I am relatively new to this game and I used to play PSObb a few years back, when I began playing PSO2 and met all these Dark Falz forms I was always wondering what the old Dark Falz (RRR incarnation) figured in all this but apparently is some kind of alternate timeline.

If I understand correctly PSO2 is kind of branching off to NG so I assume most future updates will go to that game, originally I was going to ask if there could be a possibility to see PSO Ragol and all its locations in this game at some point, it would be cool even if most enemies are copy/paste in design but I wonder, am I the only one who would like to visit Ragol and fight the old Dark Falz there? what "surname" would that Dark Falz have in this case?

Let me start by saying that anything is possible with the PSO 20th anniversary coming up and all lore may be dropped to make a PSO Falz fight happen.

Beyond that let me see if I can address both questions from a lore perspective but I'll note this is spoiler heavy for Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. Ragol is not really in an alternate timeline, but rather another universe separated by subspace. Time being relative, the events of PSO would have happened around the time that PSO2 Episode 2-3 would have happened on the JP side. Global is another thing as we're missing a certain sub-event from JP still. Suffice it to say, due to events elsewhere in the series, the events that took place immediately before PSO were effectively wiped from the timeline, preventing PSO from ever taking place. This all went down in Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. During this game's post credit events you were able to team up with Red Ring Rico and fight Olga Flow preventing both Rico and Flowen's deaths. The missing sub-event is effectively a continuation of that involving one of the NPCs that journeyed with you to Ragol.

But let's suggest that original timeline continued on and that Dark Falz continued existing. Interviews suggest the Ruins were actually one of the Palmian Worldships that escaped after Garia crashed into the planet and that there was supposed to be a Lutz keeping this Dark Falz in check. Absent these events actually playing out in PSO, as well as the Coralian settlers not knowing anything of Algol, if anything a name related to the Amplum Umbra would likely be associated. That in mind, Dark Falz Germ would seem most appropriate, being applied retroactively after C.A.R.D technology had been developed.

@PrinceBrightstar said in Good old Ragol?:

Let me start by saying that anything is possible with the PSO 20th anniversary coming up and all lore may be dropped to make a PSO Falz fight happen.

Beyond that let me see if I can address both questions from a lore perspective but I'll note this is spoiler heavy for Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. Ragol is not really in an alternate timeline, but rather another universe separated by subspace. Time being relative, the events of PSO would have happened around the time that PSO2 Episode 2-3 would have happened on the JP side. Global is another thing as we're missing a certain sub-event from JP still. Suffice it to say, due to events elsewhere in the series, the events that took place immediately before PSO were effectively wiped from the timeline, preventing PSO from ever taking place. This all went down in Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. During this game's post credit events you were able to team up with Red Ring Rico and fight Olga Flow preventing both Rico and Flowen's deaths. The missing sub-event is effectively a continuation of that involving one of the NPCs that journeyed with you to Ragol.

But let's suggest that original timeline continued on and that Dark Falz continued existing. Interviews suggest the Ruins were actually one of the Palmian Worldships that escaped after Garia crashed into the planet and that there was supposed to be a Lutz keeping this Dark Falz in check. Absent these events actually playing out in PSO, as well as the Coralian settlers not knowing anything of Algol, if anything a name related to the Amplum Umbra would likely be associated. That in mind, Dark Falz Germ would seem most appropriate, being applied retroactively after C.A.R.D technology had been developed.

What is the story to the JP sub story on PSO 2 we missed regarding original PSO? I know it's probably a spoiler but I doubt we will ever see it on the NA version since we are way passed Episode 2/3.

@Mega-Drive Without too much spoilers, key characters from Phantasy Star Portable and Phantasy Star Portable 2 show up as guests who crash-landed somewhere in the vicinity of Oracle and you as the player character helps them get acquainted and eventually help them go on about their way. The significance of this encounter is that one of those characters "recognizes" the photons the player character has and wonders if you (the player) are the same player character from their game.

Their presence essentially links the games together via crossing universes that it is definitely was possible for there to be more links between the games as those characters were said to have visited Ragol. This was during Episode 4, if I recall. In Episode 5 things tend to veer a bit further into that direction with characters and concepts resembling the older games but it was scrapped partway through to continue consolidating the game's story and world into something cohesive which sets the stage for Episode 6.

@PrinceBrightstar said in Good old Ragol?:

Interviews suggest the Ruins were actually one of the Palmian Worldships that escaped after Garia crashed into the planet

I remember that was always a popular fan theory dating back to the original release of PSO. The Rico messages talking about the seal of Muut Ditts Poumn and such, but fan theories are dangerous and this one dates back to the times of insistence that Noah was not Lutz. But was there ever an interview with a PSO writer to say they were going for a direct continuation rather than a reference, in a series which has since become known for being highly self-referential?

Though I'm struggling to find it now, I remember a separate interview with Rieko Kodama (character designer of I who progressed to become the director by IV) that was less than complimentary of Online and its story. Unless I'm remembering wrong, that might also call into question the creative authority of anyone who worked on Online to continue from a vision of the classic series. (Then again, that series' own writers had divergent stories in their heads, including killing off Chaz after IV, so I guess that's just all part of the fun of having multiple writers involved.)

While I respect Rieko's contribution, the story is ultimately Sega's IP so they can do what they want with it.

I found the interview regarding Lutz/Rutsu. https://www.polygon.com/interviews/2020/8/2/21348946/phantasy-star-online-director-diablo-cut-features-christmas-nights Look for the question starting "Being able to take a fully developed MAG"

@PrinceBrightstar said in Good old Ragol?:

I found the interview regarding Lutz/Rutsu.

That's not what I meant, sorry. When referring to the "Noah is not Lutz" thing, I meant what that linked article insisted, the fan theory that the party member localised as Noah in the original Phantasy Star was a separate entity to the original Lutz. It demonstrates that legacy interpretations of the series' lore can be incorrect.

The interview I asked to be cited was one confirming the popular fan theory that Ruins was a Palman world ship. If that link was meant to do that... it kind of doesn't, since it only speaks of an abandoned plot concept that itself would have been a reference rather than a canonical continuation as we know the Lutz legacy continued within Algol thanks to IV.