Game:

Phantasy Star II (1989)

Duration: 3:16:31

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Game: Phantasy Star II
Platform: Sega Genesis
Completed: September 14, 2021
Rules: Beat the game using Rolf only. Except he's YOYO!
Part: 1 of 7

I just completed this game and enjoyed it so much that I decided to see if it was possible for me to do a Rolf only run of the game. But then I had an even better idea...a YOYO only run! YOYO was the name my father and I gave to Rolf the very first time we played (and beat) this game back in the early nineties so I found it appropriate to let YOYO get his due here as the ultimate challenge. I also named Rudo "YAZO" in this playthrough since that was his name in that same game, but I never use him for obvious reasons.

The game doesn't allow you to leave Nei at home so the first order of business was to have her killed in the first battle. She will never be revived until a certain point in the game where it's required for a very brief period of time.

My saved games from my previous playthrough are there when I start but I end up writing over them all. Since this was a more difficult playthrough, I decided to map out my paths and plan things out beforehand. Because of this, I don't talk to all of the people in the towns or visit unnecessary places or grab treasures I don't need. I also knew exactly what gear I wanted to buy and didn't have to deal with trying to figure all of that annoying stuff out this time around. For all of that fun stuff, see my first "casual" playthrough where I goof off to the max and try to see just about everything.

At first I thought that the hidapipe would be super useful in a YOYO only run, but I read up on them before starting and apparently they only work if your level is some insane number higher than the enemies around you, which barely ever happens. Maybe I could have made it work here but I wanted all of the experience and didn't want to cheese the game too much. Finally, a nice perk to using only one character is that they get 100% of the experience gained in battle, rather than having to split it up between multiple people. That allows you to gain levels much faster.

Anyways, it's YOYO! Here are some highlights:

17 minutes - In a YOYO only run, one of the most dangerous things is being paralyzed or put to sleep. You have to rely on randomly snapping out of it, which may or may not happen. Then you have to hope that the enemy doesn't turn right around and do it again. Here we have the first enemy that can just end your game with bad luck...the Poisoner? The Poisoner paralyzes you? Ok.

33 minutes, 15 seconds - I think I learned both Gifoi and Tsu at the end of this battle. Is that normal?

1 hour, 15 minutes, 10 seconds - It's fun that you can enter a pipe from the side like this. It actually makes for a nice shortcut here.

1 hour, 55 minutes, 35 seconds - Look at this absolute nonsense. Like I said before, enemies that can paralyze you have a chance of just ending your game. Funny thing is, they are coded not to waste a turn trying to paralyze you if you're already paralyzed. So they just wait until immediately after you recover and then paralyze you again.

Part 1 of 7

"Phantasy Star II - YOYO Only - 091421_1 (Part 1)"

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