Phantasy Star series (the jRPGs, not the MMOs)?

[Humanity has risen!]

One incentive you could have in completing the earlier games is that there are references to earlier events in 4.

 

[eric__s]

I think the Phantasy Star games are remarkable for a couple reasons. Obviously the setting was new and fresh, but so was the protagonist. Alis was one of the first female protagonists in roleplaying games released in the West and it was never really an issue. The point was never that she was a female, but that she was the most qualified warrior for the job. She was never hypersexualized like Laura Croft or made childlike like in more recent Japanese games, she was just a strong heroine and that was pretty cool and revolutionary I think.

The games also had really good music and FM engineering.





This is the warmest 16 bit frequency modulation synthesis I've ever heard. It's really amazing how it's able to convey this warm, fun 80s pop style and this cold, electronic space feeling at the same time.





When I was a kid, I sat in front of my TV with a tape recorder and recorded all my favorite songs from Phantasy Star 4. The songs are really strong and catchy, but the FM engineering is what's most impressive. Music in Genesis games can be pretty abrasive because of how brassy and emotionless and mechanical it is. This isn't the case with Phantasy Star 4. They spent a lot of time programming all of the instruments and making them sound good together. None of them have that typical grating FM sound. It's probably the best Genesis soundtrack for both its compositions and engineering.

 

[Gragt]

There is a new translation for the SMS version. You might want to check it out.

 

[abnaxus]

You'd think by now someone would've translated Phantasy Star Generation 1 & 2, but apparently eroges are prioritary. FFS

But at least one project has been making good progress. With luck, one can soon play the remastered version of PS1 anyway.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

You can play it right now, there's a link on page 13 of that thread.

Some pics here

http://phantasticalforce.tumblr.com/

 

[Humanity has risen!]

You'd think by now someone would've translated Phantasy Star Generation 1 & 2, but apparently eroges are prioritary. FFS

But at least one project has been making good progress. With luck, one can soon play the remastered version of PS1 anyway.

You'd think by now someone would've translated Phantasy Star Generation 1 & 2, but apparently eroges are prioritary. FFS

But at least one project has been making good progress. With luck, one can soon play the remastered version of PS1 anyway.

It looks like horrid RPGmaker garbage, why would anyone play this?

 

[Giauz Ragnacock]

You'd think by now someone would've translated Phantasy Star Generation 1 & 2, but apparently eroges are prioritary. FFS

But at least one project has been making good progress. With luck, one can soon play the remastered version of PS1 anyway.

I very much do not appreciate the new version. Why should Alis look any different than she did on the title screen of the original game? I say the original game is one of those fine as is - forever - games (unless one hates money farming).

 

[Jadeite]

PS II is a masterpiece. Haven't played the original yet. PS IV is good. Haven't played PS III. These games are all about the world and the atmosphere. Challenge goes hand-in-hand with that. Really beautiful games, especially PS II. It says so much, yet says so little. Truly a game of the old school where you're supposed to use your imagination. Love the different planets and shit. Never played an RPG with this kind of atmosphere and setting. Reminds me of SEGA classics like Space Harrier, Zoom 909, Panzer Dragoon, Zillion and Last Battle.

 

[Falksi]

PS4 is still a calssic IMO. I've played it through again a few months ago, and still found it very enjoyable.

PS3 is one game which didn't cut the mustard overall, but which did have various elements which I'd say are worth a revisit. In fact I'd say that's one game which could serve as the great base for a re-boot/sequel. The choice of who to marry, and thus who you played as in the subsequent generation, was brilliant, and could make a superb set of choice-based timelines, not too disimilar to the Witcher 2's Roche/Iorveth choice.

 

[Silva]

Shit, Phantasy Star Generations are fully translated !? How did I miss that?

 

[Jason Liang]

Shiiiiit... I didn't even know we had a Phantasy Star thread.

 

[Jason Liang]

PS4 is still a calssic IMO. I've played it through again a few months ago, and still found it very enjoyable.

PS3 is one game which didn't cut the mustard overall, but which did have various elements which I'd say are worth a revisit. In fact I'd say that's one game which could serve as the great base for a re-boot/sequel. The choice of who to marry, and thus who you played as in the subsequent generation, was brilliant, and could make a superb set of choice-based timelines, not too disimilar to the Witcher 2's Roche/Iorveth choice.

PS4 is the classic.

PS3 is too old school, and not in a good way. I say this, PS3 was the first rpg I ever played.

I remember my friend Charles, who is Japanese, played through PS1-4.

I asked him: "So Charles, how was PS3?"
Charles: "it was ok, kind of boring and easy."
Me: "Easy? How about the dungeon at the end of the first generation?"
Charles: "The first two generations were easy once I bought a pair of Royal Needlers in the first town."

Japanese (even Japanese Americans) don't play rpgs like the rest of us...

PS3 conceptually is wonderful- two moons, seven worlds- half of which are inhabited by monsters and half of which are inhabited by robots, each lead by an insane general. The concept could be remade to an epic game with insane C&C (you'll really get to see the consequences of the choices you made).

 

[Silva]

PS1 was a huge success early 90s and the first rpg ever for a lot of brazilians (me included). I remember the advertisings in magazines saying "You will take 3 months to take out Lassic, the villain", which for the time was something with no precedent.

 

[Falksi]

PS4 is the classic.

PS3 is too old school, and not in a good way. I say this, PS3 was the first rpg I ever played.

I remember my friend Charles, who is Japanese, played through PS1-4.

I asked him: "So Charles, how was PS3?"
Charles: "it was ok, kind of boring and easy."
Me: "Easy? How about the dungeon at the end of the first generation?"
Charles: "The first two generations were easy once I bought a pair of Royal Needlers in the first town."

Japanese (even Japanese Americans) don't play rpgs like the rest of us...

PS3 conceptually is wonderful- two moons, seven worlds- half of which are inhabited by monsters and half of which are inhabited by robots, each lead by an insane general. The concept could be remade to an epic game with insane C&C (you'll really get to see the consequences of the choices you made).

Boom! Bang on chap, could not agree more.

If I had half a clue how to make a game PS3 - or an idea based on that - would be where I'd start. It's the perfect foundation for a C&C RPG. The replayability you'd get from seeing 1st gen choices play out in the 3rd gen would be mint.

I dare say you could even have a small open world in there too, which operates similarly to how games like a Link To The Past & Chrono Trigger did - an action in one gen affects access to dungeons etc. in future gens.

Ah, if only I had a clue on how to make games lol.

 

[abnaxus]

PS3 monster design is Prosperian.

I think depending on whom you married in the first generation you could get a twin sister in third generation that otherwise would not appear in the game. But overall it was best to marry the blue-haired chick in the first generation to get the most powerful protagonist in the third generation.

Brunette in second generation was best gurl.

 

[Jason Liang]

You have to marry Laya in the 2nd generation, then you get a twin sister (Gwyn). Otherwise you pick up Laya again in the 3rd generation. This is the most powerful, since who you marry also affects which Kara you get in the 3rd generation (if you married Maia in the 1st generation, you 'll get a fighter Kara instead of a healer Kara, who is less useful).

Game also had four different endings depending on who your parents are, so it really depends on which ending you want to get.

The game has c&c but it railroads you since essentially when you use the weather tower to alter the moons in the 1st generation, it leads to releasing Dark Falz in the 3rd generation.

 

[Falksi]

When you think of how massive that was in c&c at the time though, it's really commendable. As an overall experience it was just too flat, grindy & lacklustre to really enjoy, but the great elements which it did have were really, really great.

So much unfulfilled potential. Would love to see it fulfilled.

Not a bad little review of it here........



Forgot how good some of the music was actually. Hadn't forgot how annoying the encounter rate was though.

 

[Silva]

Oh my, the PS1 remake screwed the music really bad. While the tunes are similar, the originals had a certain sadness to it that were all but eliminated with the new age remix.

 

[newtmonkey]

Phantasy Star II

I've attempted to complete this game many times over the years, but always got turned off by the massive dungeons that become increasingly difficult to map. I'm glad I stuck with it this time, because the game becomes surprisingly good once you get through the very linear first 25% of the game.

I used Rudger (Hunter) and Anne (Medic) for the first part of the game, and then once I lost Nei I replaced her with Amia (Huntress). This party worked out quite nicely, and I had no trouble completing the game. The game has a reputation as a difficult and brutal grindfest, but I found the encounter rate to be just about right. I was able to complete the game without grinding at all, and ended up with my characters at level 31 or 32 by the end... which was more than powerful enough to defeat both end bosses without any trouble at all.

The best thing about this game is that it was made before the 16-bit console RPG formula was established by Final Fantasy IV and Dragon Quest V (town->cave->boss->town2... etc). It plays a lot like the 8-bit console RPGs, which were more influenced by computer RPGs than other console RPGs. This means that PSII has less of a focus on story and more on dungeon crawling and exploration. It doesn't gate your progress with bosses at the end of every dungeon (in fact, there are really only three boss encounters in the entire game, with two of those at the very end of the game). Even better, the middle and end portions of the game are actually quite nonlinear, with you having access to two groups of four dungeons, which you can complete in any order.

---

Still, the game has some major problems.

Although you are free to assemble your party from six unique characters, half of them are either useless or extremely situational.

• Shilka the thief almost always goes first in combat, and can randomly steal items from shops... but is mostly useless in combat.
• Huey the biomonster specialist has unique techs specialized in killing biomonsters, but becomes much less useful quickly into the game when the biomonsters are mostly all replaced by robots.
• Kinds the robot specialist is just Huey, but for robots instead of biomonsters.

Huey and Kinds would be more useful if techs consumed less points to use, or if they had more tech points, or if there was some way to restore tech points outside of town (other than very rare items). Once they are out of tech points, they will be relegated to using items in combat... so you might as well go with Rudger, Amia, and Anne, all of whom are actually useful in most situations.

The dungeons are pleasantly mazelike with lots of cool stuff to find, but some of them are just unbelievably difficult to navigate or map. The absolute worst dungeon has you blindly falling down pits down seven tedious levels, with each pit often dropping you in a section with two or three MORE pits to choose from. This one dungeon took me 2-3 hours to fully explore.

The biggest problem, though, is that combat is too simple. Very few enemies have special attacks and your own characters never have enough points to really make use of their techniques, so in 99% of the battles you are just trading blows back and forth until you win.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Even better, the middle and end portions of the game are actually quite nonlinear, with you having access to two groups of four dungeons, which you can complete in any order.

Damn, I've been wanting to play somehting like that for ages, I love that shit. To think it was sitting around this entire time and I couldn't find it for the obscurity. Nobody ever mentions this game when I ask about nonlinear jrpgs.

The biggest problem, though, is that combat is too simple. Very few enemies have special attacks and your own characters never have enough points to really make use of their techniques, so in 99% of the battles you are just trading blows back and forth until you win.

Damn, that's sad to hear. Maybe I won't play it after all. Probably would have anyways ~5 years ago, but a ton of cool stuff has been coming out recently. I think Breath of the Wild led to a major resurgence in people trying to make nonlinear games.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

There's a Sega ages PS2 port that's faithful to the original while being less of an eyesore.

I always bounced off the second game because of the grinding and slow movement speed but then my wife went and breezed through it. Fucking owned.

 

[LJ40]

Saw this thread and realized I wanted to play PS4 again. Apparently my current legit options are $0.99 to own it on Steam or $50 to rent it on the Switch for a year.

Decisions, decisions.