Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis will get Line Strike card game on July 10 and M.A.R.S. armament on July 31
Sega has revealed at the June 2024 NGS Headline that Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis will get two new major gameplay features next July. The first one will be the Line Strike card game that will appear on July 10. After that, Sega will release the M.A.R.S. armaments at the end of the same month on the 31st.
You can check the trailers and details for the new features right below. Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is available worldwide on PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam, Microsoft Store, and Epic Games Store. The online game is also playable on Nintendo Switch via a cloud version in Japan and Xbox One in the rest of the world.
Line Strike - Coming July 10
Line Strike will appear as a card game inside the online RPG. Most of the cards featured in this game will be notably based on characters from the original PSO2 story, which took place 1,000 years before New Genesis. Players will be able to get new cards by getting Scratch Tickets from clearing in-game tasks besides paid packs.
You will be able to challenge not only other players but also the game's existing NPCs. In addition, players will also be able to access the card game in Creative Spaces via a Build Part set that contains a pair of chairs and a table to place the cards. Sega will also set up an Official Creative Space dedicated to hosting these card game matches.
Just like the rest of the main game, the card characters will have voiceovers in both Japanese and English. You can compare the voices with the trailers available right below.
Line Strike - Japanese voice trailer
Line Strike - English voice trailer
M.A.R.S. - Coming July 31
M.A.R.S. is short for "Multirole Arks Reactive System", and it will appear in the form of large machinery floating around the player's avatar. Fans of mecha anime shows may be reminded of the Gundam SEED series' METEOR or the Dendrobium Orchis from Gundam 0083, while Phantasy Star series followers will remember the SUV weapons that appeared in Phantasy Star Universe.
An interview with Dengeki, which is also available in English, revealed some of the features players can expect to see with this new armament. There will be 4 main weapon types and 3 sub weapons available, and each player will be able to equip 2 main weapons and 1 sub weapon simultaneously. The new trailer revealed the main weapon parts to be the sword-like Garm, the scythe-like Nidhoggr, the Scylla which the player can ride on, and the Hydra beam cannon.
In addition, the interview also revealed that players who have cleared the story's first chapter will be able to start using the M.A.R.S. There will be a new energy gauge dedicated to the armament that gradually fills on its own, and the player can activate it when the gauge is at least 25% filled. Daiki Hamazaki claimed that under normal circumstances, the gauge will be filled in 9 minutes and depleted if used non-stop for 2 minutes.
The M.A.R.S. will also come with a system voice provided by Yoshino Aoyama for the Japanese version and Brenna Larsen for the English version. You can find the new trailers right below.