Phantasy Star Generation 1

Phantasy Star Generation 1 serves as a remake of the first Phantasy Star game for the Playstation 2, as well as the start of the Sega Ages line of remakes and ports for the platform.  But is this remake a worthy upgrade to a classic, or does the original stand up better?

Phantasy Star is an undeniable classic among long-time genre fans; not only did it feature surprisingly colorful, smoothly-animated visuals for an 8-bit platform (especially compared to its main competitor, the NES), but it was a well-crafted adventure on the whole, telling a tale of revenge set in a world that drew both fantastic and science fiction elements, and bore more than a few intentional similarities to Star Wars.

Naturally, as acclaimed as the game was, it would get a number of ports to various platforms over the years in various compilations on the Saturn, Game Boy Advance, Playstation 3 and Xbox, and Nintendo's Virtual Console.  In the midst of those, however, a Japanese-only remake came out on the Playstation 2.  Masterminded by a Sega/D3Publisher joint venture called 3DAges, the game was actually a complete remake of Phantasy Star.  Taking the familiar game's storyline and overall design, it was redone with true 3D visuals,  higher-definition sprites, animated enemies and character portraits.  However, like many of D3Publisher's games, it has a distinctly low-budget feel to it - there are no FMVs for story sequences, the 3D overall looks rather generic, and there are very few instances of animations where there were none in the original game. Similarly, the music is done in simple MIDI format (no CD-quality tunes here) and there is no voiceover or similar additions.

Some effort has been made to flesh out the story and characters, at least.  Plot scenes have largely been extended to give the characters more dialog, and there is now a Talk feature similar to Phantasy Star IV's, where the characters will banter about the current objective or just exchange some bits of humorous dialog.  Other small references to later games creep in as well, such as having to buy items to translate Motavian and Dezorian speech (not a factor until the second game in the original series) and having more inter-party dialog during town interactions.  Another interesting addition is that if the player completes the game and keeps a copy of the save file on their memory card, they will unlock some extra content in Phantasy Star Generation 2, including an extra quest to revive Nei.

However, other obstacles have been added in 3DAges' attempts to update the game.  One especially prevalent one is the obtuse plot flags - the player must often to talk to several NPCs multiple times, sometimes within the same visit, to flip arbitrary plot flags in order to allow acces to the next area of the game.  On more than one occasion I found myself moving to the next area only to find that I wasn't able to enter or locate a key item there because of a missed conversation, forcing me to backtrack to previous towns and talk to everyone again.  In some particularly grating instances, this can even require re-traversing entire dungeons.  A very unnecessary and annoying addition that plagued me throughout the experience.

Another unwelcome change is the game's ill-advised attempts to add length to the game.  Phantasy Star Generation 1 is ironically significantly more slow paced and grindy than the original game - combat animations are substantially longer, the encounter rate is startlingly high (and annoyingly still based on an invisible roll), and the level cap is raised from 30 to 100.  Random enemies and bosses alike are made much harder to compensate for this, meaning you'll have to stop and grind quite a bit more to stand a chance in new areas, which can easily take hours on end.  All of this ultimately serves to just slow the game down and ruin the original's well-thought-out pacing, substantially hampering the experience.  Even moreso if you should happen to die in battle, as the ability to save anywhere has inexplicably been removed in favor of using town-based save points.

Some attempts at depth were added to the combat system as well.  Characters now have more options in combat, including some Phantasy Star IV-styled multi-techs that can be activated with certain items and spells for extra damage and added effects like paralyzing enemies.  Other weapon options are added, generally doing less damage per hit but hitting multiple times (such as Alis' daggers and Odin's pistols) or hitting all enemies on the field for reduced damage (Odin's machine guns and Lutz's slashers).  One can also find and equip various Crystals that give benefits like regenerating a small amount of HP each turn or adding elemental-based damage to one's normal attacks, and the addition of full-party healing spells is a welcome one.  However, it feels like they should have gone just a touch further with this idea - Alis's spells still become largely antiquated by the end of the game, and in a remake where enemies can now have hundreds of HP apiece, having some stronger spells to deal with them quickly would be a welcome change; sadly, most still do flat damage and the party stops learning new ones at roughly level forty, all but forcing the player to rely on the new, costly multi-techs and tedious grinding in order to survive.

What it all boils down to is that Phantasy Star Generation 1, like many other remakes in the Sega Ages line, is an attempt at adding new flair to the game that is hampered by its low budget and half-hearted attempt at introducing new elements to the game, feeling poorly planned at the best of times.  While it's certainly not a terrible attempt at remaking Phantasy Star, it is inferior to its predecessor in many respects.  Generation 1 may prove an interesting curiosity for die-hard Phantasy Star fans, but more casual RPG players should stick to the original game, as it's a far more satisfying experience overall.

Developer: 3DAges
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: 2003
Recommended version: N/A

Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millennium

The final entry in the classic Phantasy Star franchise, intended from the start to give closure to its storyline that ran for nearly a decade.  But was Phantasy Star IV a worthy conclusion for the series, or is this one tale that should have never been told?

Like many high-profile Sega games of the era, Phantasy Star IV is one with a lengthy history.  It began its life as a Sega CD game subtitled "The Return of Alis" (referencing the heroine of the first game) and it was originally planned that the game would use animated cutscenes in the style of Ys or the Lunar games.  For a time, the game was even intended to return to first person pseudo-3D dungeons in the style of the first Phantasy Star, though fan feedback quickly caused them to abandon that idea.  The Sega CD platform quickly proved unpopular among gamers as well, causing Sega to abandon all work done on the early version of Phantasy Star IV and move development to the Genesis instead.

Some remnants of the early game's design are still evident in the final game, however.  While the Sega Genesis obviously wasn't capable of full-motion video cutscenes, the story is instead told through manga-styled panels alongside the dialog, which lends it a bit more of a cinematic feel compared to many RPGs of the time.  Alis does still "return" as well, though in a much more limited role than the original subtitle would imply - she is mentioned several times throughout as a heroine of the past and makes a small cameo appearance near the end in a non-speaking role.

Sega was clearly not content to have this be a stripped-down version of a more grandiose game either; despite they change in platform, they did much to distinguish Phantasy Star IV from other RPGs of the era.  For a start, Phantasy Star IV's visuals are once again raised to meet the lofty standards of the earlier games; in addition to the aforementioned cutscenes, each combat action from both enemies and allies being fully animated, making it feel much more in-line with the other games than III.  Music in the game is nothing short of spectacular as well, perfectly complementing the game's mood and pushing the Sega Genesis' sound capabilities to their absolute max, seemingly in an effort to rival the grandiose orchestral feel of rival games like Final Fantasy IV.  The end result is easily the most aesthetically pleasing RPG the Sega Genesis has to offer, and one of the few games I still recommend checking out on original hardware whenever possible - virtually every emulator I've seen for the Sega Genesis doesn't get the sound quite right, so playing on those results in missing out on some of the amazing experience Phantasy Star IV has to offer.

The game's writing pays heavy tribute to earlier games in the series as well.  A number of earlier events in the series are referenced (both as cute asides and as part of the main story) and the series long-running antagonist Dark Force is finally given some explanation and context in the grander scheme of things.  Some other mechanics return as well, most notably in the form of vehicles - as in the first Phantasy Star, one has three modes of travel in the Land Rover, the Ice Digger and the Hydrofoil; in addition to allowing transport through areas one cannot cross on foot, they also lend themselves to the game's combat system now, each having their own set of special abilities and enemies to fight, which adds a bit of variety to the game.

Earlier Phantasy Star games were notable for taking steps to acknowledge the repetition and monotony of RPG combat by offering a degree of automation - generally the player just had to click a button and their characters would automatically attack until the fight concluded.  Phantasy Star IV continues in this trend with programmable "Macros", allowing the player to pre-plan turn strategies out of battle and save them in one of ten slots for later use.  But more than that, the game's pacing is generally much quicker; while the game is still turn-based, everything from moving around the map to combat animations to scrolling menus is very fast and smooth.  Even the other Phantasy Star games - which were relatively well paced among most RPGs of their era - feel downright slow in comparison to PSIV, and it's a bit hard to go back to anything older after you've played it for any length of time.

Of course, the combat itself has seen some refinement as well.  While still fairly formulaic attack-spell-item fare seen in many RPGs, there are some new twists as well.  The game retains TP-driven "techs" (which generally function as elemental spells or healing), but also gives each character a complement of Skills, which vary heavily from character to character and have a variety of uses.  Chaz gets powerful melee attacks, for example, Rune gets elemental spells, Kyra and Raja get some powerful healing and support techniques, and the two android characters get a variety of new abilities that they must find modules to install and use.  Some greater variety is given to the cast as well, with playable Motavians and Dezorians for the first time in the series, as well as giving androids some distinct mechanics - unlike their Phantasy Star III counterparts, they no longer cast spells of any kind, and magic is useless for healing them.  Instead, one must use special "repair kits" or their own healing techniques to do that.

Another relatively new idea Phantasy Star IV brought to the table was the ability for characters to combine techniques together into one more powerful ability.  When characters cast certain techs/skills back-to-back, they have a chance to combine their effects together and cause even greater damage.  Several characters can combine elemental techniques together, such as combining a wind and fire or ice spell to hit all enemies on the field, while Chaz and Rune can combine their Crosscut and Efess skills to create "Grand Cross" and hit a single enemy for massive holy-element damage.  This is another area where the game's programmable macros come into play, as it can be tricky to line up characters' turn sequences without it.  Chrono Trigger would later take the idea of combining character spells to new heights, but as far as I know this Phantasy Star IV is the first JRPG to utilize this feature.

The game came out in the era when sidequests were beginning to become a major part of the experience and provide just as much depth and immersion, if not moreso, than the main quest.  Sega clearly took note, as in addition to its main quest, Phantasy Star IV also features a number of subquests to complete, both in the form of optional dungeons off the beaten path (which can grant extra abilities, stronger equipment or just good amounts of experience) and in a more formal capacity. The latter comes in Motavia's Hunter's Guild, where more sidequests become available as the storyline progresses.  These range from mudane (finding someone's lost dog) to more involved monster combat quests to some that are just silly (such as being offered a large reward to find missing persons, only to discover that they've been jailed and the bail cost is just as much as the bounty placed on the job).  In all cases, though, they add an occasional nice diversion from the main storyline as well as some extra rewards.

I've sung this game's praises a lot over the years, but I really can't stress enough how much I love Phantasy Star IV.  Its concise and polished design, fast-paced gameplay, well-crafted storyline and characters all come together to send off a legendary Sega franchise with a bang, and it remains an exceptionally fun title to experience even today.  It may have been largely overlooked at the time because of numerous high-profile RPGs on the PC and Super Nintendo, but Phantasy Star IV is just as worthy of the moniker of "classic" as any of the other lauded greats from that period.  Highly recommended.

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Sega Genesis, and several compilations on the Saturn, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Steam
Released:  1995
Recommended version:  The compilation versions are all ports of the original Genesis game, but as mentioned, I have yet to see one that emulates the game's soundtrack perfectly.  For that reason, I recommend checking out the original release if at all possible.

Phantasy Star II

The Phantasy Star franchise's second outing on the Sega Genesis was one of the very first 16-bit JRPGs released, as well as a new, darker turn for the franchise.  But did this new turn for the series pay off, or is this one title that should just be left in the past?

The JRPG genre was still a relatively small and niche one outside of Japan in the late 1980s, but a few games managed to make a splash.  The most prominent among these were probably the original Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System and Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior on the NES, the latter of which was available through a giveaway sponsored by Nintendo Power magazine (and it must have found some success, as three more Dragon Warrior games saw release on the NES in the following years).

The Sega Genesis debuted in the late 80s, bringing with it a slew of arcade titles that met with varying degrees of success on the home format.  A few months into 1990 the platform also saw the release of Phantasy Star II, the sequel to the successful Master System classic.  And while it continued the science-fiction RPG motif of its predecessor, it took a step into a much darker realm of fantasy as well.  The story of the Algo system now drew elements from Philip K. Dick with its authoritarian government and oppressive atmosphere, and its storytelling took on a similarly dark turn with prominent character deaths and the decay of society being shown in surprising detail (one subtle touch being that churches - prominently featured in the original game - no longer appear here, being replaced by cloning labs).  Common science fiction motifs also arise in the form of the game's main antagonists, with armadas of killer robots and genetically-engineered, mutated monsters playing prominent roles in the story and adding some considerable challenge to the proceedings.  It is a bit surprising to see such dark themes in an era where video games were largely viewed as just fun and "kiddy" entertainment, and a lot of the thrill of the game is seeing just how far they go with some of them.

The gameplay of the game is largely similar to other JRPGs of the time, with a large portion of the proceedings dedicated to exploring dungeons, gathering money to upgrade equipment and grinding for experience points to strengthen one's characters so that they can overcome greater foes.  However, Phantasy Star II also takes some measures to ensure that this process is not as tedious as many other RPGs of th era.  For one, combat animations are kept relatively short (a nice feature in a genre where you'll likely end up seeing them hundreds or  thousands of times in a playthrough).  The combat menu is also intentionally designed with the repetitive nature of the genre in mind; one issuing of the "Fight" command causes the entire party to, by default, attack the enemy each turn.  Pressing a button during a turn will interrupt the automatic combat and give the player the ability to issue commands to their characters, such as casting a spell or using an item from their inventory.  Once a defensive spell or item is used, the character will then revert to attacking for the remainder of the battle; however, if an offensive spell is used, they will continue to cast it until their TP supply is exhausted (unless ordered otherwise).  This effectively cuts down on repetitive player inputs while allowing them to heal or cast defensive spells when needed.

In terms of design, Phantasy Star II also feels like a logical extension of the first in many ways.  There are twice as many playable characters as the first Phantasy Star, each with their own sets of weapons and skills.  Some easily fall into the common RPG archetypes like the warrior, the healer and the mage, but others are a bit harder to define; Kain, for example, has relatively weak weapon choices but several skills that deal devastating damage to machines, as well as some of the best armor choices in the game.  Anna has relatively low attack power and minimal skills, but wields weapons that hit all enemies at the same time, while Shir mostly serves as a mage character with her relatively low stats and selection of attack spells.  However, she also serves as a "thief" of sorts, occasionally vanishing after the player enters a shop and returning to his house with a stolen item (which have a small chance of being rare items that can't easily be acquired through normal means).  The overall balance of the cast also leaves something to be desired, with some characters proving useful throughout the game (one would be hard-pressed to survive the later stages without Amy, the dedicated healer) and others being virtually useless (particularly Hugh, whose weak equipment choices and anti-monster spells become all but useless when robotic enemies become the norm).

The game's dungeons have also seen a drastic overhaul from the first Phantasy Star, for both better and worse.  The game no longer utilizes the first-person perspective seen in the first Phantasy Star (and most CRPGs of the time), instead keeping the view in a third-person perspective as popularized by games like Dragon Quest.  This makes the dungeons easier to visualize at a glance, but also more difficult to navigate; floors are enormous and labyrinthine, and for much of the game it is unclear whether you're going up or down a floor (utilizing nondescript "teleporters" to transition between them).  The game also attempted to show off the Sega Genesis' graphical capabilities here, having many dungeons accompanied by pipes or clouds that scroll along with the player, giving a sense of depth.  This can prove a bit distracting at first (and falsely give the impression that there are barriers where none exist), though with a bit of time the player will eventually adapt to this and learn to ignore the upper layers.  Dungeons can also be quite long, with numerous floors to navigate and countless dead ends, and paired with random encounters, can quickly become frustrating.  Thankfully the encounter rate is far from the worst I've encountered in an RPG, though creating maps on graph paper (or finding them on the Internet) will still greatly mitigate the frustration factor here.

Finally, as per most RPGs of the time, Phantasy Star II is quite a grind-heavy experience.  There are several times where the player will have to stop for a while and farm experience from enemies in order to stand a chance in an upcoming dungeon, as difficulty leaps between them can be extreme, especially in the late stages of the game.  The combat system being geared toward clearing enemies with minimal player input cuts down on the tedium a fair amount, but you'll still be doing a lot of enemy farming before the game is through.

Phantasy Star II remains one of the Sega Genesis's more memorable RPGs, though in some respects it doesn't hold up as well as the first game.  Its dark storytelling was one of its most memorable aspects, but the oddly balanced party members, overall slow, grindy pace (actually worse than the first game's in some respects) and enormous, labyrinthine dungeons place it squarely as a product of its era - '80s RPGs didn't really have the tech yet to provide a long experience, so they amped up the difficulty, gave few checkpoints and maze design to make them take longer to complete.  It hasn't aged the most gracefully of the Phantasy Star titles, but Phantasy Star II is still a game worth the attention of any fan of JRPGs as a foundational title for the genre.

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Playstation 2, Game Boy Advance, PC
Released: 1990
Recommended version: All of the later versions are ports of the original Genesis title, so there are no significant differences that I'm aware of.  There is also a remake on the Playstation 2 titled "Phantasy Star Generation 2" that features altered gameplay, but it is only available in Japanese.

Phantasy Star Gaiden

A Japanese-exclusive Phantasy Star title, released exclusively for Sega's Game Gear.  But were western gamers missing out on a hidden gem, or is this one spinoff game that should just be left in obscurity?

Anyone with a serious interest in JRPGs at least knows about Sega's Phantasy Star franchise.  It proved to be a hit on the Master System and had three Sega Genesis sequels which brought a lot of innovations to the table and had a highly imaginative setting with some dark themes, giving some unique flair to what was at the time a pretty niche genre.

In the four-year gap between Phantasy Stars 3 and 4, however, Japan got a slew of unique additions to the series that most westerners were unaware of until many years later.  There was Phantasy Star Adventure, a point-and-click adventure title with some light RPG elements which told a side-story occurring at roughly the same time as Phantasy Star II.  There were also the Phantasy Star II Text Adventures, a series of eight games in the same vein that gave slightly more back-story to the eight playable characters of Phantasy Star II and expanded that game's setting.  Finally, there was Phantasy Star Gaiden, an off-shoot of the first game (though it's not evident at the start) taking place aboard the space colony of Copto and following the adventures of two new characters - Alec and Mina - as they try to prevent the return of the evil being Cablon.

That's all good, but the game is hampered right out of the gate by some dated design decisions.  First, the game is easily the most grind-heavy of any of the Phantasy Star titles, requiring the player to spend significant amounts of time fighting enemies in order to gather enough gold to upgrade equipment.  While this was relatively standard (and even excusable) in RPGs of the 1980s, it was beginning to be phased out by the time the '90s rolled around, as technology was beginning to allow for lengthier games without having to rely on artificial ways to lengthen the experience.  Even the Final Fantasy Legend (SaGa) games on the Game Boy downplayed grinding in favor of randomized stat and character growth, so to see it in a 1992 game is a bit disappointing.

The game also suffers from uneven difficulty on the whole, with some later dungeons actually having lower-level enemies than the ones that came before them.  This left me frustrated on more than one occasion, as I had to spend a substantial amount of time grinding to survive one area, only to enter the next and be confronted by much weaker enemies than I'd defeated previously, which strikes me as lazy/bad design in general.  Game balance in the game overall leaves something to be desired, particularly in the later dungeons, where the length of the dungeon and the overall difficulty of the enemies is engineered to deplete the player's resources and leave them unable to defeat the boss, no matter how much they level up beforehand.  It got to the point where I just took to filling up my inventory with battle-escaping items and using them every time I got into a fight so that I could conserve my resources for the bosses.

Disappointingly, the game also regresses to the original Phantasy Star game's design in many ways.  The party is limited to three characters (Mina, Alec and a third character who appears as the story dictates) and enemies appear in groups of two at most.  Granted, screen space on the Game Gear is limited, but at a time when Phantasy Star III had five-character parties and the Game Boy had RPGs that allowed for a four-player party and sizable enemy groups of 3-5 enemies, it makes the more powerful platform feel surprisingly limited in comparison.

In the end, Phantasy Star Gaiden fails to live up to the quality standards of its namesake, providing a very mediocre RPG experience with little to distinguish it other than its name and a few elements of its setting.  It may have been a passable, if unremarkable, attempt at a portable RPG in 1992, but as technology grew and standards for the genre vastly expanded with a series of major hits in the early to mid `90s, Gaiden was destined to be forgotten.  This, paired with the fact that it seems to have been retconned out of canon with Phantasy Star IV's plot being reworked over its development period, means that this is a title whose sparse scraps of value will only be seen by the most die-hard fans of the series.

Developer: Japan System Supply
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Game Gear
Released: 1992
Recommended version: N/A

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom

Generally considered the black sheep of the Phantasy Star franchise, its third entry saw development under an entirely different team from the two prior titles and took its story in a completely new direction.  But is there enough here of merit to make this game worth a look, or is this one spinoff that's better left alone?

At a glance, Phantasy Star III certainly doesn't live up to the lofty expectations its predecessors provided.  While its visuals and music are adequate for a 1991 title, they are definitely not up to the high standards set in the first two games.  Its setting is also an anomaly, taking place in what first appears to be a fantasy world far removed from the familiar Algo system and possessing much less of a science fantasy bent than its predecessors.  Several core mechanics are also changed up, including a complete overhaul of the magic system - the characters in the game are given all of their spells right out of the gate, and the player is tasked with reassigning a "magic grid" to determine how powerful each individual spell is.  This grid can be freely adjusted, but each spell that gains power costs the spell on the opposite side of the grid some power.

In spite of everything, though, Phantasy Star III does contain some interesting twists of its own.  The fantastic world soon gives way to some science fiction elements, with androids playing a prominent role in the proceedings and the world itself being much more than it first appears.  There is also something of a running narrative as well, with an underlying theme of two races at war for a millennia finding out that they are not as different as they seem.  The game still lacks a lot of inter-personal reactions (as did the genre as a whole at the time), but there are at least hints of some characterizations throughout, with some characters changing alliances over the course of the adventure.

As its title implies, Phantasy Star III's main selling point is in its Generation system - at the end of each story, the player is given a chance of two characters to wed, and as the next chapter begins, they take control of that character's children, embarking on a new quest.  Each protagonist not only has a unique set of abilities and characters to recruit, but an entirely new story as well, with the previous protagonist's choice playing a large role in the events that develop in the present one.  There are a total of seven stories to experience and the player can only see a total of three over the course of any one playthrough, which lends the game some considerable replay value.  This was honestly a pretty innovative idea for a 1991 game, and it seems only relatively recently has begun to surfice in other big-budget RPG franchises.

On the gameplay front, however, Phantasy Star III is more of a mixed bag.  Combat in the game still moves relatively briskly thanks to the innovations put forth in Phantasy Star III, with the player having the option to take turns one at a time (better for boss encounters or dangerous foes) or simply activate auto-battle at a press in order to reuse their last attack over and over until all the enemies are slain.  However, the overall challenge definitely suffers from the game's rushed development time - while the first quest in the game provides a modest challenge, the later ones are considerably less so, with the player generally able to steamroll most enemy encounters and most of their spells becoming all but useless in favor of normal attacks.  There is also an abundance of backtracking and inobvious solution-hunting required during some stages - usually in the form of talking to every townsperson in a given village in order to trigger a plot flag that will allow the player access to a new area.  Standard for the era, certainly, but it may catch those used to a more streamlined RPG experience off-guard.  On the other hand, Phantasy Star III's dungeons are generally much shorter and more concise in design, so those who disliked the second game's lengthy, convoluted 2D mazes may have an easier time getting into this one.

The game also shows considerable evidence of being rushed, particularly in its final quests.  Not only are there several unused items in the game's code, but there are a number of caverns strewn across the game's worlds that can never be entered under any circumstances (though the addition of temples the player can teleport between somewhat mitigates this).  All four of the final quests, while they start differently, all coalesce in a very similar fashion with little variation, and even two of the game's endings are extremely similar to one another, with the only difference being a slight graphical change.

Still, while Phantasy Star III may not live up to the lofty pedigree of the other games in the series, it brings some unique ideas to the table, telling a surprisingly complex and mature tale despite its smaller scope.  This, paired with its relatively brisk runtime (about 10-15 hours for a first playthrough) and differing story paths, make it worth visiting at least once.  I honestly held hope for a time that this title would follow in the footsteps of its predecessors and get a remake that would allow it to more fully realize its potential, but as plans for a stateside release of those games fell through, I doubt it'll happen now.

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, Wii Virtual Console
Released: 1991
Recommended version: The later versions of the game are direct ports of the original Genesis title, so all are very similar.  The Game Boy Advance version has some slight changes, including restoring some unused enemy encounters, but is otherwise the same.  The game is also included on the Sega Genesis Collection (PS2/PSP) and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (PS3/Xbox 360) compilations.

Phantasy Star

Sega's Phantasy Star is a beloved classic among long-time genre fans, and it got its start on the Master System in 1988.  But does this title rise above the limitations of its era, or is it simply another generic dungeon crawler, fated to be forgotten?

The Japanese RPG genre was beginning to gain a foothold in the mid-to-late 80s, with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy becoming big hits in Japan and modestly successful elsewhere.  Sega had their own contender as well in the form of Phantasy Star, a title which incorporated a combination of science fiction and fantasy elements (particularly inspired by Star Wars) rather than the heavy Dungeons and Dragons influence of its competitors.  This certainly lent it a unique flair, as well as allowing them to incorporate elements like spaceships, robotic police and laser guns without feeling terribly out of place.

Of course, a slight change-up in setting would only help it to a point; after all, earlier games like Ultima and Might and Magic had already worked science fiction elements into their otherwise fantastic settings.  So Sega also took advantage of the Master System's capabilities to create a game that was much more colorful and fluidly animated than most RPGs of the era.  Not only do the enemies in the game show several frames of attack animation each (a feature that wouldn't appear prominently in some other big-name franchises until the Playstation 2 era), but even the dungeons themselves show off this feature, featuring smoothly-animated backgrounds as the player walks through the tunnels and even turns directions.  The sound design in the game is equally polished, with some catchy and memorable tunes for the dungeons and towns.  In fact, they were so good that Phantasy Star IV later incorporated remixes of them into some of its own dungeons.

Beyond its presentation, however, Phantasy Star is very emblematic of its era.  The game has a pretty heavy focus on gathering clues by talking to townspeople in order to solve puzzles and bypass obstacles, and they're not always the most intuitive of puzzles.  One example is finding the Compass, which requires the player to talk to a random villager in one town, then backtrack to the first town and enter its mini-dungeon to find a chest containing it.  The chest will not be there when the player visits before talking to that townsperson, which can easily cause some confusion.  Another example is trying to acquire the Passport, which requires asking a shopkeeper about "Secrets" three times; the first two times, he will simply send you away, but the third time he will relent and sell it to you.

The game, as with most others of the era, is also fairly grindy, with the player often having to stop and farm gold from random encounters in order to purchase new equipment and have a fighting chance in the upcoming dungeons.  At other times, they will simply need to purchase a specific item in order to be able to enter new areas at all, such as having to save up a substantial amount of money for an Ice Digger in order to get around Planet Dezolis.  Still, this doesn't end up being too bad in comparison to some RPGs; the brisk pace of combat helps the player get through it faster, and item prices generally aren't too outlandish, meaning that the player can get much of their gold-farming done in a matter of minutes rather than hours.

The game's combat is also fairly straightforward, with most enemies having only one or two types of attack for the player to deal with.  Much of the danger involved therein comes from "beef-gating" - wandering off the path to the intended next area and encountering enemies well above the party's level, which can quickly cause them to be wiped out.  Thankfully, the game also lets the player save at any time, so as long as they remain diligent, this isn't a huge problem.  The encounter rate also generally isn't bad - there are only a few instances I can recall of enemies attacking me every other step or so, and even those were generally in dungeons.  However, enemy groups can sometimes be massive onslaughts of 5-8 enemies, which can be extremely dangerous to an underprepared party and quickly deplete their resources, forcing an early retreat back to town in order to heal up.

As was standard for RPGs of the era, the overall narrative in the game is fairly minimal, without much in the way of defined characters or an ongoing narrative.  The playable characters also neatly fit into the usual RPG archetypes - Alis is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, Myau is more of a support character (being able to boost allies' defense, disarm traps and having the best healing spell), Odin is pure muscle (and the only character who can wield guns) and Noah is the mage character, being relatively weak physically but getting the strongest offensive spells.  Still, its quirky science fantasy setting lends it some charm, and it did provide an important building block for later games in the genre, which had much more of a focus on story and atmosphere as the technology allowed for it.

In the end, Phantasy Star is a game emblematic of its era in many ways, but its strong aesthetics and overall level of polish help it stand out from other contemporary titles.  It provides enough content to give the player a satisfying adventure, but it also proves concise enough that it doesn't wear out its welcome.  The first in a classic RPG series that endures surprisingly well today.

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega
Platform: Sega Master System, Game Boy Advance, Wii Virtual Console
Released: 1988
Recommended version: As all of the later versions are direct ports of the same game, you can't really go wrong with most of them.  However, I would avoid the Game Boy Advance port, as it has a rather annoying bug that can cause the game to lock up during the save process, forcing the system to be reset and causing the player to lose all of their progress since their last save.  The Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection compilation for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 also contains ports of all four Phantasy Star games, making it an ideal and affordable choice for modern gamers.  The Switch version by M2 (part of the Sega Ages line) also includes enhancements like a minimap and an enhanced mode that supports FM Synth emulation.