News

08/18/2006: Pre-order gifts and telephone cards Edit: Net Cafe meseta giveaway

• EspioKaos on PSOW has posted in this thread that numerous retailers in Japan will give you a Visual Book and a Promotional Soundtrack when you pre-order PSU. Another nine track soundtrack can be found on the official site. It also appears that Sega released seven custom character designed telephone cards.
• Net Cafe has also announced a 30,000 meseta giveaway, but very little is known about the event. SAsim 6:43, August 18, 2006 (PDT)

08/17/2006: Visual Book release date, blog update, and Games Convention

• Gamefront.de has reported on August 14th that the PSU Visual Book will be released in Japan as of August 31, 2006.
• There has also been a large update on the Developer's Blog on the official site discussing simple information about Network Mode and Story Mode. The update also sports a mini developer interview.
• A PSU booth demonstration booth in Leipzig, Germany will also be running through the 24rd - 27th this month, in one of the Games Convention halls. SAsim 3:45, August 17, 2006 (PDT)

08/15/2006: Four commercials now up on the official JP PSU site

EspioKaos on PSOW has posted in this thread that there are now 4 videos of commercials currently airing on Japanese TV on the official site. These videos can be found here. Of note is the third commercial, which has not been seen by the community yet, and appears to show a SEED Vance in Raffon Meadow, whereas in the Closed Beta they only appeared in the Linear Line. Mewn 10:49, 15 August 2006 (PDT)

08/14/2006: PS2 Premiere leaked Edit: Several rare weapons revealed

On another forum, Sodaboy has recently posted videos, music and an ISO of the PSU PS2 Premiere Disc. Tycho 07:06, 14 August 2006 (PDT)

• I'll take this opportunity to state that links to the ISO or to forum posts with links to the ISO are not allowed here. Mewn 12:07, 14 August 2006 (PDT)
• Nisshoku has uncovered a picture of what may possibly be rares. Tycho and Mewn will be on the case to analyze the text and pictures. SAsim 3:07, 14 August 2006 (PDT)
• A lot of the names were quite hard to make out, but anyway, here is the result. Tycho 15:20, 14 August 2006 (PDT)

08/11/2006: JP PSU Developer's Blog now up Edit: SIGN apparently does not accept foreign CCs

• Ryna on PSOW has posted in this thread that a new Developer Blog is now up on the official site. There appears to be little of interest at the moment, mostly talking about the Premiere Disc and the previous release date postponements from what I can see, but it is of course possible that important or otherwise noteworthy information may be revealed here! Mewn 06:19, 11 August 2006 (PDT)
• Edit: beatrixkiddo informs us that the new payment system for Sega online games - SIGN - does NOT accept foreign CCs. Segalink stated this to kiddo's source, when asked about the possibility of the system accepting foreign CCs. Apparently SIGN uses the same overall template as SegaLink. This means you will have to rely on NetCash or a JP credit card. Mewn 15:00, August 11, 2006 (PDT)

08/10/2006: For Brighter Day track listing revealed, Premiere Disc mini-site and servers up

EspioKaos (again, heh) has posted more information in this thread on PSOW, this time posting links about the track listing of the For Brighter Day OST, the second of PSU's two soundtracks. He also reveals that the PS2 Premiere Disc mini-site is now up. It will have FAQs, server announcements and the like. The Premiere Disc servers are now up, too. Mewn 09:43, August 10, 2006 (PDT)

08/09/2006: Lottery winners receive PS2 Premiere Disc, PC PSU Net Cafe trial, SIGN website up Edit: PSU OP movie added

• First off is that those Japanese residents lucky enough to have been selected in the various magazine lotteries for the PSU PS2 Premiere Disc have received their disks and are now exploring the beginning of PSU's Story Mode. The JP PSU Image Dump may sate your curiousity somewhat (check out the Cast with clothes!). Still, if you live in Japan (or have a willing friend there) and a PS2 capable of playing JP region games you can still try to pick up a limited copy at selected stores in a few days time.
• Secondly, EspioKaos of PSOW reports in this thread that Sega will be running a two-day trial of the PC version of PSU at a Net Cafe. It is interesting to note that the servers for this trial and the PS2 Premiere Disc will be linked.
• Thirdly, the SIGN website is now up, according to Lyrise of PSOW. While no payment systems have been introduced for any game on this system yet it is hoped that foreign Credit/Debit Cards will be accepted. If you have an account on SegaLink it will have been automatically carried over to the new website. Mewn 10:36, August 9, 2006 (PDT)
• Edit: A movie showing PSU's opening, taken from the PS2 Premiere Disc, has been uploaded to YouTube by Umisenshi. The movie shows most of the major characters of PSU, including Mirei Mikuna in what can be assumed to be her Maiden of the Phantasmal Vision outfit. The musical accompaniment is, of course, the theme of PSU, Save This World. Mewn 13:18, 9 August 2006 (PDT)

08/07/2006: PS2 memory card requirements revealed

The German games site Gamefront.de has revealed that the PS2 version of Phantasy Star Universe will use 2,300KB of Memory Card space for a save file. Note that this doesn't include space for patches, so keep a spare memory card handy. This news was spotted by rena-ko of PSOW (see this thread). Mewn 13:26, August 7, 2006 (PDT)

08/06/2006: Two new JP PSU commercials

The French PSU site PSU ODYSSEY has videos of two new commercials for PSU currently airing on Japanese TV - check out the giant rappy dancing in the lobby in the second video! Speculation suggests that this is a special costume for players. - Mewn 13:56, August 6, 2006 (PDT)