March Retro Community Playthrough - Phantasy Star

[Disposed Hero]

Please ask us where to go next. We'll lead you in the right direction rather than blurting it out where to go like a walkthrough does. It'll be more satisfying. As for the maps, it is difficult. As a kid, I didn't draw maps because I couldn't grasp the concept that each step would equal one block on grid paper. As a result, later dungeons took me forever to figure out but I got a lot of EXP and it saved me from grinding later on.

To help map making less tedious, I don't do it block by block, step by step. If I walk down a long hall, I just draw a long line as an estimate. If I make a right turn and walk 4 places and run into a staircase, I'll just draw a short line and my staircase symbol. As long as you are halfway decent at estimating, this method should work. It's sloppier and less accurate, but much faster.

I thought about asking here for some direction before consulting a walkthrough, but this forum isn't a 24/7 help hotline, and I didn't want to be stuck wandering aimlessly for hours before getting a tip on where to go next.  I might have had time for that when I was a kid, but not anymore. 

I'm definitely not going to be using any maps for the dungeons.  That just doesn't even sound appealing to me.  I think I'll use your advice about not drawing the whole thing block by block.  One of the biggest problems I have while mapping out the dungeons is the long hallways will often cause me to run out of room on the page.

I found that using the

Spoiler (hover to show)

compass

helped me get my bearings in the dungeons.

I didn't even know you could do that.  I'll have to try it.

[techwizard]

i didn't know that about the compass either Addicted! will have to give it a try.

i agree about the difficulty, it's very high for the first few levels at least but once you gain more party members, level up, and get better weapons/armour things will go much smoother. for anyone that's getting a bit confused about where to go next i find it really helps to be writing down bullet points of what tips you've received from townspeople. that way you can refer back to your notes when you're not sure where to go next instead of having to revisit every town to hear the same tips again. also make sure you talk to literally everyone in each town, so many of them give useful tips.

[JerryGreenwood]

@ banana - yes, when you're in a cave it's hard to figure out. Then you look at a map online and it looks like a maze on a Denny's placemat.

@ Disposed - I've run out of room on paper too. When I do, I'll mark it with an A or whatever and start a new map on a different slice of paper with an A, indicating that those are linked. Also, l will try and be your 24/7 hotline  

@ techwizard/all - re: townspeople info. In most cases, people in blue houses give more important info than people in yellow houses.

[Duke.Togo]

You guys should just try something like Virtual Graph Paper: http://www.garrettbartley.com/graphpaper.html

[douglie007]

Do I need the magic lamp? And what does it do?

[Addicted]

Do I need the magic lamp? And what does it do?

Yes. It is

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a permanent flash. In other words it's a lantern allowing you to see in unlit dungeons.

[singlebanana]

The lamp allows you to see in dungeons without having to use Flash. Pretty useful, but not essential if you don't mind buying/farming Flash. Be sure to check out the instruction book which has good descriptions of all the items. There is a link to it in the initial post if you do not have a physical copy.

[JerryGreenwood]

@ Douglie - I highly recommend buying the Magic Lamp. It's a hassle if you forget a Flash before entering a cave. Also, I think some towns don't sell Flashes, so if you forget you'll have to back track even further.

@ All - About to get my 4th party member. This is usually the last cave I don't make maps for. It's difficult, but doable.

- Another MINOR detail that most people don't notice. In the real world, people from hot, desert climates have brown/black hair. Everyone on Motavia has brown/black hair, no blondes on the planet.

[douglie007]

Thanks, I will save up and get it, also for the maps, I downloaded mosaic builder for my phone. It lets you save it as a png after your done making it if you want. Here's one[img width=700 height=437]http://i.imgur.com/Yy47p9P.jpg[/img]

[singlebanana]

Wow! That's really awesome douglie. Never thought about using a phone app. Perhaps someone should create this type of dungeon crawler app if there is a niche for it. I assume tabletop players could use it too.

[singlebanana]

WARNING: Last night while playing, I had difficulty locating an item that I knew was in a certain area. It turns out that the only way to "activate" it so that it is searchable, is to talk to an NPC and answer a question a specific way. My advice is to everyone is to talk to EVERY NPC and answer EVERY question with each option. That way you will be sure to unlock items without having to backtrack.

[JerryGreenwood]

I forgot about that. It's so tricky that it stumped me the first time I replayed this game.

[Addicted]

WARNING: Last night while playing, I had difficulty locating an item that I knew was in a certain area. It turns out that the only way to "activate" it so that it is searchable, is to talk to an NPC and answer a question a specific way. My advice is to everyone is to talk to EVERY NPC and answer EVERY question with each option. That way you will be sure to unlock items without having to backtrack.

What item was it?

Was it the

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Dungeon Key?

[singlebanana]

WARNING: Last night while playing, I had difficulty locating an item that I knew was in a certain area. It turns out that the only way to "activate" it so that it is searchable, is to talk to an NPC and answer a question a specific way. My advice is to everyone is to talk to EVERY NPC and answer EVERY question with each option. That way you will be sure to unlock items without having to backtrack.

What item was it?

Was it the

Spoiler (hover to show)

Dungeon Key?

Actually, it was the......

Spoiler (hover to show)

HOVERCRAFT.... I had to make my way through the Casba dungeon again and say "Yes" to the guy who talked about the hovercraft. Apparently saying, "No," meaning you haven't heard of it and letting him tell you about it, is not enough to make it available when you search for it.

[Disposed Hero]

for the maps, I downloaded mosaic builder for my phone.

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of app I was looking for.