Phantasy Star Online was a special game for me and my group of friends back in high school. Admittedly, we arrived to the party late, as it was the GameCube release we played for countless hours in split-screen multiplayer rather than the original 2000 Dreamcast version. Even though the title of the game implied that you should play it online, nothing beat those moments when all 4 of us tackled a fully realized Dark Falz for the first time. Of course, my friends couldn't be over all the time (though we came pretty close), so I would find myself in the world of Ragol alone taking on quests and getting better gear. 

The grind for better gear was particularly thrilling for me and the first time I got that rare drop was huge; Varista baby! Unlocking higher difficulties was also a huge deal as it meant we could finally level up just a bit quicker; playing in offline mode back in the day robbed you in the XP department. I loved the way the game handled difficulty, with 4 options being available once you reached a high enough level. The last difficulty even changed the enemies that appeared in each area, making the played out levels feel fresh again! 

No other MMO-style game since has been able to recreate the fun Phantasy Star Online gave me, and to this day I still log into the custom servers on PC to relive it. I did have a brief stint on the official PC servers before they were shut down; dial-up internet, fun times… It really was fun, I just had dial-up until 2008 so it still stings to talk about. Anyways, the Phantasy Star franchise saw a number of new additions in the years since PSO but none were able to recreate the magic. Phantasy Star Universe on Xbox 360 got really boring to me, and despite trying to put in months with the online subscription, I just couldn't get anywhere with it. 

That would continue with the numerous PSP releases; they felt better to play to me than Universe but still didn't live up to what PSO was. Phantasy Star Zero for the Nintendo DS came the closest and could probably have done it for me, but sadly my time with the game was cut short when my DS and the game were destroyed. Yeah, destroyed; wish I had a picture to show the carnage of my poor DS. 

When Sega announced that they were finally making a proper sequel for PSO I was super excited. This was finally going to be the continuation of the franchise I wanted! Well, at least I hoped it would be. Unfortunately, the game never made it west in any official capacity. A fan translation pack eventually became available but for whatever reason, I could never get it to work on my PC and I eventually gave up. I figured it wouldn't take long for the game to make it west, so I would just wait. Boy was I wrong… The game originally launched in Japan back in July of 2012. 

This past weekend in February 2020, North America finally got its first official taste of Phantasy Star Online 2, nearly 8 years on from its original Japanese release. This taste came courtesy of the PSO2 closed beta test on Xbox One. It was back at E3 2019 during the Microsoft press conference that the game was finally announced to be coming west on Xbox and PC with cross-platform play supported. Yes, I cried during the reveal; I have been waiting a long time for this!

The beta date was set and the pre-load was complete, the only thing left to do was wait. Waiting for something really sucks as I am sure you all know! But the time finally arrived and the beta was officially underway! Except that it wasn’t because apparently there are a number of you out there who were just as excited as I was, and when 5 rolled around we completely destroyed the servers. I logged onto the game at 5:03 PT and was greeted with a wonderful server full notification. I kept trying to log in for the next 30 minutes and was greeted with a Japanese error screen each time. A second server was then brought online to help account for the increased number of players trying to get in. 

Finally, I was able to get my Player ID and watch the character creation cutscene. Sadly I couldn’t finish making a character before the server decided it was time to boot me out again. It would take another 45 minutes before I completed the character. I went with something super easy just because I wasn’t sure if I would get booted again, but I think the design works great for me! Again my luck didn’t hold out long as the servers were then completely shut down to let the team fix their authentication system.

Needless to say, I was bummed about the way things had started with this beta. Thankfully the PSO2 team was very active on Twitter and was providing updates on the status of the servers. I gotta say, the number of kind responses was not what I expected to see from the internet, so it gave me a bit of faith in humanity. The servers did come back up around 10:30 PM PT and I hopped in as soon as I could. Finally, I was playing and completing the tutorial and hopping into the wider world of PSO2! When the full game launches here in North America it is supposed to include all of the content released for the game to date. I have no idea how much of that content was actually in the beta and available to all of us but it felt enormous. 

I remember doing the old online beta test on Xbox 360 for Phantasy Star Universe and there were tons of things that were just closed off to players. That wasn’t really the case here in PSO2. Everything I tried to get access to let me do it. There was the main gate, shopping area, cafe, and a casino to explore. There were multiple mission areas you could complete to unlock others. Multiple story missions were available and side quests given by NPC’s. Even all of the game’s classes were available to play with skill trees and subclasses to boot! About the only thing that was missing was the real world money system to buy cosmetic items that will be in the final game.

While the amount of content was great it would only last as long as the desire to play it and I do have to admit that I was concerned that this would be another Phantasy Star Universe type of burn out. Thankfully I was very wrong and I spent my entire time with the beta pushing forward in anticipation of discovering new weapons, areas, and enemies. Learning how to use all of the game’s new features was also a very interesting experience. While most aspects of PSO2 aren’t new to the franchise (many seem to have come directly from Phantasy Star Universe and of course PSO) they were presented in a way that felt fresh and far more exciting. 

Movement is the fastest it has ever been in the series and the inclusion of a jump button makes exploring the environments far more interesting. Combat is also a much faster pace and I am happy to see the return of the weapon palette in a reminiscent design to the original found on Dreamcast. A number of hotkeys are also available to map additional actions. While this beta was on Xbox One, the game has full support for mouse and keyboard along with the controller. I tried to experiment with using an Xbox One chat pad but it didn’t let you charge up spells to use them properly. Worked great for typing though!

I was lucky that my friends were interested enough in the beta to download it and hop in with me! Going out and doing the expeditions brought back a wave of nostalgia from when we would play PSO in split-screen on my GameCube. Each individual area is much smaller than what was featured in PSO back in the day, but a number of random events occur frequently to really spice up what you are doing. You could be tasked with something simple like eliminating a basic enemy in the area or have a random boss encounter before the boss room. 

There were gathering missions and protection missions, and probably the funniest and annoying mission is having to rescue one of your party members who can be snagged from anywhere on the map and get deposited somewhere else in a prison. Each random event is presented with a brief communication from one of your operators before a huge “Emergency” icon would blast across the screen. Ok, I just have to say it, the voice work that accompanies the emergency screen sounds like it is saying “your majesty.” It’s so similar that it really became a joke to me.

While the normal missions were fun to do, the Urgent Missions that were set up for different time slots throughout the beta were a true highlight. There were 4 different urgent missions given throughout the beta with 3 being large boss fights and the last being more like the regular expeditions only with 12 people throughout the entire journey. Special rewards are being awarded to those who completed up to 5 of these events in the different time slots, so if you played the beta I hope you did as many as you wanted to get the goods for the full launch. There was also a one-time special in-game concert performed on Saturday night that I didn’t record sadly but the experience was, uh, definitely interesting. It also showcased that maybe having a symbol chat isn’t the smartest move. If it can be done, the internet will find a way to put a dick on it after all… 

The last 2 urgent missions available for the beta were very atmospheric and involved the big bad himself: Dark Falz. Every screen in the lobby areas changed from displaying the game/Sonic movie trailers to a massive red warning. The ceilings likewise went red and the place looked like it was about to experience the end of the world. Now, it would if Dark Falz wasn’t stopped, so it looked perfect! The accompanying PA blasts warning about the approach of Dark Falz were also sick, really adding to the atmosphere.

These fights were so much fun and a personal highlight for me. They weren’t exceptionally difficult, but then again nothing in the beta was truly difficult. After hitting level 20 you do unlock the first higher difficulty level which helps bring a bit more challenge to the game. I wasn’t able to get access to the full range of difficulties during this short play period but I am excited to see how they will change up the play style. Another benefit to upping the difficulty is that you will get far better loot when you finish off enemies and better chances for rare items when defeating bosses. I am happy at the number of rares I received during the beta, and if I recall correctly, this progress is supposed to carry on to the final game, so I can hopefully give each of them a shot soon enough!

The Phantasy Star Online 2 Closed Beta Test has, of course, drawn to a close and I don’t think I am alone in saying that it was an experience I will soon not forget. There is so much to this game that I didn’t get to fully grasp and understand or experience. I can’t wait to dig deeper into weapon enhancements and MAG transformations. I want to form a guild and tackle the final game’s raids. I am just ready to sink an obscene number of hours into this game, and this teaser filled a void I didn’t know I had that is now again vacant. One last open beta is planned for sometime before the full North American release of Phantasy Star Online 2 this spring and I hope that all of you will join me in the fun! Until then, I think I need to jump back into the original PSO; I have an itch that needs scratching.