1991 pic of a Phantasy Star game that never got released?

check this out

http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/3101 ... tar6pn.jpg

it's from the editorial page of Mega Play magazine, May-June 1991.


keep in mind:

*Phantasy Star III had already been released in Japan.

*Phantasy Star III was going to come out in enhanced form on SegaCD.

*A very different Phantasy Star IV, subtitled "The Return Of Alis" was said to be in the making for both cartridge and SegaCD formats.

see this July 1992 GamePro article:
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/6806/mdcdpsivcs2.jpg


and from SegaBase
http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-index.php...egaBase+Sega+CD

Quote:

In terms of software, the biggest news by far was with the Phantasy Star RPG series - the closest thing Sega had to Square's Final Fantasy franchise - with two Mega CD titles announced as being in development. The more notable of the two was the all-new title The Return of Alis, which was to take place immediately after the events depicted in Phantasy Star 3 and tell the story of the fight against a revival of the intergalactic slave trade. This new installment in the saga would be 20 times the size of the earlier game and would incorporate both audio and anime clips.

Quote:

Sega cancelled the planned Sega CD release of Phantasy Star 4, opting instead for a cartridge-based Genesis game that bore little resemblance to its original Sega CD concept.

* the early cinema screens (seen in the first PSIV preview on this website, from EGM Number 37 - August 1992) as well as the first-person dungeons that were cut out of PSIV were from End of The Millenium, not the unreleased PSIV The Return of Alis.

Usually if I mention "the unreleased Phantasy Star" or "Phantasy Star IV: The Return of Alis" people will think of & mention the early unused cinemas & first-person dungeon picture of PSIV: End of the Millenium, not realizing they're thinking of two totally different PSIV games -- one that was never released at all, the other was released but with things cut out.



As far as I know, there have been no pictures seen of the earlier 'Return of Alis', a concept for a PSIV game that was completely scrapped. The only possible (however unlikely) picture of PSIV The Return of Alis is that unidentified screen in Mega Play.

So, that's the mysterious "Return of Alis," huh? I'd heard of it, but only the name. It looks like that might have been even more graphically advanced than PSIV. And as a sequel to PSIII, no less! That would have really been something to see.

Thanks for all the cool info!

I am not saying that picture in Mega Play is PSIV: The Return Of Alis,
I'm only suggesting it's a possibility.

That picture could be from a game not related to any Phantasy Star, yet it does look extremely PSish.

Ah! I remember that pic! Found it when I was trying to find info on 'Return of Alis' for a character website I made years ago.

Though, I think the page it was on confirmed it was not from a Phantasy Star game... But, since I can't find said page (as this was at least four years ago), I agree that it DOES look very PS-ish. It's all speculation, of course, but that first character looks kind of Alis-ish to me... armor, pinkish bottom, boots... and the last character looks very Mieu... hmm...

Ooh, neat! It is a pity they were scrapped. I wonder if anyone at Sega still has stuff from the development of those games. That would be cool to see.

Hey, I wonder if Phantasy Star Gaiden is related to Return of Alis? It has Alis in it and at the end she leaves to return to Algo. Maybe Gaiden was meant to lead into Return of Alis.

airraid wrote:

I am not saying that picture in Mega Play is PSIV: The Return Of Alis,
I'm only suggesting it's a possibility.

Ah, gotcha. Still, I bet any PS on SegaCD could have had some killer graphics in those days.

I would have liked to see how the idea of having the game as a sequal to PSIII would have been executed. I wonder if they were going to continue from one certain ending.

yeah a SegaCD Phantasy Star IV, not just enhanced with better graphics and FMV, but also different from the Genesis version, has always been my dream.

that or a 32-bit Saturn version of PSIV, and then a Saturn PSV.

I would have also loved a 3D turn-based Phantasy Star on Dreamcast based on the old series, not PSO or PSU, even though those were fun games, they just weren't PHANTASY STAR to me.

Yeah, I know what you mean. The newer games have a much different feel from our old favorites.

I looked up some of these magazines online today; I thought I might try to buy some of them if I can get my old scanner working again. Those things are really expensive, though! I can't believe some people are trying to sell mags like these for $25.

I was Googling some old Sega magazines last night and found an old thread on another site that was talking about Return of Alis and this picture. They said it looked like the arcade version of Willow. I don't know if they were correct, but that might be something for someone to look into!

I would say they were wrong, unless there is more than one Willow arcade game. I found a picture of it on a site about Willow:
http://www.geocities.com/area51/vault/6147/arc01.jpg
It doesn't look anything like the screen in the article.