Phantasy Star II

Phantasy Star II is a RPG released on the Mega Drive in 1989 in Japan and 1990 worldwide.

Plot
It is 1000 years after the events of Phantasy Star. The planet Mota has been transformed from a desert wasteland into a fertile bountiful utopian world, the environment and biology being completely controlled by a central computer by the name of Mother Brain. However the world has recently been overun by dangerous Bio Monsters, something Mother Brain should prevent from happening.

A young man named Rolf is haunted by dreams of Alis Landale struggling for her life against a demon. No matter what he does he is unable to help her. After awakening from this reoccurring dream one day he is summoned by his boss, the commander of Mota, who gives Rolf a dangerous mission; to retrieve the data recorder from the Biosystems Lab and find out why dangerous bio monsters are being created.

After stopping back by his home to pack his things, Rolf prepares to set out on his mission, but his friend Nei, a manufactured human/bio monster hybrid known as a Numan, insists on accompanying him on this dangerous mission. Rolf eventually reluctantly agrees and the pair set out to the Biosystems lab.

Unfortunately, guarding the Biosystems lab is Darum, a man who attempted to take Nei's life mere months earlier until Rolf intervened. Deciding to avoid getting into a fight with Darum again, Rolf and Nei decide to take a detour and visit the ruined town of Arima.

A villager tells the duo that Darum used to be a good person until his daughter was kidnapped by the very same bandits that have destroyed Arima. Rolf and Nei decide to rescue her, and are joined by Rudo, a hunter, and the three head to Shure, the location of the criminal organization.

Combat
Combat is turn based, and players can select from 'Fight' or 'Strategy'. Fight engages in combat with the characters attacking with the weapons currently on their persons.

Pressing 'Strategy' will allow players to access 'Order' or 'Run'. 'Run' will allow the party to run from combat encounters, although it doesn't always work and if it fails players will take one turn of damage.

Pressing 'Order' will allow the player to select one of four options for the character to perform in battle:


 * 1) Perform a standard attack: The character will attack with their equipped weapon(providing they have one).
 * 2) Perform a technique ability: Usually a magic attack, players can cast damaging magic attacks such as Rolf's starting ability 'Foi' or cast healing abilities such as Nei's starting ability 'Res' which can also be used outside of combat to keep the party healed up.
 * 3) Access the inventory: Allows players to access items and use them in this turn.
 * 4) Defend: Which prevents the player character from attacking but prevents them from taking damage to a certain level.

Overworld
Within the towns, there are several different shops. They include an armor shop, a weapons shop, a hospital that lets your party heal in exchange for money, a data shop that allows you the ability to save, and a clone shop that allows you to make back up clones of any fallen party member.

The party member in first position will be the character the player controls and up to three other party members will follow behind.

Entering Rolf and Nei's home will allow the player to reshuffle the party members. Stats can be checked from anywhere on the overworld.

Trivia

 * Lutz, a character from the original Phantasy Star appears in this game. Due to a translation error he is referred to as Noah in the original western version of the game causing some confusion amongst fans at the time.
 * Using Shir, the thief party member, allows you to steal the Visiphone from Motavia's Central Tower. This allows the player to  save at any point . She needs to be level 10 or higher to achieve this.
 * Phantasy Star II's cast outside Rolf and Nei are notably underdeveloped within this game. This was mitigated somewhat by the Japanese exclusive Phantasy Star II Text Adventures titles, a set of eight text based story games that showcase the backstory of each party members and flesh each of the party members out considerably. Fan translations exist of these titles.
 * Nei cameos in Segagaga alongside other Phantasy Star heroines.
 * Rolf appeared in SEGA Heroes as a Blue Beyondering Hero.
 * Nei and Neifirst both cameo in Nintendo Switch's Sega Ages opening as scorecard cameos.
 * Nei appears as a figure in the Sega Gals collection Vol. 1 alongside Sarah Bryant, Arle Nadja, Ulala, Ramaya and Red Ring Rico.
 * This game appears in the Sega Megadrive/Genesis collection.