Phantasy Star IV's Air Castle -- Designing For Payoff
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 พ.ย. 2019
- Designing For is a series which looks at a level in gaming, and analyzes a theme central to that level's design. In this episode, we look at the Air Castle from Phantasy Star IV, a level which goes back to the series's roots while concluding an arc it's built up across four games.
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Patreon: / designingfor
Twitter: / designing4games
Discord: / discord
Writing/Game Footage: Connor Binder/Light Bear/MacBlank
Script Editing/Image Editing/Video Editing: Zack Frisbee/Goombachi
Voiceover/Script Editing/Audio Editing: Tommy Eyler/Pyrrhickong ( / pyrrhickong )
Intro Graphic and Watermark By: th-cam.com/channels/FlA.html...
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Also check out our episode on Dragon Quest III, which hides a secret in its overworld that makes it even more familiar than you may realize: • Dragon Quest III's Ove...
Or our episode on Chrono Trigger's most memorable dungeon, Magus's Castle, which illustrates the best the game's mechanics and atmosphere have to offer: • Chrono Trigger's Battl...
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The Phantasy Star series, including Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star: Generation 1, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, and Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millenium, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog and Sega Heroes, are © Sega Games Co., Ltd.
The Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger, and the Dragon Quest series are © Square-Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
The Fire Emblem series, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and Super Mario Galaxy are © Nintendo Co., Ltd. Fire Emblem series by Intelligent Systems Co., Ltd. and Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights.
Metal Gear Solid IV is © Konami Holdings Corporation. Game by Kojima Productions.
The characters "Pikachu" and "Pichu" are © The Pokémon Company.
MineCraft is © Microsoft Corporation and Mojang AB.
The character "Zeratul" is © Activision-Blizzard, Inc.
The character "Ra's al Ghul" is © DC Comics, Inc.
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Footage/Images Used:
"Sega Genesis Vs Sega Master System - Sonic the Hedgehog": • Sega Genesis Vs Sega M...
Phantasy Star IV maps: gamefaqs.gamespot.com/genesis...
Phantasy Star interview: www.dualshockers.com/switch-d...
"We Can Play It! - Alis (Phantasy Star)": crisgadelha.artstation.com/pr...
"Phantasy Star": www.deviantart.com/jubily/art...
"Phantasy Star Series": www.zerochan.net/1398364
"Lassic Enma: I Will Not Die": www.pscave.com/fanart/ps/fagin/
"Final Fantasy Tribute": www.deviantart.com/perisillus...
"Eternal Darkness Xel'lotath": www.deviantart.com/onikafei/a...
"MineCraft: The Air Castle" www.deviantart.com/razgrizinf...
Dragon Quest Zenithian Trilogy: warosu.org/vr/thread/4354643 - เกม
Hey guys! I commissioned and wrote this episode!
Man, I love the classic Phantasy Star games. I discovered them a couple years back on one of the many Genesis collections and ended up working my way through each of the core titles (well, just a Let's Play for 3, admittedly). They occupy such a unique part of the landscape of video game history. They were inspired by Dragon Quest 2 (based on 1, based on Ultima, based on Wizardry, based on...), yet the first game is a contender for the first console RPG released Stateside. The first game stars one of gaming's first great leading ladies, someone who'd go on to be not only the cornerstone to the series, but a key part in SEGA's oldschool identity. Each game experimented with wildly creative ideas (2 boasting atmosphere and dramatic plot points a decade ahead of its time, 3's generations mechanic paving the way for Dragon Quest V and Fire Emblem: Geneology of the Holy War, etc). They gave the world Phantasy Star Online, the first (I think?) and still most-popular console MMORPG. And, of course, they boast something very few RPG series can - a story intrinsically tied to its legacy.
In retrospect, there's probably a half-dozen different Phantasy Star levels I could've pitched scripts for - Baya Malay, Climatrol, and Zio's Fort/Nurvus come to mind. Heck, I could talk about the series for hours on end, if left unchecked! There wasn't really any question to it for me, though - Air Castle was just something that, even a year out from playing the game, I really wanted to explore in long form. The Air Castle's the only thing in 4 that hasn't aged in the 2,000 years since the first game, so it makes for a striking counterpoint to everything else that's changed over the years. It's the emotional climax of the first game, but it's far and away the least important plot beat in 4. It takes up the most airtime in PS4's gameplay of any dungeon, yet it's really only the less-interesting half of the endgame in PS1. It's a dichotomy, but not a contradiction - PS1's about the journey to Lassic, while wasting your time is all Lashiec can do as of PS4, so useless and forgotten is he in the two-thousand-year schemes of Dark Force. It's things like that which make Phantasy Star a series about the inexorable march of time. Villains rise and fall, heroes conquer darkness, the galaxy survives another day, and everything recedes into the whispers of memory and legend as the saga continues. I just find that so fascinating.
Thank you so much for making my script into an episode, Goombachi and pyrr! Hope I didn't bug you guys too much with my rampant fanboying. And to you, fellow viewer, I hope the end result was as fun to watch as it was to write.
Thanks for having commissioned this.
Phantasy star will always be my favorite serie and I love seeing content about the old games.
I too love the hints and ties in with the previous game and the fact that even if you don't know about it you can still play it as I did during my childhood.
So many points are greatly exploited and serve a real point in the plot : rediscovering the Landale spaceship after your crash. Using Demi to control the climate through the equipments that were installed since PSII.
Knowing that one of the ennemies you fight is the model type of Wren from PSIII.
Rika being the evolution of Nei. The silvertusk from Miau and so much more.
I would love a continuation of the serie in this very Algo Universe, so many things are right here to be exploited for interesting stories :
- climate havoc / climate control
- old advanced technology buried here and there (from PSII)
- an apocalypse that happened after PSII that could be exploited in many ways
- spacetravel
- dark religion with its temple
- Robots...
- à world to rebuild
So many things to do... So invested was I in this world, I have already played this hypothetical 5th episode in my mind.
I don't know if Sega could follow up with a solo RPG in this world, maybe are we 10 years too late but boy oh boy, I wish they did back in the days and I would happily support them or a studio like Dotemu if they tried to revive the serie.
@@stefanswiss3760 I also thank you. I l really really love classic Phantasy Star so it's awesome to know more and more about it and to see videos about it.
As a relatively new fan of the classic series (long-time dabbler, but this year, beating the quadrilogy is my videogame goal!), thanks for helping make this video happen!
I'm glad they localized it as Dark Falz or Dark Force!
I super enjoyed your review and the pacing there is not enough love for this series
This was an awesome video! I discovered this series recently through PSIV, and I wasn't sure about the others, but learning about the real meaning of this dungeon and fight makes me want to push through them to see what else I'm missing out on. I had no idea how much was packed into that tiny bit of dialogue from Rune!
Phantasy Star IV. NOW we're talking
I just love it when the final dungeon combines elements of all other stages. It really gives you a sense of completing something as a whole that I just love.
Really well done! I loved those callbacks and connections the first time I played.
I also always felt like IV was those most direct sequel to I and in some ways if you only played those two you’d be fine with that as an experience.
Man, that music caused me to be hit with nostalgic flashbacks. This is actually the only fantasy Star game I ever played through. I remember renting it and being so amazed at the comic style cutscenes. I had no idea that there is so much history behind the game, that the other ones actually so heavily influenced the story of this one but it stood up on its own.
I always remember the air castle in PS4 being one of the biggest difficulty jumps in the game, too.
Good memories
Every good few months I'll have a Phantasy Star nostalgia trip and this video is one of my usual to rewatch. I'm baffled that after 3 years it hasn't even exceeded 10k views, what's with that? I know there are plenty of classic fans out there!
You know it's all about algorithms and TH-cam deciding to show it or the channel.
I found it while looking for the Air castle theme in PS1, just making sure I was right that it's a remix of it.
It's a good video.
5:18 My guess is that DarkFalz and Dark Force is the same. In Japanese to English translation they sometimes switch letters R and L. Common examples is Itary (instead of Italy) or the Palma and Parma situation.
Since they also had limited space for characters in the names they had to compress names, hence DarkFaRz (which sounds like Dark Force).
I think you’re right. Dark Force was probably what was intended all along, but it got broken down into DarkFalz in the first game for reasons that are half L/R confusion and half space restrictions (kinda like how FF6 has “Merton” instead of “Meltdown”, or The Magic of Scheherazade turns “Kali” into “Curly”).
That Japanese art book that calls him “Dark Phallus” is *probably* just someone trying to find the right romanization of “Force” and hitting wide of center.
@@BearofLightness Yeah! It's true. Luckly the Dark force is certainly not reminiscent of a Dark phallus :D
It's actually kind of ambiguous--"Dark Phallus" is almost certainly not correct, but the Japanese reads 'Daaku Farusu', so 'dark force' is far from the only valid reading.
@@sorayaprotera One of the images in the japanese game art for PSIV, is in english, and states "Dark Phallus." You can google it.
That said, this narrator isn't saying "Falz," it clearly is Phallus, which is why he blurred out the Dark Falz picture as a joke.
Also, there is a rare enemy in the 4th or 5th part of the last dungeon, and that enemy is called "Prophallus"---and is pretty much PS1's Dark Falz.
In 1994 there were places to rent the cartridges. I needed a whole weekend to start the game and defeat Zio. Then I had to rent it again and I only got as far as the Air Castle. Xe-A-Thoul would always kill me. It was only a few months later when I could purchase it, that I finally finished the game. Still remember grinding at the sandworms :)
Quite the story behind the design of Phantasy Star IV. 🌌
It sure is.
"Microcosm"
"Dark Falz"
"Music Callbacks"
Stop, you're hitting all my trigger words.
My first Phantasy Star experience was PSO on the Gamecube, which I drove into the ground using that sweet Internet adapter. I wish I had gotten my hands on this series earlier, as any attempt to try it now is teeth gratingly frustrating for me. As you noted in the episode, it's slow...It's so slow. And sometimes the Genesis sound chip hurts my brain. I do love a good return to an iconic level though. MGS4 return to Shadow Moses was godly. Returning to Zanarkand after Sin wrecked it, so enthralling. So while I didn't experience this first hand, the Payoff factor I can totally get behind and appreciate with ease. Great video!
Hey, thanks, man!
If you are interested in the classic games, I'd encourage you to give 1 and 4 another go. The SEGA Ages port of Phantasy Star on Switch adds a lot of (optional) quality-of-life changes that make it waaaaay easier to sort through. 4 is also the most pick-up-and-play 16 bit RPG, at least out of what I've played - lots of smart design choices that make it easy to keep track of what you need to do and play in just bite-sized chunks (...as long as you set aside a couple hours for the Air Castle).
Everything else moves slower than the continental drift, but I can't help but love it all anyway. Still, if all you want is to get through the games as painlessly as possible, play the Switch port of 1, read the Cliffnotes of 2, acknowledge the existence of 3, then just jump on into 4. Good times.
Defeating Lasheic wasn’t easy tho. Anothergate was one of most of his powerful attachs
Okay it's cool to hear yall taking about this on the level streams and see it come up here
My first thought when Goombachi asked me to explain it in the stream was, "Oh, you sneaky devil."
Does anyone else think that Phantasy Star is pretty similar to Madou Monogatari? I mean, I’m just pointing out basic connections here, but their both old 1st-person view dungeon crawling RPGs with lore that runs very deep. Even the guy with the white hair and blue headband at 2:18 looks almost identical to Schezo Wegey, the most popular Madou character at the time. It’s kinda funny how these games were also on a few SEGA games, and now the characters are owned by SEGA.
Laughter is without question the best track in the game imo.
Under rated video
dragon quest was the biggest game series in japan from the release of the first one until like DQ8 or 9, they made the NES fly off shelves overseas. After DQ1's success, yes: Sega needed an answer to DQ2. Your modern sensibilities aside, DQ2 was an innovative and important game at the time.
Bro I've only played a few hours of II and most of IV and I can tell you for certain that there isn't a single instance in the US localized games of Dark Force being referred to as "Dark Phallus". Though that does sound like something that Gettemhult from PSO2 would say.
phantasystar.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Falz#cite_note-3 It's from "Idola: Phantasy Star Saga"
It’s used in an art book released around PSIV’s release, too: phantasystar.fandom.com/wiki/Phantasy_Star_Collection_(art_book)
So not quite in a localized game, true. But, like... had to mention it.
Oh no! I just realized I never finished this game, now I have to stop and go do that before watching the rest of the video!
The correct pronunciation of series antagonist, Dark Falz, is exactly what I typed. Dark Falz. If you want to get specific, the second half of the name is pronounced (Fahlz). In earlier games it was named Dark Force, but today is called Dark Falz more out of convenience I suppose. Just look up any Phantasy Star Universe or Phantasy Star Online 2 video that has mention of Dark falz, and you'll hear the proper pronunciation. Otherwise, good video explaining about this. Not enough of the big youtubers really talk about Phantasy Star and it's a crying shame...
Great video
My all time favorite Mega Drive game.
I can Laughter "fight of the possessed."
THe witches were not the only foes with a combination attacks. Mostly ones that either transformed with another unit (blade left/right for example) or ones that summoned minion units that had a combination attack when all 3 foes were on screen.
2 Zol Slugs fuse into Meta Slug
Floatmines and Tower/Commandball
Sat Minions and C-Ray Tube
Bladeright and Hakenleft fusing to Twinarms
I don’t quite count the enemies merging together or splitting apart as combination attacks, since that’s more of a mode change rather than the combos that you, the player, can do. In that way, I still think the Xe-A-Thoul(s????) are the only ones that do that.
I do like that the game plays with its enemy formations like that every now and again, though. Fun ways to keep things interesting over the long jRPG runtime
@@BearofLightness yes they do. you don't think the float mine command ball or Sat minions C ray combo attacks are combos?
@@patrickmcathey7081 To be honest, I didn't remember those and thought it was mostly stuff like the Bladeright/Hakenleft. Just looked the Sat Minions up again now though, and yeah, those I'll grant you.
@@DerangedHermit there was also one with two enemies combining into Lifedeleter
Thanks for covering this. It would have been nice if Phantasy Star Online had continued the original series' story and premise. I enjoyed the MMO aspects of PSO, but there's no real story this version of Phantasy Star which, for me, was a disastrous decision and makes it practically unplayable.
I was blown away when I found out that the basement of the castle had the same layout it had in Phantasy Star.
I didn't find LaShiek that hard to beat, but I did grind a lot to defeat his dildo-shaped friends.
His fate is really sad though, as before he was influenced by Dark Force, he used to be a good person. But now he's nothing more than a zombie, filled with rage and hatred, drifting through space.
Thunderhalbert
Anothergate
Thunder Halberd I think
PS4 was always and still is one of my favorite games of all time. Turning 34 this year and i dont see it changing. Games today just arent the same. To many bells and whistles to distract and drain wallets.
What a great game. Shame I only got to play when I bought the Genesis classic.
I was just doing this dungeon. This video exemplifies some stuff ps 4 does so well. Using the past to build the present game to epic proportions.
It is so different from other dungeons in this game before this.
The enemies are not really hard. But man the bosses sure are. Each boss killed me twice.
Honestly though this dungeon starts so cool but i found this dungeon drags and is obnoxious. I can't imagine doing it and dying to the boss. PS has no mid save, which usually isn't a problem. But here it is.
You can tackle the dungeon as two dungeons though.
I'm left wondering how i could do it so easily as a kid.
Oh god! I never noticed the patch were the same in both games. That's really awesome!
Wasn't there dialog in the ending of PS1 where the governor said the aircastle was destroyed? How's it there in PS4? Was dialog different in Japanese, or was this a retcon?
What's your end credit music from?
What’s the song at the end?
"The Promising Future", ending theme from Phantasy Star IV, taken from a Phantasy Star arrangement album.
th-cam.com/video/38BKXHf1194/w-d-xo.html
pyrrhickong oh thanks
Eu queria poder escrever uma franquia de jogos que chegasse ao nível de pay off igual a esse jogo fizesse
As vezes e bom rever os clássicos mais entender a importância da história para a nova geraçao ainda melhor
Todos ficaremos mais velhos e podemos acabar sendo esquecidos pelo tempo ou nossas franquias morrerem
Mais enquanto carregarmos a memória daqueles que gostaram daquele produto podemos viver nosso passado não como uma tragédia mais para construir um novo futuro
"Anoth R Gate" - You couldn't figure out it's Another Gate?
Preeeetty sure that one was a joke
I only know some of these guys because of Sega Heroes, RIP
I love how you call him "Lasik"...I'm pretty sure it's pronounced "La-Shey-ick". Regardless, another great video!
Man...as much as I love the idea of PSO...I really wish Sega would remake this saga. If not them, hand it over to someone who will. The stories themselves don't need much in the way of retooling, just the games around them. Sure, they still hold up well for the dedicated, but with remasters and remakes of past RPGs, I think this legacy one deserves a chance to really wow a new Millennium.
Seeing characters getting their asses kicked in the Air Castle has me wondering "Do you even level grind?" The stats suggested no.
I was able to get a childhood friend to finally try the classic games, he started with IV (god knows why) and despite a week of grinding he couldn't beat Lassic and quit.
I know he's pretty tough, but he's not *that* much of a skill check wall to over come.
What scares me more is that friend has a notoriously bad habit for just grinding early to make the game easier to get through, like having level 40+ Pokemon by Gym 2 levels of grinding.
I've seen people beat him when fairly under levelled, too. So how does someone grind for a week, to only get his ass kicked?
@@ShaimingLong Yeah, a lot of people play RPGs as if they were action games, learn your buffs and debuffs and other mechanics.
Dark Falz is definitely a technical limitation and translation error in one. So really just another microcosm of phantasy star naming problems
lol Dark Phallis
"Zeo" and "Lazic"? 🤔
Zio and lashiec
100$ LAUNCH COST?
So sad what Phantasy star is reduced to now, just a money making online game for Sega.
It’s hard to argue with how much bank SEGA is making off PSO2, but I’d love a new game in the style of the classics. Alis/Lassic/ Rolf/Wren showing up in SEGA Heroes was a real sweet surprise while it lasted, shows there’s at least some interest still in the old games.
This channel is criminally under-subscribed. Wish I had friends who cared for this genre of content so that I could share it with them, but alas.
I'd like to give a piece of criticism; hopefully you're willing to consider it: you talk way too slowly for my taste (and I suspect a lot of other people's too). I would guess that's a big thing that is holding back your growth. The reason that, despite that, I still find your content excellent is that I am pretty accustomed to putting videos on 2x speed, but I suspect the overwhelming majority of people aren't. If that were not an option on youtube though, I'm sure I would have clicked away immediately on the first video of yours that I watched.
Cheers, hope this helps.
I dunno why you're pronouncing the Antagonist's names so wrongly. It's pronounced Faahlz, not Faah-Liss, and Laah-Sick, not Lay-Sick. He is not a form of eye surgery.