PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2 CLOSED BETA TEST DAY 1: IMPRESSIONS

Well everyone PSO2 closed beta testing officially started today! Servers have been up since 12:00AM PST and of course I had to be one of the first of thousands of people to log in for the first time during this beta test and I must say that I am rather impressed with this game. Now unlike a lot of other fans of the original Phantasy Star Online I actually enjoyed the sequel, (or spin-off or whatever you want to call it), Phantasy Star Universe a lot more than the original. Sure it lost that great atmosphere that PSO originally had but the game play easily made up for it.

One of the first major things I noticed about the PSO2 beta is that there is so much to do! Honestly I was expecting maybe two to three missions at the most, access to mags, rooms, etc. But no there's more, a lot more than I was expecting a week long beta to have. Currently I'm able to run about four different missions all which are located in the forest area, but each mission is located in different parts of the forest, access the My Room feature, run multiparty missions, and I have complete access to the lobby. Apparently everything from the alpha test was also included in the closed beta so I'm sure that I have a lot more to discover during the beta.

Now moving on to how the game plays. PSO2 feels a lot like PSU/PSP but with that classic PSO atmosphere. Of course it brings a lot of elements from the original Phantasy Star Online like Mags, the method used to level up your spells, character design and lobby design. But the combat in PSO2 is more or less Phantasy Star Universe/Phantasy Star Portable 2 with an upgrade. Remember how in the original game you had three attacks per combo before you had to pause just to do it again? Well that is now gone, you can continuously attack without any pauses in PSO2 and if you play a Force like I do, it gets even better. The Force class can now chain normal attacks with spells as well! Speaking of spells PP in this game regenerates at extremely fast rate, just about three attacks and you've already gained 100 PP.

The dodging from Phantasy Star Zero/Phantasy Star Portable 2 has made it's way into Phantasy Star Online 2. It's a bit different but just double tap in any direction and your character will dash in that specific direction, it can even be done in the air for air dashing! There are a lot of new weapons in the game but I've only tried one of them so far and it's a sword that functions as both a blade and a gun. So far this is my go to weapon despite the fact that I chose a force as my class of choice. Why? Because it gains me PP from far away. I would like to give the wire-lance a try but I'm almost certain that Forces can not use them. Last thing I want to note about the gameplay is the multiparty missions. This is where the game really starts to feel like an MMO because you can either be alone or in a party of four and if there are other players, and/or parties running the same mission you can see and interact with them. Heal them, buff them, help them take down an enemy, chat, or just leave them be and watch them get KO'd by a monster.


Well that just about wraps up my day one impressions of Phantasy Star Online 2, even though this is only the first beta test I think this will be a great game to play. Will I drop Phantasy Star Universe for Phantasy Star Online 2? Probably not, they're really different games, yet so similar at the same time. Currently I've logged at least six hours into the game and am only level 5 almost level 6 and I still plan to get at least two more hours in for today. Max level for the closed beta test is 20 so that's my goal and I got a little over a week to get there so it shouldn't be too hard. I may or may not have a day 2 or 3 impression so if you enjoyed this read just keep checking back to see if I do or not.