In a major surprise during the Xbox Games Showcase presentation, Sega officially announced a brand new title, well sort of. Being dubbed as the next new game in the Phantasy Star Online series, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis was unveiled to the world with an extremely fast-paced trailer that showed us some new gameplay, open-world exploration, and beautiful visuals. The game is slated to launch sometime next year for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.
As we already mentioned, the trailer is quite brief, and very fast-paced, quickly going through the paces of what we can expect in the upcoming new iteration of Phantasy Star Online 2. We’re shown a young hero who engages in various battles with a futuristic sword, one that we imagine will be available to obtain at some point. He’s joined by other heroes to aid in his venture. The open-world looks breathtaking and really stands apart from the usual linear treks that players are used to in previous versions.
The trailer finished with the heroes engaging a rather tall boss-type enemy, one that looks like it will take a lot of level-grinding to prepare for. There was no mention of any storylines or how it will pertain to the gameplay, but we’ll more than likely hear more about that as we approach the release time frame. What also wasn’t explicitly explained was whether Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is a brand new title or an actual expansion to the current Phantasy Star Online 2. Either way though, the game engine looks to have been overhauled greatly here, especially since the most recent version to come to the West originally launched in 2012 in Japan.
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis will officially launch sometime in 2021 for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. It will also be released for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan according to regional trailer shown here.