Hey fellow Arks,
Sorry if the title got your hopes up… It was meant to catch the attention of those who are unaware of the situation regarding an official English/NA release. There have been a LOT of threads recently about an English release or asking about a North America/Western release, so here’s some information concerning these topics!
As it stands right now, all the news we have about an NA/Western release is: “PSO2 is currently delayed for NA/Non-Japanese Release”.
UPDATE (July 24, 2015) – AsiaSoft has put out an official statement (reddit post link) regarding the removal and re-addition of the IP Block. Please take a moment to read it!
UPDATE (December 12, 2015) – Are you seeking info on the “English Version”/SEA version? Please see this link and this link if you are interested in the SEA version of PSO2. It contains first-hand experiences by a player who left the SEA servers. It does a superb job summarizing the biggest issues with the SEA server.
So what’s all this about an “English version” I keep hearing about?
Well, for starters, there are FOUR versions of Phantasy Star Online 2 in existence:
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The official and original Japanese version, created by Sega of Japan.
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The South-East Asia version (“SEA”), which is managed by AsiaSoft. This is most likely the “English Version” you have heard about.
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The Taiwanese version
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The Thailand
So, Telchii, which one should I play? I don’t speak Japanese, but I hear the SEA version is translated but region restricted.
The Japanese version. If you ask any PSO2 community which one you should play, you will get the answer, “Play the Japanese version”.
But why? Well, let’s compare the two biggest and most well known versions of PSO2 - the JP and SEA versions.
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The SEA and Thailand versions are managed by AsiaSoft - NOT any part of Sega. While the SEA version does have the convenience of being natively translated, it’s not worth playing on in most players’ opinions.
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The SEA version is well over a year behind in content. If you want to play the Gal Gryphon rerelease, you won’t be able to on the SEA version.
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The SEA version’s translation is a smack in the face to long-time fans. (See this Bumped.org page for some examples.)
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The SEA version has very few servers (2 servers with only a handful of blocks) while the JP version has 10 servers with many blocks on each.
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The SEA version also has a reportedly bad economy - with basic things such as extra costumes costing 10s of millions of meseta.
I know it sounds like a lot of SEA version bashing, but honestly, it’s sad to see what the SEA version quickly became instead of keeping up with its Japanese counterpart.
So how about the other two - the Taiwan and Thailand versions? Well, the Thailand version is managed by the same company (AsiaSoft) that is managing the SEA version. They’re equal in content. The Taiwan version is managed by a non-Sega company and is (from what readers are reporting in the comments below) roughly 2 months ahead of the SEA version in terms of content.
There have been reports of both the SEA version and the Taiwan version gaining small “Pay to Win” features, mostly in terms of temporary AC Scratch items with “only way to obtain is through AC” affixes. The JP servers do not have any straight up boosts or abilities that can be purchased.
(Thanks to many people in the comments for correcting me here.)
Okay, I get all that. But I still want to play the SEA/English version because there’s no longer an IP block.
The IP block was lifted as a means to help people, who live in the designated play regions, have a more reliable connection (or be able to connect in general). When these connection issues are resolved, we can expect the IP blocks to go back into effect.
If I want to play and end up going with the Japanese (JP) version, how do I do that? Is it translated?
There are many resources linked in this subreddit’s sidebar (and top drop-down menus, if you have custom subreddit CSS enabled). One of which is AIDA’s Registration Guide. This will take you through everything you need to do - from registering to setting up the Tweaker and getting the game installed.
Now for the best part - ever since PSO2 was in open beta, a small group of players have cracked the files and have translated most of the game’s text - just for the community to use! Now, where do you get these files and install them? Read on and you’ll find out just how easy it is…
In the setup process, you will set up the “PSO2 Tweaker” - a tool made by the same AIDA who wrote the above registration guide. This is a very handy tool that will automate a ton of stuff for you - including downloading and installing the English patches. Gone are the days of extracting zip archives and manually moving over files.
Are the translations perfect? No. (Contact AIDA in game or on PSO-World if you want to help translate.) There are some things which would be very difficult to translate (a common one complained about is the picture helpers in the tutorial). But, other “next to impossible” things have been translated - such as in game items.
Do I need a VPN or Proxy or play on the JP servers? I thought non-Japanese players were not allowed? Is the connection good?
Short answers: Most likely not, and as long as you aren’t a malicious/super toxic player, you should be okay.
Long answers: A while back, PSO2 got DDoS’d. In this process, Sega’s ISP butchered up their routing tables and made it impossible to connect outside of Japan without a proxy or VPN. During this time, community member /u/CyberKitsune created the PSO2Proxy (now integrated into the Tweaker) as a means to bypass this unofficial block.
NOTE: The PSO2Proxy will work ONLY on the JP version. See this post by its creator, /u/CyberKitsune.
Since then, most non-Japanese ISPs have regained access to Sega’s servers. The easiest way to check if you need a proxy/VPN is to head to the official site: pso2.jp. If it loads, you’re good to go. If not, you will need a proxy or VPN.
The only non-Japanese players to get banned (even ones on a shared PSO2 Proxy connection) are people participating in RMT, attempted cheaters, and players that decide to spam inappropriate things or be very toxic. I’ve been playing off and on since PSO2 was in open beta, and I have had no issues with my account being banned.
I have personally never had issues with the connection. As Comcastic as my internet can be, I have been just fine. Of course, there’s going to be a slight delay in some things (usually not real noticeable) due to your information flowing to and from the other side of the world.
Q: Does the JP version have any IP blocks?
A: Sega of Japan does block players in the SEA region, presumably as part of the contract with AsiaSoft for the SEA version.
As a side note, there is a LOT of information linked in the sidebar/top-drop-down menus. Google and the reddit search function, surprisingly, are also amazing resources for finding information related to this game.
Please check the (new!) subreddit FAQ before posting, too. Or, utilize the weekly “Quick Questions & Tech Support” thread, found stickied at the top of the subreddit each week.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Ask away!
–Telchii and the /r/PSO2 Mods
(EDIT: This is a self post. I get no karma from this, so vote how you will.)