Category: Phantasy Star Online 2

4gamer wrote an extremely long post about the Character Creation process. I guess the point was to showcase how detailed character creation is. Let's take a look at some parts of the article. The following post only features SOME of the features in the character creation process, there were areas that were not covered by 4gamer.

• Character Creation Process
• 1. Choose Race / Sex
• 2. Class
• 3. Character Base
• 4. Face Adjustment
• 5. Hairstyle and Accessories
• 6. Body Adjustment

There are basically two editing modes. The first mode is called "かんたん" or simple editing, and "こだわり" for those who want to change the particular details for their character.

• Simple Face Editing
• 顔ベースタイプ Base Face Type
• 顔ブレンドモーフィング Face Blend Morphing
• 顔パターン選択 Face Pattern Selection
• 瞳パターン選択 Eye Pattern Selection
• 顔カラー設定 Face Color Setting
• まゆ選択 Eyebrow Selection
• まつげ選択 Eyelashes Selection
• スキンパターン選択 Skin Pattern Selection
• メイクパターン選択 Make(Up) Pattern Selection

Face Blending

In Face Blend morphing, by moving around the four points you can change your face's shape.

Based on the screenshots the selections include; Cool クール系, Hotblooded 熱血系 , Rugged ガッチリ系, and Soothing 癒し系 types.

 

Cool, Soothing, Rugged, Hotblooded.

With the Cool face type, the eyes are more narrower with a more determined expressions. With the Soothing face type, the eyes are open with a more wondrous expression and a smile on their face. The Rugged face type has a wider jaw, and a more determined eyes. The Hotblooded face type shows a more wider and almost psychotic looking eyes and expression.

 

But that's not all, you can select choices from the drop down menu. You can choose morphing that blends the original types as stated above with an "adult-like" or "child-like" face. In the screenshot below you can see an "adult like, hotblooded type" face. This changed the top portion of the eyes to become more slanted, with a more evil expression.

 

Of course you don't have to choose any of the 4 extremes, you can blend your face using portions of each style.

 

Face, Eye, Eyelashes, Skin

Currently there's only one face pattern selection for the alpha test. As for the eyes, you can select the iris size from the list of choices, and you can change the iris color. You can select your eyebrows from the list of eyebrows shown below. In addition you can select your eye lashes.

 

Eyebrows and Eyelashes!

 

For a wrinkly face, you can select it from the Skin Pattern area. In the makeup pattern you can select your facial hair, or tattoos. Next we'll go into detailed editing of your face.

 

Detailed Editing of the Face

Detailed editing mode consists of:

• Detailed Editing
• 輪郭の調整 Face Contour Modification
• 顔パーツ配置の調整 Face Parts Placement Modification
• 目の調整 Eye Modification
• 鼻のサイズ調整 Nose size Modification
• 鼻の高さ調整 Nose Length Modification
• 耳の調整 Ear Modification
• 口の調整 Mouth Modification

For your face contours, there are 4 points on the editing screen that you can use to adjust the face. The top and bottom nodes are linked together, while the Right and Left nodes are linked to each other. This allows you to change the length of the face by moving the top and bottom nodes up and down. and the width of the face  is edited by moving the left and right  nodes horizontally.

As for the Left and Right nodes, you can also move them up and down, which changes the curvature line of the chin. (For example, you can have a trapezoidal face by moving the left/right nodes downward while extended them outward. In this case, the wider portion of the face is near the chin.)

 

The face parts placement modification controls similarly to the face contour editing but it's a bit more limited. It adjust the positioning of facial features. Like for example, if you move the points horizontally, it will control the width spacing of the eyes.

 

Editing the Eyes

• Top and Bottom Nodes (1 Axis) (Eye Lengthwise)
• Left and Right Nodes (2 Axis) (Eye Width and Angle)

PSO2 allows you to place multiple panels on the screen at the same time. So in essence you can adjust various features while you are working on a particular area.

 

Editing the nose

Editing the nose is divided into two areas.

• Nose Size Editing
• Top/Bottom Nodes (1 Axis) Nose Length [Front View]
• Left/Right Nodes (2 Axis) Nose width and shape. [Front View]
• Nose Length
• Top/Bottom Nodes (1 Axis) Tip of the Nose size [Side View]
• Left and Right Nodes (2 Axis) The nose length and circumference  [Side View]

It's kind of hard to describe it but you should just look at the pictures below.

 

Nose Size Editing

 

Nose Length Editing

 

Mouth Editing

• Mouth Editing
• Top and Bottom Nodes: (1 Axis) Lip Thickness
• Left and Right Nodes: (2 Axis) Lip Width Thickness, and raising/lowering the mouth corners

 

 

Ear Editing

4gamer chose to skip editing the Human ears because you can see a more pronounced effect when you edit the Newman Ears.

You can change the size and the angle of the ears.

 

Hairstyle

Currently in the alpha test, the bangs are pretty thick and can cover your eyebrows. (Some facial/eye adjustment may be necessary if  you want to see them but you can of course change the hairstyle)

 

 

Body Editing

Your body has two editing modes as well. But first let's take a look at the simple editing mode.

 

Thin, Glamor, Chubby, and Narrow Shoulders

 

You have four areas to morph around in the menu. Chubby ぽっちゃり, Glamour グラマー, Thin 細め , Narrow Shoulders 肩幅狭め. You can make each part emphasize on the upper portion of the body 上半身強調 or the lower portion 下半身強調 of the body.

 

The right and lowest area were changed to
細めで下半身強調 and 肩幅狭めで下半身強調

 

Body [Detailed Mode]

Editing the body in detailed mode has the following sub-items:

• Body Modification 体型の調整
• Bust Modification バストの調整
• Arm Modification 腕の調整
• Leg Modification 脚の調整

For Body editing, the top and bottom nodes control the height, and left and right nodes control the width, in addition you can change the amount of weight that goes towards the upper or lower portions of the body.

 

Bust Editing

The top and bottom nodes controls the basic shape of the breasts. The left and right nodes control how far out the breasts go and the angle. PSO2 gives you a lot of flexibility in controlling the breast size. You can create enormous breasts or flat breasts with ease.

When you enlarge the breasts and increase the angle, you could even create those impossible rocket like breasts if you wanted.

 

Arm and Leg Editing

You can set the dimensions of your arm and leg. But 4gamer said that when you place weight on the upper portion of the arm, it looks like the sleeve area is swollen. As for the legs you change the physical balance of the upper and lower thigh.

You can have an anime like look if you increase the length of your lower thigh, which 4gamer seems to be OK with.

 

Casts

Deal and Rose Body Types

As for Casts, their settings aren't as detailed as the humans. Casts will instead choose parts for their body, choices for Caseals include the "Rose" and "Deal" type parts. 4gamer weren't too happy about this limitation but this is the alpha test after all. You can select the size of each part from Super Small (SS)  to Extra Large (LL). But they enjoyed using the paint function. This allowed them to change the main color and 3 sub colors.

You can use the full color picker to change the colors of your parts, including a color saturation slider which is depicted as a horizontal bar.

 

*Just to note, the screenshots show you can customize the colors of more areas, so please don't think these are the only areas you can customize throughout this summary of 4gamer's report.

RACASEAL Concept Artwork

 But First! A brand new image of the RAcaseal, drawn by the lovely Mizuno!

 

RAMar PSO2 Concept

And Certainly the PSO2 RAMar concept!

Speaking of the Ramar's rear, it seems to be quite firmly guarded this time. The protector armor gives off an impression like what's shown in foreign games.

'

Oh really Bonko?

 

Famitsu Skill Tree

Famitsu Online spilled the beans of the whole entire skill tree list. You can check out the list below which includes all skills from the Alpha Test. These skills and descriptions may change once the final version is out.

PSO2 allows you to set skills on the Palette. There are also active and passive skills. Some skills based on their description in the skill tree list below can be triggered.  (For example Fury Stance)

• Hunter Skill Tree
• Step: Nimbly and quickly step short distances
• Step Attack: Attack during "step"
• Step Advance: The time of Invincibility during "step" is increased.
• Guard Stance: Shooting /Striking power decreases, while defense power increases (Stance Skill)
• Guard Stance Up 1: Improve defense during a Guard Stance.
• Guard Stance Up 2:  Improve defense during a Guard Stance.
• Guard Stance Auto Mate: When receiving damage during a Guard Stance, automatically use monomates.
• Guard Stance Poison: Recover from Poison status effect while in Guard Stance.
• Guard Stance Burn: Recover from Burn status effect while in Guard Stance.
• Guard: Hold your weapon in front of you to guard attacks from enemies.
• Just Guard: Reduce damage greatly by guarding at the moment of receiving an attack.
• Just Guard Master: The time for Just Guarding is extended.
• Guard Absorber: Reduces the amount of damage you receive when guarding.
• Just Guard Stun: During a Just Guard, stuns the enemy at a low rate.
• War Cry: Attract attention of Enemies.
• Fury Stance: Striking/Shooting increases, while defense decreases. (Stance Skill)
• Fury Critical: Improve critical hit rates during the Fury Stance
• HP Up and Response Up are self explanatory.
• Ranger Skill Tree
• Weak Bullet: Exclusively for Assault Rifle, you can charge a weakening bullet.
• Bind Bullet: Exclusively for Assault Rifle, you can charge a binding bullet.
• Dive Roll: Quickly move short distances by diving.
• Dive Roll Advance: Invincibility time during Dive Rolling is extended.
• Tool Mastery: Damage from tool type skills are increased
• Upper Trap: Set a trap that launches Enemies.
• Upper Trap Custom: Damage from Upper Trap increases.
• Poison trap: Set a poison trap.
• Poison Trap Custom: Increases the chance of poisoning with poison traps.
• Ability, Reaction, and Range UP are self explanatory.
• Force Skill Tree
• Flame Mastery: Fire Technics power increases
• Flame Mastery 2: Fire Technics power Increases
• Photon Flare: Temporarily increase TEC Power in exchange for your maximum HP which decreases.
• Flame Tech S Charge: Shorten the charge time of Fire Techs
• Ice Mastery: Ice Technics power increases
• Ice Mastery 2: Ice Technics power increases
• Freeze Ignition:  Give an explosive heavy damage to enemies that are frozen
• Freeze Tech Boost: Increases the rate of freezing.
• Bolt Mastery: Lightning Tech Power Increases
• Bolt Mastery 2: Lightning Tech Power Increases
• PP Convert: Temporarily increase the PP recovery rate, in exchange for your maximum HP, which decreases.
• Bolt Tech PP Save: The PP Consumption rate of lightning techs decreases.
• PP Regenerate: The amount of PP recovery increases.
• TECH Up, Mind Up, PP UP are self explanatory.
• Mirage Escape: By disrupting visual information, you are invincible and can move  short distances. (Pretty much a fancy way of saying you are invisible)

 

Armors and Units

Your protective armor consists of your costume and units (leg, arm, and rear slots). As for casts, your costume is divided among body, arm, and leg. Units that you can attach to your costume are restricted by race and level. Among them, there are certain units that you can equip to any of the slots and there are units that attach to a specific area. Some units have graphics, and some do not.

 

 

Mixing Normal Attacks with Photon Arts

So many times before we've said that you can mix normal attacks with photon arts. Famitsu provided their own interprepation of how each attack works. Let's follow the path!

The top specifies Normal Attack Combos, while the bottom are Photon Art Combos

When you initiate your attack you can start with either A or 1. Afterwards you can move to B or 2, and then 3 or C. If you follow the arrows you can see that you  can vary your attack path with A > B > 3  or A > 2 > C.

 

Lobby System

There are two servers in the Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test. Within the servers, there are BLOCKS, each block is essentially a lobby. Each block has a cap on the amount of people connected to it. You can move freely among blocks, but you can not move your character to a different server. So when you are playing with a friend, decide on what sever you want to use beforehand.

You can chat to other players like in the previous series, a chat balloon appears above the character. You can change the shape of the balloon for emphasis and a thought bubble.  In addition, you can also use manga iconography like sweat drops.

 

PSO2 Volcano Cavern Screen

 

PSO2 Volcano Caverns

[kotaku jp]

 Original Combo

Sorry Bonko… This is a screenshot of setting up the Palette with Original Combo. Now we can truly see how you can mix around photon arts.

• Slot 1:  Gun Slash [PA: Ein Raketen > Rage Dance > Novastrike]
• Slot 2: Assault Rifle [PA: One Point 【Piercing Shell | Grenade Shell】
• Slot 3: Gun Slash [PA: Novastrike > Ein Rakaten > Rage Dance]

Piercing Shell and Grenade Shell utilize the Quick Palette.

As Hurricane Irene draws closer, the Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test is finally finished. Bonkohara today posted she is finally lifting the ban on discussing information about the alpha test! However,  posting images and videos are still prohibited. Haha! It appears they may do a PSO2 Blog too.

Anyways, now that the Alpha test is over we'll post the long list of information that's available from blogs, twitter, Facebook, or wherever they come from. Most of the information may be a repeat of previous information, but the plan is to put them all in ONE place.

In an interview with Famitsu Connect!ON, Sakai and Kimura have some plans for the future in Phantasy Star Online 2. But this interview is again another conceptual thing. Will he go through with it or not, I don't know. Going through it quickly as I'm pressed for time.

• Symbol Chat
• They want to do something like symbol chat. (In the alpha test players site it does state there's a new chat function coming soon, could possibly be this?)
• Section ID
• Your character's name has no effect on playing, so it's not entirely the same as section ID. But they may do something similar to it.  They haven't decided on if it should be related to drops, but something similar to fortune telling could be a possibility.
• Having a situation like you stop ______ today because there's no Super Holy Light is something they don't want it to become. (Super Holy Light is in PSU, where you have the highest luck on certain days. But in its current form, you can have a situation where you don't feel like playing because for the whole day you will not receive the best drops. This was replaced in PSP2 with the Fortune Teller who gives random effects and resets after one mission.)
• They are considering whether if there should be some effect on players individually or based from the party leader. And they are thinking of adding something, that based on the day you connect to the server, changes the balance of the game, giving a strong "live" impression.
• Action Palette
• The alpha test currently has 3 slots. Sakai thinks he'll add some more to some extent as the game progresses. The magazine showed a screenshot of 6 slots for the palette.
• Destroying Portions of the Body
• Kind of like PSP2i, you can destroy certain parts of  body of the boss. Usually it will become weaker, and gets angrier, but this feature isn't limited to just bosses, even smaller enemies can have this aspect. When you destroy parts of a body, items may drop in addition to the original drops.
• (In a recently released video of PSO2's Vol Dragon, you can destroy a portion of his body by attacking the spikes area on his tail.)

 

Alpha Test Final Report

New and Old details collected will be posted here once they are available.

• Player
• Weapon Class changes the evasive action.
• Armor is compromised of your clothes, arm unit, leg unit, and rear unit. Each of these set up your stats. 
• There are specific units that are compromised of Arm, Leg, or Rear areas which you can attach to your outfit.
• Sub Units have access to any Arm, Leg, and Rear.
• Character Creation
• Humans/Newmans choose among the same clothing options. Casts of course have their own parts.
• You can not change your clothes after character creation in Alpha test.
• Lobby
• [First Floor] Event Stage and Huge Monitor
• [Second Floor] Item Shop, Weapon Shop, and a Teleporter (several shops closed in alpha test)
• [Third Floor] Closed Shops
• [Space Port] Quest Counter and Skill Counter
• [Camp Ship] Jump into the Quest, or Access your Storage Box.
  
• HUD
• Inserting skills into the sub palette. (Fury Stance was seen on Zero Key)
• Screen turns red when HP low.
• Can hold up to 3 weapons at a time (Will change sometime after Alpha Test)
• PP is not used up when shooting, or firing a gun, however when using PAs or charged technics it will use up PP.
• Quests
• In the beginning there are Arks Quests, and after a while Free Quests open up.
• Forest Field [Player Reported]
• Weather changes from Clear, Rain, Foggy, Lightning storm.
• Interrupt Event, In single area, exterminate the darker, or supplies are dropped
  
• In Multi area, helicopter crash lands, or you kill large enemies the spider boss, or the rock bear.
• Weather Environmental hazards, Lightning can strike the player and shock them.
• Weather Environmental hazards, Acid Rain can fall if you fail an interrupt event.
  
• Volcano Field [Player Reported]
• The Map Terrain varies with high and low areas.
• Environmental Hazard: Lava can damage the player.
• When lava spits out from the ground, you can receive knockback damage.
• In single, interrupt event, you attack a number of enemies.
• In Multi, interrupt event, an ally is trapped by the Darker and you must rescue them.
  
• Skill System
• When you level up you acquire Skill points to set among the skills at the skill counter.
• Theres a skill to increase the time of invincibility when using an evasive action.
• Hunter Class Skill Tree
• Step > Step Attack > Step Advance
• Guard Stance > Guard Stance Up1 > Guard Stance Poison > Guard Stance Burn > Guard Stance Up 2 >  Guard Stance Automate
• Guard > Just Guard > Guard Absorber > Just Guard Master > Just Guard Stun
• War Cry
• Fury Stance > Fury Critical
• HP Up 1 > Defense Up > HP Up 2
• Ranger Skill Tree
• Dive Roll >  Dive Roll Advance
• Weak Bullet > Bind Bullet
• Tool Mastery > Poison Trap > Poison Trap Custom
• Ability Up 1 > Ability Up 2 > Ability Up 3 > Reaction Up 1
• Force Skill Tree
• Flame Mastery > Photon Flare > Flame Tech S Charge
  >  Flame Mastery 2
• Mirage Escape
• Ice Mastery > Freeze Ignition > Ice Mastery 2 > Freeze Tech Boost
• Bolt Mastery >PP Convert > Bolt Mastery 2 > Bolt Tech PP Save
• PP Up 1 > Tech Up 1 > Mind Up 1 > PP Up 2 > PP Regenerate
• Weapon Elements
• Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Light, Dark
• Enemy
• Status Effects change the enemy's color.
• Boss
• Vol Dragon Boss was in a Multiparty Area, once player reached up to him he was about to die due to other players attacking him. (Monster Hunter like gameplay here)
• Vol Dragon can burrow into the ground and reappear.
• You can destroy the spikes on the tail of the dragon.
• Lizardlike enemies (Nodiran?) accompany the dragon.
• (Not entirely sure but there may be dynamic music during the boss fight. When the dragon burrowed into the ground for a while, the music sounded less intense. This music transition doesn't occur if the dragon immediately burrows in and burrows out quickly.)
• Interrupt Event
• Rescue a player captured by the Darker. (Player reported this happened in a multiparty area)
• Open the Magnetic Wall by defeating 5 groups of Dragon spawns. (Player Reported Interrupt Event)
• Code Duel: Boss Battle
  
• Map
• Each field is randomized, interrupt events occur randomly.
• Press [M] to change the map views.
• There are actual areas that go to the next block instead of like it was in PSU. (In the PSO2 Forest area, you may enter a cave to go to the next block, whereas PSU they will abruptly end the field and push the camera back to symbolize entering the next block.)
• Music
• Settings
• Change of Language Options Possible
• Data Mining
• Japanese Opinions
• A blogger wrote that it seems that Armor = Clothes, and asked will all the clothes have fixed attributes?  She said she's worried about not being able to wear her favorite outfit.
• Another liked the Quest Clear BGM.
• Thinks forces are going to be late bloomers.