Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

I always make Rhys marry Maia, because he fell for her first, and she's the whole reason he went on his journey to begin with. All Lena did was help him escape from jail.

MrKite wrote:I always make Rhys marry Maia, because he fell for her first, and she's the whole reason he went on his journey to begin with. All Lena did was help him escape from jail.

Ah, but that's the very point - was it love, or was it infatuation? I say infatuation.

But with Lena, we know from the compendium that she was actually in love with Rhys. Pretty amazing, wouldn't you say, that she helped the man she loved find the woman he was chasing after, even risking her own life in the process?

Rhys got to spend quite a bit of time with Lena, who knew exactly what she was doing. I think they're a cooler match because Lena's just so damn cool, but that's just me.

Rune_Walsh wrote:Rhys got to spend quite a bit of time with Lena, who knew exactly what she was doing. I think they're a cooler match because Lena's just so damn cool, but that's just me.

I agree that from a storyline standpoint Rhys and Lena make more sense... but since Sean is my favorite 3rd generation character I always choose Maia.

This is one reason I've always liked the Rhys-Maia-Lena triangle the most among all the game's marriage choices. It is the only one that really makes the players think about the situation by presenting a complex set of choices. Ayn gets two girls he knows well and Nial gets one he travels with and the political alliance. There's not nearly as much depth to those.

If you play the game without any fore knowledge of the expanded story, Lena is cast in the light of a good friend that keeps secrets about herself from Rhys. She helped him escaped and then followed him to Lyle's castle, where she joins the party finally. In all that, she's proved herself a loyal friend willing to help Rhys when no one else will, even going to extremes to do so. However, her status as princess of Satera is a bombshell dropped at the last minute when Rhys has to choose a wife. That made me wonder what else she might be hiding.

Maia is a lot more complicated. We only know her as the girl with amnesia that fell in love with Rhys. We never learn if she did regain her memories or just accepted that Cille was her home after being told. Rhys doesn't get to talk to her before the big choice. She's the big blank slate - does she hate Orakians, did her feelings change due to Rhys like Lyle's, does she even want to marry Rhys at that point? If Rhys chooses her, he's really going on the memory of who she was in Landen, not any knowledge of who she might have be now.

Lena is certainly the better choice from a story view - the girl he knows, not the one he doesn't.

i agree, Rhys shouldnt marry Maia.

however, if he doesnt, the next-gen is doomed to lots of walking for not having the Laya Pendant.

I absolutely adore PS III. I picked it up around the Dragon Warrior days and to me, it looked like a 16 bit Dragon Warrior and added some interesting things. As Thoul stated, if it weren't for PS III my love for the series wouldn't have blossomed until much later since I was a diehard NES fanboy. I always pick Maia over Lena simply because Ayn is one of my favorite characters and if leveled up enough, is a demon with power and tech [well the few tech's he gets]. Of course I like Nial because he is a power house straight out the door but it's kinda boring that you start off in the same area as Rhys and never get to know what's going on in Layan country until much later. Either way all the different marriages offer a lot of replay value.

With all my gushing aside, I feel that PS III get's hated on a bit too much. I will certainly agree it is much different than the other 3 games but most people don't realize that it's actually a Gaiden story to the whole Phantasy Star mythos. Most side stories I've ever dealt with had very loose ties to the main story that was laid down and PS III exhibits this to a T in my opinion. I am a big Sci Fi nerd but my heart lays in Medieval times and thus my love for PS III is obvious due to the set up. That being said, I most certainly do not dislike the other games and enjoy them thoroughly, but PS III will always be the first in my heart. Would I feel differently if I played PS I first? Probably, but I do know that I would enjoy PS III just as much due to it's medieval fantasy setting.

The general consensus I've gotten over the years is that Phantasy Star 3 was rushed/incomplete.

That being said, I like the aspect of who you choose to marry and which characters you have for the next generation.

I for one wish Sega would remake it and fix as many of the loopholes as possible (i.e. what lead to Lune and Siren being sealed on the moons, etc.)

Phantasy Star III is probably my least favorite of the original series, but I hardly hate it. My relationship with the game goes back to the early 1990s, when I was anticipating more of a direct follow-up to Phantasy Star II. III was a major disappointment in that area, combined with the fact that I prefer sci-fi over medieval RPGs. To make matters worse, what was supposed to innovative about the game (the multiple generations) turned out to be more of an excuse to recycle dungeons and worlds within the game. Bah. The stories are riddled with inconsistencies and irritating plot loops. I would argue that you walk around more in PSIII than PSII because of all the darned backtracking. I was so sick of seeing Divisia's dungeon and the western cave in Aridia by the time I had gone through all the generations I could have screamed. The battle system was also a disaster. I ended up not really liking the Choose-Your-Wife generation system because there were absolutely NO female leads. What the heck, Sega??

The best part of the game, and what makes all of my above gripes worth it anyway, is that the characters are really well-done. We're also introduced to andriods/cyborgs as playable characters (and there's my love of sci-fi coming through). I also find the game more enjoyable if I think of it separately from the rest of the series. It's really an innovative idea (being lost in space and not knowing it) that was poorly executed. Perhaps it was too far ahead of its time and Genesis was not the right platform. It could use a remake.

PSIII was my first JRPG, so I simply can't say, that I don't like it! It is really great: androids, marriage-thing and 7 stories (though 3rd generations really look the same).

I chose Maia because..

Hell, it happens all the time. New bride kidnapped, quest to get her.

KRULL Anyone? He barely knew the girl less than a hour and goes to rescue her xd

Whose to argue with love at first sight?