Sequels are a funny thing. For one thing, they’re very easy to screw up. There are expectations to keep, trends to take into consideration and fans to please. If the sequel strays too far away from what the fans expect, usually you’ll find a lot of bitching from your own target audience. However, if it’s too trite and doesn’t change up anything at all, the game can easily be described as generic and pedestrian. There has to be a solid middle ground to appease both sides. This is compounded with the concept of a sequel to an RPG. When it comes to a sequel to a Megaman game, introducing some new level concepts or mechanics is good enough to keep the formula from becoming stale without radically changing things up. But RPGs generally have an emphasis on plot, large settings and exploration. That only makes it even more difficult to construct a sequel to an rpg because the plot threads between both games must make coherent sense and make the progression from I to II feel organic and relevant.
These difficulties and more are precisely why I consider Phantasy Star II one of the greatest sequels of all time, as far as rpgs go. Not that there’s too much competition in terms of rpgs that are direct sequels of one another (Though I’d label PSIV the even more superior sequel). Without contradicting anything established in the previous game, PSII introduces even bolder sci-fi elements that even the first game didn’t have and makes the experience feel completely fresh compared to the original. Unfortunately, Phantasy Star II also throws at the player dungeons designed by the likes of Satan himself and a difficulty curve that’s nothing short of masochistic. Phantasy Star I had it’s difficult sections, but PSII is noted for being one of the most difficult rpgs of its era, alongside the likes of Dragon Quest II. So, most of the praise for this game is going to come from how new and interesting this was for the genre when it was released, whereas it’s criticisms are going to come from how over-the-top the difficulty is.
But I’ve digressed long enough; let’s really get into what makes Phantasy Star II a terrific sequel. Phantasy Star II is set one thousand years after the events of Phantasy Star I come to a close (Namely, Alissa and friends defeating LaShiec and bringing order to the Algonian Star System). This is interesting, because being set so far past the first game allows for a lot of leeway. Given the sci-fi setting, this makes the advances in technology present in this game a lot more believable especially after having played the first game. Anyway, the setting of Phantasy Star II places more emphasis on the planet Motavia. A huge computer system named Mother Brain controls everything on Motavia, from the weather to the food supply to mass production of goods and services. Mother Brain is revered as a god of sorts, being unquestionable, even so far as the government of Motavia is concerned. In doing so, there are hardly any traces of Alissa’s victory over LaShiec, instead a mechanical entity has taken her place. This is kind of interesting as it serves to make players of the first game feel uncomfortable and emphasizes the cold, mechanical protection of a supercomputer over that of a more organic and human entity. Technically Motavia is still the same planet from the first game, and yet it’s changed in so many ways. In the first game it was a barren, desert planet with very little in the way of life outside of a couple of towns. However, it’s a green paradise thanks to Mother Brain’s domes that provide food and nourishment for the population at large. Next, Mother Brain’s control over the planet makes it clearly evident that people are becoming more and more lethargic and lazy over time. Various NPCs over the towns mention how they don’t need to work or even protect themselves, lending themselves to Mother Brain’s protection. Also, nobody on Motavia seems to even know where Mother Brain’s physical location on Motavia is, and yet her presence is still felt throughout the game in various ways. This definitely lends a particularly unique atmosphere to Phantasy Star II that is still unmatched in rpgs to this day.
The game begins proper with an Agent named Rolf reliving the final moments of Phantasy Star I in the form of a dream. Despite some of the jarring transformations Motavia has made from one game to the next, this scene allows the player to feel that there still is a connection between games. Rolf is helpless to do anything about his dream however, and wakes up in a cold sweat. Soon after, he suits up for his job and receives his next mission. Monsters are getting loose and threatening the world of Motavia, despite Mother Brain’s supposed protection. Anyway, Rolf’s mission is to discover why they’re popping up all over the place and to put a stop to it. Supposedly, finding the recorder in the bio-systems lab will help him figure out what exactly is causing this madness. At which point he returns to his home to prepare for the mission, at which Nei (Whose name means “Human that is not a human”, referring to how she was created) begs him to take her with him. It’s immediately revealed that Nei is something like an adoptive sister to Rolf, and that Nei is a creation consisting of both human and biological monster dna. As such, most people think of her as a monster, but Rolf took her in, almost as if she was his own sister. Since the outbreak of biological monsters is occurring, Nei wants to know more about herself, hence why she so desperately wants to join Rolf. He accepts, and then from there the player can play Phantasy Star II properly.
Let it be known, Phantasy Star II is a far more linear game than its predecessor in terms of structure. Where to go and what to do is largely dictated by the game’s plot. In the beginning, because access to the biosytems lab is blocked off for plot related reasons, the player must progress forward to the first dungeon to acquire dynamite so access to the second dungeon, and within there the player can find Tiem who can initiate a necessary cutscene that allows the player to move into the section of Motavia where the biosystems lab is. This process continues throughout the whole game, only letting up at minor points in which the player is set to acquire multiple plot items from multiple dungeons and the player is given the choice to tackle certain dungeons in whatever order they want, but they still cannot properly progress until all the plot tokens are collected. Essentially, the player can tackle of one four dungeons in any order, but they still need to finish all four in order to move on, so the game is still fairly linear. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s a marked difference from the semi non-linear approach that Phantasy Star I took. Phantasy II is a more plot-driven game, so it makes sense that it would go for a more linear approach. Phantasy Star IV would also continue that style, and that’s my favorite game in the franchise so it’s not an approach I have any issue with.
As soon as the player reaches the next town in the game, they are introduced to the game’s mechanic of acquiring new party members. For each town the player makes their way into, if they return to the first town in the game and check their home, they will be awarded with a new party member. If the player wants to switch party members at any point in the game, they do have to return to their home, which kind of sucks if you’re in the middle of a dungeon. While this mechanic does seem rather obtuse, talking to NPCs throughout the game illuminates to the player that they should return to their home every once in a while. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than completely leaving them in the dark. As far as party members go, I figure now is the best time to dissect each character from a combat standpoint. Rolf is like Alissa from the first game, being something of a “Magic Knight” archetype. He’s competent at melee but has enough attack magic to take out some of the more powerful enemies in the game. Nei is what is commonly referred to as a “Glass Cannon”. She’s incredibly fast and can dish out very good damage but her low defense and equipment draw will leave her taking lots of damage. Rudolph is the prototypical “Tank”. He is the only character in the game with no access to spells in the game, but he makes up for it with his equipment draw, being able to deal lots of damage and having the HP and defense to take lots of hits. Despite his inability to use magic, I always find myself using him because of how useful his high HP is. Next up is Amy, who is your usual “White Mage,” though in this sci-fi setting she’s referred to as a doctor. Her equipment draw is nothing special and her defense/HP are pretty miserable, she has access to a wide range of buffs and healing abilities, including only one of two party members who can revive others (Which is a blessing considering this game’s difficulty). Next is the underappreciated Hugh, whose abilities revolve around specifically disabling biological monsters that popular the majority of the first third of the game. Which is all well and good, but after that point, for various plot reasons mechanical enemies soon dominate the rest of the game and since his abilities don’t work on those types of enemies, Hugh’s abilities are suddenly diminished. Next we have Anna, whose interesting quirk is that she uses slashers (Or simply put boomerangs) that hit all enemies, being the only character who can do so without the proper technique. Unfortunately, she’s pretty lacking the techs department, but she doesn’t really need them for the most part. Then we have Kain, who for whatever reason speaks in a very “southern” dialect and specializes in destroying and dismantling machines. In this sense, he’s a direct contrast to Hugh whose abilities work only on biological enemies, and basically for every spell that Hugh has that damages/stuns/kills a biological enemy, Kain has a matching variant that does the same thing on machines. Since machines dominate the latter parts of the game, Kain is much more valuable to the player than Hugh will ever be. Last but not least is Shir, whose specialty is stealing. That being, if the player walks into a shop with Shir in the party she will have a random chance of stealing a specific item from the store, but if she does so the player must return to their home town, which is a quite tedious affair especially late into the game. Shir’s abilities are like a much worse version of Rolf. She has a large range of techniques but she needs really high levels to use any of them, and her TP growth is the worst in the game and a very poor equipment draw. Her only real use is stealing, fortunately her ability to steal from shops can lead the player into acquiring the visiphone, which is a godsend given this game’s difficulty but that’s a matter I’ll get into another time.
Summing everything up about the characters, it becomes clear that the party selection in Phantasy Star II really isn’t that balanced. Rolf, Nei and Rudger are clearly the three best to use in the early parts of the game without exception. Amy has use as a healer and has useful buffs for some of the more difficult random encounters, so for the majority of the game she’ll likely sit in your fourth slot. Hugh has use early in the game, but the later machines that dominate the 2nd half are too obnoxious to consider using Hugh on, so you might as well not bother wasting your time with Hugh. Anna’s slicers have use early on as well, and she has better equipment than Hugh, but against the meaty defenses the machines boast, Anna’s use diminishes the further into the game the player gets. Shir flatout sucks at anything combat related, but the stealing is an okay trait and she’s fast but that’s about it. Kain definitely has a lot of usefulness in the late sections of the game, and his equipment draw is pretty good unlike most of his comrades so he retains some usefulness even in the early reaches of the game. Who you choose to use in combat is ultimately up to you. As far as jrpgs go, Phantasy Star II was one of the first games to give definitive backgrounds to each character, and a decent portion of the praise for the game was exactly for this. And that’s true, I can’t think of any other rpgs in 1989 and before that did that. Unfortunately, it’s 2014 and not 1989 anymore. While it was an impressive achievement, and later rpgs would obviously look at Phantasy Star II as an influence in this regard, it’s very difficult to look at PSII and really take notice of what exactly it did to further the genre when other games are immediately more accessible due to advancements in technology and have the memory to have a lot more dialogue between characters. This makes PSII’s achievements seem… a bit barren in comparison, though not unnoticeable. I definitely do appreciate these advancements, but someone else could play through the game and not appreciate them as much just because they’re used to much better. This is an issue as most of these characters have no dialogue outside of their introductions. The back-stories are nice additions for a game this old, but with no dialogue to further their characters, they seem to really fall short to me.
Now that I’ve talked in-depth about the main characters of the game and touched on their capabilities in combat a bit, I think it’s time to get into the combat of Phantasy Star II. Unlike Phantasy Star I which had a very Dragon Quest-esque viewpoint (1st person) to the combat, the characters are visible from the back. It may seem only like a very small addition at first, but it adds a lot to the presentation of the game. Instead of seeing a small slash animation that barely looks anything like that, we get to view the character running up to the enemy and slashing them with their weapon or casting the appropriate technique. It’s a step up from the first game, and shows advancement in presentation from what most rpgs were used to at the time. The same goes for enemies; they all have their animations, even for attacks that are different. Sure, later rpgs have technically superior animations, but it’s at this very moment that rpgs have evolved beyond entirely basic animations without dragging them out to gargantuan lengths. For when Phantasy Star II was released, I think the animations are extremely high quality and appealing to look at. Another thing about the combat in Phantasy Star II are the backgrounds… there’s only one of them. It’s a futuristic-looking pseudo-3D kind of background, which works for the most part. It gives the illusion of depth to not only the field of battle, but I think it looks cool enough on its own and lends itself well to the sci-fi image the game has. Of course, it’s the only background you’ll see in combat during the entire game, even during boss fights so it can wear itself out pretty easily on the player. I don’t mind it, but others have criticized that function of the game in the past.
One of the main features of combat in Phantasy Star II is the inclusion of auto-battle. I’m sure some obscure PC rpg has included this feature at one point or another, but as far as jrpgs are concerned, this is definitely one of the earliest inclusions of the feature and it works pretty spot on. The player will enter a string of commands for each party member, and the party members will execute them, one by one. They will repeat the commands ad infinitum until the battle ends, or the player interrupts the auto-battle themselves with a touch of a button. If the player uses techniques (The game’s equivalent of spells from other rpgs), they revert to attacking physically in the next round so they don’t constantly end up using the same spell repeatedly, sapping the character of their precious TP pools. This is actually a very good thing, seeing as TP growth is very limited, so it’s pretty often that a player wants someone to only cast a spell once and then revert to attacking so they don’t run out of TP quickly. This feature doesn’t apply to spells used through special items, which can be used infinitely, which is another genius implementation of this system. Since items that cast spells are an infinite resource (unlike naturally using techniques that eat into a player’s TP pool), there’s no risk of using them would hurt the player, whereas it would hurt the player to uselessly cast spells when they’re not needed. If the player does want to change techniques, they can interrupt the auto-battle and switch them up in the next round at their leisure. The care and attention placed into it to make sure the potential pitfalls that can occur with auto-battle aren’t at all present is noted and it makes Phantasy Star II definitely feel ahead of its time. Not to mention, the benefits of having an auto-battle system means that a player doesn’t need to tediously re-enter attack command constantly, as is often the case in older rpgs such as this.
Since combat and dungeon crawling are almost always inherently linked to one another, I feel this is the best time to segue from one to another. Unlike the first game, where all the dungeons were in the first person perspective without any kind of map, Phantasy Star II handles them from the third person-overhead view. It’s definitely better than what Phantasy Star I gives to the player, but at the same time Phantasy Star II’s dungeons still have some pretty big issues of their own that hold the game back. They’re enormous. Even the game’s initial dungeon is exponentially more complex than the final dungeons issued to the player in most other rpgs, and that trend only continues to the very end of the game. These dungeons are also littered with extremely difficult random encounters that can very easily destroy an unprepared player, who isn’t playing with the mindset of getting the most out of every decision they make. It’s very easy to get halfway through a dungeon and be wiped out due to running out of resources because of how difficult the encounters are and the labyrinthine quality of the dungeons themselves. A more prepared player can more easily handle themselves in this game, but it’s still incredibly difficult to do so if the player hasn’t memorized the layouts of the dungeons. Fortunately, the game did come with a guidebook that included maps of every dungeon but I feel a video game shouldn’t rely on outside resources to be playable which is a legitimate strike against Phantasy Star II. I do appreciate the 3rd person perspective, but one can argue this is a step backwards from the first game just due to the sheer insanity of these dungeon designs. I think this is a technical improvement over the first game, but as far as practicality is concerned this is a step in the wrong direction.
I mean, this isn’t even the most complex dungeon in the game.
Fortunately, most of the dungeons in Phantasy Star II do not force a boss fight upon the player, thankfully. Given the difficulty of the dungeons, players would be too exhausted to even attempt a boss fight for the sake of progression. There are only a total of four in all, though one is merely a “story” boss (In which the player is expected to lose for the sake of plot-based progression) and the final two are slapped into the very end of the game. Now, there are nineteen dungeons in total, so there are a lot of dungeons that simply don’t have any bosses to them and only exist to host a plot token, similar to Phantasy Star I in some respects.The bosses that do exist are quite difficult, though honestly I feel none of them quite replicate the challenges inherent to the dungeons themselves. That’s a good thing, since as I’ve mentioned before, this game’s dungeons are a pain. Some would argue this lends itself to a “Quality over quantity” element to Phantasy Star II’s design as far as boss fights go, though that’s not the case with the game’s dungeons with the game hosting nineteen in all.
One feature that makes Phantasy Star II’s dungeons exceedingly difficult, other than the labyrinthine element, is the monsters that lay dormant in them. Most dungeons have what I dub as “Doom Encounters” which are so difficult that the player should treat them as if they were a boss fight. Without the proper strategies and equipment, they can easily wipe out the player’s party in two rounds of combat or less. These are the most crucial situations in the entire game and one who isn’t prepared is likely to see the game over screen multiple times before finally finishing their respective dungeon. Given the depth and the length of the dungeon in this game, that means that players will likely face multiple “Doom Encounters” within a single dungeon unless they’re using outside assistance to ensure they get through the dungeons as fast as they possibly can. This causes a conflict to me because I’m not exactly sure if I want to call this poor game design or not. It’s definitely frustrating, but I will admit there is a certain charm to making one’s way through a difficult dungeon. The dungeons aren’t impossible, even without using maps if the player is prepared, so I suppose what I want to say is that Phantasy Star II definitely straddles around the line between cheap and difficult game design. It’s really difficult for me to say definitively which side PSII is on, so I’ll say that it’s a very blurry line and let the player decide for themselves.
(Seriously, getting ambushed by these guys is a death sentence)
Now, the time has come to talk about the game’s music. Phantasy Star II continues the tradition of having some pretty rocking tunes, though its style is a bit different. Phantasy Star II while still maintaining a fun and catchy vibe to its music but with more of a techno edge. One of the more memorable themes is the random encounter theme, which really is a good thing since random encounters are quite common in rpgs like this. While the Genesis’ sound chip is inferior to that of the SNES, one thing I always thought it did well was provide a good thundering bassline which is present in nearly every major track in the game. The town themes do vary and give a very serene feeling to them whereas the respective dungeon themes are catchy but feel appropriate for a dungeon. And then you have the boss theme which I absolutely love in its heroic feeling and atmosphere. Though I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of it at first, but the soundtrack as a whole really grew on me, to the point I consider its music an absolute classic.
Secret Ways
Mystery
Violation
Death Place
Now, whereas the dungeon design of Phantasy Star II may come off as frustrating, that isn’t to say that the game doesn’t offer conveniences of its own. I’ve already talked about the auto-battle system and how it streamlines the game, but I’d like to talk about a few other features that PSII includes that makes the game a bit easier to swallow. Right at the start of the game, the player is allowed access to a luggage room where they can store items they have but don’t need. This also includes key items relevant to the advancement of the plot. This is an amazing feature after playing the predecessor and its issues with inventory space, so once you no longer need a key item you can stick it into the luggage and never have to worry about it again. The luggage has limited space of its own, but I’ve never exceeded it without deliberately trying to fill it up. I’m not sure on the specifics, but I’m sure this is one of the earliest implementations of such a feature in rpgs, if not the earliest. Continuing on the subject of inventory management, each character now has their own inventory slots in the menu, instead of each item being shared by everyone else. Unfortunately, equipped items do in fact count towards the allotment of items a character can hold, but since each character has their own slots, it’s not a huge deal.
Another added convenience in this game is a bit of a hidden one. It’s called the visiphone, an item that allows the player to save anywhere in the game (Otherwise they have to go to a specific spot in a town in order to save), even dungeons. So, the player does in fact have a counter to the masochism inherent to the dungeons, even if it abusing it is a fair bit tedious. One can potentially save and reload through the dungeons repeatedly to progress through them, but I don’t like doing that myself because of the aforementioned tediousness. Of course, actually getting your hands on the visiphone is another matter, if you don’t have a walkthrough telling you how to get it. It’s acquired by having a level 10 or higher Shir enter the control center, and the player will have a random chance of it being in Shir’s inventory when she re-enters the party. It’s not particularly complex, but there’s absolutely nothing in-game that indicates that this can even be done and that bothers me. I particularly dislike “tricks” in games that require the most asinine logic to figure out. Fortunately, the visiphone is an optional item in the game and is in no way required to complete it, so it’s not a huge blow for my enjoyment of the game.
Another neat convenience to the game is the ability to warp between towns the player has already been to for a very small fee. It’s basically piss change, and it saves a lot of empty time that could be spent walking between towns on the world map. It doesn’t seem like much at first, but the longer you play the game the more precious this feature becomes as the distances between towns gets bigger. I’m certain this would lay the path for other rpgs with warping functions to make distance between towns already traveled a non-issue as far as design is concerned. It may seem like I’m blowing a small feature out of proportion, but since Phantasy Star III fails for not having something simple like this, it really makes the advances made in Phantasy Star II feel special. One final neat feature is the inclusion of the library, which is accessible at the very start of the game. Going in there is completely optional, but it gives the player knowledge about the world at hand, and gives backstory information relevant to players curious enough about the world to find out about it. The information given also strengthens the link between the first game and this one.
Now that the base game has been dissected at great lengths, I think it’s time to dive back into the plot of Phantasy Star II and its themes. I went into detail about the themes of the first game because I found them interesting, and I feel the same way about them in this game. I went over the basics of the world and its setting because that would lend itself well to talking about the other mechanics of the game. The first third of the game is spent exploring Motavia, conquering one dungeon after another, slowly unlocking each section until the final showdown of the first part of the game commences with its finale. It’s during this section of the game where everything in the world feels so helpless and overpowering.
For example: blocking the party’s path to the entryway to the path to the 3rd dungeon is a dangerous criminal. It’s even implied that this man nearly killed Nei as a child. Apparently as the party later finds out, his daughter was kidnapped by thieves and demanded a huge ransom that he clearly could not afford. It’s at this juncture that he turns to crime in order to afford his daughter’s random, killing people who refuse to hand him money at the spot he guards. Where this turns south is that the player rescues his daughter from the 2nd dungeon, but she insists on wearing a veil to hide herself and wants to confront her father one on one. The situation goes badly, with her father killing her without realizing what he’s done until it’s too late. At which point, he kills himself out of sorrow, allowing the player passage through the part he was blockading in the first place. It may only seem like a stepping stone on the way to the next section of Motavia, but thematically it means a lot. It establishes that despite all the protections and comforts provided by Mother Brain, people still have the same capacity for insanity and murder that they did without her protection, which really begs the question “Why do we need Mother Brain anyway?” and really drives home a foreboding sense of mystery to the game. The scene in of itself doesn’t even last a minute, but it establishes so much thematically for the game.
The next big plot event is essentially the climax for the first part of the game. At the end of the sixth dungeon, the huge Climate Control facility lays Nei’s “sister”, Neifirst. Apparently Neifirst was the creation behind all the biological monsters inhabiting Motavia, and was the catalyst for Nei’s creation. It’s not really explained in-depth in any manner, but Nei separated herself from Neifirst because she couldn’t stand it, and now Neifirst wants to eliminate Nei. This proceeds into the game’s first boss fight, though instead of a party vs. boss affair, the fight is between the two Nei’s. While it is certainly possible to win the fight with the proper preperations, it’s not mandatory and the game expects you to lose. This results in Nei’s death, which is permanent. She gives her final goodbye to Rolf and company, who proceed to do battle with Neifirst in her place. An interesting tidbit about the battle is that if Nei does win the 2nd battle with Neifirst isn’t necessary at all, but the game continues as if Nei was killed regardless, since the two are “linked” (If one dies, the other dies as well).
(It turns out FF7 was 8 years late to the party)
Upon the defeat of Neifirst, the entire Climate Control facility starts to implode from the inside-out since Neifirst was controlling the place and she’s no longer alive to control everything. The party warps at the last second to avoid being killed and makes their way to the starting town, only to found out that Nei cannot be revived. Normally, if a party member was defeated the player would have to go to one of the “Cloning labs” to have them revived and playable once more. It’s a weird and very unsettling way to handle player revival in an rpg. The fact that they are not simply “revived”, but brought directly a clone that replaces the dead corpse of the deceased party member. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s downright creepy and it only serves to make the technological world of Phantasy Star II feel strange to the player. This is a stark contrast to what the player is told when the party attempts to have Nei cloned and revived and they’re told it only works on humans and Nei is only half-human. This frustration is further compounded by the fact that now the government of Palma has listed Rolf and his companions as criminals, since their actions were supposedly an attempt to “damage” Mother Brain. This is an event that really puts into question how much of Mother Brain’s protection is legitimate if it can’t properly discern between people doing what they can to help and to hurt others, and if technology should have such an active role in determining right and wrong. Especially one the player still cannot physically see for themselves.
It turns out that since the Climate Control was the force that kept the weather on Motavia in check, allowing huge waves of oceans to eventually crash into and flood everything else on the planet. Despite his crew’s new status as fugitives, Rolf’s boss explains the situation to him without handing him over to the authorities. It turns out if the dams were released, the water flow wouldn’t be such a big of a problem as it is right now, so Rolf offers to go find a way to release the dams to save what is left of Motavia. To me, this is one of the biggest turning points of Phantasy Star II. Rolf lost his “sister” in combat, listed as a criminal for doing his job, knows something is up with Mother Brain and then finally the world starts going to shit but he steps up and offers to save Motavia from the shadows, which means even if he succeeds he likely won’t receive credit for it due to his status as a fugitive. I mean really, it’d be easy to just say “You guys can fuck off” and leave the world to rot and not worry about what’s going on. Sure, Rolf doesn’t have a terrific amount of dialogue in the game, but it’s a moment like that, that represents what kind of a person Rolf is and why he’s the hero of this game.
However, it’s also at this section of the game that things start getting somewhat cryptic. The game tells the player that they need the four keycards found in the Control Tower to unlock the dams, but neglects to mention its location. There’s nothing to indicate its location at all anywhere in the game, leaving the player to tediously wonder around until they strike gold. Mechanically, this is also another turning point, as this is the first part of the game where machines are introduced as the foil to biological enemies (And the point in which Hugh becomes useless and Anna becomes mediocre). Most machines have incredibly high defense values, making characters that either use guns or have access to damaging techniques highly valuable. This also means the average difficulty of the game has jumped up a few pegs, and the game was already hard enough as it was. This is made even more worse because the player needs to have the “Musik” (It’s literally spelled that way in-game) technique to unlock the door to the cards. To explain in brief: the Musik tech is acquired in one of the towns in PSII by talking to a musician that clearly prefers the company of men and paying him a small fee. He charges women more for the process than he does men, and the official English translation tries to hide his blatant homosexuality. The only issue I have with this is that the game really makes it obvious that a player could have picked it out even with the English translation. Anyway, with the Musik technique the player can open up the final door of the Control Tower to acquire the four cardkeys that lead to the dams.
After the player acquires the four cardkeys, uses them in each respective dam, it appears that Motavia is saved again. Unfortunately for Rolf, Mother Brain’s sentries have come to capture his crew. The player is introduced into an unwinnable boss fight, at which point the entire party is captured and made prisoners on the space satellite Gaila. As soon as Rolf regains consciousness, he learns that they are sentenced to death when Gaila reaches its destination (which is never actually revealed to the player). Shortly thereafter, it turns out Gaila crashes into Palma of all planets, which would very likely kill the party. During this, Rolf expects death, but is instead shown the exact same dream from the beginning of the game once more. Before he can properly ponder why he’s seeing the same dream once more, he awakes in a stranger’s spaceship, no clue what exactly has happened. The stranger introduces himself as Tyler, a space pirate (Who suspiciously looks a lot like Tylon from the first game). He reveals to them that it’s true that the satellite destroyed Palma and everything that lived on it. Now this is where things differ in the plot based on the translation you’re playing. In the English translation, the party was saved by Tyler at the last second. However, in the Japanese translation, the party were in fact killed but revived via cloning by Tyler, which again leads to some pretty creepy implications. I’m okay with either translation’s version of those events, but the Japanese translation is a bit more in line with making the player feel at unease with the world they live in. Tyler informs the party about a rumor of someone opposing Mother Brain on the planet Dezolis and drops the party back into the starting town on Motavia. Rolf’s boss decides to assist the party by unlocking access to the roof and the spaceship there that will give the player access to planet Dezolis once and for all.
Now, this is a huge risk being taken by the commander, since Mother Brain declared space travel illegal several years before Phantasy Star II even began! Anyway, this leads to the final segment of the game, Dezolis but I’d like to talk about some other things first. First of all, Palma’s destruction, for anyone that played the first game there is almost certainly going to be a feeling of sorrow in seeing the main planet from the first game be destroyed. Obviously, if the player didn’t play the first game then that’s kind of a moot point, but they’re still able to understand the ramifications of blowing up a planet are kind of huge, and at the same time if someone did play the first game, there’s an instant connection to the first game that’s lost. This fuels the desire to stop Mother Brain and figure out what exactly is going on in the Algolian Solar System.
Before I get even further into the plot, I want to point out how the game handles Dezolis from a mechanical standpoint. I’m not going to sugarcoat it; Dezolis in Phantasy Star II is bullshit. It’s mean, unforgiving and the dungeon crawling and the counter-intuitive measures it forces onto the player aren’t fun in any sense of the word. The player enters Dezolis from Skure spaceport, which is in of itself an annoying long labyrinth. There are four exits to Skure, each leading to different sections of the Dezolis world map. There are three towns on Dezolis and four hidden dungeons that won’t appear until a specific key item is acquired, but that’s not the worst part. In the three towns return the Dezolians from the first game. Now, in Phantasy Star I they had a very nasty characteristic of lying to the player, but the designers decided that Dezolians needed to speak a completely different language from the player. There is a work-around for this, but it’s in the form of the mogic cap (not to be confused with the magic cap, which are different items) which once equipped allows the player to speak properly with the Dezolians. Until the player does this, they will be locked out of using any kind of services in any towns, such as warping/save/equipment shops/and healing. This glaring issue is further compounded by the fact that the mogic cap cannot be purchased on Motavia, and is only found in Skure. I already mentioned this, but Skure is not exactly a small, linear dungeon (Which is the only way such a mechanic would come off as anything less than horseshit) but a fairly big one with lots of passages a player could easily miss. Until the mogic cap is collected and equipped, the player can’t even heal of all things, meaning if the player is out of TP, they have to go all the way back to Skure, use the spaceship to go back to Motavia and then heal. Then they have to go back to the spaceship and make their way through Skure once more and then travel to wherever the player was advancing to. This is unnecessarily tedious and is complete horseshit, as far as I’m concerned. Fortunately, as an experienced veteran of the game I know to pick it up each time I play the game, but a first-time player will not have that advantage and likely run to the wall of frustration I mentioned. If the player does get the mogic cap, then Dezolis is nowhere near as tedious as I described thanks to being able to warp between towns safely and having access to healing. Now, I complained about how Phantasy Star I handled Dezolis and how it was easily the worst part of the game. The same thing applies here, but I think how this game does it is worse than the first game.
Ranting aside, I do like where Dezolis comes into play as far as plot goes. It’s the final stretch of the game, a planet devoid of much life or technology. Mother Brain’s reach to this planet consists of the occasional machine enemies the player fights, but most of the combat consists of native Dezolian creatures, implying that MB doesn’t have much influence on Dezolis. Whereas Motavia represents a technological paradise, Dezolis represents nature at its coldest and harshest. I find it to be an interesting foil between the two planets and their positions as far as plot and gameplay are concerned. It really solidifies the whole “man vs. technology” theme that runs rampant across the game.
Finally, once the player reaches the Esper Mansion they’re finally showcased what exactly is going on with the world. The leader of the mansion, Lutz revives from a long sleep to essentially give a plotdump. The evil incarnation Dark Force from the first game apparently has something to do this with the issues surrounding Mother Brain, and that Rolf is the last descendant of Alissa from the first game. Again, this drives home the connection from this game to the previous one: Rolf taking the same position Alissa was in before. On the run against a tyrannical foe with the odds against them, except this time Mother Brain seems to be a more over-reaching enemy than LaShiec ever was. It’s interesting to compare to the two, since one was a human who succumbed to the powers of Dark Force and subsequently lost his humanity while the other is a machine that has no personality outside of its programming. It’s also interesting to note that this also makes sense thematically why Rolf is having a dream about Alissa’s fight with Dark Force. It foreshadows what Rolf must eventually do for himself and who or what is exactly behind the events that have taken place. It’s also revealed that Rolf was saved from death by Lutz during a spaceflight when he was a small child (Though that bit is never really gone into detail). It’s interesting to note that this was the event that leads to Mother Brain banning all space travel. It’s at this point Lutz explains to the player what needs to be accomplished. By acquiring the eight Nei arms the player will have the opportunity to defeat Mother Brain and the evil surrounding Algol once again. It’s not explained why the arms are referred to as “Nei” (The word literally means “Human that is not a human”, but it’s not clear how that relates to the weapons), but their power is assumed to be enough to do the job. Lutz hands over the Aeroprism which makes the next four dungeons that were previously invisible to the naked eye clear and visible.
While I really do like this scene as far as plot goes, because it establishes so many connections between the two games it’s pretty abysmal on the gameplay end. The player needs to acquire two Nei items from each of the four dungeons, which makes this segment of the game little more than an annoying fetch-quest. These are also some of the most complex and irritating dungeons in the entire game, at which point they almost mandate the use of a map to get through them.
Take a look at the most egregious example. This is Ikuto, which is as far as I’m concerned the most complex dungeon I’ve ever come across in an rpg. It’s getting it’s own paragraph simply because of how much bullshit it throws at the player. Not only are there plenty of enemies who can easily wipe out your party in a couple of rounds, but the dungeon has a unique twist to it. Instead of starting from the bottom and working their way up to the top, Ikuto works in reverse. The player starts at the top and must use pits to descend floors, but with no way to go back to the top without the warp spell. If you’re going through this without a map, you’re going to have to go through this dungeon multiple times because of how many potential paths exist in this dungeon. I don’t mind complexity, but Ikuto takes things way too far to the point that I consider Ikuto impossible without a map.
Once the player has acquired each of the arms, Lutz offers the player the final Nei item, the “Nei Sword” for Rolf to use and then offers to transport his party to the final dungeon where Mother Brain finally awaits. The final dungeon itself is, shockingly enough, a fairly simple romp. Considering the length, difficulty and challenge the previous dungeons had in them, I’ll take what I can get. At the end of the dungeon, the player comes across an inconspicuous looking treasure chest that instead, holds Dark Force. The very same Dark Force from the first game has returned, implying some kind of link between DF and the corruption of the Algolian universe. I’ve probably beaten this into the ground at this point, but I really do like how the game handles this. For a first time player they still know that Dark Force is one of the antagonists, but for those that played the first game, they get to see how Dark Force has evolved stylistically.
As the picture above indicates, Dark Force has gone from its initial form to something that looks like it came out of H.R. Giger’s work. Hell, it almost looks distinctly 3D though I suppose that’s just because how the sprite is drawn. Dark Force looks incredibly threatening here, which is fair because it’s the hardest boss in the game, to the point I feel it’s a negative quality. It only has two moves, but one of which inflicts the “Evil” status on a player (This is the only fight in the game in which evil can be inflicted on a player). Evil makes so that party member’s actions occur at random, with a chance to do a variety of useless actions. I don’t mind the evil status as a concept, since Dark Force is an embodiment of evil, it makes sense that it can cause even courageous minds to lose faith in themselves and the mission they’re on. But from a gameplay perspective, it’s bullshit. The only way to rid a player of the evil status is for the Neisword to randomly activate in the middle of combat. There is no method in which to force the Neisword to activate, so it’s entirely up to chance. It’s possible for Dark Force to turn all party members evil, in which they can potentially stand around doing nothing while being beaten into a bloody pulp. This is something would have worked a lot better if the player had a way of activating the Neisword of their own accord, making this boss fight more of a legitimate challenge and not one that ultimately is left up to chance.
With Dark Force gone, only Mother Brain stands in the way of the player. While the boss fight itself comes off as a less threatening Dark Force, in terms of what it means for the plot is pretty interesting. Mother Brain herself as replaced Alissa as the dominant and powerful force “protecting” Algol. Yet Mother Brain is a mechanical entity which completely contrasts Alissa’s victory as an organic force. Both of these characters are female and yet stand in stark contrast to one other, something I find interesting. If Rolf and company do succeed in destroying Mother Brain, then all of the systems that give food and shelter and other services to Motavia will be destroyed. This leaves the population as a whole largely defenseless since they aren’t used to protecting themselves. However, if the party decides to not take out Mother Brain, that leaves this entire operation pointless and will only cause more suffering in the long-run as the citizens continue to become more lethargic and helpless. It’s the ultimate moment in which the player realizes that mankind is going to have to suffer great lengths in order to regain their independence and take on Mother Brain in full force.
At her defeat, it seems like everything is as planned. Motavia and the rest of Algol will have to live without the advanced technology, but they’re free, right? Well, not quite yet. The player is introduced to a group of men who apparently had everything to do with the events of this game. More plotdumping is then explained to the player, with the dubbed “Earthmen” having used Mother Brain to slowly take over and weaken Algol from the inside out. As it turns out, Dark Force influenced them to evil, and somehow (this isn’t brought into exact detail) caused them to rot the Earth to the point of decay. This brought a lot of anger and frustration upon them and wanted to wreck Algol as a result. It sounds a bit hokey on the surface, but it brings up some interesting things as well. It proves that Dark Force was the force behind not only the first game but this one too, and implies that while Dark Force can influence others, it does not directly control them. The Earthmen chose to do evil because it existed in their hearts, and not simply because they were being forced to, which I think is an important and powerful distinction. I only wish the explanation behind the motivation of the Earthmen wasn’t so corny.
In the final climactic scene, the Earthmen and Rolf’s companions do battle with each other over the fate of Algol. Each of the party members gives one final, inspiring line of dialogue to the audience and then ends without actually showing what happened. It’s never actually stated what really happens in that final scene but I imagine Rolf’s party was victorious but couldn’t survive or make their way back home for whatever reason. As for what happens to Algol without Mother Brain’s protections? Well, that’s what Phantasy Star IV exists for. It’s a jarring ending, but I appropriate for the atmosphere the game has. The inclusion of the boss theme in the climactic cutscene at the end is an amazing addition to the energy of the scene.
(I mean seriously, tell me that’s not badass as fuck)
That brings me to the final part of this plot dissection by asking a question. “What is the overarching and dominant theme of Phantasy Star II?”. Now, someone may say “It’s just a video game, why go into such detail about the themes?” Well, that’s because I feel that PSII went to the effort to create them, so I’m going to go to the effort to dissect them. PSII doesn’t do it perfectly (I’d certainly have appreciated a lot more dialogue and character development from the rest of the party) but I still think how it handles this is leagues above not only most rpgs of it’s heyday, but games even today.
Phantasy Star I’s theme was about someone doing what was right in the face of adversity, despite enormous odds levied against themselves. I feel that’s definitely present in the sequel, but expanded upon moreso. Technology becomes a much bigger factor in the world of Phantasy Star II. Motavia is transformed from a desert planet to a green paradise, but at the cost of the citizens becoming lethargic with their newfound protection. This creates a man vs. technology theme that wasn’t present in the previous game, but not in the sense that nature is pure and technology is evil as one might expect. The planet Dezolis has barely any influence from Mother Brain but is still a very harsh wasteland, destroying that theory. Instead, I look at it like this, nature represents man at it’s basest: uncivilized but able to fight and protect for itself whereas technology represents a civilized man but has lost his way. Nei exists as a half-breed between these two, so that nature and technology can be bridged in harmony with one another. Unfortunately, events come up so that doesn’t come to fruition, but it’s a theory that takes further hold in Phantasy Star IV, and I feel Phantasy Star II planted those seeds. Nei’s death represents that man isn’t quite ready to find harmony between nature and technology. It’s essentially the whole “Apollonian vs Dionysian” argument all over again, with nature taking the Dionysian side and technology taking the side of Apollo, neither able to find harmony with one other. With that being said, I think the key theme of Phantasy Star II is a political one. Others may disagree with me, but I think Phantasy Star II is making a statement about the follies of Socialism. The world of Motavia, Mother Brain and how it all connects to each other gives the impression of the game as a whole being an allegory to Socialism. Mother Brain essentially controls all major functions of governement for Algol. She captured Rolf and his crew and sent them to die without a trial, gives food and sustenance to all citizens of Algol. There is no democratic voting process to it, Mother Brain decides everything. There’s no real way around it, I can’t possibly see Mother Brain as anything less than an allegory to Socialism itself. I find it interesting that a Japanese developer would make that kind of a statement and not a more western country in their stead.
Now, as I’ve rambled on for quite a lengthy period of time, what is there for me to say about Phantasy Star II in closing? It’s a beautifully frustrating game. The difficulty of it is insane to say the least and the dungeon design is enough to cause one to rip their hair out in frustration. It’s a beautiful game in that it introduced many concepts previously unheard of to rpgs such as a linear, epic plot. It brought concepts such as sci-fi directly into the jrpg genre defying the notion that every rpg needed to be stuck in a drab Middle-Ages setting, and dared to bring deeper themes and allegories into a video game. But actually getting to experience those points can be a frustrating and tedious affair due to its archaic design. In 1989, Phantasy Star II was an incredible masterpiece for to compare other rpgs to. Phantasy Star II set further standards for rpg sequels to have to live up to by continuing basic trends associated with the franchise while massively expanding on its scope and direction. In 2014, it’s an incredibly influential game that falls short due to its age, but it’s ambitious vision shouldn’t be denied because of that.
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