Story
- The long, long struggle of ancient times finally ended...
- The victor sacrificed the vanquished to the heavens.
- Four bells tolled. Four torches were lit.
- And the world continued for thousands of years...
Phantasy Star IV takes place 1,000 years after the events of Phantasy Star II. It is the story of Chaz Ashley, a young bounty hunter, who, along with his friends and allies, unwittingly becomes the savior of the Algol solar system. The story begins on the planet Motavia, which has gone through dramatic climate changes since the end of Phantasy Star II. After an event called the Great Collapse, much of the once-thriving ecosystem had been reduced to desert, and life had become progressively more difficult for the planet's inhabitants. To make matters worse, there had been a marked increase in the numbers of the "biomonsters," a catch-all term for the strange and violent aberrations of Motavia's flora and fauna.
Keeping these creatures under control is the job of "hunters", and it is during an investigation into such an outbreak that the characters learn of the relationship between the biomonster problem and the planet's ecological crisis. The planet is in the process of returning to its original desert state as the climate and biosphere-controlling devices installed over a thousand years previous begin to fail. The reasons behind the malfunctions are clarified as the plot unfolds, relating directly to the events of Phantasy Star II.
Chaz and his allies connect the world's troubles to a cult leader called Zio, "The Black Magician," whose aims appear to be total annihilation, not only of Motavia, but of the whole Algol solar system. The heroes therefore decide to stop Zio in order to restore the computer systems maintaining Motavia. However, it soon becomes clear that Zio is merely the vanguard to a much larger, more dangerous enemy, long buried in the past. The secrets of the Algol star system are revealed as Chaz and company progress through the story, discovering both the nature of the threat to their worlds as well as the safeguards placed in a time long forgotten.
Read more about this topic: Phantasy Star IV: The End Of The Millennium
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“One story recounts that a Tennessean, after a single day in the then almost impenetrable tangle of cypress, briars, and canebreaks, pestered by myriads of mosquitoes, and bogged in the heavy gumbo mud, declared: “Arkansas is not part of the world for which Jesus Christ died—I want none of it.””
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“A good story is one that isn’t demanding, that proceeds from A to B, and above all doesn’t remind us of the bad times, the cardboard patches we used to wear in our shoes, the failed farms, the way people you love just up and die. It tells us instead that hard work and perseverance can overcome all obstacles; it tells lie after lie, and the happy ending is the happiest lie of all.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)
“No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him.... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart’s blood.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)