Retro Megabit

So this is pretty cool. Not very useful but cool.

Any 8-bit and 16-bit Phantasy Star fan knows that Phantasy Star II on the Sega Genesis came with a very hefty hint guide. And while the Japanese Mega Drive version of Phantasy Star II didn’t come with a hint guide they were available for purchase. I’ve known about them for a very long time but I never had good access to hunt them down.

Thanks to Japantiquity on Instagram (and FaceBook) I managed to get my hands on these two guides for a fair price.

How Japantiquity works is you get access to someone with easy access to the Japanese market. Request what you’re looking for and a small premium will be applied and it’s yours.

The two Phantasy Star II hint guides pictured below cost me $20 USD each.

Phantasy Star II pictured with two hint guides.

Set of two.

They appear to be a set of two. The book with Nei on the cover I believe is Part I. And because Dark Force is shown at the end of the book with Rolf on the cover I believe it’s Part II.

Maybe there are some Japanese readers out there who can set me straight.

Your journey begins!

Nei First, heart breaking.

Are those space faring boats?

Dark Force!

The second book with Rolf even has a small walk through for the first Phantasy Star at the end of the book.

If you look close at the photo below with the dungeon map and with Dark Force pictured you can see a hidden door is marked! As a kid I was stuck here for so long. I had no idea there was a hidden door. You had to turn and face what appeared to be a wall before it would reveal itself.

Mini Phantasy Star 1 guide.

The last dugeon of the first epic adventure.

Adverts for some early Mega Drive releases.

More hint guides.

Check out that last image above. Looks like lots of Sega Mega Drive games got hint books. This might be a new rabbit hole to tumble down.

I’ve also been collecting the Sega Ages 2500 games released for the Playstation 2 and Japantiquity managed to get me Fits of the North Star for $25 USD. It’s actually been many years since I’ve bought a game from the Sega Ages 2500 collection. Some are excellent and some are terrible. It’s a real mixed bag.

Below is my Sega Ages 2500 collection so far. I’d love to find the (good) Space Harrier and Monster World Complete Collection someday. But I’m really happy to have the Phantasy Star I and II remakes as well as the Phantasy Star Complete Collection. Those are by far the highlights of this series.

Of course I had to pay for shipping which cost me $20 USD by boat and took about 2 months to reach me. I’m OK with that. I’m much happier saving on shipping and waiting.

All in, this was a good Japanese Sega fix!