Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Any fans of this series here? I love the combination of the scifi, fantasy and western themes they put together in these games. I've got all of the ones released in the US so far, and I'm looking forward to #5 coming out later this year.

So far, my favorite is Alter Code F, the remake of Wild ARMs 1. It has some rather annoying bugs that pop up now and then, but it really reminds me of everything I enjoyed about the original.

I actually haven't played #2 or #4 very much, though I do have them. I need to go back and finish playing through them sometime.

I am not familiar with these games, however, the "western" bit you mentioned did attrack my attention. Looking forward to reading some more discussion concerning this topic.

I have played some of them. The only one I'm really familiar with is Wild ARMs 3. It was pretty fun. I liked the novelty of the battle system, especially the idea of horseback fighting. It was very original. I don't remember any fantasy theme to it. I remember the scifi stuff that showed up later (like the "dragon" transformer). Those were meshed with the western aspect pretty well, but it always felt a little out of place to me.

The gardening idea was neat, too. It was a little odd playing an RPG that doesn't let you buy healing items, but it was a nice touch in relation to the story.

I didn't like the idea of not being able to buy healing items at first. It began to grow on me though, once I saw how easy the gardening was. They used that in Alter Code F, too. It copies a lot of the game system from WA 3.

Secret_Surfer wrote:I am not familiar with these games, however, the "western" bit you mentioned did attrack my attention.

Well, I'll explain it a bit then. These games are set on a world that suffered enormous environmental damage in an ancient war. The world is slowing turning into a desert wasteland, which is used to add a lot of "old west" style towns and themes. For instance, the main characters tend to use guns (called ARMs, as in the game name) that look like something from a western movie - shotguns, rifles, revolvers, etc.

Wild ARMs 3 is the most western of the series. Almost the whole planet is a desert area in that one, so they made a lot of old west themed stuff like trains and riding around on horseback and so on.

They always work in some scifi stuff too, like aliens or levels with a technology theme. There's usually an element of fantasy (magic or someone using a sword), but they laid off of that in WA 3 for the most part. There's a little of it here and there.