Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

I was looking through some of my old gaming magazines today. I was picking out a few to sell, but I wanted to make sure they had nothing I wanted to really keep. Anyway, when thumbing through one, an advertisement for a mail order gaming store caught my eye and made me do a double take.

The ad had a picture of the PSIV box art, but it was not any form of the box art I have ever seen before. It is similar to the US and Europe art, but has some interesting differences. The first thing I noticed is that Alys is front and center, holding a sword and shield. Chaz is not in the picture at all. Rika and Rune are still present, but both are in very different poses and holding swords. It also looks like there is a dragon in the background. The logo is different as well; it has stylized letter that are similar, but different, to those in the US logo and includes both "Phantasy Star IV" and the "The end of the millennium" subtitle (I think, it's hard to read) which no final release used together. There's also a NYR rating (not yet rated), so this could be really early cover art.

Has anyone seen something like this anywhere else? I'm attaching a scan (borrowed from retromags), but it's kind of dark even after I increased the brightness. The printed ad is really dark too, but I'll see if I can get a bigger or brighter scan from my magazine in a day or two. I've confirmed that this was shown in ads from this store in both EGM and Gamepro for March 1995, but so far I haven't seen it elsewhere. It could possibly be something the store used for filler, but Gamepro's February 1995 issue had a similar ad using the standard US box art. I can't see why they'd go to self-made filler after using the real cover art.

Thats a pretty epic picture Thoul

I knew it! It's the Return of Alis isn't it? Just a Genesis version... >.>

Either way that's pretty sweet. I want a cookie now.

I completely forgot about that title for the game..

However, aside from one article there is no proof of it's existence. SO yeah... kinda makes you wonder...

Ha, that’s was a cool find to, bad its kinda blurry and dark though.

Beats the awful American box art of the original PS4 by a mile. And it seems that this box art has finally become a reality... Great pic, pity it's so small.

Lyla, I think we found the cover art for your fan game!

Hmm.. I'll try to redraw the image ( without the dragons and extra swords ^^) then post it under Fan Art. My eyes are going to be so sore afterwards, though... Really going to give them a workout and a half...

I'll try to get a better version of the image tonight. I'm going to scan it from my own copy of the magazine. I think I can at least get a much larger version, though I'm not sure if it will be any more clear.

I'm really disappointed that this one image from the ad was printed so dark. All the others are bright and vivid, it's just the one we want the most that is hard to see.