Phantasy Star II: Phantasy Star II Modernization

The purpose of this hack is to mitigate many of the flaws of Phantasy Star II in order to create an overall play experience more similar to that of Phantasy Star IV. This means decreasing the amount of level and money grinding, increasing the number of references to other games in the series, script improvement, bug fixing, and more.

Major changes include: character niches and specialties are enhanced, technique arsenals are improved and mastered more speedily, shop and treasure chest contents are streamlined, characters join with better equipment, useless items are retired in favor of better ones, enemy names are expanded and made more consistent with the other games, etc.

We are currently on Version 4.1, the seventh release of this hack. Version 4.0 was a complete rebuild from the ground up using the Phantasy Star II Disassembly document by lory1990, available on this site. 4.1 only addresses a few small issues from 4.0. Please see the readme for details, and thank you to everyone who tries the hack!

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| Phantasy Star II |
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| - Modernization - |
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| Version 4.1 |
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| Release: 07-22-2022 |
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| - By - |
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| Fauntleroy |
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The purpose of this hack is to mitigate many of the flaws of Phantasy Star II in order to create an overall play experience more similar to that of Phantasy Star IV. This means decreasing the amount of level and money grinding, increasing the number of references to other games in the series, script improvement, bug fixing, and more. Major changes are outlined below.

I have to thank lory1990 for creating the amazing Phantasy Star II Disassembly document, which made most changes an absolute breeze. He's created similar utilities for all of the classic Phantasy Star games, so check them out! He was also extremely patient and gracious in answer a million questions I had about implementing my goofy ideas. Thank you lory1990 for making this project possible!

Here's what's new since the last patch:
* Swords vs. knives were rebalanced a bit
* Errors with the AROWS and RIMPA techniques were repaired
* A few clunky lines of dialogue were smoothed out

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| Characters |
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All party members have had their individual specialties enhanced. Characters from Phantasy Star IV were used as templates to base these enhancements around.

* Rolf: Like Chaz. The core of the party. Strong, can use the best equipment, and has a great technique selection. Even if you didn't have to use him, you would.

* Nei: Like Rika. Rolf's backup. Strong double attack, fast, great healing, and solid support techniques. Again, even if you didn't have to use her, you would.

* Rudo: Like Wren. The tank. The nearest thing to unkillable with high HP, high defense, and the ability to use the best armors. Has no techniques, but is the only party member who can use vulcans, allowing for a multi-hit energy (gun) attack. Absolutely essential in the vanilla game, and still a strong choice for your team.

* Amy: Like Raja. No fighter, and quite fragile, but has all the best healing techniques, and learns some good ones early on. She also has a few great d support skills, along with the highest TP max of the group. She can equip both knives and small guns, allowing her to inflict both types of damage in one round. This is great against enemies like machines or the flying reptiles.

* Hugh: Like Hahn. Just a tiny bit stronger and less fragile than Amy, but still a dynamic party member. Like Amy, he can deliver both types of damage by having a knife in one hand and a small gun in the other. He learns all of the special techniques to kill and handicap living enemies, whether animals, biohazards, or demons. He also has a good arsenal of healing and attack techniques.

* Anna: Like Alys. Anna is the only character who can use slashers, delivering a multi-hit bladed attack essential for crowd control. She's fast as lightning, and while her technique list is short, it contains a number of essential attack and support abilities. Another party member you almost have to use in the vanilla game, and still an awesome partner to have around.

* Kain: Combine Hahn and Gryz and you get Kain. Kain is Hugh's counterpart, being the party member who learns all the techniques to destroy and weaken mechanical enemies. He's good with techniques, but his use of heavy guns and the best armors, paired with relatively high defense and HP, also make him workable as a multi-purpose tank. In short, he's more durable than Hugh but doesn't have the same variety of skills, and while less effective than Rudo at tanking, he's also more versatile.

* Shir: Shir is basically Nei's replacement. Her attack isn't as strong, but she's got an amazing set of support, attack, and healing techniques. She also has travel techniques to help the party escape a jam, especially if Rolf is down for the count, and she's freakishly fast. In short, she's less durable than Anna, and not as strong of a physical fighter as Nei, but she outdoes both of them in terms of speed and versatility. And of course, being a thief, she randomly steals from shops!

Technique arsenals for all characters (well, except for Rudo) were expanded, and made more unique and diverse. Characters who learn a basic technique will also learn any Gi, Na, or Sa levels for it.

Rolf and Nei learn their last techniques at Level 35. Amy, Hugh, Anna, Kain, and Shir learn their last techniques at Level 27. This way, it's pretty easy to keep everyone at a level where you can actually use them, and learn all of their skills.

In the vanilla game, some characters like Hugh are kept feeble because they can't use stronger pieces of equipment. In the hack, characters can generally use all items of a certain type. So, for example, Rolf and Hugh can use all MAIL armors. Rudo and Kain can use all GEAR helmets. Amy, Anna, and Shir can use all CROWNS, CAPES, and EMELS. You get the idea.

New party members still start at Level 1, but they come equipped with the best gear available up to that point. Everyone also joins with one technique already learned (except for Rudo, of course).

All party members default to the Fight command rather than the Defend command at the start of a battle.

Also, I know that a lot of you like to hack Nei back into the party after the Climatrol events. To help you out, you'll find that Nei can use a lot of the late-game equipment used by Amy, Anna, and Shir, including Shir's unique weapons.

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| Items & Techniques |
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There are tons of new items, new pieces of equipment, and new techniques! Most will be familiar to fans of the other games in the series.

The Shinb technique is no longer glitched. When successful, the party instantly escapes from battle. This works in many situations where the Run command will fail.

The Shift technique can now be cast on any ally, rather than being automatically applied to the caster.

The redundant technique Eijia was removed only because Kain got so much new stuff that he ran out of room for it.

As described above, Hugh's special biohazard-specific techniques will work on any enemy that appears to be a living being. Kain's techniques work on all machines, but they also work on all demon enemies that aren't living things, like the shadow, fire, and sword monsters. The Dark Force boss is unique in that it is susceptible to both types of technique.

Item prices, equipment stats, technique stats, TP costs, etc. have been rebalanced.

All vulcans (multi-hit guns) will attempt to fire up to four times. Typically, one shot will go to each of the first four enemies in a group, but sometimes, two or more shots will pile up on a single enemy for big damage.

This is my absolute favorite... Using the Neisword ANYWHERE will warp you to Lutz's throne. Either planet's overworld, any town, any dungeon, absolutely wherever. How cool is that? It makes it really easy to stock up on Trimates, Star Mist, and Moon Dew and then quickly warp back to Esper Mansion.

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| Presentation |
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While the story hasn't been changed, the script was completely rewritten, top to bottom. I'm really proud of it, honestly! I hope you enjoy it! And please please please, talk to my NPCs! Nothing pisses me off more than people who skip my NPCs!

Text always goes to the end of the text box before there's a hard return.

Menu and battle text was changed to be more consistent with that used in IV. In other words, it's clear and brief.

Menus were resized to properly fit their options. This made most text abbreviations in menus unnecessary.

Enemy names now use the full 10 characters allowed, rather than just the first eight, as in the vanilla game.

Many item and enemy names were changed to be more consistent with other games in the series.

All enemies now give double the meseta and experience points as in the vanilla game, so while this game will always require grinding, it now goes by FAST.

The party members are placed above their status windows in battle, as in Phantasy Star IV.

In battle, Rolf now has dark blue hair to match his in-game art and map sprite, and Nei's ears are no longer purple.

Kain now speaks like a street-smart cockney, rather than being borderline incomprehensible as in the vanilla game.

The Algo Star System map shown during the Gaila sequence was updated to show the planet names as they were in the original Phantasy Star: Palma, Motavia, Dezoris. These are the names used throughout the hack, along with:
* Algo rather than Algol
* Palman rather than Parmanian
* Dezorian rather than Dezolisian
* Alis rather than Alisa
* Lutz rather than Noah
* Lassic rather than Lashiec
* Altiplano rather than Alplatin
* Gaila rather than Gaira
* Alsulin rather than Alshline
* Laerma rather than Laeruma
* And probably more that I'm forgetting!

Okay, this last one is going to be controversial, but... the towns of Kueri and Piata switched names. I know, I know, it sounds really weird, but hear me out. It always bugged me that, in IV, the town of Piata has moved from the southeastern quadrant of Motavia to the southwestern quadrant. It makes no sense. Assuming for a moment that Zema and Uzo are in "more or less" the same place in IV as they were in II, that means IV's Piata is right around where II's Kueri would be. So, to resolve the apparent continuity error, I swapped the two names. I hope it doesn't break anyone's immersion!

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| Bug Fixes |
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Hugh is now able to use Gires both in and out of battle.

The Shinb technique actually works.

Incorrect text is no longer displayed when trying to rearrange the party while Rolf is alone.

The text boxes when examining the entrances to Uzo Island and Climatrol are no longer cut off.

In the vanilla game, one townsperson in Paseo would recite part of Lutz's speech if spoken to after the Climatrol events. This strange behavior is fixed, and in fact, he now gives an important clue about accessing the four dams.

The middle entry in the Van/Aerotank enemy group can now be found at the Blue and Green Dams.

The music no longer crashes during Lutz's speech.

A few minor bugs involving stat growth were addressed.

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| Setup Instructions |
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You will need the 072222ps2hack.ips file as well as an unaltered copy of the Sega Genesis American release ROM.

Dump Name Phantasy Star II (UE) (REV 02) [!]
Phantasy Star II (UE) (REV02) [!]
Phantasy_Star_II_(UE)_(REV02)_[!]
Phantasy Star II (REV 02)
Filesize 768 KB
CRC32 904FA047
MD5 0FA38B12CF0AB0163D865600AC731A9A
SHA-1 0711080E968490A6B8C5FAFBB9DB3E62BA597231
SHA-256 A0BD97F5AAA67301923CCC367511606BD3471EA9542919165311D4A23A2B696B

After the patch is applied:
CRC32 491A993D
MD5 A1AF82F4251EE736D13EB960B2586AFA
SHA-1 1C6FF849B839F48317FCD5DC6964F0C701EA93D1
SHA-256 902AFCE7B8E87A2120D0EA793BC33232251AB880C294EC2FAB5626DFEF2F9124

Please do not ask me for ROMs; I will not provide them.

I recommend using the Lunar IPS utility to apply the patch to the ROM. As of this writing, you can download Lunar IPS here:
http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/

To apply the patch:
1.) Open Lunar IPS and click the Apply IPS Patch button.
2.) Select the 072222ps2hack.ips file.
3.) Select the ROM to be patched.
4.) You're all set! It's that easy!

As far as which emulator to use, I personally like Fusion. Fusion has its own website:
http://segaretro.org/Kega_Fusion

Database match: Phantasy Star II (USA, Europe) (Rev A)
Database: No-Intro: Genesis (v. 20210226-213851)
File/ROM SHA-1: 0711080E968490A6B8C5FAFBB9DB3E62BA597231
File/ROM CRC32: 904FA047