binary star located in the Perseus constellation. In fact, the ‘ghoul’ star was thought to represent the eye of Medusa, due to its variable brightness” (Algol).

In addition to the constant references to Medusa and Perseus, there are a number of other myth-like events in Phantasy Star. “When Myau eats the Nuts of Laerma, he becomes clothed in flame and emits a blinding light. When he is visible again, he has been transformed into a beautiful winged beast. Myau flaps his wings proudly” (Text from Phantasy Star I). Events like this gave Phantasy Star a fantastic, mythical feel. It made the game difficult to put down, and easy to spend hours playing at a time.

Shortly after the release of the Genesis in 1989 Sega released Phantasy Star II, thefollow-up to their most revered Master System game. With Yuji Naka and Rieko Kodama in charge of programming and design respectively, the sequel worked within the bounds dictated by the original game (Click here to see a full list of credits). Just like Phantasy Star, its first sequel had a captivating storyline and made wonderful use of the new Genesis technology. There was one major change though. Many of the mythical qualities of the first game were not in the second. Instead of fighting mythical beasts, the story describes the enemies as genetic and computer experiments gone wrong. This changes the story for the better. Instead of rehashing the same plot, a new menace has caused problems in Phantasy Star II. Only near the end of the game