is a free-to-play online action role-playing game in the Phantasy Star series, developed and published by Sega. Created as a successor to Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe, it features gameplay elements and aesthetics reminiscent of previous Phantasy Star games while incorporating a few unique twists on the formula. The first version was released for Windows in Japan in July 2012.
A PlayStation Vita version was released in February 2013, but shut down in September 2020. A PlayStation 4 version was released in April 2016. A spin-off/companion game, was released for Android and iOS in 2014. A cloud version for Nintendo Switch, entitled was released in April 2018 and then on PC, released in December 2018. At E3 2019, it was announced that the game would be releasing outside of Asia for the first time on the Xbox One and Windows in early 2020.
A massive updated and separate "shared universe" game, ( in the cloud version), was released on June 9, 2021. It was released for Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S worldwide, with the PlayStation 4 version releasing on August 31, 2022, and for Windows (download and cloud), Nintendo Switch (cloud) and PlayStation 4 in Japan. Although it was released nearly a decade after Phantasy Star Online 2 launch and is substantially different in gameplay, graphics, and content, the creators decided to not name it Phantasy Star Online 3 or focus on creating a game with no backwards compatibility with PSO2 content in order to continue support for current players and to not split up the player-base between two different simultaneously available games.
The game is a commercial success, reported in 2021 to have made over 900 million dollars since its release in 2012.
Gameplay
Characters Upon starting the game, the player can select one of several servers, known as "Ships", to play. Players create and customize their characters to be used in the game. The name, gender, race, character class, body and facial features are available for customization during the character creation process, and later, the player can acquire a number of accessories and aesthetic goods to further customize their characters. There are various races available to the players in the game, which include Human, Newman (bio-engineered humanoid elves), CAST (cyborgs), and Deuman (a species that didn't originally exist but due to time-travel was retroactively created in the past that contains recessive genetically engineered Draconian genes in them).
At the start of the game, players may select from one of nine starting classes, each with unique stat spreads and weapon specialties. Four more "Scion Classes" can also be unlocked when the player meets certain requirements. Classes can be changed at will in the game's lobby; levels and statistics earned with a specific Class are independent of progress made with other Classes on the same character. Classes can also be customized with Skill Points earned from leveling up, which can be spent on a Skill Tree to learn Skills unique to the Class; Skill abilities can range from passive effects such as boosting stats to toggle abilities that power up your character temporarily. After a certain level, players can also assign a Subclass, a secondary Class that augments the player's Main Class by granting access to most of its Skills, Photon Arts, and Techniques.
Interface The user interface and controls are similar between the PC, PS Vita, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. By default, players can play the PC version using a mouse and a keyboard, but may also play the game using an Xbox 360 Controller, which the game supports natively. The player's Character name, Health (HP) and Photon Points (PP) are displayed at the bottom left corner of the screen. At the bottom of the screen, the sub-palette may contain consumable items, class active skills, Techniques and Photon Blast skills. The mini-map is located at the top-right corner of the screen. When a target is acquired, the top-left corner of the screen displays the information and status of the target.
The chat log displays messages left by players and NPCs, as well as system messages. Chat commands can customize text in many ways, such as changing the colors of the text, the font, or using special speech bubbles and animations. The player can also create and display Symbol Arts, images made within the game out of various symbolic objects, or uploaded by the player. Autowords can also be created for a character to react to certain events in battle automatically, such as dying, engaging in combat or successfully completing a mission.
Gameplay Gameplay in Phantasy Star Online 2 is mostly action-oriented, and features a large and diverse selection of weapon types and playstyles for the player to choose from.
In combat, players engage enemies in real-time with various attacks; attacks can be chained for additional damage. In addition to standard attacks, combos can be augmented with powerful attacks called Photon Arts that use a resource called Photon Points (PP). Certain Classes have the ability to use Techniques, attacks similar to magic, that also use PP. PP is consumed whenever the player uses these attacks; the player cannot attack with Photon Arts or Techniques if they do not have sufficient PP, but PP naturally restores on its own or can be recovered manually by attacking enemies with standard attacks.
In some areas of the game, Photons can be generated by defeating enemies to fill up the Photon level in the environment. In return, Photon-sensitive effects (PSE) can provide bonuses to the players in that area. When one of these effects reaches the maximum level of 8, an event known as PSE Burst can occur where many enemies will rapidly spawn for a limited time. This can be further extended by causing a different PSE Burst to form a Cross Burst, which can be extended for a lengthy period of time.
Upon reaching a certain level, each player will be granted their own Mag, a small droid that hovers around the owner of it. Mags can be fed a variety of items in order to strengthen and eventually evolve them. In addition to enhancing the player's stats, a mag will support the player with abilities such as healing or buffing under certain circumstances. Mags also enable the Photon Blast ability, in which the player and mag summon a Photon-based avatar for a brief time to attack enemies or support party members, depending on the type of mag. Photon Blasts can only be used after defeating a certain number of enemies and generating enough Photon energy to fill up its power gauge.
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis focuses on an open world field, rather than actual dungeons in the original. Players will be able to explore the field by using Photon Dash and Photon Glide to find hidden secrets around each of the 2 main sectors: Exploration Sectors and Combat Sectors. Exploration Sectors are areas that in which they can obtain food to get boosts and materials to upgrade weapons and armor. Combat Sectors are areas that in which players can defeat enemies and complete trials to fill up the PSE Burst gauge, which are followed by a PSE Burst Climax, which summons a boss enemy. Class Points can be obtained by completing Cocoon Quests and Tower Quests.
Synopsis
Setting The game's story primarily focuses on the exploits of the space-faring organization known as Oracle, who uses Photons to traverse the universe and seek new planets for potential colonization while simultaneously suppressing the threat of the Falspawn, alien beings created by evil entities known as Dark Falz that only exist to destroy the universe. Oracle is split between a Mothership, housing the fleet's central core, and a massive fleet of spaceships that contains all civilian entities and the fleet's prime military and exploration department known as ARKS (Artificial Relicit to Keep Species).
Initially, ARKS is sent to investigate activity on three planets: Naverius, a planet whose ecosystem was primarily forest before much of the planet became locked in eternal winter, Lillipa, a desert planet inhabited by rabbit-like natives known as "Lillipans", and Amduskia, a bifurcated planet with a volcanic core surrounded by a mass of floating islands inhabited by humanoid dragonfolk. Later story arcs feature the planet Wopal, an ocean planet, and Harukotan, a planet in the shape of a taijitu inhabited by two opposing races. In EPISODE 4, exploration expands to encompass a fictional counterpart of Earth located in an alternate dimension, and in EPISODE 5, an alternate dimension known as "Omega" located within a black hole becomes the focal point of the story.
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis takes place 1,000 years after the events of Phantasy Star Online 2. The game's story takes place in the planet, Halpha. A new generation of ARKS are Meteorns, people who have landed to a planet via a drop pod, who had advanced techniques, using Photons, to run faster, jump higher and glide between distances. They are also sworn to fight a new enemy, the DOLLS. In Episode 2 Chapter 1 (Chapter 6), they fight against a new enemy, the Starless.
Story Phantasy Star Online 2
Oracle Arc
Episode 1 The story follows the player character, a graduating member of the ARKS Cadet program, and their partner Afin. During their graduation exercise on Naverius, the Cadets are attacked by the Falspawn, forcing ARKS veterans Zeno and Echo to arrive and rescue the player and Afin. Upon arriving on the ARKS Ship, the player encounters a woman named Xion, who grants the player a Divergence Matrix, an artifact with the ability to alter fate. Returning to Naverius to investigate the Falspawn, the player rescues a girl named Matoi, who has apparent amnesia, and sends her to the ARKS Ship to recover.
The player is sent out to various planets to investigate Falspawn activity. During their travels, they discover the fragments weapon called the Clarissa, one of a series of weapons known as a Cosmogenic Arm, and collect its pieces while being pursued by a mysterious foe called "Persona". The player successfully gathers the Clarissa fragments and entrusts the weapon to weaponsmith Zig for repairs, but the weapon is stolen by ARKS operatives Gettemhult and Melphonsena. The player, Zeno, and Echo pursue them to Naverius, where Gettemhult revives Dark Falz [Elder] and is subsequently possessed. Zeno stays behind to allow the player, Echo, and Melphonsena to escape and is presumed dead.
Episode 2 Returning to the ARKS Ship, the player and Xion meet Luther, the leader of ARKS and last member of an ancient race known as the "Photoners". During a visit to Wopal, the player witnesses Luther manipulating and recruiting Theodore, an ARKS member who was driven insane by the death of his girlfriend Ulku. The player travels to Amduskia to meet Xiao, an imperfect clone of Xion, and is granted the ability to time travel to disrupt Luther's plans by rescuing Zeno and Ulku in the past.
Xion urges the player and Matoi to head to the Mothership to rescue her, but the duo are branded traitors of ARKS by Regius, a member of an elite ARKS unit called the Six Pillars, and are hunted down by fellow ARKS. The player and Matoi discover that Luther plans to assimilate Xion and gain omniscience. The duo, aided by other members of the Six Pillars and Ulku, rescues Theodore and presses on to the Mothership's core, where Xion convinces the party to kill her. Luther, enraged by his loss, transforms into Dark Falz [Luther] and possesses the Mothership. Xiao rescues the Oracle fleet by manifesting another Mothership and the party escapes. ARKS confronts and defeats Dark Falz [Luther], and his body is consumed by another Dark Falz, Dark Falz [Gemini].
Episode 3