"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