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]

Phantasy Star Portable 2: Karakuridōji Ultimo, NiGHTS into Dreams, Tropical Rainforest

I know those crazy fans at NiGHTS into Dreams are going frantic trying to get NiGHTS into Sega Allstar Racing but at least he is a weapon in this game.

 

Karakuridōji Ultimo Collaboration

shaman king

Hiroyuki Takei of Shaman King and Karakuridōji Ultimo, brings us the 5th Manga Collaboration piece for Phantasy Star Portable 2. The outfit is called Hanhel Tsuna-gin. I believe the name refers to a "half a helmet/hardhat"  that "fills" or protects the body instead of the head.  The name of the weapon is "TRUE HASH" in English characters, thank goodness.

 

Tropical Rainforest

Tropical rainforest

Another brand new field, this time it looks like a cross between Habirao forbidden district, and the Forested Islands. It includes a new boss "Bug Degga". Actually this boss is featured as a normal enemy in Bruce's Dungeon in the demo. It attacks by rushing into you with electricity. In Bruce's Dungeon it can also stun you if you stand close to it while it is charging.

In the screenshot you can see a puppet form of NiGHTS  as a Madoog or Shadoog weapon. While it floats it leaves a trail of sparkles just like the real one!

 

Demo Statistics

Stats

Sakai posted several statistics regarding the active players in Internet Multimode.

  • Level
    • LV 11-20: 85%
    • LV 1-10: 15%
  • Male to Female
    • 42% Male
    • 52% Female
  • Race
    • Human 35%
    • Cast 30%
    • Beast 19%
    • Newman 14%
    • (It's quite weird but in PSU JP Newman females are highly popular.)
  • Type
    • Hunter: 48%
    • Braver 22%
    • Ranger: 18%
    • Force: 10%

Size Chart

default chara size

main chara size

If you are into this sort of thing, Sakai has posted the centimeter sizes for all characters. You can see your height once you obtain the scale room item. Though it will measure it as "KV" which in reality is "cm".  To convert centimeter to feet, type this in google search bar. "###cm to ft"

[via pspo2 blog]

Phantasy Star Portable 2: Snowy Mountain, Client Order, Story Mode

Story Mode

story mode variable level

If you notice in the screenshot above, this story mode mission has a variable level difficulty between 1 through 20. The higher level you are, the harder the monsters.  For this particular mission, the highest level cap is 20. If you are level 21, the monsters will stay at Level 20 difficulty.

This variable level system was implemented because in PSP1, players would achieve higher levels during multimode. As they switched to story missions, the game would turn out much easier than expected.

story mission

Free missions on the other hand have a fixed level difficulty. Free Missions levels are based on C/B/A/S rank so feel free to play missions much easier for you.

As you play through Story Mode you are set up with a bunch of choices during gameplay. These choices affect the ending which you'll get. (Speaking of which, Terada in his many rambling blog posts keeps mentioning a TLUE ending with Magashi? It's probably likely the L is supposed to be an R.) (Also Sakai mentioned Dark Falz is not the final boss of the game).

 

Will Vivienne Appear (Part 2)

Oh yes, Vivienne is no longer blurred out in the screenshots and will appear in a Side Story Mission and a Extra mission. These missions will pop up as you clear Story Mode. Famitsu Magazine mentioned how her appearance in the game might actually be fan service. 

Even if you did not import your character from PSP1, you are still able to play that mission with her. (This should stop that debate over which ending is cannon…)

 

Item Trader

After exchanging partner cards with a friend, you can exchange items at the cafe, as long as they are not A/S rank and rare items. To combat drop trading, (you sneaky people) there is a limitation to what items you can drop on the ground. In multimode and internet multimode, only recovery items, buff items, and traps can be placed on the ground.

You can place down any item within a challenge mission. However you can not take any items with you during a challenge mission. Any item you pick up will disappear once the challenge mission is over.  (I don't believe this applies to challenge mission rewards.)

 

Client Order

client order33

You can receive requests from Elias, Roletto (Loretto), and Pit in the Cafe. The content of each request is different based on the person who requested it. When you complete a request, meseta, room items, weapons, etc, can be obtained. You perform requests by following the instructions while playing a free mission.

  • Elias restricts your time and weapons you can hold to clear the mission
    (She may ask you to clear a mission under  7 minutes.)
  • Roletto wants you to clear several missions.
    (May ask you to complete two or more missions)
  • Pit wants you to defeat a specified target.
    (Defeat a number of a specific enemy. For example defeat 50 Naval and Naval Rudda)

You can receive requests of up to 3 people at the same time, however you can only do one of the requests for each person respectively. (In other words you can take on Pit, Elias, and Roletto requests together, but you can not do 2 Elias requests at the same time.)

Cafe2

When you clear the free mission and succeeded with their requests you can receive the reward at the cafe.  A new request is generated after completion of a previous request. You can check the current requests by checking the mission information section in the start menu.

  • Example Rewards you may receive From Elias
    • Buster (Weapon), Tornado Throw (Room Item), 2500 Meseta
  • Example Rewards you may receive from Pit
    • Rappy Coffee Cup (Room item) Soda Brekka (Weapon) 2500 Meseta.

Snowy Mountain

snowy mountain2

snowy mountain

Welcome to Elbars (Elbals) Snowy Field in Phantasy Star Portable 2

A new area is introduced called, "Elbars Snowy Mountain"  It consists of an ice cave and an outside field covered in snow. This area was shown in promo video 3 with the snowball that ran over Emilia many times. Douga Dounga (Duga Dunga) and Gohma Dilla appear at the end in a boss fight.

Douga Dunga

Douga Dounga moves slowly and the laser is fired at random as it rotates. The Gohma Dilla make this fight especially hard. I think your Just Guarding skills should be top notch to prevent the missile knock backs.

 

Extras!

SeBossess

Hi Res of New Bosses

 

 

Cool Rappy T-shirts for Phantasy Star Zero

[via pspo2 blog + mike + Famitsu]