PixlBit

A message from 2013: These are taken from three different old blogs of mine, so if it seems a bit long... that's why! Anyway, I hope any Phantasy Star fans out there get can have fun with it.

The days of the much loved single-player Phantasy Star games may be waning, but playing through the original recently brought me right back to those golden years. With Phantasy Star, I found myself constantly glued to the TV, pushing myself through one frustrating but rewarding challenge after another; I have rarely had that patience in the last five years! Up until now, I’ve never cared for any first-person RPG (old or new). I wouldn’t have thought repetitive, sometimes maze-like dungeons, and a laughable translation could still make a great game.

I also thought of myself as someone incapable of loving oldschool RPG’s after shrugging off FFV and VI, though loving the new ones. I realize now I was simply playing a series that was yet to define itself as its own (sorry FFVI fans). Right from FFII, the series ripped off Phantasy Star creating a character based RPG, and many towns, enemies, and backgrounds look shockingly similar to those in Phantasy Star all the way to FFVI. Not until FFVII did the series make the enemies more than static sprites, nine years after Phantasy Star. While this might sound like a hate-on, I did like those FF games, and it’s clear Phantasy Star also took a lot of pages from Dragon Quest. The game also has more of a sci-fi, Star Wars approach rather than the D&D roots in the Final Fantasy series; the former of which I realize I prefer.

You could do worse than ape Star Wars

In hindsight, Phantasy Star did make number 26 in EGM’s “200 Greatest  Games of Their Time” (the highest of any RPG) so maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised this game kicked so much ass. It’s not that the story was anything of note, though the game does still look quite good. Balancing was just nailed: regular enemies are always a danger and grinding early in the game is much more rewarding as the scale of experience doesn’t tilt. With three more games to play in the series, I can’t wait to get more of this old school charm I’ve missed out on.

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As the second chapter in the Phantasy Star series, no longer can I compare this game solely to Final Fantasy. No, as the successor to the brilliant original, this sequel has a lot to live up to. As it starts out, striking similarities are clear: Snappy sprites, simple battle system, catchy music, and… a four letter limit to character names? Dungeons are no longer first-person, and instead are more detailed compounds and caves like those seen in most 2D JRPGs. However they are just as large and maze-like as ever. Yes, this is good old Phantasy Star.

The similarities don’t last long however, as I soon found the story has more in common with Blade Runner than the fairytale story of the original. Only one planet is explored in this one, taking out the unique space-faring of the original. As well, the battle system is not quite as simple as it seems once the variety of playable characters are seen (8 in all). Command options given to allies can become quite dense as later levels are reached. Unfortunately, such complexity is perhaps overblown for a 20-year old RPG. Some of the characters are useless, and others are a waste of time until later in the game. Regular enemies in dungeons can leap from easy to near instant-death. Also, the lack of a save-anywhere feature like the original makes having to redo an hour of gameplay far too frequent than it should be. Note: Actually, there is a secret way to get an item to save anywhere later in the game, but my efforts lead to nothing.

The dungeons look amazingly far ahead of their time… Unfortunately, it’s hard to distinguish room from room.

This imbalance was my undoing for the game. Perhaps I went into the game wanting it to approach the experience of the original game, or maybe the old school difficulty was simply too much for me. Either way, once it got to the point where I had to check online for every step I made in the dungeons, I didn’t see any accomplishment I could get in completing the game. To be fair, I probably put roughly 30 hours into the game, and made it a fair way passed the surprise; a surprise of which was spoiled for me before I even played the game. I enjoyed most of my time with the game, and it did have a superior battle system to the original, maybe even putting it among my favourite RPG battle systems. Still, as the original “do anything” genre, it’s the balance that is most important and then maybe that magic can be felt again.

Phantasy Star IV

The few who are still around and knew me way back in the summer of 09  may remember I started up a blog series on the original Phantasy Star series... which abruptly ended when I got frustrated with PSII. Now that I finally decided to play the conclusion of the trilogy, I can say I’m not disappointed. The battle system is incredibly deep and the dungeons are the best I’ve probably seen in any RPG. The story kept me coming back and I didn’t even need one achievement to help me along the way.

The protagonist of the game is Alys, who just may be the most likable female game character I’ve seen yet. She’s kind of the tough-punk chick, but her dialogue can get downright hilarious at times... which (spoiler) brings me to the one problem I had with the game: they kill her off. The replacement is the typical dimwitted kid. This would have been fine if her death had some meaning beyond sacrifice, but it didn’t really. The plot never does anything interesting with the new hero. To be honest though, maybe it was good they killed her off when they did because the series never had particularly memorable characters. To think they would have kept that pace of character would have been astonishing. It didn’t really affect the qualities of the other amazing aspects of the game anyway.