Difference between revisions of "Events"

Revision as of 09:38, 28 October 2006

"Events" are the generalised name given to periods of time in which limited-availability occurences happen. They can typically be split into two categories:

• "Seasonal" events such as Christmas or Halloween. These events are predictable in nature and have prepared festivities such as town decorations or themed monsters.
• "Promotional" events. These are non-seasonal, often one-off, events or promotions. An example of this would be if Sega were to give a free room decoration to everyone who logged in on a given day. For players of Blue Burst, the "Maximum Attack" events would be considered as one of these.

Seasonal Events

As the game is still less than a week old, it is hardly surprising that we have yet to experience any seasonal events. That said, here is a list of what we can expect and when:

Halloween

The Halloween event is largely known about as it has been present on the JP Phantasy Star Universe from October 20th and is planned to last until November 9th.

Known festivities of this Halloween event include:

• Modification of lobbies to include special Halloween decorations and music.
  • A video of these has been made and posted on YouTube.
• During the event there are rare Rappy Lantern enemies, that drop a Halloween-themed Rod called Pumpkin Head.
• During the event you can buy a complete room theme for 5000 meseta.

It is unknown whether this event will be run in 2006 for the English servers. The first and only maintenance before Halloween itself has passed and the event was not added. Some users remain hopeful while others believe that it is not planned to be added for various reasons:

1. Unfairness to non-American regions, as the event would be exclusively available to North America and importers.
2. The game was set up and released too soon before Halloween for there to be time to set it up.
3. Sega America are likely more interested in game and network stability among other issues than running a non-essential event.

The Halloween lobby theme is included on the For Brighter Day soundtrack, on Disc 2 (the "Neudaiz Side").

Christmas

We know there the game holds the capability for a Christmas event as this is arguably the biggest seasonal event possible. This event was celebrated in almost all incarnations of Phantasy Star Online. Finally, the Phantasy Star Universe soundtrack For Brighter Day has a Christmas theme suitable for lobby use. This theme is found on Disc 3 (the "Moatoob Side").

Assuming the Halloween event does not happen on English servers in 2006, it is expected that this event is to be the first seasonal event, if not the first event entirely, for the English servers of Phantasy Star Universe, pioneering around December 2006.

New Year

As with Christmas, this is an event many people implicitly believe will be presented in Phantasy Star Universe. Also celebrated in most versions of Phantasy Star Online, and For Brighter Day contains a lobby-suitable theme named after the likely event on Disc 1 (the "Parum Side").

As this is merely a celebration and contains no notable festivities or characters such as Santa Claus or the Jack-o-Lantern, this event - not surprisingly expected around New Year - is one of the least likely to have any active participation or subsequent rewards.

Valentine's Day

Another much-expected event to occur first during February 2007. This was also included throughout the Episodes of Phantasy Star Online, and For Brighter Day contains a lobby-suitable theme named after the likely event on Disc 2 ("Neudaiz Side").

Others

The above are just the most obvious seasonal events. There are sure to be other, less predictable events. The soundtrack contains a few tracks which could be used for (and thus hint at) other events, including Carnival (Disc 1), Marriage (Disc 2), Cherry Blossom and Comedy (both Disc 3).

Promotional Events

As of the earliest stages in the lifetime in English Phantasy Star Universe, there have yet to be any promotional events. There has been one noteworthy event on the Japanese servers, however:

Sonic (JP Servers)

The Japanese servers have had one such event thusfar, and that was to award a free Sonic decoration to the shared bank of all players who registered their SegaLink accounts before July 31st, 2006 (one month before the game's release).