PSP2:Phantasy Star Portable 2

Phantasy Star Portable 2 logo

Phantasy Star Portable 2 is the sequel to Phantasy Star Portable, officially announced on August 20th 2009. Its existence became known through information on a bonus UMD to be included with a best-seller's rerelease of the original game, which states that the opening movie for Phantasy Star Portable 2 will be included. Confirmation that it was SEGA's 'New RPG' to be revealed on August 20th appeared when leaked magazine scans from Famitsu appeared on the internet.

Development on Phantasy Star Portable 2 started shortly after the release of the first game, and development was concurrent with Phantasy Star Zero until that game's release. Following that, the Phantasy Star Zero team joined up with the Phantasy Star Portable 2 team. The game is currently said to be in the final stages of debugging and tweaking.

It is due for release on December 3rd 2009 in Japan, selling for 5040 yen. A playable Japanese demo version is due to be released sometime in November. No release details for other territories have been announced.

Plot

The story of the game takes place three years after Episode 3. Instead of being a member of the GUARDIANS as with PSU and the original game, you instead work for a private military outfit called Little Wing. Little Wing was created by its parent company 'Skyclad', an unusual business expansion from a company best known for clothing and resorts. The creation of Little Wing sparked fierce controversy within Skyclad, but it's rumored that one of the powerful executives pushed for its establishment.

In the years following the SEED incident, resources within the Gurhal system have become scarce and, as a result, people have been emigrating to outer space. Clad-6, one such resort colony, is an hi-tech wonderland of electronic spectaculars said to shine bright even in darkest space. It is the base for Little Wing and part of it will form the sole city/lobby area in the game.

Being a private military organization, it's no exaggeration to say that Little Wing isn't picky about the jobs they take (it's said they'll even take on criminal work). Still, their star is rising thanks to their excellent performance on jobs.

Two NPCs are known - the human girl Emilia Percival (エミリア・パーシバル) and the newman boy Yuto (ユート). Other NPCs are shown in the opening movie, but not much is known about them right now.

The story is said to contain twice the text and voice content that the original game had, in response to feedback that the original game's story didn't have enough volume and was too easy. Story mode will be divided into 'chapters' and there will be side stories to serve as diversions. How many chapters the game will have is unknown.

Story characters

Emilia Percival

Emilia Percival is a 16 year old human girl belonging to Little Wing. She's a little naive and known to be somewhat lazy. Despite bungling her first job with Little Wing, she became fully involved with the group before she knew it. She doesn't talk about her past, and there seem to be no records of it, either.

Yuto

Yuto is a 15 year old newman boy living on Moatoob. He belongs to the Kashu family, and possesses an excellent 'photon sense'. Due to his secluded upbringing, he's a bit lacking in common sense. He meets Emilia and her group while they are on duty, and from then on joins them.

Other characters

Characters from previous games will appear, such as Tonnio and Liina. They are wearing new clothes, but do not appear to have aged much (although they are adults, despite their child-like appearances). One character shown in the game's opening movie bears a striking resemblance to Lumia Waber and is almost certainly an older (17 year old) version of her. However this isn't confirmed.

New content

The game is said to have more all-new monsters, and three times as many missions as the original game (according to the game's producer, Satoshi Sakai). Presumably it will include new items as well (similar to the original game). Also stated is that there are 'fully redone character designs' for the game's default characters, although they can of course be customized to the player's liking.

New monsters

JP name	EN name	Attribute
スヴァルティア	(Svaltia)
エビルシャーク	(Evil Shark)
パルシャーク	(Pal Shark)
ダカマヅリ	(Dakamazli)
タヴァラス	(Tavaras)
ヴァルガタス	(Valgatas)
ブナリ甲３型	(Bunari type-Koh3)
ジェリス	(Jeris)

Existing monsters will also return. Known to be returning right now are Vahra, Gol Dolva, Go Booma, Sageeta, Ubakrada and Komazli (and more). De Ragan is also returning. There will be new boss monsters, including one who looks extremely similar to the Dragon boss from Phantasy Star Online.

New areas

At least one new area is stated to appear - Seabed RELICS. You will visit this area early on in the storyline.

Other areas from PSP and PSU (and AOTI) will appear as well. Known to appear right now are: Raffon Meadow, Raffon Lakeshore, Saguraki C.D. and the Pavilion of Air. It is unknown if every area from the previous games will return.

New missions

JP name	EN name	Ranks	Type	Story/Multi mode
海の底の古代遺跡	(Ancient Seabed Ruins)	C-S	Free	Unknown

Existing missions will also return, sometimes with tweaks to their length and enemy placement (and AI). As an example, Plains Overlord will now feature Gol Dolvas. In addition, there may be missions released on PSU that will tie-in with PSP2 (much like how Innocent Girl was released in Japan to coincide with PSP1's release). Whether PSP2 itself will get any special tie-in missions is unknown.

New items

The game will contain a drastically increased item lineup, with over 2000 items available to collect.

Several new weapons have been seen in screenshots, including weapons that appear very similar to PSO's Last Survivor and Magical Piece. The names of these weapons are as of yet unconfirmed, and other details are unknown.

JP name	EN name	Type	Grade	Notes
イグザム	(Exam)		?	Save transfer reward item.

New clothes and parts

In addition to the all new 'default' outfits characters will come with, there will be at least 50 new articles of clothing and parts in the game.

Download content

The Japanese release of PSP2 will feature year-round downloadable content similar to the first game's Japanese release. Exactly what forms this will take, or whether it will make it to the US should PSP2 be released outside of Japan are unknown.

Storage

In PSP2 there is no distinction between storage and the common box, instead, there is only 'common storage'. This can be accessed by all of your characters, and will hold 1,000 items maximum. Items that stack will stack up to 999 for convenience. Furthermore, you can send items to this storage from anywhere in-game for no cost, allowing you to easily offload items should your inventory be full.

Achievements

Game achievements will be returning in PSP2. No other details are known.

Collections

Collections will return from PSP1. Unlike PSP1 (and like PS0), collections will be shared across all characters. The currently known types of collections are:

Weapon collection (details weapons you have obtained)
Enemy collection (details enemies you have defeated)
Clothing & parts collection (details articles of clothing and parts you have obtained)

Collaborations

Collaborations with famous characters and companies are planned. Whether these will be similar to the PSP1 collaborations (which were mainly missions with popular Japanese gaming magazines such as Dengeki and Famitsu) is unknown.

Currently collaborations with other Sega characters as well as a collaboration with a food/drink manufacturer has been confirmed.

Game balance

Level cap

The level cap for PSP2 characters is level 200, as opposed to 100 in the first game. It will take approximately twice as long to reach level 100 in PSP2 compared to the original, and level 100 to 200 is considered 'further education'. Whether type level caps and Photon Art caps will also be increased is unknown.

Mirage Blast

Mirage Blast is the special ability for human and newman characters, available at level 20 and above as a counterpart to the SUV weapons and Nanoblasts possessed by CASTs and Beasts respectively. No specifics are known, except that the ability is a 'summon beast attack'.

Elemental attributes

Whereas previously, only melee weapons had elemental attributes attached, now ranged and TECHNIC weapons will also have them. Combining the same-element TECHNIC bonus with a TECHNIC weapon of the same element will provide an even larger bonus, and some rare TECHNIC weapons are said to come with innate TECHNIC boosts, similar to PSO.

Ranged weapons will only get their elemental attribute from the weapon itself, elemental bullets no longer exist. Furthermore, elemental %s will only affect the attack power of the weapon (whereas in PSU and PSP they affected the total ATP of a character and weapon together).

Hitting an enemy with an attack of the same or opposite attribute will display a flashy special effect. This is to make hitting an enemy's weakness more satisfying.

Enemy difficulty

Enemies will be tougher than in the original game, supposedly requiring players to make good use of the new battle features such as shielding and dodging. Furthermore, enemies will be stronger in multi mode than in story mode. Soloing in multi mode has been described as 'hell', while a 3-person party is 'just right' and a full, 4-person party is 'a little easy'.

Some surprising enemies have been made much tougher, but further details are unknown.

Photon Points (PP)

Unlike other games in the PSU universe, PP is now a character stat rather than a weapon stat (similar to PS0 and PSO's TP). There are no Photon Charges and PP will have to be regenerated through melee attacks and natural regeneration. Sonic Team have stated that their intention with this change was to make players change their strategy, forcing them to mix up normal attacks with Photon Arts instead of overly relying on Photon Arts. It is unknown how exactly PP will work for regular (non-charged) ranged attacks and TECHNICs.

Units

Instead of using the Head/Arm/Body/Extra slot system of PSU, PSP2 will use a 'free slot' system that appears to be similar to PSO and PS0. This will allow players, amongst other things, to combine an SUV unit with an aura producing unit, as well as stack units such as Cati/Power.

Scape Dolls

Similar to the US release of PSP1 (and unlike the JP version), Scape Dolls will no longer be available to buy from shops. You can find them as item drops though, and other items may be used to trade for them.

Battle types

There will be fewer types in PSP2 compared to PSP1. Details on what types will exist in the game, as well as any potential customization features (similar to GAS), are unknown.

Accuracy and damage

When attacking with ranged weapons, accuracy will factor into the damage caused.

Item drops

Unlike in PSU, where the same (single) item drops for all players, and PSP1, where all players receive a copy of the item drop, PSP2 will have seperate drops for each player (this seems similar to PS0's system).

The city

Unlike other PSU games, PSP2 only has one 'city' area, the 'Little Wing control district' located on Clad6. Unlike the original PSP, this city will be rendered in full 3D instead of using the overhead map system of the first game. You can chat and perform lobby actions in this area. The maximum number of players that can enter the city is 4 (per game, presumably), and there is no capability in the game for large-scale communication as seen in PSU's cities.

Mission counter

PSP2 has only one mission counter, located in the Little Wing control district. From here you will be able to access all of the game's missions.

It will also be multifunctional, including the ability to view images of item drops and enemies that appear in a particular mission. You can also get an estimated mission clear time for each mission from the counter.

Grinding

Grinding weapons in PSP2 is now performed with Meseta instead of Grinders. The amount you pay depends on the grade of the weapon and the number of times it has been grinded already. As with other games, weapons can be grinded 10 times, and stat gains will be randomized as in PSP1. Unlike PSP1, there is no chance of failure on any weapon, so many weapons will be added that change after being grinded 10 times. There are also secrets to grinding not yet shared...

Your room

Your room customization will make a return in PSP2. Details of this are currently unknown.

Battle changes

New moves will be available in battle, some seemingly inspired by Phantasy Star Zero. Among these are an emergency dodge, charged shots for ranged weapons and shields similar to Phantasy Star Zero, but available as single handed weapons (since PS0 did not have the same dual wield system PSU and PSP have).

Emergency dodge

Allows you to evade enemy attacks by executing a forward roll. During the dodge you will be invincible for a period that is longer than PS0. However after the dodge you will not be able to move for a period that is also longer than PS0's dodge. Executing a dodge consumes PP.

Charged shots

Allows you to fire a more powerful shot by pressing the Triangle button. Only works with ranged weapons, and the firing animation changes for a charged shot. Consumes a large amount of PP, to the point where you cannot simply rely on charged shots, but must also use regular shots.

Depending on the kind of ranged weapon, the charged shot may provide benefits such as increased range or attack power.

Shields and Exact Guard

Shields are a new weapon type appearing in PSP2. They are left-handed weapons that can be equipped with any right-handed weapon. They are used by holding down R to guard against enemy attacks. Guarding consumes PP and reduces incoming damage. By timing your guard to match an enemy's attack, you can perform an Exact Guard that will deal counter damage to the attacking enemy, as well as reduce the PP consumption of the block and damage taken to zero.

Since shields cannot be used with two-handed weapons, you can also block attacks with all two-handed weapons except Rods. However, you can only perform an Exact Guard with a shield equipped - you will only get a damage reduction with two-handed weapons.

Attacks can be cancelled through guarding. Photon Arts, however, will require specific timing to cancel.

Chain system

The Chain system allows players to deal more damage to enemies. Unlike the PS0 version of the Chain system, you do not need other characters to perform attacks with you to build up a chain. Instead, you build up a chain by hitting an enemy with normal attacks, and the Chain will then increase the amount of damage Photon Arts do to it.

Photon Arts

The Photon Art system will be undergoing a major overhaul in PSP2. Instead of levelling your Photon Arts through use as with the original game and PSU, you will now level up your PAs by obtaining and using discs that have a level attached to them, upgrading your PAs by finding discs with a higher level. These discs will be found in missions, shops, as achievement rewards, and as item drops.

You will also be able to learn every single Photon Art in the game on a single character on PSP2 - there is no more 36 PA limit.

Elemental bullets do not exist in PSP2, due to the changes in how elemental attributes on weapons are handled. There will be a bullet that will increase the effective elemental % of a ranged weapon, though.

New Photon Arts

JP name	EN name	PA type
インフィニットストーム	(Infinite Storm)	Saber

Armor Palette

The action palette will be expanded in PSP2, allowing players to set 6 line shields (similar to how they would set weapons) and then switch between them quickly.

Exact Attack and Counter

Both Exact Attack and Exact Counter are confirmed to appear in PSP2. The change made to Exact Counter in the AOTI Supplemental Update (invincibility while performing an Exact Counter) is also being introduced.

New modes

PSP2 will contain new modes of play, including Battle, Challenge and Extra.

Battle

Battle is a 'competitive mode', so it would appear to be PvP of some sort. Whether it will be direct PvP fighting (similar to PSO) or minigames is unknown. A screenshot has been shown showing a player jumping in what appears to be Battle mode, but exactly what this means has not been confirmed.

Challenge

Challenge is a 'cooperative mode'. Further details are unknown, such as whether it will work like PSO's Challenge mode or whether it will be more similar to the GUARDIANS Advanced Missions.

Extra

Besides its existence, nothing is known of this mode or what it entails.

Network play

Unlike the original game, Phantasy Star Portable 2 will include infrastructure mode allowing for true internet play; this mode will be called Internet Multi Mode. According to Satoshi Sakai, players will be able to be matched up in a four-player party through a matching counter. You can create a game from a list of rooms, add a comment to that room, and then you will enter the city - other players can then join (although you cannot join a game when a mission is in progress). You can also search for other players and exchange partner cards so you can play with friends. In addition, there will be multiplayer-only missions that require more than just 'slaying monsters'.

Multi mode will include an on-screen software keyboard to allow players to communicate via text chat. This keyboard will allow you to enter alphanumeric characters and symbols in addition to Japanese kana (in the Japanese version, it remains to be seen how this will work in any localized version). Pre-configured shortcuts will also be available to use.

Internet Multi Mode has been confirmed to be free to play.

Ad Hoc mode for local multiplayer play will also be included and will work like the original game's Multi Mode. Character data will transition flawlessly between story and multiplayer modes.

Miscellaneous

Item drop boxes

Item boxes have been changed in PSP2 to a style similar to the octahedron (eight sided) boxes found in Phantasy Star Zero. Red boxes for rare items will make a comeback, but for even more rare items (described as 'Super rare') there will be a rainbow-colored box. Exactly what constitutes a super rare item isn't known.

Variable framerate

To combat slowdown, PSP2 will implement an auto frameskip system. When the processing load becomes too heavy, the game will automatically drop frames to prevent slowdown. This system is confirmed for Multi Mode at least. Due to this change, Multi Mode will run at a maximum of 30FPS (like story mode), whereas it was fixed at 20FPS in the original game.

Save data transfer

PSP2 will allow for save data from the original PSP to be transferred over to PSP2. However this transfer does come with some limitations and restrictions which are listed below:

The following are transferred: race, gender, underwear color, eye color, lip color, proportion, your PM's name and type, and the parts/clothes you are wearing.
The following are NOT transferred: character and type levels, voice type and pitch, anything appearance-related not listed above, accessories, items (in inventory or storage), meseta, Photon Arts, achievements and your item collection.

As a reward for transferring your save data, you will receive the saber (Exam), and one of four random 'effect units'. What these units are is unknown.

Low HP alert

When your character is at low HP and is in danger of dying, the edge of the screen will glow red to alert you.

Install

The game has a feature to install the data it reads the most to the Memory Stick, allowing for faster load times and less stress on the disc.

Voices

The selectable character voices have been completely redone.

External links

Gallery

Cover art
Emilia Percival
Yuto
Default human male
Default CAST male
Default newman female
Default beast male