Good Morning, Phantasy Star Online 2 Official Site updated today. News of the briefing is covered below from both Famitsu and 4gamer.

You, the player, are a member of the planet investigation team called the “Arks.” They travel aboard the space fleet “Oracle” to planets unknown. The first planet you visit is called ナベリウス Navelius (sp?). In the forest area, your first job is to defeat the beasts that roam the land who became brutal.

So far the weapon types revealed are Sword (Hunters) Wired Lance (Hunters), Assault Rifle (Rangers) and Gun Slash (All Classes). The Wired Lance acts kind of like a whip but allows it to latch onto enemies and spin them around (like the new AXE PA in PSP2). The Gun Slash acts the way it did in PSZero.

Not only can you play with the GAME PAD, but you can also play with Mouse and Keyboard!

When 4gamer played the game using the gamepad, they had their buttons set for these actions;

• Using Gamepad Buttons
• Normal Attack
• PA/TECHNIC
• Selection/Item Pickup,
• Jump/Cancel.
• Using L buttons
• Lock On/Off
• Sub Palette Access (L1)
• Left Stick
• Character Movement
• Auto Run (When Pressed in)
• Right Stick
• Camera Movement
• POV Change (When Pressed in)
• Arrow Key
• Change Action Palette (Up / Down)
• Sub Action Palette Target Change(Left/Right)

 Visual Lobby

Random Field

Randomly generated fields occur every time you step foot. From the enemies that appear, to the typography of the terrain, to even the events that occur within the mission. You can enjoy fresh gameplay each time.

Interrupt Events

Surprising events can occur during a run. Situations like, “Kill a number of a certain enemy, or save an ally from the enemy’s trap.”

Multiparty Areas

PSO2 introduces Multi Party areas, allowing multiple parties at the same time. You can have up to 12 players in one area.

 Original Combo

You can set weapons and items and quickly access them from the action palette. When you set a weapon in palette, you can setup an “original combo” to perform your own moves.

(We’re not entirely sure the meaning behind this picture, but the title of the window is called, “Main Palette Customize.” On the left side in the first slot, it shows the Sword icon. In other screenshots this sword icon is set to the L or Left Mouse Button. The 3 icons are displayed on the Right Mouse Button. Possibly you can rearrange these icons to set up the combo.)

Jump

This allows you to jump into the air and attack enemies from above. You can also jump over various terrain, utilize it for strategic attacks like sniping enemies from above.

TPS Style

You can use third person shooting to snipe at enemies. In this style, the camera will shift behind you so you can aim precisely at, for example, enemies dropping eggs, or aiming for a head shot.

Levels and Skills

The general concept of character levels do not exist in PSO2.* Instead PSO2 will use your class level. When you increase your class level, you can learn skills to enable further character growth.

(Update: We’ve checked three sources all saying the same thing, character levels don’t exist. キャラクターレベルの概念はなく，クラスと呼ばれる職業のレベルのみとなる。クラスレベルを上げるとスキルを習得可能で，キャラクターを成長させていけるわけだ。)

Players can further enhance their character by selecting skills, for example:

• Guard > Just Guard > Just Guard Master > Just Guard Stun.
• Step > Step Attack > Step Advance.
• War Cry
• Guard Stance > Guard Stance Up > Guard Stance Heal
• HP Up > HP Up 2 > HP Up 3

4gamer stated that after they learned the Guard skill, they were able to utilize it by pressing SHIFT.

Also in the skill tree screenshot, the hunter class is selected in yellow, the ranger and force class are also level 01. Perhaps you can change classes on the fly. We also note there’s a Main Class, which is currently selected as Hunter, and a sub class.

Enemy

The larger enemies are ferocious, they could even grab a hold of you and throw you. As for the dragon, once it has collapsed, for the first time you are able to jump onto its back and attack its weak point directly!

 Weapon Types

Gun Slash (All Classes)

The gun slash allows you to shoot and attack enemies. You can switch over your action by pressing the SHIFT key. This weapon allows you the ability of comboing melee attacks with ranged attacks and finishing it off with a special PA attack (Right mouse button).  The range for this weapon is short, and is unreliable against  many enemies if you are soloing.  Its attack speed is fast and the gun’s firepower is not as powerful as the Assault Rifle.

Wired Lance (Hunter)

The Wired Lance has a wide attack range but it has slow attack speed. You wave this weapon (like a whip) to attack about 5 steps ahead of you. You can also grab onto enemies with this weapon and spin them around in a circle.

 Recovery Items

According to 4gamer in their playthrough of the game, when they used a recover item, they had to stand still for a brief moment. This might be a concern for you if you are surrounded by powerful enemies. It might be a better opportunity to be healed by a force instead of using a mate.

Character Creation

At the character creation screen, you can choose one of 3 races, Human, Newman, or Cast. In the next screen you choose your class, Hunter, Ranger, or Force. Character creation is robust allowing you to customize various parts of the body freely. Now you have infinite freedom to create the character you want!

We saw sliders for eyes, ear length and direction, nose and mouth, bust size, arm size and length, leg size and length. We also saw the ability to use hairstyles, beards, tattoos, and even stickers to place on your outer armor.

When they demonstrated character creation they went through several different looks from a young boy, to an old man, to a black muscular fat guy. According to 4gamer’s observation, you can add up to 3 accessories, and choose among 17 different voices.

This screen shows the many Stickers and Body Paints you can add.

For example, after selecting the CAST Race, you can select Hunter, Ranger, or Force class. (This means the whole concept of restricted character classes is thrown out the window!   FoCast FTW)

With the Cast parts, you can customize different parts of the body, like the head, arm, legs, body, and the parts size.  In addition you can color the main body of the armor with several different sub colors.

Well I’m sold.