DARRELL'S THEORY:

(or, "Why Dark Force Doesn't Kick the PC's Butt When He Has The Chance")

Dark Force is a busy guy...blowing up the world is pretty much a full-time job. But now and again you'd think he'd take time out from his busy schedule to swat a few putative heroes who happen to walk in front of him. For example:

In Phantasy Star, the Governor of Motavia is apparently possessed by Dark Force for nearly the whole game...yet never shows it. Rather than decimate Alis when he has the chance, he only appears to the heroes as the Saccabus in their dreams, informing them that *something* is wrong, but not just *what*. Meanwhile, the "possessed" Governor proceeds to help the characters by linking them up with Noah! His only hostile act is to tell them to return to him once he's done...where he's laying in wait.

Then there's Phantasy Star III. The player characters free Dark Force for the first time in 1000 years. Three of the five legendary weapons (Orakio's Sword, Lune's Slicer, and Laya's Bow) are in the PCs possession at that point. He knows these weapons can hurt him, perhaps even destroy him permanently. Yet, rather than squash the putative heroes *now*, *before* they can assemble all five and empower them as the Nei weapons, he states that "Other matters await me, but we will meet again!"

These lead more-or-less inevitably to two possibilities:

1) Dark Force is an idiot who gleefully plays along with a dramatic storyline so he can confront the heroes at the height of their power.

2) Something's happening that we aren't aware of.

After much consideration, one hopefully arrives at the conclusion that "2" is the correct answer. There must be some reason why Dark Force didn't kill off Alis or the PSIII heroes when he apparently had the chance. Most likely, he *couldn't* kill them then, and the following theory explains why:

Each manifestation of Dark Force is capable of drawing a certain, limited amount of the Profound Darkness' energy past the seal. That's why they can be killed, and why they don't simply snap their fingers and blow up all Algo. However, Dark Force is capable of vesting that power in a living person. During the time of Phantasy Star I, that power was vested in Lassic. During Phantasy Star III, it was vested in Rulakir.

Personally, I favor the theory put forward by James Maxlow and Mike Ripplinger that the Dark Force from PSII's time traveled back in time as the Dark Force in , then returned to Algo from Earth aboard Noah only to be killed almost simultaneously with his younger self's manifestation (sometimes you can't win for trying). It was this Dark Force who empowered Lassic with the evil strength to become the tyrant of Algo.

When the Dark Force who was supposed to manifest during PSI breached the seal, he found, to his displeasure, that rather than have the power of a Dark Force at his claws, he possessed barely a fraction of that power, because the link to the Profound Darkness was already being usurped by Lassic. Dark Force could not fully manifest in Algo. Instead, it sought out the mind of one of Algo's most influential leaders and began to insinuate itself into the Governor of Motavia's will. He was not strong enough even to prevent the Governor from aiding Alis in conquering Lassic, but he was able to convince the Governor to tell Alis to return to see him after beating the conquerer.

Why?

After killing Lassic at last, Alis and her friends were at their most vulnerable. They knew nothing of Dark Force or the Profound Darkness. They had no expectations of further danger, let alone against a manifestation of the ultimate evil. They walked into the mansion on a wave of triumph, and fell into the clutches of a Dark Force brimming with its full power. This was Dark Force's best chance to catch the heroes off-guard.

(Why didn't the Dark Force aboard Noah claim the full power of Dark Force rather than the newly-born one? There are various possibilities, but I would again go along with Mike Ripplinger and James Maxlow in suggesting that, after the "magically"-based scheme of supporting Lassic failed, the Earthmen resealed Dark Force as best they could and turned to their "technological" scheme--Mother Brain. This left the "new" Dark Force a clear field to become the vessel for the Profound Darkness' power.)

In Phantasy Star III, before Orakio and Laya were able to seal it away, Dark Force was able to vest its power in the despairing soul of Rulakir. Quite possibly, this explains why Laya and Orakio did not return from the final battle to lead their people away from their Dark Force-engineered hatred for one another...because Rulakir killed them. When Sean/Crys/Aron/Adan freed Dark Force, it would have dearly loved to blast them with the full force of its power...but it couldn't. Simply put, it didn't *have* the power. So, it retreated to Lashute after taunting the heroes, and waited for Rulakir to die.

In Phantasy Star IV, the situation is quite different. With the seal's power breaking after the destruction of Parma/Palma/Palm, multiple Dark Forces are able to manifest themselves, and it is possible for the Darkness to invest its power in multiple mortal tools like Zio and Lashiec without crippling the power of its Dark Forces.

("Wait a sec!" you say. "Don't PSIV and take place at the same time?" Well, yes, but given that spans three generations (at least 33 years) and begins an imprecise "thousand years" after Laya and Orakio fought Dark Force, which was concurrent or just after PSII, it seems quite possible that by the time 's Dark Force was released from the sunken temple, Chaz and crew had already defeated the Profound Darkness back in Algo. This would limit 's Dark Force strictly to its own powers and no more).

Please note that when Dark Force's power is "vested" in a Palman, this is much more than merely the use of evil magic. There are magic-users from the Darkness' dimension, the Xe-a-Thouls, the Imagiomages, and so on, who use the magic of their master in much the same way that the Espers of Algo use the magic of the Great Light. The ability to actually command the power of Dark Force, though, is something vastly above that; it is a level of power that even Lutz at his most skilled would have been unable to face (Zio's power, for example, was focused largely in his magical barrier; while his command of damaging magic might not have been PSII-Lutz-like, even that Lutz would not have been able to injure Zio without the use of the Psycho-Wand).