Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom is a traditional console role-playing game that was released for the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in the United States) in 1991. It is a sequel to the previous game in the series, Phantasy Star II, although the connection to other games in the Phantasy Star series is not obvious at the outset.

The world of Phantasy Star III appears at first to be a traditional medieval-type setting, with kings, knights, castles, and two warring nations. A thousand years prior to the start of the game, the two factions, led by Orakio on one side and Laya on the other, waged bitter and bloody war against each other, until the two leaders met for a parley and mysteriously vanished. Since that time the Orakians and Layans have shared an uneasy cohabitation.

As the game begins, you play the part of Rhys, Prince of the Orakian town of Landen, on the day of his wedding to Maia, a mysterious amnesiac girl who washed up on Landen's shore a year ago. During the ceremony, a winged demon - identified as a Layan - suddenly appears and snatches Maia, vowing "Filthy Orakians! Maia shall never be yours!" Rhys is determined to rush off and retrieve his bride, but his father the King feels he's being overly rash and orders him to "cool off" in the castle dungeon. The game begins when Lena, a girl from Landen who has a crush on Rhys from afar, helps the Prince escape from the dungeon and set off on his quest.

It soon becomes apparent that all is not as it first seems in this world, both as it relates to Layans and to the world itself. Despite the setting, several anachronisms are in evidence, such as android characters and clearly artificial "caves." The fact there is only a limited amount of terrain to explore in each of the three worlds (later revealed to be seven) is also a clue. Also, when you finally do encounter Layans, they do not at first appear to be demonic or even hostile - they are simply "Technique"-using humans (this being the standard Phantasy Star terminology for what in other console RPGs would be called "magic"). One of them, Prince Lyle of Shusoran, even joins your party as an ally. Ultimately, it is revealed that Maia, the girl you set out to save, is herself Layan - indeed, she is a Princess of a Layan kingdom - and that her "kidnapping" at the game's beginning was viewed by the Layans as a rescue attempt to free their Princess from "hostile" Orakians.

At this point, the player is given a crucial option - Rhys can choose to marry either Maia, despite her Layan heritage, or the Orakian girl Lena. There is no "right" or "wrong" decision here, but it will drastically affect how the game develops, as well as the main character of the next part of the game. If the player weds Maia, the resulting offspring (Ayn) will be half-Layan and be able to use Techniques; if Lena is chosen, the plot will take another track entirely with a different, pure-blooded Orakian son (Nial) as the central character. Eventually, either Ayn or Nial will have their own marriage decision to make as well, leading to one of four possible third-generation characters for the game's final stages.

Depending on which path the player takes through the game, it is eventually revealed that the world of Phantasy Star III is in fact a "worldship" containing seven inhabitable "domes," each with a different climate to simulate different ecologies on an actual planet. This particular ship, dubbed the Alisa III, was one of several that fled the planet Palma/Palm/Parma just prior to its destruction in Phantasy Star II; the Orakians and Layans are the descendants of the survivors of that cataclysm. The player also learns at this time that Dark Force, the evil entity that was the final boss of the other Phantasy Star games, also exists on the Alisa III and is about to awaken after its thousand-year dormancy.