Eight years is a while to wait for a match to eventually get ported from Japan to America. We've seen games become remastered for a whole new generation of console hardware in significantly less time. While its unique brand of anime-style flair and PSO2 Meseta pulse-pounding gameplay are far from what you would expect in an ordinary online sport, PSO2's amazing combat strategy, rewarding progression, and enthusiastic community prove it was largely worth the wait.

In PSO2, you take on the role of a new ARKS (Artificial Relict to Keep Species) Operative. ARKS is an elite task force concentrated on researching new planets and eliminating a dark and corruptive force known as the Falspawn. That's honestly about all that you need to know or consider this obscure, jargon-packed, and emotionless narrative. Prior franchise knowledge is absolutely not required to understand it, but experience with all the first PSO does help. (PSO2 is completely unrelated to the single-player Sega Genesis JRPGs.)

Regardless of the top-notch English voice cast, PSO2 simply does not have an interesting story. Most of it is doled out by rigid personalities that lack lip sync and feel like a waste of time. Both entering and departing these story conversations requires sitting through lengthy loading screens. And to be clear, it really doesn't matter; that is certainly not the kind of game you play for your story, so the developers have obviously only focused their attention elsewhere. Urgent Quests are limited-time missions that pop up server-wide at specified occasions which are announced on the official site. Throughout the time the Urgent Quest is active, everyone on the host can join in and do this assignment together in big multi-party groups. These are reminiscent of a raid with a dozen players working together, but it's usually a lot more chaotic and swift compared to most MMOs. They're a blast to do and entirely worth planning your game around to fit into a schedule.

PSO2 is all about the gameplay. Even the magical courses possess unique twists, like the Summoner that hovers over the ground and commands pets with a magical baton.

Combat feels just like a mixture of Devil May Cry and Monster Hunter, or perhaps the Tales JRPG series, depending on the course you choose. My primary class is really a Braver who utilizes either a katana for up-close and showy combos or a powerful bow to rain down damage from afar. The skill tree you access back at the primary ship lobby is filled with passive skill bonuses and minor skills like dodging and parrying, but your actual combat skills are located as random loot drops on missions in the form of discs. It's possible to discover new abilities or more powerful variants of current abilities, as well as badge tokens to exchange for cheap Phantasy Star Online 2 Meseta even stronger items at specific sellers. Relying on the random loot gods to bless you with brand new abilities is somewhat feeble, but you can sell the ones that you don't need or use them to update existing skills. Overall it is an addictive system that can help maintain excitement even when you're much higher level.