Miscellaneous Tips

• You may not need to have 1000 meseta to buy the shortcake. Simply say yes, you want to buy one, and you may receive it regardless of your current meseta level.
• The Hydrofoil in PS4 is capable to travel over all sorts of terrain, but it's predecessor is capable of doing so as well. The Hovercraft in PS1 is capable of transversing lava, thus resulting in the party taking no damage! The hints that SOA gave out suggest that this can only be done once in the game, but this can be done with any body of lava.
• When you are able to buy the Wand for Noah, buy two instead of one. If you are ever in a battle which you cannot win and doubt you can run away from, use the Wand; it will cast "Bye". If it's not a boss battle, and you're not up against a wall you should escape. For safety's sake, use this every time.
• You encounter Medusa's Tower a long time before you actually go to fight Medusa. If you can survive the battle to the top of the tower you will be stoned by Medusa, but there IS a way to beat her when you first encounter the tower. First off, make certain that Mayu has learned "Exit", (this is some time before you get the Flute). Now, save when you enter Medusa's chamber, and then enter into battle with her. Cast "Rope" every round and pound Medusa as hard as possible. If you manage to hit her with "Rope" before she can stone you, you will survive to the end; the only thing you have to worry about is Alis bottoming out in her MP, so spend some time leveling about before attempting this. You will now obtain the Laconian Axe, a LONG time before you're supposed to. Everything is downhill from here.
• The Laser Shield is light enough to allow Noah to use it. There is a rumor that some games will not allow Noah to equip it, but I have yet to see any proof of this. [Note: This is not an academic point, the Laser Shield almost DOUBLES Noah's defense value]
• Myau's "Wall" spell is one of the most useful in the game. Try using it when encountering extremely tought enemies and bosses. It's a godsend during the Dr. Mad battle. It's useless against Lassic and Dark Falz. "Wall" is, of course, the predecssor of Deban.
• Sega of America's strategies for defeatning Lassic and Dark Falz are bull. This strategy works far better:
  • Alis - Use "Fire". ("Help" doesn't help)
  • Myau - Cast "Help" to Odin first round, then Cure until the fight's over.
  • Odin - Once he is "Help"ed, he will be able to hurt Lassic/Dark Falz with the Laconian Axe. This is FAR more damage than the Laser Gun could ever do.
  • Noah - "Thunder". Despite what SOA and others have claimed, "Wind" does NOT do more damage (all considered) than Thunder. There is an old party line about this depleting Noah's MP, but the point is to wipe out Lassic and Dark Falz as fast as possible, and this is the "Down and dirty" way of doing it.

A few of these tricks were culled from the old Prodigy Phantasy Star Club archives. The following people deserve credit: Chris Schumacher, Shelby Hepner, Shirl Sazynski, Will Knapp, John Jensen, Brad Brownbill.

Addendum / Counterpoint:

 
• About that DF battle: First, it says that casting "Help" on Odin and then having him attack with the Laconian Axe is the more effective attack method.  While Odin *can* inflict more than 20 points of damage with the Axe, he will usually inflict considerably less (figuring by his performance against Lassic and other creatures of high defensive power), making the Laser Gun more efficient.  DF has 510 HP, BTW.  255 + 255 in two semi-separate HP meters.  
• It's also said that Wind does not do more damage than Thunder against one enemy.  This is not true.  While Thunder *can* inflict up to 40, it can also inflict a measly 15.  Wind, on the other hand, will inflict around 30 points of damage all the time.  Figuring that the average damage per round with a wind spell is 30, and the average with Thunder is (40+15)/2 = 27.5, it's clear that Wind is more effective.