Emptyeye

For some reason, the world of Phantasy Star III loves its fountains to lead to dungeons that connect to castles. I don’t get it either.

It’s probably a testament to how unpopular the game is (Or how unpopular I am) that I wasn’t called out on not knowing who Lena was. It turns out that she’s the lady who helps you escape the dungeon at the start of the game. Whoops! Still, why you’d shout “It’s her!” upon seeing her (And not “Hey, it’s the lady who helped me out earlier!”, given that you’re already looking for another “her”) confused me.

The fountain dungeon in the town of Cille was the most difficult dungeon yet. It wasn’t necessarily the most complicated–there were eight possible entrances, but you could tell fairly quickly that most of them wouldn’t really get you anywhere–but the passages were long, and the enemies the most difficult yet. It took me probably four or five trips into the dungeon part to make it all the way through. And this was before the castle portion of the dungeon. This marked the first time I wanted to just get to what I saw as the endpoint of the maze–the enemies were hitting hard, and I was beginning to run out of healing items. I did come across one person who noted that the Layans were insulted that I would try to marry their princess–a fact I had gathered by the fact that I was still being attacked by monsters in the castle. More on this particular plot point a bit later.

After navigating my way through the castle, it was time for a boss fight, against King Cille. It was difficult, with his ability to Zan my entire party for respectable damage, but after I quickly eliminated his Dryad guards, he went down before my party did. Then I had a decision to make. It was time to marry someone, and finish off generation one!

I had both in-character and out-of-character concerns here. I’ll tackle the out-of-character ones first. The game actually breaks off at two points–you can marry one of two people at the end of the first generation, and you make a similar choice at the end of the second generation, for a total of four possible third generations. And I’ve been told that while all four third generations are pretty similar (To the point that it’s really only worth playing through the game once, despite the fact that Sega advertised four endings depending on the path you ended up in on the game’s release), that is decidedly not true of the two possible second generations. If I picked well, or picked poorly, it could completely change my gaming experience for the next several hours.

In-character, I had my choice of two ladies, neither of whom were all that compelling. Maia, my supposed lady-love, has had her entire role to this point be to say “I hope someday we’ll find out who I am and where I came from!” (Answer: She’s a Layan princess. To the game’s credit, unlike today’s games, where there would be a giant cutscene where the main characters [and her] would act all shocked about this, it’s brought up a bit more subtlely. Yes, they mention it, but without a lot of fanfare. Indeed, the game doesn’t even remind you that Maia didn’t know this fact about her lineage at all at this point.), and to be kidnapped. Essentially, she was a living MacGuffin, a trophy for me to chase down. My other option, Lena, did help me escape the dungeon at the beginning of the game, which was nice and all. But as a party member, she was a much, much weaker version of Rhys, with no magic capabilities, and not a lot of fighting ability either (Admittedly, my setting her up with a dual-wielding-knife setup, which was actually a solid choice in Phantasy Star II, may have had something to do with this). Her best role in battle amounted to being a fifth target, and she wasn’t even particularly good at that. Further, there was nothing in the English script of the game to suggest that she was so much as a platonic friend of Rhys, let alone someone he would want to marry for any other reason than “He’ll get more kingdoms.”

Eventually, I made my decision as to who to marry. Who did I pick?

…You’ll have to wait for Part Nine to find out.

-EE

Oh what do you know! Lyle turned out to be a Layan the whole time! Whoever would have predicted that?!

Yes indeed, it turned out that Lyle was the prince of the Layans. And of course I had to fight him. Yet even with this, frankly, predictable turn coming, the game managed to defy my expectations. After Rhys (By himself) bested Lyle in combat, Lyle rejoined my party as though nothing had happened after saying “Hmm, looks like you’re stronger than I thought.” Bizarre, and frankly a pleasant surprise.

I also get the feeling that I saw the game dip into Phantasy Star II-level translation for the first time here. Near the end of the Layan castle, Rhys exclaimed “It’s her!” “Her” did not refer to Maia, though, but apparently a girl I’ve never seen before called Lena. From what I can tell, Lena is Rhys’s Layan counterpart. The only issue here is that she starts off at about the same strength Rhys was at at the start of the game–which would be great if Rhys weren’t about 17 levels higher than that.

In any event, the next step, now that I had a full party (And drums on the overworld music!), was to use Lyle and Lena’s moon fragments to reactivate the Satellite Control System in Aridia. Luckily, I knew exactly where that was given my exploration of the tower, so that was no problem. The village I went to after that contained equipment far, far beyond my realm of affordability (Mid-five digits Meseta on average, when the most I had ever carried on me at any one time was about 2500). No doubt that this will be some sort of true endgame town. For now, though, I’ll keep going, since I think I’m near the end of the first generation (Maia is getting mentioned again with increasing frequency).

-EE

My second attempt to explore the tower mentioned in the previous entry got me no cool equipment, nor anything immediately useful. I did find a couple Trimates (Phantasy Star’s equivalent of Final Fantasy’s X-Potion…basically an item that restores a party member to full health), and the second floor of the tower did have a satellite control system that I have a feeling will be useful someday.

Now I’m in a fountain.

Let me explain…the next portion of the game actually features two villages. One is an Orakian village with the typical music. The second, however, had a much more tribal music, and something else: Layans.

Talking to the people in both villages, I found out that the Orakians are growing desperate, having repeatedly tried and failed to defeat the Layans. Other tidbits I picked up:

• A girl was carried into the Layans’ castle (At this point, I remembered “Oh yeah, I started this adventure when my bride-to-be was kidnapped…”)
• Monsters come out of the fountain in the Layans’ village (It turns out there is a dungeon in that fountain, hence “Now I’m in a fountain.”)
• Layans look like Orakians (I’m now more certain than ever that Lyle is probably Layan. Funny how he mentioned how we would take the ship to “his homeland”, but never specified what “his homeland” was.)
• Orakians eat people (This being the first I’ve heard of my cannibalistic tendencies, I’m fairly certain this is just Layan lies and propaganda.)

The other thing that the Layan village had was more cool weapons, especially the Ceramic Shot for Wren. Suffice to say that being able to hit entire rows of enemies is pretty nice.

I’m liking the game a lot more than I thought I would, although part of this may be that I’m trying to play the game like I warped back to 1991–making my own maps, not using a FAQ, etc. The side effect of making my own maps is that I tend to have to make multiple trips into the dungeons–which, for the most part, eliminates any outright “grinding” I may need to do.

-EE

Knowing what my next two objectives were (In order: Go to a western cave, then go to the tower to the east), I set out.

My mission in the cave was to find a cyborg so I could fix the weather control system in the eastern tower. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more “traditional” caves intimidate me a lot less than the more “futuristic” ones. This may be, paradoxically, because the traditional ones are more packed together. They may well have more twists, turns, and dead ends, but because I can see more of these at once, I don’t feel as though I have to map them out for fear of getting lost as I do the more PSII-like dungeons. In any event, I quickly made my way through the cave to the west and found Wren the cyborg, filling out the music in the overworld a bit more.

I did notice the difficulty beginning to scale up at this point–enemies were generally hitting harder, and there were more of them. Additionally, Wren began his jaunt in my party with basically no equipment, and at Level 1, whereas Rhys and Mieu were in the Level 13-to-14 range at that point (Unlike in Phantasy Star II, though, where all your characters start as total n00bs [Just look at their stats for Level 1!], Wren’s HP, at least, was comparable to that of the rest of the party, and he started with a selection of techniques as well).

After heading back to the cyborg town and restocking my party (And giving Wren some equipment, notably a “Hunting Shot” that basically does fixed damage to enemies, a la Rudo’s weapons in PSII), it was time to head to the tower to the east. Almost immediately, I came upon stairs to the second floor, the first time I had seen stairs to another floor (As opposed to simply outside) in one of these places. Thinking that was too easy, I wandered around, making a map…and came across a second staircase. Now this was what I expected in a Phantasy Star dungeon.

Yet further exploration of the first floor shattered my expectations once again. After coming across Lyle for a second time (And having him join my party, stating that he needed Wren’s help to fix the weather machine and save his homeland), I finished exploring the first floor…and came upon the weather machine we had to fix! Suffice to say that Phantasy Star II would not have made it that easy, especially five or six dungeons in–for reference, here’s and fifth and here’s the sixth dungeon in that game.

Some other interesting things–Lyle, like Wren, joins at Level 1, but is pretty clearly supposed to be the mage of the party. Also, given his advanced stats (A full set of equipment, albeit not as good as the other characters have, more HP and TP than anyone else to that point, and a lot of experience to go from level 1 to Level 2), I get the feeling he’s but a temporary party member (No spoilers please), whether because he’s going to die, or because he’s going to betray my party for some reason (My attempts to put him in the front of my party in a Layan Palace to see if that was his big secret met with no results). I couldn’t help but notice that the overworld music actually got more dissonant with Lyle in the party; I have no idea if that’s meant to be a clue, or if Sega’s composers just aren’t particularly good at their jobs.

I have to admit, I’m enjoying this game a lot more than I thought I would. I’m actually going to finish exploring the tower next, even if there’s nothing in there (Again, don’t spoil that please), because my mindset nowadays tends to be “explore as much as possible, ignore the plot until you absolutely have to follow it”. It should be fun!

-EE

Making my way to the other side of the second dungeon, I came upon a shipping village. There was a small problem: The village, as well as the entire region, was frozen over, making fishing difficult. Finding ruins of an Orakian Fortress, I crossed them and ended up in a large desert region. This had a village full of cyborgs, where I received some hints as to what I was to do next. There’s a cave to the west, and a tower to the east (Which I stumbled upon by accident).

I’ve mentioned before that I like the old-school, piece-together-what-to-do-next-from-villagers style, and this game certainly delivers there. Another thing the game delivers on is making you feel like an outsider in the world. I’ve come across easily six or seven Layan Palaces so far, and nothing but the ruins of one of Orakio’s Palaces, which I couldn’t even enter (In another old-school move, the passage I was looking for was a random, non-descript square of snow that was in an intersection of the two ruined buildings). It’s strange that I’ve come across so many Layan Palaces, but no Layans as of yet.

A couple Hunter’s Claws and a Sword for Mieu and Rhys, respectively, and we’re ready to rock the enemies in the desert. I also haven’t discussed how your spells, or “Techniques” in the Phantasy Star vernacular, power up. As you gain levels, you gain spots on a square. You then go into a shop and redistribute these squares among the squares in the family (“Heal”, for instance). The higher the power of a spell, the more effective it is, without costing any more Technique Points. It’s interesting, if bizarre.

Next time, I hopefully find that Western Cave!

-EE

First off, some stuff I missed from Part Two:

When I acquired Mieu, a part of the overworld background music “filled in”, giving me an additional instrument. Think of what happens as you get further into Yoshi’s Island, and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Pretty cool.

Also, Mieu is actually more human than catgirl. I think it was the claw attack that confused me. Whoops!

Now then, onto part three.

After acquiring the Sapphire, my next task was to find the cave that the Sapphire would allow me access to. I knew from talking to people that the cave would be to the east. I found a cave somewhere southeast and…couldn’t get in. Everything I tried yielded nothing. Confused, I wandered around what I could, and found two Layan Palaces that I couldn’t really do anything with (Being aligned with the Orakians..see Part One for a brief plot synopsis up to the start of the game), then decided to use my handy-dandy Monitor to see where I was. Feeling stupid, I walked as far east as I could, then slightly north (Practically right by the first Layan Palace I went to), where I found my target. I walked in…

…and wondered what the hell people were talking about when they say this isn’t really a Phantasy Star game.

In this so-called “cave” were platforms held up by pipes, with more pipes in the background, just like an early Phantasy Star II dungeon. And this one was a good deal more complicated than the first one (Although fortunately, it seems to only be a single floor [Please don't spoil anything in the comments.].), to the point where I decided to make a line-map of it. The dungeon’s encounters were also a major step up in difficulty, to the point where my party actually got wiped out once. I have to say, I honestly liked this, being more old-school in my RPG sensibilities (This is why I volunteered to play Final Fantasy, albeit the much easier Dawn of Souls version, for a Speed Gamers community marathon).

Next time, more progress!

-EE

I’ve now acquired a character and gone through my first dungeon in Phantasy Star III. The experience has certainly been interesting, and unexpected.

It’s clear that Sega learned quite a bit from Phantasy Star II. While the encounter rate is as high as ever (My cousin noted that PSIII’s encounter rate makes PSII encounters seem like occasional distractions), the combat isn’t as brutally difficult as PSII’s early game (Although this may be because of my choice of a Short Sword as my initial weapon, plus my doing a bit of grinding to get a second Claw for Mieu), and it flows a lot faster too–the animations move much more quickly, perhaps as a result of not having your characters themselves graphically in the battle.

Plot-wise, I now realize that the connections to the rest of the series begin much earlier than I expected. Suffice to say that I already know who I’ll be fighting in the third generation. Additionally, the character of Mieu reminds me of the rest of the series too. Name-wise, the first thing I actually thought of was Myau, the cat-like character from the original Phantasy Star. Design-wise, though, she’s clearly meant to evoke memories of Nei from Phantasy Star II, from the claws, to the cat-like appearance. Here, though, instead of being half-human, half-Biomonster, Mieu is a cyborg.

The game has also managed to subvert my expectations at points. I knew I needed a Sapphire to enter a cave. I also knew that a man had stolen the Sapphire and was hiding in a cave somewhere. In terms of the dungeon itself, it was actually a simple, one-floor affair, a far cry from the first dungeon in PSII. Not only that, but the scoundrel who stole the Sapphire simply handed it over to me, and even expressed a wish to join my party (But ultimately didn’t, at least not yet). So it was refreshing to have all the signs that pointed to “Boss battle!” not actually lead there. The downside to this is that the lack of real conflict has done little to quicken up the slow pace of the game to this point.

Still, I’m intrigued, and will keep playing.

-EE

While I get closer to my goal of a Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode speedrun (I’m now under an hour from start of control to end of control, thus proving one SDA member wrong about what such a run would entail), I decided to begin another project off-stream. Yes, I’m going to try something I’ve started a couple times and gotten absolutely nowhere in each time: playing through Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom.

Phantasy Star III is probably the most interesting game in the series from a non-playing perspective. Whereas the first Phantasy Star brought a futuristic bent to the console RPG (And in the US, was actually the first of the “big three” console RPG franchises to come out, beating the first Dragon Warrior to market by about a year), Phantasy Star II continued the sci-fi bent and is considered the quintessential “old-school” console RPG in its sensibilities for better or worse (It has been incorrectly called “Teleporter Maze: The Game”. That’s technically wrong, but the game is brutally difficult..you absolutely needed the full strategy guide the game came with back in the day), and Phantasy Star IV is widely considered the best of the series, and a game that still holds up incredibly well even today, Phantasy Star III is…none of these things.

Phantasy Star III is widely panned today, basically for not being a Phantasy Star game (Without spoiling too much, the connection to the rest of the series is really only revealed in its ending). In terms of its setting, it simply looks much more “traditional fantasy” than the rest of the series (Particularly II). So I’m trying to play through it, trying not to think of it as “A Phantasy Star game”, and see how it holds up on its own.

I had forgotten about the little intro screen at the start of the game, detailing the story so far. Basically, Orakio and Laya, two warring, uh, warriors, destroyed each other and most of civilization a thousand years ago. It’s into this world that your character, Prince Rhys, is thrust. On his wedding day, his bride, Maia, is kidnapped by a dragon, one of the Layans. Rhys, incensed, swears to destroy the Layans…and is thrown into the dungeon by his father to “cool off” for a bit. It’s an intriguing start, although I have the feeling (Please don’t spoil anything for me) this is setting up for some “Fake King” shenanigans (SEE: Final Fantasy IV, Chrono Trigger [Fake Chancellor, but same concept]). After escaping, I was off to the races.

The first thing I noticed is that the pace is slow. Five minutes in, I found myself wishing for a “run” button like in most newer RPGs (Or remakes of old Final Fantasy games, going back at least as far as FF Chronicles). The meandering pace applies somewhat to the story as well. While it’s intriguing, I’ve been to three towns and, while I’ve picked up some fragments of information (True to old-school RPG form, the game throws you bits and pieces, but never directly tells you what to do next–and this is something I like), I have yet to enter a proper cave or dungeon or anything like that.

Still, I will say that the game is ambitious, if nothing else. Various features were advertised (Travel to seven different planets, four different endings depending on the lineage you choose), and even in my short playtime, I can see the ambition in the fact that I’ve heard four different battle themes (There’s a “main” battle themes, and then at least three others that play when you actually begin combat; I think the chosen theme is supposed to represent who has the advantage in battle.). Whether this ambition comes together in the execution is something we’ll have to see.

Oh, and Rhys wears a cape. He clearly knows what’s up.

More as I play through and really get into the meat of the game.

-EE

For the first time in four years, I’m actually using this plug-in!

This is a poll relating to what I should stream once I get a run of Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode worthy of submission to SDA. You can pick up to two answers, though note that I won’t really be speedrunning any of these. The poll will be open until I actually get a run of G13 for submission.

Thanks everyone!

-EE

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Just a quick note that my friend Eric_Dude is in the middle of streaming his entire 721 game SNES collection to raise money for his wife’s Relay for Life team. Check it out here, and donate if you have some spare cash!

-EE