Orakians = Palmans (normal hair colour - except dark blue shades, technology/robotics) Examples: Alisa, Tyrone from PS1, & most of the playable characters from PSII & IV. Layans = Espers (weird hair colour - except some blonde/white shades, magic/monsters) Examples: Lutz, Rune The people in PSIII are the Palmans/Espers that escaped the destruction of Palma and the world ships are the “arks” they built (and are the ones in Phantasy Star Online). Espers were the scholars of Palman society and were said to have either been people born with special powers (ESP-ers) or were a separate ethnicity altogether. Either way, they were the first to fall to the influences of Dark Force. Since most were scholars and priests, it was they who formed the cult of dark priests that forged armour for LaShiec. This armour corrupted the former general of the royal armies and he usurped the throne from the royals - killing the king & queen (in a swift and secret coup). The public was unaware of the true reasons for a new ruler but then monsters began roaming the worlds, the robot police became oppressively cruel, and interplanetary travel was almost completely shutdown. Alisa was the only child of the king & queen. Nero was just the son of the family that took Alisa in when servants fled the castle with the infant child during the coup. Theories as to why Dark Force is always encountered in a box has do with it being immaterial and more of a spiritual essence than anything that can physically manifest. The “boxes” were believed to be containers in which the essence was bound. Without the box, the Dark Force is more of a dark mass of energy that influences the minds of people in dreams and turns them evil. This is why Alisa & friends encounter the “Saccubus” nightmare while resting at the governor of Paseo’s mansion - the non-corporeal Dark Force was seeking to test and/or possess them so that it could manifest in the world (which it ultimately did by using the governor as a physical vessel). The “Earthmen” of PSII were undoubtedly corrupted by the “Pandora’s Box” cargo Eusis and company encounter on the Noah ship. Perhaps the bound Dark Force was slowly seeping out of its bound imprisonment and had guided the Earthmen to do all of the evil acts? Either way, Dark Force was influencing the Mother Brain AI that controlled the entire Algol star systems. It is what caused the initial space travel tragedy that rendered Eusis a ward of the Motavian government and shut down all flights between Motavia and Dezoris. Some old notes speculated this was due to the ship in which Eusis and his family were on inadvertently discovering the Noah ship. It was destroyed before their presence could be reported. Dark Force’s influence over Mother Brain also is what caused the Biolabs accidents that spawned the Biomonsters (and Nei). The PSIII time loop theory sounds like the most sound hypothesis (but, since the Golden Axe team developed this game and NOT the original team, there are very few surviving notes like what has been committed to books for PS, PSII (The End of the Halcyon Days) and PSIV (The End of the Millennium).
@@youcancallmefunk4745 Yeah, the English versions were limited to 4 letters per name in the UI so Aliser/Alisa so westerners got completely changed names in their game. It’s a little frustrating because Lutz was already 4 letters and should have never been changed. It’s even more jarring to meet back up with him in Phantasy Star II with his name restored back to Lutz.
@@Resvrgam I always thought of Noah has a descendant of Lutz . And I even had it in my head that the original master system version referred to him has such , even if in the game it was the actual Lutz. So that never bothered me later when I heard about all the differences I am actually going through some of my older games and replaying them currently . Right now I'm playing FF 3/6 on an SNES . And next I was gonna dust off my PS collection , maybe I'll slide Shinning in the Darkness ahead of PSs . Either way I was fortunate enough to own them when I was young and they were new and now I'm old ish (40s) and they all still play in there original American release form , yes my master system still works has well has my genesis and I have the 4 PS games .
@2:55 I was pretty sure growing up that PS3 and PS4 take place at the same time. But PS4 actually takes place only 1000 years after PS2, and PS3 takes place 1000 years after PS4 (timeline screwiness implying that killing the Profound Darkness in PS4 didn't succeed).
The overworld music exapnds everytime a character joins your party. So the overworld music is almost constantly changing. Its also a completely different track if the lead character in your party is dead.
I think PS3 and PS4 happened at the same time. Each at 1000 yrs after 2. So when the satellite destroyed the planet in two, the escaped ships that made it off world got split up when the other ships were being corrupted/destroyed. So 3 and 4 could be happening at the same time, one on the ship and the one on the planet. Just a theory. That's why they feel so different from one another in tech and one feels more medieval.
I really appreciate the Phantasy Star content on this channel. You seem to have a real passion for the series, and it comes across as very genuine, which is refreshing. The Phantasy Star series is one of the most impactful experiences of my teenage years (PSIV remains one of my favorite games of all time), and I find myself often thinking about how PS3: Generations of Doom had a really interesting hook, with marriage choices and family lines that alter playthroughs a bit. I don't think they executed on it particularly well, but I respect that they went with a concept that was so innovative.
I hear ya. I didn't find this out until after I made this video but apparently the game was made by a different team from the one that made the other PS games. And the sound designer for PS3 was a rookie who had only been at Sega for 2 years. The game being the way it is makes sense when you take all this into consideration
@@jasonmalice Yeah, I just think she didn't have time to make PS3's soundtrack as good as PS4's was. They really rushed Phantasy Star III and it's too bad because by the time they really started working on Phantasy Star IV Sega had already pulled the plug on the Sega CD in Japan and they transitioned that to a Genesis game. Phantasy Star III could have been a Sega CD launch game if they were given more time to work on it.
I love the concept of Phantasy Star 3. Wish they had the Phantasy Star 2 team work on it instead and given them more time to finish it. It could have been a Sega CD launch game. Would have had a battle system like Phantasy Star IV and maybe some dating sim elements to get to know your brides instead of just picking one at a prompt. Doesn't have to be anything too crazy; even Pirates! Gold for the Genesis had some dating sim elements to pick a wife. Would have had some sprite based FMVs like Lunar to flesh out the story, which is very much needed because I never got through Phantasy Star III because I never at any point in the game had any idea of what was going on.
Wow FMV + dating sim elements sounds so amazing. Would have been super ahead of its time, I would kill for something like this. I don't blame you or anyone for having a hard time with PSIII either.
Megid is a dark technique. In new games (yes, online 2, I know it’s not like the classics) it’s a very dangerous, and corrupted attack seemingly created from corrupted photons.
I love this guys videos...;) Addendum- You would think the people on the Neo Palm would throw both the sword and box into the vacuum of space. No more Dark Force he's going on a long flight in the opposite direction of us...goodbye. Even better, hurl his ass into a star and be done with it.
That would actually be a good reason for Dark Force to return and it's out of the hands of the player character. The spaceship is trapped orbiting a star or a galactic center or something every 1,000 years, so although they booted Dark Force out 1,000 years ago he's sitting stationary at a lagrange point and so they cross him again in 1,000 years.
The thing that I liked was that you could ignore the right hand (its right, your left) completely and just attack the left hand (the healer) and the body and you could beat it.
Phantasy Star games 1-3 had their problems- grinding, balance, dungeon design and so forth. My major problem with 3 in retrospect is how little it had to do with the events of 4 which otherwise did a great job of wrapping everything up. It isn't completely irrelevant, but its relation is tangential and tenuous at best to a point where- when flashbacks in PS4 occur, they don't mention anything about 3. But then, considering the many branching paths, I guess they wouldn't want to limit it by choosing just one true path and outcome like other franchises do. *Glares at Fatal Frame*
The events of PS3 are briefly mentioned in PS4. Or at least it's mentioned that the army of ships were launched 1,000 years in the past and they were all presumably still out there somewhere.
I like to think that each of the ships had some fragment of his essence or something. If I recall, in one of the endings where the Alisa III reunites with one of its sister ships, it's heavily implied that that ship ALSO had some kind of Dark Force-related problem it too overcame. I also like to think that each of the ships were kinda like the vaults in Fallout. Maybe even a similar type of "experiment" just....in space. But that's extra.
It wasn’t fully sealed. The sword was a stopgap measure. It’s strongly suggested he could control the communication systems. And the internal components of the ship, which is why they sealed all the passages and shifted the satellite
If the ships are leaving about the same time Palma was destroyed there is a possibility that there was multiple Dark Forces present. There was three in PSIV.
10:10 you say you don't get it you might have missed part of the story. Dark force gains strength every 1000 years. He was going to break out anyway. Maybe he would even destroy the sword in the process?
Story wise, even if it feels like some kind of side story instead of a linear continuation of the main one, the way it is able to attatch to the previous game kinda makes it sort of worth existing
It could have been a continuation of the main story if it was done better and explained more thoroughly from the beginning. When I first played it it just seemed like another medieval fantasy RPG and the ties to the other game didn't really show until the third generation. They should have started you off with the knowledge that you're not living on a planet. They should let the player know they're on a "Flat Earth" and that there's a visible firmament in the sky keeping the atmosphere in. Start us off in a sci fi world instead of cluing us in with random cyborgs like Miu
Dark force was a representation of Pandora’s box. Rose thought the dragon was layman because layan controlled monsters and the descendent of orake controlled androids. You had to free and defeat darkforce because darkforce was already seeping out and expanding control over monsters and cyborgs, Lena was the princess of the castle across the lake in the starting world. The lore is their but it really makes you work for, back track and you need to do all play through to get the complea picture,
He could simply be picking the safest place for him to grow more powerful remember Darkforce LOVES to play the long game. Its also possible that the city had some sort of access to the ships main core/computer.
Wow. Didn't think they'd be this ambitious with their story! It does make sense! Just a shame they kinda messed up the game so much... The graphics and music are interesting and have a lot of potential, but the fact that, as you said, everything Is repeating and there are 5-6 songs in total, it diminishes what the creators tried to accomplish..
This guys’ complaints about the music are complete bs. This was one of the best soundtracks ever made. There certainly are way more than “5-6 songs in total”. If you play the game it will become obvious.
@@robertparrott7068 true!!! The music starts off so... Unsettling! You feel alone and in imminent danger! But as you gather more allies, the music adapts and you feel more and more "powerful" and optimistic! Love it!
Rhys prince of orakio! of course chose Lena over Maia once he discovered she was a dirty Layan! That's my headcanon anyway Hahahaha thank you so much for making this video there is no video s talking about Phantasy star 3 so this was extremely helpful! I appreciate you taking the time to make this and to make clear alot of questions I had
Great analysis. You got my dezolian thumbs up. But are they really able to manipulate time in this series? Is the planet at the of PS2 really Palma? I always wondered about that "space ship" at the end of PS2 as well. I should read the official books about this series.
Yeah, I totally agree, the music was painful, the stupid paths between worlds should have only been used once each, their should have only been the path that leads to going back in time, they should have done a better job with the enemies, and I have the same theory as you, if you take that path that leads back in time to earth then and only then does it really fit into the series.
The english translations gave the characters the same name "Wren" but in the japanese originals they have different names. So same android model but not the same characters
My favorites in order from best to worst. Phantasy Star, then 4, 3, 2. The reasons that 2 was last were that the mazes were maddening, too many spells & weapons and armaments. And some could use 3 types of weapons but not others but then can go up from that (ie you can't wear the titanicape but the ceramic one you can), for Rolf, you needed all 3 caps, magic cap, mogic cap and the other one which was more protective. And the maps that came with the game sometimes got you even *MORE* lost than if you didn't have them. not to mention going through the maze 3 or 4 different ways to get all of the items.
Bud the music slightly changes depending upon how many people you have in your party. My problem with this game is it was rushed and not made by the same team that made the other games
The Battle music is awesome.. it’s dynamic to how well things are going… the one where you’re losing is the best version 🤣 #blastbeats Translation were really bad back then.. it wasn’t until the PlayStation 2-3 era that translations didn’t suck so much… PS3 (the game) we’re the survivors of the planet that explodes is PS2 (the game) The cat in PSIV is on one of the remaining planets in the Algol system, the world-ships of PS3 have long left the system.. Dark Force/FalZ/Phallus is only a part of the real one back in Algol.. The order is 1, 2, 4, 3..
Men, i have to know more about the time loop, i would love to write something about this and make a game about the entire timeloop, not only that, the game must be infinite, it contains all phantasy stars and everytime you advance you endup doing the same, maybe it can be a game about making decitions or trying to break the loop.
Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a minute, why is marrying Lena considered the canon path to you?? Maia was the whole reason Rhys went on his whole adventure to begin with, and he was with Lena for like only 25% of his whole quest, whereas he had spent at least two months with Maia prior to her being abducted by the dragon and him having to go out and rescue her. So why is marrying Lena the canon path to you? Plus it doesn't help that I find Lena really boring, and if Rhys marries Maia, they give birth to Ayn who knows how to heal and other kinds of magic that is very helpful.
I always went with Lena and Alair as well as Aron's Ending takes them to earth and perhaps Dark Force wasn't dead at all. Maybe it has a seed growing somewhere on the Alisa III that nobody knows about. Then that seed could birth a creature that could possess someone that causes humans to become evil or pawns of Dark Force. Therefore sends the humans to Algol using the parts of the Alisa III to create the Noah in Phantasy Star II.
You probably already know by now, but Lena was his betrothed before Maia washed up on the shores of Landen. After that, Rhys fell madly in love with Maia, possibly all due to Dark Force's influence to spur the events of the game into motion so he can eventually be freed.
@@jeremyabbott4537 Lena was his betrothed. Where did you hear that?! They didn't even meet each other until he got thrown into the dungeon! And as I said, her and Rhys were only together for like 25% of his whole quest. It's like why did he even go out of his way to save Maia in the first place if he is just going to dump her for someone else?
So i watched your whole video and enjoy the ideas. I want to share mine. Here is my idea. Phantasy star 4 takes place 1000 years after phantasy star 2! Follow me here.... there is no point in the story lines that make a 2 thousand year jump. So i believe phantasy star 3, and phantasy star 4 are actually taking place at basically the exact same time. In phantasy star 2 parma explodes and some of the peope escape on the ships. Phantasy star 3 takes place 1000 years later on one of those ships out in space. Where the profound darkness snuck a stowaway "dark force" onboard in his attempt to destroy everything about algo. Meanwhile back in algo 1000 years later the events of phantasy star 4 take place. You find one of the ships from parma crashed on motavia and you get to explore it specifically and you find the town on dezolis of parmians from a ship that crashed there as well. To me phantasy star 1,2,and 4 are a direct timeline on algo. And phantasy star 3 is kind of like a "dlc" to phantasy star 2 to show what happened to some of the people out in space fleeing parma. And it shows how wild things got on that ship in kinda of a dystopian way as surviors came up with there own rationalities. If you can follow this idea it is actually much easier to comprehend the statue honoring alis. A thousand year old mystical cat that helps chaz, the memory of lutz is actually 1000 years old, not 2 and such.
I have a PS4 video coming soon but it's not gonna be a walkthrough format like this one. I'm gonna talk about the unique circumstances surrounding the release of the game and how I think PS4 deserved better. (PS3 bad reception killed some hype of PS4, 4 year gap between 1991 PS3 and 1995 PS4, and the $100 price tag of PS4)
@@RetroSpectors Great! I was going down the UA-cam rabbit hole on the Late night and came across your videos. Great perspective on the phantasy star videos.
Thank you for tying up an awful lot of loose ends before I finally go back and replay phantasy star four. I definitely see the time loop here and am interested where the story takes me.
They really need to do a mega remake of PS3, I would love to see it maybe looking like Guilty Gear! The team who did the first and second games wasn't present for PS3, they were working on Sonic. The box thing with Dark Force was a bit weird, but it was supposed to be a reference to Pandora's Box, they could have at least made it look special lol. Megid is a play on the Hebrew word Har Megiddo, which is Armageddon (destruction) since the spell is pure rage/destruction... Ayn and later Crys are the best too! Myau is also a boy lol.
I honestly hated this game the most out of the four Phantasy Star games It SUCKED The plot is so scattered and confusing The music is loud and annoying The art strays from the others The battles were weird and confusing I just hated it with a burning passion They did my boy wren badly here 😔
Don't worry, according to the Japanese version, it's not the same guy. This one is Sirren 386 and the one in PS IV is Forren, who is also taller. They are both Wren type models many of which (including a few 386 models) also appear as regular enemies in PS IV.
This game feels off to me. The sprites of the main characters are beautiful but everything else looks so amateurish, I've never learnt to respect it and to consider it part of the canon of the 3 others, which are all beautiful
I love the game but so many faults. Why is the only planet that is fully landmarked on the map the first one? Why can't you open the map when you are in a vehicle? I feel ambition was put before solid design, for goodness sake the map could have had the names of towns. Part of what drove me nuts is having no idea where to go half the time. That being said, the music when you take a trip on the boat is heavenly, outstanding.!!! Maybe if they had made this years later it could have met its ambitious goals. Recently played for all four endings, and really the other 3 quests and endings after your initial one are really just simple remixes that don't offer anything different. Perhaps in its time they could have scrapped the marriage idea and focused on a much more epic and grander story.
iirc, Mieu and Wren were their cyborg models. If you're a PS buff, you should consider (1) why they didn't bother to give them proper names and (2) what's so wrong with Mieu's name if you don't have a problem with Wren's. Don't blame me for bustin' your chops, btw. 2ndly, the music is only half crap, as is pretty much every detail about the game: story, dialogue, interface, etc, everything eventually goes wrong. What happens when you use the Golden Axe team to make a sequel. Wonder they sound and feel so similar. Ye, another interesting game, but its faults sound and look like ass when compared to other beat 'ems (not arcade like Simpsons, but say TMNT IV, SoR, Final Fight, etc despite the years difference of release). No one ever said Sega was smart. Lastly, despite coming up with a brilliant idea, they couldn't bother to implement it. Not just that they didn't get us to know the characters. We're blind-sided with the marriage question. My first reaction to was, "The freakin' farkward do I wanna marry her for!?" Tbh, I first thought Lena was kind of a traitor. Aside weird crap that happens on extended journeys--bonding over a love post-coital campfire coffee, or perhaps they really were that good in the (sleeping) bag--I have zero reason. "What you mean I have to give up my kingdom!? You said nothing about that!" It wasn't even inferred. I guess I was just supposed to guess that. I'm good, just not that good I guess? Whatever. A few more lines text would help: there's concise and then there's severely lacking. I've seen more meat in a Chicken McNugget. Lazy butt-hats.
Thanks for your well thought out response. I guess my problem initially with Meui's name was that I didn't know how to pronounce it and I kept saying "Meow" similar to "Myau" from Phantasy Star 1. But yeah I agree with everything you said. I always thought Phantasy Star 2 and 3 would GREATLY benefit from having many cutscenes similar to PS4, anything to help us understand better what's going on and to better give personality to the characters.
Yeah that's why they should have spent longer on it and released it as a Sega CD game in 1991 or 1992. They could have still been working on it when the PS1/2 team started working on PS4. We need more dialogue and cutscenes to flesh the story out, and even some dating game elements like Pirates Gold would have been nice. You're picking a wife that's going to change the course of the entire game and all they give you is a prompt they just spring on you.
@@madhatter8508 Somewhat debatable, also matter of subjectability,, like say to Crazy Bus or better like Sonic 2 or something from a diff era entirely, both Golden Axe and PSIII have points of interest, even decent tracks, whose creation was severely limited by the hardware being developed for (Sega being particularly bad, not that Nintendo or Hudson were better...). However, lacking enough points to counter phrase, whinging on a one note low triangle, or even a long, sustained note regardless of tremolo control at the most inopportune of times can make the difference between a loving memory and shouting, "STFU!" and muting the TV in annoyance... before realizing you just turned off the SFX... Yeah, nvm. Let's not go. Same goes for graphics. Half assing anything for that matter always has consequences later, none of them good. Better to release something akin to its own that will be appreciated than appease a few fans by throwing them something clearly light-years from it's source. Otherwise you get the likes of Return of Samus and Breath of the Wild, both good games but barely recognizable of their supposed source material: a fighting platformer and action resource management game with only mini dungeons, respectively. Ftr I don't and will likely never believe that either of these games began as entries into their respective franchises: I suspect Nintendo gave them orders after due consideration. Anyways, I sense the sarcasm in that the game needed to come out sooner or later, but waaay too many concessions were made. Sega has always had this crippling market-sense that butchers their better franchises in this way. It happened with Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 too: rushed the 1st past bugs and tweaks to join the DC launch, then instead of addressing the worst faults, rushed SA2 to spare less gameplay and be even more broken just in time for the DC to march to its doom. Utter genius. (Fyi, not angry, but shaking my head, pinching nasal bridge. Again...)
Orakians = Palmans (normal hair colour - except dark blue shades, technology/robotics)
Examples: Alisa, Tyrone from PS1, & most of the playable characters from PSII & IV.
Layans = Espers (weird hair colour - except some blonde/white shades, magic/monsters)
Examples: Lutz, Rune
The people in PSIII are the Palmans/Espers that escaped the destruction of Palma and the world ships are the “arks” they built (and are the ones in Phantasy Star Online).
Espers were the scholars of Palman society and were said to have either been people born with special powers (ESP-ers) or were a separate ethnicity altogether. Either way, they were the first to fall to the influences of Dark Force. Since most were scholars and priests, it was they who formed the cult of dark priests that forged armour for LaShiec. This armour corrupted the former general of the royal armies and he usurped the throne from the royals - killing the king & queen (in a swift and secret coup). The public was unaware of the true reasons for a new ruler but then monsters began roaming the worlds, the robot police became oppressively cruel, and interplanetary travel was almost completely shutdown. Alisa was the only child of the king & queen. Nero was just the son of the family that took Alisa in when servants fled the castle with the infant child during the coup.
Theories as to why Dark Force is always encountered in a box has do with it being immaterial and more of a spiritual essence than anything that can physically manifest. The “boxes” were believed to be containers in which the essence was bound. Without the box, the Dark Force is more of a dark mass of energy that influences the minds of people in dreams and turns them evil. This is why Alisa & friends encounter the “Saccubus” nightmare while resting at the governor of Paseo’s mansion - the non-corporeal Dark Force was seeking to test and/or possess them so that it could manifest in the world (which it ultimately did by using the governor as a physical vessel).
The “Earthmen” of PSII were undoubtedly corrupted by the “Pandora’s Box” cargo Eusis and company encounter on the Noah ship.
Perhaps the bound Dark Force was slowly seeping out of its bound imprisonment and had guided the Earthmen to do all of the evil acts?
Either way, Dark Force was influencing the Mother Brain AI that controlled the entire Algol star systems. It is what caused the initial space travel tragedy that rendered Eusis a ward of the Motavian government and shut down all flights between Motavia and Dezoris. Some old notes speculated this was due to the ship in which Eusis and his family were on inadvertently discovering the Noah ship. It was destroyed before their presence could be reported.
Dark Force’s influence over Mother Brain also is what caused the Biolabs accidents that spawned the Biomonsters (and Nei).
The PSIII time loop theory sounds like the most sound hypothesis (but, since the Golden Axe team developed this game and NOT the original team, there are very few surviving notes like what has been committed to books for PS, PSII (The End of the Halcyon Days) and PSIV (The End of the Millennium).
Lol you called Odin , Tyrone
I know it's what is name was before the American port
@@youcancallmefunk4745 Yeah, the English versions were limited to 4 letters per name in the UI so Aliser/Alisa so westerners got completely changed names in their game.
It’s a little frustrating because Lutz was already 4 letters and should have never been changed. It’s even more jarring to meet back up with him in Phantasy Star II with his name restored back to Lutz.
@@Resvrgam I always thought of Noah has a descendant of Lutz . And I even had it in my head that the original master system version referred to him has such , even if in the game it was the actual Lutz. So that never bothered me later when I heard about all the differences
I am actually going through some of my older games and replaying them currently . Right now I'm playing FF 3/6 on an SNES . And next I was gonna dust off my PS collection , maybe I'll slide Shinning in the Darkness ahead of PSs .
Either way I was fortunate enough to own them when I was young and they were new and now I'm old ish (40s) and they all still play in there original American release form , yes my master system still works has well has my genesis and I have the 4 PS games .
Bravo sir 👏🏼
@2:55 I was pretty sure growing up that PS3 and PS4 take place at the same time. But PS4 actually takes place only 1000 years after PS2, and PS3 takes place 1000 years after PS4 (timeline screwiness implying that killing the Profound Darkness in PS4 didn't succeed).
Your review cracked me up man. Subscribed.
I literally laughed out loud at 00:15. My god that is the most horrendous battle music I’ve ever heard!!!
Right!? It's so abrupt and sounds like shit!
@@RetroSpectors haha!! I love your sarcasm and reactions!!!
The overworld music exapnds everytime a character joins your party. So the overworld music is almost constantly changing. Its also a completely different track if the lead character in your party is dead.
I think PS3 and PS4 happened at the same time. Each at 1000 yrs after 2. So when the satellite destroyed the planet in two, the escaped ships that made it off world got split up when the other ships were being corrupted/destroyed. So 3 and 4 could be happening at the same time, one on the ship and the one on the planet. Just a theory. That's why they feel so different from one another in tech and one feels more medieval.
*asks why Dark Force is in a box*
"You would understand if you went in the box."
He probably hitched a ride onboard the space station by hiding in a box and getting put on as cargo
More than likely inside that box leaking out his evil indirectly, until you free him
See, it's pandoras box. It literally contains all the evil in the universe, but it also contains hope, because now that it's free, you can kill it
He just spent 1,000 years sealed under a sword and the outside world is scary so he seals himself in the box
I really appreciate the Phantasy Star content on this channel. You seem to have a real passion for the series, and it comes across as very genuine, which is refreshing. The Phantasy Star series is one of the most impactful experiences of my teenage years (PSIV remains one of my favorite games of all time), and I find myself often thinking about how PS3: Generations of Doom had a really interesting hook, with marriage choices and family lines that alter playthroughs a bit. I don't think they executed on it particularly well, but I respect that they went with a concept that was so innovative.
I love the concept of PS3 so much, I'm so sad their reach exceeded their grap.
I hear ya. I didn't find this out until after I made this video but apparently the game was made by a different team from the one that made the other PS games. And the sound designer for PS3 was a rookie who had only been at Sega for 2 years. The game being the way it is makes sense when you take all this into consideration
@@RetroSpectors The sound designer is the same for PSIV. Half of it. She has talent.
@@RetroSpectors The rest of the game though, yes, its the Golden Axe staff.
@@jasonmalice Yeah, I just think she didn't have time to make PS3's soundtrack as good as PS4's was. They really rushed Phantasy Star III and it's too bad because by the time they really started working on Phantasy Star IV Sega had already pulled the plug on the Sega CD in Japan and they transitioned that to a Genesis game. Phantasy Star III could have been a Sega CD launch game if they were given more time to work on it.
@@madhatter8508 It was her first ost. Not bad though.
That's actually power of Phantasy Star storytelling,that you can't understand it at all, and can only guess :) love that
I love the concept of Phantasy Star 3. Wish they had the Phantasy Star 2 team work on it instead and given them more time to finish it. It could have been a Sega CD launch game. Would have had a battle system like Phantasy Star IV and maybe some dating sim elements to get to know your brides instead of just picking one at a prompt. Doesn't have to be anything too crazy; even Pirates! Gold for the Genesis had some dating sim elements to pick a wife. Would have had some sprite based FMVs like Lunar to flesh out the story, which is very much needed because I never got through Phantasy Star III because I never at any point in the game had any idea of what was going on.
Wow FMV + dating sim elements sounds so amazing. Would have been super ahead of its time, I would kill for something like this. I don't blame you or anyone for having a hard time with PSIII either.
Megid is a dark technique. In new games (yes, online 2, I know it’s not like the classics) it’s a very dangerous, and corrupted attack seemingly created from corrupted photons.
I love this guys videos...;)
Addendum- You would think the people on the Neo Palm would throw both the sword and box into the vacuum of space. No more Dark Force he's going on a long flight in the opposite direction of us...goodbye. Even better, hurl his ass into a star and be done with it.
Thanks! And lmao right? It's a no-brainer
That would actually be a good reason for Dark Force to return and it's out of the hands of the player character. The spaceship is trapped orbiting a star or a galactic center or something every 1,000 years, so although they booted Dark Force out 1,000 years ago he's sitting stationary at a lagrange point and so they cross him again in 1,000 years.
Megid/ Megido is derived from Armageddon, the ultimate final attack
Megido is the name of the valley of armageddon. The Valley of Megido
The thing that I liked was that you could ignore the right hand (its right, your left) completely and just attack the left hand (the healer) and the body and you could beat it.
Phantasy Star games 1-3 had their problems- grinding, balance, dungeon design and so forth. My major problem with 3 in retrospect is how little it had to do with the events of 4 which otherwise did a great job of wrapping everything up. It isn't completely irrelevant, but its relation is tangential and tenuous at best to a point where- when flashbacks in PS4 occur, they don't mention anything about 3. But then, considering the many branching paths, I guess they wouldn't want to limit it by choosing just one true path and outcome like other franchises do. *Glares at Fatal Frame*
The events of PS3 are briefly mentioned in PS4. Or at least it's mentioned that the army of ships were launched 1,000 years in the past and they were all presumably still out there somewhere.
I just thought of something, if Dark Force is sealed on the Alisa 3, how did it even destroy the other ships
I like to think that each of the ships had some fragment of his essence or something. If I recall, in one of the endings where the Alisa III reunites with one of its sister ships, it's heavily implied that that ship ALSO had some kind of Dark Force-related problem it too overcame.
I also like to think that each of the ships were kinda like the vaults in Fallout. Maybe even a similar type of "experiment" just....in space. But that's extra.
It wasn’t fully sealed. The sword was a stopgap measure. It’s strongly suggested he could control the communication systems. And the internal components of the ship, which is why they sealed all the passages and shifted the satellite
If the ships are leaving about the same time Palma was destroyed there is a possibility that there was multiple Dark Forces present. There was three in PSIV.
10:10 you say you don't get it you might have missed part of the story. Dark force gains strength every 1000 years. He was going to break out anyway. Maybe he would even destroy the sword in the process?
Story wise, even if it feels like some kind of side story instead of a linear continuation of the main one, the way it is able to attatch to the previous game kinda makes it sort of worth existing
It could have been a continuation of the main story if it was done better and explained more thoroughly from the beginning. When I first played it it just seemed like another medieval fantasy RPG and the ties to the other game didn't really show until the third generation. They should have started you off with the knowledge that you're not living on a planet. They should let the player know they're on a "Flat Earth" and that there's a visible firmament in the sky keeping the atmosphere in. Start us off in a sci fi world instead of cluing us in with random cyborgs like Miu
Dark force was a representation of Pandora’s box. Rose thought the dragon was layman because layan controlled monsters and the descendent of orake controlled androids. You had to free and defeat darkforce because darkforce was already seeping out and expanding control over monsters and cyborgs, Lena was the princess of the castle across the lake in the starting world. The lore is their but it really makes you work for, back track and you need to do all play through to get the complea picture,
Thank you for clearing that up a bit!
I just don't get why Dark Force would escape a seal after 1,000 years and then the first thing he does is hide in a box
He could simply be picking the safest place for him to grow more powerful remember Darkforce LOVES to play the long game. Its also possible that the city had some sort of access to the ships main core/computer.
@@patrickmcathey7081 Or he might have been taking a dump in there
Yeah this is actually some of the greatest video game music ever written.
Hard disagree. The soundtrack is a big reason I can’t get through the game, it’s grating.
Wow. Didn't think they'd be this ambitious with their story! It does make sense! Just a shame they kinda messed up the game so much... The graphics and music are interesting and have a lot of potential, but the fact that, as you said, everything Is repeating and there are 5-6 songs in total, it diminishes what the creators tried to accomplish..
apparently it was rushed out; and other problems came up so they had to cut content
This guys’ complaints about the music are complete bs. This was one of the best soundtracks ever made. There certainly are way more than “5-6 songs in total”. If you play the game it will become obvious.
@@robertparrott7068 true!!!
The music starts off so... Unsettling! You feel alone and in imminent danger! But as you gather more allies, the music adapts and you feel more and more "powerful" and optimistic!
Love it!
Rhys prince of orakio! of course chose Lena over Maia once he discovered she was a dirty Layan! That's my headcanon anyway Hahahaha thank you so much for making this video there is no video s talking about Phantasy star 3 so this was extremely helpful! I appreciate you taking the time to make this and to make clear alot of questions I had
I really appreciate your comment man, I agree there should be more discussions on the original Phantasy Star games!!
There's actually a few videos talking shit about PS3. The general consensus is that it's bad.
@@organs It is a bad game tbh but there is so much potential in it. It could have been so good.
Great analysis. You got my dezolian thumbs up.
But are they really able to manipulate time in this series? Is the planet at the of PS2 really Palma?
I always wondered about that "space ship" at the end of PS2 as well. I should read the official books about this series.
The phantasy star series is my favorite game series of all time and i think has the best evolving, yet consecutively linked story for a game series.
Yeah, I totally agree, the music was painful, the stupid paths between worlds should have only been used once each, their should have only been the path that leads to going back in time, they should have done a better job with the enemies, and I have the same theory as you, if you take that path that leads back in time to earth then and only then does it really fit into the series.
Glad you see it my way. I definitely prefer that ending
This trope is the "future" is a renaissance fair.Im confused how Wren is in 4
The english translations gave the characters the same name "Wren" but in the japanese originals they have different names. So same android model but not the same characters
13:56 Dark Force came back and he was on Earth... That explains a lot... Trump IS Darkfalz!!
You give Trump too much credit.
Dark Force is the reason we have the Woke Mob.
Phantasy Star 3 is the first Phantasy Star game I ever played, and because of that, it's the best in the series IMO.
Reading this comment makes me happy I played the original game first when I was young .
My favorites in order from best to worst. Phantasy Star, then 4, 3, 2. The reasons that 2 was last were that the mazes were maddening, too many spells & weapons and armaments. And some could use 3 types of weapons but not others but then can go up from that (ie you can't wear the titanicape but the ceramic one you can), for Rolf, you needed all 3 caps, magic cap, mogic cap and the other one which was more protective. And the maps that came with the game sometimes got you even *MORE* lost than if you didn't have them. not to mention going through the maze 3 or 4 different ways to get all of the items.
@@boyceps you left out PS 1
@@youcancallmefunk4745: I typed Phantasy Star, then 4... separate. I ususlly don't add one when I mention the original.
@@boyceps my bad . I get a little to high and post comments from time to time and in the process I have missed the point . That's on me .
Bud the music slightly changes depending upon how many people you have in your party. My problem with this game is it was rushed and not made by the same team that made the other games
You are great. Subbed.
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
Thank you for this vid
Man, watching PS3 reviews have shown a lot of people have trouble with the original Welsh spelling of the name Reece (Rhys)
Had no idea it was pronounced that way haha, thanks!
@@RetroSpectors Heh, no worries, pronouncing it was "Rize" seems really common from the reviews I've been seeing
as a kid I always pronounced it Rye-iss lol
The Battle music is awesome.. it’s dynamic to how well things are going… the one where you’re losing is the best version 🤣 #blastbeats
Translation were really bad back then.. it wasn’t until the PlayStation 2-3 era that translations didn’t suck so much…
PS3 (the game) we’re the survivors of the planet that explodes is PS2 (the game)
The cat in PSIV is on one of the remaining planets in the Algol system, the world-ships of PS3 have long left the system..
Dark Force/FalZ/Phallus is only a part of the real one back in Algol..
The order is 1, 2, 4, 3..
Men, i have to know more about the time loop, i would love to write something about this and make a game about the entire timeloop, not only that, the game must be infinite, it contains all phantasy stars and everytime you advance you endup doing the same, maybe it can be a game about making decitions or trying to break the loop.
Yeah, the ending was tragic and led to a time loop...hence the whole "Generations of Doom" subtitle.
Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a minute, why is marrying Lena considered the canon path to you?? Maia was the whole reason Rhys went on his whole adventure to begin with, and he was with Lena for like only 25% of his whole quest, whereas he had spent at least two months with Maia prior to her being abducted by the dragon and him having to go out and rescue her. So why is marrying Lena the canon path to you? Plus it doesn't help that I find Lena really boring, and if Rhys marries Maia, they give birth to Ayn who knows how to heal and other kinds of magic that is very helpful.
It's canon for me because of the ending we get. When Alisa III encounters Earth
I always went with Lena and Alair as well as Aron's Ending takes them to earth and perhaps Dark Force wasn't dead at all. Maybe it has a seed growing somewhere on the Alisa III that nobody knows about. Then that seed could birth a creature that could possess someone that causes humans to become evil or pawns of Dark Force. Therefore sends the humans to Algol using the parts of the Alisa III to create the Noah in Phantasy Star II.
You probably already know by now, but Lena was his betrothed before Maia washed up on the shores of Landen. After that, Rhys fell madly in love with Maia, possibly all due to Dark Force's influence to spur the events of the game into motion so he can eventually be freed.
@@jeremyabbott4537 Lena was his betrothed. Where did you hear that?! They didn't even meet each other until he got thrown into the dungeon! And as I said, her and Rhys were only together for like 25% of his whole quest. It's like why did he even go out of his way to save Maia in the first place if he is just going to dump her for someone else?
great vid.. thanks !
So i watched your whole video and enjoy the ideas. I want to share mine. Here is my idea. Phantasy star 4 takes place 1000 years after phantasy star 2! Follow me here.... there is no point in the story lines that make a 2 thousand year jump. So i believe phantasy star 3, and phantasy star 4 are actually taking place at basically the exact same time. In phantasy star 2 parma explodes and some of the peope escape on the ships. Phantasy star 3 takes place 1000 years later on one of those ships out in space. Where the profound darkness snuck a stowaway "dark force" onboard in his attempt to destroy everything about algo. Meanwhile back in algo 1000 years later the events of phantasy star 4 take place. You find one of the ships from parma crashed on motavia and you get to explore it specifically and you find the town on dezolis of parmians from a ship that crashed there as well. To me phantasy star 1,2,and 4 are a direct timeline on algo. And phantasy star 3 is kind of like a "dlc" to phantasy star 2 to show what happened to some of the people out in space fleeing parma. And it shows how wild things got on that ship in kinda of a dystopian way as surviors came up with there own rationalities. If you can follow this idea it is actually much easier to comprehend the statue honoring alis. A thousand year old mystical cat that helps chaz, the memory of lutz is actually 1000 years old, not 2 and such.
you going to do a video on 4?
I have a PS4 video coming soon but it's not gonna be a walkthrough format like this one. I'm gonna talk about the unique circumstances surrounding the release of the game and how I think PS4 deserved better. (PS3 bad reception killed some hype of PS4, 4 year gap between 1991 PS3 and 1995 PS4, and the $100 price tag of PS4)
@@RetroSpectors Great! I was going down the UA-cam rabbit hole on the Late night and came across your videos. Great perspective on the phantasy star videos.
Thank you for tying up an awful lot of loose ends before I finally go back and replay phantasy star four. I definitely see the time loop here and am interested where the story takes me.
They really need to do a mega remake of PS3, I would love to see it maybe looking like Guilty Gear!
The team who did the first and second games wasn't present for PS3, they were working on Sonic.
The box thing with Dark Force was a bit weird, but it was supposed to be a reference to Pandora's Box, they could have at least made it look special lol.
Megid is a play on the Hebrew word Har Megiddo, which is Armageddon (destruction) since the spell is pure rage/destruction... Ayn and later Crys are the best too! Myau is also a boy lol.
Dark force is always in a box
You're criticizing the battle music?? Have you never played a Final Fantasy game??
I'm... unsure as to what your point is?
@@BlueMageDaisen The complaint is the battle music is repetitive. Yet in Phantasy Star 3, you can hear four different tunes in one battle.
I honestly hated this game the most out of the four Phantasy Star games
It SUCKED
The plot is so scattered and confusing
The music is loud and annoying
The art strays from the others
The battles were weird and confusing
I just hated it with a burning passion
They did my boy wren badly here 😔
Don't worry, according to the Japanese version, it's not the same guy.
This one is Sirren 386 and the one in PS IV is Forren, who is also taller.
They are both Wren type models many of which (including a few 386 models) also appear as regular enemies in PS IV.
I played this game in japanese and had no idea wtf was going on =0
Well the reason for Dark Falz being in the chest is trying to stage a ambush.
nice
This game feels off to me. The sprites of the main characters are beautiful but everything else looks so amateurish, I've never learnt to respect it and to consider it part of the canon of the 3 others, which are all beautiful
I love the game but so many faults. Why is the only planet that is fully landmarked on the map the first one? Why can't you open the map when you are in a vehicle? I feel ambition was put before solid design, for goodness sake the map could have had the names of towns. Part of what drove me nuts is having no idea where to go half the time. That being said, the music when you take a trip on the boat is heavenly, outstanding.!!! Maybe if they had made this years later it could have met its ambitious goals. Recently played for all four endings, and really the other 3 quests and endings after your initial one are really just simple remixes that don't offer anything different. Perhaps in its time they could have scrapped the marriage idea and focused on a much more epic and grander story.
iirc, Mieu and Wren were their cyborg models. If you're a PS buff, you should consider (1) why they didn't bother to give them proper names and (2) what's so wrong with Mieu's name if you don't have a problem with Wren's. Don't blame me for bustin' your chops, btw.
2ndly, the music is only half crap, as is pretty much every detail about the game: story, dialogue, interface, etc, everything eventually goes wrong. What happens when you use the Golden Axe team to make a sequel. Wonder they sound and feel so similar. Ye, another interesting game, but its faults sound and look like ass when compared to other beat 'ems (not arcade like Simpsons, but say TMNT IV, SoR, Final Fight, etc despite the years difference of release). No one ever said Sega was smart.
Lastly, despite coming up with a brilliant idea, they couldn't bother to implement it. Not just that they didn't get us to know the characters. We're blind-sided with the marriage question. My first reaction to was, "The freakin' farkward do I wanna marry her for!?" Tbh, I first thought Lena was kind of a traitor. Aside weird crap that happens on extended journeys--bonding over a love post-coital campfire coffee, or perhaps they really were that good in the (sleeping) bag--I have zero reason. "What you mean I have to give up my kingdom!? You said nothing about that!" It wasn't even inferred. I guess I was just supposed to guess that. I'm good, just not that good I guess? Whatever. A few more lines text would help: there's concise and then there's severely lacking. I've seen more meat in a Chicken McNugget. Lazy butt-hats.
Thanks for your well thought out response. I guess my problem initially with Meui's name was that I didn't know how to pronounce it and I kept saying "Meow" similar to "Myau" from Phantasy Star 1. But yeah I agree with everything you said. I always thought Phantasy Star 2 and 3 would GREATLY benefit from having many cutscenes similar to PS4, anything to help us understand better what's going on and to better give personality to the characters.
Golden Axe had a great soundtrack though
Yeah that's why they should have spent longer on it and released it as a Sega CD game in 1991 or 1992. They could have still been working on it when the PS1/2 team started working on PS4. We need more dialogue and cutscenes to flesh the story out, and even some dating game elements like Pirates Gold would have been nice. You're picking a wife that's going to change the course of the entire game and all they give you is a prompt they just spring on you.
@@madhatter8508 Somewhat debatable, also matter of subjectability,, like say to Crazy Bus or better like Sonic 2 or something from a diff era entirely, both Golden Axe and PSIII have points of interest, even decent tracks, whose creation was severely limited by the hardware being developed for (Sega being particularly bad, not that Nintendo or Hudson were better...). However, lacking enough points to counter phrase, whinging on a one note low triangle, or even a long, sustained note regardless of tremolo control at the most inopportune of times can make the difference between a loving memory and shouting, "STFU!" and muting the TV in annoyance... before realizing you just turned off the SFX... Yeah, nvm. Let's not go.
Same goes for graphics. Half assing anything for that matter always has consequences later, none of them good. Better to release something akin to its own that will be appreciated than appease a few fans by throwing them something clearly light-years from it's source. Otherwise you get the likes of Return of Samus and Breath of the Wild, both good games but barely recognizable of their supposed source material: a fighting platformer and action resource management game with only mini dungeons, respectively. Ftr I don't and will likely never believe that either of these games began as entries into their respective franchises: I suspect Nintendo gave them orders after due consideration.
Anyways, I sense the sarcasm in that the game needed to come out sooner or later, but waaay too many concessions were made. Sega has always had this crippling market-sense that butchers their better franchises in this way. It happened with Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 too: rushed the 1st past bugs and tweaks to join the DC launch, then instead of addressing the worst faults, rushed SA2 to spare less gameplay and be even more broken just in time for the DC to march to its doom. Utter genius.
(Fyi, not angry, but shaking my head, pinching nasal bridge. Again...)
Arguably the greatest idea for any video game ever.
Arguably the worst execution for any video game ever.
hilarious
Earrape