The Winter Carnival is Here!

Winter Carnival

The Winter Carnival has been announced for Xbox360 and PC/PS2 servers. The Winter Carnival is our localized version of the "Dengeki Carnival" that was released in Japan nearly a year ago. The Winter Carnival will begin on January 23rd, 2009 until February 27, 2009 .

Winter Carnival features a few missions, so far only two were revealed. During the Winter carnival you will collect Zon Fragments and Zon Spheres, you can exchange these items for various weapons and music discs, including the elusive 13 star Fal Claw.  Psublog will again have special guides helping you along the way once this event is here.

  • Charged Puzzle
    • In this mission players will collect plasma balls and place them in areas to create line art with a fence. Solo play is possible, 3 players+ are recommended. 
  • World of Illusion
    • In world of Illusion, endless waves of monsters appear one after the other. This mission is recommended for skilled players. In each stage you must fight through a series of enemies until you reach the end. Afterwards the party leader can gamble and decide  whether to continue on to the next harder stage or quit and receive your prize. During this mission, EX Trap are limited, and Cast SUV will be reset after each stage. If any party member dies during the mission they will be removed from the party.

December Compensation

In other news, compensation for the December rollback has been revealed. During January 23rd, 2009 through February 6th, 2009, there will be a 10x boost in casino coins winnings.

[via announcements and announcements]

Game Tweaks, Graphical Technic Nerf, Machine Gun Glitch Fix Planned for Jan 20, 2009

GMs Edward and Ruby posted details about a Title update scheduled for Jan 20th, 2009. This update will fix several bugs in the game and make slight changes in game mechanics. Hopefully these changes will make the game a more enjoyable experience to everyone. Here's a rundown on the most important issues.

  • Graphical Technic Nerf
    • Technics will now display as high as Level 21-30 to prevent slowdown. Though they did not specifically mention this, in the Japanese version the caster will still see level 31+ technics. We're assuming this still stands.
  • Machine Gun Glitch
    • The Machine Gun Glitch will finally be fixed, great news for Xbox360 players.
  • Rare missions
    • A message will appear on the screen notifying the party that a rare mission has been received.
    • The calculation of rare missions has been changed so that solo players can now receive them.
  • Photon Charges
    • Photon charges will now fully charge  a weapon in each hand instead of 50%. In other words, a photon charge will now work the same way as they do with 2 handed weapons. 
  • Kicking Party Members
    • It will now be impossible to kick party members between "Trial End" and "Mission End". This means you may no longer boot players when the boss or clear boxes appear. 
  • Party List
    • When you select to join a party on the  mission screen. The party list will now display open parties at the top of the list.

[via psu_board]

Winter Lobby and Billing Site Change for Janurary 16, 2009

Winter Lobby

This week's mission update is the Winter lobby. It will run from Janurary 16th to Februrary 13th. In addition the snowman room decoration can be purchased during this time.

Edward posted a note that the  Phantasy Star Universe PC/PS2 billing site has changed to https://psu-billing.com and will soon release information regarding the U.S compensation for the December 20th Rollback.