Phantasy Star IV: Just what a desert needs, more stone...
Hi there! It's been a while.
Long story short: Classes started (whereas I shopped 16 courses over two weeks X_x DETH), a surge of weekend travels, an amazingly horrific and wounding Hostfamily experience that caused me to move (An experience as a general trend, rather than a particular problem), and simply trying to catch up with homework I'd left behind, I left this fairly forgotten for about two months.
Oh, and Mother 3 appeared. THAT DID NOT HELP THINGS but the game is damn right awesome and YOU SHOULD DOWNLOAD THE PATCH AND PLAY IT IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY
MOTHER 3
With this post, I resized the images to 75% their original size and turned them to png's, so that way it's not so painful to scroll through and read, and hopefully they're not excessively small to make them a pain to view, plus bandwith shouldn't be such a pain now. IF PEOPLE HAVE ISSUES, PLEASE DO INFORM ME.
Anyways, quick refresher!
Alys and Chaz went to the town of Piata after being summoned by the Principal to take care of a monster outbreak in the basement. They went to fix this and found the source of the monsters, some bio-tubes that apparently were transported there after a research team excavated them from a place called Birth Valley.
Suddenly a man in black named Zio appeared and threatened the principal with a stone-person. Or I guess he was threatened with being turned into stone? Anyways, as a result, the Principal did not allow a rescue/investigation team to be sent to find out what happened to the research team, since they were never heard from again.
Hahn, a professor (I think?) at the Academy, is like WE MUST GO SAVE PROFESSOR HOLT AND THE RESEARCH TEAM and Alys, our master Hunter (Huntress?), demands pay for escorting him through the dangerous desert.
Old adventures are located here.
The overworld on Motavia goes by the music Field Motavia, a pleasant little ditty that never lasts too long because the monster encounter rate is fairly high in the game.
Fortunately, monsters tend to be fairly weak.
Three person party~ One thing I dislike is the no diagonal walking here, though it kinda looks like Alys is heading that way.
AFTER PLAYING MOTHER 3 I EXPECTED IT :<
Suddenly!
NEW ENEMIES The Monsterfly and Crawler are two of three new encounters in the overworld (at least for now), and they're fairly weak.
they shoot little laser-spit things. THE DAMAGE IS REALLY MEDIOCRE.
WOTS THIS
A CASTLE AND A CITY, DISTANCED BY QUICK SAND
Try walking one some time.
Anyways, Mile plays Motavian Village while you're in it, which is characteristic of the smaller towns you visit that don't have the same sort of development as Piata, or other legitimate cities on the planet.
...Ya know, the idea vaguely reminds me of the twin worm boss thing from Majora's Mask
AN ARMY OF THE DEAD IN MY POWER!
*ahem* sorry, had a moment there.
Because a city at the edge of a giant sand river REALLY NEEDS MONEY
o god a sandworm
They pop out and kind of wiggle to and fro
They're like pipes thurr
CHAZ CAN READ DURR HURR HURR
Concerned citizens just stand and wait for their demise
That might explain why half the town is kinda planty in this desert environment
Well, I don't think yer a Haruhi Suzumiya by any stretch...
Agreed >|
Since he can't do a practical trade I GUESS he can go to college
(God I hate this way of thinking IT'S HERE IN SPAIN TOO)
I'd like to think that as Alys peers inside, Chaz is telling her very sternly and explaining things :B
Ya know, with this, and with the fireless-fireplace, ya think maybe it might be 'cause it's in a desert?
WHERE IT'S HOT AND DRY?
Hey baby, wanna come into my birth valley??
And ask for a woman named Candy
Because during the day the surprise would be ruined
I thought there was just no sign of people WHAT'S THE TRUTH
And if it isn't FINISH THE JOB
Friggen lazy.. mrr..
This person's just standing outside with a broom, sweeping.
DAMN WIND
ALWAYS BLOWING >| YARRR
It seems really frivolous to sweep sand off, like, the grass.
Happy Happy-ism?
You mean like priests?
DUN DUN DUUUNNNN
Shouldn't tuition cover his mealplan?
So a reverse green thumb, hm?
Although you know, a lot of guys would be kinda happy with that gift
I DON'T NEED A CONDOM
EVERYTHING I TOUCH BECOMES BARREN AND INFERTILE
oh wait there's still AIDS huh
Anyways, check it out, a weapon store 8D
I don't think I linked to it before, so in shops, Now on Sale is the music that plays. IT'S REALLY KINDA CHEERY but Humoresque of a Little Dog I've always found more quirky.
One person sells weapons, the other armor. Pretty standard RPG stuffs.
Yea I just bought the things and kinda forgot to cap the item lists at first
I GOT A STEEL SWORD FOR CHAZ Even if it's only one attack, it's stronger and better than double-knives for him.
Plus it offers a defense boost.
Generally swords are the better deal for Chaz.
And Hahn gets Chaz's old Hunter Knives, replacing his old dagger and shield, because (at least for me), the best defense is a good offense, and dual-strikes are always more efficient at killing baddies.
I also bought two slashers for Alys. Effectively, these double her attack power by letting her hit every enemy twice, all at once.
The armor shop has things we already have so there's no need to go buying stuff.
Also I noticed that the shop menus list descriptions for the items!
Sand worm skin does not sound pleasant.
MY DEAR, WON'T YOU PLEASE WEAR THIS WORM SKIN ON YOUR HEAD
...Just for the forehead? Is it like a Bindi?
This just makes it sound tiny, like a fruit peeler.
I imagine this as a machete, kinda
O THAT'S WHAT U MEAN BY STEL
we found it lying there outside
IT COMES WITH INSTRUCTIONS
Actually Slashers were a cool weapon in PSO. The character would swing and then a little boomerang-like thing would come out in an arc and hit multiple enemies. But the range was crap and it was really weak for what it was when you got it.
They're more useful here.
Status check! Looking pretty decent.
You can tell it's rhetorical because her question ends in a PERIOD.
...I feel this is paradoxical?
But I'm reminded of the Inn-keeper girl from Majora's Mask again
Anyways I'm tired of this place LET'S GO EXPLORE
WILL WE BE EXPLORING THE CASTLE ACROSS THE QUICKSAND? Y/Y
But we need something to cross it first.
Hay another city
But I'm pretty sure I spent some time leveling up before entering
MINIWORMS!
These are the predecessors to sandworms, and it's actually kinda dangerous to leave one alone. You'll see why in a later episode.
They also tend to be pretty easy to defeat.
WHOO you'll notice Alys still hasn't leveled up considering she started so far ahead of the other two
Anyways I assume you don't wanna see so many battles and level ups so I'll limit it to when unique things happen.
DOUBLE SLASHER ATTACK
I love how it hits everything at once.
Apparently I missed the middle fellow oO
Oh, and a scenery change! The background of the battle changes based on where you are on the overworld, so I must've been near the water here.
That little feature goes back to the first Phantasy Star, however.
IT'S RIGHT THERE
But no I still have a desire to powerlevel by these mountains.
You can see the giant one eyed monster going in to kiss Hahn
I mean attack him
Anyways that's enough monster finding LET'S SEE WHAT'S IN THAT CITY
GASP
Wait, the town's neither destroyed and there are signs of people THOSE NPCs LIED TO ME
For this and other tragedies, the game plays Terrible Sight, which is sort of ominous like the cave music.
Let's investigate the nearby house, shall we?
Actually not really, the wall's just painted to LOOK like a bookshelf.
I mean-
Am I a nerd for kinda smiling about how the books we keep coming across seem to be academically oriented?
THEY MUST BE GUARDING SOMETHING
BUT WHAT
CHILDREN!
They can't hear you :3
WAS IT A PRIEST ZIO?
...Do these children live off ceramics?
Or did the parents feel the need to hide their fine china, too?
messy >|
..Wait, then, how are the kids still alive?
Were there once three of them and one got cannibalized?
NOO I WANT WEAPONZ
...I don't remember if we ever really find that out, actually.
Anyways at this point there's a cave thing you go into, but for some reason I left again to go fight monsters.
Okay self o_O
YEY SWAG
Broken bridges. A linear-making-plot device if I ever did see one.
wtf Alys you blind? >|
suddenly the swarm decides to hunt a virgin to sacrifice
Good scores from the judges this season
Though the Crawlers are less impressed
Oh, and here's what a tech looks like when you use it outside of battle.
YEY This is awesomely useful for like, a lot of the game.
SPLISH seriously the animation doesn't make it look so MSPaint-y in the game
CROSS-
CUT
yey religious symbolism
Anyways, right now Chaz can only use that skill once.
If memory serves, which each level up, he gains 1.. well, power point type thing towards each of the skills he then has.
So with some leveling, it becomes pretty essential for bossfight ass kicking
You also see the sword in action here. Come to think of it, I never used it with daggers, I wonder if the animation is different?
Back to Mile for some healingz
Your standard price-doubles-as-you-progress Inn system.
And if I forgot to mention it, the music that places in the Inn is called, well..
Inn.
So right where was I
THE CAVE
lol spelling
Also this isn't so much a valley as it is a cave, isn't it?
Then again a Birth Valley probably is more cavernous M I RITE?
AGH THESE GUYS AGAIN
But at this point Alys one hit kills nearly all of them at once, so it's ok :D
Ah, this is good
Poison-cure technique.
A CHEST!
I always have trouble imagining this set of armor
I mean, what do they mean by Carbon?
Are they like charcoal?
Are they strong like diamonds?
Or is it like, a bread shield?
Yea so both the mini ones die and the rest usually get taken down as long as Chaz and Hahn don't miss.
GENOCIIIIDE
This birth valley has stairs! :U
Deeper into the Birth Canal Valley our adventurers go
Yea, considering Hahn is so friggen weak, the Carbon suit goes straight to him to give him a nice defense boost.
Hey that's new :O
Flatterplants only appear in this dungeon too, which I find kinda weird, but ok
They still only die in about two hits at this point, though.
COULD THIS BE THE RESEARCH TEAM
YOUR SKIN IS SO ROUGH
YOU SHOULD USE MOISTURIZER
I forgot to mention before, but in this cutscene as well as the ones with the principal, and others which are generally suspicious-y, the Suspicion theme plays, which I feel is a very appropriate tune for such things.
I mean, medusa-like-curses were SOOOOO last century.
OLD REFERENCE
You actually fight the Medusa in PS1, because one of your party members, Odin, was gonna kill her with the help of a cat named Myau, but when he got petrified, Myau, being a cat, couldn't open the bottle of Alshline on his collar to cure him.
So, it's not until Alis comes with Myau that you un-petrify Odin, and get a new party member in the process. :D
And thus that was 1000 years (or was that 2000 years?) before this game
Statements like this that always make me wonder about Alys..
Hahn is pumped
He needs to save his stoned lover professor
Alys is such an opportunist
But that way, we're 500 meseta richer :D
Anyways the game plops you right at the cave entrance
GOODBYE STONY TOWN
ONTO MOLCUM
And what awaits our heroes there? You'll have to tune in next time! :D
ALTHOUGH, next time might be a while away, as here's how my weekends look for the rest of Spain-time:
Seville, Weekend of the 19th
Madrid, Weekend of the 28th
December:
Morocco, Weekend of the 4th-8th
Rome, Part-Week 14th-18th
It'll be busy but it'll be fun :D YAAAY
And I'll be back in California on the 20th. Ex-ce-llent. :D
And when I do get home, I have Animal Crossing and the new Tales of Symphonia waiting for me.
That, and I still need to beat Okami.
And get the rest of the stars in Super Mario Galaxy.
But Brawl's almost done :D I JUST NEED STICKERS AND 100 MAN BRAWL TO BE BEATEN WITH EVERYONE.
Yay!
Take care~
:)
Long story short: Classes started (whereas I shopped 16 courses over two weeks X_x DETH), a surge of weekend travels, an amazingly horrific and wounding Hostfamily experience that caused me to move (An experience as a general trend, rather than a particular problem), and simply trying to catch up with homework I'd left behind, I left this fairly forgotten for about two months.
Oh, and Mother 3 appeared. THAT DID NOT HELP THINGS but the game is damn right awesome and YOU SHOULD DOWNLOAD THE PATCH AND PLAY IT IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY
MOTHER 3
With this post, I resized the images to 75% their original size and turned them to png's, so that way it's not so painful to scroll through and read, and hopefully they're not excessively small to make them a pain to view, plus bandwith shouldn't be such a pain now. IF PEOPLE HAVE ISSUES, PLEASE DO INFORM ME.
Anyways, quick refresher!
Alys and Chaz went to the town of Piata after being summoned by the Principal to take care of a monster outbreak in the basement. They went to fix this and found the source of the monsters, some bio-tubes that apparently were transported there after a research team excavated them from a place called Birth Valley.
Suddenly a man in black named Zio appeared and threatened the principal with a stone-person. Or I guess he was threatened with being turned into stone? Anyways, as a result, the Principal did not allow a rescue/investigation team to be sent to find out what happened to the research team, since they were never heard from again.
Hahn, a professor (I think?) at the Academy, is like WE MUST GO SAVE PROFESSOR HOLT AND THE RESEARCH TEAM and Alys, our master Hunter (Huntress?), demands pay for escorting him through the dangerous desert.
Old adventures are located here.
The overworld on Motavia goes by the music Field Motavia, a pleasant little ditty that never lasts too long because the monster encounter rate is fairly high in the game.
Fortunately, monsters tend to be fairly weak.
Three person party~ One thing I dislike is the no diagonal walking here, though it kinda looks like Alys is heading that way.
AFTER PLAYING MOTHER 3 I EXPECTED IT :<
Suddenly!
NEW ENEMIES The Monsterfly and Crawler are two of three new encounters in the overworld (at least for now), and they're fairly weak.
they shoot little laser-spit things. THE DAMAGE IS REALLY MEDIOCRE.
WOTS THIS
A CASTLE AND A CITY, DISTANCED BY QUICK SAND
Try walking one some time.
Anyways, Mile plays Motavian Village while you're in it, which is characteristic of the smaller towns you visit that don't have the same sort of development as Piata, or other legitimate cities on the planet.
...Ya know, the idea vaguely reminds me of the twin worm boss thing from Majora's Mask
AN ARMY OF THE DEAD IN MY POWER!
*ahem* sorry, had a moment there.
Because a city at the edge of a giant sand river REALLY NEEDS MONEY
o god a sandworm
They pop out and kind of wiggle to and fro
They're like pipes thurr
CHAZ CAN READ DURR HURR HURR
Concerned citizens just stand and wait for their demise
That might explain why half the town is kinda planty in this desert environment
Well, I don't think yer a Haruhi Suzumiya by any stretch...
Agreed >|
Since he can't do a practical trade I GUESS he can go to college
(God I hate this way of thinking IT'S HERE IN SPAIN TOO)
I'd like to think that as Alys peers inside, Chaz is telling her very sternly and explaining things :B
Ya know, with this, and with the fireless-fireplace, ya think maybe it might be 'cause it's in a desert?
WHERE IT'S HOT AND DRY?
Hey baby, wanna come into my birth valley??
And ask for a woman named Candy
Because during the day the surprise would be ruined
I thought there was just no sign of people WHAT'S THE TRUTH
And if it isn't FINISH THE JOB
Friggen lazy.. mrr..
This person's just standing outside with a broom, sweeping.
DAMN WIND
ALWAYS BLOWING >| YARRR
It seems really frivolous to sweep sand off, like, the grass.
Happy Happy-ism?
You mean like priests?
DUN DUN DUUUNNNN
Shouldn't tuition cover his mealplan?
So a reverse green thumb, hm?
Although you know, a lot of guys would be kinda happy with that gift
I DON'T NEED A CONDOM
EVERYTHING I TOUCH BECOMES BARREN AND INFERTILE
oh wait there's still AIDS huh
Anyways, check it out, a weapon store 8D
I don't think I linked to it before, so in shops, Now on Sale is the music that plays. IT'S REALLY KINDA CHEERY but Humoresque of a Little Dog I've always found more quirky.
One person sells weapons, the other armor. Pretty standard RPG stuffs.
Yea I just bought the things and kinda forgot to cap the item lists at first
I GOT A STEEL SWORD FOR CHAZ Even if it's only one attack, it's stronger and better than double-knives for him.
Plus it offers a defense boost.
Generally swords are the better deal for Chaz.
And Hahn gets Chaz's old Hunter Knives, replacing his old dagger and shield, because (at least for me), the best defense is a good offense, and dual-strikes are always more efficient at killing baddies.
I also bought two slashers for Alys. Effectively, these double her attack power by letting her hit every enemy twice, all at once.
The armor shop has things we already have so there's no need to go buying stuff.
Also I noticed that the shop menus list descriptions for the items!
Sand worm skin does not sound pleasant.
MY DEAR, WON'T YOU PLEASE WEAR THIS WORM SKIN ON YOUR HEAD
...Just for the forehead? Is it like a Bindi?
This just makes it sound tiny, like a fruit peeler.
I imagine this as a machete, kinda
O THAT'S WHAT U MEAN BY STEL
we found it lying there outside
IT COMES WITH INSTRUCTIONS
Actually Slashers were a cool weapon in PSO. The character would swing and then a little boomerang-like thing would come out in an arc and hit multiple enemies. But the range was crap and it was really weak for what it was when you got it.
They're more useful here.
Status check! Looking pretty decent.
You can tell it's rhetorical because her question ends in a PERIOD.
...I feel this is paradoxical?
But I'm reminded of the Inn-keeper girl from Majora's Mask again
Anyways I'm tired of this place LET'S GO EXPLORE
WILL WE BE EXPLORING THE CASTLE ACROSS THE QUICKSAND? Y/Y
But we need something to cross it first.
Hay another city
But I'm pretty sure I spent some time leveling up before entering
MINIWORMS!
These are the predecessors to sandworms, and it's actually kinda dangerous to leave one alone. You'll see why in a later episode.
They also tend to be pretty easy to defeat.
WHOO you'll notice Alys still hasn't leveled up considering she started so far ahead of the other two
Anyways I assume you don't wanna see so many battles and level ups so I'll limit it to when unique things happen.
DOUBLE SLASHER ATTACK
I love how it hits everything at once.
Apparently I missed the middle fellow oO
Oh, and a scenery change! The background of the battle changes based on where you are on the overworld, so I must've been near the water here.
That little feature goes back to the first Phantasy Star, however.
IT'S RIGHT THERE
But no I still have a desire to powerlevel by these mountains.
You can see the giant one eyed monster going in to kiss Hahn
I mean attack him
Anyways that's enough monster finding LET'S SEE WHAT'S IN THAT CITY
GASP
Wait, the town's neither destroyed and there are signs of people THOSE NPCs LIED TO ME
For this and other tragedies, the game plays Terrible Sight, which is sort of ominous like the cave music.
Let's investigate the nearby house, shall we?
Actually not really, the wall's just painted to LOOK like a bookshelf.
I mean-
Am I a nerd for kinda smiling about how the books we keep coming across seem to be academically oriented?
THEY MUST BE GUARDING SOMETHING
BUT WHAT
CHILDREN!
They can't hear you :3
WAS IT A PRIEST ZIO?
...Do these children live off ceramics?
Or did the parents feel the need to hide their fine china, too?
messy >|
..Wait, then, how are the kids still alive?
Were there once three of them and one got cannibalized?
NOO I WANT WEAPONZ
...I don't remember if we ever really find that out, actually.
Anyways at this point there's a cave thing you go into, but for some reason I left again to go fight monsters.
Okay self o_O
YEY SWAG
Broken bridges. A linear-making-plot device if I ever did see one.
wtf Alys you blind? >|
suddenly the swarm decides to hunt a virgin to sacrifice
Good scores from the judges this season
Though the Crawlers are less impressed
Oh, and here's what a tech looks like when you use it outside of battle.
YEY This is awesomely useful for like, a lot of the game.
SPLISH seriously the animation doesn't make it look so MSPaint-y in the game
CROSS-
CUT
yey religious symbolism
Anyways, right now Chaz can only use that skill once.
If memory serves, which each level up, he gains 1.. well, power point type thing towards each of the skills he then has.
So with some leveling, it becomes pretty essential for bossfight ass kicking
You also see the sword in action here. Come to think of it, I never used it with daggers, I wonder if the animation is different?
Back to Mile for some healingz
Your standard price-doubles-as-you-progress Inn system.
And if I forgot to mention it, the music that places in the Inn is called, well..
Inn.
So right where was I
THE CAVE
lol spelling
Also this isn't so much a valley as it is a cave, isn't it?
Then again a Birth Valley probably is more cavernous M I RITE?
AGH THESE GUYS AGAIN
But at this point Alys one hit kills nearly all of them at once, so it's ok :D
Ah, this is good
Poison-cure technique.
A CHEST!
I always have trouble imagining this set of armor
I mean, what do they mean by Carbon?
Are they like charcoal?
Are they strong like diamonds?
Or is it like, a bread shield?
Yea so both the mini ones die and the rest usually get taken down as long as Chaz and Hahn don't miss.
GENOCIIIIDE
This birth valley has stairs! :U
Deeper into the Birth Canal Valley our adventurers go
Yea, considering Hahn is so friggen weak, the Carbon suit goes straight to him to give him a nice defense boost.
Hey that's new :O
Flatterplants only appear in this dungeon too, which I find kinda weird, but ok
They still only die in about two hits at this point, though.
COULD THIS BE THE RESEARCH TEAM
YOUR SKIN IS SO ROUGH
YOU SHOULD USE MOISTURIZER
I forgot to mention before, but in this cutscene as well as the ones with the principal, and others which are generally suspicious-y, the Suspicion theme plays, which I feel is a very appropriate tune for such things.
I mean, medusa-like-curses were SOOOOO last century.
OLD REFERENCE
You actually fight the Medusa in PS1, because one of your party members, Odin, was gonna kill her with the help of a cat named Myau, but when he got petrified, Myau, being a cat, couldn't open the bottle of Alshline on his collar to cure him.
So, it's not until Alis comes with Myau that you un-petrify Odin, and get a new party member in the process. :D
And thus that was 1000 years (or was that 2000 years?) before this game
Statements like this that always make me wonder about Alys..
Hahn is pumped
He needs to save his stoned lover professor
Alys is such an opportunist
But that way, we're 500 meseta richer :D
Anyways the game plops you right at the cave entrance
GOODBYE STONY TOWN
ONTO MOLCUM
And what awaits our heroes there? You'll have to tune in next time! :D
ALTHOUGH, next time might be a while away, as here's how my weekends look for the rest of Spain-time:
Seville, Weekend of the 19th
Madrid, Weekend of the 28th
December:
Morocco, Weekend of the 4th-8th
Rome, Part-Week 14th-18th
It'll be busy but it'll be fun :D YAAAY
And I'll be back in California on the 20th. Ex-ce-llent. :D
And when I do get home, I have Animal Crossing and the new Tales of Symphonia waiting for me.
That, and I still need to beat Okami.
And get the rest of the stars in Super Mario Galaxy.
But Brawl's almost done :D I JUST NEED STICKERS AND 100 MAN BRAWL TO BE BEATEN WITH EVERYONE.
Yay!
Take care~
:)