There is plenty of new material with Episode 5 to help keep players active, and the story goes back to being centered around ARKS and combating the Dark Falz. Alongside all these exciting new features, new things and Scratch Tickets are also out, and new Urgent Quests are going to be on the way to Phantasy Star Online 2 Meseta freshen things up in PSO2. There are still many details to be revealed as time goes , but some major things like combat and the world are much clearer. Hiro Arai from Sega has been live for nearly an hour to show off footage of gameplay and talk about what new things are on the way. Not much was said about the present game and the update coming alongside NG's release other than the graphic update, which will be looking fantastic.
Maps are no more split into regions with loading screens. NG is going to have completely open world in the home base to the field. The TGS footage showed off a gorgeous new world that's a substantial upgrade from the current game. Blades of grass blow in the wind, lush forests lie on the opposite side of valleys and frosty mountains can be viewed in the distance. Arai mentions that distinct areas can be attained seamlessly simply by exposing the entire world. It seems like this is the world Naberious in the present game, with woods being next to tundra and other areas. Areas continue to be technically split up, but there is no loading between them. While it hasn't been straight said, an open world such as this suggests there might not be single party places anymore. Most shown in the footage were multi-party areas where there were other players. The cap for multi-party places continues to be lowered to eight from twelve in the current PSO2, but who you see will differ from area to area.
Weather is creating a better comeback as it affects dynamically and may affect the battlefield, even though the magnitude of the impact wasn't spoken of. Time will also change, and footage showed some nice touches like fireflies in the woods at night. There's no word on fast travel, mounts or PSO2 Meseta for sale vehicles yet, but Sega has implemented several new methods for players to move quickly across this large new world. Players will have the ability to run faster following a dodge both in and out of battle. A blue series follows underfoot, so you will know you're doing it right once you watch it.