Japan Import: Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity makes other version obsolete

The hip new thing to do with mission-based PSP games is update and rerelease them within a year. Namco Bandai’s doing that with God Eater and it’s slightly modified successor God Eater Burst, and now Sega’s doing that with Phantasy Star Portable 2. Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity is now in development and adds a whole new Episode 2 storyline after the existing Phantasy Star 2 Portable story, the Duman race, a Visual Lobby when searching for online compansion, more monsters from Phantasy Star Online and new gameplay features.

Episode 2 of Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity introduces Nagisa, the Duman in the picture at the right there. Dumans are an existing race supposedly, but haven’t gotten any face time or recognition until now because they’re essentally mutated humans, weren’t recognized as a race and are targets of discrimination. They’re incredibly strong physically, and good with magic, but have terrible defense. Nagisa basically appears and you have to go through Episode 2 to learn more about her, her motives and the Dumans themselves.

That and the new gameplay features might make double dipping into PSP2 Infinity worthwhile. There’ll be an additional Infinity difficulty level, which should help make old missions more interesting. You’ll also be able to take pictures in the game and in battle that you can collect and view later. Finally, it’s taking a cue from games like Dragon Quest IX with a tag mode which will exchange information with other PSP2 Infinity players you pass by. Instead of treasure maps, you get a mission you can go out on with this new friend character.

Think about this when your English-language copy of Phantasy Star Portable 2 September 14, 2010. The brand new game you’re getting is now nothing compared to the slightly more awesome Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity that’ll be out before the end of 2010 in Japan. Of course, the success of Phantasy Star Portable 2 in North America will probably help determine whether or not PSP2 Infinity gets localized, so it may be a good idea to pick it up anyways.

Read [Andriasang] Also Read [Phantasy Star Fan Blog] Site [Phantasy Star Portable 2 (Japanese)]