I'm on a PC now and thought I'd go ahead and post it since it is easier than tapping on a phone lol

I was in South Korea when they announced the closed beta for the Xbox. I was anxious and kept wondering when the release was going to to be for the other platforms like on Sony, Nintendo and PC. This was because I had everything else BUT the Xbox haha. Well, as time went by I started to realize that it doesn't seem like it was going to happen during this time for other platforms.

I saw that you could register on windows 10. So I decided to register on the surface pro I had which had Windows 10 installed(It was on its' last charge since I didn't have the correct plug to charge it with). I thought I was all set and at least will get the CBT rewards...until later on I saw that Urgent Quests would need to be completed! lol Later I double checked the date for the CBT ... and I was sure I was going to miss it completely.

After days of reviewing different Xboxes for prices, performance, convenience, playability, and the help from others on twitter(including PSO2's twitter) I decided that I was going to get the Xbox One X(was also $150 off). But since I was in South Korea... I didn't want to order it and have it sitting out in front of the door until I got back.

So I reached out to my relative to see if she could pick one up for me and have it setup and pre-loaded when it was available. I was going to see if she wanted to maybe play it and at least she could earn the CBT rewards. She picked up the system but was already busy with other games and had no time for PSO2(hope she doesn't regret it later xD Because She played a lot of PSO and PSU before as well).

I noticed later that I actually may have a chance to be part of the CBT after all since it was happening from 07FEB-08FEB ending at midnight PST. Now... the PST part was very important to me because I am EST and that means it would end at 3am EST. All the Urgent Quests were also not as early as it looked! My flight back in South Korea was in the morning of 08FEB.. so I was flying backwards in time and getting back around 6pm EST on 08FEB.

The Xbox wasn't setup so when I had the time I set up the Xbox and started the download as soon as I could. It took a bit before it completed enough where I could play it. I wanted to get in on the Urgent Quests since I missed out on all of Friday and only had what was remaining of Saturday left. If I was lucky enough I would be able to get at least three done for the Dreamcast mag.

I created my character and played the tutorial parts, but... once I wanted to play the game online with others and get into the Urgent Quests... I was brought back to the main screen. I had to finish downloading and installing the rest of the data haha.

This part took a lot longer... I even created a couple more characters for fun and another on Ship 02. It was about 8:45pm EST and I was finally able to play online. I didn't know where I had to go and was lost a bit but made it just in time for the concert(all the jumping O_O)!

After it was over I eventually got help in finding out how to start Urgent Quests. I was able to do the one after the concert. I had a good time and was happy with what I was able to do... but then heard about the CBT being extended! I super happy and it meant that I would actually now be able to finish enough of the Urgent Quests for all the CBT rewards since I knew we couldn't just repeat the same Urgent Quest in the same time slot!

Since then it's been hard not being able to play again.... Forums have been a great way to cope along with the PSO2 twitter page whenever they post(time to follow that instagram too haha). But I must say... the biggest fix that helped was probably the Sonic movie over the weekend. I don't know why but it got me super excited for the movie and any potential future movies. I kept looking up everyone else's reactions and the reviews, etc. It was like when PSO2 CBT ended ALL OVER AGAIN haha.

So now I am finding a balance between Sonic news and PSO2 news. Just balancing between the two and keeping calm haha

Anyways, it was a crazy ride to get to CBT... If it weren't for my relative, the timezone difference, the extension, PSO2 staff and everyone on this same voyage through social media.... I wouldn't have had a chance to enjoy it as much as I did! Much thanks!

If anyone has any stories they want to share I'd like to read some

I'm a PC user, so I didn't get to enjoy the CBT. However, way back when Guild Wars 2 was just coming out, I heard the Japanese PSO2 was just releasing, so I looked up ways on how to get the game, and I ended up playing it for a while after exhausting my desire to play Guild Wars 2. This is what led me to find the North American PSO2 website back then, and the original release timeline of 2013, which also happened to be when FFXIV 2.0 was going to release after its rocky start.

In the end, PSO2's website would stay untouched, and the only news we would get was in a blog post on the SEGA Website in 2013+. After that, everything fell silent, and the domain became nothing after a while (the website taken down.) But then last E3/etc. we finally got news of PSO2 coming to the west, and I gasped and was like, "IT'S BEEN 3000 (Seven) YEARS."

And here I am now. My SEGA JP account is the same one I signed up with all those years ago, I tried PSO2 JP again for a while, and am currently playing it on Ship 01 while I wait, and getting up to speed on Episodes 1-3+ while working on Summoner and how it handles.

Tldr.

I was watching pso2 anime on hulu, fb noticed and showed me an a post from pso2NA. Having always heard my friends talk about how great it use to be, figured I'd give it a shot. Hits that mmo ich well. Hoping my DCUO group will crossover as well.

Mine is pretty simple. Heard of PSO2 from a colleague at work. We went to a net cafe after work and I created an account and started playing. half a month later I bought a laptop and have been playing for 6 years now on JP. Made a lot of friends through the communities over the years. There are those who plan to start anew and those who have been waiting to play for years. So I decided to split my time between them and play with new and old friends alike.

For now I will be devoting most time to NA till I can get a PC or Laptop again. Then I will be playing at scheduled times on both servers to maximize EQ/UQ timings. (Which will be actually pretty easy since the time zones are so far apart.) I hope to be able to play just as much on NA as I have on JP and help create a fun and enjoyable enviorment.

I have both a PC and Xbox. I got into the PSO franchise back in Phantasy Star Universe back on the Xbox 360 and at the time I did not have my gaming PC. I played PSU for many years and was hooked into the game more than anything else I have been before. While I don't really play my consoles anymore since I have built my gaming PC, I did keep Gold via Xbox Ultimate Game Pass due to the awesome deal Game Pass is, and I always had Insider for other betas of games I wanted to try out every once in awhile. So I just kept it to this day and watched like a hawk on any news related to PSO2 since it's failure in releasing in 2012/3. I played on JP PSO2 for a few years but I was always turned off by the lack of communication ability since there was so few English players as well as real life getting in the way. Now that it's hitting NA, I am making sure to do whatever it takes to get time to play this game because this game is my guilty pleasure.

I personally played a TON of the PSU demo on xbox 360 and some of the of the older ones of different console throughout the years, This game has a special place in my heart! I like a lot of people played the japan server but was banned around 5 times before i just gave up, apparently you can be banned for being from the us but i cant catch a break so when the beta came out i bought an xbox and played as much time as i could. if you were on ship 2 you might have saw my name winning big in the casino it was (Andy) i had a BLAST and i loved every second of it! i can't wait until the game is out im so excited!

Loooooong time PSO fan, was mega hyped about PSO2 NA release back in the day. Signed up for JP (god, getting past the captcha was annoying) played for a hot minute, loved it, but wanted a true Western release.

WaitingSkeleton.jpg

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Watched as time passed nothing happened, moved on, got married, moved around my country, kept in touch with friends playing JP...

Then boom, Western release announced.

LETSGO.ico

Signed up for CBT through dat insider hub, and here we is now.

@SamuraiCrazy said in Stories of how everyone got to(or not) be able to play PSO2 CBT:

Tldr.

I was watching pso2 anime on hulu, fb noticed and showed me an a post from pso2NA. Having always heard my friends talk about how great it use to be, figured I'd give it a shot. Hits that mmo ich well. Hoping my DCUO group will crossover as well.

That's wild - Never in a million years would I expect this to happen. Although I guess similar things happened with the .Hack series - people watch the anime, "This is cool, oh, there's a game?" Etc.

So I guess I should have expected it in a million years.

@The-Question said in Stories of how everyone got to(or not) be able to play PSO2 CBT:

We went to a net cafe after work

Maaan net cafes. Simultaneously so sad and glad those are not really a thing in the states anymore.

@Rantious said in Stories of how everyone got to(or not) be able to play PSO2 CBT:

@The-Question said in Stories of how everyone got to(or not) be able to play PSO2 CBT:

We went to a net cafe after work

Maaan net cafes. Simultaneously so sad and glad those are not really a thing in the states anymore.

Sometimes I miss Lan centers, but NA is where you buy your own rigs and stay home.

omg so many cool stories! I also played a lot of PSO on DC and GC. I even got it for Xbox1 one day but never really played it. And Played a lot of PSU on PC. When Iheard the announcement of PSO2 originally coming out I was really excited about it and even tried to play the PSO2 JP version but at the time we were expecting a US release as well so I didn't want to go through all the manual language patching and sign ups. PSO2 NA release was going to be an xmas gift but that never happened since it never came out lol For a while I also checked the site at times and would visit PSOW from time to time. Just so happy after the announcement it was finally coming over xD

@coldreactive I also had to find a game to play while waiting for the NA release after a while and that pretty much became FFXIV.. but I only enjoyed the glamour(which I most likely will enojoy from PSO2 as well), fishing(and other gathering classes), and just sitting around chatting lol Never enjoyed the battle system too much sync it felt ... a little boring to me. I would just play again if a friend gets me to come back haha

@SamuraiCrazy woah,, I didn't even know there was an anime on Hulu. Now I have something to add to my list of things to watch before this comes out! haha thanks!

@The-Question That's awesome. I was thinking about some old buds that I used to play with back in the day but it was a little harder to keep in contact back then and people just stopped logging on certain messengers over time and probably didn't think that we'd lose contact lol some guild sites are also gone and cant be found now too lol
Also at least you know being on both JP and NA you have urgent quests and events to play on both haha

@BlackRadient I haven't had an Xbox since the 360 for L4D. I was thinking about getting the gamepass or something rather than just the Gold Live membership as well because of your same reasons haha I might end up doing it now that you mentioned it once this free month expires. I also want to play as much as possible once it's out. I feel like I missed SO much since it was out in Japan for SO long! I can't wait to meet so many people on the servers too!

@Andy Why would you have been banned lol I saw a streamer a day or two ago who said he was banned for trading 30 mil meseta for nothing once to another player. BTW your name is awesome haha

@Rantious omg... you typing out those images I can immediately can picture them! It sounds like you have had the most exciting and wonderful time while PSO2 NA was not out yet. It's a bit late but Congratulations on your marriage and all the happiness that has happened since!

@Hengbok

Yeah my sleep schedule on non work weeks will be sleep a few hours, play for a while on JP. Sleep for a few more hours then play for a while on NA. Of course leave plenty of time for eating and stretching. Then on work weeks I will probably do play based on days. Day 1 JP, Day 2 NA, etc...

I downloaded the XBOX Insider App and signed up for the PSO2 Beta. Not really much of a story in terms of how I got to play the game.

I've been a PSO fan for a long time now. I discovered the game when playing it on a friend's gamecube. My first time playing online was with PSOBB. I also played PSU online for a bit as well. Never really got big into the community. Did a lot of random runs or just played with already existing friends or by myself. I've also played the various spin offs released on various platforms over the years. Then eventually tried the PSO2 JP servers near release. It was fun, but a lot of effort to go through when I thought there was an English release on the way. Wasn't expecting to wait 8 years later, but here we are.

I was watching XBOX E3, growing bored of the games being showed, and really needed a restroom break. I was growing pretty bored and it seemed like things weren't improving so i decided to take a break during state of decay 2. When I got back, I see Phil Spencer talking with a PSO2 logo behind him and I am thinking Oh no what did i miss. Still sad I missed that, would of been a very hype moment. I would of recognized it the moment the music went on I'm pretty sure. I'll never know now though.

I'm just very excited the game is going to be playable in English finally. I was basically expecting PSO2 to never be released here and figured I'd never play it.

Man the nostalgia.

PSO on DC was my first online experience. I'll never forget coming home from school and stopping by my friends house and walking in on his older brother playing.

He was running a HUmar and was standing in Forest 1. When suddenly out of nowhere.... Another character ran by him. My 12 year old mind was blown that it was another human being playing somewhere else in the world. I used every dime I had saved and had a Dreamcast by that weekend.

I've played every version of the game even when you needed specific ISPs to play (EarthLink!). GC, Xbox, Xbox 360, PC.

I've waited so long for this game to come out and literally shed grown man tears when it appeared at e3 last year.

Signed up for CBT immediately and rocked out for 21 hours. Plan on mainlining this game for a long time to come. I have 8 years of pent up PSO in me.