Why was there never a Phantasy Star V? It seems to have been a popular and successful series. Was there ever a point at which a sequel was in the design stage?
Actually, when IV was finished, we did talk about what the story of Phantasy Star V would be if we ever made it. It was more of a rough concept than a detailed story. We were discussing things like "Is Dark Force really evil?" "Are there gods in the Phantasy Star universe?" "What is the Light Force in the work that opposes Dark Force? Is it justice?" If we had made a Phantasy Star V, I think we would have tried to tie up the entire series, the whole Phantasy Star universe.
I thought Phantasy Star IV wrapped-up the series perfectly so it's interesting that they at least considered doing more. Any dreams of some early Phantasy Star V code or ROMs being uncovered are dead though.
Anyway - let the Phantasy Star V speculation begin...