Phantasy Star Online 2 preview: the galactic pretty boy adventure

Phantasy Star Online 2 (PSO2) had its first closed beta test this weekend, and playing the long-awaited English version was simply phantastic.

This sci-fi MMO developed by Sega and given an English port courtesy of Asiasoft will be hitting Southeast Asia on May 29, 2014 (May 27 for those with beta keys.)

The closed beta test ran for nine hours a day over the weekend, and there was a noticeably large online crowd in the evenings consisting of people who have been waiting to play an English version of the Japanese game.

An overwhelming percentage of the crowd consisted of new players, so a lot of people were asking questions about progression in the game or how to get a certain weapon, and nobody was really looking for parties to take on missions in, because most of the early game missions were pretty easy to clear solo.

Character Creation

Character creation in PSO2 is deep, and offers a wide variety of options to create your ideal avatar. Each of the three races (Human, Cast, and Newman) are geared towards different specific classes and have different stat growth values, so it’s actually really important that you pick the right race for maximum synergy with your desired class.

Aside from picking between a male and female character, you can choose to make your character young or old, tall or short, and skinny or fat. The game gives you more options than you need, but hey, who’s complaining? There are even options to finetune your character’s body type by making his or her arms longer or thicker. And of course, the facial customization options give just as much editing freedom.

(See: Black Desert releases incredibly detailed character customization teaser trailer)

You also have to pick your initial character class at this juncture, and your choices are between the melee-oriented Hunter, the sharpshooting Ranger, or the spellcasting Wizard. Later on in the game, you can expand further into the next-tier of classes, or switch your class entirely.

Decided not to pick a side in the “which is better, playing a male or female character?” debate, and simply chose to create an androgynous male instead.

The tutorial

You may choose to do a tutorial which goes through the basics of playing the game, which was perfect for me seeing as how I’ve never touched the Japanese version of the game before, or skip it if you’re a veteran from the Japanese server.