FunWiki: PhantasyStarII

PhantasyStarII was released in 1989, for the Sega Genesis. Like its predecessor, it has been considered one of the better CRPGs from the period (though, like other CRPGs of the period, it little deserves the "RPG" part of the genre). It has also been more recently rereleased for the Dreamcast as part of the Sega Smash Pack, as well as for the Ps2? as part of the Sega Genesis Collection.

The plot of the game is slightly more involved than that of PhantasyStarI, though it's certainly no XenoGears. As the game opens, the main character wakes up from a nightmare in which a large demon is fighting with and about to kill a young woman. But he shrugs it off and goes to work, where he is given his next assignment: go to the Bio Research Lab and retrieve a recorder so that the data on it can be analyzed to find out why monsters have started being produced recently (this also provides a convenient explanation for why you get attacked everywhere you go). He returns home to prepare for the journey and is about to set out again when he is stopped by Nei, the half-human, half-monster that he took in some time ago. She insists on coming with him, and so the two of them set out.

In the course of his travels, the main character periodically returns home to find that others have heard of his endeavors and wish to join him. In all, the eight characters who make up the party are:

Rolf, the main character. Like most PhantasyStar main characters, Rolf wields either knives or a sword (though swords are now two-handed, and so not a sword and shield), which gives him a goodly amount of offensive power. As Rolf never leaves the party, he also tends to be a couple of levels ahead of everybody else, and this gives him more HP and TP (Technique Points -- aka MP) to use as well. He gets a generous spread of attack magic, receiving all of the FOI, THU, GRA and ZAN techs, as well as the ultra-powerful MEGID (making its first appearance in this game). He also gets escape techniques (useful for when the party is out of healing options) and healing techniques, including REVER, the game's Life spell (death is as in FinalFantasyOne -- you die, you go back and get "cloned" in town). All in all, Rolf is quite a well-rounded character (not to say broken).
Nei, who is with Rolf from the start of the game and fills the role of catlike character (she has cat-ears, and the similarities with Mieu in PSIII and Rika in PSIV are many and obvious). She uses equipment that is pretty much unique to her -- ribbons for helmets, vests for armor, sandals for boots, and bars for weapons (I think they meant claws... they're reasonably high attack, and grant some defense as well). She gets high agility and reasonable HP and TP. For techniques, she gets mostly healing and defensive stuff, though no REVER.
Rudo, a "hunter", who is recognizable as a translation of Odin from PhantasyStarI. He gets high HP but no techniques, gets to use the best armor, and wields a wide assortment of guns. Guns have a somewhat lower attack power than swords, knives, or what-have-you, but they suffer no damage reduction from armor, which is sometimes extremely helpful. Many of them can also hit multiple enemies. Rudo can also equip some of the knives, and early in the game you may actually want to have him do so.
Amy, a doctor, who is a dead ringer for Nene from BubbleGumCrisis?, and fights about as well. However, she makes up for her low HP with a goodly amount of TP, and she gets all of the defensive and healing techniques, including REVER and NASAR (which fully heals the entire party). She uses the usual female selection of armor, and for weapons uses some of the knives and some status-ailment-inducing guns. She also gets some weak attack tech, which can be useful at times. Finally, she can also cast ANTI, which at certain points can save quite a bit of inventory which would otherwise go towards carrying antidotes.
Hugh, who is a biologist. He gets more HP than Amy, but he is stuck using the weaker-end male armors. He can use some of the weaker guns and knives, and later maces, either dual-wielding or also equipping a shield for defense (which he is in some need of). This makes his fighting ability only so-so; he also gets a small selection of healing techniques and a wider variety of techniques which are more effective against monsters--they do more damage for fewer TP, sometimes to more targets. At the high end, he gets a technique which attempts to deal instant death to the entire enemy party (with a reasonable chance of success, no less). VOL is one of the easier ways of getting rid of the high level dragons...
Anna, who is a "guardian". It's never really made clear what "guardian" means, but it's hard to argue with Anna's combat effectiveness. She gets good HP and moderate TP, and gets to equip basically all of the female armors. She gets a few utility techniques (e.g. NER, which raises a character's agility) and a few of the weaker attack techniques. Her agility is also pretty good. Her strong point, however, is her weapon, the famed Slasher, which hits an entire group of enemies at once. She can dual-wield these, which leads to utter destruction of enemies in certain parts of the game. The only down side is that slashers suffer damage reduction from armor. If they didn't, Anna would be near the grossest character in the game, even with her distinct lack of healing techs...
Kain, who is a "wrecker". Kain is sort of the flip side of Hugh -- where Hugh is good against monsters, Kain has many of the same options against robots. Kain's defense is a bit better, and he gets to use a wider variety of guns (or perhaps just a different variety of guns). He also gets to wear most of the heavy armors. Unlike Hugh, Kain gets no healing techniques, which can sometimes be a liability.
Shir, who is a thief. In combat terms this means that she is restricted to knives for weapons, has good agility, and gets a few attack techniques (mostly the ZAN family). Outside of combat, she gets the two escape techs, and when you enter shops she will occasionally steal things (they dance around this in-game, for reasons which aren't clear). A major downside to Shir is that she arrives nearly a third of the way into the game and is level 1, with the crappy stats that implies, making her really useless in combat. Still, she can use some nifty armors late in the game, and having a second character in the party to cast escape techs can be a lifesaver if Rolf unexpectedly dies and you don't have any of the escape items...

One problem players may encounter is that the spell names are completely incomprehensible (and likewise hard to remember), so you kinda need to print out a spell guide before you attempt to play this game. Otherwise you end up killing your own characters using SAK, which is rather annoying.

Col. G. L. Sicherman (a CoolUbiquitousPerson?) wrote a short (~4K) walkthrough for the game, listing the places to go and things to do. It may be found on his home page (see RogueletsAbc, since I'm too lazy to get the link again ATM) or on [GameFAQs]. While it highlights the extremely simple nature of the plot, the fact that the game still takes at least 40 hours to complete should give one an idea of the complexity and assity of the dungeons.

PhantasyStarII is one of the games with MotherBrain?.

VideoGame