The Battle Arena patch was the first one in a while to contain any potentially interesting tidbits about what might be being added to the game in the future in a long time. Sega have generally been more careful about not giving the game away (or they’re working on less stuff…).
Anyway just gonna go over some of the things that were found by myself and others in the community. As always, remember that data-mined content is not representative of content that will be released, as the content might change or might never be released.
Super Yamato?
“PhantomShipEx” was spotted in the client. The reason why it’s signficant is “Ex” was used to denote updated versions of old bosses, including Elder, Loser and Profound Darkness (DpFishElderEx, DpBirdEx and DpAbyssEx respectively). Like the others, it appears to have updated attacks, but there’s no real details as to what these might be.
If this is coming out, it’s not on the current long-term schedule at least. I suspect it’s either going to arrive in the gap between the arrival of Deus Esca and Episode 5 or possibly even happen after Episode 5 is released. I guess this also potentially means that Hagito isn’t dead afterall…
PSU Collab Part 3
It seems that Laia and Lumia will be joining us in the Arks lobby for part 3, if the text files are anything to go by. So with that information i guess we can speculate what kind of items are gonna be added.
Lumia sports the Guardians Uniform F, which is an outfit already available in the game. Lumia used a Rod, so it seems safe to assume that she’ll hand out some kind of 13* rod like Emilia did. Honestly not a heck of a lot to say about Lumia as she wasn’t a terribly interesting character in general despite getting such heavy focus during Episode 3’s story.
Laia on the other hand wears the Guardians Formal outfit by the end of PSU, which was one of my favorite outfits in the entire game. The outfit she’s wearing on the right was her original costume, but I assume that’s not going to be the one she’s wearing judging by the promo pic for the PSU event. Here’s a pic of Guardians Formal from PSU in case you’ve never seen it before. I kind of hope the PSO2 incarnation doesn’t look as tacky as some other PSU outfits ended up looking. I’m also curious to see how the physics on the outfit will end up looking; is the coat tail gonna be glued to the legs like in PSU or is it gonna flap wildly like a number of recent dresses in PSO2…
Laia is also a Beast, which is a race that PSO2 never got (even though it was in the data files here and there!), which has certain physical features not available to any race in PSO2. So I suspect what they’ll do is create a unique face model just for her, which is kind of nuts but they’ve done it before with Miku and Luka. I’m curious to see what she’ll end up looking like in PSO2.
As for her weapon…. she uses an axe and twin claws in PSU, so either a Sword or Wired Lance if I had to guess.
Future Enemies?
Occasionally, future enemies turn up in the data. The last major time this happened was with DPP1, which later turned out to be Escafalz Mother. There was also Ultimate Amduscia enemies which turned up in the data a full year before they were finally implemented.
Anyway so some new ones turned up with a completely new naming scheme:
- B1SkSw
- B1SkAr
- B1GoSw
- B1GoBo
- B1Min
- B1WoN
- B1WoF
- B1OrN
- B1OrBo
- B1CatsA
Completely unlike anything we’ve seen before. You’ve probably noticed there’s a pattern to the names, such as “Sw, Ar and Bo” and “Sk, Go, Wo and Or”. What could these mean? Sword, Assault Rifle and er, Bow or Boots? The next four are anyone’s guess and what on earth does the “B1” mean anyway?
Poking around in the AI files determined the following:
- B1SkAr has an attack involving arrows – So it’d seem the “Ar” may stand for “Archer”
- B1GoBo has a “Bom” attack. The Bo can be assumed to stand for Bomb, then.
- B1OrN has a “club” attack. It using a club makes me think it could be something brutish, so could the “Or” stand for Orc or Ogre?
- B1WoN has various biting attacks. Could the Wo stand for wolf?
- B1Min has various slashing attacks and has Warcry…
The rest of the files either have setup stuff or nothing terribly interesting. Remember, this is content that is likely still being developed, so a lot of likely to be missing.
So what we see is seemingly a selection of enemies with primitive tech. To hazard a guess, maybe these enemies are based on western fantasy tropes? Perhaps the “Go” stands for Goblin, the “Sk” for Skeleton and the “Min” for Minotaur? This is just wild speculation of course, I might be miles off the mark but being wrong is often part of the fun of speculating.
As these enemies don’t really fit into Episode 4’s naming schemes and seeing as Episode 4 seems to be coming to a end soon it’s plausible we might be seeing the first hints of Episode 5 content here. Could we really be heading to a medieval western fantasy land? We could, but I feel like it’d be a bit weird going up against Goblins and Orcs while wielding laser swords.
This would also continue their departure from the science fiction-y setting that fans have missed since we went to Space Japan in Episode 3 then actual Japan in Episode 4. Like I’m sure people who were hoping we’d go back to space again once we were done with Earth’s bullshit will be disappointed if my speculations turn out to be right. Who knows though, even if it does turn out to be Orcs and Skeletons it might be Space Orcs and Space Skeletons! Or it could end up being something completely different.
PSO2Blog 
For some time now I’ve been of the belief that Episode 4 was intended to simply set up stuff for Episode 5. Keep in mind December 20th marks the 30th anniversary of the series. If we’re dealing with a Skeleton with a Sword, Ogres and Cats, I know where we can find them. A star system called Algol. Algol if you’re unaware is where the original Master System / Genesis series took place (for the most part.)
If we take everything regarding the Phantasy Star series as a whole into effect with Earth in consideration and consider them both to take place in the same universe, it leads to some interesting conclusions on how the ARKS involvement with Earth may end up impacting the Classic series timeline as we know it.
Right! I’d forgotten that a lot of the enemies in classic PS were western fantasy tropes. That’s a pretty interesting point in general, though I worry it might be wishful thinking…
That said, let’s assume that that’s right and this is what they’re planning, I’m not sure I can think of where “B1” would make sense in the context of the classic games…but then the only one I played to the end was 4. That’s not a dismissal, I’m geniunely pondering if B1 is a clue.
I believe it is if we consider Phantasy Star III, although the word I’m thinking of, Bubble, might not initially make sense. You said you only finished 4 to the end, do you want me to spoil the ending to Phantasy Star III? I can’t proceed without doing that.
I don’t mind and I doubt spoilers really matter for a game as old as that now.
Phantasy Star III has four different storylines, each with an ending. In the Aron ending, the Alisa III ship is swallowed by a black hole but emerges OK on the other side. They wind in a different time in a different part of the universe. Shortly after arriving they receive a communication.
“Greetings, alien craft! Identify yourselves. This is the London Communications Center on Earth of the Sol system. Over and out.”
The ending stops there and the credits roll. This event is what leads to the events of Phantasy Star 2 taking place as Earth is directly involved.
While my theory banks on said ship arriving while the Arks are present, the word bubble would refer to the 7 bubble domes that make up the habitats of the Alisa III spaceship.
We should know more once the first teasers for episode 5 start if they’re going to head in this direction, but lets just say this isn’t the only evidence I have that they’re going to do this. They’ve been dropping hints for a few years now actually.
As a Japanese but not an classic PS fan, I assume this as our next destination is Europian medieval fantasy planet and someone “reincarnates” from other world. “Otherworld Reincarnation/異世界転生” is one of the biggest trend of Japanese juvenile novels now and the “Otherworld” is somewhat always Europian Medieval Fantasy World that remotely inspired by Dragon Quest.
Oh you did also post here! My reply on bumped was pointless haha!
Yeah its an interesting thought and if this does turn out to be the direction they’re taking PSO2 I fear the reaction to it will be er… tepid.
Personally I find the game fun enough that I really don’t care where it goes and if we’re really due to all wind up in a fantasyland I’d be like “whatever bring it”. I’d be mildly disappointed we weren’t going back to space too, mind.