lock On Target) (V)
Palette Selection (R) / (F)
Palette Quick change (Numkey 1 ~ 6)

Keyboard Scheme (Window)
Main Menu (F1)
Menu Shortcut (F2 ~ F12)
Inventory (Item, Weapon PA Viewing) (I)
Keyboard Help (H)
Cancel (Esc)

Keyboard Chat
Chatting: (C)
Scroll Log Window (Page Up/ Page Down)
Log Channel Tab Change (Ctrl+Left Arrow or Right Arrow)
Shortcut Text (Ctrl + F1 ~ F10)

Keyboard Other
Event (Screen?) (X)
Map (M)
Camera Zoom in and Zoom out (+) (-)
Mouse Mode/Camera Mode Switch (T)

Game Pad Control Scheme

Gamepad Scheme
Character Movement (Left Stick)
Auto Run / Following (Left Stick  Pushed In)
Action Palette Switch: (D Pad Up / Down)
Sub Action Palette Target Switch: (D Pad Left / Right)
Camera Rotation: (Right Stick)
Camera POV: (Right Stick Pushed in)

Actions
Normal Attack (Button 1)
PA / Technic (Button 2)
Jump / Cancel (Button 3)
Selection / Item Pick up / Conversation (Button 4)

Trigger Buttons
Lock on / Lock off (Target) (L1)
Sub Palette (L2)
Auxiliary Action (R1)
Step Movement (Strafing?) (R2)

Other
Text Over Character (Select)
Main Menu (Start)

Mouse Management

Mouse Usage
Normal Attack (During Camera Mode) : (Left Click)
Selection (During Mouse Mode): (Left Click)
PA, Technic (During Camera Mode): (Right Click)
Cancel (During Mouse Mode): (Right Click)
Camera Movement (Camera Mode): (Mouse Movement)
Mouse Cursor Operation (Mouse Mode): (Mouse Movement)

http://bumped.org/psublog/pso2-alpha-test-start-dates/

Info from the client and the alpha players website:

Getting ready for the alpha test, the Phantasy Star Online 2 Players Site is now open. We are seeing tweets about a downloadable client. In addition Sega has launched the official Twitter page. You can add @sega_pso2 to twitter for the latest news!

The following information is based on users relaying information on what they see within the site. Information is collected from 2ch, twitter, and Japanese blogs and comments.

Alpha Test User Info
- nProtect Gameguard is utilized in the Alpha test version of Phantasy Star Online 2.
- “It is forbidden to disclose information to any outside websites, forums, video sites, twitter, etc.“
- Mags, My room, and the Item Trade Functions are not available in the Alpha Test.
- PSU Lobby Actions are temporary, they have plans to implement new lobby actions in the future.
- Auto Word and a new Chat Feature is coming in the future.
- Manga Iconography (ex. Sweat Drop) can be placed below text balloons.

Alpha Test Restrictions
- Class Level up to Level 20. Alpha test gives access to some skills.
- Only 5 weapon categories with access to some PAs and some Technics.
- Can’t change your class while in the Alpha Test (After you’ve chosen initial class or While you are in a field?)
- Can’t change your Costume, or form while in the alpha test (After you’ve made the character or While you are in a field?)
- Interrupt Event, only some patterns and variations are available.
- There will be a minimum amount of explanation regarding the general setting of PSO2 in the alpha test. As for the story elements, this won’t be featured in the alpha test. In the future,they have plans to have a full fledged story.

Available Features
- Three Races, Three Classes to choose from.
- Multiparty System, Random Field, Photon Sensitive Effect.
- Forest field and later the Volcano Caverns Field
- Quest Counter, Skill Counter, Item Shop, Weapon Shop.
- Friend, Black List

Alpha Test Save Data
- After the Alpha Test is over,  save data is reset and is not transferred to future tests.

Recommended Gamepads
- Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
- ELECOM USBtoPS/PS2 Gamepad Converter
- BUFFALO USB Gamepad 16 Button
- Logicool PC GameController GPX-500
- Rumble Gamepad F310
- Rumble Gamepad F510
- Wireless Gamepad F710
- EXA PSU AOTI Official Gamepad

Class Specific Evasion Actions
So far it was discovered through screenshots that there are class specific evasive actions. In previous screenshots it was revealed Hunters have “Step”, in today’s screenshot it was revealed Forces have “Mirage Escape” and later on a screencast revealed that rangers do indeed have a ability called “Dive Roll.”

FOmarl and FOnewm concept art
FOmarl:
http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PSO2-Fomarl-Concept.jpg

FOnewm:
http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PSO2-FOnewm-Concept.jpg

http://bumped.org/psublog/phantasy-star-online-2-players-site-opens/

Day 1 reports:

- Over 1600 people were connected to the alpha test.
- The Flow of starting a mission, the main lobby > quest area > camp ship > mission.
- Healing items look like canisters on the field. Monomates, Star Atomizer, Photon Crystal, Photon Drop were spotted.
- Each weapon type has their own specific icon when they are on the ground. Rods have a rod icon, gunslash has it’s own gunslash icon, etc
- Shift is the auxilliary action but it performs different things on different weapons. For example, when you have a Sword and have the Guard skill you press SHIFT to guard. When you have a Gunslash you press SHIFT to change from attacking to shooting.  However the original combo (right mouse button) already has its own agenda.
- You can lock weapons so you don’t discard them.
- Music is very light and airy and BGM transitions from calm to battle. Music transition is very quick.
- You can use technics within your physical attack  combos. (Normal atk > Normal Atk 2 > Foie)
- PA Discs look like CDs when on the ground.
- You can attack without weapons.
- When enemies have status effects, their colors change, “Poison” Status effect changes their color to purple.
- Healing pads look similar to the way they did in PSO.
- NPC “Dynal”  in missions drop boxes with healing pads from his aircraft. Player described this event as very FPS like
- Alpha test has 4 character slots but there’s a space for a fifth one but it looks disabled.
- You can continuously use “Step” or “Jump” without any cool down (I’m sure they’ll probably change this aspect later on)
- Interrupt Event: An NPC named Prigita, tasked the player with defeating the hovering enemy, Vriahda (Briahda).
- Transitioning to different blocks actually look like heading off to a new area instead of just warping.
- Sub Classes were removed from the Skill Tree.
- You can cut trees down with your sword, we even saw the blades of grass get cut.
- Forces can teleport or warp to evade attacks.
- A player reported during evasion (Mirage Escape) as a Force he was completely invincible.

The official Sega Twitter page announced it will break its previous schedule and add more people to the Day 2 alpha test.

http://bumped.org/psublog/phantasy-star-online-2-server-open-igp-winners/

Day 2 reports:

Bonko didn’t really sound so happy about the Day 2 test. There was a high load on the server which caused considerable lag. Because of this they are not considering adding new participants to the phase 2 test at this time. This only leaves those who were not selected to wait until the phase 3 test to participate.

In a tweet, Bonkohara reported the number of simultaneous connections to PSO2 has crossed over 2,200.

Player reports:

Ranger Gameplay
- Rangers utilize Assault Rifle to fire rapid fire shots. They also have something like a burst shot for their PA button.
- Assault Rifle also has a heavy burst like shot, it has a blast similar to a grenade explosion. In the same video the “Grenade Shell” PA was spotted in the log. Most likely that is the name of the PA.

Multiparty Area
- In a ranger video, at the end the player reaches to the next block that says “Multi Party Area” (As the official site shows, there’s a Multiparty area and a Multiparty Quest. So we wonder how multi party areas sync up.)

Item Menu
- 倉庫へ送る (Send to Storage) You can send items to storage while you are in the field.

Weapons
- Any weapon of any type can have elements attached.  For example there were several swords, one had Dark 18 attached. A wired lance had 27 fire. A Rifle had 21 dark attached.

Player
- When a player dies they can choose to return to the start point. (In a demonstration they returned to Camp Ship)

Enemy
- Enemies will pursue you, if you run away and jump on a high ledge, they will also try to jump and reach you.
- Burned Enemies turn orange.
- Underneath the enemy’s name is the kanji for 弱点 weak point. Most enemies in the forest show the fire icon, but the icon is way off to the right.

HUD
- When your character’s HP is low, your screen turns red and an audible warning is heard.
- When you target another player you can see their Actual HP / Max HP

Settings Screen
- Language Settings Spotted. Right now currently selected as Nihongo (Japanese):

Controller Support
- A play tester linked from 2ch said the game worked very well with the Xbox 360 controller (for windows). Though for other controllers  button placement wasn’t very intuitive.

Information about english release
Earlier this morning Bonkohara, the assistant producer answered questions regarding if there is going to be a Global / English release of the game. Since her text was translated from Japanese to Engrish, we have rewritten the Q&A to a proper format.

Q: IS PSO2 going to be released in every country?
A: We would like to release the game all over the world but we have not decided on a schedule

Q: Are you not making an English page?
A: There are no plans right now for making an English page.

Q: Why doesn’t the PSO2 Facebook page post English updates often?
A: We would like to do it but the Staff is sometimes not good enough to fully understand English. We will try our best to post a status update in English.

http://bumped.org/psublog/phantasy-star-online-2-global-concerns-alpha-test-status-report/

[segaismysavior]

Should they actually release this worldwide, I'm in.

I've never played a PSO title online... and I just updated my video card.  ;D