Phantasy Star Online 2 Mags and My Room and Item Lab

Today the official site updated with some vague information about Mags and My Room and Item Lab. But the conciseness of the update made some information clearer than before. 

 

Those familiar with PSO should remember Mags, they are mechanical life forms that grow when you give them items.

 

They will grow into various forms, and will support the player on the battle side and status. ("ステータスや戦闘面?" I'm not going to read too much into this.)

 

Not only can you customize your character but you can also customize your living spaces with the My Room feature. My Room can accommodate 12 players at the same time. Make your room by customizing it with various items.

 

Furthermore, you can customize your weapons and armor in the Item Lab. Not only can you strengthen the power and defense of your items but also by composing the same weapon, you can increase the attribute rate.

 

With the feature to "Add a Special Ability", you can transplant special abilities from other weapons.

 

Comments

The Item Lab itself so far is split into THREE distinct features. The first one is to increase your stats on items. The screenshots show all the stats an item has and what it can increase to. For example when grinding the Rifle to +3 to +4 it listed its Striking and Range Power and tech power, although the Rifle's tech power is zero making it irrelevant. Grinding it to +4 would increase its Range Power to 136.

The second feature is to increase the attribute rate, which by the way the description is written, sounds exactly like Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity's weapon synthesis system.

The third feature is to add special abilities on weapons which shows a possible list of abilities you can add onto a weapon. 

As for the mags, well, it could be referencing a photon blast, I'm not going to think of PSU's PMs until more information is revealed.

 

Before and After

Shougai's observant eyes noticed the Alpha Test 2's version of the camp ship is slightly different and has a new counter near the exit. It was stated in the alpha test improvements report that they wanted to add an interface that lets you do mission and basic shop functions without going back to the main lobby. Perhaps this is what it looks like.

 

 

City Area

A new area revealed in the last promo movie is the city area. Though currently details about this area are unknown, this location utilizes the Arks font on street pavement. There is a boss enemy for this location, according to Famitsu and reported by Shougai, his name is ダーク・ラグネ Dark Ragne (Dark Lagne)

 

When Dark Ragne is down you can jump on its back and attack its weakpoint directly.

 

 

 

Phantasy Star Online 2: Alpha Test 2 Interface Changes

 

A new enemy called キャタドラン Kyatadoran

Morning! Today Sakai wants you to check this week's Famitsu Weekly because you can see information about PSO2's Mags and My Room. In addition the article talks about a new Item Grinding feature called Item Lab, and a new field and enemy.

 

And of course today it was announced that they are taking in 50,000 new applicants to participate in the Alpha Test 2. Alpha Test 2 not only plans to introduce the changes people requested in the previous test, but will also introduce a new feature called My Room. Their goal is to check and see how the server handles more simultaneous connections than the last time. So those of you who already participated will be joined by 50,000 more testers to assess server stability.

Furthermore, anyone's class level that's higher than level 10 will be given the opportunity to participate in future tests.

 

PSO2 Fansite Kit

Sakai has given out a fansite kit to add to your websites and blogs, as well as twitter icons you can use as your icon.

 

New Interface Improvements

Sega will bring PSO2 to Akihabara Game Festa on December 24th. If you are attending you should watch the 14:00JST presentation and the 16:00JST presentation because some of the content will be different. You can try out just the Alpha Test 2's new character creation features.

But let's look at today's Porori image!

 

Aha! It looks like the HP bars have now moved to the lower left corner just like PSU and PSP2. Since the eyes will be focusing on that part of the screen anyway, it will be easier to read your HP status now.

This screenshot was actually taken two weeks ago, and more adjustments have been made since then. In fact, everyday with the development team, Sakai can make minor changes and improvements to the game. See you next time!

 My Room in PSO2

Phantasy Star Online 2 has a feature you are already familiar from PSU called My Room. This is where you and your friends can chill and hang out in your room between adventures. The My Room is located in the residential area inside the dome of the Arcs Ship. Details provided by Shougai.

 

You can have up to 12 players in your room.

 

There's also a terrace.

 

Item Laboratory "Item Customization"

PSO2 introduces a new feature called Item Lab, it will let you customize your weapons and armor (units). You will be able to increase the stats of your weapons as well as the attribute level, and you can add special abilities to your items. Details provided by Shougai.

Item Grinding

  • Boosts stats for weapons
  • Boosts stats for armor
  • Striking Power
  • Shooting Power
  • Force Power
  • (Armor grinding details were not included in the article, this will probably be explained at a later time.)

Boost Level

  • When you grind your item, the weapon will have a value added onto it like "+1."
  • Gunslash +1
  • You can strengthen it to +10

Required Items needed for Grinding

  • Meseta
  • Grinder
  • You may be required to use multiple grinders when you are strengthening your weapon.
  • For example when grinding from +3 to +4 you could use something like 2 grinders.

Failing A Grind

  • When you are grinding a weapon and it fails, you do not lose that strengthened weapon.
  • (Speculation: Shougai thinks you will just lose the meseta and grinders you used for grinding but details about this are unknown. I assume your grind levels stay the same if you fail but I'm not so sure about this subject at the moment.)

Item Attribute Grinding

  • You can increase the attributes of..
  • Fire
  • Ice
  • Lightning
  • Wind
  • Light
  • Dark

Process for increasing attributes.

  • By joining multiple items you can increase the attribute level. (Kind of like the weapon synthesis of PSP2i)
  • You will use "Meseta" and an item called "Synthesizer" to increase your attribute stats.

Adding Special Abilities

  • You can add special abilities to your weapon or armor (units) like:
  • Flame Resist
  • Rockbear Soul
  • Shoot II
  • An item's special ability could be passed on to another item.
  • (Speculation: Based on the screenshot it seems adding special abilities can also fail but the details are unknown.)

 

 

 

 

Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test 2 Signup

Sega is now accepting recruits for the Alpha Test 2 page. Head to http://pso2.jp/entry/ to register!  They will be taking recruits starting from today December 15th, 2011 through January 17th, 2012. After the completion of this test, (based on how well it does) they will continue to the closed beta test. If your character reaches level 10 in any of the classes, you will continue on to the closed beta test. However if you are caught violating the terms of this alpha test you will not get that privilege.

 

In Alpha Test 2, Sega will be adding a new feature called My Room. 

 

Recruiting Info

  • 12/15/2011 through 1/17/2012 
  • 50,000 people to be added
  • You must be a Japanese resident to participate.
  • You do not need to re-register if you signed up for the newsletter already.

Alpha Test 2 Minimum Requirements

  • Windows XP / Vista / 7 32bit or 64bit
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 or higher
  • 1.5GB (XP) 2GB (Vista/7) of RAM
  • 8GB HD Space
  • 1280×720 Resolution
  • Nvidia GeForce 78000GT or Similar or Higher
  • Direct x 9.0c