Phantasy Star III

[Helio Perroni Filho]

I'm not much of a gamer anymore. Somehow my interest in games waned after the end of the 16-bit era... or maybe, its more like that what went after that era failed to catch my attention. Indeed, even today, I sometimes feel like playing -- but when I do, it's not the present day games I look for: it's the Genesis and the Super Nintendo ROM's, grabbed from the Internet, that I go back to.

These days I've went back to one of the coolest videogame RPG's I have ever played: Phantasy Star III. Often disregarded by the Phantasy Star fans as a spin-off of the original series, the adventures of Rhys and his descendants have always captivated me, since I first played the game in 1995. I have never finished it, though: instead, once every one or two years, I start playing it, get stuck somewhere and give up.

This time, however I've decided to finish it no matter what: so I went into the Internet and looked for a walktrough. In the process, I discovered a wonderful resource for Phantasy Star nostalgia: the Algol Star System. It's a site dedicated to the first four games of the PS saga, with lots of information, artwork, music and other downloads. The main page URL is:

http://www.algol-star-system.net

What I liked the most about the site was the Phantasy Star III artwork. The slightly comical illustrations give a new color to the game, and hints of a world much broader than the one we get to know through the game. Those can be found on the following links:

http://www.algol-star-system.net/data-memory/ozaki-artwork.shtml

http://www.algol-star-system.net/data-memory/sspscgallery3.shtml

[Helio Perroni Filho]

Just finished reading The Adventures of Rhys, Prince of Landen, a fanfiction focused on -- well, the quest of Rhys for Maia, his beloved, amnesic bride-to-be. I advise it for anyone who likes a good story: of course, the fact that I've played PSIII gave an all special taste to it, but the transcription of the game quest is complete enough that anyone, without prior knowledge of the PS universe, won't have any trouble reading it.

Actually, to call these Adventures of Rhys a "transcription" doesn't make it justice.  It does follow the sequence of facts portrayed in the game with perfect accuracy; but instead of simply transcripting them to a new medium, it builds much more complete, broader scenes out of the somewhat simplistic dialogues that we see in the game. It even has subplots, which make a wonderful work of expanding even the flatest supporting characters into colorful, believable people. Instead of simpling ackowledging, we get to understand the characters actions, as they raise from internal struggles barely hinted by the original.

In particular, the characterizations of Mieu and Rhys had the most powerful effect on me. I don't know if I like the impetuous, slightly obtuse, and nearly obsessed Rhys, but this portraying does seem dead right to me (and more than a little like someone else we know...). Mieu, on the other side, comes out as a very intelligent, slightly temperamental woman, with the difficult task of helping young Rhys through his quest, while protecting him from truths he might not yet be ready to accept.

The only thing that left me a little annoyed was the open ending -- but from the game standpoint, it does make sense to leave things at that. And just like, while I play PSIII, I like to let my imagination fill in the blanks left by the game, it's easy to imagine how that ending would evolve to a direction you'd approve -- whatever would your choice be in the same situation.

[Helio Perroni Filho]

By the way, here's a work in progress, a fan comic on the story of Rhys and Maia: Sometimes it's just not meant to be. If I had to guess, I wouldn't count on this one ending well for the blue-haired couple... but let's see how it turns out.

[Helio Perroni Filho]

Just finished Phantasy Star III playing as Aron (thanks to the invaluable help of the walkthrough provided by The PSIII Shrine at RPGClassics.com). This leaves three other endings to reach, one for each of the other possible grandsons of Rhys: Adan, Chrys and Sean. 0k, there is no simple way to explain this. Let me elaborate.

The story of Phantasy Star III spans over three generations. You start playing as Rhys, prince of Landen, who is in a quest to find Maia, his kidnapped bride-to-be. When he finally finds her, he is given the choice of either marrying her or Lena (ask Mark Ripplinger if you also wonder why Rhys would go through all the trouble of finding Maia, just to marry another girl in the end). If he chooses Maia, they have a son named Ayn; if he chooses Lena, their son is named Nial.

Either Nial or Ayn will have their own adventures to live, by the end of which they will also be given the choice of marrying one out of two women. Nial can either be the father of Aron or Adan; Ayn's possible children are Chrys and Sean. One of these four men will fight the last part of the PSIII saga.

Since I played with Aron, who is grandson of Rhys and Lena, I count this one as one of the "unnatural" endings (the more "natural" one is protagonized by Sean, who is son of Ayn and grandson of Rhys and Maia).  I'll get to it in time. For now, it's just nice to have finished a game I've known for about ten years, and still is fun to play.

[Helio Perroni Filho]

Still reading PSIII fanfictions. The Phantasy Star Pages alone provide a fair amount of it, so it's going to be a while until I'm through it all.

Last night I checked Darrell Whitney's series of short stories on PSIII. Just like the work of Mark Ripplinger, his tales fill in regions of the story loomed over by the game, or ellaborate on scenes or concepts not completetly explored by the original. Because they are intended to be independent from each other, it can get annoying to see the same points (such as the emotionless nature of Wren) made over and over again, but other than that they're pretty good to read.

Several of Whitney's writings focus on the cyborgs (androids actually) Mieu and Wren. Although I don't quite agree with his vision of Wren as an emotionless humanoid who speaks in a sort of tech-dialect -- much like Dr. Spock -- I must agree that it creates an interesting contrast with the smart, lively and occasionaly unpredictable Mieu. The redhead plays important roles in some of Whitney's best stories, such as the relatively lenghty Murder in Shusoran and the short and funny The Ol' Three-Shell Wren.

Whitney's take on Rhys' bloodline assumes that the Prince of Landen marries Maia, and his son Ayn marries Thea, Lyle's daughter -- the most "natural" progression, story-wise. Several of his stories deal with life in the (somewhat forcefully) peaceful post-Rhys Aquatica, the adventures of Ayn and Sean's quest for revenge. It's strange, then, that his only fanfic exclusively dedicated to Rhys and Maia, Love is Not a Dream, tells the story of the blue-haired couple not ending together. Go figure... :-/

All in all, Whitney's tales make up for very amusing reading, so far you care about PSIII and its characters. I sure do.