Part 15: I'm Never Touching This Game Again

Update 15: I'm Never Touching This Game Again



It's time to see what you missed by choosing Adan as the third-generation protagonist.



Lyle and Rhys gave their blessings as well.

A reminder: this is the path in which we saw Lyle die right in front of us about half an hour before this scene. Apparently he's blessing Ayn from beyond the grave.



Their rule brought peace and prosperity to all. In time, Queen Thea gave birth to a son, Sean. When he reached manhood, evil arose once more; Sean was called upon to fight for his people...



Man, even the opening splash screen of this path is cooler than what we got with Adan. We're in space and there's pretty colours and people bowing to us and everything.



"Another one hit us! It's causing explosions!"



Well, this isn't good.



It sure is more exciting than some lame earthquake, though.



"Your mother and I cannot bear to leave our home. Take the shuttle and save yourself, my son. Journey to Landen, your grandfather's homeland."

Ayn, you idiot, I didn't play through a whole generation of this game with you just to watch you die on some moon.



"Mieu and Wren will go with you. Farewell!"



Man, I know I should be sad about Sean's whole family and most of the population of Azura dying, but these splash screens are just too cool.



Sean escapes in his spaceship while Azura continues to blow up. It's not clear where the attack on Azura is coming from: possibly Lashute, but that would imply that they're actually doing something.



"We must try to make it to Landen, Sean."



We start this chapter in the middle of Aridia, with only Sean, Wren and Mieu in our party. Sean starts out with Melee, Time and Heal techniques and plenty of TP to use them, although he's less physically robust than the other third-generation heroes.



Returning to Landen, we find out that Sari single-handedly fought off Lune in the second generation (since there was no Nial around to do it), and she's still alive. Lyle may have some competition in the badass stakes after all.



"With Laya's Treasure we can stop the fighting. To find Laya's Treasure, use an ancient machine that can be found in a world to the southwest."

Sound familiar? That's right, it's the cave in Elysium where we met Ryan in the second generation! The next part of Sean's quest is basically just retracing Nial's steps: Sean gets the Sub Parts for Wren, travels to Aridia and meets Laya, who joins the party. They then head to Mystoke, get Laya's Pendant and learn that Orakio and Laya were deceived by Dark Force. Next, they go to Aerone and travel to Dahlia, where they meet Lune. There's no boss fight this time: Lune's already given up on fighting the Orakians, and invites Sean to take his daughter Kara along. For some reason, Sean gets a different version of Kara from Adan:



She starts with higher stats than Adan's Kara, but only learns Melee techniques, which makes her less useful for the final battles against Rulakir and Dark Force. The rest of Sean's path is identical to Aron's: Sean collects the remaining two sets of parts for Wren and the Nei weapons, then heads to Lashute for the final showdown. Sean defeats Dark Force and destroys Lashute with Megido, and then Mieu teleports everybody to safety with Grantz.

After that, things get different again. There's no black hole this time: instead, a spaceship identical to the Alisa III appears and sends a message!

Hello Alisa III. This is the spaceship Neo Palm. That explosion earlier attracted our attention. We guessed that Dark Force had arisen again and we came over to lend any help you needed. Since you're still here, we assume you've won. In 1,000 years, Dark Force will arise again. Let's get rid of it for good this time!

Roll credits. I like how the Neo Palm says they're here to help, but also tells you that they know you've won because you're still alive. It's not really "help" if it arrives after you're dead, is it?

At any rate, that's it for Sean's quest. What happens if Ayn chooses to marry Sari?



"I accept, but no more quests for you!"



Sari soon gave birth to a son, Prince Crys. Enemies beset Landen for the next 20 years, but Ayn and Sari defended their land without fail. Then came the news that they had long dreaded...



Something tells me this messenger won't be announcing a surprise party for Crys's 20th birthday.



"Siren has returned to exact his vengeance! Siren plans to propel our world into the sun!"



"... shown that our world is really a huge spaceship. Somewhere there must be someone who can aid you. Find help or we're all doomed to fiery death!"

Dammit. If you guys had picked this path, I coulda continued the running gag from my King's Bounty and Might & Magic II LPs.



For this generation, we start with Crys, Wren and Mieu. Crys is physically the strongest and toughest third-generation hero, but he only learns Time techniques and he's not even much good at those.



"Then return our ship to its proper course."

Crys's path is almost exactly the same as Sean's, except that you start in Landen instead of Aridia so it's slightly shorter. He gets the same version of Kara that Sean does, too, so the only healers in his party are Mieu and Laya. This makes his version of the third generation somewhat harder than the others. Despite all of that talk at the start about Siren trying to send the Alisa III into the sun on this path, we still don't meet him until Sage Isle, where he's given up violence and is on the verge of death.

Anyway, after collecting Wren's parts and the Nei weapons, we go throw down with Rulakir and Dark Force and blow up Lashute as usual. Crys's ending is almost exactly the same as Adan's, except that the Alisa III barely avoids the sun instead of a black hole.

That only leaves one path, and it's the best one. What happens if Nial marries Alair?



"I was starting to think you'd never ask!"
"Good Lord, woman, we've spoken, what, twice since I rescued you? How fast do you expect me to move?"



The war ended and peace settled over Alisa III. Alair and Nial soon had a son they named Aron; Lune married and had a daughter he named Kara. Aron and Kara grew as peace reigned over all. As the children neared the age of 18, however, the long years of peace came to a sudden end...



King Nial sure knows how to throw a party. I think that's the most people we've ever seen in one place in this game.



This splash screen isn't as cool as Sean's.



I'll give the game one thing: it's pretty neat how in some paths we actually get to see events that we only hear about in another path.



The Alisa III opens fire on the mystery ship and blows it the fuck up. Hey, why exactly were these spaceships given super-powerful lasers at all? What were they expecting to have to use them on out in space?



Nial is understandably a bit uneasy about the fact that someone on the Alisa III is evidently in control of a giant laser, and it's up to us to investigate the source of the attack!



On this path, we start out with Aron, Wren, Mieu and Kara (the same Kara we got on Adan's path). Aron's pretty much the same as Adan, honestly. He's a good fighter and a decent healer.



"I sure hope nothing bad comes of this."

Once again, we're off course and headed for a black hole. We also find out that Laya's gone back into stasis in her palace under Aridia, so we have to go get her.

Aron's path is the shortest of the third-generation paths. All we have to do is go into Dahlia's dungeon and pick up the Aero Parts for Wren, then go to Aridia and collect Laya, then collect the Nei weapons, go to Lashute and wreck everyone's shit as usual. In fact, it's not even strictly necessary to collect Laya: you can give Laya's Bow to Wren or Mieu at the end of the second generation, and then finish Aron's quest with just the four characters you start with.

Now, the fact that Aron's path is the shortest is already enough to make it the best path. But what really sets it apart is the ending. After Lashute is destroyed, the ship heads toward a black hole just like in Adan's path -- but instead of avoiding it, it falls in and somehow comes out intact on the other side. Wren reports that the Alisa III has travelled through space and time, and is approaching a planet. Then, the planet sends a transmission:

Greetings, alien craft! Identify yourselves. This is the London Communications Center on Earth of the Sol system. Over and out.

This ending gets a whole lot more interesting if you know the ending of Phantasy Star II. Remember how I said that the Algo system in PSII was ruled by an evil computer? Well, that computer was built by colonists from Earth, who were escaping their own world due to some kind of vaguely-described ecological disaster that they brought upon themselves. So if Aron's ending is the "true" ending to PSIII, then the arrival of the Alisa III is probably how the people of Earth found out about Algo and decided to send a colony ship there in the first place, which resulted in the destruction of Palm, which resulted in the launch of the Alisa III, which went back in time and made contact with Earth... how's that for a time loop? Of course, all of this also means that when Adan or Crys arrive at Earth in the "present", they'll presumably find it devoid of human life.

Anyway, I think that's about it for this thread. If you have any questions or if I left anything out, feel free to speak up. I hope you've all enjoyed watching me play Phantasy Star III so you don't have to, and I hope to see you again some day when I play a better game.