The Secret Technique

In Phantasy Star IV, your characters can learn many techniques, some of which are extremely useful, others of which you might never use at all. There are two techniques that are unique in the game. Unlike others, this pair cannot be learned by simply raising the levels of your characters in battle. The first of the two is learned as a result of first winning a battle, and then making a correct choice from two options. This technique, Megid (also called the Forbidden Technique), can be very useful in combat; not only is it arguably the most powerful technique, it is one-fourth of the most powerful combination of techniques and skills in the game, Destruction.

The other unique technique is the most elusive of all, earning it the nickname of the "Secret Technique." Unlike Megid, this unusual technique can't be learned by playing the game normally at all. The only way to obtain it, as of this writing, is to edit a Phantasy Star IV save game or ROM to replace another technique. The technique is called "Feeve" in the English game and "フィーヴ" in the Japanese. For the purposes of the illustrations on this page, the technique was assigned to Seth (along with 500 TP) and Chaz during different experiments.

Seth gathers power to cast Feeve.

Here's some of the basic vital information regarding this technique:

Feeve targets the entire party.

Feeve has the honor (or curse) of being the only technique with absolutely no apparent use. Other than the flashing lights around the party members and a following message window, there are no observable results from using Feeve. The Japanese version's result message indicates that the technique might have been intended to boost the Mental stat of characters, which would increase their magical defenses and attacks. If any such boost does happen, it is so minor that it does not appear have a visible impact.

Also of interest is that Feeve can target all members of the party, including androids. Wren and Demi are not included when other party targeted techniques or skills are used, with few exceptions such as their own Barrier skills. The flashing character auras of Feeve do apply to them, however. If Feeve was intended to serve as a Mental booster, it might have provided extra magic defenses for the pair, who have a naturally non-existent stance in this area.

Message windows appearing after Feeve is used.

So what is the true purpose of this hidden technique? Ultimately, we may never know. There are many reasons that could justify the developers' decision to disable access to Feeve in the game. Perhaps it was only meant for early debugging to ensure techniques worked properly. It may have caused battles to become too unbalanced by increasing the Mental stat too much. Whatever the case, Feeve clearly did not make it past the development stages of the game.

Thanks to reader Angelo for pointing out the different message displayed in the Japanese version.