What's the big deal with Phantasy Star?

The Core Video Games Forum
1

I bought Phantasy Star Collction and played the first game. I heard many good things about it. It’s ok, but what’s the big deal? It’s not as good as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest

It’s actualy kind of annoying, all of those maze dungeons. Low level enemies stop you from running away a lot so it can be a pain. The enemies also have way too many hp and there’s too many of them. The only big deal I see is the second and third games have good graphics

If I posted this on a Gamefaqs board, I’d be dead

2

Insert L337 spk here!

BN

3

[Seinfeld voice] Whats the deal with airline food? [/voice]

4

Well… good luck with all THAT.

5

What the heck is going on?

6

We’re mocking you.

7

To be a little serious: These are all old games. Bear that in mind.

Phantasy Star I - As basic as an RPG can get. It’s oldskool, but it was the friggin’ shit back when it came out.

Phantasy Star II - Ditto, but without the annoying first-person view.

Phantasy Star III - This is shit. Not THE shit, just regular shit. You know, crap. For the love of God skip this one.

Phantasy Star IV - To make up for PSIII’s suckyness, this game is AWESOME because of one thing: The comic-format scenes were incredible back then, a pretty big change from mere textboxes.

Adding to that, the games have continuity. They tell a reasonably consistent story that while not being anything too remarkable, is still pretty good. Besides, it’s an RPG saga for Sega, how often do you see that?

And as long as we are in the topic: Anyone else recognize the similarity between Chaz Ashley, Cless Alvein and Claude Kenni?

As for whether it’s better or not than DQ or FF: That’s just a matter of personal opinion.

8

lol

9

Can you save anywhere in the original version?

It’s supposed to be way harder than Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. It doesn’t seem like that, though

10

I got genuinely upset that Star Ocean seemed to reuse ToP sprites and exact plot devices (in the beginning), so I didn’t play it. And Claude has the same haircut.

11

Claude is also the most interesting out of those characters, and SO:TS being the best one out of the three mentoined. ToP being, of course, total shit.

12

I honestly wouldn’t know, I just got so mad that it felt like an EXACT copy, down to the sprites, that I turned it off :stuck_out_tongue: Then something bugged out on that other SO and I never bothered to fix it.

13

They even have the same red headband and basic attack (Kuuhazaan/Air Slash and other variations of the name). I do agree that Claude is the most interesting, or at least less stereotypical of the three, but ToP has Arche. You can’t just brush that off.

14

Does Cless even talk?

Star Ocean does not reuse sprites from Tales of PHantasia. IT doesn’t feel the same, it’s actually WAY better

15

Claude is the best, if for no other reason than because he randomly says “CRAWD HAS ADVANCED FORWARD!” sometimes when he levels up.

ANYWAY…

Phantasy Star came out in 1988, which was a LONG time ago… in fact it came out in America before even Dragon Warrior (although Dragon Quest was made a few years earlier). So as far as Console RPGs in America went, Phantasy Star was THE GAME for a while. I didn’t really like the 1st person mazes, but the rest of the game was top notch, and Myau was soooo cute, especially when he “flapped his wings ploudly”, which is one of my all time favorite VG quotes. =P

Phantasy Star II fixed the problem of the annoying 1st person dungeons, but its dungeons ended up being hellish and even more annoying. However, its story saved it and made it a classic, although you have to play through the entire game to appreciate the story, and that may take some effort, especially to those of you who are used to easy RPGs nowadays.

Phantasy Star III is considered the worst of the series, but it’s not really a bad game. It did have some good ideas and everything… it just wasn’t as good as the rest of the series.

Phantasy Star IV was more in the same vain as Phantasy Star II, but generally better, so it’s often considered the best of the series.

There are also two Game Gear Phantasy Star games, Phantasy Star Adventure (a text adventurish game) and Phantasy Star Gaiden (a side-story, which I <a href=“http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/gg/psg”>shrined</a> a long time ago). I haven’t really played PSA much, but PSG is just a tiny little basic RPG, but it adds an interesting twist to the rest of the Phantasy Star games if you want to consider it canon.

So, anyway, I don’t think Phantasy Star games were as good as Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, but they are still pretty good. For one thing, they tended to have a better atmosphere and storyline than Enix and Square’s offerings at the time. But I never was crazy about the dungeons or battles either…

16

  1. Yes.

  2. Do you know what a “sprite” is in this context?

17

I’ve never really played much PS. Actually, I own the PSCollection, I just never play it. I find it…irritating. I bought PSO today, and while I can’t play it online, the offline is pretty neato.

18

Yes, let us not forget the Phantasy Star series’ most recent additions, Phantasy Star Online.

19

I was going to bring them up, but I decided not to, since the PSO games just don’t feel like Phantasy Star to me.

20

There are similar names. :smiley: