But there are some drawbacks
[Update:The IP block has since been brought back for some reason. Bummer.]
Phantasy Star Online 2has been out since 2012 in Asia but never made the jump to English-speaking countries officially until now, sort of.
The Southeast Asian version up until a couple of days ago had IP blocks in place meaning you could only access the servers if your connection originated from within that region or if you did some kind of fancy workaround. Now the IP blocks have been removed and anyone who wants to play the free-to-play PSO2 can in English!
Rice Digital notes that the English localization might not be perfect, that this particular version is about a year behind in content in comparison to the Japanese version, and that the servers can be pretty bad. Also the Southeast Asia version’s economy is all about getting you to spend money.
If those drawbacks haven’t put you off and you don’t feel up to using a workaround to play on the Japanese version, you can download the Southeast Asian version here. If you’re interested in more information about why the Japanese version is better or want to attempt to play it with a translation patch, then check out this reddit post.
Phantasy Star Online 2 English Version Playable in the West [Rice Digital]