Phantasy Star Swag Giveaway Contest -- Entry Period Over

[The Overlord]

I'd say the most memorable moment for me was when on my Humar in PSO GC I played the game entirely offline. So, after I defeated Dark Falz on Ultimate I attempted to go kill Olga Flow on ultimate, I had about 11 to 12 scape dolls and so I finally reached him by going through the entire trials of the Seabed on my 121 level char I beleive at the time I reach him and take out his first form. But the real battle began when his second form was unleashed he kept stealing my soul and swapping it with Flowens body and I kept moving, dodging and trying to attempt damage by switching magic so anyways i'm fighting him for over a hour as each of my scapedoll slips away and than it ends up he defeats me. I was totally shocked at how much stronger he was than Dark Falz and the fact that he took out all my scapedolls.

So much later on I get to 130, and my equipment is a bit better I go on to fight him and I only end up using one scapedoll and defeat him on Ultimate, I finally truly beat the game to myself and it was entirely offline ending up being my most memorable moment.

[furrypaws]

EDIT: Oh crap. This is not good. It's still 9:02 PM where I am (EST), so hopefully this is still qualified. Please, please let this be qualified. >_<; EDIT 2: To elaborate, I'm freaked out because the default time zone (which I was too lazy to change) said 1:00 AM on the 20th when I posted. Hopefully PSOW runs off of EST like I do. x.x

My greatest memory on Phantasy Star, eh? Very hard to choose, of course, but one stands out clearly for sure. It took place on Phantasy Star Universe with a group of friends I'll never forget, more than two years ago by now. I remember things in the third person, if that clears anything up. Yes, I'm weird. *INCOMING WALL O TEXT, SORRY STAFF*

Enter Furrypaws, the crimson haired beast. Nearly six foot tall, his innate physical strength shows in his body. Despite being designed to be an indestructible warrior, a bio-tank of sorts, he wields a bow and a staff. At level 21, he is one of the few Beast Forces to have existed, especially in those tough times. You see, few would even challenge creatures such as the SEED in those days without a team of GUARDIANS behind them, and what a team Furry had. Opening up his mail system, Furry noticed that the three of his greatest friends were currently fighting around the Gurhalian System. Sending out a mail, they almost instantly appeared at his side. Yashato-Kun, a Human Fighgunner with skin pale as the frost and snow with icy blue hair to match, his skill with a Double Saber unmatched by many, Kahlynn, a Newman Fortetecher with red hair down her back ending in a neat braid, with techs strong enough to make the strongest SEED cower in fear, and last but not least, Quinte. Quinte was also a Human Fighgunner, his burning soul and passion hotter than any invasion, even those seen during the war that was Firebreak, his hair a dark, dark purple to match his tanned skin. If Yashato had any match in the Double Saber, it was he.

With all of them assembled, the red-haired beast revealed their mission. With all three listening intently, they learned their quest would be one they had taken many times before. Make it to the Kugu Hot Springs, a favorite held by all. The one thing holding them back from visiting it more often, however, was a ferocious monster unlike any other. Leaving nearly no time to attack, dishing out ferocious damage, and just overall more durable than a Dragon, no sensible GUARDIAN would face such a creature without such great friends at his or her side. They had faith in eachother, and so the journey began. There was one last thing, though. As Furry began to select the missions, he noticed they hadn't been to the Kugu Hot Springs since he was 19, meaning they had not tried the B rank yet. Plus, with Furry's newfound nanoblast of strength, what could stand up to them? Although the mission packed a punch on C rank even on that team a few levels ago, the brave (and slightly foolish in retrospect) team took the extra challenge. Looking at eachother warily upon exiting the G-Flier, they unanimously decided; no turning back now.

They had not a clue of what the monsters were like. And, what a fight the SEED put up! Furrypaws had but one rod, as the economy was low unless you were in on the Elemental Photon trade. On that rod was Foie, Barta, Resta, and Reverser, but he mainly stayed true to the supports and let Kahlynn handle the nuking. She was much better equipped than he, higher tier class with a higher level, and simply more skilled in the long run. As Quinte and Yashato would hack away at the spawns of Ollakas and Ageetas with a ferocious display of Tornado Dance, Kahlynn would stay back and dazzle them with stunning displays of Rabarta and Rafoie, even bringing out Diga when need be. Furrypaws with his enhanced defense could follow Quinte and Yashato about, casting Resta and Reverser without a moment's notice. The team worked like the pack of Ollakas they were fighting, going through tough spawn after tough spawn. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours as they trudged through the Neudazian forest. All four went through enough scape dolls, mates, and photon charges than what a whole AMF squadron would take. They were relentless, and the SEED stood no chance. Block after block, struggle after struggle, death after death, they pushed on and became stronger and more skilled because of it.

At long last, they reached the third block. A groan broke out between the group of GUARDIANS as they remembered what this meant. Tengohgs, and a whole lot of them. The only thing that had really been a nuisance to them before this were the Goshins, constantly moving out of harm's way only to spit another foie or two. Furry had saved his nanoblasts for those nuisances before, and he knew what he had to save them for now. After a few troublesome spawns of Gohmons and Ollakas, Yashato shouted at the first Tengohg of the mission. All anyone could see was a flying purple blur as Yashato "danced" towards the Tengohg with Quinte right on his tail. Before his Double Saber had even touched the winged creature, Kahlynn had already let loose a flurry of Bartas and Rabartas in a desperate attempt to freeze him down. None worked, of course. What were you expecting, Ambition of Illuminus stats? They all persisted, and even Furry switched out to his spear to try and get in on the action. It was a battle of endurance, and after a few minutes (which is a very long time for just one creature, mind you), it was done. The Tengohg fell with a great cry (which sounded an awful lot to the four like, "Victory!"). Regrouping, with Furry in charge of healing and Kahlynn in charge of Shifta, Deband, Retier, and Zodial, they moved forward, less excitedly than they had before. To their horror, the four had hardly taken fifty steps when not one, but two Tengohgs appeared, crying their horrible cry. Formulating a quick strategy, Quinte rushed one, Yashato kept the other busy, both trying to lure the two together so Kahlynn could unleash her ferocious Ra-techs on them. Furry stood by Quinte and Yashato, dashing from one side to another to cast a few casts of Resta whenever it was needed. All four were kept quite occupied, Kahlynn trying her hardest to hit both birds at once, Quinte and Yashato luring them together while giving damage and not taking it, and the red haired beast keeping them all alive. After what seemed the longest time and a few close calls, one went down. With a cheer, all four focused all of their energy on ripping apart the last one. With their heightened spirits, the creature stood no chance. If it were possible in the universe of Phantasy Star, all of them would certainly be sweating bullets. With another regroup, more encouraging talk, and yet another restock, they pressed forward, knowing full well that together, they could do anything. Even topple a level 35 ugly fat warty pimply revolting winged monster.

After one or two more spawns of Tengohgs (my memory by now is fairly fuzzy), there was a splt in the road. After a bit of discussion amongst themselves, they came up with a plan. Furrypaws and Kahlynn would take the shorter route leading to the Onmagoug while Yashato and Quinte would take the longer route to find the key. Nodding their heads at eachother and wishing the other group luck, they split off their separate ways. By the looks of Quinte and Yashato's comments ("D=" and "wtf" respectively), they were facing the same as Furry and Kahlynn. More, and more, and more Tengohg spawns. While Furry and Kahlynn both started out casting, the female force made a plan after they had both been knocked around a bit. Since Furry was only a Force and not a Fortetecher and he was a Beast, he had a semi-decent amount of attack power, and as such, he brought a few melee weapons with him along with his bow. When Kahlynn revealed what her thoughts were, Furry followed it instantly. With his Saber and handgun, he kept the Tengohgs busy while Kahlynn cast devastating TECHNIC after devastating TECHNIC. Furry was doing incredibly low damage, but that was not the point. With Kahlynn's incredible teching power to back him up, the Tengohgs eventually went down (why, if memory serves better than a Partner Machinery, there were three long, arduous fights). By incredible chance, the other two met up with Furrypaws and Kahlynn at almost the exact same time at the same place, despite having fought a few more. While Furry was healing, they all looked towards the looming door in the distance. From many times of playing the mission, they knew what that very portal meant. With little notice, Yashato ran off to the door with the other three entailing, all shouting with glee and laughing at their accomplishment. It had been a few hours by now, and all were impatient to begin the fight. Standing before the final ominous portal with Kahlynn's buffs on them all, they all looked at eachother and nodded. No words were said, but it was understood. They would fight this fight, and not only that, they would finish it, once and for all. The Hot Springs water would never taste so sweet...or hot. All four running in simultaneously with one last battle cry, the loading screen began.

The loading screen seemed slightly longer than normal, but Furry shook it off as the fight began. The sequence finished, and to the three's horror...yes, that's it. Three. Yashato had disconnected during the loading screen. They knew the fight would have been tough with Yashato, and he was a third of their major damage triangle! What would happen now? As Yashato rejoined the group to encourage them some more and express his disappointment, the remaining three ran towards the Onmagoug, and witnessed a terrible thing. They were doing less than half the damage they were doing to the Tengohgs, and they knew that this beast would be not letting them hit as much and would have even more HP. Together, they began whacking at it with all of their combined force. To add to the problems even more, as Furry began to cycle through his weapons palette, he realized despairingly that he was doing zero damage...with everything! Barta, Foie, his bow, his saber (and even the photon art as well!), it was all landing zeroes. They kept strong, and kept moving. Shortly in, the Onmagoug let loose a wild tornado attack. Not expecting one, let alone three to hit him, Quinte went down. As the red haired beast charged over to revive his friend, a strange phenomenon occurred. The lying human merely disappeared from sight, but not from the group. As Furry and Kahlynn put two and two together, Quinte revealed the conclusion they were slowly dreading to come to. By mistake, the child had hit "Return to Lobby", and was now out of the fight. After barraging him with insults, the two Forces stood side by side and began trying to take out the beast. Kahlynn's damage was slow, but it was all they had. Not more than two minutes after Quinte's disappearance, one last thing that the beast had been somewhat expecting came. Kahlynn stopped moving and responding. Letting loose something similar to, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!", Kahlynn's name left the group. The red haired Newman had disconnected. Furry dodged the Onmangoug's attacks as best as he could while he waited for Kahlynn to rejoin. As the girl rejoined and apologized, Furry asked what the plan was while dodging windballs and lightning strikes left and right. The problem was, Furry had ten scapes with him. That meant he either had to burn through all ten of them to go back to the lobby, or they had to abandon the mission. Those scapes had cost him 50k, and as he began to beg for an abandoning, Kahlynn spoke. "Nah, we've worked this hard to get here. I want to finish this." Quinte and Yashato followed suit with the same opinion. Crestfallen, the beast tried hopelessly to convince them otherwise. Finally, he said he'd drop his scapes, but not without another outburst from Kahlynn. "Nah, I'd rather see you burn through them. >=D" Furry complied and begrudgingly took hits from the Onmagoug to die nine times and then one. Finally, making it back to the lobby, Furry tried to set everyone back up.

Yashato sighed, and said, "Tbh, I dont really feel like it."

"Wh...what?" Furry responded, slightly aghast.

"Yeah," Kahlynn picked up. "It's been kind of a long day. I think I'll pull off for tonight."

"But...you said..."

"yea, ive had enough of this," Quinte joined in. After all three of them agreeing that it had been fun and that they wouldn't try this again for a loooong time, with a red haired beast paling in the corner, they all, one by one, logged off for the night.

And the poor (in all meanings of the word) Beast was left speechless...until the next day, where he promptly and without restraint gave the three nothing short of hell.

---
With so much time gone by, only Quinte is left on Phantasy Star Universe and is still an awesome friend. I have contact with Yashato, but he's never coming back to PSU. As for Kahlynn, I lost contact with her when she said she left for home, so maybe, just maybe, she'll stumble across this and we'll be able to make contact again.

I'd also like to take one last mention to Cranberry the FOnewearl. You were and still are a wonderful friend to me, a friendship I will cherish always. Thank you for the two years of fun and adventures we've had on Ragol and off. You are and always will be one of my greatest friends.

[Yamishi]

I'm crossing my fingers that PSOW runs on EST as well (or any timezone behind there :P).

I have many Phantasy Star memories, so picking a favorite is tough. Here goes anyway.

During the GCN days, I managed to sucker a couple of my friends (Zen Naito and Yakusen, if anyone's heard of 'em) into playing PSO.
One day, during the fantastic time of life known as high school, Zen Naito and I tricked the school's librarian into lending us a video projector. We took it to one of the school's many computer labs, hooked up a Gamecube, and proceeded to project PSO in front of a class of would-be lunch-eaters. During the time, we tried quite a few different gameplay methods, and ended up getting the most attention during some Battle-Mode action.

Zen brought his saber down upon my RAcast's metal head. No problem; pop some Dimates!
He switched to a doublesaber. WHACK-WHACK! I was down, but not out!
I brought out my mechguns and gave him the best chukchukchuk that I could. No good! He slashed clear through me with a sword!
Trimate! Running for my life, I cycled through what few weapons I had. Perhaps I would give that newfangled thingy a try... what was it? NUG-2000? What in the green-glades of Forest 1 was a NUG? Oh well! Desperate times call for some experimentation, in the hopes that maybe I can--
CHOOM. Insta-kill on my poor little human buddy.
I was feeling nice, so I let him back up with a Moon Atomizer.
CHOOM. So THIS is what winning feels like.
CHOOM.
CHOOM.
CHOOM.
By now, the entire classroom is watching us, with the image of our PSO gaming projected on a wall, as I repeatedly slaughtered my best friend with a bazooka. Some were laughing at how easily I won; some were booing me for poor sportsmanship. After a quick agreement, known as the "No More Bazookas Treaty," Zen and I went back to exchanging blows, until we ran out of healing items. After that, we took turns running away from each other, squealing with girlish fear.

We also played Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the projected screen, but that's another story for another day!

[Ryna]

The entry period is now over for the Phantasy Star Swag Giveaway Contest. We'd like to thank everyone that contributed a story! Entries will be judged in accordance with the guidelines outlined in the first post. It is expected the winners will be announced around April 26th.