The Phantasy Star III Chronicles: Part Eighteen

In the previous chapter, I noted that Lyle revealed he could change into a dragon and then he died (This grammar, by the way, is not much worse than what the game actually said.). I feel like this should somehow have had more time spent on it, since it was a pretty important plot point from the first generation and all. This was also the first time I really regretted the relative linearity of the game. Lyle, before he died, begged me not to tell Rhys of this revelation–but it’s not like the game left me much choice other than to keep it a secret, since I was trapped on the island Techna was located on. The only way to go was forward.

Doing that involved going through the castle to Sattelite (Despite what I may have written earlier, this is how the game actually spells the place I’m looking for)–a place that, despite the tales, was very much not peaceful. The totality of the dungeon was actually quite long. First, I had the passage to Sattelite proper. Near the end, I was told that the Power Topaz proved my worthiness, and to continue on to learn the truth about my world.

Which, as it turned out, wasn’t a “world” at all, but a giant spaceship! I’ll admit, I found this pretty cool. Sattelite, or Azura, was a similar ship. Once I got there, though, there was still Sattelite itself to traverse, plus a second dungeon beneath it. This wasn’t particularly difficult, thanks to my being ludicrously overleveled. Still, the sheer length of a dungeon with no way to recover fully did make me a bit nervous–and the multiple passages, only one of which was correct, didn’t help. This was actually the first time I didn’t make a complete map of every path, because it was that confusing. Nonetheless, I eventually found Siren, a pissed off cyborg who was aligned with Orakio before being forced onto Sattelite by Laya. And he was the toughest challenge to date, reducing my party’s damage to under 50 per attack (When I had been doing several hundred per attack on average). Fortunately, Wren played the hero, doing as much damage as he always did (About 130 per attack) thanks to his Pulse Cannon. Siren was soon defeated, and thus ended Generation Two.

When I got Sari into the party, I had considered the fact that I may be near the end of this generation, and wondered how they were going to tie the marriage part into the plot. As it turned out, they didn’t really try. I was told that “Two women express interest in marrying Ayn”. And wouldn’t you know it, it was the two human women in my party that wanted Ayn’s hand in marriage! Here, I realized that the developers probably came up with the “Three Generations!” concept early on, and didn’t bother to try to make the transitions flow cohesively at all. Really, there was only a slight reason for Thea, Lyle’s daughter, to want to marry Ayn (In true old-school RPG style, saving someone from a dungeon means they must fall in love with you. See: The original Dragon Warrior/Quest). And there was, frankly, no reason at all for Sari (Lena’s daughter whom, you’ll recall, tried to kill me in combat before joining my party) to want to do so.

Still, I had to make a choice to get on with the final third of the game. Who did I choose?

…find out next time.

-EE