is a video game for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

, produced by

Alfa System ''Alfa System'' is a video game development and planning company from Kumamoto City, Japan. The company was founded in 1988. In their early years Alfa System developed exclusively for NEC consoles with Hudson Soft and other publishers. They later ...

and published by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

. It is the sequel to '' Phantasy Star Portable'' and was released for the

in Japan on December 3, 2009. The North American version was released on September 14, 2010 while the Australian version was released on September 16, 2010, followed by the European version the next day.

Plot

''Phantasy Star Portable 2'' takes place three years after the events of ''Phantasy Star Portable''. The humans have now defeated and sealed off the SEED. However, because material resources in the Gurhal galaxy have been depleted, the Gurhalians plan to migrate using technology based on "sub-space sailing theory". The

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

is a member of Little Wing, a private mercenary group on the space colony resort of Clad 6.

Gameplay

The player starts by designing and customizing his or her own character by choosing facial features, gender, body and vocal features. Though much of the gameplay features will be similar to its predecessor, there will be some notable differences. Photon Points are no longer attached to weapons, but characters instead. Photon Charges have also been removed from the game.

Features

Players are able to transfer over their character from ''Phantasy Star Portable'' to the game. However, not all data can be carried over. Data that can be transferred over includes the character's name and parts of the character's original appearance. However, the character's level and items cannot be transferred over. As a bonus for having done so, however, players acquire a photon saber that is named "Exam", as well as one of four armor units depending on the class that they have chosen. Furthermore, NPCs mention at times that the player is a former GUARDIAN. Unlike ''Phantasy Star Portable'', ''Phantasy Star Portable 2'' features an infrastructure play mode allowing players to form a party with other users through an internet connection, similar to ''Phantasy Star Online'', ''Phantasy Star Zero'', and ''Phantasy Star Universe''. This service does not require a monthly subscription, as many other titles in the series do.

''Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity''

On August 8, 2010, the official ''Phantasy Star Portable 2'' site revealed ''Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity''. The game contains a new character named Nagisa (''Voiced by'':

Nana Mizuki is a Japanese voice actress, singer and narrator from Niihama, Ehime. She is represented by the agency StarCrew. Mizuki was trained as an enka singer, releasing one single under her birth name, Nana Kondō, in 1993 and made her debut as a voice ...

), and the addition of a fifth race, S.E.E.D infected humans called Dumans. It was released in Japan only on February 24, 2011.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of two nines and two eights for the original, and one ten and three nines (37/40) for the ''Infinity'' version.

References

External links

Official site
(Japanese) * {{Phantasy Star series Role-playing video games Action role-playing video games Phantasy Star video games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Video game sequels Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Sega video games 2009 video games Video games developed in Japan