Game #230: Phantasie – Part III: Victory!

It took me 32.2 hours to finally be able to pump my fist in the air in celebration of a hard-fought victory.

The entire Phantasie experience served to remind me why this was one of my absolute favorite series growing up. It has story, several dungeon crawls, a lot of descriptive and interactive text associated with each dungeon crawl, a great combat system, a multitude of different equipment items, magic, and a robust spell selection for casters. In my last game update, I had explored five dungeons and was continuing to map and explore the outdoor terrain.

When exploring the dungeons, you find numbered scrolls which are extremely important finds. The scrolls contain information which serve to world build and give you ultimate goals to try and complete. In my latest discovery, I learned that you cannot visit or receive recognition from the Gods until you find nine rings of power and four runes of earth, air, fire and water.

JR Trolkin’s castle, has you trapped once you are inside. There are several doors that you can’t initially open. Throw in secret doors that you have to constantly search for and you have a winding maze on your hands. Your main purpose is to find JR Trolkin’s treasure room and defeat him. It is here that I found the first three Rings of Power.

The Dungeon of the Bleebs was one of the more eccentric dungeons in the game. The entire dungeon is a logic puzzle to be solved. There are blue, green, and red bleebs and each of them divulge information about the other. Based on their statements you have to discern which are lying and which are telling the truth. Blue, green, and red pools serve as teleports which carry you all about the dungeon. Guess incorrectly, and your party is gravely injured. If you can work your way through this puzzle you will be awarded with three more Rings of Power.

The Dosnebian Temple is a nasty dungeon. First of all, the temple will not even allow you inside unless you have a minotaur in your party. I did not, thus I had to drop my Thief character that I spent all of this time building up experience with and create a new minotaur character. Once inside I found that this is the first dungeon that is populated with Black Knights which are extremely hard to kill. There are also a lot of traps found within this dungeon, and it takes a bit of experimentation until you can make your way deeper inside. There are two more Rings of Power that I found in this dungeon and getting out and escaping was not easy.

It was at this point that I only had eight of the Rings of Power and I only had the Runes of air, earth, and fire. It took me some time, but I found a third magical pool while exploring the continent. The pool was magically protected and I could not reach it. I found that the only way to reach the pool was by casting a Transportation spell while within a town and choosing the town of Phantasie as my destination (all of the different towns are listed to choose from). I was then able to reach the pool and enter it. Now that I had entered all three magical pools in the game, I had to backtrack to the dungeon of Lord Wood’s Castle and finally be awarded with a Water Rune.

The ninth Ring of Power was found in the same fashion. When I Transported to Phantasie and went shopping in the Armory, the only item for sale was the last ring! I purchased the last Ring of Power and with all rings and runes in my possession I was at last ready to visit the Gods. But where are the Gods? Once again the answer lies within the Transport spell. When you cast Transport and scroll through the Towns listed, you’ll find that at the end of the list there is a blank space, if you choose this blank space, you will be transported to Olympis, home of the Gods.

The floating castle of Zeus is the easiest dungeon to get through. It consists of only six rooms, each room with a test that the party must pass. If you have all four runes and the nine Rings of Power you will automatically pass the tests of five of the six rooms. The last room is a test of combat. If you can defeat the denizens in the room, you will then pass the last test. Once all the tests have been passed, Zeus will appear before you and award you with the God Rune. This rune allows you to withstand the terrible fear spell that normally drives you away from the last dungeon and allows you to finally enter it without being turned away.

The Black Lord’s Fortress is the last dungeon and also the hardest. The foes found near the dungeon and within prove quite a challenge. From Dragon Kings to Spectres the gamut is not easy. This dungeon is also heavily populated with Black Knights which are incredibly lethal AND hard to kill. I found that it was incredibly important to be strong enough that I could hold back my most potent combat spells because you will definitely need them to defeat the Dark Lord. The final combat and ultimate showdown with the big bad in this dungeon is an incredibly difficult and lethal battle.

I found the varying dungeons in this game, with their rich storytelling, to be highly rewarding. The unique combat experience also heightened the enjoyment of the game for me. The grinding and amount of time needed to puzzle through and finish the game is very real. Despite the uniqueness of this game compared to those that have come before it, if you are not a fan of grinding you may not rate this game as highly as I have. Even at higher levels of proficiency, gold, needed to pay for training, was scarce and thus the grinding became very real.

I rate this game very high, immensely enjoyed my experience with it, and I cannot wait to play the sequel to it.

Next up on the docket……..Wizard’s Crown.

Until next time…..