Tag Archives: Phantasy Star Online 2

New Phantasy Star Online 2 Episode 4 Reborn Trailer

InTheSky January 30, 2016 Leave a reply

Sega has uploaded a new trailer for a large 2016 Phantasy Star Online 2 game update – collectively known as Episode 4 Reborn.

New promotional campaigns include a Valentine’s Day theme for the ARKS Lobby, with Valentine’s present boxes containing items (chocolates! Rappies!) littering the lobby. There will also be themed weapons and accessories for this Valentine’s event alongside a new set of Street Style Scratches. The Street Style coincides with the introduction of the new futurist Tokyo world introduced in Episode 4. Besides that, the first trailer introduces some new boss enemies and battle clips (the Summoner is briefly shown off.)

Eagle-eyed readers or fans of Phantasy Star Online 2 may have noticed a slight logo change for Phantasy Star Online 2 in our featured image. The change is being celebrated by Sega as the new year starts and even received its own web commercial video.

Check out the new trailer for Episode 4 Reborn below!

PSO2 Episode 4 Reborn

『PSO2』大型アップデート2016「Reborn:EPISODE4」紹介ムービーPart2

Watch this video on YouTube

Phantasy Star Online 2’s (PS4) Release Date, Closed Beta Info

InTheSky January 18, 2016 Leave a reply

Phantasy Star Online 2’s Playstation 4 version is set to release on April 20 of this year, according to Sega.

Leading up to the release of the game, Sega will be running a closed beta. 50,000 people will be selected through submitting an application to the Japanese Playstation Store. Applications will be accepted through from January 25 to February 15. The beta itself will run from February 25 to March 6, leading up to the wide release of Phantasy Star Onlne 2 for Playstation 4 in late April.

Additionally, a separate package for the recently released Episode 4 will be made available for all three of Phantasy Star Online 2’s platforms (PS4, PC, Vita) at ¥4,990. A costume scratch for original character Itsuki Tachibana (from the currently-airing PSO2 anime) will also be included in this package.

Still no word on an English-based release of the game from Sega! Hopefully something changes.

Credit for the information goes to this Crunchyroll article and this 4Gamer article.

Crunchyroll to Stream Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation

InTheSky January 8, 2016 Leave a reply

Crunchyroll has recently announced that it will be streaming Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation for those who have a Crunchyroll membership. Episodes of the anime will broadcast every Friday at 10 P.M. PST, starting tomorrow. Members in the following territories will be able to view the anime (courtesy of the above-cited Crunchyroll article:)

USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Latin America, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa

Not too long ago, it was announced that Sentai Filmworks had licensed Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation and already have release plans of their own. Not a bad showing as far as anime companies go with regards to supporting the animated Phantasy Star Online 2 project, considering the game itself hasn’t been localized. However, there are many who probably already know of Phantasy Star Online 2 in spite of it not being localized, and even those who aren’t already familiar with Phantasy Star may find the characters, futurism, and school setting appealing.

Credit for the featured image goes to the above-cited Crunchyroll article.

Sentai Filmworks Licenses “Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation”

Draikin December 29, 2015 1 Reply

Sentai Filmworks have announced that they have acquired the licensing rights for Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation. The anime is scheduled for a January 2016 broadcast in Japan, and will be part of Sentai Filmworks’ winter 2016 anime season lineup. They plan both a digital and home video release.

Meanwhile, it’s not clear if the PC version for Phantasy Star Online 2 will ever be released in the West. Initially planned for 2013, it’s becoming more and more doubtful if SEGA will ever release the game. We asked SEGA for more information earlier this year, you can read their response here.

Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode 4 – New Class, New Planet, Coming in the New Year

InTheSky December 24, 2015 1 Reply

The same Phantasy Star broadcast that unveiled some new details about Phantasy Star Online 2 for the Playstation 4 also formally announced the release date of Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode 4 for the PC.

Like Episode 3 which released last year, Episode 4 brings with it lots of new content. Episode 3 brought us the planet Hakubundo, and Episode 4 takes us to Earth! The adventures in this planet will take place in a vision of Tokyo in 2028, in its sprawling, mechanical metropolitan glory. There will even be a major enemy that is train-themed. While there are enemies such as a tank and a helicopter (with some crazy rotor blades) there are also Tyrannosaurus Rex’s and a new hooded enemy called the Phantom. Interestingly enough, the BGM music for adventures in Tokyo will change depending on whether or not it’s day or night.

And while the third episode brought us the new Bouncer character class, Episode 4 will treat players to the Summoner. This class summons and raises Pets to attack and provide support on the battlefield. You can summon more than one in battle, too. Individual Pets are customizable through a feature called the Candy Box, which is conceptually similar to the Navi Customizer from the Mega Man Battle Network series. and come with their own strengths and weaknesses native to their species. Only three Pet types are announced at the moment but more are sure to come – it’s hard not to see this idea becoming popular, and Pets do allow for lots of experimentation. Plus, the Pets announced so far look pretty cute.

January 27th is the expected launch date for Episode 4, following a regular maintenance period to update the game. Continue reading to check out trailers for the Summoner and the planet Earth – both of which are a few minutes long. And check out the PSUBlog entry linked at this article’s end for an even more detailed breakdown and more videos of the most recent Phantasy Star livestream.

PS4 Version of Phantasy Star Online 2 Scheduled to Launch Spring 2016 in Japan

Draikin December 23, 2015 Leave a reply

SEGA made a few announcements via their official Phantasy Star Online 2 Twitter account today, and one of them is the reveal of the release date for the PS4 version of Phantasy Star Online 2. The game will be launching in spring 2016, and SEGA will also be holding a closed beta test near the end of February. Additionally, they also stated that no PlayStation Plus subscription will be required to play the game.

Unfortunately, the game’s scheduled launch in the West on PC has been delayed indefinitely. To add to the disappointment, SEGA outright stated earlier this year that they are “currently not planning to release the PS4 version of Phantasy Star Online 2 outside of Japan”. It’s a statement that’s a bit hard to believe, given that of the 30 million PS4’s that have been sold so far worldwide, only 2 million of those were sold in Japan. Let’s hope that SEGA, despite their earlier claims, are in fact looking into releasing the PS4 version in the West.

Via: Gematsu

Yakuza 0 and Phantasy Star Online 2 Recognized at Playstation Awards

InTheSky December 4, 2015 Leave a reply

The winning titles of this year’s Playstation awards have been announced, and certain Sega games have received some distinction for commercial performance or through fan recognition. These awards are based on the performance of games released from the start of November 2014 to the end of October 2015 and covers combined sales throughout Japan and the Asia commercial region.

Phantasy Star Online 2 (PS Vita version) received the Playstation Network Award for being one of the top three highest-selling downloadable titles.

Yakuza 0 received the the Gold Prize for shipping over 500,000 units, and the User Choice Prize for fans polled in the Asia region (Yakuza 0 being one of five recipients for this award.)

It’s worth noting that with receipt of the Gold Prize, Yakuza 0 earned itself recognition alongside some powerful competitors. Here are the other Gold Prize recipients:

Bloodborne
God Eater 2: Rage Burst
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3
Grand Theft Auto V

While it’s true that Japan is generally regarded as a hostile environment for conventional “packaged games” (games on dedicated gaming platforms like Playstation 3, Nintendo 3DS, etc.) a number like 500,000 is quite good for a franchise that releases as regularly as the Yakuza franchise does. It also probably shows that Sega’s pivot towards more inclusion and marketing in the Asia region is going to pay off. With a strong Playstation 4 and PC userbase in North American and Europe, hopefully with some proper execution Sega can gain more footing in games in the West. I’m sure many fans can attest to the sentiment that Western Sega presence of its Japanese franchises could be better.

Toshihiro Nagoshi and Masayoshi Yokoyama were present at the event as representatives of the Yakuza franchise, per YakuzaFan. You can check out some nice images of Nagoshi and Yokoyama accepting awards at this DualShockers article.

Credit goes to the above-linked YakuzaFan post for the featured image.

Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation – 2nd PV, OP Theme is Previewed

InTheSky November 26, 2015 Leave a reply

A second PV for Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation has been released by the anime’s production team. The first episode will be screened at Tokyo on December 29, and the episode’s public air date is set for February 7.

On a separate but related note: Sympathy 2015, a concert event celebrating 15 years of Phantasy Star Online, also recently passed, and Shouta Aoi (voice of Itsuki Tachibana, a protagonist character in the anime) was on hand to debut the OP for the anime at Sympathy 2015. The song is called “絶世スターゲイト” (Zessei Stargate, or Unrivaled Stargate) and the CD for it will go on sale on February 3.

Continue reading to check out the song preview and some clips from the anime! I like Shouta Aoi’s voice.

By the way, if you didn’t already know, there’s a Japanese PSO2 the Animation Twitter account. Sega’s official PSO2 the Animation website is here.

Phantasy Star Online 2 to Receive 7th Dragon III Code: VFD Costumes

InTheSky November 3, 2015 Leave a reply

Sega has announced new collaboration content for Phantasy Star Online 2, featuring 7th Dragon II Code: VFD costume scratches. Alongside revealing Episode 4: REBORN (which is to be implemented further in the future,) a new livestream segment showcased the character costumes from Code: VFD for an upcoming event called Dragon Raid Chronicle.

These costumes are set to arrive in mid-November, while 7th Dragon III Code: VFD has just released in Japan not too long ago. Check out a trailer for them after the break. The 7th Dragon III Code: VFD-related content can be seen about a minute into the trailer.

SEGA is Still “Working on Potential Solutions” to Bring the PC Version of PSO2 to the West

Draikin September 25, 2015 4 Replies

Recently SEGA announced they currently have no plans to bring the upcoming PS4 version of Phantasy Star Online 2 to the West, but it’s been a while since we’ve had any word from them regarding the PC version. We got several requests from our readers asking for any information regarding the PC version, so we reached out to SEGA to see if we could get an update, and got this statement from their spokesperson:

With regards to the PC version, we are working behind the scenes on potential solutions to bring it to the West. As soon as any information becomes available, we will share it.

Unfortunately, this is mostly a variation of the statements made earlier. At least it means they haven’t entirely given up on the idea of releasing the game in the West, but one has to wonder how much time they really have left. If I had to guess, I think SEGA may be looking at letting someone else publish the game in the West, much like how Asiasoft Online handles the SEA version of Phantasy Star Online 2.