Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Okay, here's a larger version. Unfortunately the picture is not very clear on this one either. That's because, again, the original in the magazine is equally low quality. This is the best I can do with something that was printed with a height of about an inch.



I checked all my remaining magazines from around this time and couldn't find any more instances of this image. There were plenty of PSIV ads, but they all used the regular box art.

That's a very interesting picture, and a rare find, Thoul.

Strange to see this cover art. Looks like they didn't know well the plot of the game. Or it was another attempt to link it to PSI, by "replicating" its cover.

In my opinion it kinda looks like someone on the interwebs turned Chaz into Alys. XD

It does, doesn't it? Alys is even wearing Chaz's clothes there instead of her regular outfit. If I couldn't barely make out the shape of her body, I'd think it was Chaz.

I do remember seeing this image ages ago. Too bad it's not in the Compendium or anything. Probably an internal mockup they did before they hired Boris Vallejo to do the final (awful) cover.

-Corey

PSP wrote:I do remember seeing this image ages ago. Too bad it's not in the Compendium or anything. Probably an internal mockup they did before they hired Boris Vallejo to do the final (awful) cover.

-Corey

Ditto. The American cover art was godawful for virtually all the games, except PS 1. The Japanese artwork was waaaay better.

Yeah, I really wish there was a better source for this, like the Compendium. If it is an internal mock up or such though, this would have come from Sega of America. I can see how the Japan branch might not have had access to it for the Compendium.

Well, I'm glad someone's noticed it before. Corey, do you recall if the version you saw was any more clear than this one? I realize it's been a long time, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I've only read a few parts of the compendium, and even then it was translated (so who knows what got lost), but does anyone know if Alys was originally intended to be the protagonist in PSIV? I would have preferred a return to a female hero, honestly. I didn't really like Alys, but had they kept her around longer in the game, I'm sure she would have developed into a more interesting character.

Thoul wrote:Yeah, I really wish there was a better source for this, like the Compendium. If it is an internal mock up or such though, this would have come from Sega of America. I can see how the Japan branch might not have had access to it for the Compendium.

I had thought about that, but then again they did make a point of referencing certain aspects of the NA version in the Compendium (including the packaging), so I'm guessing it was just used for such a short period of time as a placeholder that Soft Bank didn't even feel the need to make note of it.

Well, I'm glad someone's noticed it before. Corey, do you recall if the version you saw was any more clear than this one? I realize it's been a long time, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

No, I think it was roughly the same. In fact, I remember thinking it was Chaz/Rudy in the front of the group because of the poor resolution. It was either in a magazine (I wanna say EGM? I know I had the issues where they reviewed the Japanese version, which was arguably my first exposure to the series) or a solicitation for the game of some sort, but it's obviously fairly old since it's still using the old VRC rating format as opposed to the ESRB format that was adopted by the time the game actually was released.

Too bad. I love finding little obscurities like this.

-Corey