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I can’t comment on the story since it’s in Japanese as of now but from what I gather from some sites and from seeing the cutscenes at the story missions. You and other races are on these ships called Arks that are exploring the unknown regions of galaxies for the adventure valve and for some for building towns in these planets. However monsters appear and you also with other NPCs have to stop them.
When you first start the game, you chose what ship you want to be on and later on if you want. You can switch to another ship with a fee to play to do so. After choosing a ship, you get to customize your character choosing a race each one plays differently. After choosing your race and class, you chose on making whatever you want on your character and you’re ready to go.
At the lobby, you get to chat to other people in the server choosing commands like invites, chatting and other features. You are able to go to different blocks which depends on how many people are playing as some are not busy while others are packed. There are many types shops to get items, armor parts, clothes, weapons, powering up weapons with a new ability, and your room items that cost “AC” which you get for special items from pretty much your real money. Like in Phantasy Star Portable, you are able to switch classes anytime you want in the lobby each at level 1 at start. After doing certain objectives, you get your own Mag which you can give it any items which increases certain stats based on the item. Once at a level it evolves and it gets auto command like it may fire a beam at a enemy. Also it lets you use a Photon Blast which depends on what you give to it. One of the many things to do for grinding is completing clients orders from NPCs which you get from doing the other quests, leveling up, and unlocking areas. Some may be kill this 10 times, or get certain amounts of items, or do a timed mission while getting S rank. You are able to accept all of them at the same time. Any client orders from Koffee near the quest counter is very important to complete since these unlock your first Mag, other features, and areas. To unlock the story missions, you have to complete objectives from the Matter Board that are those orange orbs in the pages. The objectives for some are finding this tablets at certain areas, a gold drop from enemies, or talking to a NPC at the lobby. You earn weapons, armor, and unlocking storyline events for doing them. At the Quest Counter, you accept missions while some missions are available for a limited time which are the grinding bits you take advantage of. Looking at your selected mission, you can take normal or hard mode depending if you complete the order to get hard mode. You are able to set rules to you quest for let’s say only your teammates are allowed to join or something like that. Finally you are able to join on someone’s party at any quest there at.
At the lobby like room before you take your mission. You have access to buy some quick items before you go, your storage, and the missions which you could change at anytime before you start. You have the option to inviting one of the NPC you met to help out. The area you end up at, you go through the randomly generated maps and you are able to see any players that are in the field at that time. Like in Phantasy Star Portable, you’re able to switch weapons that your class can use at any time. Each weapon/spell has a art that uses PP and as you slash your weapon at enemies, the PP recovers for next use. During the missions you may encounter a random emergency code at any time where you have to do a objective like kill 9 enemies, collecting a number of items for opening this door for exp.You have the option of seeing a tablets where you see a random NPC in the field talking to you. Once you completed the mission, you head back to the lobby room and you get a rank depending on how well you do and the number of enemies you killed.
Now to the good, this game is alot of fun to play. It is downright addictive playing at the areas with others, helping others, and even if you don’t know any Japanese at all. The people I encountered on the most part are really nice. The controls on the keyboard/mouse standpoint since I don’t have the gamepad controller for this game are very good and it feels natural and not forced. For those worried about the Japanese text since it’s not in English, the really good thing is that this game is very straightforward on what to do and there is a fan translation to help you out understand parts of the game. The replay valve is definitely here with switchable classes, client orders, and friends to be with, lots to do. Lastly there is a good amount of customization on your character being able to change his height, eye color and such. On the bad side, the grinding can be tedious at times especially getting to a certain level where it take a good amount of time getting to that one level to unlock a feature. Quests and client orders can also be tedious at times due for some being timed and you have to get S rank. It doesn’t help that sometimes doing a timed mission, a emergency code might appear and you have to rush it since it’s natural that when you are in a rush, you have to go and it just a pain in the neck to do.
Overall if you liked the first Phantasy Star Online, you going to like this. People that don’t like alot for grinding may not like this. This is alot of fun with endless replay, good controls, very straightforward for those worried on the Japanese text, a neat community to be with, and new content heading out soon. I recommend this to Phantasy Star fans, MMO fans, and PC gamers.
8.5/10
*Note: Whatever you do, don’t put Chris Chan on Google search, you be better off not knowing about that.*
