Phantasy Star III2K Released!

[Lysander86]

"PHANTASY STAR III2K - First Generation"<br> by Lysander86<p>[ Introduction ]<p>What is it about Phantasy Star III that evokes such loathing in people?<br>In any discussion about the series, you're likely to hear things like<br>"Oh, PS3? That was horrible!" and "That one's the black sheep of the series,<br>no question!" and "It doesn't even relate to the rest of them!"<p>It's my favorite, though, and was probably the game that most directly<br>shaped how I tell stories and think about games. There's just something<br>about Rhys's quest (and the quests of his kids) that resonates with me;<br>my purpose in remaking it for RM2K3 was to try and convey what it is that<br>I like about this sadly-underappreciated game.<p>Your results may vary - in the process, some of the details have changed.<br>I expanded on some things that I thought could benefit from being expanded on, and took some liberties with the story that will either have you cheering or cursing my name for straying too far from the source material. More of the former, I hope, but that's what makes the remake process so exciting: you never know what you're going to get. And if you don't like what you ended up getting, well, you'll always have the original PS3, and my version can't take that away.<p>I hope you like it! It's been a blast revisiting this old favorite. ^_^<p>[ Installation ]<br>You shouldn't need anything other than the files in this archive. I've<br>included all of the RTP files that the game looks for, so you should be<br>able to be up and running immediately! Hopefully. Let me know if you<br>have problems or are somehow missing resource files.<p>[ Difficulty Mode ]<p>Shortly after the game begins, you'll have to decide what Difficulty you<br>want to play on: Normal Mode or Hard Mode. Before you valiantly tackle<br>Hard Mode, you should know a few things.<p>I've attempted to balance PS32K in such a way that Normal Mode is a challenge. You'll need to play conservatively to get the best results, but everyone should be able to get through if they're cautious and careful about resting up and snagging good equipment and making smart decisions about skill use and acquisition. One thing to note is that even though you can Save your game anywhere you want on Normal Mode, you should keep multiple save files; you don't want to get yourself trapped too far from a town with no means of getting home. If you play intelligently, Normal Mode shouldn't be too tough.<p>Hard Mode is... another beast entirely.<p>On Hard Mode, most battles you get into will have more enemies. "Great!" you say, "More chances for XP and Meseta!" Think again: the extra enemies on Hard Mode give you 0 XP and 0 Meseta. Furthermore, sometimes the extra enemies have more attacks and techs available at their disposal, and boss fights in particular are much more difficult. Quests often have higher requirements on Hard Mode, and you have fewer chances to get Meseta. But probably the thing that will most directly affect your enjoyment of Hard Mode is this: you can only Save your game by examining Obsidian Carvings of Orakio... and you only find those in Orakian settlements. So every trip into a dungeon becomes an epic journey and test of courage, because if you die, it's all the way back to the town to try again.<p>If you're up to the challenge, you should give the Marines a call. I hear they<br>need people like you. ^_^<p>[ Closing Comments ]<p>I'm sure there will be some bugs that managed to creep past my testing, so if you find some, it would be great if you could post them on the nearest RM2K/3 message board - I'm between emails at the moment, but I tend to haunt most of those with some regularity. Chances are I'll release a v1.1 at some point with bugfixes and rebalancing (and maybe some recognition of people who manage to struggle all the way through Hard Mode). I'm also thinking of releasing a "Did You Know?" file in a couple weeks to point out some of the little details and puzzle solutions that people might miss on a trek through the game. <p>Enjoy PS32K! I've had a great time making it! Reviews and buglists are<br>always welcome! ^_^<p>Here's the link: http://www.rpgmaker.net/~lysander86/PS32KFirstGen.zip<p>Lys

[Benoit]

"The RPG Maker 2003 Runtime Package is not present or not registered."<p>EDIT: Miles McCloud's RPG Maker 2003 game runs fine, though. The difference is that he used an installer. Maybe that's the way you should do it, too.<p>[size=small][Edit by Benoit on [TIME]1114887300[/TIME]][/size]

[Lysander86]

Oopsie. I'll upload a fixed version, but you can cure your copy by opening up the RPG_RT.ini and adding this line:<p>FullPackageFlag=1<p>Let me know if that works!<p>EDIT: Okay, the version at the link up above now has that line correctly added to the RPG_RT.ini, so anyone downloading it from now on should be all set. I'm pretty sure that was what was causing the problem - I had imported all the RTP files it uses, but hadn't told it not to look for the RTP itself. %) <p>Lys<p>[size=small][Edit by Lysander86 on [TIME]1114892021[/TIME]][/size]

[Lysander86]

I've already had several bug reports come in about issues that need to be fixed - for instance a lot of the conditions are improperly set to be Weapon Attribute, so they are disabled. The v1.1 download will fix that, and it should be up sometime this evening.<p>Lys

[Benoit]

It works, but then it says "The file system2b cannot be opened.", and chrashes.<p>EDIT: I solved this by making a folder named "system2" and placing system2b.png (from another fangame) in it.<p>[size=small][Edit by Benoit on [TIME]1114900510[/TIME]][/size]

[Benoit]

I'm impressed, Lysander! You really seem to have put a lot of work into it!<p>Comments/criticism:<br>-You should consider using a different font. The default RPG Maker font isn't so good.<br>-I wonder why the monster moves to the left or right at the start of the battle.<p>Heh, I got killed. As hard as the original, that's for sure!

[halla]

Looking good so far... but man... wheres the 3 treasure boxes in the dungeon at the beginning? lol

[Mage1]

Hmm...<p>Should I say some secrets?<p>It's very obvious....I don't think they're secrets at all.

[halla]

anyone have the system2b.png... I put the one from the system folder and named it that and my battle is all messed up. I know what to do but it looks all messed up.

[Lysander86]

I've uploaded a new version (it's at the same link) which fixes a few minor problems and also a biggie: some Techs are improperly greyed out and therefore unusable, so it's worth a redownload.<p>I'm not sure why it's looking for system2b - I'll check it out.<p>EDIT: Now the version 1.1 file that's up there has a System2 folder with system2b.png in it, so that will hopefully fix it. I'm not sure why RM Tool didn't catch it, but I suspect that it's because System2 is an RM2K3-specific folder.<p>Hope you guys like it so far! <p>Lys<br><p>[size=small][Edit by Lysander86 on [TIME]1114924907[/TIME]][/size]

[halla]

The new one is looking for System3 now.

[Amwhere]

One word: Wow.<p>I don't want to know how many hours you put into this.

[Lysander86]

A few more bugfixes are on the way, probably in a few days - most of them are balance issues. Right now, you can't do damage to <Distant> enemies with <Near> weapons, which can be really frustrating if you aren't equipped for that - so I'll probably make it so you can do damage but it won't be as effective as the proper weapon. Also, it'll be easier to get Meseta - right now Meseta is in really short supply, and it makes it difficult to get by without tons of levelling up.<p>So that's what the future holds; also I want to fix the glitch that Mieu sometimes has with Inserting Cartridges during battle. You never really finish a game perfectly, huh? <p>EDIT: Amwhere, about a year - although the last month has really been the most time-intensive bit. <p>Lys<p>[size=small][Edit by Lysander86 on [TIME]1114935108[/TIME]][/size]

[Mage1]

I know what you changed...<p>It's at the beginning.<p>Note: I don't know if I should say any changes

[Benoit]

<blockquote><i>Originally posted by halla</i><p>The new one is looking for System3 now.<br></blockquote><br>Same here after downloading the newest version.