Phantasy Star

[Ayen]

I popped in my Sonic's Collection game while waiting for Windows to update, and decided to check out Phantasy Star. The game has all four entries in it, but you have to unlock the first one. I... did not like these games at all, with the exception of 4.

2 and 3 were trout. Most boring JRPGs I've played. I hate the style. 2 is a good example of what happens when you tell instead of show. And the battle system is ugly. 3 gets worse with a more cliche plot. The only game to actually make the style playable is 4, and that still pales in comparison to basically every other JRPG released around this period of time.

Discuss.

[escobert]

I only ever played the Online one for dreamcast. It was meh.

[Wolf Kanno]

I tried getting into the original a few years back, still plan on beating it someday but I can say that outside of a few really cool technical aspects of it, it wasn't exactly gripping as a game but perhaps I never gave it a shot. I still want to play the whole series though.

[Ayen]

2 was bad enough. I can't imagine how much of a regression 1 is going to feel when/if I ever get to it.

[theundeadhero]

I really tried to like this series, but four was the only one that came halfway close.

[Colonel Angus]

IV is really good. The writing is kind of :erm:, but the game is fun. I've only played a little of the others. The first one, I believe, was originally released on the Master System.

I remember a friend of mine's brother had a Phantasy Star game. Not sure if it was II or the first one. It always looked fun.

[Ayen]

No wonder I could never find a copy of the original. I thought it was on the Genesis for some reason.

[Vyk]

Yep, Master System, which is why it needs unlocked on the Genesis collection, as it's not actually a Genesis game xD

But yeah, I missed the first one when it was new and good, and it was too old to enjoy when I got around to it. And while I liked the set-up of the second one, the thing that tore it apart for me was the encounter rate and/or difficulty. It was made in a time when Japan was insane and didn't like to actually play their games, they (for some reason) liked to fight their games way more

Never tried 3, even though I have that collection, it's plot and mechanics never interested me with the fantasy look and feel to it, and the generational evolution of your characters, you don't get to keep your character

4 was a guilty pleasure for me, and outside of phenomenal exceptions of the time (Final Fantasy VI comes to mind) it was one of the best JRPGs of the time. I wasn't a huge fan of the battle system, but the characters, and art style, and presentation were really good. I loved the paneled cut-scenes giving it a comic book / manga flare, and I would have loved to see the evolution of this type of presentation and what goes on in the Algol system generations away. But nope. They never developed the style further. They completely re-wrote the book and ruined the series

I tried a couple of the PSO games, but ugh. No

I'll take Phantasy Star IV

Shining Force was better, but Phantasy Star was a very worthwhile experience

[Ayen]

I'm pleasantly surprised by how much better I'm finding 1 to be over 2. At least as far as first impressions go as I just tested it to see if it was working properly. The opening was kind of WTF worthy, but gameplay seems pretty solid. That one random encounter I ran into was crazy since we were both pretty even. Props to having a female protagonist which was pretty rare in the eighties.

[Zeldy]

Oh wow, a phantasy star thread!

I played this game ALOT (alooooooooooot) when I was a teenager; my brother had episode 1 & 2 for the Gamecube. Greatest game ever, in my opinion, I absolutely adored it. My HUnewearl was called Zelda (obviously :jess:) a redria and I got to level 150 or something - my brother, on the hand, played religiously and got his character to level 200 (and after that I was no longer allowed to play on the same memory card!)

He destroyed the Gamecube by warping so many times too for those damn rares.

Played the online BlueBurst version aswell, quite enjoyed it. Its what my photo is in my profile actually, from such a long time ago!

[Ayen]

Ayen provides the PS goodness -nods-

I'm surprised by how much I like I over II and III, as far as first impressions go. Seeing a female protagonist in a game in the eighties was a nice surprise, and the gameplay doesn't make me want to scream for horror right out of the gate. Don't know how I feel about the battle system yet, but that first fight with a common enemy was intense. I was down to 2 HP by the end because I didn't have any money to buy anything from the stores.

[Zeldy]

pssht, what you on about, the battle system is ace!

Gosh, are you like upto the forest or something :roll:

The caves were my favourite.

https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M0c1b7ef15d45c1696193bebc82f94bcbo0&pid=15.1

Who doesn't want one of these chasing you in the dark?!

[Ayen]

All I did was leave the first town. I'm talking about the original game for Sega Master System.

[Vyk]

Phantasy Star 1 != Phantasy Star Online 1

xD

Totally different games totally different mechanics :3

[Ayen]

This is what happens when a series resets its number.

Though not as half as confusing with the Tomb Raider reboot.

[Vyk]

I assume you mean reboots. Plural. Which makes me sad. I loved Legends and really liked Underworld. And now there will never be anoher in that series :(

[Vasher]

Ayen, you've got to keep in mind that these games are old as *beep*. Cut them some slack. I have never played the original Phantasy Star, but I loved II. I think my favorite character from II was the girl that used the claws, second (again, going from the ~30 year old memory) was the guy with the shotgun type weapon. While I'm at it, a confession; There is a recorder, or dats disc, or something along those lines, that you have to collect from the very end of the first dungeon in order to progress any further in the game. I played though that freakin' dungeon a hundred times before the damn thing let me "search" that "control panel" (or whatever the heck it was). No joke, I kept coming back to the game every few days to give it another shot. Happened on my second play through also. I'm guessing that there was some conversation that had to take place in town before the item was "accessible".

III, I played all the way through, never really "into it". I know why too, I screwed up and bought the stupid "strategy guide" with it. I went through the guide so that I could preconceive my "family tree". To my dismay, the choices that I would have made San-guide didn't line up with my guided plan. Stuck to the (guided) game plan though (forget if it was for ending, or just the characters themselves), but the spoiler had spoiled it.


Someone mentioned Shining Force, freaking loved that game. Very different from PhS though, battle tactics. Ever play Shining in the Darkness (RPG, dungeon delver, that preceded Shing Force)? I was so hooked on that game, I even carefully mapped out every single dungeon. My youngest brother "rediscovered" the game while I was in college. We were talking about the old systems recently and he shared that he'd found my maps as a kid, said it really added to the nostalgia of playing my old game (he's 8 years younger).

Anyhow, these old games were "groundbreaking" for the time. Try to imagine playing them on release date, rather than gauging them with our current, somewhat/extremely jaded, experience.

[Ayen]

Them being old isn't an excuse. I grew up in the 8/16 bit era thanks to my brother, so I played a lot of old retro games I love, and like I said, I enjoyed the first one more than two and three, and the first one is a Master System game. I like IV, but it came to the states around the same time as other games doing better things with the genre, so it being old has nothing to do with it.

[Vyk]

I also loved Shining in the Darkness. I tried mapping the caves but the geometry always seemed to break on me. So instead I did the tedious task of writing out directions. One of the first games I officially beat as a kid. And it took me a long time to learn it was even related to Shining Force. Considering how many games used words like Space and Star I thought it was reasonable that two good games that played different used the word Shining. The similar art style and music did not to me off. It was just a similarity between them that I loved lol ah childhood

[Bright Shield]

3 was a let down for me, but I love 1, 2, and 4. The games are like Dragon Quest in space.

1 is hands down the best RPG of it's generation if you ask me. Easily beating the first batch of Dragon Quest and first Final Fantasy games. I'm not speaking from nostalgia either, since I first played this one only a few months ago.

2 is great a great game, but the battle system is a bit hard to get into. The story is also kind of told a bit too much by the main character, rather than shown. The best overall series soundtrack too, but 1 comes very close.

4 is one of the best RPGs of the SNES/Genesis era. Great story that wraps up the entire series, and the battle system is a huge upgrade from 2.




2 is a good example of what happens when you tell instead of show.

True, but there's an awesome plot twist at the end.

Try Phantasy Star Generation 2 if you can find an English version. It's a remake of 2, and is basically better in every way(except music). The story shows instead of telling, there's far more dialogue and character interaction, and the battle system is more like 4.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=koFgFZVYfqM

[Vasher]

2 is great a great game... The best overall series soundtrack...


Sounds like you're familiar with the soundtrack, maybe you can clear something up for me. Call me crazy... thanks for that, much appreciated.

Now that we've got that out of the way, perhaps I'm nuts, but I'd swear that there is a tune on the soundtrack that is "sampled" from a Cure song, "Close to Me". Forget about the horns, just listen to the "xylophone and flute". Either that tune is used in an area map, town, equipment shop, or I just mentally supplanted it into the game (because it sounds as though it should be). I can't hear that song without my mind immediately taking me back to 1990 (the year Phantasy Star II was released in the US).

I'm probably going to have to play through it again so that I can put this to rest (I've already gone through the soundtrack and couldn't find anything remotely close to the tune that I "remember" from the game).