Thanks to everyone who dropped their two cents on various Phantasy Star games in here. I asked a few people elsewhere their thoughts and the most compelling argument I heard there was in favor of PS3, as the dungeons are very maze-like in the first two games and since my attention will be split even with maps it might prove tricky to keep tabs. That and the whole “not very Phantasy Star” complaint likely won’t bug me as much.
That said… I realized that I also own a copy of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and that seems like a more appealing option >_>
I swear like 20 years ago the popular opinion was that PS2 was the good one but maybe I was just a dumb kid. This isn’t just misremembering because PSII was my first turn-based game for that reason.
2 and 4 are definitely more recognizably “good” than 1 or 3, but 2 has the least going on outside of “being an early jRPG with a fairly unique aesthetic” and the dungeons are just a nonstop fuck you
The thing is is that while this initially looks undecipherable, glancing up and noticing the part that says “seventh floor” really puts it over the top.
1 is a neat amateurish 80s anime wizardry thing, 4 is for all intents and purposes sega’s version of chrono trigger, and 3 is … a megadrive game that looks a lot like a PC-98 game and is otherwise way more interesting than 2 but not too well regarded
Sega only had a fraction of the Square’s experience with making JRPGs so them attempting to compete toe to toe with late SNES RPGs is a bit comical, although I agree that’s probably what they thought they were doing. It’s really polished in some areas, but there are also aspects of PSIV that feel like throwbacks to the 80s, like the bad translation, the tiny floating menus overlapping everywhere, and the awkward-looking walking sprites.
See, to me almost all the criticisms of 3 can also be levelled equally towards 2, only 3 is more interesting and has more manageable dungeons. So I never really understood how 2 could be so much more highly regarded and 3 seen as some kind of big mistake, besides the fact it wasn’t a straight forward sequel
The thing with PSIV is that for Mega Drive owners in the 90s, was that it was as good as it got for JRPGs, especially outside the US where we didn’t even have Square’s games to compare it to
I played the Phantasy Star game boy collection back in the day for a good while. I finished 1 and 3, gave up at the climatrol in 2
PS1 was the best, I drew maps and has a good time with my talking cat
PS2’s dungeons are not only huge but also impossible to navigate and unmappable on paper. Also, can someone explain how the support beams getting in the way of the player’s visibiliy
The game assumes you’re going to get lost all the time so if you just look for maps online and don’t get endlessly lost for hours on, you’re going to be underleveled
I think you have to be in the right state of mind to play this game, and assume anytime you enter a dungeon that you’re going to be there for 1 hour and there’s only a 20% chance you can finish it. You have to see finishing a dungeon as a massive achievement, and not finishing a dungeon as an opportunity to grind, at least?
I loooove the clone labs though
The only reason I’d play Phantasy Star is for the late 80s anime sci fi aesthetic and PS3 ditches that for a medieval setting and drab colors. I found it pretty miserable all the way through. The generation shift is the only good idea there but 1) you have to play a lot to see it 2) you have to actually replay the game to see the effect 3) and it was better realized in later games like Romancing Saga 2. Monster design is… not that great, this isn’t Megaten
Honestly I’d say that there are too many good games to bother with Phantasy Star in 2018
Aaaahhh my 16-bit Sega deficiency’s flaring up. Think I’ve actually finished more titles on SCD than Genesis/Mega Drive: SonicCD/Lunar 1-2/Snatcher/Sewer Shark/Ecco/???
Got plenty of time with Sonic, Bare Knuckle, Shinobi popular titles.
Beyond Oasis always looked cool. Any strong recommendations for 5-10 must plays, more fringe? Countless lists online but I trust SB for the gems.
toejam & earl was way ahead of its time and incredibly interesting in terms of design and aesthetics but the experience of actually playing it has always been quite weird, it’s … a slow-paced co-op action roguelike (I’d hesitate to use “roguelite” because even though it’s an action game it’s like the least you could possibly deviate from a traditional roguelike to get there). from 1991.
gunstar obviously, hard corps and alien soldier less obviously
shining force is great to demonstrate how far ahead of their time sega were in localizing SRPGs and how non-novel later fire emblems are but it’s not that great by modern standards, most of what’s come since is better
micro machines 2 and skidmarks are still two of my favourite top-down racers and they’re both completely different from one another, plus they had this incredible solution for 4p:
definitely play hard corps, bloodlines and monster world iv
langrisser 2 is the good srpg
battlemania daiginjou and gleylancer if you like shootin’ games
