We are moving! (Also not dead... yet) PART1

OK, for reasons I'm sure no one really cares about we are moving this blog over to Wordpress. Although I'm not going to close down this blogger site just yet.

I finally got around to porting this thing over (a few months ago :V) and just been too busy and somewhat lazy about the blog lately to post stuff. Plus it doesn't help that I haven't bothered playing PSO2 in a year or something. But still I'd like to try to keep the whole blog thing going.

So go here for the new and unimproved blog: psucomplaintcorner.wordpress.com

I promise to post new things, maybe!

Oh look a new portable Phantasy Star game!

So there was something about a new Phantasy Star game for the PS Vita called "Phantasy Star Nova" a few weeks back. I'd probably be excited for this if Sega actually released Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity or even bothered doing that PSP dual pack. Also with the Vita being even less popular than the PSP was I'm pretty sure it has no chance for an English release. Then there's that whole thing with PSO2 being not released yet and no news about it.

So to celebrate the occasion I have created a new label: "Games that Sega won't release outside of Japan." Knowing Sega I'm sure we will get good use out of it.

And Now, Another Moment of Brilliance

This moment is brought to you by Sega of Japan, which pushed a new version of the PSO2 launcher shortly after maintenance ended earlier this morning.

Of course, that in itself wouldn't warrant a new blog posting if not for the nasty side effects that came with it. In this thread on PSO-World, players are reporting that the launcher will actually delete files from your hard drive under certain conditions. The files may not even be related to PSO2; some players were reporting that the launcher apparently tried to delete files out of their Final Fantasy XIV installations. I guess Sega was tired of competing with other games for players.

In any case, the wise thing to do would be to wait until Sega sorts all of this out before attempting to update your game. I assume that compensation for this disaster will be coming once everything is back to normal, but even so, there really is no excuse for this kind of thing. You would think that a bug this serious would have been caught in testing, but hey, it's Sega.

Happy Anniversary

On July 9, 2012, Sega of America officially announced that Phantasy Star Online 2 would be getting an English release in the United States and Europe.

Exactly one year later, I don't think anybody really knows how much closer we are to an English release – except Sega, and they aren't saying anything. Even the official PSO2 Web site looks the same as it did last year.

I must admit that Sega of America's silence in the face of withering criticism has been rather puzzling to me. In the time since the initial announcement was made, Sega has said almost nothing about the game (except that it was delayed). When Sega revealed the list of games being shown off at E3, and PSO2 wasn't one of them, their official blog was lit up with posts complaining about the lack of news.

Is there really nothing that Sega can say about the progress of this game's localization? Nothing that has changed since the announcement last year? At the very least Sega could try to offer some sort of explanation for the delay. Any news at this point would help stem the tide of rumors that an official English version of PSO2 is nothing more than high-profile vaporware.

There is some good news in all of this: so much time has passed since the initial announcement that casual fans may have forgotten about it already. Sega may be waiting until they're sure of a release date to announce the game again and bring these people back into the fold. (You never know what kind of crazy plans these marketing people are cooking up.)

For the rest of the community, though, a full year without news is ridiculous. Sega needs to either:

1. Provide some sort of explanation for the delay, or
2. Just say the English version is cancelled already so everyone can go play the Japanese version full-time

...I'm not holding my breath for either of those things to happen, though. Here's (not) hoping for another year of silence from Sega!

More From The PSO2 Rumor Mill

How's this for out-of-control speculation: a thread was posted on PSO-World (and later on the official forums) quoting a series of Twitter posts in which it was claimed that the US/European release of Phantasy Star Online 2 might have been cancelled due to widespread use of the English translation patch.

The speculation was that everyone who wanted to play PSO2 has already played the Japanese version with the English patch, so Sega of America figured that releasing an official translated version of the game may not be worth it.

Of course, this is nothing more than just another rumor. As many posters on the forums have noted, there is no official news from Sega that can even lend credibility to this story. Sega take note: this is what happens when you announce a game and then fail to provide any substantive news about it for months. Rumors like this will continue to crop up every now and again until Sega says something definitive about this game (and reiterating that the game is delayed is not definitive).

Sega announces E3 games; PSO2 isn't one of them

It's true! Sega said so on their blog. So you know what that means right? Panic like it's the most terrible thing you ever heard! We already got a good start in the comments of that blog post. Then we got this topic about PSO2 at E3 is shaping up nicely too. There is also this topic over at PSO world too! Although from the posts I read over there I always got the feeling that they hated the English version from the very beginning. But yeah I've got to say it's really nice to see the community come together and give up on the English release of the the game. Best game community ever! Or not.

Sure it's disappointing and I really would like to hear news about the game, but I don't mind waiting for the game. I still think it needs some fixing. You know focus more on this thing called "gameplay" than that whole "dress up" thing that the game currently focuses on.

Well whatever, I'll just sit back and wait while everyone goes crazy over this. I've got other things to keep me busy.

English PSO2 Coming to Southeast Asia "This Year"

It's been pretty quiet on the PSO2 news front lately, but recently folks on the official forums noticed a GameSpot article regarding the release of an English version of PSO2 in southeast Asia.

According to the article, publisher Asiasoft has announced that it is bringing the English version of PSO2 to the region sometime later this year. Although no announcement specifically naming PSO2 could be found on Asiasoft's investor relations Web site, a May 14 press release mentions that the company will be releasing two "AAA" online titles in the second half of 2013. This seems to align with GameSpot's article, which names DC Universe Online as the other title.

If this story turns out to be true, then I think that players waiting for an English version of PSO2 in the US and Europe should be optimistic. Here's why: the version being released in Asia is probably the same one we're getting. It's likely that we'll get PSO2 before Asia does, and if a third quarter or fourth quarter release is expected there, I would expect a US/EU release date sometime around August or September.

Sega has been quiet about a new release date for PSO2 ever since it was announced that the game was delayed. With E3 coming up, hopefully we'll start to get some more information about what's going on.

Since PSO2 was delayed...

With the lack of complaints on the the blog you guys are probably thinking that PSO2 must be a perfect game. (Spoiler: Nope.) You can easily check on well the game is just by looking at PSO world's screen shot / video topics: PSO, PSU, PSO2 (or previous versions of them), and compare their content. Two of them have a majority of the posts about playing the game while one of them features playing dress-up with their dolls 90% of the time. I'll let you figure out which game that is.

The main reason for the lack of posts is just that we aren't playing much of the Japanese version of the game and even with the delay that won't change. Sure there's that English patch but there will be things it could never translate plus there is no way to directly buy AC and I don't want to bother getting gouged by those third parties that sell that fake internets money to use with PSO2. I have better things to waste my money on. :V

So yeah, there probably won't be much; I think we covered the basics anyway. Sure there are a few topics I could go into like: the boring level grind that I don't want to do again in the English version, the terrible drop rates / limited weapons selection, too much focus on costumes (yeah I know it's what they sell to make money but there should be some sort of balance with actual content like weapons and units / armor). There are probably some more things that I could go into as well but it would probably be best to play the game a bit more before I do. You know to get the most out of the complaint.

Sega Finally Breaks Silence; PSO2 "Delayed"

It has been months since we've heard anything from Sega regarding the Western release of Phantasy Star Online 2. As you might imagine, this has made the player community a little bit nervous about the game's future (except for those of us who are already playing the Japanese version, of course).

In recent months, potential players of Western PSO2 have pleaded with Sega of America to say something—anything—about the game's future. Yesterday, Sega responded.

The game, originally slated for an "early 2013" release, is now delayed, with no new release date given. This news was confirmed by Edward on the official PSO2 forums:

Hey all, just want to reply & repeat what I said just now in reply on the blog. Yes this was our official statement to the press. I am sorry that it comes after so much time waiting. This doesn't mean the game won't release here; in fact it means we really want to make sure it gets a full & proper release, as best as we can support it.

I wish I had more news to tell you, and when there is, I promise I will. There's a lot of people here who will be working hard to bring the game to the West. Talking to so many players at PAX was a terrific experience and I know how much this game and this series means to fans; for as long as I am here I will do my best to support the game and the franchise with all our fans.

My impression is that with "early 2013" rapidly coming to a close, and people becoming increasingly skeptical of a Western release, Sega finally realized that they had to say something to keep everyone remotely interested.

The only problem is that most of the people that are remotely interested are already playing the Japanese version. Now that we officially have no idea when the English version of the game will be released, I'm sure even more players will join up on the Japanese servers. Edward's qualifier—"as best as we can support it"—doesn't fill me with much confidence, either, but I'll reserve my judgment for the final product.

So there we go. We asked for news and we got it, though it obviously wasn't the news anyone was hoping for. The English version of PSO2 is not canceled, but it doesn't sound like we'll be playing it anytime soon.

Theories and Thoughts

The lack of news regarding the Western version of PSO2 is understandably making some people restless and uneasy. It also seems to be prompting some speculation and ridiculous rumors about why Sega is not saying anything.

One of the more popular theories seems to be that Sega isn't saying anything about US/EU PSO2 because it has been canceled. Here's the bottom line: Sega has announced that the game is coming stateside, and even showed off a demo of the partially-translated game. Until Sega says anything to the contrary, this rumor is completely false. (Sega recently changed the official Phantasy Star Universe site to display the PSO2 site, so they obviously haven't changed their minds about the game lately.)

Some folks have also tried to attribute the lack of news to the recently publicized fiasco between Sega and Gearbox over the widely panned Aliens: Colonial Marines. Somehow, PSO2 isn't being released quickly enough in the West because Gearbox spent too much time working on Borderlands instead of Aliens, prompting Sega to spend too much time and money dealing with the delays. I'm pretty sure most businesses—even video game companies—don't plan projects this way. I highly doubt this is why PSO2 is taking so long.

I imagine that the real cause of the "delay" is that Sega is trying to determine how to best implement the Arks Cash system for a Western audience that may not embrace it the way the Japanese have. Either that, or localization is taking longer than expected – who knows. In any case, it's pretty clear that Sega will not have anything to say until the game is ready for prime time. That's a risky bet to make, in my opinion, but we'll see how it goes.

Now for my Thought of the Day: I think it would be hilarious if Sega of Japan put an IP block on the Japanese PSO2 servers. The volume of posts on the PSO-World forums from players rage-quitting the game forever (then claiming that the US version sucks and that they will never, ever, ever play it, not in a million years even if it was the last game on Earth) would likely knock the site off the Internet!