04 January 2008

Phantasy Star II: A Pictorial History

Recently my parents cleaned out their attic and brought to my place a huge box of crap from my childhood they'd been keeping and thought I would want. As a kid, I fancied myself a little author-artiste, and was always drawing pictures and making illustrated books. Thus I unearthed this little artifact, done when I was about eight or nine years old, a monument to my fandom of Phantasy Star II on the Genesis. I guess I loved the game so much I decided to make a book about its story. Here are some highlights -- I've scanned my original artwork with my luminous prose transcribed for your benefit. You'll have to forgive my somewhat tenuous grasp on the basic story concepts.When Rolf returned home, his sister Nei saw him pick up his sack and start to leave. Nei cried out, "please Rolf, wherever you're going, take me with you!" "Nei, you're much too young!" stated Rolf. But Nei barred the doorway. Rolf had no choice. He decided to take her with him.
Rolf and Nei laughed for awhile, but their laughter did not last long. A huge fire ant barred their path. "What's THAT?" asked Nei. "It's a biomonster!" Yelled Rolf above the angry roar of the fire ant. Mother Brain was the huge computer that "watched over" the home planet Mota. Due to it's wreckage, small creatures have mutated into gross, vile creatures like the fire ant, called biomonsters. Fire ant spit an array of poison. Nei put up her shield, but too late. She was struck by a ray of poisonous fumes emitted from the fire ant's pincers. Rolf shouted in rage. He ran up and slashed the fire ant.
As they passed through the small, town of Arima, they knew something was wrong. "What happened here?" Rolf asked a passing old man. "Scoundrels from the dungeon Shure blew up all the homes with dynamite, killed all the men and kidnapped all the women," the old man replied. "Shure..." thought Rolf. "Come on, Nei!" But a tall, solid man barred his path. "allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rudolf Steiner, Rudo for short. I don't have any special talents only I am good with a gun, and for that reason, I am a proffesional biomonster hunter. Would it be all right if I joined you on your journey?" Asked the man. "By all means, join us! We need all the help we can get!" Said Rolf. "I hear you are headed for Shure?" Said Rudo. "You heard correct," said Nei. "TO SHURE!!!!!!!!!!"Darum's at Northbridge," said Rudo. "We could rescue his daughter," added Rolf. Slowly the doors of Nido swung open, revealing a drifting damp mist. Nei shivered, and Rolf offered his cloak and Nei took it gratefully. The three pulled themselves up a bar and no sooner were they up on the second level than they heard wailing noise. They noticed a door. They heard the noise again. They burst through the door. A beautiful girl with pure blonde hair was in shackles against the wall. Rolf, in one sweeping motion, freed the girl. "Teim?" Nei was tentative. the girl nodded. "Please take me back to my father." They returned to the door and exited. Rolf put a veil over Teim to hide her identity.

As the party approached Northbridge, a man with a mask on rushed up. "Darum," said Nei under her breath. Darum didn't recognize his daughter. He marched right up to her and said "Hey girl! give me all your money or I'll kill you!" Teim resisted and tried to explain her identity, but Darum wouldn't listen. He drove his sword into the chest of Teim. Nei shut her eyes and Rolf took her hand. Nei opened her eyes. Teim had fallen, and Darum was busy emptying her pockets.

Rolf walked timidly up: "Excuse me, sir, allow me to show your mistake." Rolf gently lifted the veil, revealing what used to be Teim. "Teim!" cried Darum. "Oh what have I done? You won't die alone!" And before Rolf, Nei and Rudo could stop him, Darum stabbed himself and fell by his daughter. "Well," said Nei. Rudo cleared his throat, but said nothing. Rolf covered Darum and Teim in the flowered veil. Then they passed on to the next town.

There was an unpleasant aura about the biosystems lab as they approached. "Well Nei, we're here," said Rudo. Nei nodded. They entered. "You can wait outside, Nei, if you're afraid." "No." "O.K." Rudo got badly hurt on the third floor. Amy helped to heal his wound and they left him there. A container was on the topmost floor. Nei held her nose. "Biomonsters," she said. Rolf opened the container. "The Recorder!" "Hooray!" Called Nei and Amy.

There were four people tied to the wall. They were Kain, Shir, Anna and Hugh. Kain said he would like to join. Shir was a thief. She could steal any weapon, so she joined too. Anna and Hugh became part of the party as well. Rolf picked up the recorder. But two Biomonsters sprang out! Rolf and Co. put up a big fight, but the evil creatures bound the heroes in plasma ring and PRSN CLTHS and sent them to a satellite called Gaira.

On Gaira, they found Rudo tied up in plasmaring and PRSN CLTHS. Although they would have liked to untie him, they couldn't for they were in the same predicament. Suddenly, an alarm sounded and the Gaira sattelite was shifting off its orbit toward Palm! Just as the two things were about to collide, Rolf and party were rescued by a space pirate named Tyler. Rolf, Nei, Rudo, Anna, Amy, Kain, Hugh and Shir were unconscious.
When they awoke they were safely in Tyler's space-ship.Out the window, they saw Gaira crashing into Palm. Palm exploded. Tyler sent the party to Climatrol, where they could look for clues pertaining to the crook who disordered Mother Brain. But on the 7th floor....... "Neifirst!" Cried Nei. "O, sister!" But Neifirst merely responded with a hideous grimace. Puzzled, Nei looked at the masculine weapons and armor that Neifirst was using. "Neifirst, you can't have those male things!" "Fool! You say such things but you're powerless to stop me!" "No, we're NOT!" cried Rolf. "Yeah!" Cried everyone else. "I will slay my sister, and that is all," said Neifirst. "So be it," said Nei, brandishing her LASR. SLSHR. Neifirst threw her Foi pouch at Nei. When the powder cleared, Nei was dead.

By Leigh Alexander (at the age of eight). From Sexy Videogameland.

1 comment:

robertobech said...

Man, you have no idea how much I enjoyed this post... great work!

I'm also a retrogamer, with fond memories of Phantasy Star - I even have a website about it, "A Gazeta de Algol". It's in portuguese, so it wont be of much use to you, but it's quite a hit-site here in Brazil:
http://linuxparaoresgate.com/gazeta/

I do lots of Phantasy Star translations on Gazeta de Algol - fanfictions, articles etc. Would you mind if I write about this blog post, and use your scanned images over there?