Phantasy Star Online 2

Upon starting the game, the player can select one of several servers, known as "Ships," to play. Players create and customize their characters to be used in the game. The name, gender, race, character class, body and facial features are available for customization during the character creation process, and later, the player can acquire a number of accessories and aesthetic goods to further customize their characters. There are various races available to the players in the game, which include Human, Newman (bio-engineered humanoid elves), CAST (manmade androids), and Deuman (species that contains recessive Falspawn genes in them).

At the start of the game, players may select from one of nine starting classes, each with unique stat spreads and weapon specialties. Four more "Scion Classes" can also be unlocked when the player meets certain requirements. Classes can be changed at will in the game's lobby; levels and statistics earned with a specific Class are independent of progress made with other Classes on the same character. Classes can also be customized with Skill Points earned from leveling up, which can be spent on a Skill Tree to learn Skills unique to the Class; Skill abilities can range from passive effects such as boosting stats to toggle abilities that power up your character temporarily. After a certain level, players can also assign a Subclass, a secondary Class that augments the player's Main Class by granting access to most of its Skills, Photon Arts, and Techniques.

PC Battle Interface of Phantasy Star Online 2. In the Ruins stage, the player battles Falz Hyunal, one of the main antagonists of the series.

The user interface and controls are similar between the PC and the PS Vita. By default, players can play the PC version using a mouse and a keyboard, but may also play the game using an Xbox 360 Controller, which the game supports natively. The player's Character ID, Health (HP) and Photon Points (PP) are displayed at the bottom left corner of the screen. At the bottom of the screen, the sub-palette may contain consumable items, class active skills, Techniques and Photon Blast skills. The mini-map is located at the top-right corner of the screen. When a target is acquired, the top-left corner of the screen displays the information and status of the target.[20]

The chat log displays messages left by players and NPCs, as well as system messages. Chat commands can customize text in many ways, such as changing the colors of the text or using special speech bubbles and animations. The player can also create and display Symbol Arts, images made within the game out of various symbolic objects. Autowords can also be created for a character to react to certain events in battle automatically, such as dying or successfully completing a mission.

Gameplay in Phantasy Star Online 2 is action-oriented, and features a diverse selection of weapon types and playstyles for the player to choose from.

In combat, players engage enemies in real-time with various attacks; attacks can be chained for additional damage. In addition to standard attacks, combos can be augmented with powerful attacks called Photon Arts that use a resource called Photon Points (PP). Certain Classes have the ability to use Techniques, attacks similar to magic, that also use PP. PP is consumed whenever the player uses these attacks; the player cannot attack with Photon Arts or Techniques if they do not have sufficient PP, but PP naturally restores on its own or can be recovered manually by attacking enemies with standard attacks.

In some areas of the game, Photons can be generated by defeating enemies to fill up the Photon level in the environment. In return, Photon-sensitive effects (PSE) can provide bonuses to the players in that area. When one of these effects reaches the maximum level of 8, an event known as PSE Burst can occur where many enemies will rapidly spawn for a limited time. This can be further extended by causing a different PSE Burst to form a Cross Burst.

Upon reaching a certain level, each player will be granted a Mag, a small droid that hovers around the owner. Mags can be fed a variety of items in order to strengthen and eventually evolve them. In addition to enhancing the player's stats, a mag will support the player with abilities such as healing or buffing under certain circumstances. Mags also enable the Photon Blast ability, in which the player and mag summon a Photon-based avatar for a brief time to attack enemies or support party members, depending on the type of mag. Photon Blasts can only be used after defeating a certain number of enemies and generating enough Photon energy to fill up its gauge.

The game's story primarily focuses on the exploits of the space-faring organization known as Oracle, who uses Photons to traverse the universe and seek new planets for potential colonization while simultaneously suppressing the threat of the Falspawn, alien beings created by evil entities known as Dark Falz that only exist to destroy the universe. Oracle is split between a Mothership, housing the fleet's central core, and a massive fleet of spaceships that contains all civilian entities and the fleet's prime military and exploration department known as ARKS (Artificial Relicit to Keep Species).

Initially, ARKS is sent to investigate activity on three planets: Naverius, a planet whose ecosystem was primarily forest before much of the planet became locked in eternal winter, Lillipa, a desert planet inhabited by rabbit-like natives known as "Lillipans", and Amduskia, a bifurcated planet with a volcanic core surrounded by a mass of floating islands inhabited by humanoid dragonfolk. Later story arcs feature the planet Wopal, an ocean planet, and Harukotan, a planet in the shape of a taijitu inhabited by two opposing races. In EPISODE 4, exploration expands to encompass a fictional counterpart of Earth located in an alternate dimension, and in EPISODE 5, an alternate dimension known as "Omega" located within a black hole becomes the focal point of the story.

The story follows the player character, a graduating member of the ARKS Cadet program, and their partner Afin. During their graduation exercise on Naverius, the Cadets are attacked by the Falspawn, forcing ARKS veterans Zeno and Echo to arrive and rescue the player and Afin. Upon arriving on the ARKS Ship, the player encounters a woman named Xion, who grants the player a Divergence Matrix, an artifact with the ability to alter fate. Returning to Naverius to investigate the Falspawn, the player rescues a girl named Matoi, who has apparent amnesia, and sends her to the ARKS Ship to recover.

After rescuing Matoi, the player is tasked to find Draconian-researching scientist Aki, by her apprentice Wright. Searching for Aki on the planet Amduskia, the player manages to form an alliance between ARKS and the Draconians. Afterwards, they help friendly CAST Fourie explore planet Lillipa in search of the mysterious Lillipans, small rabbit-like natives who had previously saved her.

During a later expedition to Naverius' Tundra area, the player obtains a fragment of a mysterious weapon named Clarissa, and is urged by Xion to find the remaining pieces hidden on Amduskia and Lillipa, which they find with the help of the Draconians and Lillipans. Upon doing so, the player takes the pieces to master weaponsmith Zig, who agrees to repair the weapon, but during a Falspawn assault on Zig's ship, the Themis, the completed weapon is stolen by ARKS members Gettemhult and Melfonseana.

Zeno, Echo, and the player are accompanied by Council of Six members Casra and Maria to pursue the two rogue members to a shrine within Naverius' Ruins area. Gettemhult gravely wounds Melfonseana and uses the Clarissa to break the seal on Dark Falz [Elder], a Dark Falz fought by ARKS 40 years in the past. After [Elder] possesses Gettemhult, the player and Echo escape with Melfonseana while Zeno, Casra, and Maria lure [Elder] away. Zeno is presumed dead after the incident. ARKS proceeds to wage war on [Elder] once more, and are successful in defeating him. During a post-battle scene, [Elder] meets with other Dark Falz Collective members: [Apprentice], [Gemini], and [Persona].

After the battle, the player discovers that a mysterious girl that they have repeatedly encountered over the course of the story is actually a famous pop idol named Quna who lives a double life as an assassin. Quna reveals to the player that she is chasing a dragon named Haddred, her childhood friend who was created by ARKS' "Void" laboratory, to be used as a living weapon but escaped from captivity. She is told that Haddred is a traitor, but never learns why, a fact that the player helps Quna start questioning. Quna and the player corner Haddred at Amduskia, where they ultimately decide to kill him as an act of mercy. Haddred shares parting words with Quna prior to his death.

The player and Xion are approached by Luther, the founder of ARKS and Void and the last remaining Photoner, who desires to gain omniscience by absorbing Xion. Following a preliminary expedition to the planet Wopal, the player meets Sarah, an ARKS operative with the inability to use photons in battle. Sarah leads the player to Amduskia where the two meet Xiao, a being Xion had created to act as a clone of herself. Xiao bestows the power of time travel upon the player and sends them back in time, in order to rescue Zeno and ARKS operative Ulku to thwart Luther's plans.

Xion reveals that she is the Mothership's core, and sends the player and Matoi to rescue her from Luther by killing her. During the expedition, Matoi is revealed to be the true wielder of the Clarissa. Luther successfully absorbs Xion and gains omniscience, but is defeated by the heroes. Luther's anger over his defeat causes him to transform into Dark Falz [Luther] and take over the Mothership, but Xiao intervenes and takes control of all the ARKS ships, saving the group from imminent peril. Xion helps the heroes escape from [Luther] in her final moments. The player then proceeds to travel to the corrupted former Mothership and strike [Luther] down, before Council of Six leader Regius ends [Luther]'s life for good.

Xiao then sends the player ten years into the past to discover what happened on their home ship. They proceed to meet Klariskrays II, a member of the Council of Six and Matoi's former identity. Seeking to provoke Klariskrays II to further his schemes, Luther helps an older version of Dark Falz [Apprentice] attack an ARKS Ship. Klariskrays II gives the Clarissa to a younger Sarah, in order to protect her. During the attack, Klariskrays II confronts [Apprentice], but is deterred by [Apprentice]'s powers as well as the weaker weaponry she was provided with. [Persona] comes to Klariskrays II's aid in the guise of the player, but impales her shortly after, causing Klariskrays II to transform into a Dark Falz. The player then intervenes, Sarah having given Clarissa back to them, and repels [Persona]. The Clarissa partially purifies Klariskrays II, but Klariskrays II loses her memories and is sent ten years into the future as a result, ending in her first meeting with the player. In the meantime, Afin's sister Euclyta is taken over by [Apprentice], and Luther keeps an eye on Sarah due to her being guided by Clarissa, seeking her as a candidate for Klariskrays III.

Xiao sends the player and Matoi to the planet Harukotan to stop the efforts of Dark Falz [Gemini], who are consuming planets for an unknown reason. [Gemini] reveals that the true purpose of the Dark Falzes is to revive the [Profound Darkness], a failed clone of Xion corrupted by the Photoners that had to be sealed away; the fight between the Photoners and the [Profound Darkness] caused the Photoners to lose their ability to use Photons, prompting them to create ARKS in their place.

After escaping a trap laid by [Gemini], the player and Matoi confront them in the Nightfall Province's throne room at Harukotan and defeat them, but [Gemini] retaliates by attacking them with highly concentrated F-Factor in a last ditch effort. The player attempts to sacrifice themselves to save Matoi, but Matoi, unwilling to see the player become the [Profound Darkness], absorbs the F-Factor, becoming the [Profound Darkness]. [Persona] appears and steals the Clarissa that was left behind.

[Persona], now revealed to be the player from the future, confronts the player and offers to join forces to kill Matoi, thereby destroying the [Profound Darkness] and saving the universe. The player agrees to help [Persona], and together they confront Matoi at the heart of Naverius' Corrupted Area. [Persona] sacrifices itself to allow the player to kill Matoi, but Matoi's death causes the player to transform into [Persona], completing the time loop.

Using the Divergence Matrix, the player discovers a new fate, and declines the offer to help [Persona]. With the assistance of the Council of Six, the player seals Matoi's power and defeats her in a bid to purify her. Matoi, unwilling to allow the [Profound Darkness] to be fully reborn, attempts to kill herself with a large amount of F-Factor. The player again attempts to sacrifice themselves for Matoi, but [Persona], inspired by the player's ability to defy fate, uses the Clarissa to absorb the F-Factor from both the player and Matoi, causing them to become the [Profound Darkness] in Matoi's place. ARKS successfully repels the [Profound Darkness], but Xiao warns that it's only sent itself back in time to a point where it was stronger. He reveals that the Profound Darkness will continue to return over and over. At some point offscreen, the player and Matoi are placed into stasis in order to purify the F-Factor from them, preventing them from becoming a Dark Falz again.

Three years after the events of EPISODE 3 and one year after the events of Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation, the player is revived from stasis by the operator Xiera to accompany a new recruit named Hitsugi, a young boy, who is suspected to have ties to an internal invasion of fake ARKS members. During the mission, Hitsugi is attacked by a mysterious black mass; the player attempts to purify Hitsugi, but Hitsugi disappears prematurely. "Hitsugi" is revealed to be a high school girl from Earth playing the video game Phantasy Star Online 2, who finds a strange boy with her avatar's appearance in her room after the fiasco. Hitsugi names the boy "Al".

The player is subsequently sent to investigate Earth. Through trans-dimensional video feeds, Earth is discovered to use a parallel mutation of Photons called Aether that is primarily used as a method of high-speed data transmission, but also resonates with the emotions and fears of the general public to create monsters called Phantasms. The company ESC-A, who created Phantasy Star Online 2, is actually a front for a mysterious organization of Aether-sensitives known as Mother Corps. Opposing them are the Earth Guides, Aether-sensitives lead by Ardem S. Sacred who fight back against Mother Corps' Phantasms. The "game" Phantasy Star Online 2 is later revealed to be an cross-dimensional espionage tool for Mother Corps to employ themselves as fake ARKS members and gather intel.

The player, Hitsugi, and Hitsugi's brother Enga travel around the world to suppress Mother Corps' efforts. During an attack on Las Vegas, Hitsugi is killed; this triggers Al's Dark Falz powers to awaken, and he revives Hitsugi, who is captured and taken to Mother Corps' home base on the Moon. Enga and the player rescue Hitsugi and wake her up from a coma she had been placed in, but discover her capture was a ploy to lure the player away from the ARKs Ship and allow Mother Corps to attack. The player and Hitsugi return to the ARKS Ship and fend off Mother Corps, but Mother, the leader of Mother Corps, enters the ARKS Ship, where she reveals that she is a failed Xion clone discarded by the Photoners and seeks vengeance against them. She then proceeds to absorb Al and escape.

The heroes pursue Mother back to the Moon base and defeat her, causing her and Al to separate, and she is redeemed by the heroes. However, Ardem appears and kills and absorbs Mother, revealing his true plan to usher in the next stage of humanity's evolution with Aether. The heroes travel to the Earth Guide base and confront Ardem, who sacrifices himself to summon Deus Esca, an Aether facsimile of what he believes to be the God of Creation. Deus Esca banishes the player back to the Oracle dimension and strips the heroes of their Aether abilities. Back on the ARKS Ship, Al is revealed to have a fragment of Mother's consciousness remaining with him. Mother possesses Al and Xiera reverse-engineers the Phantasy Star Online 2 gateway to return Mother and the player to Earth, using the last of her strength to restore the heroes' powers and defeat Deus Esca.

In the aftermath, Mother Corps and Earth Guide have reformed and unified to keep the peace on Earth. Hitsugi, Al, and the others on Earth are able to maintain contact with ARKS using the Phantasy Star Online 2 gateway.

The player and Matoi are sent to destroy the [Profound Darkness] permanently by absorbing its host, [Persona]. During the attempt, the player utilizes Aether against the [Profound Darkness], prompting it to capture the player and transport them to an alternate dimension. After rescuing a young girl, the player returns to Oracle and is approached by Alma, the human host for the first Klariskrays, who informs them of a strange black hole containing an alternate dimension known as "Omega". Alma uses her ability to stop time to send the player back to Omega.

In Omega, the player reunites with the girl, who introduces herself as Hariette. Omega has become overrun with a substance called Ephemera, which is discovered to be a form of the [Profound Darkness]'s corruption. The player, assumed to be the chosen one from an ancient prophecy, agrees to help Hariette free Omega from the power of Ephemera.

The player and Hariette travel across Omega, putting a stop to Ephemera-based schemes. In each of Omega's four countries, the heroes encounter a host of a Dark Falz and defeat them, with the player absorbing the host's consciousness and some of their powers. They are also repeatedly accosted by the mysterious stranger Elmir, who appears to be forcing the hosts to become Dark Falz. After all four Falzes are defeated, Elmir is revealed to be the successor of [Persona] and tricked the heroes into defeating the Falzes so their essences could be absorbed by Omega, revealed to be an incarnation of the [Profound Darkness]. Elmir kidnaps Hariette and intends to use her to destroy the outside dimensions, sealing her in a giant flower. Advancing to the flower's interior, the player confronts and defeat Elmir once and for all. Hariette is saved and becomes the new goddess of Omega.

After the black hole closes, the heroes are intercepted by Shiva, a Photoner imbued with the power of the [Profound Darkness] who used the black hole's power to return to life. Shiva defeats the player and other powerful ARKS members in battle, but is interrupted by Hariette, who has been reincarnated in the form of a weapon. Shiva vows to return and escapes.

Shiva, her cohorts Varuna and Mitra, and her army of Luminmechs invade the ARKS Mothership. Shiva effortlessly overpowers ARKs, gravely wounds Xiao, and successfully takes over the Mothership, forcing ARKS to retreat. To save Xiao, the heroes travel to Amduskia, where Xiao's consciousness is merged with the body of a dormant Xion clone named Kasheena to grant Xiao a new body.

The player and Matoi are sent to Harukotan to thwart a Luminmech invasion and ally with Sukunahime to ensnare Shiva in a trap and seal her powers. The trap weakens Shiva and allows the heroes to seemingly kill her, only to discover Mitra posing as her. Mourning Mitra's death, the real Shiva regains the upper hand and defeats the heroes, who are saved by Mother Corps; Shiva responds by sending a Luminmech invasion to Earth.

Deducing that a much larger seal is needed, the heroes return to Omega to construct a barrier from within the alternate dimension to apply its effects on a universal scale. Upon arrival, the heroes discover that to construct the barrier, they must manually activate a shrine located on the ground where the final encounter with Elmir took place. The heroes break through the Luminmech forces guarding the island and are confronted by Varuna. Varuna receives a fatal blow, who perishes after giving his blessing to Hariette. Hariette remains behind to maintain the barrier while the heroes return to Oracle.

With Shiva weakened, Oracle amounts a final assault on Shiva's forces while the player and Matoi attack Shiva's Mothership directly. Making their way to the Mothership's core, the player and Matoi confront and battle Shiva, but are unable to defeat her despite her weakened state. Xiao and Xiera send Sukunahime to intervene, who blesses the duo with her power, granting them the strength needed to defeat Shiva. Upon landing the fatal blow, Shiva reveals that she and the player are part of a cycle of fate whereupon they are forced to do battle for seemingly all eternity; as she perishes, the essence of the [Profound Darkness] within her merges with the player, causing them to become overwhelmed by immense corruption. With [Persona]'s help, the player escapes to a place beyond time and space, where Xion informs them that they are destined to return to the beginning of the universe to become the Akashic Record.

If the player has completed certain story requirements, they instead choose to fight the [Profound Darkness], and summons Matoi, Hitsugi, and Hariette to their side to fight the original form of the [Profound Darkness], the [Primordial Darkness]. With the help of the heroines, the player vanquishes the source of all evil and seemingly puts an end to the Falspawn for good. With their purposes completed, Xion, [Persona], and the essences of the Falzes stored within the player depart, and the heroes return to Oracle.

The game was launched in Japan on July 4, 2012. The game was free to download and free-to-play, with an optional real money to in-game currency feature known as the "ARKS Cash" system. Sega also has released a retail version of the game on September 13, 2012 along with an installation disc bundled with extra bonuses and in-game items.

Asiasoft, an MMORPG publisher released Phantasy Star Online 2 in Southeast Asia. The game was fully translated to English with huge changes to its menu, items and classes name. This is mainly to make the game much easier to understand for newcomers to the series. They also released a Thai language version of the game for Thailand players only. The closed beta for it began on April 10, 2014,[27] with the official launch on May 29, 2014.[28] Asiasoft announced they would also distribute Episode 2, which was released on March 5, 2015. However, on April 5, 2017, Asiasoft announced they would end servicing Phantasy Star Online 2 to Southeast Asia countries, including Thailand, on May 26, 2017.[29]

There's also a Traditional Chinese version released in Taiwan and Hong Kong by Gamania, which also lasted three years before the server closed in early 2017.

It was speculated that the western release may have been cancelled in the later half of 2013.[30] On November 2017, the English website for the game was taken down, along with any possibility of the game releasing on the west with it.[31]

However, on June 9, 2019, a North American release was announced at Microsoft's E3 press conference,[16][17] launching in spring 2020, with no initial plan for a release in Europe, Middle East and Africa.[4][5] The game features cross-play between Xbox One and PC with Xbox Play Anywhere.[17] On February 7 to 9, 2020, a three-day closed beta test phase was only playable on Xbox One.

The game's four week open beta test phase began on March 17, 2020 and concluded on April 14, 2020 to concede the official launch. The PC version launched on the Microsoft Store on May 27, 2020. The Steam version launches alongside Episode 4 on August 5, 2020. That same day, the Xbox One and Microsoft Store versions were released in Europe.[32] On September 30, alongside Episode 5, the Steam version of the game added more playable regions for the game, with all regions (excluding Antilles, Belgium, Netherlands, China, Japan, and Republic of Korea) able to download and play the game, marking the global release of the game.[33]

The global release features dual audio support with English and Japanese voiceovers, along with brand new English versions of the live concert tracks that are originally sung in Japanese, excluding those from the 3 collaborative live concert events (all of which are English only) (including songs that are sung by Quna (voiced in English by Kayli Mills[34] and in Japanese by Eri Kitamura[34])). Takenobu Mitsuyoshi reprised his role as himself in the English dub. He performed the English version of “We’re Arks!”. The global release also supports Japanese UI text and subtitles with plans of adding the UI text and subtitles in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian in the future.