Beat PS 2 for the first time, how do you think I did?

[Chillthorn]

So, I finally beat PS 2, and I've had the game for like fourteen years (not saying I was playing it the whole time, alot of that time I didn't have a working Genesis).
I wanted other Phantasy Star fans to give me their opinion on how I did because I had to seek help a few times, and for a couple other reasons.

First off, I didn't use any maps. But around the beginning of the game I died twice in two different dungeons by those stupid blasters (worst enemy in the game I think, lol), and each time it was after getting through most of the two dungeons, so I cheated a little bit and used fast foward to get to the spot that I was originally before I died. I also used fast foward to level up Anna when I first started using her (to lv 14) and I felt like I really didn't need to do that after so I shouldn't have. I also fast foward leveling Shir to level 10 so I could steal the visiphone. I also felt that fast fowarding Shir's leveling was unnecessary because I realized after that it wouldn't have taken that long anyway. These were the four times I used fast fowarding on the emulator, it was pretty early in the game.

I had to look at a walkthrough to figure out these things: were the tower was that contained the four key cards for the dams. Also to figure out that I had to wear the mogic cap to talk to the Dezo people, not the magic cap (I had both at the time, but I thought the mogic cap was the fake). I thought I looked all through Skure, but it turned out there was one town (Aukba) that I had not found so I had to look that up. After all that, I explored all four ruins and got ahold of six Nei arms (Lutz didn't say how many there were), but after all that dungeon crawling it turns out there's two more. So instead of exploring possibly all four ruins again I had to look up what dungeons contained what Nei arm, and found the remaining two.

I didn't have Shir steal moon, or star dews, but I had her steal some Jewel crowns, and the Visiphone.

My party was level 41, Amy level 39 at the end. I used Kain for the dams, switched back to Amy for the rest of the game. Rolf, Rudo, Anna, and Amy were my general party. I thought using Shir would have been useful in some of the ruins in Dezo, but when I took her it just seemed like it was unnecessary to put that much time into leveling her when I could just switch back to Amy. I figured out possibly the most useful technique for me in the game which was having Anna hold on to one of the best items ever, the snow crown, so she could use it before enemies attack instead of having Amy equip and use it (low agility). I had Amy equip a silver crown, which had pretty close to the same defense. I also had Amy hold onto the color scarf and use that to boost the party's agility. By the time I got to Dark Force and Mother Brain it was no problem. Megid worked great.

I think that's pretty much it, one of the most difficult RPGs (I thought PS 1 dungeons are more difficult if you don't count the enemies from what I remember) I have ever played. You really have to get into the zone for this one, it took alot of patients and intuition to get through this game, but I did and it was worth it.
One of my favorite RPGs, definitely, but in my personal humble opinion, I think it would have been better if it wasn't quite so cryptic, and if the battles were not as frequent (maybe boost the exp and meseta a bit higher in this case). And you should be able to run away sometimes. But besides that, I like how it's a hard game, and the dungeons are awesome. After beating games like this it makes everything else seem easy. Sorry for typing so much, lol.

[LegoMuskCat]

Good job on beating PSII! It's one of the harder games in the series, that's for sure, and by the sounds of it, you didn't do bad at all. ^^

I always thought the blasters were pretty annoying, myself. And as for grinding, you saved time by increasing the frame rate. PSII's touted for having over 80 hours worth of gameplay (I seriously read this somewhere), but trust me when I say this, the game only takes forever because of the leveling that's required to get through some of the dungeons. The last time I played the game, it wasn't so bad because I bothered keeping usable items that you can spam in fights for free healing and whatnot (used to sell items without a second thought, yay meseta). Plus it's good to have an idea of what you're doing in the first place... And, heck, I've had to look up a walkthrough the first time I completed the game just to find out where the hell one of the invisible towers was located on Dezo (freaking Naval >_< I always got so lost in Skure, I'd wander around there for hours).

It seems like, among fans, having a party with Rolf, Rudo, Amy, and Anna is what people typically go with. I've tried all the other characters, but none of them were terribly impressive or suited my playing style. I like Shir, but I found that she was lacking. =\ Can't say I used Megid, techs that hurt my party are things I avoid.

PSII did have its problems, but all things considered, it was great for its time. If I had played PSI first, I know I would've been disappointed with how it turned out. Probably a good thing I started with PSIII and IV, kinda makes me appreciate the PS series more. =p

[Chillthorn]

When I first played PS IV around 16 years ago It got me really interested in the ones before that, and the local video game rental/store had all three of the Genesis titles, so that's were I rented III and IV. Someone gave me II for free at the time I think, and I ended up ordering part I. It was funny how much harder these games were back then, I remember playing PS II and just getting through the first dungeon or two felt like beating an entire game, lol! I like how it switches from a Sci-fi/fantasy style to fantasy/sci-fi. The whole Dezo portion of the game to the end is my favorite part even though the entire game is awesome. I also thought Mother Brain was one of the coolest final boss fights in an RPG.

[Mono]

Rolf, Rudo, Anna and Amy were my choice when I had my first full PSII run as well. If I have to break through unknown enemies ahead, I choose to be as blunt and bold as possible, so Anna provided the decent attack I needed with some bonus tactical techs to boost up my team and Amy to mend them up without needing to go back to town or overload my backpack with trimates or whatever.

[Chillthorn]

Sorry it took so long to respond, but did any of you guys have Anna hold the Snow crown to use DEBAN at the beginning of alot of really tough battles? I found that to be extremely helpful instead of waiting for Amy to cast it after your party being damaged by difficult enemies, plus using up tp. Having Amy hold the color scarf was an idea, so Anna could use Deban first, then Amy increase agility after if needed. I know I mentioned that before, but just curious if anyone else did this. I only went to the walkthrough a few times or so, so there was no specific order in which I confronted the invisible towers in Dezo. I think I ended up doing the hardest one sooner than I should have, the one were you fall through all the holes, was that Naval? I kept going back to that on and off for like three days, lol.

[TheTortfeasor]

Sorry it took so long to respond, but did any of you guys have Anna hold the Snow crown to use DEBAN at the beginning of alot of really tough battles? I found that to be extremely helpful instead of waiting for Amy to cast it after your party being damaged by difficult enemies, plus using up tp. Having Amy hold the color scarf was an idea, so Anna could use Deban first, then Amy increase agility after if needed. I know I mentioned that before, but just curious if anyone else did this. I only went to the walkthrough a few times or so, so there was no specific order in which I confronted the invisible towers in Dezo. I think I ended up doing the hardest one sooner than I should have, the one were you fall through all the holes, was that Naval? I kept going back to that on and off for like three days, lol.

The dungeon with the pits is Ikuto. Wicked hard.

I've been playing the games for roughly 15 years now. My team is usually some combination of Rolf/Rudo and then two of Amy/Anna/Kain. In the playthrough I'm working on now I have Anna and Kain. As for the snow crown, I have Anna throw one out at the beginning of some of the harder battles and try to tread water with my healing. It usually works.

I'm actually writing this post instead of going to Ikuto (I usually do the dungeons in a funny order. First Naval, then Guaron, then Ikuto, finally Menobe. Guaron and Naval have stupid easy setups. Menobe and Ikuto are just HARD.

[RolfNeiRudoUgly]

Anna + Snow Crown is a great tactic, almost worth having Anna just for that reason. I remember when I was a kid, I used to have Anna in my party she always got first priority, so I would always make her Snow Crown as her first action. I recently played it again but completely forgot about that tactic (I had Rolf, Rudo, Kain, Amy) and found that it having the enemies get a free crack at your party before you Snow Crown is pretty annoying, as you usually end up winning the battle during the second round.

[adrian80]

I vaguely remember my first playthrough of PS2 as a kid, and it took a seriously long time. I actually didn't know you could issue orders between combat turns at will, it just seemed to happen very randomly. Imagine trying to beat Dark Force like that and without visiphone.

So yes, I had no idea about the Snow Crown or such items back then, and had to grind ridiculous amounts to survive the dungeons. In the end I had maxed out my final four characters.