Phantasy Star: The Gang's All Here

 

No, I must not let my brother die unavenged. You're not the leader here.

    

All right. The solution to my recent conundrum was to keep pestering the guy at the second-hand store in Scion to sell "secrets" until he finally gave in—it took four tries, I believe. (Thanks to George Grady and thekelvingreen.) I don't know how an era player would be expected to figure that out. In any event, the "secrets" turned out to be a Roadpass, allowing me access to the spaceport from either Camineet or Parolit.

     

The spaceport offered a few new encounters and NPCs:

    

• "Long ago, a spaceship was built in the gothic laboratory." Means nothing to me yet.

• "The governor is in Paseo. He rules all of Motavia." So Paseo is on another planet. Got it.

     

The dialogue cut-off is funny here.

     

• "This is Palma's spaceport." I think I could have figured that out. "From the spaceport, you can go to Paseo on Motavia."

• A storefront offered a passport after I answered some questions: "Have you ever done anything illegal?" and "Do you currently have an illness?" Answering yes to either of these gets you kicked out with the admonition to "come back later." Answering no gets you a passport for 100 mesetas.

      

The passport gets me past a couple of guards and to the northern part of the city map, where there are three shuttles. All of them are bound for Motavia, so I guess I can't visit the third planet until later. Oddly, the shuttle trip doesn't seem to cost any money.

         

That is a planet we're flying into, correct?

   

An animation shows us blasting off from Palma, flying through space, and arriving at the desert planet of Motavia. The shuttles in its spaceport are all heading back to Palma. A few NPCs are present:

   

• "It is said that ant lions roam in the desert." I know what an "ant lion" is in real life. In an RPG, it could be a lot of things.

• "There is a cake shop in the cave called Naula on Palma." Why is there a cake shop in a cave? Why is there any kind of shop in a (locked) cave?

• "Welcome to the Paseo spaceport on Motavia." I'm learning that every town has at least one NPC who tells you exactly where you are, in case you haven't been paying attention.

          

Exploring a new world.

       

I walk past two guards to the exit, where a conveyor belt takes me to a larger city full of more stuff. At the first store I stop in, the clerk offers to sell a "rare animal" for 1 billion mesetas. (Part of me wants to know what happens if you grind for 1 billion mesetas and then say "yes.") When I balk, he offers to trade it for the Laconian pot that someone gave me on Camineet. The animal turns out to be "Myau," a talking cat-looking thing with multiple tails and a vial of medicine that he says will cure Odin. He joins me and bounds along behind me as I continue to explore the city.

     

The manual: "An unusual animal who looks like a cat. He speaks the human language." I still feel some more explanation is needed.

     

He also appears as a party member on my status screen. He's Level 1, with no experience and no equipment. The book notes that there are weapons and armor that only he can use.

       

My cat cannot wield a sword. Cats are so useless.

     

As for the rest of the city:

    

• The armory sells a couple of armor upgrades: thick fur for 630 mesetas (that's for Myau, though I don't know for sure that Alis can't use it) and diamond armor for 15,000. 

• The second-hand shop sells passports, but I'm not sure how you'd get here without one.

• There's a dungeon in town with a locked door.

• "Motavia's governor and Lassic are not on good terms, it is said." Sounds like a potential ally.

• "The governor loves sweets, I hear" and "A gift is needed if you wish to see the governor." Ah, I see. Classic console RPG logic. To gain an ally as part of an interplanetary revolution, I'm going to need to give the governor a cake that I bought in a cave—which of course is the only "sweet" in the solar system, in the only shop selling sweets in the solar system.
  

• "This is Paseo, Motavia's capital." There he is again.

• "It's not possible to pass through ant lion on foot." Wait, what is an ant lion here? 

• "Some intelligent monsters have their own language." I guess that's what the CHAT spell is for. It never seems to work, though.

• "There is a cave called Maharu in the mountain to the north of Paseo." Noted. 

      

We exit the town. There is indeed a whole row of ant lions to the north of the city, and walking into them initiates combat. I soon learn that when you have multiple party members, you specify an action for each character in combat, after which they execute together, just as in Wizardry. Myau is killed immediately, so have to reload. 

    

It soon becomes clear that large parts of Motavia are blocked off by lines of ant lions, which is what the NPC meant by not being able to walk through them. We fare better against some giant scorpions, but other enemies on the map are too tough for us, and I decide it's best to head back to Palma and get Odin so we can all grind together. Yes, I know how that sounds.

      

Alis contemplates a sea of ant lions.

     

A couple of passport checks later, we're back on Palma. We rest up, by some flashlights, and head to the cave. I notice that with Myau in my party, enemies now frequently attack 3 or 4 at a time, when before they were limited to 2. Myau doesn't fare well against multiple enemy parties, so I leave the caves and spend some time grinding him to Level 5 (and Alis to Level 9) before we try again.

    

We reach Odin and open the medicine, which is called "Alsulin." It turns him to flesh. Alis asks him why he tried to kill Medusa, and he replies that she has the Mystic Axe. He also says he stashed a compass somewhere in the cave. When he hears Alis's story, he agrees to join the party: "I must not let your brother die unavenged."

     

Odin's flesh—and clothing—lose their stone form.

     

Odin also joins at Level 1, though with statistics that I didn't get until Level 4. He also has an iron axe and iron armor, which means I don't have to worry about equipping him for a while.

      

Enemies start attacking us 6 at a time as we explore long enough to find Odin's compass. That should get us through the Forest of Eppi. By the time we get back to Camineet, Odin is Level 3, and I have enough money to buy us both iron shields. 

   

The compass does get us through the forest and to the town of Eppi, where:

   

• The armory sells iron axes, needleguns, and bronze shields. Bronze shields are worse than the iron shields I already bought. The iron axe turns out to be so cheap it must suck. Apparently, only Odin can use needleguns. I can't quite afford one, but I'm close enough that I go back outside and do a little grinding.

      

For when you want to annoy the hell out of a bunch of enemies.

    

• "The governor of Motavia might possibly help you well." Right, if I can get him a cake.

• "Noah lives on Motavia." That's supposed to be my third companion. I should probably try to find him sooner rather than later.

• "Are you looking for a dungeon key?" YES. "I've hidden a dungeon key in a warehouse in the outskirts of the Camineet." I didn't realize it was the Camineet.

      

And then there's the NPC who exists only to tell you the town name.

     

• "Dr. Luveno had a laboratory in the Gothic Forest long ago, it is said." Okay, and from what I heard above, some spaceship was built there. Perhaps finding this ship is the key to more open exploration, untethered to the shuttle schedule between Palma and Motavia.

• "Do you know what the hardest, strongest material in our world is?" NO. "It's Laconia! Arms made with Laconia are the best to have." Ah, that's why the pot was so valuable. I thought it was just from New Hampshire.

     

I have no idea what the "warehouse in the outskirts of the Camineet" is, but I take the chance that it's the dungeon that I initially explored, and I'm right. So this is the sort of game where you can't find things ahead of time; you can only find them when certain plot points have been tripped. 

   

We use the dungeon key to enter the cave Iala, south of Scion, where I proceed to waste about 2 hours Being Stubborn. I have no particular reason to be here, and will inevitably have to come back later for some quest item I haven't triggered yet, but I insist on exploring what turns out to be four 16 x 16 "worm tunnel" levels full of traps, chests, and trapped chests. I have to leave to refresh a few times, and at least twice I overextend myself, get killed, and have to reload from outside. 

     

Using my new dungeon key.

     

In the end, Alis is Level 13, Myau is Level 11, and Odin is Level 10. We have over 5,000 mesetas, and we've found an iron fang, which is one of the only weapons that Myau can wield. Myau got magic points at some point, along with a healing spell called CURE that Alis doesn't have.

      

I'm not sure it was worth the time I spent in here.

     

I now want to go find Noah before I spend any more time grinding or make any more decisions about where to spend money. But I figure I should get the cake before heading back to Motavia. Naula turns out to be the dungeon I thought it was, north of Scion. It's also four levels, but smaller than Iala, and with easier monsters and no traps.

   

And yes, on the bottom level, is, inexplicably, a pastry shop. I have to pay 1,000 mesetas for a shortcake.

     

How do you get ingredients down here? How do you have any customers?

    

The party takes the shuttle back to Motavia. I buy some thick fur, confirm that only Myau can use it, and give it to him. The locked dungeon in Paseo, which we now can open with a key, takes us to a small passageway that leads to an island with the governor's mansion. A guard stops us along the way and relieves us of the shortcake.

     

Is this what you dreamed of doing when you were young?

       

The governor turns out to be refreshingly open about his treason: "I am told you intend to try to kill Lassic. I admire your courage. In the Maharu Cave lives an espar named Noah. I will give you a letter of introduction to present to her [an error, I guess; elsewhere, Noah is called a "him"]. I have faith that you will kill Lassic and return here eventually."

      

I intend to kill Lassic. I don't intend to try.

     

The game automatically has us "rest" in the mansion. In our dreams, we're attacked by a "saccubus" with 255 hit points. It kills us all before we've whittled away a fraction of his health, but it turns out to just be a dream, and we awaken no worse for the wear. I'm not sure what that was about.

    

The map in the manual shows only one cave on Motavia. It turns out we can defeat the ant lions now, but it also turns out that they don't disappear after you defeat them, so attacking them is not the key to getting past them. Noah's cave is accessible without needing to cross their lines anyway. 

      

The map even shows the ant lions.

       

Maharu is a two-level affair that I have to roughly map because there are a lot of corridors and intersections. We find Noah on Level 2. He originally expresses annoyance that we're bothering him, but he changes his tune when he sees the letter from the governor: "We must protect the planets of the Algol system from evil." He recommends first going to the Gothic Forest to find Dr. Luveno; a manhole in the spaceport should get us there.

      

That governor must be a persuasive writer.

          

Noah predictably comes at Level 1, with a wooden cane and a white mantle. The manual makes it clear that he's going to be limited to wands and robes for weapons and armor. He also comes with a "Cure" spell.

    

Before we head to the Gothic Forest, I take the party back to Palma for some equipment upgrades. Alis and Odin get ceramic shields from Camineet, ceramic swords from Parolit, and zirconian armor from Scion. That means with the exception of the 15,000-meseta diamond armor in Paseo, I've bought the best of everything so far. I grind Noah a few levels and then head back to Motavia.

    

The party takes the conveyor belt to the spaceport.

   

I can't find a manhole to save my life. I realize Noah never specified the Paseo spaceport. We fly back to Palma, and there it is in the southwest corner of that spaceport.

    

Soon, we're in another dungeon. It's a quick, completely-linear corridor with only one branch that leads to an NPC saying, "I'm busy. Don't bother me." The dungeon exits into a little walled village full of gravestones and empty houses. After I give her a cola, an NPC gives me the story: "This was once the laboratory of Dr. Luveno. He went bonkers, though, and [is] imprisoned in Triada to the south of here." The second-hand shop sells a magic lantern, so I shouldn't need flashlights in dungeons anymore. Another NPC warns me of a nearby tower with a magic beast who turns people to stone. 

      

I'm not sure that a "magic lamp" is necessary. A non-disposable flashlight would have been fine.

      

Outside, it's clear that while underground, we crossed the river west of Camineet and are now on a second continent. I start exploring, find a passage through some mountains, and follow it to a pyramid-looking structure, which I end this session in the midst of exploring.

     

Yet another dungeon.

     

I'll talk about combat before I go. It's frequent and a bit boring, and I don't mind admitting that I've been cranking up the emulator speed to get through it quickly.  As I mentioned, it draws from a base that goes back to Wizardry: Each party member selects an action, and then you watch as the actions execute, threaded with the enemy actions in some kind of invisible initiative order.

      

Facing off against a new enemy.

      

The problem is that the system really isn't that interesting without spells. For most of the game, none of the characters have had any combat spells. At some point, Alis got FIRE, which blasts all enemies in a party for a few points of damage, at the cost of 4 magic points. Its comparison to a physical attack is not significant enough to favor it over saving those spell points for healing. She also recently got ROPE, which entangles an enemy for a round, so perhaps I'll find that interesting the next time I face a really tough enemy. (CHAT hasn't worked once. Neither has the "Talk" action, even on humanoid enemies). Myau and Noah don't really have anything better.

      

These guys seem cute.

    

Perhaps the bigger issue is that battles are too frequent to micromanage them with spells that may offer a slight edge but don't make a crucial difference in whether you win or lose. I've found that combat is a very binary affair: either the party whomps an enemy or gets whomped by it. If the latter is true, spending another 20 minutes grinding seems to be a better solution than slowing down every combat to experiment with things like ROPE. I think Final Fantasy offered more clear advantages to spellcasting, with a greater variety of interesting spells. I'll report again when I've achieved some more spell levels.

    

More on wherever the hell I am next time.

 

Time so far: 8 hours