It has been three years since the launch of PSO2 New Genesis. We’ve been joined by series producer Yuya Kimura and series director Daiki Hamazaki.

※日本語の原文記事はこちら

Original Interview （Japanese）

　On June 9th, 2024, the online RPG PSO2 New Genesis (NGS), available on PC/PS4/Switch and developed and operated by Sega, welcomed its 3rd anniversary.
　The June update will see the release of the 7th story chapter, as well as a new field, the “Nameless City.”


　The large-scale update NGS ver.2 was released for NGS’s 2nd anniversary. Bringing players the highly flexible sandbox called the Creative Space, and an innovative feature called “Cel Shading” that allows players to change the characters’ textures, making them look like they came out of an anime, this update caused a lot of buzz.

　This year, a new story and field that players have been waiting for will be released in June, and in July a card game that can be played within NGS called Line Strike will be available for players to enjoy. A new action, the M.A.R.S. device, is planned to be released at the end of July.


　The announcement of Line Strike in April’s NGS Headline certainly took us by surprise, as NGS continues to have a lot of content that piques our interest. Here at the game’s 3rd　anniversary we interviewed series producer Yuya Kimura and series director Daiki Hamazaki in order to get more details.

(Left) Series producer Yuya Kimura, (right) series director Daiki Hamazaki

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Celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of NGS, Looking Back on the Past Year

4Gamer:
　Thank you for joining us today.
　First off, congratulations on the 3rd anniversary of NGS. Following up the release of the large-scale update NGS ver.2 at the 2nd anniversary, what have your goals been for this past year?

Daiki Hamazaki:
　In the past year our update plans and content proposals have been geared towards additional content that players can enjoy playing for a long time, such as the Creative Space and the Leciel Exploration quest.
　Additionally, we have gotten positive feedback on the Dark Falz Solus and Dark Falz Dalion battles, so we feel that we have achieved our goals, to some extent.


Yuya Kimura:
　In April of last year we released Leciel and Chapter 5 of the story. With that we completed the updates that we’d planned out from the beginning, so from there we changed our direction towards ver.2.
　 Instead of a large update adding a new field and its related content once every six months, we decided to deliver quests, events, and campaigns in a much shorter span, so that there is something that can be enjoyed every week. I do believe we were able to achieve that.

4Gamer:
　During this past year were there any updates in particular that were well received?

Hamazaki:
　The Creative Space was one of our most well-received features. There are still plenty of people playing with it now, even one year after it was added.
　I get shown Creative Spaces that are posted to social media, and there are a lot of high-quality creations. The dev team is always surprised at the creativity being showcased, as we ourselves didn’t think some of these creations would be possible (laughs).
　It’s been almost a year since the Leciel Exploration was released, and thanks to the multiple updates as well as All-Ship Matching functionality, we have a very high player participation rate, and we are very pleased that everyone is enjoying the game.


4Gamer:
　So, was there anything that was poorly received?

Hamazaki:
　What was poorly received was the initial Leciel Exploration and Dark Falz Solus. I believe there were some complaints about the strict participation requirements, and the distributed content being too difficult.
　 Also, until November of last year there were a lot of complaints about the rewards, so that’s something we need to reconsider. To address that we came up with events like the Super Genesis Festival, and also reworked the drop settings for subsequent rewards.

4Gamer:
　Are you still getting complaints about the rewards?

Hamazaki:
　We have been monitoring social media posts, and we believe that improvements have been made.

4Gamer:
　Do you have any plans to address current requests?

Hamazaki:
　We are in the consideration phase, but we are looking into adding the all-ship matching functionality to quests other than Leciel Exploration, and relaxing the equipment enhancements.


4Gamer:
　This is changing topics a bit, but last December the Argenti Series equipment was distributed to those who achieved the class level requirement. Are there still many players who are using them?

Hamazaki:
　Recently many players have replaced them with items from the Reyaar and the Xover series, and there are many players who are using weapons from the Aeoni Dekelion series, which was a reward from the seasonal event.
　It seems there are players who are continuing to use the Argenti series because they don’t want to spend their Meseta (the in-game currency) on equipment.
　I don’t think it has enough battle power for the high-difficult quests such as Dark Falz Dalion, but it’s more than enough for the limited time quests.
　For players who are just coming back to the game, or players who have yet to get their desired equipment, we believe you can use the distributed weapons such as the Argenti series and the weapons gained through exchanging seasonal points, and then update your equipment in accordance with the pace of your gameplay.

Creative Spaces

4Gamer:
　About the Creative Spaces, how many players are interacting with it frequently?


Hamazaki:
　We can divide the players who interact with the Creative Space into two categories ? those who only visit other players spaces, and those who actually create their own.
　About 50% of all our active users only visit other players spaces. And about 20% of the whole are actively editing their space.
　With a stable active user base of dedicated players, we feel that this is long-lasting content that our players will continue to enjoy for a long time.

4Gamer:
　It’s amazing that 20% of players are actively creating... Currently the maximum number of spaces you can have is six, but do you hear from players that they don’t have enough spaces and therefore have to destroy existing ones?

Kimura:
　Well, I don’t know about having to destroy existing spaces to create new ones, but anytime a new space theme is added we do increase the number of spaces that can be had through Rental Spaces. This may not be enough for those who don’t want to spend currency. However, simply just increasing spaces would also increase the load on the server, so we would appreciate our players understanding regarding the current limitations.

4Gamer:
　The update this month will see the addition of a Japanese themed space. Up to now we’ve had the Aelio, Retem, and Kvaris themes, out of those which has been the most popular?


Hamazaki:
　Around 90% of players pick the Aelio theme. Well, it is the default theme, and there are probably players who would like to keep the first space they made. Retem and Kvaris are both tied for second.

4Gamer:
　The June update added a build part function that allows you to move to other spaces, which was pretty surprising to me personally. Do you plan to implement any major features related to build parts in the future?

Kimura:
　This build part allows you to jump from your space to an Alliance space, or to link up multiple rooms to make your space feel larger. Actually, this is something we’ve wanted to do ever since we implemented the Creative Space, and we’ve now finally been able to do it.


Hamazaki:
　As for more build parts with special functionality, we are planning to implement a battle table for which players can play the Line Strike card game. We hope that there’ll be players to use it in order to build a space for playing Line Strike, or a space for holding tournaments.
　We are also planning to distribute an official Creative Space where players can play Line Strike. We’d like to continue making updates so that it can be used as a place to play with new content.

4Gamer:
　I mentioned the Japanese-themed space before, but are there any future plans to add other themes that are not based on a region?


Hamazaki:
　We’ll look at how much usage it gets, and if it’s well-received we’d like to consider it.

4Gamer:
　The number of build parts has increased considerably. For new and returning players, it feels like it’ll take a lot of time to collect them, so are there any plans to ease the process of obtaining them?


Kimura:
　We don’t have any plans for that at present. Genesis Points, which are necessary for exchanging for Build Parts, have become easier to obtain, and once you obtain a part it disappears from the list, so I don’t think it’s difficult to understand. However, if you were to start collecting parts now, it definitely would feel like there’s a lot of them.

4Gamer:
　A lot of people want to be able to control a group of build parts at the same time, but is implementation of that difficult?
　
Hamazaki:
　We do have a lot of requests to be able to control a bunch of build parts at the same time. But as you said, honestly implementation of that is difficult.

The New Field “Nameless City”

4Gamer:
　A new field, the Nameless City has been added for the 3rd anniversary update. Are there any plans to expand upon this area in the future?


Kimura:
　The Nameless City is divided up into 3 sectors. The first two will be implemented in the June update, and the third one is scheduled to be released in August.

New Action “M.A.R.S.”

4Gamer:
　Next I’d like to talk about the new action “M.A.R.S.” The Nameless City is an area that’s tied to the story, but is M.A.R.S. also connected to the story in some way?


Kimura:
　M.A.R.S., which is planned to be implanted on July 31st, is not something that won’t be available to the player unless they advance through the new story chapter.

Hamazaki:
　In the story its development is alluded to, but you can use it without getting that far. One of our development conditions was that even new players could use it as quickly as possible, so don’t worry about that.

4Gamer:
　In order to use M.A.R.S., it is an action that you add to your sub-palette and activate?

Hamazaki:
　That’s correct. It’s implemented as an action you activate from the sub-palette.
　M.A.R.S. has its own usage gauge. The gauge only fills up over time, so if you think of it as something similar to a class skill I think that makes it easy to understand.
　The gauge takes a maximum of 9 minutes to fill, and it can be activated when the gauge is at 25%. The idea is that while you’re playing a quest, once the gauge gets up to 25% then you activate it. You can deactivate it at any time, so even in a situation where you activate it but the enemy you wanted to use it for vanishes, you won’t end up wasting the gauge.

4Gamer:
　So if you deactivate M.A.R.S., the gauge stops depleting and starts filling up again?


Hamazaki:
　That’s right. It’s an action where you will have to manage appropriately between storing it up and using it. If you fill the gauge to maximum you will be able to use it for 2 minutes consecutively.

4Gamer:
　Seems like it’s similar to the Dark Blast in PSO2. The damage it deals to enemies will be higher than that of the existing classes, right?


Hamazaki:
　The way it’s used, yeah, it might be similar to Dark Blast. Also, basically you can think of it as doing more damage than the existing classes.
　However, unlike Dark Blast, M.A.R.S. has 4 different types of main weapons and 3 different types of sub-weapons. You fight with a combination of 2 main weapons and 1 sub-weapon from these types.
　Also, while each Dark Blast form had decided actions, M.A.R.S.’s combo routes change in complex ways depending on the weapon combinations used.
　Due to this, it takes quite a bit of practice to discover the maximum synergy, so I believe that this is something that will satisfy those who like complex actions as well as those who enjoy exploring combo routes.

4Gamer:
　Would you say that it’s customizable?

Hamazaki:
　As a growth element there is something like a skill tree, as items acquired during quests can be converted into points and used to unlock skills. Each weapon has its own skills, so it is customizable in that you can enhance the weapons you use the most.
　As with the current class skill trees, you can reassign points. I think players will be able to try out different things, look for what suits them best, and enjoy customizing to suit the content.

4Gamer:
　Will the actions themselves be quite special?

Hamazaki:
　You’ll be fighting with a special armament, so it will be completely different from the normal player actions. It may take some time to get used to it, but we have prepared training quests for that purpose.

4Gamer:
　Will the usage of M.A.R.S. be limited to certain areas?

Hamazaki:
　For now, we don’t have any restrictions planned, as long as it’s an area where battles occur. It can be used in the new field Nameless City, and of course in existing exploration sectors, battle sectors, and in quests.


4Gamer:
　Even in the photography areas?

Hamazaki:
　You can. It’ll take a while to build up the gauge though (laughs).

4Gamer:
　That’s something to look forward to. The Mobile Cannon basically can only be used during quests, so that made taking pictures with it quite the challenge.

Hamazaki:
　The Mobile Cannon can be photographed in the Stia Trigger quests, but people want to take pictures of it in the open field, huh (laughs). The M.A.R.S. actions are pretty cool, so please enjoy taking pictures of it in various locations.

Card Game “Line Strike”

4Gamer:
　We talking about this briefly when discussing the Creative Space, but can you tell us more about the new content Line Strike that was featured in April’s NGS Headline?


Kimura:
　Those of you who have seen the card illustrations probably already know this, but it’s based on PSO2 characters. Therefore this is content that we’d like to use to celebrate the 12th anniversary of PSO2’s launch this July.

Hamazaki:
　As for the system, it’s a stand-alone mini-game similar to the Casino in PSO2, developed with the “base defense” quest as a motif.
　The game is played with two players, as each player has three bases. The rules are simple - players do battle using their cards, and whoever is the first to destroy two of their opponent’s bases is the winner.
　As for the battle modes, you can compete with other players within your ship in Ranked Battle, or take on other players within your ship randomly in Unranked Battle where the results aren’t reflected upon your rank. The main draw could end up being Free Battle, where you will take on your friends and players around you. We also have a mode where you’ll take on an NPC with a rotating deck, so there are a lot of ways to enjoy the game.

4Gamer:
　Will Line Strike also see updates?


Kimura:
　We are launching the game with 100 cards, but we plan to add more new cards in the future. The timing may not be regular, but we’ll consider it as we watch how things play out.

4Gamer:
　How does one begin playing Line Strike?

Hamazaki:
　Select Line Strike from Communications in the Main Menu, and then select either Ranked Battle or Unranked Battle to begin the matching process. For processing matches for all players in the same ship, the players will be moved to the Aelio Region for the battle itself, but entries can be made at any ARKS base. Free Battles and NPC battles can be played on the spot at any ARKS base or Creative Space.
　We are preparing an official Creative Space for Line Strike battles, so I hope that it’ll be a place where you can meet up with other players and do battle with them.

4Gamer:
　Do we get any sort of rewards from playing Line Strike?

Hamazaki:
　There are rewards, but it’s not very strong weapons or equipment. You will get Card Scratch Vouchers for playing in each battle mode. Collect them to be able to play Card Scratch and get rewards.
　The rewards are cards to be used in Line Strike, so you can enjoy a play cycle within Line Strike of battling, playing Card Scratch, and strengthening your deck.
　Duplicate cards can be converted into special recycle badges, which can then be exchanged for card sleeves and play mats. I think this is a good way to add a bit of your own personality to the game.

4Gamer:
　How many cards does the player have to start with?

Hamazaki:
　The players start off with one deck consisting of 15 cards. All players start off with the same cards.
　As I talked about before, cards can be obtained through Card Scratch, but for players who want to get a leg up on the competition, or would just like to get a particular card, there are two card sets, like starter decks, that can be purchased with AC. Vouchers can also be purchased with AC, so these are means by which you can increase your pool of cards.
　Of course, it is not necessary to purchase cards with AC. You can get plenty of cards by playing against others, so you can pick the method that best suits your play style.

4Gamer:
　I’m sure PSO fans are curious about this, so I’d like to ask if there are any parts that take Phantasy Star Online Episode III C.A.R.D. Revolution (PSO:EP3) into consideration?

Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution was released November 27, 2003 exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. It gained popularity as a card game using the PSO IP.

Kimura:
　In terms of the game rules, we didn’t take anything from PSO:EP3 into consideration. However, as we were discussing whether or not to add a card game to NGS, we were thinking no since we had PSO:EP3 (laughs).

　For those who aren’t familiar with the classic PSO series, they may be wondering why we’d suddenly add a card game. However, for long-standing fans, it seems they’ve been saying amongst themselves “Well, there was PSO:EP3 a while back...”

4Gamer:
　In NGS there are a lot of players who have been with the series for a long time.

Kimura:
　The game itself is quite different from PSO:EP3. However, many of those who worked on the development of Line Strike had played PSO:EP3 at the time, so there were those who wanted to add something of PSO:EP3, even if only a little something, to the game.

　As such, there are card sleeves based on the backs of the cards in PSO:EP3, and the BGM also is in line with PSO:EP3.


4Gamer:
　That’s really exciting. Incidentally, PSO2 also had trading cards...

Kimura:
　The Phantasy Star Online 2 Trading Card Game (PSO2 TCG), right? Actually, the card illustrations in Line Strike are taken straight from PSO2 TCG. It seems that some people recognized this when they saw the release trailer.

　When Line Strike was announced, there may have been some people who thought that we’d diverted time and resources away from the main game in order to work on Line Strike. However, as for dev we worked on it bit by bit during whatever free time we could find. The illustrations were not newly drawn but were adapted from past images, so it didn’t take long to create this content.

4Gamer:
　Is Line Strike something you wanted to include in NGS from the beginning?

Kimura:
　Not quite from the beginning. Shortly before NGS’s launch, within the dev team we did have a vision that we wanted to include something like a mini-game, so we held a contest within the team to decide what that game would be.
　Within those ideas was the current Line Strike, an idea with defensive battle elements. For development after that, a group of volunteers who like card games and wanted to try something different came together and worked on it bit by bit, while prioritizing the NGS main content updates.

4Gamer:
　Any thoughts on making Line Strike into a mobile game?

Kimura:
　Not at present (laughs). It’s not something we can drop directly into a separate app, it’d be quite difficult to port. However, I do believe that it stands as a game you can enjoy on its own merits.

4Gamer
　Will you be releasing content similar to Line Strike in the future?

Kimura:
　If I had to choose between whether I’d like to or not, I would like to, but it did take quite a long time to develop Line Strike, so I really can’t say anything either way.
　When we started development on Line Strike, we had no guarantee that we’d ever be able to actually finish it. We were able to implement it thanks to the hard work of our team members. So while we would like to release new content, we can’t really make any promises.

4Gamer:
　This was an idea that came from a competition. Did the game systems change greatly from the initial stages?

Kimura:
　The proposal was very well done, so the game is about 90% of what was proposed. Incidentally, since this is a digital game we designed it for that medium, but as we also felt that card games are analog, we did make an analog board game at first with a similar structure.


4Gamer:
　You went out of your way to make an analog game?

Kimura:
　There’s no way to know if a card game is going to be interesting or not until you actually play it. So for Line Strike, we played it analog while supplementing in our minds what the digital portion would look like, and felt like it would be fun.
　We did the initial balance adjustments in analog, then created samples that would work in the game...we tried various things as we developed it. The dev team seemed to enjoy it.

Everyone’s Favorite Character Creator

4Gamer:
　One of NGS’s selling points is its highly versatile character creator. Would it be difficult to increase the makeup slots or open up the maximum accessory cost?

Kimura:
　That is a fundamental part of the design, so if we were to do things like that things would fall apart. We have had a lot, definitely a lot of requests for that, but we can’t suddenly increase capacity like that...

Hamazaki:
　We’d already been pushing the cost limits from the beginning. So it’s quite difficult to push them any further.

4Gamer:
　Personally I do feel that there aren’t enough makeup slots. Once you apply cheek and lip makeup all the slots are filled and you can’t apply anything else. So, for example, would it be possible to combine two of the implemented makeups into one?

Everyone wants a combination of the Gaudy Makeup/B and Gradated Lipstick/B...right?

Kimura:
　While that would be possible, I think that different people want different combinations. It would be good if everyone had the same opinion on what they’d like to combine. If there was something that very clearly worked as a set, maybe we could do it.

4Gamer:
　If there’s a combination that appears frequently, then that could become a set.

Kimura:
　First we’ll have to look at the data.

Hamazaki:
　However, there’s also the issue of the makeup intensity.

Kimura:
　If we make it a combination then you wouldn’t be able to adjust the thickness to your liking. So it is quite difficult.

Hamazaki:
　It’s difficult to increase the cost limit for accessories, but we may be able to do something about increasing slots. We are planning to do this in an update.

4Gamer:
　A little while back you released character creator data for NPCs. However there are still a few characters whose data have yet to be released, such as the Central operator Oranje. Do you have any plans to release those?


Kimura:
　Actually, the character data that hasn’t been released, hasn’t been released due to specifications. At the time we didn’t anticipate distributing the character data, so we ran into some issues when trying to create data that could be reproduced.

4Gamer:
　So you can get close to making them in the character creator, but the specifications don’t allow for a perfect recreation.

Kimura:
　That’s correct. If we change the NPC data so that they can be made in the character creator, we’d have to remake all the cutscenes, so distributing them is a bit difficult.

4Gamer:
　The other day an AC Scratch ticket was released that features variations of emotes and actions, like inverting them or having a different version of them. Are there any plans to release similar Scratch tickets in the future?

993: Rod Pose Rev

Kimura:
　This time we released them on a trial basis, wondering if there was any demand for them. But the response was greater than we anticipated, with players enjoying things such as matching them symmetrically, so we feel that there is a demand.
　Our next plans haven’t been decided yet, but we haven’t released everything yet, so the odds that we do something again in the future are quite high.

4Gamer:
　Shifting topics a bit, you can display your character in the Creative Space using the ARKS Decoy. We can only choose from idle actions for its post, but would it be possible to have the Decoy do emotes as well?

Kimura:
　The lobby actions include being idle as well as movement, and it can be difficult to distinguish between the two. Idle motions are simple, but the others are difficult.

Hamazaki:
　As there are lobby actions that can and cannot be used, that would be quite confusing, so we decided to unify things to just idle animations.

Updates following the 3rd Year Anniversary, Holding Offline Events

4Gamer:
　The 3rd anniversary update was released around April/May. And in July a new area is being planned, but if there is anything you can share about subsequent updates, please share.

Kimura:
　At this stage, there isn’t anything I can share with you yet. We will be releasing our road map at the end of June, so I’ll be able to share a bit more then.　

Hamazaki:
　The new sector Nameless City is a stage that’s been built to put the new action M.A.R.S. to good use, so first I hope players will enjoy getting used to that.

4Gamer:
　Do you have any plans for any offline, out-of-game events?

Kimura:
　We’re just now starting to think about it. Not large scale, but something small scale. Something that the players will want to gather for and do something together.

4Gamer:
　Nothing like a pop-up store or a collab cafe?

Kimura:
　I can’t say anything specific, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

4Gamer:
　When it comes to collabs that aren’t game-related, is it Sega that initiates the conversation?

Kimura:
　Recently, generally speaking there are a lot of apparel companies that collaborate with subcultures, but basically we have an agency that handles that kind of thing.
　That’s how things worked for PSO2 as well. But for 100-Hour Curry, that’s one where we made the approach ourselves. Given that they’re managed by ARCS, how could we not? (laughs)

4Gamer:
　For the 100-Hour Curry collab, there are a lot of places where the event ended rather quickly.

Kimura:
　I made my way out to the Kanda branch as soon as it started.

Hamazaki:
　I went out to the Kashiwa branch myself (laughs). I confirmed they had it over the phone and went immediately.

4Gamer:
　What do you have planned for future in-game collaborations?


Kimura:
　There isn’t much I can talk about right now, but we are planning anime collaborations every month up to September.

4Gamer:
　When you do a collaboration, does that bring in new players who are fans of the series?

Kimura:
　We don’t get that many brand new players, mostly we get players who’d stepped away from the game for a while coming back. For collabs, in part we are choosing IP that resonates with fans of the Phantasy Star series, so we get the biggest response from existing and former players.
　I think this is not just for NGS, but there aren’t a lot of players who pick up a new game just because it does a collaboration with a property they like.
　However, it is good for growing awareness. For example, for people who like the property that we collaborated with, as they collect info for that title they may learn that the game called NGS exists, and I think there’s value in that.
　Maybe in six months or a year from now, they may think they’d like to play some kind of online game and remember NGS. So I think this is very important in terms of expanding awareness.　

4Gamer:
　In conclusion, please share your plans for the future and share with us your message to the players.

Hamazaki:
　We’ve reached the 3rd anniversary of NGS thanks to the support of all our players. Truly, thank you. PSO2 is heading towards its 12th anniversary in July, and I’m extremely happy to have people playing the game for such a long time.
　Three years, and also 12 years. I’ve been involved since the initial development of PSO2, so this is very emotional for me. We plan to continue to deliver content in the future, such as Line Strike and new actions, so I hope you all enjoy it.
　We are continuing to develop working towards NGS’s 4th anniversary, so I hope to see you all there.
　
Kimura:
　I feel like I’ve mostly said all the things I wanted to say (laughs). Even having said that, I am extremely happy that we’re celebrating the 3rd anniversary of NGS and the 12th anniversary of PSO2.
　As Hamazaki said, this is all thanks to the players. The dev and management teams are both committed to continuing an NGS experience that is easier to play and more fun than before.
　I believe that being able to provide the service for as long as possible is the most important thing in terms on online games. We said we’d do it for 10 years when starting PSO2, and now before we realized it, here we are in year 12.
　We will do our best to keep the game going for as long as possible, and to leave a place where players can gather.

4Gamer:
　Thank you for your time today.


※The responsibility for the contents of the Japanese article lies with 4Gamer.
The responsibility for the translation lies with SEGA.

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