Prerelease:Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis.
Contents
Timeline
2017
- NGS Development begins.
2021 NGS Closed Beta 1
This was the earliest publicly playable build of the New Genesis expansion. Characters and items in this version were imported from the player's account in standard PSO2.
One of the notable changes between this and the release version was that photon effects for weapons were colored based on the weapon's selected photon color. This was removed for NGS CBT 2 and didn't make it back in for release. The reason for this change is unknown.
March 19th-21st 2021 NGS Closed Beta 2
This version had a few minor differences from NGS CBT1, and otherwise is very close to what the final game had in both content and scope at release.
Some of the few differences are some notable development pictures that snuck their way into the game. These were removed in the final release:
This is easily the earliest screenshot we have of the expansion.
A comparison of roughly the same area in final.
A comparison a little off center that shows the partially culled Tower.
A map seemingly used for planning purposes.
The first picture is a fairly intriguing early build of NGS, dating back to August 6th 2019, apparently. At this point, the game appears rather close to old pso2 with most assets in the image being changed significantly in final. The only place which survived mostly unscathed is the HP and PP window at the bottom.
There are various bits of text all across the image, many legible. On the window title in the top left is an icon that doesn't match any that have ever been in public builds of the game. The text reads "version_0 build Aug 6 2019 06:54:20 snapshot ver. reboothead_2042810". This is likely referring to a git build repository which matches relatively close with patch server URLs. A subtle few lines on the left side of the image put some debug text that appears to say 07時 06分, 日照:1 rate:0.01, and 天気:Fine. In order, 7 hours 6 minutes, Sunlight:1 and some rate of 0.01, and Weather:Fine. The character name at the bottom looks to be Mizuno Yuki, an environment artist at Sega at time of writing, + _reboot and Background. In the top right, the typical PSO2 free field quest timer, pretty much unchanged from old PSO2 with the same text PSO2 Global translated as "Advance to the final area!", 47 seconds in. The chat log appears unchanged from PSO2 here. Some Debugging Trace messages can be seen with the times confirming these were taken in the late evening of August 6th, confirming the earlier date and implying unfortunate work hours. The first message we can fully read mentions opening the debug menu while the second mentions a function to set the ingame day timer to noon.
As far as the area itself, the vista mostly survives to final, as seen in the comparison photo, with slight changes here and there. At a base level, everything is there, albeit very as mockup models. Rocky outcrop details are missing all around with other details like most of the trees not placed yet. However, landmarks such as Central City, Mt. Magnus, Vanford, Resol forest, and even the Northern mountain area are all visible. A tower is visible which in the second comparison screenshot can be seen in roughly the same place in final, albeit slightly culled out. Even the sky fortress still seems to be there though it's a bit higher in the final game, perhaps to offset itself from Central City's final tower. Unfortunately the volcano is partially culled in the screenshot we have so it's difficult to compare. One particular thing of note may be the decidedly unnatural, diagonal rising spire edging over Resol Forest. While in final there is a similar spike on the icy mountain and it may be an early version of that, the rest of the mountain in this screenshot lacks anything quite so artificial.
The last texture features a rather interesting map. This appears to be an overhead 3d render with regions separated out essentially like the final game, so far. It's further along in development from previous screenshots based on the look of Vanford, but the lack of texturing outside of Aelio and a small section of Retem implies that this was made quite a while ago. Notably, most areas are still untextured whereas in final, even if they aren't finished, every area has visible texturing on its models even from a great distance ingame. In any case, while this one is an interesting image for speculation, there's little to say past this about its relation to the final game.
Test Map
 | To do: Find what files contain this, if it is found in the Global CBT client or post-CBT clients, and if it is possible to load collision data & object data. |
Found in the Japanese CBT client is a test map, featuring a basic grid texture.
A screenshot from below the test map
A screenshot from above the test map
Global NGS Closed Beta
This version was almost identical to what was shown in NGS CBT2, but didn't feature the option to go to the original PSO2.
