Retail Information

Phantasy Star Portable 2 will be released this September. In order to play the Retail Version online for free, you must insert a product code that is located within your Phantasy Star Portable 2 case. You must input this code through the Playstation Store.

Those who purchase the game digitally through the Playstation Store will automatically have this product code inserted for them.

Those without product codes will have to play the game via Ad-hoc only.

Demo Information

Phantasy Star Portable 2 English Demo is available for download at the Playstation Store. The demo is around 350+ MBs and is tied to your Playstation Network account for online access. You will need official firmware 6.31+ to play online. This demo allows for FREE INFRASTRUCTURE gameplay.

Character Details

The demo only allows two characters to play with. You  can import a character from the full version of Phantasy Star Portable 1, or create a new character from scratch. The demo will cap players at level 15, and your battle type level will be capped at level 5. You can increase your battle type level by participating in Open Missions. You will gain points at the end of a mission.

• You are restricted from doing the following:
  • The ability to use the Costume Shop to purchase clothes.
  • The Ability to use Sayo the Mystic.
  • Purchasing Room Items and Jukebox.
  • Changing your Skin Color and Proportions after character creation.
  • Changing your Voice after character creation.
  • Using Client Requests within the Cafe.
  • Accessing your room in Multiplayer and Online Multiplayer.
  • Changing your battle type at the Type Counter.

If you choose to import your character, you will gain an exclusive saber and and one of four aura’s based on your battle type you choose. Also, your previous clothes will be unequipped, but the game allows you to change your clothes within your room in Story Mode. This allows you to wear some unique outfits not available for everyone in the demo.

Mission Availability

The following missions are available to play, please note that you will have to unlock some missions by completing others.

• Story Mode Chapter 1
• Open Missions:
  • Undersea Ruins (All Modes)
  • Plains Overlord (All Modes)
  • Sleeping Warriors (All Modes)
  • Multiped Threat (Multiplayer + Online)
• Tactical Missions on Moatoob
  • Bruce’s Dungeon (Multiplayer + Online)
• Battle Mission:
  • Catapult Jump (Multiplayer + Online)

For those who played Bruce’s Dungeon there are a few changes, of note Bruce will no longer follow your party so you are free to strategize the way you want.

• General Demo Tips
  • Place your existing Scape Doll into your Shared Storage. You can accumulate multiple Scape Dolls for Open Missions this way.
  • Dieing within an Open Mission and transporting back to the city will penalize your rank results for the party.
  • Purchase Moon Atomizers to revive dead players.
  • Attack with Square button to increase chains to at least 5+ then use Triangle to break the chain.
  • You can bring NPCs along with you in Online Multiplayer by lowering the maximum party size.
  • Customize your abilities to add features like HP boost at the Battle Shop.

Changes

We noted a list of changes towards name usage from the Japanese to English versions:

• Crouch’s name has changed to Kraz Muehler.
• Kuno’s name has changed to Kunoh
• Bask (the black mercenary Cast) has changed to Vasque
• Chelsea’s accent has changed to French instead of the toccata style of  Japanese.
• Rolletto/Loretto’s name has changed to Laurette.
• Braver has been changed to Vanguard.
• Voices for Text Scenes are still missing.
• Line Shields are called Shield-weave.
• Shield Units are called Modules.
• All VisiPhone password codes have been changed..

The one I have to especially point out is Partner Machines becoming Mysynth. Typically this name would make more sense within PSU since partner machines were used for synthing weapons and materials. Now in PSPo2, Partner Machines are generally used mainly for combat and room functions. They no longer synth weapons.

Kraz Muehler, is kind of strange translation. In Japanese phonetically his name would be shown as Kerauchi, and his official name became Crouch. I can’t really think of any reason why his name was changed in the English versions.

Well here’s to seeing what they come up with for Ursula’s last name…

Impressions

The demo plays exactly like the Japanese version. The same set of missions and the same storyline and choices. The game uses a very nice guide of showing you how to perform actions through the use of pictures. This would be fine for newbies but may turn off the season vets. Remember you can SKIP ANY CUTSCENE by holding down the START button. I’ve seen quite a few complaints regarding that.

When you start the game for the first time, you choose among your character’s race Human, Cast, Newman, and Beast. Humans are the middle of the ground and can practically do everything. Casts focus on melee and ranged weapons. Newmans focus more on Technics and naturally stay away from the front lines. Beasts are the heavy hitters and can take a lot of damage.

Then you are presented with four battle types; Hunter uses mainly melee weapons, Rangers use mainly guns and long distance, Force use mainly Technics (magic), and Vanguard can use everything but focus mainly on single handed weapons.

Next you are presented with a Mysynth character which will help you alongside in Open Missions.

When you complete this initial process you can start Story Mode, Multiplayer or Online Multiplayer.

For Online Multiplayer we found the server to be generally lag free. It was a nice change of pace from hitting enemies only for it to be counted a few seconds later. This demo version does seem to be unpatched when it comes to switching weapons. In the Japanese patched version, when you switch weapons while lag is occurring, you can not attack until the weapon is fully loaded. In this English demo, you may switch weapons and continue attacking with your existing weapon until the next weapon loads. So it can be quite confusing seeing how you switched from a wand to a sword, yet you are still using the wand and casting magic.

The online community for PSU was very close knit, and as much as mishaps happened from time to time, it was very respectable. Since this demo has free online multiplayer, anyone can join in. We noted a few lonely males making parties for the sole purpose of seeking a girlfriend. Some parties only wanted “hot girls” to join. Sometimes players within parties tried their darnedest to impress the female character as if she was weak and needed all the weapons and support. Yes wait until they find out the true meaning of G.I.R.L.s…

We generally found players to be supportive of their parties and understood combat basics. There were times when players did not know how to heal themselves (you can tell they never tried story mode at all.) Other times players were excessively using the Photon arts to break chains which becomes terrible when fighting a spider like boss. So if you do decide to play with “randoms” expect a lot of “Help Me!” and “Let’s Go!” messages. There’s also a general lack of using Auto Word messages, but that may be a good thing.