Starting the Phantasy Star series

[Tanooki]

You're making good progress, I get so distracted on games these days with how my time works.  I had been pretty good about PS4 up to a point, but I'm from what I can recall right somewhere within/near the end of that last post.  It's a really great game, enjoyed it more than the others except maybe the first I have a soft spot for.  Had I not been into trying to not quit on Lufia II currently I'd jump back as it's a keeper, and now there's PS2 begging for attention on the sega mini 2 with its easier mode, which is only easier since you get more xp/gp to level up faster making it less of a slog.

[+jeremiahjt]

15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

You're making good progress, I get so distracted on games these days with how my time works.  I had been pretty good about PS4 up to a point, but I'm from what I can recall right somewhere within/near the end of that last post.  It's a really great game, enjoyed it more than the others except maybe the first I have a soft spot for.  Had I not been into trying to not quit on Lufia II currently I'd jump back as it's a keeper, and now there's PS2 begging for attention on the sega mini 2 with its easier mode, which is only easier since you get more xp/gp to level up faster making it less of a slog.

Right now I feel like I am making good progress.  Part of that is the time I am putting into it, and part of it seems like the way the game is made.  Compared to the first three games, this one seems to have a faster and smoother progression.  That could be me misremembering how the other games progressed though.  It could also slow to a crawl later in the game, I do not know.

 

As a teacher I obviously spend more time in the summer playing games, but I have been spending more time with it lately.  Of course that means I have not been watching much tv recently, outside of some college basketball.  It's all a trade-off.  My wife made me watch Stranger Things a couple of months ago, and I powered through four seasons in probably less than a month.  During that stretch I was hardly playing any games.

[Tanooki]

@jeremiahjt That I would agree with about progression.  It's more smooth, like they decided to borrow some light philosophy of design from Square (Final Fantasy) a bit.  The combat flows a bit more fluid.  You have a clear path on where to go, it's not a more than less confused but maybe try this way approach too.  I've been grinding in it, but I'd put it at half as bad as how much of a creeping slog PS2 was, and my guess the updated mode (Mini 2) since they addressed XP/GP gains probably borrows 4's model or FF1+2 GBA where speed is picked up greatly as you get more story fast.  While it's still PS style combat, even that flows a bit more fluidly like Dragon Quest basically which is nice too.  The audio/visuals are well bumped over 2-3 too, closer to a SNES style RPG which is sweet to see that level of quality so I was impressed with it.

 

My game time is weird and shared these days.  I have an 11yo, I have to start early off early (2) to get into carpool, and at least 2 days a week my mid afternoon into the evening gets gobbled up with activities she does after school, coupled with just not ignoring her at home too I can only get away with so much and it splits between online shenanigans, trying to catch up my growing anime/dvd backlog too, and my vintage games that have added up despite continuing to dump more than I keep so I mean even my one new ysstem still (switch) and PC that's very capable too, there's a lot of distraction going around.  It's why I'm often on here now while I'm working, double dipping as much to multitask (same with running some DVDs too to stay focused working at home so I don't phase out or nod off.)

 

Had I my way about it, and I had like 1/2 as much consoles and games yet that I do now, I'd probably devour the random contents of my Sega Genesis Mini 1/2, and my everdrives etc which would get me into Centy, always wanted to try that answer to Zelda sega fans seem to call it, and also that beyond oasis title too.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Tanooki

[+jeremiahjt]

I made the right choice by delving into the Wreckage first.  I got a suit of armor, a shield, and a weapon that were all on my list of things to buy in Aiedo.  The Wreckage also had a chest with a lot of meseta, and I gained a lot of experience and meseta from fighting a bunch of cyborgs.  At the end of Wreckage, the party finds a computer that Rika can use.  The Wreckage is actually what is left of one of those city ships from Phantasy Star III.  This particular ship left Palma, or Parma, and entered orbit around Motavia.  After a thousand years the ship's orbit decayed and it crashed.  Rika says most of the city ships landed on Motavia and Dezolis, but at least some "tens" left the Algol, or Algo, system.  I guess the 400 ships mentioned in Phantasy Star III is at least in the "tens," but I wonder why they did not just say hundreds.

 

After making it back to Aiedo, I bought every single upgrade available from the armor shop.  It ended up costing everything I had built up, and I had nothing left for the weapons.  Fortunately, there are only two weapons I needed to buy (I guess three since I bought two claws).  I did some grinding all around the area above the bridge near Zema.  The Scorpirus enemy is by far the hardest to kill, but Hahn learned Vol and it kills Scorpirus in one shot every single time.  It did not take too long to get enough to get the better weapons.  After getting everything I could buy, it was time to complete my first Hunter job listing.

 

This time, I was ready for the battle with the Sand Worm.  Chaz and Gryz attacked every single time, except for once or twice that I needed Chas to cast Res on Hahn.  I had Alys cast Shift to increase strength on herself, Chaz, Gryz, and Rika.  I tried a second casting on Chaz, but the second time did not seem to increase his attacks.  Alys's attacks were still low after Shift, so I had her use Foi instead.  I had Rika cast Saner once or twice, but I did not notice any effect.  After that she went on the attack.  Hahn used Gelun and Doran to decrease the Sand Worm's dexterity and agility first, but I have not idea if it was effective.  I tried Wat, and it was very effective.  Outside of healing, he used Wat for the rest of the battle.  After a long battle, the Sand Worm went down.  My party gained 1,200 meseta and over 5,000 experience points each!  Alys and Hahn increased a level, Chaz and Gryz increase two levels, and Rika went up three levels.  Then I went back to the Hunter's Guild and got my 5,000 meseta reward.  What a nice little side quest.

 

Next stop the passageway past the mountains and onto Zio's Fort.

[+jeremiahjt]

The Passageway had some new enemy types.  Speard and Tech User look like just normal old humans, evil normal old humans, but normal old humans none the less.  I also fought quite of lot of Zol Slugs, but one time two of them fused into a giant Meta Slug.  That was pretty neat.  The Passageway was not to hard to get through, and there were even some treasure chests.

 

Once outside the Passageway I was expecting to come across Zio's Fort, but there is a town first, the village of Kadary.  Apparently Kadary is the seat of Zio's political power.  Zio's church has almost taken over the entire town and adherents make pilgrimages to Kadary.  Unfortunately there were no weapon or armor shops to be found.  There was a church follower writhing, in ecstasy maybe, in the middle of the town.  A clergyman inside the church faints from thinking about Zio.  I find all the church/cult stuff pretty interesting so far.

 

A little past Kadary is finally Zio's Fort.  Zio's Fort is a maze of stairs and pitfalls with the way underground protected by a barrier.  There are also quite a few treasure chests, a handful with nice shield and weapon upgrades.  After finally clearing the fort, the party made its way to the top and found Zio's right hand man, Juza.  Juza was a pretty tough battle.  I used quite a bit of techniques points in defeating him.  This time though, I could not find one of Hahn's techniques that worked really well like with the Sand Worm.  After the exhaustive battle and defeat of Juza, the party continues on and finds the android Demi trapped.  After freeing her, Zio appears and has a very long cutscene talk with the party.  During the cutscene, Zio reveals that the god of his church is Dark Force itself, and that Dark Force wants the complete annihilation of Motavia.

 

After the dialogue the "fight" starts.  By fight I mean Zio toys with the party.  None of the members' attacks can land on Zio and the techniques are useless.  After a few rounds Zio goes for the kill shot on Chaz and Alys jumps in front of it and is badly wounded.  The party, with Demi and a non-ambulatory Alys in tow, somehow manages to escape Zio and his fort.  Outside the fort, nobody can help Alys and Hahn directs the party back to his hometown of Krup, although I do not know why.  It seems to me that heading to Piata and the Motavian Academy would make more sense.  There has to be some medical staff there.

 

In Krup, Alys is bedridden and unable to continue the quest.  Demi explains the Nurvus is under Zio's Fort, protected behind the magic barrier.  Alys directs Chaz to seek out Rune for help in defeating the barrier, and we get more petulant childlike Chaz, great.  Gryz thinks Rune and Grandfather Dorin went to Ladea Tower, which is beyond the quicksand.  Demi informs the party about Land Rovers and where to get one, a Machine Center, which is the first stop for the new, smaller party.  Chaz asks Hahn to stay behind to watch over Alys, and because of his "cute girlfriend."  That girlfriend felt really out of place in that setting.  Hahn stays behind with Alys, and Chaz leads Griz, Rika, and Demi in search of the Machine Center.

 

Hopefully the Machine Center is not to far away from Krup, I really want to get the Land Rover and see how the battles work fighting with the Land Rover.

[+jeremiahjt]

On 2/10/2023 at 11:29 PM, jeremiahjt said:

Hopefully the Machine Center is not to far away from Krup, I really want to get the Land Rover and see how the battles work fighting with the Land Rover.

I started the game again from Krup, I started walking down as I was getting adjusted in my chair and before I even got settled in, the party found the Machine Center.  It took about two and a half seconds to get there.  The Machine Center had no enemies, and Demi was able to secure a Land Rover quickly, but before leaving Demi told the party about Zelan.  Zelan controls the computers from space and has been sending strange commands.  I think after the party takes care of Nurvus, Zelan will be their next stop.

 

The Land Rover is awesome!  It has its own hit points which regenerate after every battle, it has a devastating main attack, and it has two very powerful special attacks.  The enemies in the area beyond the quicksand to the east stand no chance, and those enemies are tough.  I tried one battle on foot, and the party lost two of its members before finally running away like cowards.

 

I went searching for Ladea Tower, but I found a sad village called Monsen.  The village of Monsen is wrecked by earthquakes, and Demi figures out that the Plate System is causing this. The townsfolk implore Chaz to fix the problem.  There is not much else to Monsen, except for a big hole caused by the earthquakes and a family whose son and daughter-in-law moved away.  The father is sad, but the mother hated the daughter-in-law and is happy she is gone.

 

A person in Monsen said the Ladea Tower is to the east, so that is where I headed.  On the way I found the Plate System and the town of Termi, where that couple's son and daughter-in-law moved to.  Termi is a town devoted to Alis Landale.  There is a giant statue of her with Myau by her side.  There is a shop that sells Alis' sword for 500 meseta, I do not think I will waste my time with it.  The son and daughter-in-law are here, and the daughter is not a fan of the mother-in-law.

 

At this point I decided to go take care of the earthquakes for Monsen.  The Plate System is not too long, but it does have some pretty tough robots in here.  I tried to use Res or GiRes on Demi, and I was told it does not work on androids.  Demi actually regenerates health as she walks, pretty cool.  The Plate System also has quite a bit of equipment for Demi, including a Phononmezer, which Demi inserts into her body and gets a new special skill.  That was pretty neat, the attack is pretty powerful, but you can only use once per skill reset, whenever that is.  There are also some Laser equipment for other members too.  Demi of course does her thing and ends the earthquakes.  The people of Monsen are excited to get back to normal.

 

My next stop is probably Ladea Tower, but looking at maps I have noticed that the dog that first appears in Krup is supposed to show up in other towns.  I might try to figure out what is going on with that dog first.  It could be that the dog does not change location until later in the game, but I think I will investigate now.

[+jeremiahjt]

I have said news to impart, Alys Brangwin, Hunter extraordinaire, has died.  She succumbed to her injuries given to her by the dastardly Zio at 11:58 pm on the eighteenth day of February in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-three.  It was a fine service, although I do not know who officiated it.  Afterwards Chaz and Rune seem to get past their juvenile sniping, and I think Rika and Chaz might get together.

 

But before her death, I did figure out about the dog.  I remembered the family in Aiedo missing their dog Rocky, but they gave me no new inormation.  The Hunter's Guild had a new quest thought, Tinkerbell's Dog.  After accepting the job the dog starts running away from you, from Krup to Monsen, from Monsen to Termi, and from Termi back to Krup.  Eventually I remembered that the dog likes sweets and that there is a bakery in Aiedo.  I bought some shortcake from the baker and the next time I caught up to Rocky, Chaz snatched him.  The family was happy and it was an easy 2,000 meseta made.  No new job postings yet though.

 

After that I took on Ladea Tower.  The Tower did have some new enemies that hit pretty hard.  Centaurs packed quite a punch, and Haunts are very different than other enemies encountered so far.  There defense is insanely high as each attack that managed to land could only do one hit point of damage.  Fortunately they only had three hit points.  They never did too much damage to me, but I may have got lucky that their special attacks never landed.  Ladea Tower had a little bit of loot, and you find Rune there.  Rune and Chaz have their sophomoric banter, and Chaz informs Rune of Alys's illness while Rune informs the group about the only thing that can defeat the barrier in Zio's Fort, the Psycho-wand.  Rune joins the party again and the group continues its ascent of the tower.  There is a little bit of loot in the tower, plus the Psycho-wand at the very top.  Unfortunately the Psycho-wand is not easy to get.

 

Gy-Laguiah was sent by Zio to take the wand, but the party meets it there leading to another boss battle.  This battle is not too bad.  I had everybody attack, except for Rune and occasionally Rika.  Rika did the healing and Rune used magic.  Wat worked the best from what I tried.  After defeating Gy-Laguiah, the party recovers the wand and a cutscene starts.  During the cutscene, both Rune and Rika somehow sense something wrong with Alys.  Five minutes before Rune could not sense Alys on her deathbed, but now he can sense her taking a turn for the worse.  He must have plot induced extra-sensory perception.

 

The party gets back to Krup as Alys is taking her final breaths, of course shown in a cutscene.  Rune cannot do anything because whatever is Alys has, Rune callse it the Black Wave, comes from more than just Zio.  Dark Force probably, but maybe some kind of item the party will need to recover.  Alys implores Rune to help Chaz, and she has a touching moment with Chaz before she falls to the Black Wave.  They bury her in Krup for some reason.  You would think the party would take her back to Aiedo, but maybe dead bodies cannot be transported using Ryuka.

 

Hahn decided to head back to the Academy to see if he can get the Academy to do anything to combat Zio.  I would guess that Hahn will rejoin the party at a later date, but I am not sure who he might replace.  Rika is the only member that I think will definitely not leave.  I guess the next stop is Zio's Fort to head underground in to Nurvus.  How will I, and Chaz, continue the fight without Alys.  Can we even try to go on?

[+jeremiahjt]

After an appropriate time of mourning, Chaz led his party into Zio's Fort, used the Psycho-wand to break down the barrier, and led the party into Nurvus.  Nurvus had a few twists and turns, but that is what maps are for.  There was some pretty good equipment to be found on the way, particularly for Demi.  During the descent I lost Rika for a while and then Chaz.  I was about to cast Hinas and retreat when I thought maybe I have some kind of revive spell.  Sure enough, Rune had just learned Rever, so I revived Rika and Chaz and continued on.  The party met up with Zio and the battle commenced, unfortunately it commenced a couple of steps before I thought it would.  The battle went poorly.

 

I figured I would need to use the Psycho-wand on Zio during the battle, and I was right.  In the heat of battle though, I forgot to do it for a couple of rounds and did no damage to him.  Also during the heat of battle, I clicked on the wrong command more than once, which led to some bad turns.  The icons for battle commands are understandable, but I guess I was rushing through it.  This all led to Zio getting a total party kill.

 

So starting back over, I went and stocked up on Dimates first.  Once inside Nurvus, I made a wrong turn once which added some to the trip, but overall I made it to Zio in much better shape.  This time I healed up before the battle.  I had Gryz do his War Cry skill to increase his strength and Rika used Shift to increase her strength and Chaz's.  Rune cast a lot of GiFoi and I tried some different skills with Demi, but none seem to work well except for her healing skills.  Demi eventually died and I know of no way to revive an android.  The Repair Kit might, but I did not want to waste a turn on finding out.  Rika went down, but Rune revived her before dying himself.  Chaz, Gryz, and Rika were able to finish off Zio, much to his surprise.  He blamed Dark Force for abandoning him.

 

Demi revived herself after the battle.  I do not if she always does that, or because the plot demanded it, because Demi leaves the party and merges with Nurvus.  She shuts Nurvus down, and informs the party they must travel by shuttle to Zelan to find her master Wren.  Rika also knows of Wren, as they were pen pals.  Gryz refused to leave his sister, and leaves the party, leaving only three members.  The spaceport emerges from the ground, beckoning the party to an extraterrestrial adventure.

 

Before leaving I decided to check the Hunter's Guild for job postings.  There was one for that missing student at the Academy, so my guess was right on that one.  I had actually walked around Kadary before heading to Aiedo, to talk to all the people.  Most were happy about Zio's fall, but there was a woman in the now near-empty church who seemed confused.  When the head of the residence hall in Piata said she had joined a church, I knew exactly who she was.  When I tried to take her back, she fainted.  At the inn where she was resting, a healer I presume, said she needed something nutritious.  I remembered there was some kind of food at that Alis Landale fan club item shop in Termi, and headed there to get it.  It is called a Perolymate.  I took it back to Kadary, and it worked.  The student was able to get back to Piata, and there were 3,000 meseta waiting for me.

 

There was a second job also open, Fissure of Fear.  I took that one, a missing boy in Monsen.  The boy's parent said they fell into the hole that opened from the earthquakes.  The party of three headed in and found a boss waiting, Fract Ooze.  The Fract Ooze killed my three person party rather quickly, and I decided that maybe this one is out of reach right now.

 

Back at the spaceport, the party boarded a shuttle and flew to Zelan.  I was expecting another dungeon, instead I found some treasure, no monsters, and then Wren.  Wren informs the group that Zelan is not responsible for the problems Nurvus was having.  It was a different satellite, Kuran.  Wren joins the party, and they head to Kuran, but there was a saboteur on board.  The saboteur damages the ship, and the party get another battle, although I am not sure this would count as a boss battle.  The Chaos Sorcerer goes down pretty easy.

 

The shuttle crash lands on Dezolis, destroying a temple.  The temple leader, Raja, joins the party and points them on the way to where another shuttle can be found.  I wonder if I will have to completely explore Dezolis before heading back to Motavia, or if I will be able to go back and forth like in the first game.

 

I guess Chaz has avenged Alys's death, or maybe not.  Zio may have dealt the death blow, but it was Dark Force's will guiding it.  Chaz cannot rest until Dark Force has tasted his righteous blade.

[+jeremiahjt]

The temple is really small, maybe the shuttle destroyed most of it.  Really close to the temple is the town of Ryuon.  There is not much to the town, but a weapon shop that sells a couple of things for Rune and a bar with a bartender who deals in information.  The bartender, Gyuna, lets the party know to search the lone grave in the Parmanian town of Tyler.  Many of the townsfolk talk about the extreme weather they are experiencing, just like Motavia.

 

The trek to Tyler was pretty short, but there were a couple of fights.  It was nice to see some enemies return from Phantasy Star II.  Tyler actually has a fair amount of armor and shield upgrades.  The equipment was expensive, but I had plenty of meseta built up.  Like in Ryuon, the townsfolk are worried about the worsening weather.  The Parmanians do not seem to handle the extreme weather as well as the Dezorians.  The party also learns about Laconia for the first time.  The silver weapons sold around these parts are made from Laconia, but due to the loss of knowledge of refining techniques, the best they can do is the "low-grade silver" equipment.

 

At the grave, a secret entrance to a Hangar is discovered.  The Hangar has some pretty strong enemies, but it is very short.  There is a ledge in the Hangar with an open treasure chest, I wonder if this is supposed to signify something.  Maybe it will be part of the plot later.  At the end of the Hangar, the party finds the ship Landale.  Wren gets it going quickly, and now the party can travel the stars.

 

The choices to fly to are Motavia, Zelan, and Kuran.  I assume the Motavia landing is the same Spaceport the shuttle left from.  I think the next stop should be Kuran, since that is where the group was heading before the Chaos Sorcerer sabotaged the shuttle.  I was surprised to see Zelan listed, I thought there would be no reason to go back there, but maybe after the problem on Kuran is taken care of, the party will have to take Wren back to Zelan.

[+jeremiahjt]

I headed to Kuran, and this time the satellite is a real dungeon with monsters.  The enemies here hit pretty hard, but I found all the treasure chests and made it to the end without too much trouble.  The end happens to be... Dark Force himself.  Dark Force has merged with the Zelan computer.  This cannot be the final boss, but the battle definitely says Dark Force.  I did my best, but this Dark Force took me out pretty quick.  My attacks and spells did tons of damage to him, but his attacks were very powerful and I could not keep my healing up with his damage.

 

I decided to head back to Motavia instead and see if I could save the missing boy by defeating the Fract Ooze.  The Fract Ooze was still a strong foe, but my additional levels and two additional party members were more than a match for it.  The Fract Ooze was defeated, and the missing boy, Tallas, was rescued.  The Fract Ooze did provide a lot of experience points.  Tallas made his way out of the fissure and back to his mom in one piece.  I always wonder about this.  My party has random battles every so many steps, but I guess the monsters all decided a small boy was not worth the trouble.  Apparently Tallas thought he could go to the other side of the world through the fissure.  Back at the Guild, 5,000 meseta are waiting on your arrival, but no new job listings.

 

I traveled all over Motavia and Dezolis, and I have not found anything else to do.  There are ice mountains blocking much of Dezolis, so I guess I will have to procure an ice digger to make my way through them.  I just had a thought, maybe there is something at the Machine Center that can be grabbed right now.  I think the next step is back to Kuran and to fight this Dark Force.  I think that is the next step, but I am not sure. I will need to fight more strategically if I hope to win.  Maybe I need to start using the technique combinations.  I have not tried to figure any of those out, but maybe I need to.

[+jeremiahjt]

I made it back to Dark Force and won this time, barely.  Wren was the only member still standing, so he got around 36,000 experience points and leveled up twice.  The post fight cutscene has Chaz questioning Rune about how he knew who Dark Force was.  Rune is evasive, but says he will divulge the answer in time.  I am wondering if Rune could somehow be Noah from the first and second games.  I do not think so, but Rune is the first Esper since Noah.  Maybe he is an apprentice to a still living Noah also.

 

The party head back to Zelan to fix all the environmental systems, but Dezolis is still being ransacked by blizzards.  Raja reiterates that the Garuberk Tower is the cause of the problems on Dezolis.  Fortunately the plot supplies, I mean Wren supplies, the Ice Digger, so the party can move around on Dezolis.  The Ice Digger has even more hit points than the Land Rover and seems like it packs a bigger punch.  The enemies the Ice Digger fights on Dezolis also are stronger than the ones on Motavia.

 

Back on Dezolis I found the town of Zosa.  This town has taken Dezo Owls and turned them into pet penguins.  You can rent one for 500 meseta, but I did not try it.  Zosa has a little bit of equipment to upgrade, and you also learn about a Parmanian town that was completely destroyed.  The townsfolk tell you that Garuberk tower is to the east, I guess that is my next stop.

 

Thinking on Dark Force, I wonder if this was the real Dark Force.  Maybe this is some kind of lesser aspect, and you have to fight the real one later on.  Or he even comes back to life to fight again.  It would be weird for a Phantasy Star game to kill Dark Force off so soon.  He was not the last boss of Phantasy Star II, but you fought him right before the final boss.  This fight seems quite a while from the end of the game.  Maybe Mother Brain is back.  Or the humans from Earth.

[+jeremiahjt]

Finally got around to playing some more.  I started heading east and passed a couple of towns, so I started thinking maybe I should go in the towns instead.  I went back west I found a cave called Myst Vale instead.  Inside there were cats, Musk Cats.  The last of the talking Musk Cats left.  The Musk Cats have a good feeling about the group, and let them meet their leader, the Old Man.  The Old Man has a treasure that the other Musk Cats do not know what it is.  One cat humorously cannot get a bottle open.  Another cat weirdly raves about the Old Man's shuttlecock.  The Old Man is giant.  No wonder the Musk Cats are safe.  The Old Man gives the group a treasure that has been passed down generations, the Silver Tusk.  The Silver Tusk only adds 3 points to Rika's attack power, and the only time I used it as an item in battle, nothing happened.

 

I then headed east again and this time I found the Climate Center, which I thought was Garuberk Tower, but it is not.  Right when you enter, you have a boss battle with another Gy-Laguiah.  This time, the Gy-Laguiah goes down much faster than when you fought him at the top of Ladea Tower.  There is a little bit of loot, including armor and weapon upgrades for Wren.  It is nice of whoever left all the cyborg upgrades in the dungeons, since you cannot buy cyborg equipment in any of the shops.  At the end of the Climate Center, there is a boss battle.  I healed up and switched Wren back to the Napalm Shot from the Pulse Vulcan, since the Napalm shot is more powerful against one foe.  The boss, D-Elm-Lars, lets you know that the Climate Center has nothing to do with the Dezolis climate problem, and it was a trap.  He also laughs when Chaz says they defeated Dark Force.  I guess that means Dark Force is not really dead.  I do not know how tough D-Elm-Lars would have been, since I tried Raja's Holy Word on the second or third round and it killed him.

 

I then traveled to the town of Reshel, and found it destroyed and overran with Zombies.  I quickly headed to the next town, Meese.  In Meese, you find out that there is a disease going around.  It turns people into Zombies.  That is what destroyed Reshel.  The survivors from Reshel have made their way to Meese, but the disease has infected Meese too.  Espers, from Esper Mansion, have come to Meese to help care for the sick.  The armor store has a very expensive armor, Reflection Armor, that both Rika and Chaz can wear.  It did not increase their defense power much, but is supposedly helps against magic and techniques.

 

The innkeeper has let the town use his inn to care for the stricken, and everybody thinks highly of him.  The innkeeper admits that he only did this because he did not want the townsfolk to think poorly about him.  Nice little story point there.  One of the Espers mentions that the disease appeared when Garuberk Tower did.  Raja immediately starts gloating about being right, and then falls ill to the disease.  Chaz does not handle Raja's illness very well.  He thinks Raja is joking, and acts like it.  I know Chaz is only supposed to be 16 years old, but he is very annoying sometimes.  Rune and Rika inform the group that the cause of the disease, is the Black Energy Wave.  The same thing that Zio used to kill Alys.

 

An Esper comes in and says that another Esper, Kyra, has headed to Garuberk Tower by herself.  The Espers do not think that Kyra can get past the forest of carnivorous tree surrounding Garuberk Tower and ask the group to go help her.  So the party of four head northeast to the tower and forest.  Once at the forest, a cutscene shows Kyra surrounded by trees and the battle starts.  Three trees attack the group.  Each time you kill a tree, another one takes it place.  I killed dozens, dozens, of trees before I tried running away.  Which worked.  You leave the battle with Kyra in tow.  Kyra says the Esper leader, Lutz, can help.  I knew Lutz/Noah would make an appearance.  So the group heads off to the Esper Mansion.

 

I actually made it to Jut first on accident, but I immediately checked a map and found Esper Mansion, where I stopped.  I am glad Lutz will be in the game, but I do wish they would have called him Noah.  I do not think Raja will be rejoining the party, and I think Kyra might finish the game with the party.  One thing I noticed, was that Kyra is an Esper, and Rune is a wizard.  I thought Rune was going to be an Esper, but he is something different.  It does not look like Rune will be associated with Lutz/Noah like I thought either.

[+jeremiahjt]

Well I was originally right about Rune Walsh and Lutz/Noah being connected.  Noah's consciousness is being kept by the Espers, and Rune took Noah's consciousness into himself.  Rune is the fifth generation of Noah's consciousness carriers.  Most people in Esper Mansion did not seem to recognize Rune, but the important ones did.  Not quite sure how that works.  Rune/Noah/Lutz explains that there is a 1,000 year cycle where Dark Force returns and heroes rise up to defeat him, but the destruction of Palma may have interrupted that cycle and that is why after the evil did not leave after the party defeated Dark Force.  He then tells Chaz that he has chosen Chaz as the hero to defeat this permeating evil.  The party is then pointed in the direction of the Gumbious Temple to take the Eclipse Torch, so they can burn the carnivorous trees surrounding Garuberk Tower.

 

Before heading to the temple, I stopped to check out Jut.  There are some mighty expensive weapons to buy here, which I did.  I only bought one Laconian Claw for Rika though, as I was reading about the Silver Tusk being a good end of game weapon due to some special powers it has.  Somebody in town mentioned a building to the southwest, surrounded by ice.  Which means nothing to someone with an Ice Digger.

 

At Gumbious Temple, I found a basement that is guarded and you cannot get into it.  About the only other thing around is the Eclipse Torch, and when you talk to the priest, it is stolen by monsters.  The monsters say the are from the Air Castle and that Lutz knows who will be waiting for them.  Good thing they told the party where they are from or the game might have ended right there.  This is the same Air Castle from the first game.  It somehow survived the destruction of Palma when Giara destroyed the planet.  I guess floating in the sky spared it most of the destruction.  There is now an asteroid belt made from the debris of Palma according to Wren.  Chaz asks Rune who will be waiting for them, and Rune guesses that Lashiec, formerly known as Lassic, will be there since he resided in the Air Castle before.

 

I decided to check out the building southwest of Jut first, and it is a Weapon Plant created by Mother Brain.  The game lets you know that you do not have to explore this particular dungeon, but I did anyway.  And I am glad I did, as dungeons are the only place for cyborg upgrades.  I got a new shot weapon, new armor, and new headgear for Wren.  I also found the Burst Rocket, which Wren installed into himself.  I found a terminal that gave me unlimited Repair Kits.  I took enough that I actually ran out of room in my inventory, I did not even know that was possible.  Since I had so many kits, I looked them up, and they do not do what I thought they did.  They revive dead androids, and all this time I thought they were healing items.  I can start selling them I think, since Wren is usually the last to die.

 

I guess next is to head back to the Landale and try to find the Air Castle among the rubble of Palma.  I am curious what Lassic/Lashiec will look like.  Some reincarnated skeletal figure maybe.  Or some cybernetic being who used technology to survive.  After defeating him, I am sure I will be rewarded with the Eclipse Torch, and then it is back to Dezoris to burn those bloodthirsty trees.

[+jeremiahjt]

The party took the Landale to the Air Castle, and worked their way through it, picking up every treasure along the way.  They fought the three Eclipse Torch thieves, Xe-a-thoul.  I have no idea if each one of the three is a Xe-a-thoul, or if combined they are a Xe-a-thoul.  Either way, I hit them with the best attacks I had, and they annihilated the party.  Their first attack did not kill anybody, but it took every party member into the danger level.  I had Rika cast GiSar, and even got it off before the Xe-a-thoul attack, but everyone died except for Kyra.  Kyra of course perished in round three.  I have no idea if you also have to fight Lassic/Lashiec after this, but I cannot imagine how tough he is going to be if you do.

 

Since I was not up to the task of defeating the Air Castle boss(es), I decided to head back to Motavia to check to see if their are any more job listings in the Hunter's Guild in Aiedo.  There are not.  So now I either need to do some grinding, or come up with an infinitely better strategy against Xe-a-thoul.  Maybe I need to wait until Rika learns NaSar, but that could take forever.  It looks like Raja is the only other person who learns NaSar, and he is no longer in the party.

[+jeremiahjt]

I did a little bit of grinding and I went through the Air Castle getting all the treasures for some more grinding.  After getting all the treasure I exited the dungeon, went back to Motavia to save, and then headed back to the Air Castle.  This time when I got to Xe-a-thoul, everybody was three or four levels higher than last time.  I defeated Xe-a-thoul this time, but part of that was due to luck.  The first time I faced Xe-a-thoul, he/they/it did the Thunder Blast attack all three rounds.  This time they did not do that attack every single round.  I used every skill and major technique I had, and I defeated Xe-a-thoul.  After defeating Xe-a-thoul, the two groups of illusions disappear, allowing access to the basement.

 

I went back to Dezolis/Dezoris to save, and then headed back to the Air Castle.  I entered the basement and headed toward the goal.  There was a treasure chest unguarded holding a fake Eclipse Torch.  A Spector then appears and attacks.  One Spector is a very easy fight, so I do not know why that is the fight after finding the fake Eclipse Torch.  Immediately after defeating the single Spector, a cutscene starts, introducing Lassic/Lashiec.  He has been bound to the Air Castle for 2,000 years, and wants revenge on Noah/Lutz and anybody who is with him.

 

I was doing pretty good in this fight until Rika ran out of MP, and could no longer cast GiSar.  Once that happened, Lassic finished the party off quickly.  During this fight, I did do a combination attack, I think this is the first one I have stumbled upon.  Kyra and Rune teamed up for Fire Storm, which did a lot of damage.  I did not remember what I did, so I looked it up.  Kyra did Hewn and Rune did NaFoi.  The thing is, I think I used that combination more than once, but Fire Storm only happened that one time.  I could be remembering wrong.  Out of curiosity, I looked up Lassic's hit points, and oh my God does he have a lot.  This is going to be a difficult battle to win.

[+jeremiahjt]

I defeated Lassic/Lashiec, barely.  I did some grinding before hand, Wren was up two levels, and everybody else was up three.  I am pretty sure his next attack was going to wipe out everybody though.  He did his Reinforce spell that makes all his stats go up.  After that it was hard to know who was going to attack first.  I guessed wrong with Rika's GiSar, and I was in dire straits when the death blow was dealt.  Everybody survived though. Lassic says that Dark Force is still alive, without mentioning Dark Force by name, and the Lassic will reincarnate as long as Dark Force is alive.  This was probably done to set up his return in future games, but who knows.

 

After returning to Gumbious, the head man lets the party keep the Eclipse Torch.  I headed to the forest of carnivorous tree, and when I got close a little cutscene played showing Chaz using the Eclipse Torch and burning the forest down, opening the way to Garuberk Tower.  I stopped here, as I did not want to get into another dungeon.  I wonder how difficult the boss of Garuberk Tower will be.  I am thinking it could be another Dark Force iteration.

[+jeremiahjt]

Using a map, I went through the Garuberk Tower.  Exploring everything, and getting every treasure chest.  I now have a full inventory, so I am having to drop or use stuff to get more stuff from chests.  The map I was using had Dark Force listed as the boss, and I saw it before I got to him.  After the first expedition, I Hinased out of there, rested, returned, saved, and reentered Garuberk.  I made a beeline for Dark Force, and beat him the first time.  Chaz did not make it, but it was not too difficult of a battle.  Dark Force has an attack called Lightning Shower, that attacks everybody, but he hardly uses it and GiSar completely heals the party after it.  Shadow Breath is pretty powerful against one target, but Kyra's Medicine skill took care of that.  Dark Force also had an Evil Eye attack, but I have no idea what affect it has.

 

After the battle, the Black Energy Wave is gone and the weather returns to normal.  Kyra leaves the party to head back to Meese.  Quickly afterwards, the party see a giant explosion coming from Gumbious Temple.  For same unknown reason, instead of using Ryuka, I got in the Ice Digger and headed back.  I ran into three of those Lw-Addmer enemies, and they managed to destroy the Ice Digger and my party with it.  The worst part? I did not save after defeating Dark Force.  Aargh!

 

So I headed back into Garuberk Tower, and this time I defeated Dark Force with everybody still alive.  I immediately saved after the cutscene this time, and I went ahead and used Ryuka.  Back at Gumbious Temple, only one floor remains.  I think it is the area that I could not get to before.  Inside the Bishop awaits.  I think this is the first time I talked to the Bishop.  I do not think that the head guy by the Eclipse Torch was the actual Bishop.

 

The Bishop tells the party that the Profound Darkness is the real main bad guy, not Dark Force.  I was not expecting to fight Dark Force's boss in this game.  The Bishop also informs the party that Dark Force came to Dezoris/Dezo/Dezolis to look for Rykros.  The Bishop does not know what Rykros is, but I saw somewhere that there was a fourth planet in the Algol system, and I bet Rykros is it.  The Bishop does know that the Aero-Prism is needed to find Rykros.  Thankfully, the person, or at least their memories, that hid the Aero-Prism is part of Chaz's party.  Rune says that Lutz hid the Aero-Prism on Motavia, in the Soldier's Temple.  Good thing he did not hide it on Palma.

 

The Soldier's Temple is in a lake near Krup.  Wren contacts Demi for help crossing the water.  After finishing with the Bishop, the game goes straight into the cutscene of the Landale flying towards Motavia.  I did not want to go to Motavia yet.  I was planning on checking out Meese and Reshel.  I wanted to at least see what Raja would say.  After landing at the Spaceport in Motavia, Demi has the Hydrofoil already waiting for Chaz.  How she went and picked it up from the Machine Center by herself is a mystery.

 

I guess now I am going to head back to Dezoris to check out Meese and Reshel, and then go back to Motavia and make my way to the Soldier's Temple.  I am curious what kind of enemies the Hydrofoil will meet on the water.

[+jeremiahjt]

I went back to Dezolis to check out Meese and Reshel.  All the sick people, including Raja, are recovering, but not much else is happening in Meese.  Reshel is a different story, as that town was a ghost town full of zombies, but now people are back and they are rebuilding.  The armor shop is open for business, and they have some nice new equipment.  The shop is full of Laconian armor.  I grabbed two Laconian armors, a Laconian Circlet, a Laconian Helm, and a Laconian Crown.  The price came out to over 115,00 meseta!

 

The party then took the Landale back to Motavia.  Once there, I headed to the Soldier's Temple, and when I got inside I picked up a new party member, Seth.  Immediately after picking up Seth, I remembered that I wanted to check the job listings in the Hunter's Guild first.  So I left the Soldier's Temple and went to Aiedo.  At the Hunter's Guild, four new job listing are available: Stain in Life, Dying Boy, Man with twist, and Silver Soldier.  I picked the first one, Stain in Life.

 

Stain in Life is a request from the village chief of Uzo to find his two missing daughters.  Luckily the party has the Hydrofoil, since Uzo is on an island.  The Hydrofoil has some different attacks than the Ice Digger and the Land Rover.  The special attacks seem to take advantage of the fact that you are in water a lot.  The chief's wife tells you the daughters made a raft to go shopping at the market.  I was thinking the raft had problems, and I was looking all over the mainland near Uzo for the girls or the raft.  I checked the nearest towns and nothing.  I was focusing on the wrong clue.  The clue was shopping at the market.  I consulted a guide and found out the girls were in jail in Aiedo.  I mean the clue was there, but I just missed it.  The party pays 50,000 meseta to get them out, and then gets a reward of 50,000 meseta, so it ends up a wash.

 

Next was Dying Boy, and I made this one much harder than it needed to be.  You have to go to Torinco, another island only accessible by the Hydrofoil.  A boy has a psychological illness and thinks he is dying.  The boy liked going to Termi so the father asked for Chaz to get a gift from the gift shop in Termi.  There are four things you can buy at the Bayamare gift shop, but since Perolymate is food and was used in a different quest, I figured that would not work.  The other three choices are the Alis-Sword, a Pennant, and a Woodcarving.  I figured the Alis-Sword would be a little dangerous for a young boy, so I chose the Woodcarving.  I took it back to the boy, but nothing.  Next I chose the Pennant, again when I took it back to the boy, nothing.  So then I grabbed the Alis-Sword, and the boy got real excited when he saw it.  Chaz actually does a little fencing display with for the boy before giving it to him, and curing him of the psychological illness.  I should have just bought all three items to begin with.

 

Next up was Man with twist, which leads back to Torinco.  A flock of birds have been devastating the fields of the farmers in Torinco, and Chaz is tasked with killing the leader of the birds.  Luckily the cave where the bird is nesting is close by, and even more luckily, the cave is short and sweet.  Rappy Cave is easy to navigate, and at the end is another boss, King Rappy.  The fight is pretty easy.  Once you defeat the bird, it flies away and the man who hired Chaz appears.  He has been raising the birds and hoped that the King Rappy would send the Hunters running, and terrify the citizens of Torinco in the process.  The man also does not pay the guild the promised fee, but Chaz lets him off.

 

The last listing is Silver Soldier, and pays a fee of 80,000 meseta!  Silver Soldier takes you back to Zema.  The second you get in Zema you have a battle against three Servants, giant silver cyborgs.  They go down pretty easy.  The cyborgs are roaming around Zema, trying to get into Birth Valley.  They are not harming any humans though.  Wren says that the reason they attacked the party was because of him.  The Servants attacked every member of the party, but it would have been neat if they only attacked Wren.  One villager says that they came from the northeast.  Using the Hydrofoil to search to the northeast, you find Vahal Fort.  Once there, Demi informs Wren of an attack on the Plate System.  Wren figures out that whoever is controlling these androids are trying to destroy all advanced AI systems.  Vahal Fort is full of upgrades for Wren like most other dungeons, including a Positron Bolt, which is a weapon made to attack space fortresses.  The boss at the end is an AI called Daughter. Daughter was designed by the Palmans/Parmanians to take over all systems controlled by Mother Brain.  Daughter is not happy when Wren informs her she is a prototype and is not connected to other systems.  She sends just three Dominators to fight the party, no one time boss here.  Wren shuts down Daughter, and you find out that when Demi shut down Nurvus, Daughter was awakened.  Back at Aiedo, 80,000 meseta are waiting, but no more guild jobs.

 

Next up is the Soldier's Temple, finally.  As I was looking for a map, I found one that had the end boss listed again.  I tried to not look, but I saw it.  It is Dark Force, again.  This will make the third time you have to fight Dark Force, at this point it is getting a little old.  Do you have to fight him a fourth time?  Maybe you have to fight the Profound Darkness a bunch of times too.  I really hope this it the last time you fight Dark Force though, it is getting a little old by this point.

[+jeremiahjt]

I made my way through the Island Cave, and reached the Soldier's Temple.  Inside was a single chest, with no guardians.  The chest contained the Aero-Prism.  The party left the temple and the Aero-Prism shot a beam of light into the sky during a cut scene.  This light obviously pointed towards Rykros, and Wren recorded the direction of the light.  During the cut scene, Seth transformed into Dark Force!  I felt there was something off about him, but I did not know he was Dark Force.  Dark Force actually has legs for the first time!  The battle was not too bad, but I did run out of technique points for Rika, so I had to start using Star Dew to recover everybody's hit points at once.

 

Afterwards, I went straight to the Spaceport and flew to Rykros.  Rykros is a hidden planet within the Algol solar system.  Once there, the party is greeted by Le Roof of Rykros, who came up with that name?  Le Roof explains how Rykros is protected by a powerful and invisible barrier.  Rykros also has an elliptical orbit, so it only comes close to the other planets every 1,000 years.  Le Roof will not divulge any more answers until the party meets and defeats the guardians of the two towers of Rykros, the Courage Tower and the Strength Tower.  There is also another tower called the Anger Tower, but when I went in a voice told the party to leave and kicked it out.

 

The Silence Tower, where Le Roof and the spaceport reside, has some treasure chests, including a new sword for Chaz.  Both the Strength Tower and Courage Tower are not far away, nor are they very large.  They both are pretty easy to get through, and they both have some nice equipment to pick up.  When you get to the top of each tower and to the respective guardians, you get to watch them dispatch some bad guys.  The guardian of the Strength Tower is De-Vars, and the guardian of the Courage Tower is Sa-Lews.  The guardians were pretty similar difficulty wise, but I did have a little bit more trouble with De-Vars, as I did run out of technique points for Rika again.

 

After defeating each guardian, they give you treasure chests so you can prove you have defeated them.  De-Vars in the Strength Tower gives you the Mota-Ring, the Dezo-Ring, and the Palma-Ring.  Palma?  Are you kidding me.  After obnoxiously calling Palma Parma all game long, they finally get it right now!  Sa-Lews in the Courage Tower gives you the Algo-Ring and the Rykros-Ring.

 

Once back at the Silence Tower, Le Roof explains how Algol was created.  A spiritual life form split into two separate beings.  One, of course, was the Profound Darkness.  The other was the Great Light.  They fought, as near all powerful beings are wont to do.  The Great Light won, and sealed the Profound Darkness away.  The seal for the Profound Darkness's prison were the three planets of the Algol solar system.  The Great Light then distributed Protectors among the Parmanians, the Motavians, and the Dezolisians.  Funny how we pretty much only see the Parmanians as Protectors throughout the series, save Gryz and Raja.  The seal would weaken every 1,000 years, so the Great Light created Rykros as a warning.  Why did Alis and Rolf never see Rykros or know anything about it?  Rykros would only break its silence when the seal was about to break.  So that is why.  You would think when Rolf fought Dark Force after the destruction of one third of the seal, Rykros might have made itself known then.

 

Dark Force has actually been a part of the Profound Darkness's spirit all this time, the most intense part.  Every time the seal weakens, Dark Force has been able to escape.  I guess Dark Force escaped before Palma was destroyed last time, and the Profound Darkness did not have time to escape after Palma's destruction and before Rolf put an end to Dark Force.  This time, it has the time I guess.  Le Roof tells the party they must enter the Profound Darkness's dimension and defeat it.  The rings they got from the guardians, will protect the party from the worst of the "Darkness."  I am not sure if the Darkness here refers to the Profound Darkness itself, or its dimension.

 

Chaz reacts pretty poorly to hearing all this.  He asks where the Great Light is right now, and Le Roof says the Great Light left the galaxy.  I guess it did not want to stick around to see if its other half ever managed to free itself.  Chaz is none too happy about that.  After finishing with Le Roof, the party tries to motivate Chaz to continue the mission.  Chaz astutely compares the party being given directions to fight from Le Roof and the Great Light to Zio following Dark Force and the Profound Darkness.  Chaz is feeling overwhelmed by everything, and lets the party know that all he really wanted was Alys's soul to be at peace.  Rune convinces Chaz to go to the Esper Mansion, as Rune has somebody he wants Chaz to meet.  I headed back to Dezoris and to the Epser Mansion, but I did not go any further.

 

I wonder who Rune wants Chaz to meet.  I would guess it is someone connected to Alys, since Chaz is still trying to get over losing Alys.  The whole cutscene after the party talked to Le Roof was well done.  I have not been a fan of most of the cutscenes involving Chaz and Rune, but the last one was more realistic.  I could see somebody in Chaz's situation responding exactly like that.  I am not happy we had to go through so many juvenile moments to get there, but it was a definite character progression for Chaz.  Probably the best character growth I have ever seen from an RPG honestly.

[+jeremiahjt]

The person that Rune wanted you to meet was not a person, but a sword!  The sacred sword Elsydeon.  In the basement of Esper Mansion, where the Telepathy Ball resides, there is a secret entrance in the back that leads to the Sacred Sword Cave.  Only Chaz can enter, fortunately it is a very short dungeon.  At the end is a statue holding Elsydeon!  After... talking, I guess... to Elsydeon, a cutscene starts.  The statue holding Eslydeon looks to be a statue of Alis Landale.  A voice starts talking to Chaz, Elsydeon I guess.  The cave is where the spirits of those who fought Dark Force before reside, and they protect the sword.  Once Chaz take Elsydeon, the spirits communicate some images to Chaz. At least I think that is what is happenning.  You see Alis and Dark Falz, and then Alis with Odin and Myau, but no Noah.  Next you see Rudo, Kain, Amy, Shir, Anna, and Hugh together.  Then Nei alone and Rolf by himself.  Next is the Algol system and pictures of three women.  I think the women are Alis, Nei, and Alys, but I am not sure on that one.  One of them may have been Rika.  Since Chaz was able to see the images, the spirits deem him worthy and entrust to him Elsydeon.

 

Once outside the cave and reunited with the party, Chaz has regained his will to fight.  I guess the spirits showing him the previous two parties made him want to join them in history.  Or maybe he just wants his spirit to live in that cave someday.  Wren breaks up the excitement with a message from Demi about an emergency on Motavia.  Once back at the Spaceport, the party is greeted by Raja and Kyra, who both want to rejoin the fight.  The party is whisked back to Motavia without any control from the player, where the rest of the former members are waiting at the Motavian Spaceport.  Gryz, Demi, and Hahn all want to rejoin the battle.  Demi informs the party that a large hole has formed near Piata and is killing everything.  Rune knows that this hole is the Black Energy Wave from the Profound Darkness.

 

Everybody wants to go, but there are only five Rings of Stars to protect the wearers from the Darkness.  At this point you can choose anybody for your fifth spot.  I also figured I better equip everybody with those rings also.  Chaz can equip the Algol-Ring, Wren the Palma-Ring, Rika the Motavia-Ring, and Rune the Dezoris-Ring.  That leaves only the Rykros-Ring.  I first wanted to head back to Rykros and check out that other tower first.  I picked Raja, but he could not equip the Rykros-Ring.  I took him anyway and made my way to the Anger Tower.

 

This time the presence of Elsydeon provide access to the Anger Tower.  The Anger Tower is pretty short with a couple of treasure chests, although one of them has a second set of Guard Mail for Chaz or Rika, whoever did not get the other set.  Chaz with Elsydeon now has the power to occasionally kill certain enemies with one hit, like Rika with the Silver Tusk.  Only Chaz can climb to the top floor.  At the top floor, Chaz finds Alys!  Alys attacks Chaz and he must defeat her.  It is a really easy fight.  After the fight, another guardian appears and taunts Chaz for being upset about fighting an obvious illusion.  The guardian notes Chaz's anger and hatred, and offers to show him how to turn anger and hatred into a technique of destruction.  The guardian asks if Chaz wants to learn.  I of course said yes and a battle with the guardian Re-Faze starts.  Re-Faze kills Chaz with his very first attack, awesome.

 

So I make it back to Re-Faze, and this time I choose that Chaz is not interested in learning the technique.  Re-Faze is impressed that Chaz has not lost sight of himself after fighting the illusion of Alys, and teaches him the technique of Megid.  In Phantasy Star III, Sean could not use Megid during battle, it was only for the end game after beating Dark Force, it looks like Chaz will be able to use Megid whenever he wants.

 

I headed back to Motavia to get ready for what should be the final battle.  Since Raja could not equip the Rykros-Ring, I figured I better find out who can.  Gryz was first up, nope, he cannot equip it either.  Kyra was next, but she is a no-go to.  How about Demi?  Negative.  That leaves Hahn, who also cannot equip the Rykros-Ring.  I guess I was mistaken about thinking the fifth person had to equip the Rykros-Ring, I guess whoever I take will be protected.  I chose Hahn.  Not sure why really, I just picked him.  I went to the giant hole near Piata.  It is called The Edge.  I did not feel like making a run last night, so I save there.

 

I think The Edge is the last part of the game, and that the Profound Darkness should be waiting in the end.  I shall see hopefully soon.  I might try to figure out if the Rykros-Ring is supposed to be equippable before making my run though.  It looks like you can take anybody you want though.

[+jeremiahjt]

Woohooo, the Profound Darkness has been defeated and the Algol solar system is safe for all eternity!  At least that is what the final cutscene made it look like.

 

I kept Hahn to make my assault on the Profound Darkness.  The Edge was not that long, and the encounter rate seemed really low to boot.  I did encounter a group that consisted of three of the Gi-le-farg enemies (the long armed wizard type enemies, these in red robes), and they almost wiped me out.  Outside of that battle, it was pretty easy making it to the end.

 

At the end was a black blob of a hole that I think may have been a portal that the party went through.  After presumably jumping through the portal the party fights a many mouthed creature that I presume is the first form of the Profound Darkness.  As I was looking up stats for bosses, I had seen that there were three different bosses to fight, so I took it easy on this one.  I did not use any of my very limited skills, nor did I use a ton of technique points.  I did the normal buffs and attacked it.  The fight was fairly easy, and the first form fell without too much trouble.

 

The second form looked similar to the first, but with the mouths and teeth replaced by, claws maybe.  The second form was much like the first, not too difficult.  I was not sure if the buffs would carry over, so I did them again before starting full attacking.  Again I did not use any of my best stuff.  The last hit on the boss was very weird though.  The last thing I did before the boss disappeared was cast GiRes on one of my characters.  Either Hahn or Chaz used GiRes, and the second form disappeared to be replaced by the third one.  Did GiRes somehow hurt the boss?  Or had the boss already reached zero hit points and the game waited to the end of the round?

 

The last form looked more like a cross of Dark Force and Mother Brain than anything else.  As the final form of the Profound Darkness was definitely feminine.  I knew this one was the final boss, so I let everything go.  I did my buffs again just to make sure, then started using my best stuff.  I had Chaz use Megid quite a bit.  It did a good amount of damage.  The boss also used Megid on the party.  During this fight (maybe during the first or second forms too) I did some more accidental combinations.  I did Grand Cross twice, which I have done before.  I also one time did Paladin Blow, which I had never seen before.

 

This fight was long.  Longer than the first two forms combined.  This third form used Canceling to neutralize my buffs.  Two or three times I lost a party member, and once I had two down.  I was able to get everybody resurrected though.  Rika ran out of technique points, so I started dipping into my stash of Star Dews, luckily I had enough.  After a long and arduous battle, the Profound Darkness went down.

 

The post battle cutscene is about what you expect.  At one point Wren mentions a time warp, but there was nothing else about time being different.  Elsydeon protects the party from the effects of the portal closing.  One shot shows Chaz holding Elsydeon with Wren, Rika, and Rune behind him.  I guess Hahn was left to fend for himself, or the programmers did not want to bother making five different shots for that scene depending on who you took with you to the final battle.

 

Once aftershocks of the Profound Darkness's death, the party is together beside the Landale.  Wren is going back to Zelan, taking the Landale with him.  Demi and Rika are going with Wren, and Kyra and Raja are hitching a ride to Dezoris with them.  Rika is too upset to say bye to Chaz, but the rest of the people leaving Motavia have a nice farewell.  Of the people staying on Motavia, Gryz heads back to Tonoe, presumably to be with Pana.  Hahn heads back to the Academy, not to Krup, to continue his studies.  Rune leaves to get more training and experience so he can watch over all of Algol.  Which begs the question, how does Rune travel between worlds?  As Rune is about to leave and leave Chaz by himself, the Landale returns and Rika rushes to Chaz.  I guess she could not live without him.  Rune and the Landale leave the lovebirds to themselves.

 

Each characters gets one more scene showing them doing what they left to do.  Hahn teaching, Gryz taking care of Pana, Raja drinking, Kyra praying, Demi and Wren being androids, Rune traveling, and the 16 year old Chaz with his one year old girlfriend, Rika.  The final words make it seem like Dark Force and the Profound Darkness are gone forever.  I know nothing about any of the later Phantasy Star games, but do any take place in the Algol star system after this game?  I would guess not.

 

It has been a long journey, but it is finally over.  This game was fun, but I am not sure where I would place it compared to the others.  I will have to ruminate on it.

[+jeremiahjt]

I have been trying to think how I would rank the Phantasy Star games.  I knew for sure that the first one would be number one and the third one would be number four.  Which to pick as the better game between the second and fourth one has been very hard to decide.  I played the fourth more recently obviously, so there might be some recency bias there.

 

The second one has more grinding for sure, but grinding is not always the worst thing.  Part four had a lot of quest markers.  I mean every time I accomplished something, the next something immediately popped up and I could almost always complete that part without worrying about grinding.  That may sound more appealing, but I got tired of having to fight Dark Force over and over.  It is not a terrible mechanic to have to build up your characters before taking on something difficult.

 

A lot of people decry the black grid background during the battles on the second one, but that did not bother me very much.

 

The second game seemed to have more items that were useful during battle.  The fourth one had some, but I do not think I ever used an item for its battle function.  The fourth one did have skills to make up for this though.  The skills were nice to have, but it was hard to remember what all of them did.  Some of them had descriptive names to help out, but not all of them.

 

The second game allowed you to switch party members out anytime, the fourth one had a narrative based approach.  I could see people preferring having a narrative reason for the party make-up, but I like be able to switch out anytime.  The fourth game having a five-member party was nice though.

 

Speaking of narrative, the destruction of Palma in the second game was the most important part of the plot found in any of the games.

 

One thing the second one has is that it felt the most connected to the first game.  The fourth game had some pretty good connections too, but I think the second one edges it out.  This piece here is the main reason the third game is at the back.  If each game was a one-off with no other connections then it might be higher on the list.

 

In the end, I think I will give Phantasy Star II the edge.  So my ranking of the four games goes like this.

 

1. Phantasy Star

2. Phantasy Star II

3. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

4. Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom