Idola seems to borrow a bit from PSO2, one striking feature being how the Machina race greatly resembles the CASTs from PSO2 and the Demons looking like PSO2 Dumans, not sure where the Lycans and Gnomes came from (I mean the Lycans were "made by the gods" but the Gnomes apparently happened naturally) and I'll be curious to see if they appear in future main series games and if their names will change like maybe "gnomes" to "squats".

Course, I wouldn't expect Lycans to be a playable race as much as possible character customization items will allow you to RP as one (many of which already exist in PSO2).

I just wonder if the supposed "gods" of Vandor weren't former ARKS accompanying pioneers or maybe photoners? (Demons were said to be created by the gods IIRC, it's entirely possible they found a way to create them without Harded's DNA).

I also wonder if maybe there will be a connection between Idola and NGS?

Alternate universe BS, same as pretty much everything Phantasy Star. IIRC Idola gets some pso2 stuff come EP2 (Idola-wise).

@AwkwardSatori said in Is Idola set in PSO2's future?:

Alternate universe BS, same as pretty much everything Phantasy Star. IIRC Idola gets some pso2 stuff come EP2 (Idola-wise).

I think you're forgetting the Photoners had and ARKS have subspace travel technology. It was used by ARKS in the backstory of Nova, the backstory of PSO2: The Animation (which is how Aika went to Earth) and in Episode 4 (again, to reach Earth).

In the Japanese version, it was also used by the cast of Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity to reach the ORACLE Fleet which means every continuity is always canon to PSO2 and PSU.

That's... Kinda what I meant by alternate universe BS, I should've been clearer.

I mean, earth in PSO2 is a separate universe.

@AwkwardSatori My point is, it doesn't matter if it's in an alternate universe or not, it could still be set in PSO2's future... I'm really not sure why I have to spell this out and it is nothing short of infuriating to me...

Okay, let reword everything then. Unless you'd mean the close future or something, then my bad.

-Once Idola reaches it's second episode, members of current day ARKs (as in, PSO2 NPCs) do end up interacting around. Some of them being humans so , as I said, unless you meant the near future, the chances of it being in PSO2's future are very small because of limited lifespans.

-The Photoners are all part of Xion, except for Luther, Aurura and the Demise trio. However, I'm not going to say no to the possibility of yet another (or more than one) failed Xion clones having been dumped there and ending up as the "gods". If anything, that's probably the most likely.

I didn't play it for long but I saw at one point a PSO2 Gateway ship covered in moss and stuff showed up, it was obviously abandoned over many years. I think they called it the Ark.

They also play this song for that scene.

Idola, from my understanding, takes place in the very distant future of PSO2, even further than New Genesis. The presence of PSO2 characters like Risa and Matoi are due to them being brought into the future via something called a Stargate or through other means.

Most of my knowledge is from Tvtropes so forgive me if I'm wrong.

Welp. I'm still not convinced it's the future (mostly cause the few indications could be something else, time has been shown to go both ways among other things) , but I'm still playing the JP version and EP2 is still going on so who knows, I might be proven wrong and if so, I'll gladly admit I was wrong.

Due to the Star Gate being able to do time shenanigans (like pulling Gilbert from 300 years in the past), it is entirely possible that the Oracle Ship that entered it got sent into the far past (relative to the Oracle universe), and that the "present" could even still be in the past. Heck, it may even be a pocket universe where time dilation is in effect, so centuries on Vandor could have only been years in the Oracle universe.

Due to its status as a sidestory, I don't think we'll get a definitive, canon answer, though.

@AndrlCh said in Is Idola set in PSO2's future?:

Due to the Star Gate being able to do time shenanigans (like pulling Gilbert from 300 years in the past), it is entirely possible that the Oracle Ship that entered it got sent into the far past (relative to the Oracle universe), and that the "present" could even still be in the past. Heck, it may even be a pocket universe where time dilation is in effect, so centuries on Vandor could have only been years in the Oracle universe.

Due to its status as a sidestory, I don't think we'll get a definitive, canon answer, though.

Doesn't the ark predate the zodiarts in the backstory? I thought that it was the vessel that the "gods" "decended" in? Exactly what star gate could it have come through without a Aries zodiart?