Proto talk:Phantasy Star II

Phanstarfan's Recollection of a Possible Earlier Prototype

Archived from the #tcrf IRC room:

<Phanstarfan> just a maybe interesting factoid for the phantasy star 2 prototype page.
The cartridge once DID exist in the wild because i played it in my youth, the prototype version.
I dont know how many were made or if they were copies meant for game magazines or if it was on an eeprom or what...
but i played the prototype in 1989 on real hardware.

<Phanstarfan> it was a rental place called Take Two in Fargo, North Dakota.
they had a chain of maybe 3 stores at the time.

<Phanstarfan> the specifics i remember were that it was at least 4-5 months before the official release..
it could well have been july or august in 1989.  we were baffled they could have it when it wasnt supposed to be out yet.
No - the box and cartridge to our memory looked like a normal production cartridge.
My guess is that it was meant for game magazines 

<Phanstarfan> I remember it because when we "later played the real version" we were trying to figure out why there were changes.  : P
when we later rented the game from another place in winter 1990 it was like... text was different...
there was the different name (KITEDRGN and FIRE-EYE most notably but that is NOT the only change in the game).
we played the crap out of the game and had it memorized.  >_>

<Phanstarfan> it was wierd.. because the original game as i recall was unfinishable too or and had some serious problem at the end.
a fact i dont think is in either the pages on TCRF or hiddenpalace.  try it and see.

<Phanstarfan> the soundtrack would loop on the final in space ship (played it to death yet im pulling a blank now :P )
and i'd swear i remember something not letting you progress past a certain point...
unless its an emulator only error but i dont think so. i dont have a flash cart to know.

<Phanstarfan> but i can definately say those things.
the game rental place Take Two in Fargo ND had several copies of the proto.
however the heck they got it.  and it was at least four months early.

<Phanstarfan> im guessing they mightve sent out review copies of the game though.
i'd have to think some other hardware protos must exist for game magazines.
it looked like an official release - manual and all.  just was some earlier rom for sure.

-Ehm (talk) 16:05, 15 July 2017 (EDT)

Information on enemy name translations

Proto:Phantasy_Star_II#Enemy_Names

マスタフェンサー (Master Fencer) and エムゴフェンサー ("Emgo" Fencer) are supposed to be references to the SEGA Master System and Mega Drive. The Mega Drive was codenamed the Mark V, which can be shortened to "M-Go/エムゴ" in Japanese, so the literal translation of エムゴフェンサー would be M5 Fencer.

Link to tweet by Mazin/Masato Nishimura (SEGA developer) Tweet pasted for posterity

@Mazin__
 マスタフェンサー・エムゴフェンサーってマスターシステムとメガドライブですね。初めて気づきました。(笑

@onda_to
 そうそう、初期の開発内部では、メガドラをマーク5（通称エムゴ）と呼んでたんですよね。当時の企画用マップ作成方眼紙には、SEGA MARK V用って書かれていました。当時入社したてでメガドラキチガイだった私は、その方眼紙を1冊もらって、家で保存してましたｗ

フェイリア/Feiria can also be read as Failure

ホズイトデホ Hozuit Deho and イッポデホ/Ippo Deho are a reference to composer IPPO/Izuho Numata, but she did not directly work on PSII (イズホ/Izuho backwards is ホズイ/Hozui)

スロウナー/Death Rouna can also be read as Dethroner