A word from the author
Writing the protagonist Alisa’s character was a bit of a struggle. The thing is, I had been writing Momotarou Dentetsu before I took this job. I very nearly ended up writing it like this:
“‘Miss Alisa, you defeated the enemy! You can now gleefully take 50 meseta! Hahaha, ha!’ said Tyrone.”
But, the end result was that Alisa ended up being a stubborn tomboy, which is quite cute in its own way.
Indeed, the struggle was real. I would get all mixed up because I was continuing to work on Momotarou Dentetsu (which is a comedy) while I was working on this. So I guess Phantasy Star is about 90% serious and 10% comedy.
To start with, Phantasy Star is based on a video game by Sega. It’s a world filled with robots, laser guns and spaceships, and then blends those elements in with dragons, swords & sorcery — it’s quite a fun RPG. The underground labyrinths are animated, and I was particularly impressed by the story’s ending. The fusion of sci-fi and heroic magical fantasy is just my type of thing. I love creating these kinds of novels, so I just had to take the chance when it came up.
I know of several stories like this that mix science and magic together in the same way. For example, there’s Empire of the East by American author Fred Saberhagen, which is about a world where magic has been revived in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The main character rides around in a mystical war tank called ‘Elephant’.
Then there’s the story Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson which features flying broomsticks equipped with jet engines and passenger cabins.
Another inspiration would be What Good is a Glass Dagger? from Larry Niven’s Warlock series The Magic Goes Away; the author here successfully built a scientific world of magical elements, sword & sorcery. Niven’s influence on video games is quite prolific — maybe you have even heard of his Warlock series before.
The image of “Chaos” which appears in Alisa’s Adventure here was taken from the Eternal Champion series (especially the Erekosë series and Elric series). You can read these books from middle school or high school on up, so please make sure to check them out sometime.
Anyhow, the epic Phantasy Star will be coming out with a sequel this spring for the Sega Megadrive (Genesis). This time the graphics are improved, apparently your allies appear on screen with you during battle sequences with battle animation, etc. The story has also been powered up, I’m really looking forward to it. (But I still haven’t gotten a Megadrive for myself yet, though…)
Finally, I would like to thank the artist, Kunio “Kuny Noone” Aoki, for his beautiful illustrations of Alisa.
See you again next time when the sequel comes out.
※ Mitsutaka Ōde
-Born in 1961 in Furano City, Hokkaido, Japan
-Blood type B, annnd a Scorpio~
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