On Monday, January 27th, Sega and Xbox Insider announced the start date for the highly anticipated Phantasy Star Online 2 Closed Beta Test. Since its announcement at E3 2019, gamers have been anxiously waiting for their first taste of Japan’s most successful MMORPG and that wait ends very soon. Starting February 7th at 5 PM PST, players will be able to log in to PSO2 on Xbox One and the closed test will run through 11:59 PM on the 8th. For those not wanting to waste any time in the technical test, players will be able to start downloading on Monday, February 3rd.
The Long Wait is Nearly Over
Now that the when and the where is out of the way, we can briefly talk about the what. PSO2’s technical test will allow you to create your own character from one of its 4 races as well as its 9 playable classes. The test will be focused on large player instances including “Urgent Quests” which is for up to 12 players and feature large-scale boss battles. There will be four different Urgent Quests showcased over the course of the test with special rewards granted in the final release for completing them.
Something More than just Gameplay
To allow testers to have as much of a full PSO2 experience as possible, there will be an in-game concert on February 8th, 8 PM PST. After the concert, attendees will receive some in-game buffs for increased drop rates and XP gained.
I have also learned some helpful things about the technical test via PSO2’s twitter account in response to others. The game file will be 70 or so GB, which is the reason for the early pre-load, but will not have to be re-download upon final release, just updated to accommodate the current game state. With this all said, progress made in the closed test will carry over to the open test as well as the game’s full release.
Hi there! It's about 70gb, so make sure to pre-load it starting February 3rd! You only have to download it once; just update the game for the Open Beta and launch!
— Phantasy Star Online 2 (NA) (@play_pso2) January 28, 2020
Closed Beta Test players will retain their progress for the OBT and launch! ??
— Phantasy Star Online 2 (NA) (@play_pso2) January 28, 2020
If you’d like to learn more about the closed beta test, you can read Xbox’s full news release here.
If you haven’t registered for the closed beta test and are interested in doing so, you can check out my video tutorial.
