Phantasy Star Online 2 NGS's Creative Space Update Could Revolutionize the Series

mmorpg.com:

Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is preparing for a massive new update with the upcoming 2.0 release, slated for June 7th. The new version promises a number of additional features aimed at enhancing the user experience, mainly where user generated content is concerned. The team at SEGA is also rolling out a new story chapter, a new visual upgrade, and some key class balancing changes to and new skills for all classes as well. With SEGA putting content creation directly into the hands of the players, will this revolutionize the game?

Launching 22 years after the version 2 update to the Phantasy Star Online version 2 update on the Dreamcast, the Creative Space update transitions the series in yet another completely novel direction. I was taken on a guided tour of the Creative Space with our NGS Global community team friends Alyssa and Pam last month. In our tour we took a deep dive into all of the features of version 2, which included a new visual style. After the new version releases, the first thing that players will likely notice is the new visual upgrade option which introduces a cell-shaded style for the game, offering a stylistic departure that provides a comic-like aesthetic.

The ability for this visual transition is likely due to how popular cell-shaded anime-style games have become. Characters and objects are rendered with thick outlines that lend a very contrasting tone to the character models themselves. What is interesting is that it’s not a visual enhancement, so much as it is a different stylistic choice, but it’s a style that makes sense for the series, and seems to lend a more modern aesthetic from what NGS originally released with. They have also streamlined their photo mode, providing an more