Where a hero stands
Every hero in a Phantasie III party stands in a rank, front, middle or back, and you can move them in a fight. You would expect the front rank simply to be the place to fight from. It is not that simple. What counts is where a hero stands compared with the rest of the party.
The game works out the party's average rank, rounded down. A hero's chance to hit goes up by 30 points, from 22% to 52% say, for every step he stands ahead of that average. In a usual party, with the fighters in front and the casters behind, the average is the middle or the back rank, so a fighter in front gets at least 30 on every blow.
The same rule works for the monsters. A hero behind the party's average is 30 points harder to hit for each rank, and one ahead of it 30 points easier. It changes how often a monster's blow lands, not which hero it picks. That is the protection the back rank gives your casters.
So put everyone on the same line, any line, and the average is that line too. Nobody stands ahead of it and nobody behind. Your fighters lose their bonus, and your casters lose their protection. I would never have guessed that heroes standing together could cost so much.
Forty years of blaming age
You win. Nikademus is dead, the gods have spoken, and the party stands in Pendragon as Superheroes. The game goes on, so you keep playing, and your fighters now miss blow after blow.
I remember exactly this from 1987, and for nearly forty years I put it down to my heroes getting old. Age has nothing to do with it. Nothing in the game reads a hero's age when he swings. It was where they stood.
The ending lines the party up for the victory picture and then sets every hero to the front rank, fighters, casters and thief alike. That rank is kept in the heroes' records, it is saved with them, and it lasts until you change it. The whole party is on one line, and the bonus is gone.
My brother's saved game
In November 2026 my brother finished the game in my recreation, on the 1987 screens, and told me afterwards that his fighters were missing a lot. I opened his saved game. All six heroes stood in the front rank, the casters and the thief too, and both fighters were set to Slash with an Attack of 250. I found the cause in the ending, and emailed him the cure.
Slash makes it worse
At a high Attack, the Slash order splits the Attack over several blows. At Attack 250 it is four blows of 62 each, so the rank bonus was most of what made each one land. Against a monster with defence 40:
| Order | Before the ending | After the ending |
|---|---|---|
| Slash, 4 blows of 62 | 52% | 22% |
| Attack, 2 blows of 125 | 100% | 85% |
How much of my memory from 1987 each of the two explains, the ranks or Slash, I cannot say for certain.
The cure
In the next fight, use Move to put your casters and thief back in the middle or back rank. It costs nothing, they still act that round, and it makes them harder to hit again. Then switch your fighters from Slash to Attack. The ranks are kept in the records, so you only have to do it once.
In my recreation
My recreation plays the game exactly as it shipped in 1987 unless you ask for a fix. This one is listed as Ending puts all in front.
In 1987
After the ending the 1987 game puts every member in the front rank, casters and thief too, and the game goes on that way. A fighter's bonus to hit comes from standing further forward than the party on average, so with everyone in front the bonus is gone and fighters miss far more often; the casters also lose the back rank's protection, so monster blows land on them more easily. Move in a fight puts a member back.
With the fix
Each member keeps the rank held in the final battle.
It is one of my fixes, so a game disk made With Justin's fixes has it.
When you make a game disk, the game asks which rules it plays: The 1987 original, With Justin's fixes, or Choose my own. To change a disk later, pick Set fixes on disk on the list of disks.