Start Playing Phantasy Star Online 2!

Overview:

If you are in a hurry and looking for a guide to install PSO2 and play it in English, scroll down to the "How-To" section! If not, here are a few words beforehand...

Phantasy Star Online 2 is an online, multi-class based, pseudo-third-person shooter/beat-em-up, mashed together with action-packed, realtime fighting, Sci-fi anime, MMORPG goodness. It takes place in the Phantasy Star lineage of games, going back to the 80's and originating from Japan. Phantasy Star involves a sci-fi futuristic world, where humans and other races fight various types of aliens from different planets and galaxies, using technologically advanced weapons such as plasma rifles, laser swords, and various tech-magics such as fire magic and dark magic. Sadly PSO2 is only out in Asia and has not been released in the US yet. In 2012, Sega announced PSO2 would be coming to the US, but with no reasonable time frame (and by not reasonable I mean none at all). Two years later us Phantasy Star fans are getting impatient and really want to play already. So here I've decided to make a guide explaining just how you can do that, right now! Last week I made a post about it, trying to get people to download and play with me, which I have since deleted because it was linked to the wrong version of PSO2 (the "Playpark" version, for Southeast Asia, which is English). I say the "wrong version" because PSO2 originally came out in Japan. Thus, the Japanese version is the definitive PSO2 game, with the most up-to-date patches, the most released updates, and the most content. Compared to the other version, JP PSO2 has at least 3 to 4 times as much content. This is why I highly recommend to get the JP version of Phantasy Star Online 2, and not to get the SEA (Playpark) version.

So back to business, I would like to introduce PSO2 to as many gamers out there I can. I used to be a big PSU (Phantasy Star Universe) player, and I have really enjoyed playing PSO2 since I've started playing it. I also think a lot of people out there would enjoy it as well. Plus, it's free to play!

Who would like PSO2? Those who like:

• Phantasy Star games, or
• Casual to Intermediate MMO's
• Action RPG's
• Beat-em-up's
• Sci-fi Anime games

How-To Download & Play PSO2:

NOTE: To get PSO2 on your computer up and running and in English requires a bit of patience. It is not a "quickly download and then play right away"-type of game. This is a Japanese only game, meaning you must sign up on a Japanese website which is somewhat confusing, then download a very large game, install it, and finally patch it into English.

Because this game is for Japan-local players only, to get the JP version of PSO2 as a Westerner is kind of tricky. IP's outside of Japan are automatically blocked and often banned when attempting to connect to the servers, so you must use a proxy server (but this is very easy because there is one built into the English patcher/launcher). Using this same launcher, you will also be able to play PSO2 in English.

Please follow these steps to play PSO2 JP in English:

1. Go here and follow this guide to sign up with a Japanese account. This is required to be able to actually sign into PSO2 once you've downloaded and patched the game. This will be your PSO2 game account. NOTE: This is the trickiest step in this whole process, and it's because the website is in Japanese. You will get frustrated and you will mess up. I messed up several times before it was able to go through. Try to be patient.
2. Download the PSO2 game client here through the Ark's Layer website with the linked Torrent file. This is a legitimate download, as this is a free to play game and a freely distributed game, it's just hosted locally to be easier to download versus downloading super slowly directly from Japan. Click on the link that says "You can grab the setup files here", the game download I believe is around 20GB. Ark's Layer is the website running the English patcher as well.
3. Download the PSO2 English patcher here, aka the "PSO2 Tweaker". This is an awesome program that has many features such as patching the game into English, fixing errors and problems with the game, redownloading and backing up patches, and much more. The people who worked on (and are still working on) this program have done amazing work.
4. Goto where you downloaded the PSO2 game client (the Torrent file from step 2). There should be an installation EXE in this folder. Use this EXE to install the game client to your machine.
5. Install the PSO2 Tweaker (English patcher) into the PSO2 folder.
6. Run the PSO2 Tweaker, and clicking the "Orb" in the upper left of the screen, install the English patches. 
7. A proxy IP will be required to play from outside of Japan. Fortunately the PSO2 Tweaker has a built-in proxy ability but does not come with the proxy IP by default. You must follow this guide here and then you can quickly get a proxy to play PSO2. This proxy is ran by a PSO2 player CyberKitsune, who is running this proxy off of a server for all of us other Western PSO2 players. Thanks CyberKitsune!
8. Play PSO2 JP in English! I'd recommend creating a character on Ship 2, as there are mostly English players there.

If you encounter any issues or crashes when first running the game (which you probably will - don't panic!), run the troubleshooters on the PSO Tweaker program through the Orb selection menu. I have found in the two times I installed this game on two separate computers, I had to run the GameGuard fix through the PSO2 Tweaker's troubleshooting options when I first installed the game. There are various other fixes and patches you can run through the Tweaker as well. Keep in mind you are running a somewhat large game in a language and country the game is not made for playing in. If you have any more issues that cannot be solved through the Tweaker's troubleshooting options, a great resource would be to check for help here at the PSO2 subreddit, or also at the PSO World forums here.

And that's it! You will be online, creating an awesome character and then playing PSO2 in a just a little time. It's a little tricky at first but once you get the game up and running you should be good to go. Have fun, and if any of my friends out there want to play PSO2 with me just hit me up! I love this game! :)