On the Reviewing the Kanji forum, they mentioned this MMO from Japan being a free beta. I remember playing Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast for a time and it was simple fun (very easy to hack). I can't say much about PS2 Online at the moment as I'm still downloading it. However, it's in Japanese which is a downside for most, but is a plus for me (decent way of enforcing the written language through use).

 

Anyway, if anyone's interested, here's a couple of links:

 

http://pso2.jp/players/ PS2 Online Main Page

http://bumped.org/psublog/pso2-guide-list/ PS2 Online English Guides

 

It's in Japanese. It's a 3 gig download. It takes a while to fully load. It's in free Beta. Ships 2, 6 and 10 supposedly has more English speaking communities.

I remember the first one.

I liked it and played it alot offline.

PS I, II, & IV were better though.

I thought the franchise died with online 1 or at least they never released one outside of japan again.

Oh well, I won't be playing this because "Nihongo wo hanashimasen".

I've been playing it off and on for awhile, I've had fun with it.

 

I'd rather wait for the English Release though.

My problem is I guess my computer is low end. To get any speed I have to be on the lowest settings. The brief bits that I played seem fun. There is a single player campaign that you can play while still having the option to go multiplayer. No offline mode though.

 

Gollvelius, if you're interested in Japanese the link in my sig has a barebones, do it yourself approach that'll get you far enough to play games. Not saying it's easy, but it's cool playing Japanese games from their source.

My problem is I guess my computer is low end. To get any speed I have to be on the lowest settings. The brief bits that I played seem fun. There is a single player campaign that you can play while still having the option to go multiplayer. No offline mode though.

 

Gollvelius, if you're interested in Japanese the link in my sig has a barebones, do it yourself approach that'll get you far enough to play games. Not saying it's easy, but it's cool playing Japanese games from their source.

 

Thanks for links, but I tried all that when I was still in my 20s.

I even had a japanese girlfriend for a few years and visited her family near tokyo for a few months.

Nothing ever stuck to me language wise.

Foreign languages just aren't my strong suite.

English, chemistry, engineering, and math are about the only languages I could ever figure out.

 

Thanks for links, but I tried all that when I was still in my 20s.

I even had a japanese girlfriend for a few years and visited her family near tokyo for a few months.

Nothing ever stuck to me language wise.

Foreign languages just aren't my strong suite.

English, chemistry, engineering, and math are about the only languages I could ever figure out.

I'm a math and science guy myself. Once someone showed me how to approach a language like I did science and math, it worked like a charm. As a side benefit, Anki is just a super customizable smart flash card review program. That little gem helps in every academic or business pursuit. For example, just something as simple as putting photos of a clients that'll help you remember their names. Remembering a client's name means repeat business.

 

Sorry for veering off topic, although it's because of improving Japanese (in this case the social, real time communication) that I looked at PS2 online.