• Corrected typo from handheld market to console market.

What will Sakai do Next; Part something…

I always like reading the “What Sakai will do next” entries but as usual they are vague and open for interpretation. If you haven’t been keeping track, so far we know the next Phantasy Star game will not be a PSPo2 port to PC/Console. In addition, the game will be something “brand new” that may somehow commemorate PSO’s 10th anniversary.

Shougai PSO linked to an interview with the man behind Phantasy Star’s current generation, Satoshi Sakai. This time he sorta kinda answers questions regarding PSO’s 10th anniversary. We also learn of some interesting little tidbits about age groups.

Game Bridge: What was the aim for switching over to Phantasy star Portable?

Satoshi Sakai: Porting to Phantasy Star Portable was decided when I was in the process of making PSU. During those times, players were experiencing the Game Cube version of Phantasy Star Online. Since multiplayer games were great around that time, [...] there was the idea of having a portable version. Though usually the age group in the handheld market is young [kids], yet when “Phantasy Star Portable 1″ came out,  the age range was higher.  Also there’s the thought about “wanting a PC version, Console version, etc etc…” We want the  “Phantasy Star” brand as something that should be seen for a long period of time, so that everyone [of all ages] can become familiar with it.

Game Bridge: Is it possible you will return to the console market*?

Satoshi Sakai: I don’t know… (laughs) Since this year is Phantasy Star Online 10th anniversary I want to start something big…

OK so there you have it, I guess we can expect to see something huge for Phantasy Star in the future since he dodged the question. He could have just said Yes or No, but notice how he transitions quickly to PSO10th anniversary out of nowhere…. You can of course interpret this quote any way you want, it’s up to you. Additionally we can make an assumption that the next generation of Phantasy Star games will try to cover all bases again, PC version, Console version, Portable versions, you name it.  But there’s more…

Gamebridge: So there’s a desire for  younger players to know about Phantasy Star?

Sakai: Phantasy Star Portable 1′s player base was considerably young. As for  Phantasy Star Portable 2 player base, there’s many high school students.

Gamebridge: What is the age range for PSU players?

Sakai: Naturally there’s middle and high school students, but the median seems to be in their 20′s.

Gamebridge: Did the direction of the game change  when it transitioned from Hardware to Handheld?

Sakai: At first I was going to do a direct port of PSU, but by looking at the situation of PSU and the characteristics of the handheld gaming system, we had to come to a decision. Looking at PSU, there are too many MMO aspects  [to place within the portable version] so we had to make the game simpler. If anything, the handheld games are more closer in respects to PSO.

I did notice the age range for NA/EU PSU seems to be around 18, but also I do like the comparison of the Portable games with PSO. No more than 4 players in a party? I don’t think that was a hardware limitation at all.

[via shougaipso] [thanks yuki for translation help]

Challenge 2 Stage 3

Tomorrow, what’s being dubbed as Challenge (Season 2), we will see a brand new mission titled; チャレンジⅡ　ステージ3・絶影 Shadow Suppression. This mission you are tasked with protecting an object from being damaged by enemies. To make this mission harder, there will also be invisible enemies…  You can download this mission automatically by signing into Phantasy Star Portable 2 Internet Multimode, otherwise  you can download it from here.

Guardians Advanced Content

If all goes as planned, Monday July 19th – July 20th, will mark the first days for the Supplemental update coming to the Xbox 360 PSU servers. The update will be applied after the extended maintenance…  Enjoy!