Dezoris

Games in which Dezoris Is Featured

In Phantasy Star, Dezoris is a desolate world of ice, furthest from its sun, Algol.  It has a human colony, but for the most part it is the home to the native Dezorians, and a wide range of monsters.  Unlike on the other known planets, Motavia and Palma, the human colony of Skure has no apparent centralized government.  The Dezorians, too, have their own settlement, and are prone to behavior which tends to call in to question the veracity of their statements.  This theme of unconventional behavior is one that carries through all the subsequent encounters that players will make with Dezorians throughout the franchise.

All surface water on Dezoris is frozen.  There are mountains, as well as ice fields.  The latter can be negotiated with the use of a special device, but the former precludes overland travel.  Much of the travel on Dezoris is through ice caves, and all of the villages on the planet are actually reached underground.  Space travel between Palma or Dezoris is not possible via spaceport.  One can assume that the original human colonists traveled by a one-way, possibly early generation spacecraft.

Interaction with the natives of Dezoris can be through combat; both Dezorians and Evil Heads are formidable, if avoidable, encounters.  One may guess that Dezorians are regular folk, and perhaps Evil Heads are those who could not fit into Dezorian society (conformity in a society where half of an entire town habitually lies can't be easy).  This is just conjecture, however.  One common theme also explored in the fourth installment of the franchise is the religiousness of the Dezorians.  It's said that Corona Tower is the site of a holy ritual, which the players much replicate in order to mature a sacred tree's product that is vital to reaching the dictator of Algol, Lassic.

While politics in the Algol star system seem ever-present in both Palman and Motavian society, Dezoris seems more distant to the problems of Algol.  This doesn't prevent the Palmans from suggesting tactics for the player characters, but while they are aware of Lassic's tyranny, it doesn't seem to affect them directly.  Perhaps their isolation is a result of Lassic's influence, but there is no good evidence to support this.

Phantasy Star II begins on Mota (formerly Motavia), and once players manage to disentangle themselves from some tragic events, they use a spacecraft to reach Dezo (formerly Dezoris), and what was at one time the colony of Skure.  Now all that is left are feline creatures which perfectly resemble Myau from the first Phantasy Star.  Through investigation the player learns the fate of the colonists at the former spaceport, and a possible reason both for the Myau-like creatures' presence in the spaceport, and possibly the presence of certain encounter creatures there.

The climate of Dezo is largely unchanged from the first game, although there are many more towns than the two in the original; these towns are all but exclusively populated by Dezorians.  The resentment that some of the Dezorians felt for Palmans in the first game is continued in the second, as is the Dezorian penchant for falsehoods.  Different magical communication devices can be used to speak to these people, one of which actually bypasses the lies.  On the whole, the natives of Dezo now seem to have flourished with the absence of the Palmans.

It is suggested in this sequel that the metal Laconia, key to success in the games of the franchise as the best weapon and armor material available, has large deposits on Dezo iteself.

A secret lies beyond the mountains which, due to a change in translation convention between the first and second games, is not as much a surprise in the English translation as it is in the original Japanese.

Dezolis (from Dezoris, see Nomenclature below) remains a blizzard scarred world in Phantasy Star IV, though human settlements are on the rise again, largely due to the actions of a minor character in Phantasy Star II.  The suggestions of the religious life of Dezolians is again explored in IV through the events leading to the Dezolian Raja joining the party after an unexpected accident.  He and his fellow Dezolians continue to be portrayed as eccentrics, although this time it seems more light-hearted.

Dezolis and its connection to Esper Wizards continues in this installment, leading to further discoveries.

Nomenclature

The translation of many terms in the Phantasy Star series has been problematic, often due to the limited screen space that latin characters allow, as opposed to Japanese syllables.  In the case of Dezoris, the four-letter name of the planet, Dezo, does not conflict with either the Dezoris of Phantasy Star I in its English release, nor Dezolis of the Japanese release.  Sources suggest that the intended name for the planet was actually Dezolis.  Problems persist, though, in the character naming nomenclature, and often the names of characters which should be a startling revelation are merely confusing to those who didn't learn about the background behind the translation inconsistencies.

Game Ecology

The Dezoris of Phantasy Star I is a hostile place, without the easy luctrative game of Motavia or Palma.  Elephant-like monsters pop up everywhere, and do massive damage which threatens parties that have not been significantly bulked up. 

In Phantasy Star II, encounters range from mid to high level, with creatures that can knock out a character's Tech-points in one special attack, up to some of the strongest monsters of the game (only exceeded by the final dungeon's monsters).  The towers that the player must face before the final dungeon are also quite devious.

Phantasy Star IV's Dezolis contains several of the game's bigger bosses, as well as harder versions of many of the enemies.

Conclusion

While Dezoris has often been secondary in importance to the main planet, whether the planet is Palma of PS I or Motavia of PS II and IV, it is still a key location in the Phantasy Star series, bringing variety to the landscapes, and adding a cold forboding that adds to the menace of the often harder foes, as well as the relative lightness it brings with the strangeness of its native inhabitants.  Most of all though, the solemn side of of the Dezorians, and the often tragic and miraculous events that have happened on their planet in each of the Phantasy Stars that feature it, help elevate the games in ways that would seem abrupt and artificial if they had happened all on the same worlds.