Back at the turn of the millennium, Sega released the first MMORPG for consoles, Phantasy Star Online. Over the next decade it went from Dreamcast to GameCube to Xbox to PC. Now twelve years later, Sega has finally released the sequel, Phantasy Star Online 2, free on the Japanese PC.


In the game itself, you pick from one of three classes—a melee fighter, a ranged gunner, or a spell caster—and team up with a group of up to four other players to go adventuring on alien worlds. Unlike many MMOs, PSO2 is fast paced, is filled with hordes of monsters, and has a large component of gameplay based on dodging.

To see how it looks in action, check out the video above. If that's not enough, then check out our handy guide on how to play the Japanese version and try it for yourself.

Phantasy Star Online 2 was released on July 4, 2012, on the PC in Japan and will be released outside of Japan early next year. Stay tuned to Kotaku East for the import preview later today.