Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Let's have some brainstorming about the Alisa III's sister ship. It appears in three of the four final generation branches of Phantasy Star III. In two of those, the ship is destroyed during an exchange of weapons fire with Alisa III.

In the other branch, Sean's story, we get this as the final lines of the game:

Hello Alisa III. This is the spaceship Neo Palm. That explosion earlier attracted our attention. We guessed that Dark Force had arisen again and we came over to lend any help you needed. Since you're still here, we assume you've won. In 1,000 years, Dark Force will arise again. Let's get rid of it for good next time!

From this, we know the Neo Palm was close to the Alisa III and aware of Dark Force's presence, as well as the thousand year cycle. How do you think they came by that knowledge? There appears to have been no contact between the ships during the game prior to this. Might there have been some contact in the past, perhaps during Orakio's time? Could Dark Force have been active on that ship also?

I always hated that line: "Since you're still here, we assume you've won."

Well, thanks for all your fabulous help, sister ship!

Here are my theories:

All of the domed ships had good communications with each other immediately departing Palma. This would make sense considering that if one of the ships found a habitable planet, you'd want the others to know about it. That is, if they weren't traveling together already. Or, well, you'd want to have contact, anyway. Safety in numbers and all that.

Palma knew something was going wrong with Algol and had enough time to build a fleet of these incredible ships, so I'm guessing there was some knowledge that DF was behind things. When Alis left Copto to return to Algol, her departing words included something about a bigger threat awakening in Algol. That was a few hundred years before PSII. That might have been about the time Palma started building their fleet. Perhaps this is also the start of understanding DF's cycles.

Perhaps the ships never intended to cease communicating with each other, but Alisa III's communications were compromised during the Devastation War. Perhaps the communications were restored once DF was defeated by the third-generation hero, and Neo Palm, though it "felt" the DF's presence, couldn't really help that much (other than to be on standby), since communications were nonexistent, thus making access between ships impossible to coordinate.

Perhaps Alisa III and Neo Palm were chosen by DF to be the last of the fleet to destroy because they included more important leaders and Espers, thus being harder for DF to annihilate. If I'm going with this theory, then it stands to reason that Neo Palm is actually the most important ship of all the Palman ships, since DF was trapped on Alisa III before he could destroy it and move on to the final ship. Perhaps it houses Camineet, or whatever the seat of government was at the time.

My own theory, then, is that DF simply hadn't made his way to Neo Palm yet, that he was stuck on Alisa III, and that Neo Palm knew about DF because there were enough Espers, prophets, etc. that knew it was his time and were aware that they could no longer communicate with Alisa III because DF was on that ship, and finally, because Neo Palm knew there were no other domed ships left in the fleet. Neo Palm either knew in Sean's story that getting too close to Alisa III was risky due to the DF compromise, or was fortunately late to the scene (it sounds in the script like it was a bit of both: It knew about DF and was coming to help, but was fashionably late in arrival).

Whew.

But in the ending for Sean? Maybe Crys? I don't remember but doesn't the Neo Palm say that they just defeated their worlds Dark Force and then the two worldships travel out through space together.

Nope, they say nothing about a Dark Force being on Neo Palm. That snippet I posted is the only thing we hear directly from Neo Palm in the game. In the other endings, it's either destroyed or not around.

Tanith wrote:All of the domed ships had good communications with each other immediately departing Palma.

Sounds good. It's a reasonable expectation. They would need to communicate for course changes, emergencies, and such. Particularly about a habitable planet, as you said.

Tanith wrote:When Alis left Copto to return to Algol, her departing words included something about a bigger threat awakening in Algol. That was a few hundred years before PSII. That might have been about the time Palma started building their fleet. Perhaps this is also the start of understanding DF's cycles.

Hm, could be. Lutz would surely seek out Alis on her return. By then he should have learned a fair bit about DF and could have shared it with her.

Tanith wrote:Perhaps the ships never intended to cease communicating with each other, but Alisa III's communications were compromised during the Devastation War.

That sounds likely. With all the other old tech that was damaged, lost, or misunderstood, it certainly doesn't hurt to add communications to that list. This could also explain why Neo Palm fires on Alisa III in some branches; with no communication, they might have assumed the worst - DF taking over Alisa III.

Although, these theories about lack of communication raise another interesting point. Alisa III still had function shuttle craft for travel between the moons and the ship. Could Neo Palm have had shuttles (or even moons) as well? If so, they should have just hopped in a shuttle and flown on over to Techna or Aerone.

Tanith wrote:Perhaps Alisa III and Neo Palm were chosen by DF to be the last of the fleet to destroy because they included more important leaders and Espers, thus being harder for DF to annihilate.

That makes sense. The elders at Sage Isle, Skyhaven, and New Mota certainly seem Esper-like. They even know about Neo Palm, something of which no one else on the ship seems to be aware.