12 things you need to know before diving into Phantasy Star Online 2 (plus beta key giveaway)

Thanks to Asiasoft, Southeast Asian gamers will soon be the proud pioneers of the world’s first legitimate English service Phantasy Star Online 2 (PSO2) server. Games in Asia, however, has already set foot on this uncharted land to bring you a list of what to expect from this Japanese MMORPG.

(See: Beta test for Southeast Asia’s English service Phantasy Star Online 2 finally has a date)

Here’s what you need to know before diving into the game on April 10, 2014. Oh, and before you cry about having no beta keys, we’re giving away 200 PSO2 keys today. Read to the end to find out more!

1. You can look like anyone

Character creation options in PSO2 are endless. You have a choice of three races—humans, newmans, and casts (a.k.a. Gundam)—and you adjust everything down to the perkiness of their breasts or the width of their metal thighs. There are about ten standard character models to choose from and while some are your typical kawaii anime characters, others look pretty badass. Solid Snake or Wonder Woman, anyone?

2. But you will always act like a kawaii Japanese youth

Unfortunately, in spite of the varied cosmetic choices, the game’s story is such that you will always be a new recruit surrounded by other archetypal characters from a Japanese anime. And you will react the way you are supposed to. A hulking old dude with a head of white hair holding his hands up in a pacifying manner? Yeah, I cringed too.

3. Game content will be released in parts

Content in PSO2 is comes in episodes. The game we will play on Asiasoft’s servers only has content from episode 1, while the Japanese server from SEGA is up to episode 2. Future content won’t be released in episodes, though; they’ll be released in parts of episodes, so be prepared for a long, grindy wait.

4. It uses a quest hub and instancing system

Speaking of grinding, there’s a lot of that to do in PSO2. The game revolves around a two-storey quest hub and an endless number of instanced quests. Not powerful enough to take on the next quest? Grind it out until you level up. However there are client, or NPC, quests scattered through the hub to make your grinding a little less mind-numbing.