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thepermanentrainpress · 2 years

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GLASWEGIANS: QUATERNARY

quaternary – glaswegians Release Date: March 11th, 2022

Track Listing:

1. pavilion 2. motavia 3. handedness 4. zugzwang

glaswegians is the solo instrumental project of Michael Elder, based out of Vancouver. quaternary was written over several years from 2017-2020, and mostly recorded from his home during the pandemic. This is a follow-up release to 2017’s severance, which also featured lengthy tracks.

Despite being only four tracks, this album is a hefty hour and two minutes long. By nature, it is not necessarily an easy listen. There are no lyrics or vocals to be found, and there are literally dozens of instruments used to create an entire symphony. Throughout there are all sorts of complex, varied time signatures – entire songs hidden within each section.

Almost fifty(!) instruments were used in the final recording, ranging from electric guitar, piano and drums, to orchestral sounds like the cello and harpsichord, to the more obscure euphonium, omnichord, and Akai EWI 5000. I’m mind blown that all of them were played by one person – Michael himself. Aside from additional drum production by Jordan Elder and mastering by Angel Marcloid, this entire album was a solo endeavor. glaswegians is a project that could easily be the work of twenty people, all done by a single individual.

“pavilion” is a light track with a heavy psychedelic sound. It’s very cheerful all around; I could see it being played by Electric Light Orchestra, especially the ending. Sections of it sounded like Rush or Pink Floyd – indeed, the primary influence for this EP was 70s prog artists like Mike Oldfield, King Crimson, and Camel. There’s a rising sound throughout; it takes a while to get to the climax, but when it hits, it leaves an impression of the sheer magnitude that is to come.

“motavia” is still quite upbeat, though not as much as the previous song. The middle features a lot of minimalist, slow piano work. It would not be out of place in a classical music hall. Some of it even sounds like a lullaby, something soothing to drift off to. I felt relaxed and inspired after finishing it. "motavia” is a song to get oneself focused; a mood lifter during hard times. It would also fit right in with many video games, grinding another level or finishing that quest.

“handedness” has an old-timey feel. I could see some of this being played in an old Disney film, or scoring a quirky black and white French film. Despite the old-fashioned angle, it has a timeless, universal approach. Later parts could be used in a sample or riff for a totally different genre as rap or EDM beats. The ending is in contrast to the middle: almost maximalist with a powerful, booming finish. Truly an epic conclusion, like something you’d hear as the final notes at a concert.

We close with the most cosmic and strange of the tracks. “zugzwang” is extremely fast for most of its runtime. It really feels like listening to a jazz band jam – so many moments that make this being the work of one person remarkable. There’s a lot of passion and funk present, particularly in the last five minutes. One could be forgiven for feeling as if they’re in some kind of sci-fi movie, flying across space with Sun Ra.

Having listened to this album several times, I was able to find new things to enjoy every run through. There’s so much going on; the ambience and sheer craft means you’ll love listening to it twice, thrice, or ten times. I can’t say I listen to hour-long symphonic instrumentals on a regular basis, but quaternary helped me appreciate the stylistic approach. It’s an awe-inspiring, ambitious EP clearly made with love and care. It took several years to create, but the end results are well worth it.

Written by: Cazzy Lewchuk

quaternary by glaswegians

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superreader30 · 2 years

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#Termi #SegaGenesisRoms #AlysBrangwin #1994 #Gryz #TheEndOfTheMillennium #Motavia #SegaGenesis #HahnMahlay #Zio #ZiosFort #Dezolis #Mile #KyraTierney #GrandfatherDorin #Demi #Lashiec #ProfoundDarkness #PhantasyStarIV #Aiedo #Uzo #Rika #1990s #ChazAshley #DarkForce #Kadary #Tonoe #Wren #90sKids #Zema https://www.instagram.com/p/Cef3Ft1LUr8Xe4KHMeJkr9OD2Mn5y6T0UZpezE0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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dark-falz · 1 year

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Actually. Another thing I thought of would be doing a stream while gathering information, especially when it comes to Phantasy Star lore.

I know a good handful of PSO lore and little of others, but what I have for the original series is what’s in wiki’s and what I can find from people talking about in various forums from 2008.

I’ve been able to track a good few correspondences such as the rule of 3.

Motavia - MUUT - Red - Forest - Foie

Dezoris - DITTS - Blue - Caves - Barta

Palma - POUMN - Green - Mines - Zonde

With the “Heart of Poumn” description in PSO we know this is Alis Landale’s weapon from the original game, signifying POUMN represents Palma.

Rico translates of the MUUT DITTS POUMN pillars, “Light makes darkness, a pair exists, but it doesn’t always exist. Reincarnation goes forever. the rule is here. It should be sealed. MUUT DITTS POUMN”

So 2 things here... 1. I believe the light/darkness this mentions could be referring to Rykros 2. In Legend of Zelda what do they do when they can’t beat Ganon even tho u always beat Ganon. Yeah he gets sealed.

That whole inscription Rico translated, is likely the seal itself, with MUUT DITTS POUMN being the magic words for the sources of power. And in my head, it sounds like “lets take the profound darkness and just push it somewhere else” as this would confirm the ruins are indeed a spaceship from the Algol Star System of the original series used to seal Dark Falz and get it the fuck out.

There is also Dr. Osto who’s a whole individual and I’m pretty sure he’s a low-key evil magician, however I feel as though I can’t get enough information on him. I’m aware of the Mother Project and Delta and how Olga, Calus, and Vol Opt are born of her and that whole thing but I’VE NEVER SEEN DELTA AND I DON’T THINK I’VE SEEN CALUS AND IT BOTHERS ME BUT I DON’T WANNA DO THE BULLSHIT and it’d be nice to have others to talk to about that stuff u feel. I honestly have a small handful of info on him, but don’t even know where to get started with that so I’ll leave him out for now.

Lastly, from what I’ve deducted of all this is the Algolian Seal (Photon Blast/Title Screen) seems to be an interpretation of a hexagram seal. (I’ll show a diagram at some point) Note the Algolian Seal’s presence during the time of Pioneer 2 connecting with the Central Dome, and when the explosion occurred. In the ruins, Rico mentions in a log “What is this big hole? It looks like...remnants of some type of energy explosion...energy..?” Dr. Montague mentions weapons are made from “Compressed Photon Energy” and goes onto mention that the Photon Energy drawn from the creatures underground are of a “different Photon Energy”.

Ugh basically what I’m about to say is the “Why’s” or “What’s” regarding the explosion are...a lot but it guess it could be chopped up to “corruption somewhere on ragol” - error from input due to corruption of falz - energy excited Falz - Dr. Osto fucking with shit OR - Use of MUUT DITTS POUMN in the Algolian Seal.

or all of it.

But however there is also the consideration of possession we need to consider which happens in “From the Depths” along with hallucinations. Those who are possessed speak for falz about “evolving themself”. This is also relevant with Dr. Osto and his projects, but again. Not enough info. I also find it interesting that Rico at the start of the game mentions when going off to investigate the explosion, “I feel like I’m being invited”.

Back to the seal, there are 2 parts of this that move separately. Those are the 3 circles where the planets Palma, Motavia, and Dezoris are symbolized, and the outer ring of text before the middle most circle, “I wish it at an alliance from several years ago.” I can only imagine this phrase came from specifically making this seal for Pioneer 1 and 2, as its the only “alliance from several years” I can think of to take place in the timeline with several meaning 7, the amount of years it took for pioneer 2 to reach Ragol, if that is correct. Anyway, I believe this is an invocation chant, along with the planets being part of the sources of power. Now the inner ring of text which moves with the Photon Blast names reads “Please protect us be virtue of you’re the Great Light Power” Great Light Power is referring to a divine holy being. On outer most rings of Magic Circles (where the Photon Blasts are) this is where divine are used to indicate times, as there is a divine being for every day, time, hour, etc. The Photon Blast’s appear to be used as indicators of lesser divine beings than that of the main “Great Light Power” (in simplest terms, angels to the god) This leaves me to believe the middle circle of the seal represents Rykros, as stated in the spaceship pillars that sealed Falz “Light makes darkness. A pair exists, but it doesn’t always exist.” ...so...I guess...if the people of the Algol Star system used the Great Light Power to seal the Profound Darkness (as the symbol on the pillars of PSO is the same as the one on for example Nei’s chest or a few other Original Phantasy Star characters) AND the planets Palma, Motavia, and Dezoris....this is what could have further weakened the seal, through correspondence, and caused the explosion.

Anyway still trying to understand the zodiacs on Dark Falz’s arena.

If anyone has any further information about any of this please share! I’d love to learn more about this.

#guys its a big text post #pso lore #pso magic #o ya and my dog ate my webcam so #ik i might blab too much about one thing and be lazy about wording another so like #if anything is weird i'll try to clarify #i think i know what i'm talking about lmao #i think #magic #lore

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echosaefir · 10 months

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On that note tho, LET ME TALK ABOUT MY AWESOME NEW AVI, which is only a part of a larger art piece created by the amazing @boutsoftheblind!!!! I hadn’t really introduced her much yet over here, but the art is of my PSO2 OC, Thelyss Saefir. I have a lot of writing to do about her in the future, which I may or may not do here, but for now let me just share the art and a small description of who Thelyss is.

Thelyss is a member of the treasured clan of the Saefir family, Defenders of her home planet of Motavia. She was always unhappy just sticking to defending her own planet, so she decided to join ARKS to try and become something bigger than what she could be in Motavia. Along the way, she lost the meaning of defending that she had learned about back home. She focused too much on the academics of it and optimizing her results, on becoming “The Best” at defeating Dark Falz, without thinking about the human aspect of it. A chance encounter with an older ARKS during her first mission on Naverius would remind her of this, and while tragedy struck leaving her first friend as nothing but a bunch of Photons floating through the sky, She took the cane/rifle that belonged to them and vowed to become the kindest ARKS ever instead.

Thelyss went through many adventures with her Oracle pals. But one day something strange happened. She woke up inside a capsule at a cliff on a seaside, awoken by two girls, named Aina and Mannon. Thelyss learned that it had been over a thousand years and she was now in a planet called Halpha, the current base of operations for ARKS. She didn’t know how she ended up here. But she was determined to not lose herself, and to continue her mission of kindness, particularly with her new friends.

A few facts about her:

She wears a warm outfit most of the time because Motavia is a very warm planet, and she has never quite gotten used to the temperature in even barely colder parts of the universe

She does however tend to use lighter clothing in warmer areas, and really enjoys the style of clothing used in Retem

While she is very peppy and tries to keep a positive outlook a lot of the time, she does have a quick fuse and can quickly get angry if things don’t go her way.

She’s a huge fan of Quna and believes that, if she wasn’t a member of ARKS, she’d have become a pop star too.

Despite this, she actually has never had formal vocal training of any kind and refuses to sing in front of others.

She once created a huge commotion in the Oracle casino over losing a year’s worth of savings at the Rappy Slots. Which resulted in her having to pay off three broken machines with a month’s work as a casino attendant.

#pso2 #pso2ngs #phantasy star online 2 #comission #original character #Phantasy Star #pso2 art

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kosmicpowers · 1 month

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youtube

Usually the songs in Phantasy Star games are amazing, but this is one of my favorite tracks. Because it doesn't fit the area at all! Ah yes the best theme for a struggling town closing themselves off after the next biggest settlement of their people was wiped out due to genocide, in the dry mutant and cultist infested hell scape of Motavia. Causing residents to become hostile and racist towards outsiders.

...I'm sure you noticed the repeated barking. There is not a single dog in this area. No mention of dogs. I don't know why it is there.

#Phantasy Star #phantasy star 4 #sega #video game ost #sega genesis #phantasy star: end of the millennium #Youtube

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goku20193 · 2 years

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#Motavia #PhantasyStarIV #Lashiec #ChazAshley #Rykros #1994 #Rika #90sVideoGames #HahnMahlay #Demi #Piata #Zio #SegaGenesisRoms #1990s #TheEndOfTheMillennium #Raja #AlysBrangwin #Wren #Zema #SegaGenesis #Dezolis #Gryz #Tonoe #RuneWalsh #KyraTierney #PhantasyStarSeries #DarkForce #Aiedo https://www.instagram.com/p/CZRRXhWr3ONoDo2B2NxcXomYxvrBPAFt_bekZo0/?utm_medium=tumblr

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superman-2050 · 3 years

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#Gryz #1994 #Lashiec #Motavia #ChazAshley #SegaGenesis #1990s #AlysBrangwin #KyraTierney #Piata #DarkForce #TheEndOfTheMillennium #RuneWalsh #Rika #PhantasyStarSeries #Zema #SegaGenesisRoms #HahnMahlay #Wren #Tonoe #Demi #Rykros #Zio #PhantasyStarIV #90sVideoGames #Dezolis #Raja https://www.instagram.com/p/CVXh4C8FQTZE0HNeHrVlgKZCIu0sJzrd7gig4A0/?utm_medium=tumblr

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nightmaze · 6 years

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~ Five of Sword - Niefirst Motavia ~

Patreon reward for @ithums, thanks again for your patronage ♥ !

Commissions are currently between -10% and -15% ! ♥ Likes & Reblogs are highly appreciated ♥ My Edits | My Patreon | Commission Me | Waiting List | I also Love Coffee ♥ !

#Nightmaze Edit #Leveplate #FF14 #FFXIV #Patreon Reward #Niefirst Motavia

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hardcore-gaming-101 · 3 years

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Hoshi wo Sagashite

This article is part of our Japanese Obscurities feature. We put out a whole book about them, which is available as both a full color hardcover and a Kindle ebook from Amazon! If you’d like to see more of these features, please check out the book and if you enjoyed it, leave a five star review so we can do a follow up with even more interesting, offbeat, or historically important Japanese games!

As one of the few Master System/Mark III titles exclusive to Japan, Hoshi wo Sagashite is something of an oddity. It’s one of the few adventure games on a console that often tried to appeal to consumers with action games and platformers, and its concise design makes for a brief game. Instead, it’s a game about immersing yourself in a colorful sci-fi world designed by the legendary Rieko Kodama, resulting in a memorable experience. The text-heavy, difficult to market nature of the game likely resulted in its lack of localization overseas, but an English fan translation is available. The fan translation changes the name of the game to “Story of Mio”, which is more indicative of the game’s content than the translation of the original title, “Searching for the Stars”. It’s also worth noting that the events of Hoshi wo Sagashite take place in the same solar system as Phantasy Star, since tours to planets like Motavia and Palma are advertised at the airports you visit.

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neokad · 3 years

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Phantasy Star II - The 1989 JRPG that could

(This post is dedicated to @kuukigajan, my best friend, whom motivated me to post here again, so... I hope you'll enjoy this!)

This game. This freaking game.

I'm gonna say it right now: this post will contain massive spoilers about pretty much everything in Phantasy Star 2's story, so if you do plan on experiencing this game fresh, I strongly advise you to not read this post at all beyond the first paragraph, but... here's the gist of it: Phantasy Star II is one of the most important and groundbreaking JRPGs of its time, and I just did not believe this game was from 1989, at ALL. For that and a few other reasons, it has become one of my new favourite games of all time <3

In fact, I do want to start with the one big flaw of this adventure so that I can just gush about everything else that's brilliant about PSII. I have to be honest: the dungeon design in this game is horrible. Now to be fair, it does make the many places you visit more memorable, but well... there's a rumor floating around that an actual trainee made the layouts for the dungeons - and since this game was a bit rushed for the Genesis's launch, the devs just didn't have time to replace the... stuff he submitted. And let me tell you, this rumor makes sense: PSII's dungeons are too big, too maze-like, too confusing and also FILLED with strong enemies. And in a game where you don't get a way to save anywhere until the midway point, it can make your adventure very frustrating and potentially grindy because of that... Now I wouldn't say that PSII's nearly as bad in this area as say, the original version of Dragon Warrior or ironically the first Phantasy Star, but the dungeons can totally make you feel like the game's harder than it actually is, at least without a map.

Thankfully, you should never feel bad for using any maps or guides with this game! The execs at SEGA at the time made the very smart decision to include a walkthrough with each copy of the game, including maps, tips, secrets and more! Said guide does encourage youto not look at it as much as possible but... it's totally fair to just use this, without any shame!

And that is a great thing, because... with you armed with this piece of paper, Phantasy Star II can finally show you its actual brilliance.

The game's plot starts off a thousand years after the events of the first Phantasy Star game. Since Alis and her party defeated Dark Force, the inhabitants of the Algol solar system - and its three planets of Palma, Motavia and Dezolis - have enjoyed relative peace. However, at a (to my knowledge) unknown point in time, a computer entity known as Mother Brain has started imposing itself onto mostly Motavia. This, over time, has actually given many benefits to the region: the once deserted wasteland was given rain, water and crops, so that it could finally host viable, comfortable civilizations. The citizens that lived here could finally ditch their (arguably) nomadic, harsh lives in favor of comfort, pleasant weather and more. And most importantly, Mother Brain allowed its citizens, save for a few, to ditch their current jobs and live a life of laziness, without any obligations or pressure to do anything other than well, existence. This is reflected many times during the game through NPC dialogue, too!

It is on such a setting that our protagonist, Rolf, wakes up from a strange nightmare. In it, we see Alis batting Dark Force and struggling in doing so, but as soon as he realizes this, Rolf wakes up in cold sweat. He then proceeds to calm his nerves, realizing that no such dramatic events could possible happen to him - after all, he and many others have been under the universal protection and care of Mother Brain, whom at this point, has provided all of their needs for centuries. He then gets out of bed and goes to the central tower, where we works as an agent in case some things do go wrong.

And gone wrong things have! His superior informs him that biological monsters, which had been created and bred in the Mota biosystems laboratory, have gone rogue and infected the regions of Motavia at a rapid rate. Because of this, Rolf is asked to investigate the cause of this phenomenon. Once he gets home to prepare for his journey, he is ambushed by best girl Nei, who has been rescued by him many months ago from the clutches of a serial killer. She does not want to be left alone anymore, and since she is also worried for Rolf's sefety, asks him to accompany him on the mission. Naturally, Rolf accepts.

Here, I do want to bring up Nei in more detail! She's in fact, the first of PSII's brilliant story-gameplay interactions, and here's why! Nei is in fact, a crossbreed experiment between a human and an unknown animal with cat-like features, but here's the thing: this said experiment was a failure. Because of this, Nei is only one years old, and yet her physical and mental age are progressing way more rapidly than they should. And you can feel this effect on the game itself: she needs way less EXP than any other party member in the game to level up, and because of this she will skyrocket in levels way beyond the rest of your crew... with a catch. Because of the nature of the experiment, the genetic code inside of her is slowly being messed up and corrupted, which not only causes her level ups to be less valuable than anyone else's, but it also becomes an important plot point later... Unfortunately, despite her absolute cuteness, her status as a half-half made her a victim of bullying, racism and so much more, which is... pretty messed up to bring up at the time not gonna lie o_o

Starting up the journey, the party discovers that rogues have destroyed a neighboring city, and it just so happens that their base is situed at Shure, the first dungeon of the game . One assumption I like to make from this scene is that life has become so easy and careless on Motavia that people just went and did crime out of pure boredom, because life just wasn't thrilling enough anymore with Mother Brain doing everything it could for its inhabitants...

However, upon climbing said tower, Rolf and Nei find out multiple dead rogue bodies, whom have been presumably murdered by the many biomonsters roaming the place. They do, however, manage to find some dynamite and most importantly, a letter. This piece of paper informs our heroes that the daughter of a Darum, the very same person that tried to murder Nei months ago, is held captive in another tower, which explains why he turned to crime in the first place. They then decide to do the obvious, which is to rescue daughter Teim in her captivity location. Once they meet up with her, she explains her desire to talk to her father to set things straight and sway him from the life he's been getting into, as well as hide her from the surviving rogue members with the help of a veil. Our group manages to meet up with Darum, but... her daughter asks the party to stay put, as she does not want them to interfere with her as she explains things to her father. However, in the heat of the moment, she forgets to remove her veil, which causes Darum to not recognize her. In his confusion, he murders her own flesh and blood and sits there, stunned, as he watches the reason he caused many untold atrocities... wither away below him. Shocked and going insane by this situation, he sees no other way out... but to commit suicide with the help of a bomb.

It gets worse.

While this scene was tragic and brutal to say the least, it does allow Rolf to cross the previously guarded bridge where Darum was always located, which allows him to investigate his mission further.

I do want to make a sidenote here actually! Phantasy Star II does include eight playable characters, but unlike Rolf and Nei they do not join you at fixed intervals - instead, they will become available in your home town of Paseo once conditions are met. Sadly while they do have a recruitment quote, a few lines and a backstory, they do not have an impact on the main story in any way. This does blow as this means PSII does not have much in character development and interaction, but I did want to mention that there’s more to this game than just Rolf and Nei :P

Upon exploring the regions of Motavia, the party manages to make its way to the Biosystems lab, and what they find here is horrifying to say the least. The lab is in horrible shape, with cracked floors everywhere. On top of that, there is no one inside the lab anymore, it being completely deserted, save for some horrible-looking creatures being kept insides tubes, decorating the now sinister looking building... Because of this, Rolf deems it safe to pick up the recorder inside the lab, to analyze it and try to find out just what exactly went wrong - if anything at all - to hopefully figure out why the world has been sacked by biomonsters. And sure enough, the gang make its way back to Paseo. After handing over the recorder to the library located in Paseo’s Central Tower, it is now made clear: the biomonsters were caused by a large amount of energy used in a very short amount of time in those labs, causing them to mutate extremely rapidly. This had the predictable but unfortunate effect of ruining the natural order of the ecosystem, which is why these species are wrecking havoc without control. The librarian giving this information also makes the following connection: this outpour of energy must have come from Climatrol - another lab which regulates the weather of the terraformed planet so that it can sustain its new shape. Following this, Rolf and co. take a few steps to reach Climatrol - and I want to highlight a specific one!

The story somewhat pauses until then, but one of the dungeons you’ll go through is a garbage dump... and one of the treasures is a jet scooter you can use! Sounds cool, right? Well it is, but even such a cool object has been abandoned by the lazy society, since teleportation is much more convenient to them. I just thought it was a really neat detail, that’s all ^_^

Once making their way through the relatively normal Climatrol, something does wait for them at the top of the building... something... unsettling...

This is Neifirst. She was another failed experiment just like Nei, sharing the same biological data as her. However, unlike her sister, her creators tried to kill her on the spot due to her status. This made her enraged against the species that gave her life, and as an act of revenge, decided to unleash this bio catastrophy to slowly wipe us out. This is where another truth is revealed: Nei did not come with Rolf just to protect him, she actually wanted to put a stop to her sister, because while she did dislike being treated like a freak or a monster, she never wanted to hate her species as a whole... It remains that she still wants to stop her sister’s plans, and despite Rolf’s protests, the two engages in a fight. However, due to Neifirst being much stronger, Nei sustains heavy damage and is incapacitated. But, this is where the rest of the party comes in, and thus they finish the job and kill off Neifirst dead in her tracks, Rolf then quickly rushes in to his dear friend’s side, but as he does... it’s too late... Nei is dead.

This is yet another reason why Phantasy Star II is such an important game: it is, to my knowledge, the very first JRPG in which a major playable character dies permanently. Heck, Rolf even tries to bring her back through the local Clone Lab - because yes, citizens have access to eternal life by cloning their bodies until the end of time - but... since Nei’s genetic code was degenerating rapidly, they could not clone her body anymore. And, since Neifirst was also defeated, it is also impossible to get a fresh code back from anywhere in the world. Nei is dead. And you cannot do anything about it.

But don’t worry! It still gets worse!

But just as you’re about to find a way to fix this, it turns out that Climatrol has collapsed, which caused an immense flood all over the world. Since the government - and by extension, Mother Brain - isn’t happy about this, you are now considered a fugitive, a criminal. You are now the bad guy, and you are wanted for treason. 1989, anyone??

This is where the second brilliant story-gameplay integration of Phantasy Star II happens. Where until now you’ve only fought mutated monsters due to the outbreak, the government has now sent thousands of carious cyborgs and robots against you - and lo and behold, this is now the only thing you are fighting in both the overworld and dungeons, and the previous creatures are now nowhere to be seen. THAT’S REALLY SMART. Now sure, even if you are considered evil to many, you still task yourself with the task of unflooding the planet, and to do so you simply reactivate all four colored dams in the continent. However, upon reactivating the fourth one, your party is suddenly ambushed by a trio of robots sent by the cops, and this time? They succeed in capturing you. Your party is now sent in chains on a hovering satellite, as you are sentenced to slowly wither away and die in there without any trial of any sort, simply because you went against Mother Brain’s dear wishes...

But, something goes amiss. The sattelite starts to malfunction, and is now set to crash on one of the three planets of the Algol system. And despite you all trying to alter its course, it is too late. The satellite crashes onto Palma - the planet of the first Phantasy Star game - and it is gone.

That’s right! The planet in which many players took the time to save with Alis’s gang, to have a huge dungeon crawling adventure, the planet where you defeated Lassic in a glorious fashion. GONE. In only a few seconds. But... what about yourself? Well, you actually died! But a space pirate wandering close to the crash site pulled out your remains and cloned everyone’s body back to life... which makes you technically not yourself, and also dead, for the remainder of the game! ...May I remind you this game was developed in 1989?

Tyler the space pirate then escorts the zombie party back to Paseo, but not for long - you see, your commander, who hasn’t truly approved of Mother Brain’s actions against your group, allows you access to a spaceship. This is a big deal, because space travel as a whole has been banned ten years ago due to a major accident in which Rolf had lost his parents, and thus, the one stationed in Paseo is the last one remaining on the planet. But sure enough, Rolf takes the opportunity and travels to the ice planet of Dezolis, or Dezo.

And honestly? Even though this next part has nothing to do with the main story, it’s probably one of my favourites in the entire game. In this section, you simply must make your way through an abandoned space station, which has not seen use in years. At first, you’d think it was somewhat related to the spaceship incident, but as you explore this space station, you find a bunch of animals and newspapers lying around. You not only find some irrelevant ads about various products, but also news flash about a horrible gas spreading throughout the station, begging every inhabitant to evacuate immediately, which... definitively implies a very bleak fate to the place and its inhabitants o_o

And on top of this unsettling setting, this is the first time you get to hear “Silent Zone”, my favourite track in the game. While the rest of the soundtrack is very upbeat, catchy and all around excellent, this track in particular is very... sad, desolate, lonely, in spite of it being just as catchy! It all combines for a brilliant example of “show, don’t tell” that really sets the mood perfectly to me <3

Either way, upon exploring more of Dezo - a frigid wasteland with few inhabitants - the party gets to meet up with Noah, a party member from Phantasy Star I! After reawakening from a cryogenic sleep, he then reveals that unlike Paseo and Motavia, Dezo basically never submitted with Mother Brain’s control and benefits simply because they did not want to live a life without any struggles. Unfortunately, this is also where you learn that Paseo came to terms with this *after* being to MB’s whims and as such, you can connect the dots and realize that the satellite crash was no accident after all... it was all planned.

Noah, however, knows about how deeply MB has ruined everything for the inhabitants of Motavia and thus tasks Rolf with collecting eight legendary ancient weapons all throughout Dezo, located within some ruinous, empty, cold dungeons which make for stunning atmosphere and presence, believe me!

Once that’s done, he then entrusts Rolf with the ultimate Sword and, thanks to kinetic abilities, sends him and his troupe to the space station housing Mother Brain. And once there, for the first time in centuries, a human being has met with Mother Brain.

And of course, the computer scoffs at those rebelling against her. She laughs at how they think they’d want a life with struggles, wtihout comfort, without anyone providing their needs, when work and hardship seems so uninviting on a desert wasteland like Motavia, or a frigid hell like Dezo. And yet, after a (pretty difficult!) battle, you emerge victorious! Or do you?

After the victorious outcome, Noah senses some additional presences beyond Mother Brain’s spot, and urges the party to investigate. And then... I don’t think I’ll even explain it in words. Please watch what happens. It is disturbing.

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Yeah. We, the humans, were destroying our planet, Earth. Thus, we escaped through this spaceship to avoid extinction, and found the Algo system. It then, to our species, only seemed logical with so few numbers, to instead slowly weaken the population of all three planets with Mother Brain, making it then easy (although a very long process) to get rid of the population and start anew, even if it meant genocide. What I love about this twist ending is not only how it’s presented: the creepy music, the way you did *not* expect it at all, the number of humans on the screen at once, and so on... but also, how you don’t even know for sure how it ends. You don’t know if Rolf, Rudo, Amy, Kain, Hugh, Shir, Anna... if any of them survived. But it looks grim. It looks like we lost. And it looks like everyone we fought and tried to save... will rot until the final days anyway... Phantasy Star II... is important. Sure, I could talk about how the game is challenging due to how both your party members AND the enemies are very capable in battle or the stellar, catchy, memorable soundtrack... but its story... is stunning. In 1989, we were still used to princesses being saved by armored heroes from dark dragons. We were used to things going all well in the end. But in 1989, Phantasy Star II taught us many things that would become staples in the future of JRPGs: Yes, your cherished ones may die with you not being able to do anything about it No, you may not be able to save everyone you’d like to. Yes, your actions might make things worse for yourself and everyone else. No, things aren’t quite as black or white as they seem. And no, you might not always win. Phantasy Star II is a masterpiece. It’s a bit hard to approach this game today, but with a guide, this game is a must play. It’s unique. It’s ambitious. It’s chilling. And I adore this game to pieces. Thank you for reading, somehow <3

#long post #phantasy star ii #phantasy star #jrpg #sega genesis

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bluemintpress · 3 years

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Kingdom of Bluemint

Bluemint

Bluemint is a melting pot as the province is interconnected to the other three countries. The current monarch lives in the capital, Mayleaf.

There is no official language and most of the population speaks more than three languages.

Capital: Mayleaf

Weather: Harsh winters that lead to increase in vehicle accidents and deaths. On occasions there are even blizzards in the summer.

Pyreforth

Pyreforth, the largest country in all of Motavia. It houses the upper 1% and noble families- notably the Rumforth Duchy.

The official languages are Fain, Simglish, and Folton.

Capital: Clayhost

Weather: Moderate weather throughout summer, fall, and winter. Spring may result in flooding and tornados.

Onyxthon

Onyxthon is the country that never sleeps, both in parties and in studies. The prestige Onyx Private University is the main focus of the city. The official languages are Ocorthy and Nytipik. Capital: Monanel

Weather: Summers that are as hot as 125 degrees. It's usually very humid all year round.

Izu

Izu, the smallest country just south of Bluemint. Despite it's size Izu is the most culturally rich out of the four. Izu housed the first monarch, Queen Ayami (then known as Countess Ayami Hinato). The heir apparent is bestowed upon the title Prince/Princess of Izu on their 10th birthday.

The official language is Jantin and most of the royal family is fluent in the language.

Capital: Izu

Weather: Hurricanes usually affect the small population during fall and winter.

#map

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alis-of-camineet · 5 years

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Phantasy Star Diary #26

I’m nearly certain I’ve singlehandedly wipe sand worms off the map but I’ve finally gathered 25k! I ran into a problem, though. I traveled back to Camineet to take the spaceport to Paseo to buy diamond armor but the spaceport was closed and they confiscated my passport! After consulting the map of Motavia I realized I could just fly to Uzo, walk the desert a bit and sail across the lake to Paseo so that’s what I did!

Equipment update!

Alis

Level 23

Lac. Sword

DMD. Armor

CRC. Shield

Myau

Level 22

SIL. Fang

Thick Fur

Glove

Odin

Level 22

Lasr. Gun

Zir. Armor

Mirror Shield

Noah

Level 20

Wand

FRD. Mant

Laser Shield

#phantasy star

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superreader30 · 2 years

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#Termi #SegaGenesisRoms #AlysBrangwin #1994 #Gryz #TheEndOfTheMillennium #Motavia #SegaGenesis #HahnMahlay #Zio #ZiosFort #Dezolis #Mile #KyraTierney #GrandfatherDorin #Demi #Lashiec #ProfoundDarkness #PhantasyStarIV #Aiedo #Uzo #Rika #1990s #ChazAshley #DarkForce #Kadary #Tonoe #Wren #90sKids #RuneWalsh https://www.instagram.com/p/Cef29t0rsYXs5HoHzg7hoBgrVivKdaCfoP7Gg80/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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technogenic-mess · 5 years

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I’ve been thinking about Phantasy Star 2 again, and how the events of the game cause civilization to completely tank. At the start of the game you find yourself living in a high-tech, fully automated world where work is entirely optional. The desert world of Motavia has been extensively terraformed to the point that it is a literal garden world maintained by an extensive network of climate and tectonic control systems. Huge, domed structures contain fully-automated hydroponic systems that grow all the food people need to live. Public transit? How does a teleportation network sound to you?

The management of such a complicated system quickly escalates to the point that an extremely advanced AI is required to manage it. This is the part where you can tell that a capitalist wrote the game, though: since everything is fully automated and work is optional, most people consider education to be a waste of time. So when it becomes apparent that something bad has happened to the AI, nobody knows how to fix the problem. Stopping the AI requires its destruction, and since nobody knows how to do anything society regresses to a pre-industrial state almost overnight.

It’s all a little absurd, but there’s still a decent cautionary tale under it all. Even as we pursue fully-automated luxury gay space communism, we have to maintain an ever-higher standard of education that keeps people engaged with the way the world around them functions. If we don’t, it’ll only take one disaster to send humanity spiraling back into barbarism.

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beneaththetangles · 6 years

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Phantasy Star IV and Ultimate Explanations

Phantasy Star IV is the platonic ideal of the JRPG. Dragon Quest may have laid the foundations for the genre, and a lot of Final Fantasy entries have certainly pushed it further, but PSIV is the one I’d point to if someone wanted a sample of what it was all about. It’s got satisfyingly crunchy dungeon crawling and turn based combat mechanics, an intriguing overworld to traverse (or, more accurately, overworlds), a compelling cast of characters, and some very unique, top-notch 2D aesthetics.

It’s the final entry in the original Phantasy Star series, and forms a sort of trilogy with the first two games (the third is more of a side story). The overarching story, which is set in the fictional Algo star system, centers around the fight against Dark Force, a malevolent entity that tries to influence events in a sinister direction. PSI has its heroes fight against a fascist dictatorship whose leader is revealed to be possessed by Dark Force; PSII‘s twists and turns also has Dark Force eventually revealed as a principal antagonist.

PSIV begins on a similar note—a sinister cult promoting a religion of death and destruction is arising on the planet Motavia, and it looks like Dark Force is to blame. But by this point, the developers were keen enough to notice that the Dark Force reveal was no longer exactly a surprise, and that it was a bit strange that the thing manages to keep coming back again and again, so this time it gets revealed that there is indeed a dark force behind Dark Force, called The Profound Darkness. It turns out that something called The Great Light defeated and then sealed away The Profound Darkness, which has since been manifesting itself as Dark Force in an attempt to break free. But The Great Light has also arranged things such that there would always be a group of heroes who would rise up to defeat Dark Force, and the cast of PSIV in particular are the ones ultimately tasked with dealing the final blow to The Profound Darkness itself.

The game does a good job of tying the whole series together, but it has me semi-jokingly wondering if it isn’t turtles all the way down: maybe The Profound Darkness came from a Profounder Darkness, and The Great Light from a Greater Light, and so on, ad infinitum. To paraphrase Aristotle, it’s in our nature to want to know things. As such, the idea that something exists “just because,” doesn’t sit well with us, especially when applied to fundamental questions about why things exist at all—it suggests that the world is not, at its core, a fundamentally rational and understandable thing.

This leads us to make all sorts of physical/astronomical investigations into the history and origins of the world, exploring the big bang, the possibility of multiverses, and so on. But the more explanations we get, the more it paradoxically seems like that more fundamental question—why do things exist at all—has only been pushed further back. Again, it seems like we’re faced with the choice between saying that the chain of explanations has no end, or that it ends in some initial state of the world that exists for no reason (even a nothingness from which something could spontaneously come out of raises the question of how “nothingness” has that kind of potential to begin with), both of these options conceding in a roundabout fashion that there ultimately is no explanation.

Does the existence of God fall into this trap? It depends. The question, “who created God?” is a bit of a cliche, but isn’t without some merit, in that it points to a flaw in some ways of thinking about God. If we imagine a list of everything that exists, and place God on that list as the thing that existed first, and as the most powerful and best thing on that list, then it seems to me that we’ve also shirked the question of why things exist, providing a “just because” response of our own. More than that, I find something theologically unsettling about this line of thought: it makes the difference between creator and creature to be merely one of degree, and I don’t think that that difference is enough to justify worshiping such a god.

But that isn’t what most mainstream monotheistic traditions have traditionally understood God to be. God, as traditionally understood, is existence itself, with individually existing entities existing only relative to him, by a kind of relative participation in his Being. Thus God isn’t an entity in the world, but rather the ground which makes it possible for there to be existing things in the first place; he is, thus, both unfathomably transcendent while also extremely intimate to us.

This idea isn’t without its own controversies, and, suffice it to say, it’s impossible to cover all its nuances in a short blog post. Great thinkers like Aquinas and Maimonides have devoted hundreds of pages to it, and my own attempt here is going to look pretty flimsy by comparison. But I do find it to be an elegant solution to the conundrum I mentioned. Behind individual beings is Being itself, which by its very nature must exist, with the world we live in being a kind of metaphor for that Being, which we see through a glass darkly.

#Video Games #Phantasy Star #Phantasy Star IV #Christianity #Philosophy #Theism #God #Articles #Author: Josh W

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