Phantasy Star Thread

[Sinmenon]

Phantasy Star taught me to save often and in different slots. And to make sure to have grid paper for maps. This game is fascinating in many levels, there was nothing like it at the time iirc. There was a sense of freedom even if the story was somewhat linear.

Phantasy Star II is a classic, full stop. And can be hard, but it is so rewarding when you finally get comfortable. I still need to play the remake, but only because they added the possibility of saving Nei.

Phantasy Star III....Good ideas, some of the stories have potential...But the execution was bad. The map was useless, the dungeons repetitive - and you had to traverse the same one dungeon many times to get anywhere- and because of how complex the story was (and there wasn't enough drafts to revise the story) there was a bunch of holes. I recall seeing a fan remake that wanted to iron out those, but it was... 10 years ago? No clue if it ever concluded.

Now, Phantasy Star IV is exactly what people nowadays expect from a RPG. Cutscenes, banter, side-quests and all that. I always recommend to anyone who wants to get into retro RPGs along with at least one Final Fantasy game (usually FF9).

I have to admit that I have the softest soft spot for Phantasy Star Online. I played it very young, and I actually analyzed its meta information and compiled an analysis on it. Do you know that meme scene of the crazy dude with the wall full of papers doing analysis? That's me.
I also got a Red Ring Rico statuette in storage. Ops

Ofc, I'm also big on Phantasy Star Universe, AotI, PSP, PSP2 and PSZero. But, somehow, haven't tried PSO2 yet.

 

[Ikagura]

There was a sense of freedom even if the story was somewhat linear.

True, even if DQ and FF were released around the same time I think the great thing about the game is how you can swap planets as you wish.

On the other hand it also means more time exploring to continue the story but that's for all RPGs around.

 

[Yuki Senoue]

my greatest dark evil sin that lurks behind in my shadow is that phantasy star on the master system is one of my favourite rpgs ever, and phantasy star online is one of my favourite games ever, but i have not played ~any~ of the mega drive phantasy star games

You really should play Phantasy Star The End of The Millennium for Mega Drive. It is incredible. I cried so much at its ending - I loved the characters so much, I didn't want to say goodbye. It is my favorite RPG of the 16 bits.

I started my Phantasy Star career with The End of The Millennium, which I found inside a CD with lots of Mega Drive roms and an emulator (GENS). I had a Pentium 133mhz, I believe I was 15 years old back then? Then I went backwards (PS1, PS2, PS Gaiden) then forwards to PSOPC, (a PC port of DCv2, which I played back in 2005, when I got a Pentium D PC), PSOBB (when I got internet connection), PSU, PSU AOTI, PS Zero (Zero is part of the Online 1 series!) PSPortable 1, PSPortable 2, PSO2 ( l play PSO2 since 2012, started in the JP open beta) and finally, PSO2NGS. I looooove all those games, but if you ask which ones are my favorites, they're Phantasy Star The End of the Millennium and Phantasy Star Online.

 

[Ikagura]

You really should play Phantasy Star The End of The Millennium for Mega Drive. It is incredible. I cried so much at its ending - I loved the characters so much, I didn't want to say goodbye. It is my favorite RPG of the 16 bits.

I started my Phantasy Star career with The End of The Millennium, which I found inside a CD with lots of Mega Drive roms and an emulator (GENS). I had a Pentium 133mhz, I believe I was 15 years old back then? Then I went backwards (PS1, PS2, PS Gaiden).

Phantasy Star IV is quite the quintessential entry in the whole franchise, a bit of a shame we'll never see Phantasy Star CD ever (unless someone created an MSU-1 style SCD romhack)...

I thought there were only 3 Classic entries because of the GBA compilation (PS Collection) from the early 00's but I've discovered about IV The End of the Millennium with the PSP Genesis compilation which contained 2 - 3 - 4.

Which makes me still wonder why Sega hasn't ever made a full Classic Collection containing all 4 entries, the two Game Gear spin-offs as well as the Text Adventure that served as a prequel to Phantasy Star II on consoles and PC... I know they made it for the PS2 under the Sega Ages 2500 Collection but it was Japan exclusive and honestly I don't feel like doing them in another language than English.

There were remakes of 1 and 2 but they were quite low-cost and I understand why they haven't made it for 3 nor 4.

...then forwards to PSOPC, (a PC port of DCv2, which I played back in 2005, when I got a Pentium D PC), PSOBB (when I got internet connection), PSU, PSU AOTI, PS Zero (Zero is part of the Online 1 series!) PSPortable 1, PSPortable 2, PSO2 ( l play PSO2 since 2012, started in the JP open beta) and finally, PSO2NGS. I looooove all those games, but if you ask which ones are my favorites, they're Phantasy Star The End of the Millennium and Phantasy Star Online.

PSO PC is quite a rare version I think because it was meant for the Asian market (thus why they've added Korean and Chinese languages exclusively to that version, not even Episode 1&2 got them).

When I was younger I assumed that Episode 2 existed in standalone and that Episode 1&2 was a compilation but it's just Sega being confusing with the naming of their enhanced versions. I think that either internally or from fans it's dubbed as "PSO Ver.3" (to include both the GC and original Xbox ports).

Blue Burst is the most complete version of Online so far but the issue is that you'll need online connection to a private server and some of them may change the rules (maybe a bit too much like Destiny and Ultima) so you'd go for the more purist approach like Ephinea (despite some QoL improvements).

Ultimately you'd have to download and host your own private Blue Burst server to simulate a single player game but then again it'll mean you couldn't play with other people unless they can connect to your server.

PSU is a bit of a mess to me because I'm not fan of being forced to play as Ethan even if I appreciate seeing a fully fledged single player story mode. Extra Mode is basically like Online but in solo where you have your custom Guardian but you'll only unlock it after completing the fourth Chapter of the main game (why Sega, why?). Ambition of the Illuminus is a tricky one, it's both an extension like PSO Ver.2 but also a sequel (which is basically Episode 2). I liked the slight political story about human supremacists in this compared to "the evil SEED alien invading the Ghural system" which is a bit too cliche imo but in the same time the solo campaign felt so much cheaper and almost like an afterthought.

 

[Leon]

Phantasy star 4 is my second favorite game of all time, sadly it was the last of the single player games.

 

[MajesticSiN]

Love the Phantasy Star series. Of the non online versions I think Phantasy Star 4 is the best. I've given like a million hours of my life to Phantasy Star Online in all it's various releases.

 

[Ikagura]

Phantasy star 4 is my second favorite game of all time, sadly it was the last of the single player games.

Technically speaking PSO Episode 3, PSU, the PS Portable games and PS Nova all had a single player story.