It looks like the release date is 2011, but I haven't been able to find any details about the game yet or whether they'll eventually release it elsewhere. I know this is a few months old, but anyone else interested in this? Or have more information?

Having played Phantasy Star Zero recently, I'm kind of interested to see what they'll do with this next.

I would love a follow up PSO style game. Zero was such a letdown, IMO. Not by the general gameplay, but simply by the fact that in multi-player co-op, you can only play levels that you have already beaten. I loved actually progressing through PSO with my friends. Fun as hell. Good times.

Oh, I didn't know that about Zero - shame. Would be awesome to progress with a group, and frankly I'd feel more comfortable with a PC interface since that would make chat significantly easier.

...although, come to think of it, they'll probably have this as a paid subscription kind of deal like they've had with the rest of the PSO series online, save for PS0. That may be a bit of a damper for me buying it since I actively avoid playing games online that I have to pay for on a constant basis. If it was good enough for several games to have free online coop play, then it's good enough for me.

And granted, it has been only maybe half a year since the trailer was released, but you'd think they'd have more details out by now if it's projected to be out in...this year. In some ways it's kind of comforting to not have an announcement of an announcement, etc., but by now you'd think they have something more to show.

From the information I've been able to glean from pso-world.com, it'll be released later this year in Japan. As a matter of fact, the beta testing is only open to people who subscribed to Blue Burst in Japan before they shut down the servers this past December and won a random lottery. There is no word on whether or not the "2011 release" will be global or not.

Regardless, once this game launches, sayonara Azeroth.

Regardless, once this game launches, sayonara Azeroth.

This. A thousand times over, this.

I doubt it'll get me to leave CoH forever, but I would love to play PSO again. I'd prefer it through my Dreamcast but sadly that day has passed forever.

Although, if I could somehow turn my DC into a PC...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxqukE7U ... r_embedded

Gameplay trailer. Looks a like a mix between Portable games and Devil May Cry.

The Ranger combat looks really fun. The way she was holding the rifle looked similar to Mass Effect.
I'm super excited for this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTMsDp7Hbqo

Same trailer as before only now with english subtitles and much cleaner video.

http://www.segabits.com/?p=11444

Trailer and screenshots.

- Graphically looks a lot like a shinier PSO, with a few PSU influences.
- In one of the screenshots, there appears to be a Whitill section ID badge on a HUmars chest, but I was unable to spot Section IDs on any other characters in the screenshots.
- MAGs appear to be missing, although there appear to be Partner Machinery looking circles on the characters backs.
- Gameplay looks to be a mixture of traditional PSO, but with PSU dodging, and new jumping ability.
- There will supposedly be randomised terrain each time.
- Seamless weather effects in the levels.
- Random events may happen during the course of play (Example: In the trailer you see a ship crash, and it appears you have to defend it from waves of monsters until it can take off again).
- Music sounds a lot like the original PSO soundtrack.

All in all, I am very looking forward to this. Hurry up Sega. I want to wave goodbye to Azeroth. Ecstasy and I have Rappys to hunt!

Must admit, I'm impressed so far. It's likely going to be pay-to-play, though...I may try it out if there is a free trial, and if I get some better income soon, I may well sign up for it. It looks a lot more fluid than the original PSO, and I already like what I'm seeing. It looks very cool.

And yeah, I'm calling RAcast right now. Even though they've not shown us pics of those in action yet.

I'll probably play Hunewearl as usual. I'm one of these guys who always plays the chick characters in games. And if people give me some cool items because they think I'm a girl, who am I to complain?

I would hope they put in a DECENT single player mode, but that seems to be asking for too much out of an online game. If PSU taught me anything, it's that the minimalist approach to the story in PSO was the best way to go, that way we didn't get some of those godawful characters that we did in PSU (Magashi has gotta be the worst villain in rpg history).

But if SEGA insist on charging for this like I know they will, I'll only play for three months then move on like I did with PSU. When they charge the same price monthly that you'd pay for World of Warcraft, then I wanna see the same epicness as WoW.

I agree, PSO's storyline was much more haunting and made you put the pieces together, rather than it being a straight-out narrative in PSU with really dorky characters who you just couldn't take seriously.

As far as character choices go, I generally go with what I can live with. That is usually something that looks cool. Some games really have stupid designs for the guys and awesome ones for the ladies, or vice versa. I actually ended up played a RAcaseal as my highest-level character after I came up with a concept for the character that I could stick with, though I did create a RAmar that worked out pretty well too.

A lot of my experience, however, was offline - I never played PSO online except via Blue Burst, and that not for long because I had logged so many hours on single player that I couldn't stay entertained enough by the game to play it long enough to hang out with some cool people and really enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcE1ZMt-kss
New video, with gameplay!

That's actually the same video, although the quality of it is a lot better and it has translations into English, so that's rather nice to see.

...
Well, crud. Shows how much I paid attention.