Phantasy Star 1-4 appreciation thread

[I'm a Puppy!]

Yeah man, those games were pretty neat.

[archnemesis]

I could never force myself to complete PS3. The grind is unbearable. The first two games are pretty good.

[Fifstar]

Beat PS4 on a Mega Drive Collection. PS2 looked cool, but the grind needed and sudden difficulty spikes even in the first dungeon made me quit the game early on.

[Svejk]

Tried to play through PS2 again recently, but the bland-ass battle backgrounds and the getting hit sound was much less bearable now.     Been REALLY wanting to play the Sega Ages PS1 remake.  Have it downloaded with the English patch, but would much rather play it on my phone than sitting down in front of a tv to play it.  The PS2 emu (Android) struggles to play it, even as less demanding a game it is. 

Have a feeling this thread will just turn out to make me upset with Sega all over again.    Still waiting for that "Sega renaissance"...

On that note, one of my favorite tunes...  I remember first hearing this in PS4, and my pre-teen self absolutely losing it...



 

[Lucretius]

That's the original Phantasy Star Master System dungeon theme.  So good.

Always try and play PS with the FM sound enabled.  So good.

Master System with FM Sound


Master System without FM Sound

[Lucretius]

No PSO2 in the west and no Phantasy Star V in 25 years 

PSO2 is stupid easy to get up and running in English.  The hardest part is getting past the hiragana CAPTCHA to setup a login.  And it runs great even on my old MacBook Pro.

I'd love to see a new offline PS.  Reiko Kodama still works for Sega.  Now that Sega is with Atlus, I love to see her work with the Etrian Odyssey team for a throwback to the first PS-style first person dungeons!

[Svejk]

That's the original Phantasy Star Master System dungeon theme.  So good.

Oh yeah... the memories came flooding back when I first heard it.   If my SMS had that FM chip sound though, I would've gone ape shit as a kid.  PS1 was my gateway to RPG's.

I was thinking Monolith Soft drop the weakening Xeno series and Sega get them to do a proper single player PS.   Just non of that MMO style battle crap.

[I'm a Puppy!]

PS3 was the worst one of the bunch by a long shot, but the music wasn't all that bad, actually it was rather good

[I'm a Puppy!]

I really wish there would be a Phantasy Star V. I don't feel any series got the "space opera" thing as well as PS did.
Star Ocean has multiple planets, but they were all medival and samey and...well...Star Ocean.
The Xeno series, I mean Xenogears was on one planet. Xenosaga had multiple planets but they all felt the same, Xenoblade is on one.

I really miss the feeling of space adventure that PS had. It just felt so huge.

[Human Snorenado]

PSIV was so good. Ahead of it's time in a lot of respects. I can never forgive Sega for turning the series into a shitty Diablo clone to capture multi-player simpletons.

[Great Rumbler]

[tiesto]

PS3 was the worst one of the bunch by a long shot, but the music wasn't all that bad, actually it was rather good

Except for this one:


Though I really liked how the world map music would build and build as you acquired more party members (and also if the lead character was dead). That was a neat touch:




3 isn't that great compared to the rest of them but there still were a few interesting ideas in it. Generation system, the dynamic music, the late-game plot twist about its world.

Anyways, awesome thread! Glad to see some love for my favorite RPG series.

[Mupepe]

This is the first RPG I can remember playing.  Blew my mind

[bluemax]

My dude bichphoungballz speed runs Phantasy Star IV on twitch sometimes. The macro system is pretty interesting and the game has some rocking tunes.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I recently replayed PS4. I was surprised how quick it felt, especially compared to the slog of PS2. Well, I shouldn't say PS2 was a slog, but the encounter rate + insane dungeons made it feel twice as long.

[tiesto]

I recently replayed PS4. I was surprised how quick it felt, especially compared to the slog of PS2. Well, I shouldn't say PS2 was a slog, but the encounter rate + insane dungeons made it feel twice as long.

The Sega Ages release of the original 4 games had options to increasing walking speed and EXP gain... Love PS2 but yeah it's grindy as fuck, that's really just a product of the time.

[Stoney Mason]

I always wanted to play these games because a kid in school never would shut up about them. Never did though although I can remember that kid's name even though it was a long ass time ago.

I don't think I could tolerate the earlier games at this point but maybe this will motivate me to finally play Phantasy Star 4.

[archnemesis]

I don't think I could tolerate the earlier games at this point but maybe this will motivate me to finally play Phantasy Star 4.

I played portable versions of the first three games and the grind is more bearable when you can spread it out over many shorter sessions.

I will probably rebuy the games for the Switch. My older portable systems have awful battery life these days.

[Svejk]

If you could only play one, PSIV hands down.  The biggest crime of that game though, was that gawdawful cardboard case and vomit inducing cover art for the US release.  Dufuq, Sega.

[tiesto]

If you could only play one, PSIV hands down.  The biggest crime of that game though, was that gawdawful cardboard case and vomit inducing cover art for the US release.  Dufuq, Sega.

Yeah they got Boris Vallejo to do the artwork... I have nostalgia for his style but he phoned the PS4 box art in.

[Great Rumbler]

Phantasy Star box art rankings:


Phantasy Star 2 US


Phantasy Star 4 Japan


Phantasy Star 2 Japan


Phantasy Star 3 US


Phantasy Star Generation 1 Japan


Phantasy Star Generation 2 Japan


Phantasy Star 3 Japan


Phantasy Star Collection PS2 Japan


Phantasy Star 1 Japan


Phantasy Star 4 US


Phantasy Star 1 US


Phantasy Star Collection GBA US

[tiesto]

I mostly agree with your rankings, though I'd flip the PS1 US and PS4 US box arts around... the PS2 US box art is great (excellent use of color), even if it doesn't really reflect the in game art too much and the faces are a bit derpy. PS2's Japanese art is also pretty excellent.

There's a Japanese art book for the original 4 PS games, which I picked up at Kinokuniya NYC. It's apparently a fairly rare book, would have preferred a bit more content for the price (close to $60) but as a hardcore fan I had to have it.

[demi]

These games did not age well imo. 4 is the most playable, and even that has issues

[Great Rumbler]

I mostly agree with your rankings, though I'd flip the PS1 US and PS4 US box arts around... the PS2 US box art is great (excellent use of color), even if it doesn't really reflect the in game art too much and the faces are a bit derpy. PS2's Japanese art is also pretty excellent.

The PS1 US cover has just not that good art, and most of it is barren [like a lot of Master System game boxes]. PS4 US at least has some good character detail, even it is really dull overall. I love the PS2 US box art, just everything about it [other than the faces being a bit derpy]. Makes me think of a Roger Zelazny book from the 70s. PS2 Japan's box art is pretty good, but the dull character pose brings it down a bit for me [PS3 Japan's box art is way better in this regard, even if everything else is a bit weaker].

[Lucretius]

In Segagaga, you meet Nei who complains about how she looks on the US box art of PS2.

[paprikastaude]

4 was fun enough a couple of years ago. The biggest problem was that you have to look up (and remember) what each attack/command does in battle, since they are all random abbreviations.