Finally finished Phantasy Star 4 last week. And while I would not mind seeing a new entry in the traditional RPG Phantasy Star series, after playing the four games I find it hardly surprising that there hasn’t been a Phantasy Star 5. The games are very Sega in all the good ways and bad. I’m not sure if i can aptly describe what makes a game to have the qualities to let have it be labeled as a “Sega” game. I guess if I had to go with something simple it’s that it does so many of the little things right but some of the big things are just off.
It’s not that the games aren’t good. Well, 3 is only good because it is bad. But they lack something. The original is probably the best as far as I am concerned. It had a bit of a charm and style that was carried over to the later games but still didn’t quite capture the same amount. Maybe it was the switch to top-down dungeons. Don’t we all know that we don’t get enough first person dungeon crawling these days.
I wrote about the original Phantasy Star on this site when I played it for the first time a few years ago. My opinion didn’t change with the replay. It’s a great game but kind of hard to place in the scope of the first games from the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series. They each have their own charm that has been developed over the years. It’s hard to argue that Phantasy Star didn’t change the most given the current direction of the series. It’s a good dungeon crawler. On top of that the game is fairly quick but packs a punch. A nice solid RPG that doesn’t drag on. I can’t complain. I would still play Phantasy Star again.
The second game in the series is one I have troubles resolving my differences with. I think it was a decent step in some ways but a bizarre step in others. The dungeons are hellish, but the top down approach doesn’t work as well for mapping like the player would do in Phantasy Star. Not to mention they really got excited about using parallax scrolling and each dungeon is just full of stuff hanging above the player’s head. Really annoying. And the battle system’s menu is a bit odd. It’s not bad, but it takes a while getting used to setting your commands and then telling them to execute. I found it to be fine after I got used to it, but I felt that took to long. Dunno if I would play it again. Not a bad game but not as great as I was led to believe.
Now, Phantasy Star 3 is such a mess that I could write a dissertation on just what was wrong with the game. In fact, I hope the future gives me a chance to do so. The thing about the game that I enjoyed was that it was such a convoluted mess that I could keep discovering crazy bat-shit insane things about the game right until the very end. I think my favorite is that dead characters can cast revive magic on themselves. The music that changes depending on the state of the battle was an interesting idea but atrocious in reality. Quite defining of a “Sega” game concept. The dungeons are simpler than in the previous game, but to the point of being atrocious. They all look the same and have barely anything of interest going on in them. If I could ever go back in time and watch something, I would really want to watch the development of Phantasy Star 3. Something weird was going on. This game just makes no sense in the grand scheme of the series. For that bizarreness, though, I like it. Would play again.
And finally, Phantasy Star 4 was really enjoyable. It had a good scope and some interesting bits to its story. The battle system here is clearly the best and it gives tons of options. The macro system for determining the order in which your moves would take place, and thereby give a greater chance of combo attacks occurring, was a nice addition. The story felt more cohesive and there were finally good dungeons again even if they were done in the top down approach. The game did feel a little too long and I didn’t even do any of the bonus content. Not sure if I would play it again but the idea does not offend my senses.
So overall, I find it a shame that what we have now is only the Phantasy Star Online games and those like it. I won’t say those games don’t have a place in the world, but the lack of traditional Phantasy Star games is a bit disappointing as a bad RPG is still better than no RPG in my book.
And Phantasy Star games have trouble being bad games even if they struggle to be great games in ways.
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