Palma getting destroyed was a huge shocker! I hadn't seen it coming. A nice touch was that the game also explain how a satellite can destroy an entire planet...at least I'm not sure if the original did that as I always wondered how a satellite can fully destroy a planet just like that.
There is also a very nice reference to Phantasy Star that is hinted at once, then more obvious a second time and finally revealed in the end. It's about the main character. I won't spoil it here unless asked (and then will put it in spoiler tags).
Btw, there also seems to be a "fix" or rather a patch for this made by another fan with permission from the original creator. It fixes many spelling issues and some minor bugs (I haven't encountered any critical bugs) but most importantly it drastically reduces the monster encounter rate. As a compensation, monsters give triple XP and MES (as the encounter rate is cut to 1/3rd). It's a blessing for those who use the cheat to only play through the story like I did. Although if you level yourself up to 50 you can run away nearly 100% of the time. You can find it on the PSCave forum:
http://www.pscave.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 1&start=30