This page contains spoilers — important plot secrets and/or conclusions may be revealed. For example, HOLY SHIT ALL OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS GAME ARE SURVIVORS OF PALMA'S DESTRUCTION IN PHANTASY STAR II AND DARK FORCE IS BEHIND EVERYTHING!!!1
The end result of Sega's corporate greed is a game that's so hated by the Phantasy Star fandom that Sega now likes to pretend that it never even existed and even excluded it when they were planning on remaking the Phantasy Star series for the PlayStation 2. Aside from having seemingly nothing to do with the previous entries in the series, a soundtrack that will constantly ear rape you, bizarrely erotic monster designs and generally just looking like shit – Phantasy Star III is also known for being such a buggy mess that it puts Bethesda Softworks to shame.
Aside from being an incredibly shitty RPG, Phantasy Star III is also a Choose Who To Fuck simulator that features branching paths and different playable characters based on which waifu you choose to marry at the end of each chapter. You even get the option to breed with your very own cousin, because Japan is totally into incest. Not that any of your choices will actually matter though since the ending is always the same regardless of who you choose to fuck.
This game is also notable for introducing the Phantasy Star series' unofficial official cute mascot enemy, Rappy (a.k.a. Chirper), a fucking Chocobo with Moogle antennae that has appeared in every fucking Phantasy Star game since and even managed to force its way into the remakes of Phantasy Star I & II despite not appearing in the original version of either.
After issuing commands or breaking the cartridge with a hammer, the ear rape will be replaced with one of three shitty battle themes based on whether the game thinks you're winning, losing or evenly matched during a battle – while this would have been a neat feature, the fact that your ears will be bleeding at this point somewhat defeats the purpose.
Because the developers of Phantasy Star III had never actually played an RPG before, the poison status in this game doesn't cause your health to slowly decrease like in every other fucking RPG ever – it instead prevents healing spells and items from affecting a character until the status is removed. To make the game even moar of a fuckup, the technique that removes the poison status only has about a 50% chance of actually working.
Techniques
File:TechShop.gifThe confusing bullshit that they did to the technique system. We don't get it either.
In an attempt to piss off Phantasy Star II players even moar, Phantasy Star III changes up the technique system from the previous game . Each character already knows all the techniques they have access to, but you can alter the power distribution of techniques at stores throughout the game. Also, a lot of the effects were changed from Phantasy Star II since the developers of this game were retards.
Melee Techniques
Foi is a fire attack on one enemy.
Zan is a wind attack against a row of enemies.
Gra is a gravity attack against all enemies.
Tsu (correctly named Barta in Jewpan) is a water attack against half the screen despite the fact that this was the fucking thunder attack in the previous game.
Heal Techniques
Res restores a single party member's HP.
Gires restores all party members' HP despite the fact that it was Sar that did this in the previous game.
Rever has a chance to revive a dead party member.
Anti has a chance to remove the poison status from a party member.
Order Techniques
Fanbi raises a party member's attack power despite having the name of the drain attack from PS2 and the effect of Shift. Can be exploited to do thousands of points of damage to enemies with a single hit.
Forsa can instantly kill an enemy despite confusing robots in PS2.
Nasak kills you to heal all your allies. Still fucking stupid.
Shu raises a party member's defense. Can also be exploited to attain God Mode.
Time Techniques
Ner raises a party member's speed. Unsurprisingly, it's exploitable.
Rimit increases the party's chance of escapimng despite paralyzing organic creatures in PS2.
Shiza silences an enemy. Actually works on robots this time.
Deban prevents an enemy from attacking despite being a fucking barrier spell in PS2.
File:RhysPortrait.gif A blue-haired Orakian faggot just like Rolf. He's stuck in a love triangle with Lena and some cyan-haired bitch who washed up on the beach a few years ago.
File:LenaPortrait.gif A fucking boring and useless Orakian woman who was set to be in an arranged marriage with Rhys before some other bitch washed up on the shore.
We're Too Fucking Lazy To Fix Our Game So Let's Blame The Player
—What happens when devs can't be arsed to actually fix their game
Reception & Effect on Phantasy Star IV
File:PS4Beta.jpgPhantasy Star IV ended up straight up copying the first two games due to Phantasy Star III being such a pile of shit.
Literally noone likes Phantasy Star III. Not even people who like Phantasy Star III like Phantasy Star III, they're simply lying to themselves. The game was so fucking bad that Sega ended up planning Phantasy Star IV to be the end of the series and attempted to make it copy the first two games while ignoring the third entirely. The end result was the series ending on a game that's a literal rehash of Phantasy Star II with a few added features and much better dungeon design – but which also features a disturbingly similar plot twist with the main waifu being killed off by the big bad of the game's first act.
There's not much to even say about Phantasy Star IV aside from saying that it's the exact same shit as Phantasy Star II and features a fuckton of blatantly fanservicey references to the original Phantasy Star. You can thank Phantasy Star III for killing the series.
