Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

Phantasy Star IV
Developer: Sega Platform: Genesis This game has a notes page This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Phantasy Star IV is the fourth and final installment of the futuristic Phantasy Star RPG series. It's considerably more story-heavy than the other games in the series, with an intriguing plot, memorable characters, and an interesting battle system.

To do: Port content from this thread.

Debug Menu

The game's debug menu can be accessed with one of two codes depending on the system the game is playing on. For games that need the Game Genie code use FFEC9F: 06 and for PAR it is FFEC9E: 06. While this code is active it sets the cursor position for the party and system menus - rendering them effectively unuseable until the code is deactivated. It also interferes with Yes/No options and the space travel menu. To access debugging functions press the Start button when outside of battle then Confirm. The screen displayed in the screenshot above should open. It can be closed at any time by pressing Start again.

Speed: The three options here can be selected using the Up and Down buttons on the D-Pad. They set the player's base movement speed and take effect immediately. The default is 2. 1 is slower and is used when characters need to walk slowly as part of events. 4 is the fastest speed and is used to make certain NPC sprites run faster then the player can follow. In Zosa, which requires the player maintain the default speed as part of a penguin walk, the game reverts to the 2 option if this is changed.

Enemy, Poison, Block: These are toggled on and off by the A, B, and C buttons respectively. The Enemy option toggles enemy encounters either on or off. In a few select areas this value is locked and cannot be changed. Toggling encounters on in an area where the game doesn't have formation data causes the game to crash when an encounter is triggered. Poison simply toggles on or off whether poisoned characters take damage while walking around. Block turns tile collision on or off allowing the player to walk through anything but other sprites.

All of the following values are display-only and cannot be manipulated via the debug menu.

Position and Scroll: These six values display the player's current X/Y position and scroll information in hexadecimal.

Map: These two hex values reference the two layers loaded into memory. If only one layer is being used the second number is FFFF.

Status and On: During debugging this would have been used to ensure collision and tile properties were set correctly. These nine numbers tell the viewer what type of tiles are adjacent to the player as well as what they are standing on at the moment. By default, ordinary passable tiles are 00 and impassable tiles are 08.

Dungeon: This value is a reference number for the dungeon the player currently occupies. If it is not zero the game cannot be saved.

Escape: When this is toggled on the Hinas spell and Escapipes transport the player to the current dungeon's entrance. This is used in places like Kuran where teleporting outside is technically impossible with the way the game is structured.

Sound Test

Japanese PS4 sound test

The sound test itself is a well-known bonus feature. It unlocks if the game detects a clear file during bootup and is accessed by pressing the B button from the Continue screen. Pressing Start while in the sound test reboots the game.

A transition effect was removed or disabled when the game was ported for North American release. An Example of this transition can be found below. This also left the track Dezoris de Don unused. Curiously, some graphics were removed as well. It is unknown why the text wasn't translated but according to Fringes of Algo it reads "One song right after another. Taken individually, the characters mean, one, song, at once, and happen."

(Source: Fringes of Algo)

Unused Items

There are 4 unused items in the game which are identical across versions.

Blood Axe

Nicknamed the 'Blood Axe' by fans, this nameless, description-less item can only be equipped by Gryz. It is a 2-handed axe with 36 attack power, 10 defense power, and has a listed Meseta value of 380. It also has a unique attack animation. This item was likely cut because Gryz has plenty of weapons for the early part of the game and this one didn't offer anything substantial.

As can be seen from this screenshot the animation had bright red droplet-like sprites which are obviously unfinished. This might have been considered too gory for an otherwise bloodless RPG and work was halted in the early stages of animation.

NOTHING

This nameless item has a description of ???? in the Japanese version and would be equippable by anyone but Seth except the item type is set to 09 - a value used to mark plot-necessary items that cannot be equipped, discarded or sold. It offers 20 defense and 10 magic defense. Because it was not intended to be sold it has no Meseta value.

Spiral Slasher

The so-called 'Spiral Slasher' is a one-handed slasher that can be equipped by Alys and Kyra. Enemies hit with it may be put to sleep if they fail a strength check. This weapon offers 38 attack power, has a meseta value of 200, and an unfinished unique attack animation.

This weapon has two problems with it. The first is that the sparkly animation that is supposed to trail the spinning slasher is instead above it. The second problem is that this particular animation uses the background palette instead of the weapon palette.

Algo Map

The fourth and final item is a map that, when used, brings up a picture of either Motavia or Dezolis. Both maps can be scrolled horizontally and Motavia's vertically using the D-Pad. When either are initially opened they are tiled in such a way that where the world appears to wrap around is centered. For example, this places Skure, the huge pit that marks the outer boundaries on Dezolis, in the center. This default orientation can make finding landmarks difficult and may have contributed to the decision to dummy out the feature.

When the game was translated into English the planet names were left with their original Japanese table values and thus appear as gibberish with bits of remnant Japanese.

Motavia as seen through the Japanese map

No labels were placed on either map to mark locations although large towns like Aiedo did get bigger squares. One item of note, on the lefthand side between the two large squares are six small squares marking items of interest. Four of these are valid locations: Miles, Zio's Tower, Kadary, and the cave to Aiedo. The other two ended up as destroyed towns that exist only as ruin tiles on the overworld map. (Neither the Machine Center nor the Space Port are marked as they are initially subterranean and only rise to the surface via plot events.)

Dezolis as seen through the Japanese map

Dezolis's map is still in a rough, alpha state with noise as the game fills in the defined boundaries with data around the map image itself. This map cannot scroll vertically. It lacks four site markers (excluding the hidden Space Port for the same reasons the Motavia map did) which are Meese, Reshel, the Esper Mansion, and the Musk Cat cave. Although the cave is entirely optional the other three are not.

Animation Sample Video

This short YouTube video shows (with some additional explanation) animations for the Blood Axe and Spiral Slasher along with what the original Japanese sound test looks and sounds like in action.

Unused Text

There are several bits of dialogue and system text that went unseen. Some of it is simply an error of design, others were left unused because the system didn't need them.

Examing Elsydeon's stand in the Japanese version.

In both versions of the game it is impossible to examine the statue of Alis and read the attached description because doing so as part of the events that put Chaz there triggers a cutscene. After the cutscene the party is returned to the Esper Mansion and the door to the sword cavern is sealed again. It is thus only possible using a method to walk through walls. Below is what this line says in the English version.

'Those Who Protected Algo, Along with the Sacred Sword, Elsydeon'...

Shopkeepers present a particular case. Most of them have text despite being unreachable behind their counters yet of these the majority repeat a line from someone else in the same town. A few have blank text and the remaining handful don't even have a trigger associated with their sprite. The following two lines are exceptions to all of the above.

Reshel innkeeper: "At last we can breathe easy. We're going to rebuild Reshel back to its original
splendor! No, even better than that!

Jut innkeeper: Oh my, a Parmanian guest, how rare. So is it that interesting to you to go see
a Dezolisian temple?
Chaz then says: I wonder if this person wants any business?

To do: need to get Raja's Japanese line the NOA team bungled and thoroughly check the entire Kuran sequence

Unused Music

The following tracks can be heard using the in-game sound test.

Dezoris de Don

This short track is used in the Japanese version but only when opening the sound test itself. It is track 36.

Pao-Pao!

Pao-Pao occupies the final track slot in the sound test at 48. It appears to be a bonus track.