This is from the editorial page of Mega Play magazine, May-June 1991.
a few things to keep in mind:
*Phantasy Star III had already been released in Japan in 1990 so it was already done.
* this is NOT Phantasy Star V because IV was being made and was far from being finished.
*Phantasy Star III was supposed to come out, in enhanced form, on SegaCD.
maybe the picture is PSIII CD but I highly doubt that.
now here's where things get interesting (for the Phantasy Star Phan):
*A very different Phantasy Star IV, subtitled "The Return Of Alis" was supposedly in the making for both cartridge and SegaCD formats.
July 1992 GamePro magazine article
SegaBase web article on SegaCD
In terms of software, the biggest news by far was with the Phantasy Star RPG series - the closest thing Sega had to Square's Final Fantasy franchise - with two Mega CD titles announced as being in development. The more notable of the two was the all-new title The Return of Alis, which was to take place immediately after the events depicted in Phantasy Star 3 and tell the story of the fight against a revival of the intergalactic slave trade. This new installment in the saga would be 20 times the size of the earlier game and would incorporate both audio and anime clips.
Sega cancelled the planned Sega CD release of Phantasy Star 4, opting instead for a cartridge-based Genesis game that bore little resemblance to its original Sega CD concept.
* the early cinema scenes in EGM's first PSIV preview (Number 37 - August 1992) as well as the first-person dungeons that were cut out, were both from PSIV: End of The Millenium, not the unreleased PSIV The Return of Alis. this is often the point of some confusion.....
.....Usually one mentions "an unreleased Phantasy Star" or
"Phantasy Star IV: The Return of Alis" people will think of & mention the early unused cinemas & first-person dungeon picture of PSIV: End of the Millenium, not realizing these are two totally different PSIV games -- one that was never released at all, the other was released but with things cut out.
As far as I know, there have been no pictures seen of the earlier 'Return of Alis', a concept for a PSIV game that was completely scrapped. The only possible (however unlikely) picture of PSIV: The Return of Alis is that unidentified screen in Mega Play.
that screen in Mega Play is not absolutely for certain PSIV The Return of Alis, it's only a possibility. It could very well be from a non-PS game, but it looks so VERY PS-ish, does it not?