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On a console not known for RPGs, PS4 is perhaps the best of its kind 

The Sega Genesis had plenty of strengths: blast processing, the Sonic games, plenty of good sports games, great shoot 'em ups, more mature games, blood and gore in Mortal Kombat, but it also had its share of weaknesses, and a major weakness was a lack of RPGs. The SNES had TONS of great RPGs, but Sega's console just wasn't suited to the genre. The most notable RPG series on Genesis were the Shining Force series and the Phatasy Star series. Phantasy Star IV was developed and published by Sega. It released in the West in 1995, and is probably the best RPG on the console. Even so, it falls short when compared to many contemporary RPGs on the SNES. 

The title screen ditches the IV in favor of the subtitle: "The End of the Millennium." The story here is that a once thriving civilization was nearly exterminated 1,000 years ago and has slowly built itself back up again. Now something strange is happening on the planet, so a ragtag group of adventurers (some of which are from the Motavia Academy) head out to investigate. Along the way, they battle aliens and find allies who join the fight with them. The main villain is a black-clad magic user named Zio; he's bent on world destruction and (funny enough) has a cult that worships him. The setting is neat as it's more of a sci-fi setting rather than fantasy, but it's not modern (such as Earthbound). Magic spells in the game are called "tech." Actual magic is treated as something that has faded away long ago. Thankfully, the story doesn't drag on at the beginning, allowing you to get right into the game. 

The game plays out like your typical RPG. You can explore the overworld and go to a variety of towns, but you will want to go to the places the game directs you towards. Along the way, you get new teammates, and some will leave your group. You will want to stock up on items and equip new weapons and armor. There are certainly times when you will have to grind to beat a certain dungeon. Like most RPGs, the random encounter rate in PS4 can be ridiculous at times, but thankfully, most the time you will be able to retreat from battles. 

The combat in PS4 doesn't do anything new. You can have up to five characters in your party. Enemies are displayed in front and characters will pop up when they attack (which is more than what Dragon Quest games do). Characters start with a few spells, but you don't know what they do until you try them (they have weird names or are abbreviated--"Res" is Restore, for example). The combat is good and characters have a good variety of attacks. And of course, characters will learn new attacks as they level up. However, there is a major problem here: there's no spell to raise dead party members, meaning every time someone died, I had to travel back to a town and stay at the inn for them to revive. There is also no item to raise them to life. Seriously? Now I could be wrong here, but I tried all the spells and all the items that the game offered, so if I somehow missed it, please comment and let me know. If not, I find it amazing that they would overlook such an important factor of RPGs. 

The story is good in the fact that it's different and you don't know what will happen next. This is enhanced by the excellent characters. Story scenes play out with panels popping up (like a comic or even an anime). Dialogue between characters can be pretty good at times and even hilarious (such as when an old man hits on Alys and she punches him). Characters can be a little too quick to join or leave the party, but that was certainly typical of RPGs of the early 90s. The characters themselves are quite varied too, including some academy students, hunters, aliens, androids, a scientist, a wizard, and a priest. There are ten playable characters in all. The story actually has some twists along the way, including the death of a main character (and unlike Final Fantasy II, the character does not come back). 

The graphics aren't bad by any stretch. The overworld and towns look nice enough (although all the towns look the same). The thin characters look quite bland, but the comic panels that pop up for story scenes make up for this shortcoming (if you recall, Final Fantasy III on SNES makes the little characters very expressive by using subtle movements so that Square didn't need to rely on story panels). In battle, the enemies are detailed nicely and even have little animations, and they always move when they attack (unlike the stagnant enemies in FF or DQ games). Still, the overall graphics are lackluster when compared to contemporary RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Earthbound, but the hardware is partly to blame here considering the SNES was more powerful and Square especially was masterful at pushing the hardware to its limits. 

Finally, the music is a mixed bag. At times it's very good (such as the intro theme, battle theme, overworld theme, and town theme), but at other times it's forgettable (most story scenes) and even annoying (that shop theme is awful). It's unfortunate that there are no character themes here (which was a staple of the FF games). The poor sound quality of the Genesis doesn't help, but again, there is some good music, even if the overall soundtrack falls flat when compared to the behemoths of Final Fantasy III or Chrono Trigger on SNES. 

Final Verdict--4 Stars: Recommended 

Despite its flaws, PS4 is a good game. It has a great story with interesting characters. The battle systems is very typical, but it's good. The graphics and music are fine. If you're looking for an RPG on Genesis, this is probably the best one (although I could be completely wrong since I haven't played any other RPGs on Genesis). I think the story and characters are the best part of the game, and those are arguably the most important parts of any RPG, so Sega did a good job here. Honestly, it's hard to compete with Square during their dominating years on the SNES. 

This is my last Genesis mini review. Hope you guys have enjoyed them. Thanks for reading and commenting!