October 2, 2006 - Heading into Phantasy Star Universe's closed online beta test, we found a bunch of features similar to what's available in the single player. The trial missions, for instance, were accessible around the starting town of Clyez City. Unlike in solo play, an avatar needs to be created before you can head out to fight monsters. Human, Newman, Beast, and robotic CAST types are available to choose from. Humans tend to be more balanced toward all the classes. Newmans lean toward the TECHNIC abilities, which resemble magical attacks. CASTs' strength lies in ranged armaments, and the Beasts are better at close combat and utilizing weapon-based skills.

After selecting a race and gender, a number of different faces, eyebrows, ears, hairstyles, eyes, and colors can be slapped on the avatar. There's also a body proportion option that lets you make a fat character, or an incredibly small one. However, since those sizes differ from the socially accepted ideal of lean and muscular, we're going to consider them useless options. It's then up to you what kind of pants, jacket, shoes, and voice type you want on your character. Once he or she is named, you're dropped into your private room area.

From inside your room you'll be conducting a significant amount of business. Mostly this is done through a partner machine that floats near your window. From what we could access, the p machine (as it's called in-game) can be used to synthesize, store items, and redecorate a room's furniture. All of these functions require you to actually have items to begin with, so right when you start out the robot won't be as useful. Decorations for your pad can be purchased at special stores, located in town areas like Clyez City. For synthesizing items, you need item boards which can be found while fighting. Selecting the appropriate option at the p machine lets you insert something called a board, comparable to a recipie. The catch is, you need the required reagents for creation to be possible.

Once all required items are collected, only a specific amount of items can be produced until the board becomes unusable. For instance, a Dimate board (consumable health item) can only yield 20 items before the board is disposed of. A success rate is also listed, so there's a chance a synth attempt could fail. While our Dimate board has a 100 percent chance of success, our Twin Handgun board only has 82 percent. The rate of success of an item's creation can be affected by your p machine's statistics.

Feeding the machine items from your inventory give it statistical boosts in Striking, Ranged, TECHNIC, and Armor categories. Each item the machine is fed will boost different parameters by different amounts. This process is further complicated by your p machine's personal tastes. It prefers certain types of items, which you can discover through item donation experimentation. The p machine will let you know when you're handing over item types it doesn't like, and some even cause it's statistics to decrease. As it's fed, the machine will evolve and change shape. Eventually it'll take on a humanoid form, at which point it can be brought out into the field of battle with your character. For those who crave even further customization, the machine can be named and then renamed, if you want.

Aside from the p machine, there's a common storage bin in your room that can house items accessible to any of the characters you create on your account. There's also a vision phone through which players can head off to other players' rooms, see who's visited their own, and search for player created shops. In order to visit another player's room, you'll need to have their card. You can search for rooms too, but having the card is the easiest, most direct way. Donating and accespting cards can be done through a few menu clicks as long as you're physically standing next to another player in the game world. It's easiest to do this with party members, since you'll all be in close proximity during battle. Lobby areas are best when out of battle, since they'll consist of players wandering around in search of parties for the next challenge.