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!

Sometimes I think this community is terrible

So I was browsing the internet and came across this PSO2 topic about a rumor of the English version of the game that wasn't actually a rumor. That isn't the terrible part though; this post is.

Ok let me see if I get this right. You waste Sega support staff's time with a question that would obviously not be answered and actually expected and answer back. Sega hasn't released any information about the game to anyone and you thought they would make an exception for you and tell you? And you are unsatisfied when they didn't? Please give me a break. You should be happy you got a reply at all, because that email should have been sent strait to the trash.

Then of course you have PSO-world forums agreeing how terrible Sega of America is and it's not just that topic; you can see other topics where people recommend not even bothering with the English version. While I'm not saying Sega of America is innocent or anything I do feel that Sega of Japan is also partly to blame. For those of us who played PSU I'm sure you guys can remember how the GMs announced content for the game a few times only to be proven wrong by SoJ when they updated the Japanese PSU Xbox360 website (with less content) or how they took forever to organize that whole 'MAG2' thing which ended up delaying updates even more.

Sure Sega of Japan is great at running the online Phantasy Star games, but only in Japan. They don't really seem to motivated to care for any of the other regions. Truthfully If Sega of America were to handle the English server's updates I can't see them being anywhere as bad as SoJ's handling of PSOBB and PSU. I will admit that the only exceptions were the Dreamcast and Gamecube versions of PSO but that was only because we played on the same servers as the Japanese. Even then they managed to exclude us from content (download quests from the DC PSO and Episode 3, Maximum Attack prizes and that Episode 3 tournament being Japan only come to mind - inb4 Episode 3 sucks).

Don't get me wrong: I want information about the game, but I'm going to have to wait until Sega is ready to give that information. Whining about it like a bunch of babies isn't going to accomplish anything. Anyway I just assume the delay is from Sega of Japan doing the usual when it comes to Phantasy Star outside of Japan aka not caring.

Welcome to Early 2013

The new year is finally upon us. That means it's time for Sega of America to open up and provide some details about the upcoming Western release of Phantasy Star Online 2.

Back in July, Sega announced that PSO2 was coming stateside, but provided only a vague "early 2013" release date. However, in the following months, Sega has been completely silent about the game (except for the appearance of a demo version at PAX).

As "early 2013" crept closer, I thought it would be a good idea for Sega to start talking about the game a little bit, if only to remind players and get them more excited about it. However, nothing happened; Sega's official PSO2 Web site has not been updated since August.

Now the lack of PSO2 news seems to be making the rest of the community a little jittery. Threads have popped up on the PSO-World forums and even at Sega's own official PSO2 forum, each questioning the lack of information on the game. Not surprisingly, Sega representatives have been silent.

And now it's 2013. When is Sega of America going to start talking about this game? When are we going to get a firm release date? I don't expect the servers to go live tomorrow, but any shred of news would be nice just for reassurance. An update to the Web site or even a post on the forums would go a long way in letting players know that Sega is actually doing something.

Everybody panic!

I hope you all are ready to assume the worst has happened for non-Japanese players on PSO2. I know I have! I was looking around the the internet and I found this thing about the Sega ID registration site blocking non-Japanese from registering.

If this post's title didn't make you panic; I now assume you all have panicked from hearing this news. This is horrible because now we are stuck with the confirmed to be terrible US/EU version. You know how it works, no news = THE MOST TERRIBLE NEWS YOU WILL EVER HEAR, therefore the US/EU server will be terrible.

Anyway this ends up being bad news for the anyone outside of Japan that currently plays since it means the English community will slowly deteriorate. That is if it is permanent unless this is some temporary thing while Sega deals with RMT/hacking or something...

PSO2 Improvements Planned

Here's another instance where the delayed release of the US/EU version of PSO2 might actually benefit players. Sega has announced that the game will be receiving some upgrades and improvements that have been heavily requested by Japanese players.

One such improvement (which I happen to agree with very strongly) is the reduction in the number of items needed to complete the level cap client orders. This is a great decision by the developers; the level cap orders are incredibly tedious, and any improvement here is welcomed. Currently, the required items drop far less frequently than I would expect for the number needed (90, in each of three different areas). I would suggest that the developers also improve the drop rates of these items, but some progress is better than none. Regardless of what they decide to do with these client orders, US/EU players will certainly appreciate not having to endure these quests in their current states.

Other requests from players include drop rate and rare enemy spawn rate improvements, as well as class rebalancing and system-related fixes. With any luck these fixes will be incorporated into the US/EU game on day one, so players won't know that they were ever a problem! Let's just hope it's enough...

Where's the Western PSO2 News?

Back in July, Sega of America revealed that PSO2 would be coming west. However, there has been virtually no news or information about the game since then. As November approaches and we get ever closer to the vague "early 2013" release, I can't help but wonder why Sega has not started to provide players with a taste of what to expect in US/EU PSO2.

I assume that Sega chose not to release PSO2 in 2012 in order to avoid having the game buried in a deluge of other holiday game releases. If that's actually the case, then I would expect the final release of PSO2 to be sometime in January or February (possibly with a short open beta test several weeks prior to test server loads and things like that). In my mind, that means it's time to start reminding players that the game is on the way. Maybe that's why I expected that Sega would have started talking by now. Perhaps they consider "early 2013" to be a bit later than that, though.

Regardless of what's going on with the game right now, it would be nice to see some acknowledgment that it still exists. A more specific release date would be great – maybe not an exact date, but one at least narrowed down to one or two months when we could expect to start playing. At the very least, some new information would probably go a long way in maintaining players' interest in the US/EU version of the game.

PSO2: (Temporary) King of the Grind

This week's content update for the Japanese version of PSO2 added a new difficulty and raised the level cap to 50. However, apparently not all went as planned – thanks to an oversight on Sega's part, players were in for a nasty shock upon reaching level 41.

The XP required to go from level 40 to 41 is 92,000 – a pretty hefty amount but generally in-line with the game's experience curve so far. (I probably won't make it that far in the Japanese game, so I can only report based on what other players say.)

However, to get from level 41 to 42, a player needs to earn a staggering 2.8 million XP (roughly) – an almost 3000% increase over the previous level! If you thought 20-30 was a grind, then this one's guaranteed to make you jump with joy.

Sega is aware of the problem and has planned an emergency maintenance this evening to correct the error. The issue apparently stems from the fact that the game's experience table was created at launch, with the expectation that the level cap would not need to be raised so soon. That's what Sega says, anyway.

So there's proof that Sega doesn't always screw solely with the English community. In fact, there's a good chance that the English game will never see this little glitch. Yes, the English game is being released several months after the Japanese game, but look at it this way – the Japanese players are helping iron out all the mistakes so that the English game can be perfect! (Yeah, right)

Xbox 360 PSU Done

As promised, Sega has shut down the Xbox 360 Phantasy Star Universe servers for good.

The servers went down at approximately 2 AM EDT this morning. Some players were apparently not able to enjoy the final hours due to some sort of miscommunication between Sega and Microsoft (the entire PSU experience in a nutshell, I guess).

Now it's on to Phantasy Star Online 2, which launches in the West sometime in early 2013.

Players hoping to jump ship to the Japanese PC version of Phantasy Star Universe are out of luck: that game is going dark at the end of September. Time to start playing PSO2!