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PROTIP: Don't give your cat to the cat-eating mad-man. Let's Play Phantasy Star!
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#31
04-04-2018, 03:08 PM
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They're all pretty much on the same level IMHO.
Shops in particular in PS look ugly but the residential domes look cooler than anything in the other two. The pallet is also pretty fun. DQ has some really great lived in feel thanks to the variety in the walk-able textures, between flowers, sand, underbrush and grass. FF has the wonderful rounded corners on the cobblestone walkways but then it looses a point for not doing that with its water tiles. |
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#32
04-04-2018, 10:07 PM
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#33
04-08-2018, 10:22 AM
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This is extra-exciting for me as I never had a SMS, and when I eventually got a Genesis game collection (for PS2, natch), it only included the second, third and fourth games.
I suspect I'm late with a vote, but I'm very curious to learn about Secrets. |
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#34
04-08-2018, 07:56 PM
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Your list of possible destinations left out the incredibly important option of getting away from the grind of owlbears in the forests or scorpions on the plains to take a nice relaxing stroll along the beach, with its excellent background art.
And traumatically high defense monsters. Also I always heeded townsfolk advice and avoided that within-the-walls forest. Plains encounters have a better payout to safety ratio before you're fully equipped. |
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#35
04-10-2018, 08:33 AM
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Hello there everyone, and welcome back to Let's Play Phantasy Star!
In our last update, Alis watched her brother Nero brutally murdered in front of her by Lassic's goons, and then took up his sword and swore to seek a man named Odin to help her put a stop to Lassic's vile machinations and avenge her brother. Then she got murdered by Owl Bears and pawned Nero's sword for cash. As you do. We join our heroine as she investigates a "SECRET" offer at the local pawn shop...   Well that was anti-climactic. We just get shoved back out on to the doorstep. Now what?  I asked if anyone had any gear suggestions, and the response I got was two troll suggestions to buy a Magic Lamp and one joke suggestion to buy this sword because it says "TIT". Barring any other suggestions, I went with the joke.   For a joke, it's a pretty nice upgrade!  Besides investigating the SECRETS, the only other serious suggestion that I got was to explore Medusa's cave, and so I spend the rest of our cash preparing to do just that. In addition to a FLASHlight, Alis also picks up a BURGER & COLA to go, and an ESCAPER for emergencies.  With our new sword in hand, we're able to kill MANEATERs in a single attack. Nice!  Let's spelunk!  You are likely to be eaten by a Grue. Phantasy Star doesn't actually permit you to feel your way around blindly, so if you don't have a light source then you'll be immediately dumped right back outside.  Thankfully, we do!   Let there be light! Notice that this cave has a different colour than the tutorial dungeon. In lieu of any actual identifying characteristics or variety in texture, this is how Phantasy Star differentiates its dungeons. It lends some of them very different feels than others.  We quickly come to a fork, but straight is obviously a dead-end.  But what's this? Chests only appear when you're adjacent to them, so it pays to investigate every dead end.  Okay, well, "pays".  Heading down the other direction from the fork, we quickly encounter this guy. This is only the 5th enemy type that we've seen so far, and we've already got palette swaps. Not a good first impression, Phantasy Star! And things only get weirder from here. Notice how this little guy has less HP than an Owl Bear? Maybe he just hits hard?  We'll never know, because he went down in a single attack!   And he only gives as much EXP as a single Sworm, and twice the gold. Yes, the Wing Eye is the second-weakest enemy in the game. So what gives? Your guess is as good as mine! It seems pretty clear to me that something likely got mixed up, though. If you swap these guys and the Owl Bears in the encounter tables, suddenly everything makes way more sense, with the newbie forest just outside Parolit containing only the game's two weakest enemies, and the first dungeon containing a stronger version of one of them. Instead we have unfair Owl Bears waiting to ambush new players (which I preserved for this LP, as getting immediately curb-stomped by Owl Bears is core to the Phantasy Star experience), and disappointingly weak enemies inhabiting the first dungeon. I mean, that said, now that we're over the hump, I won't complain about an easy dungeon! Still, we may have over-prepared... |
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#36
04-10-2018, 08:37 AM
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 The next dead-end is a little more generous, but not by much.  And here we have the only other enemy in this dungeon, the Green Slime.  As you can see after one round, it's not really a threat to us. In fact, Alis can kill a Green Slime in a single attack, more often than not. They attack by jumping at us and then kind of wiggling in place: EPILEPSY WARNING!
What is equally delightful, though, is the noise. Here, have a listen: I have no idea why a slime would make a metallic clanking noise when it jumps. I guess that would make it a metal slime? /rimshot  At least they give twice as much experience as a Wing Eye.When I opened the chest, though, this happened: EPILEPSY WARNING!
 Ow! That stung! (To the tune of 12 HP) Yes, chests can be trapped. This particular trap was an explosive trap, which would damage the entire party if we had one. I mean, we need our income, so we're still going to be opening 99% of chests anyway, but it's something to keep in mind if it's, say, a single Sworm, or if someone is hurt enough that a trap might kill them.  A particularly long walk down a hallway leads us to yet another dead end, and this one has nothing in it for our trouble.  On the long walk back, we've been nickel and dimed enough that we're in need of healing, so let's show off our new spell!   Not much to see, really. There's a cute little jingle, and then we gain 20 HP in exchange for 2 MP.   Shortly afterward, this happens. Another new spell! (As well as gains of 1 Attack, 4 Defense, 11 Max HP, and 2 Max MP.)  But it's not available in the Magic menu? I guess it must not be available outside of combat. To the Status screen!  Ah, here we go. Phantasy Star has delightful little spell names. since the translations had to fit in to four English characters, and "BYE" might be one of my favourites. It has the same effect as the ESCAPER item, allow us to flee a random battle without fail for 2 MP. Of course, translation patches and later ports & remakes rename the spells to be more consistent with the rest of series, which uses obtuse fantasy-sounding gibberish for its spell names.   A few fights and a bit more exploring later, I'm forced to burn Alis' final 2 points of MP to heal again. Let's hope we're done soon!  As our supplies are dwindling, a final dead-end comes into view. What secrets might it hold?  A statue! I don't think we're carrying that back with us. Let's Search and see if we can dig up anything more.    Let's hope so! I doubt that our bags full of fast food are up to the task, though, so for now I think it's time that we return to the surface. On the way out of the cave, I open a chest dropped by a Wing Eye and this happens: EPILEPSY WARNING!
Ow! Stop that! An arrow trap does about as much damage as an explosive trap, but to a single target. Since there's only one of us at the moment, that makes them pretty much identical for us right now.  Here's a thing that I don't think I've shown off yet. Alis actually dodges Wing Eye attacks reasonably often, which is pretty nice. There's a cute little whiffing sound effect. 
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#37
04-10-2018, 08:40 AM
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 And we out! Good thing too, because I was just about to have to start dipping into my precious fast food supplies, and the practice of free cola refills has yet to spread to Palma. So what now?  Are you sure you don't want to sell me any SECRETS, bro?   Wait... that's not the same thing that he said last time, is it?   We turn around and head right back in. The LP-viewing public demands answers!    Well, he took our money. So what did we get?  KA-CHING!   I've got a ROADPASS! Out of my way, life obstacles!  You're damn right I may!  Wheeeee!  Welcome to the Spaceport! Before we start poking around here, though, I have just one other thing that I need to take care of...  Wheeeeeeeeee! Alright, I think I've got that out of my system. Let's see what the folks around the Spaceport have to say!  ...Let's see what useful things the folks around the Spaceport have to say!
 Yup, we're at an airport, alright. This sells the exact same fare as every other First Food shop.  This is more interesting, though. Do we need a passport?    Well, it looks like we indeed do need a passport to pass this port! Or do we...?   Yes. Yes we do. To the passport office! Let's hope they're faster than real passport offices! |
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#38
04-10-2018, 08:46 AM
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 Sign me up!  *Quietly shifting the ROADPASS to the back of our wallet*: "Um, noOO. No criminals here!" >_>  Just an insatiable thirst for adventure!  What? Bah. We literally have 104 MST to our name. Good thing we didn't buy any Cola at the food court! (This might look like good planning on my part, but it was just dumb luck.)   And that's it! It didn't even make us exit and come back, or spend a night at an inn, or other such typical JRPG shenanigans. PASSPORT GET!  Also, since I know someone will ask:    If you admit to being a criminal or being ill, you just get booted outside, and can immediately walk back in and re-take the questionnaire. For all the armed guards, security around here seems pretty lax! Not that I'm complaining! To Motavia!  On our way back to the guards, I take a closer look at this conspicuous tile.   Well, if there's anything here, we can't seem to do anything about it yet.  Passport in hand, we have no problem accessing the tarmac.  We have a few ships to choose from, but all of them are heading to the same place:  We've only been playing for an hour or two, and we're already heading to another planet! I'm excited! Let's do this! No other music links for this one yet, I'm afraid. The trip between Palma and Motavia doesn't last long enough for the music to finish/loop, so it'll have to wait until later, better opportunities. Here's an abbreviated GIF of the trip:  So, needless to say, I completely lost my shit when seeing this for the first time as a kid. I mean, how cool is this? You climb into a bright orange spaceship and travel to a desert planet! The answer: pretty danged cool! Oh, also, note that these spaceship travel scenes are easily skippable with a button press, which is a nice quality-of-life feature sometimes still missing from games even today!  So we're on a new planet! Let's explore! There's just one little thing that I need to do first...  Wheeeeeeeeee!  *Ahem* Right then. Let's talk to folks at the Motavian spaceport!
  Hey, another ROADPASS checkpoint. I wonder...  Phantasy Star is kind enough to not permit players to drop any key items.  Let's head into town. |
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#39
04-10-2018, 08:52 AM
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 Welcome to Paseo! It's pretty long!  There's also a little public square hiding out in the northeast corner of town. It's Talking Time!
 That's probably the Governor's mansion peeking out on the left?  If so, then this tunnel looks like the only way across the water. But I wonder what the guards have to say?  Works for me! Let's go!  Well then. We're immediately confronted by a locked door. I guess we're not speaking to the Governor today after all.  So let's go shopping instead!  The only thing of note at the Second-Hand shop is that they're just selling passports over the counter! Security on Palma suddenly doesn't seem all that bad after all! If it's not clear, this means that we can throw away our passport, and pick up another one here if we need it. We probably shouldn't do that?   Hey, what gives? I guess this is a pet shop? Sure, I'll pay 1 billion MST. Do you accept imaginary currency? Asking for a friend.  I guess not. Hrm. Well that was odd. Especially since our MST total literally can't go that high before running out of digits! What happens if we say no?   Uh... sure? We weren't using this stupid pot for anything anyway, I guess. Why do I feel like I'm being scammed?   No time to worry about that now! It's time for a cut-scene! Soundcloud / FM Version The non-introductory cutscenes get their own music, and it's generally pretty up-beat, becase cutscenes in this game tend to be reserved for when good things happen!   I love him already. Also, tell me that Myau isn't the best name for a talking cat ever. You can't, because it is.    He can't open the bottle around his neck because he doesn't have hands! Poor little guy.   CAEHRT! We haz one!  This is an old-school JRPG, though, so he joins us at level 1. He's got some catching up to do!  Resuming our shopping trip, we come to the Armory, which has a couple of new items of note:  That THICK FUR sounds like just what the doctor ordered to get Myau's Defense up to parity. It's just as good as the Zirconian Armor we saw for sale back in Scion, and a lot more affordable! That said, we're a little short on funds at the moment. Certainly the Diamond Armor isn't even worth discussing with our current finances. |
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#40
04-10-2018, 08:55 AM
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 It's time to earn our fortune in the Motavian wilderness!   Captain bring-down here thinks that this is a bad idea, but he's not running this LP. Let's go! Soundcloud / FM Version Catch me at the right time and I might call this my favourite track in the game. It really gets me hyped to explore a mysterious desert!  So, one terrain feature of Motavia should jump out as immediately obvious, and I'm not talking about the sand.  There's even more of them a bit further east, and they look... upsetting in motion:  So what the heck are these things?  Let's find out!  A-ha! So these are the Ant Lions that folks back in town were talking about. They sure don't look to be "roaming" to me! In fact, they look to be very much stationary! Let's see how tough they are!   AHH! It dodged Myau's attack, Alis only struck it for 4 HP, and then it struck her for two-thirds of her HP in a single attack. We out!  A successful RUN puts us back on the tile that we left. "It's not possible to pass through Ant Lion on foot." That guy wasn't kidding.    A quick survey of the area shows us that Paseo is actually surrounded by the damn things on all sides, except for a lake to left.  The only escape route is this narrow passage to the north, between the Ant Lions and the mountains. Before we venture too far away from town, though, what are the random encounters around here like?   Not bad at all! Alis can one-shot these, they pay well, and they're not too dangerous for Myau to tangle with. In fact, they're only hitting him for 1 HP!  That's a pretty good payday! At this rate we'll be rocking some Thick Fur in no time! But what other encounters are around here? Surely Motavia isn't just Ant Lions and Scorpions?  Partial credit.  Alis brings it down to 2 HP with her sword strike, and Myau finishes it off before it's even able to take a turn. Not bad! The "Gold" Scorpions leave behind fewer MST than their normal counter-parts. That is flagrant false advertising!  Oh, these little numbers-sanded-off Jawas are cute. What's their deal?  ohgodwhy  Hey, guess who just remembered that he has a guaranteed run spell?   So FUN FACT! The RUN command executes immediately for the entire party, but the BYE spell only executes when Alis comes around in the turn order. Poor kitty. |
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#41
04-10-2018, 08:57 AM
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 On second thought, let's not go to Motavia. It is a silly place.  Well, at least the fee for resurrection is pretty cheap. It scales up with level, but Myau is still level 1!   The cat came back!   Since we're actually hurt for once, this also provides a good opportunity to show off the Hospital services. They want 32 MST to heal Alis. Let's take a look at why:  Alis is 28 HP below max, and 4 MP below max. So, the Hospital charge is exactly 1 MST per point of HP & MP. This makes Hospital healing exactly as efficient as fast food healing, and much less efficient than spell-casting, so penny pinchers will want to blow through all of their remaining MP on healing before visiting the Hospital.   There we go-- that's much better. Oh, and one other bit of trivia that I forgot to mention in the previous update: the red crosses on the back wall and exterior of the Hospitals had to be removed from Phantasy Star's virtual console release. I think they're intact in every other release of the game, though?  Well, I think that's about it for our adventures on Desert Planet for now, but before we head back to Palma, let's check on one last thing...   SWINDLED! I KNEW IT!  Gosh, I hope they allow pets on these flights.  WHEEE!  Now that we're back on Palma, I make a beeline for the obvious next goal.  Dammit.    On the way back to the shop, this happened.   Myau picked up 3 Attack, 4 Defense, and 8 Max HP, while Alis picked up 3/3/9/2 and, more notably, the CHAT spell??? We'll have to figure out what that does later.   For now, let's go find a statue! |
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#42
04-10-2018, 09:00 AM
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 We've already seen all of these encounters before, so I'll fast-forward through trip #2, but one thing to note is that Phantasy Star actually scales up the number of enemies with the size of your party! We also encountered groups of 3 Owl Bears on the way here, and more groups of 4 Scorpions like we saw on Motavia.  I'll probably put together a little GIF showcase of our party's attacks later, but one little detail that I like is how Alis' attack is a single sword-stroke, but Myau's attack is a little trio of claw marks raking across the enemy sprite.  So I spaced and completely forgot to draw attention to this earlier, but, when Myau joined our party, the bottle of ALSULIN around his neck quietly dropped into our inventory:  Myau literally told us how to use it. So let's do that!   Um? Let's hope it leaked out in the proper place!  Yeah, that seems good.   Listen, bro. You don't look at anyone named Medusa. That's, like, heroing 101.    Odin doesn't need much convincing.   Apparently Medusa has a magic axe for some reason. That sounds useful!   Ooo, and Odin knows where our next plot key is. But I thought we already searched this cave pretty thoroughly...  GAH. Rescuing Odin counts as a "step", and the game saw fit to dump us into a random encounter the moment the cut-scene ended. Trial by fire, I guess! Also, note the number of slimes: party scaling at work.  That first turn provides a good opportunity to evaluate our newest party member. For the moment, Odin is hitting the enemy roughly as effectively as Myau, but seems to have beefier defense than anyone else in the party, taking only 1 damage from the slime's attacks. Also, all 3 of our party members elected to attack different targets, because lol Phantasy Star.   Bigger enemy groups mean bigger EXP & MST payoffs, at least! |
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#43
04-10-2018, 09:01 AM
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 So let's take a look at our handsome new axe-boi, who of course joins us at level 1. His Attack is comparable to Myau's, while his Defense and HP are both a fair bit higher. He is exclusively decked out in Iron equipment, which is too heavy for anyone else to equip, and doesn't have a shield yet.  Beyond just the weight of iron, Axes are actually one of two weapon types available exclusively to Odin. I won't say what the other type is yet (you won't have to wait long), but it's probably not what you're thinking! Either way, replacing the axe should probably be a priority, given that it's roughly half as powerful as Alis' current weapon. Note that Odin can use almost every weapon in the game, so he has a lot of options.  You might recall that during our last trip through this cave, we walked down a particularly long hallway only to find an empty dead-end. Well look what has mysteriously shown up here now!  I've always assumed that this is sort of an abstraction for Odin showing us the loose rock he hid the COMPASS behind, or some such. His choice of the word "stashed" during the cut-scene supports this reading.  Certainly it will help us find our way through the Eppi forest, as promised, but this COMPASS has a new feature!  Yes, it work as an actual compass as well! This is an invaluable tool in any mapper's toolbox.  And that's it for Medusa's Cave, which strangely contained zero Medusas!    On our way out of the cave, everyone gained an additional level. I think we're far enough along now that I'm going to stop itemizing stat gains, lest I put everyone to sleep. Just know that everyone got a bit better!  Now to put our new COMPASS through its paces!  Well that was uneventful. Let's head into this village! |
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#44
04-10-2018, 09:06 AM
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Soundcloud / FM Version A more pastoral settlement calls for a more pastoral tune, and this definitely fits.   Welcome to Eppi Village! You're looking at it in its entirety. Let's see what the rest of the villagers have to say:
  Both interiors also got a bit of a face-lift, but are identical in function. More notably, the Armory has a couple of new toys:  So, as I alluded to earlier, the other class of weapon that is exclusive to Odin is guns! Guns in Phantasy Star are very special mechanically, and Odin with a gun plays very differently than Odin with an axe or sword. Axes are powerful but inaccurate, while guns have 100% accuracy and strike every enemy in the battle for low fixed damage. Now that large enemy groups are increasingly common, this can add up to a lot of damage, and is great for cleaning up stragglers that the ally targeting refuses to finish off, but will obviously under-perform against small groups or single targets. I'm fine either way, so let me know if you have a preference!  Finally, we have this special building to the north, with its conspicuous golden roof.  Yesyesyes, gimmiegimmie.     Wait, "warehouse"? What warehouse?  You don't suppose...?   Okay, this was definitely not here earlier. Listen, Phantasy Star, I'll call anything you like a "warehouse" if it gets me phat loot:  Maybe I should just let the instruction manual run this LP from now on. I don't have anything to add!   With our new key in hand, I waste absolutely no time in jetting back to Motavia to try it out on this door:   We're in! However, as soon as we step through the door, we're greeted by this:   ...Yes?   This robot is too smart for us. I guess we won't be seeing the Governor right now after all.   I think that's a good place to call this update. The world's our oyster! In fact, we have more than one world to explore now! So, what does the peanut gallery think I should do next? All of our heroes could really use some new gear, and there's a ton to choose from, so feel free to suggest something. Compelling options include new armour for Alis and Myau and a better weapon and shield for Odin. Don't forget to let me know if you prefer stabman Odin or seamstress Odin! We also have a ton of leads that we could go chasing! Let's end with another wrap-up summary. Things that we know:
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#45
04-10-2018, 09:07 AM
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One more thing
I guess this is now an appropriate time to share this Steam conversation that I had with aturtledoesbite a year or so ago:
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#49
04-10-2018, 10:05 AM
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Anyway, my vote is to get better armor all around (especially that thick fur) and then go see a trio of sisters in a cave about a cake. |
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#51
04-10-2018, 10:40 AM
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#52
04-10-2018, 11:11 AM
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#53
04-10-2018, 01:15 PM
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fortunately for you, though, i do have a record of when i played phantasy star, so let's see... February of 2017, so yeah, a little over a year ago Past JBear was psychic, knowing exactly when Current JBear would start your LP Anyway, I will not vote on the axegun debate. What I will do, though, is point out two things. Quote:
you have three party members, you can do it Quote:
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#54
04-10-2018, 01:21 PM
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I HAVE AN RARE ANIMAL.
Here's my notes on my 2015 playthrough up to where you left off: Quote:
I played a little more the next day: Quote:
Seeing as how I obviously didn't much care for the Needle Gun on my initial playthrough, I'd like to see you use it effectively, Jbear. Maybe you can teach me its benefits. |
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#55
04-10-2018, 02:43 PM
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Guns are great? They're your only reliable source of aoe damage until later, and you can swap out to axes easily enough when a boss comes along.
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#56
04-10-2018, 04:04 PM
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#57
04-10-2018, 07:52 PM
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This pleases me, JBear, much like your Vandal Hearts LP. This was my first JRPG (at the tender age of...6? 8?), so I look forward to this!
I've always been curious about a Pistoleer Odin, use guns! |
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#58
04-10-2018, 10:27 PM
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 So is this Owl Bear monster behind the winged eyeball or with the eyeball his go-between? |
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#59
04-10-2018, 11:58 PM
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I’m pretty sure I didn’t figure this out, and made all my maps on the assumption that you’re facing north at the entrance to the dungeon. Speaking of which:  Here’s my map of Medusa’s cave. Also just visible through the page is my bad picture of the game’s title screen that I drew to mark the start of Phantasy Star mapping in my map book. |
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#60
04-11-2018, 12:08 AM
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Wow... You went from single person to nearly full party in no time. (Is that how it normally goes in the game?)
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My vote is to check out Iala cave or go back to Motavia and look for Noah.. Quote:
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Also, Edward would be so dead in Motavia. |