Phantasy Star Portable 2: Story Mode, Battle Mode, PSO, Moyashimon and Sega Toys Collaboration

Another jam packed update, this time Sakai details the news in the previous Famitsu Magazine with Story Mode, Urgent Missions, and brand new collaborations. At the end of the post you can also see Hi res art of PSO enemies included in this game such as Ill Gill, Sand Rappy, Sinow Beat, and more.

We can also announce another new boss which may or may not have something to do with another PSO boss…

 

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Story Mode Chapter 2

In chapter 2, Crouch requests the player and Emilia to visit the "Crowdog" district of Moatoob, a new tropical rain forest area. Suddenly suddenly the married couple, Tonnio, and Liina show up right in front of them. Tonnio and Liina are actually patrolling the area as free mercenaries.

Within the tropical rain forest, the Kashu tribe has set up a village secluding them from the rest of the world. The Kashu tribe wants to prevent certain individuals from entering the area, so they placed several traps nearby to stop trespassers. The party decides to head into the forest anyway and you as the player will have to avoid traps by using your goggles. Unlike PSU, you are automatically equipped with the goggles and can use them at any time.

penalty

If you get caught in one of Kashu's traps, there will be a huge penalty.

As you are passing through a trap, you will meet up with Yuto who will be an enemy due to some misunderstanding. Sakai says he has the strength of a fierce god! Once this is over Tonnio and Liina will look after Yuto and the party will split up for a moment.

Chapter 2 is described as considerably hard, please prepare for it in advance. Now that Story Mode gets harder based on what level you are, I think everyone will have a tough time getting through.

yuto

The traps in chapter 2 are actually "gimmicks." In each story mission the player will encounter various gimmicks they must either avoid or overcome. One of the gimmicks mentioned in the Snowy Mountain field was the snowball. There also seems to be a machine gimmick that roams the hallways in Seabed Plant.

**Expect to see a sub event in the city to find out why Tonnio left the Guardians.


Story Mode Chapter 3

natsume

In chapter 3 the player will meet with Natsume Shuu, the president of the Inherit company who was the original pioneer in hyperspace research. "Sky Clad" and other corporations within Gurhal invests money into his company's research.

 

Urgent Mission

urgent mission

Urgent or Emergency Missions show up randomly during multimode or internet multimode only. These missions may include older Phantasy Star Online areas, or the SEED purification missions of Phantasy Star Universe.

 

photon reflector

It took 3 years for this mission to show up online in PSU JP.

 

flame

Purify those SEED pods together!

 

Battle Mode

flame

Two other battle missions are featured. The first one mission has players collecting meseta! You can collect meseta by either killing other players or opening containers that are scattered across the field. Some containers might be located within a trap so be careful!

 

blitz

Another mission has players in a battle royal! What I notice within the screenshot is how each player has a different level, this mission might follow PSO battle rules where the player's level increases based on the amount of times they die.

 

Collaborations

So we've went through Evangelion, Pizza Hut, and even Fate Stay Night, what else could there be?

 

Famitsu

First up is the Famitsu shield, I'm sure this won't make it to the localized version. As it's pushed out it, it will display the Famitsu logo for all to see! Sakai will also announce other magazine collaborations in the future.

famitsu weekly

 

Sega Toys

Your favorite Sega Toys will make an appearance as room items and other goodies in the game. Sega Toys isn't actually owned by SEGA, so for those expecting a cute plush Sonic and Tails doll… Here, have a cute "PA PANDA" instead!

pa panda

Three characters from the Sega Toys company will make an appearance in the game. The green "Tea Dog", "New Tea Dog" and "PA! PANDA".

 

tea dog madoog

The "Tea Dog" will become a cute little madoog that follows you and casts technics. Tea Dog and New Tea Dog will also make an appearance as a room item. "Pa! Panda" will become a "Pa Panda Table" so you can place your cute little tea dogs on top of it.

 

Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture

The cute and cuddly (or even deadly) bacteria from Moyashimon will appear as a aura unit!  Good luck trying to figure out each of their names!

bacteria

Moyashimon: Aspergillus oryzae and Penicillium chrysogenum.

 

Phantasy Star Online Enemies

Included below are high res and screenshots of various PSO enemies!

astark

Astark

 

illgill2

Ill Gill

 

sand rappy

Sand Rappy

 

nano dragon

Nano Dragon

 

sinow bea

Sinow Beat

 

astark 2

illgill3

nano dragon 2

poison lily 3

sand rappy 2

sinowbeat 3

 

Extras and Blog Updates

  • "OLGA DE RAN", a new dragon boss.
  • It is some kind of infected dragon Shougai PSO speculates it could be related to Olga Flow.
  • A health related collaboration item will be revealed soon.

[via pspo2 blog + shougai pso + 4gamer + gpara]

Phantasy Star on iTunes! Urgent and Battle Missions and Tropical Rainforest, and More!

Phantasy Star Soundtracks on iTunes

Has Sakai gone mad? It's like he's changing so many things within SEGA. Eight Phantasy Star Soundtracks has been officially announced on iTunes Store on November 25th, 2009. With over 299 tracks, you can relive the sounds and wonders of Phantasy Star's "Universe" on your iPod.

itunes

Sakai recalls the day in Warsaw Poland where the recorded the orchestral piece for Phantasy Star universe. It was recorded in Febuary in extremely cold temperatures. It was a large orchestra of about 120 people.

Also we'd like to announce a soundtrack for Phantasy Star Portable 2! It is titled "Phantasy Star Portable 2 Original Soundtrack: Wings of Universe". Hideaki Kobayashi takes an active role in this soundtrack again composing the theme song "Living Universe" and other event music. The soundtrack's cover will feature art by Mizuno.

Jukebox

Speaking of music, there is a function called "Jukebox" ジュークボックス in the retail version of the game. If you click on your partner Machine and select it, you can listen to various pieces of music in your room like the Theme of Burning Rangers! You can add music to your room by locating various music discs!

Burning rangers

[via inside games]

Tropical Rain Forest

karsh

Sakai writes, "although this might look like a Neudaiz area, it is in fact a Moatoob field!" (Though Mr. Sakai, we would not have thought that if you didn't re-skin Habirao Forbidden District…) Anyways, this area takes place in Chapter 2 of Story Mode. This is near the village of the Kashu family where Yuto lives. Most of the monsters in this area are ground attribute including the Sand Rappy.

bag degga

The boss, "Bug Degga" (Bag Degga) roams this land. This boss has very strong armor and a painful electrical shock that emanates from the whole body.

 

Famitsu Scan

psp2scan1

[view entire scan]

Emergency mission
A new mission concept similar to the rare missions in Phantasy Star Universe! Here a mission will show up randomly. Playing this mission gives you a high amount of type points, meseta, and it also includes a 300% drop boost rate. The mission included in the scan shows "Scorched Valley" of Operation Firebreak.

Battle Mission
Two new battle missions were revealed in the scan. The first one is a "meseta collecting" mission! The second mission is called "Electric Shock Death Match" where players fight each other in a small ring!

Famitsu Collab Item
Famitsu Magazine will feature a collaboration item. It is a shield that says "Famitsu" in Japanese characters when the shield is out.

New Character
Natsume Shuu, the president of the Inherit Company for hyperspace research! You will meet him in Chapter 3.

Meet Miss Capliko!

Miss capri

Well, Senior Director Terada posted this week about his medical condition. It appears he may have gastritis… Anyways, let's introduce a new character. Mountain Climber "Miss Capliko!"  Everyday Capliko trains vigorously climbing the pink mountains of Neudaiz. Oh by the way, Miss Capliko is a man? "How U doin?"

  • Terada will give some insight into the truth about Capliko tomorrow.
  • "Her" name is kind of a play on words, "Capli daughter"
  • Speculation that it may actually be a "daughter of a man"

[via pspo2 blog]

PSPo2: Notes from Tokyo Game Show: Collaboration, Battle, Save Transfer, Snowball

cs1w1_426x640

Shougai PSO got a chance to listen to Dragon's Sakai's presentation at Tokyo Game Show. We learn some information that will please Phantasy Star Online fans.

Two Promo videos were shown, one of them was completely new. Next they announced collaboration with Sony Computer Entertainment mascots, Toro and Kuro and had them appear on stage in a huge costume. Toro and Kuro Partner Machinery will appear in the game if you meet some specific requirements which they did not mention. They next played within PSO's forest. Along the way, the enemies: Savage Wolf, Barbarous Wolf appeared. Producer Sakai then officially announced a playable demo.

_640x426

40x426

64

You can see the Partner Machinery here!

dragon sakai

 

Battle

jumping

We have some minor new information about battle. Pso-w member Mike recently received the newest Dengeki Playstation and wrote about some of the new stuff he found. Shougai PSO also added notes from the magazine. Here are a few other Battle Modes other than Catapult Jump.

  • Battle Royal
  • Blitzkrieg Death Match
  • No Wall
  • The Great Menace
  • Advance like an Arrow of Light
  • Who will hit the switch?
  • 13's Room

Battle mode is really extending the replay value of this game. It kind of makes you wonder why they didn't plan PSU with this in the first place. I'm sure PvP hardcore gamers will love Battle Royal and the Death Match. There also seems to be a race to hit a switch first!

 

Save Transfer

So we all know when you transfer save data from PSP1 you will get an exclusive item named Exam (Igzam) with 4 Effect Unit. For quite sometime we were unsure what "Effect Unit" meant, but atleast we have some more information about it.

Based on your character's class, you will  receive one of 4 unit effects.

  • Cosmic Particle
  • Brightness Circle
  • Whitill Wing
  • Flower Art

In addition the follow options of importing are available:

  • Character Import
  • Demo Save Data Import
  • Download Item Import

Snowball

snowball

An unannounced snow field.

[via mike and shougai pso and dengeki and gamewatch]