Was not a FF... Or even a PlayStation or Nintendo game... (Now, just let me explain. put down the pitchforks and torches...) But every time I'm in the middle of one of the FFs, I have to go back and play it, just because I start itching for a really GOOD Rpg. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy FF. But they all have their own problems. Mostly they tend to get tedious. And yes, the current ones have started to get really annoying with their cutscenes. But every time I play one, I just have to go back to...
Phantasy Star 4.
One of the few rpgs to come out for the Genesis. But DAMN is it ever good. Note that I played it without having played the first three, so I am aware that I missed out on some of the details that are in this one for fans of the series.
Allow me to first give a bit of series background. (Those who know better feel free to correct.)
In Phantasy Star 1, you were on the planet Parma, a technologically advanced planet in the Algo solar system. You had to fight your way to the Air Castle (big floating castle) and defeat the bad guy. Never played it, so I don't know much more than that.
Phantasy Star 2 was also on Parma (possibly with some travel to other planets) and featured the gaming world's then stock evil boss, Mother Brain. Ended in the destruction of Parma. Some ships from Parma escaped to the other habitable planets in the solar system, and others escaped out toward other stars as big generation ships. (Haven't played much of it.)
PS3 took place aboard one of the aforementioned generation ships. Got annoyed with this one real quick, so I know nothing about it.
Now, the real meat. Phantasy Star 4. WOW.
Tech Specs:
Genesis game. Go get Genecyst and the ROM. (I've had problems with it working right on other emulators, but the latest version of Genecysts works great.) Nice graphics for it's time. 2D of course. Fairly long.
Story:
I won't go too much into it, but it begins on the planet Motavia 1000 years after the destruction of Parma. The devastation caused by the exploding planet threw the other worlds into chaos for awhile. It was the downfall of civilisation. But now, technology is starting to make a comeback, both through research and the discoverey of old cities and machines left over from 1000 years before. (So you do get swords and guns, and who gets them makes sense from their backgrounds.) Your main character is Chaz, a swordsman and Hunter (read: mercenary/bounty hunter/monster exterminator) in training. At first, you're on the quest because you were hired. Then you look into a bit out of curiosity, then because you get really really PISSED. And then the game really starts. (This is a suprisingly long game.)
The story arc is very well developed, and very linear. there are side quests, yes, most of which come in the form of jobs from the Hunter's Guild. (Some are very cool, two are very annoying, and two are extremely usefull......) And a few little secret or side areas that are maily there for fans of the series. (Certain long-lived creatures which were characters in previous games, statues of previous characters dotting the landscape, etc...) And you can rush straight through without talking to anyone, or you can learn all sorts of interesting world details from the townsfolk. Most of them do say different things after major events in thier area.
Gameplay:
Again, linear story, in that you can't go to the next town until you've gotten item X or done event Y, but once you've gotten somewhere, you're free to travel back at any time. This also means that Weapon and Armor stores get better and better as time goes on.
Magic is essentially divided into two parts: Skills and Techniques. Skills are unique to each character, and are generally weapon techniques for your fighters, and powerfull healing techs for your healers. They have a limited number of uses, refreshed when you rest. The number of times you can use them goes up as you level up.
Techniques are more like the magic we are used to. You have these techs, and you use them as many times as you want while you have enough technique points to support it. Many of the basic techs can be cast by several people, though some are far far better at it than others. (Casting your basic Res (heal) with say Hahn might get 60 points of healing... While Rika's casting of it heals by 200. etc. As you level up, you get better at casting them.
You do not buy Skills or Techniques. New S&T are gained automatically through leveling up.
One last important but about the linear aspect: You don't get to pick your characters. There is no swapping. Charcters move in and out of the party as the story dictates, and most of them have good reasons for staying/leaving. Certain ones will stay with you to the end once you get them though. (I will give the example of Gryz, whose town is destroyed by evil baddie Zio, and when he hears that you are going to find Zio, he comes along so he can get his revenge. Once Zio is dead, Gryz leaves.) You can have up to five characters in the party, and they all get to fight.
One of the most important aspects of the fighting is that while you can beat the game just doing basic attack-cast in battles, you'll miss out on the cool (and powerfull) combos. Certain magics can be combined with each other or with skills for some devastating attacks, if you plan it right.
Ah, almost forgot about macros. The play is turn based, so you define what each person is going to do before the turn starts. This lets you do the combos. But they added in a very usefull feature that I haven't seen anywhere else: Macros. These are defined though the menu while outside of battle. They are just preprogrammed attack sequences that let you quickly tell all of your characters what you want them to do, and in what order. the 'A' macro is almost always used as a basic 'everybody attacks' macro for your basic fights. The others I generally use for quickly setting up defence in the first round of a boss fight, or for setting up delicate combos. (IE, set up the combo with the slowest person going first to reduce your chances that a medium-speed monster will interupt the combo in the middle.) A great time saver so you don't have to go through and say "you attack, you heal, attack, attack, attack" every time. You can just say "macro A" and watch the fight commence.
Misc:
A few misc points: One is the talk function. This is VERY nice. It avoids two problems. The first is the "Where the hell do I go now???" problem, even if you've been away in a cave for a week and forgot what you were doing. The second is having the game constantly remind you of what it wants you to do. (Zelda 64 anyone? "HEY!" "HEY!" "HEY!" "All right you damn fairy, the next time you say hey, I'm getting the swatter out...." "HEY!") The talk function is just an option in the menu "talk" that makes your characters have a short conversation on what's going on, and where they should go next. It doesn't bug you, and if you know, you don't have to hit it. Nice.
Again, fans of the series who have played the previous games will see all sorts of references to the previous games, from statues of previous characters, to just the names of familiar places or spells.
Another aspect is that your characters all have lives outside of the story. They've all got hometowns, histories, friends, relatives, etc. If you choose to talk to the people in towns, you get to meet these people, and see how peoplke react to them. (Hahn isn't altogether welcome at home, while Raja is quite popular at his local bar...)
OVERALL:
I cannot recommend this game enough. Die-hard RPGers and newbies both will like this game. The story and the history really draw you in, the graphics are excellent (dated by today's standards, but still damn pretty.) It allows it self to be funny and serious, dark or fun, depending on what is happening. The character development is handled very well, and you have a good mix of wise, experienced characters, and naive, new to the world ones.
New players can choose to take it slow, take time out to fight and level up, while more experienced players can go straight through at lower levels. (The FAQ for this game says of the final boss: Be at least level 50. If that doesn't work, try 55. Then try 60. etc. My second play through got me there at level 30. It was a tough battle, but it is doable, and extremely fun.)
And oddly, whenever I play any other RPG, it starts to get a little tedious and I just start hankering for this game. I've left off in the middle of FF1, 7, and 8 just to go play this one. It really sticks with you.
Whatever your style of play, you will enjoy this game. Go get the emulator and the ROM now!
(And remember to look in the Genesis section, because you won't find it in Nintendo.)
Note: I didn't play Phantasy Star Online, because from what I learned before it came out, it was not actually set in the PS universe nor did it have any reference to PS. It was just trying to cash in n the name... Gee... Sort of like all the recent FFs.... But as I recall, nobody else played it either, so I don't think there will be any comparison issues.
Anyone else remember this game as fondly as I do? Anyone actually going to listen to my recommendation? Am I just going to get bounced out of the forum because I wan't actually talking about a FF game, just one that kicks all of the recent FF games's ass? We'll see...
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Phantasy Star 4.
One of the few rpgs to come out for the Genesis. But DAMN is it ever good. Note that I played it without having played the first three, so I am aware that I missed out on some of the details that are in this one for fans of the series.
Allow me to first give a bit of series background. (Those who know better feel free to correct.)
In Phantasy Star 1, you were on the planet Parma, a technologically advanced planet in the Algo solar system. You had to fight your way to the Air Castle (big floating castle) and defeat the bad guy. Never played it, so I don't know much more than that.
Phantasy Star 2 was also on Parma (possibly with some travel to other planets) and featured the gaming world's then stock evil boss, Mother Brain. Ended in the destruction of Parma. Some ships from Parma escaped to the other habitable planets in the solar system, and others escaped out toward other stars as big generation ships. (Haven't played much of it.)
PS3 took place aboard one of the aforementioned generation ships. Got annoyed with this one real quick, so I know nothing about it.
Now, the real meat. Phantasy Star 4. WOW.
Tech Specs:
Genesis game. Go get Genecyst and the ROM. (I've had problems with it working right on other emulators, but the latest version of Genecysts works great.) Nice graphics for it's time. 2D of course. Fairly long.
Story:
I won't go too much into it, but it begins on the planet Motavia 1000 years after the destruction of Parma. The devastation caused by the exploding planet threw the other worlds into chaos for awhile. It was the downfall of civilisation. But now, technology is starting to make a comeback, both through research and the discoverey of old cities and machines left over from 1000 years before. (So you do get swords and guns, and who gets them makes sense from their backgrounds.) Your main character is Chaz, a swordsman and Hunter (read: mercenary/bounty hunter/monster exterminator) in training. At first, you're on the quest because you were hired. Then you look into a bit out of curiosity, then because you get really really PISSED. And then the game really starts. (This is a suprisingly long game.)
The story arc is very well developed, and very linear. there are side quests, yes, most of which come in the form of jobs from the Hunter's Guild. (Some are very cool, two are very annoying, and two are extremely usefull......) And a few little secret or side areas that are maily there for fans of the series. (Certain long-lived creatures which were characters in previous games, statues of previous characters dotting the landscape, etc...) And you can rush straight through without talking to anyone, or you can learn all sorts of interesting world details from the townsfolk. Most of them do say different things after major events in thier area.
Gameplay:
Again, linear story, in that you can't go to the next town until you've gotten item X or done event Y, but once you've gotten somewhere, you're free to travel back at any time. This also means that Weapon and Armor stores get better and better as time goes on.
Magic is essentially divided into two parts: Skills and Techniques. Skills are unique to each character, and are generally weapon techniques for your fighters, and powerfull healing techs for your healers. They have a limited number of uses, refreshed when you rest. The number of times you can use them goes up as you level up.
Techniques are more like the magic we are used to. You have these techs, and you use them as many times as you want while you have enough technique points to support it. Many of the basic techs can be cast by several people, though some are far far better at it than others. (Casting your basic Res (heal) with say Hahn might get 60 points of healing... While Rika's casting of it heals by 200. etc. As you level up, you get better at casting them.
You do not buy Skills or Techniques. New S&T are gained automatically through leveling up.
One last important but about the linear aspect: You don't get to pick your characters. There is no swapping. Charcters move in and out of the party as the story dictates, and most of them have good reasons for staying/leaving. Certain ones will stay with you to the end once you get them though. (I will give the example of Gryz, whose town is destroyed by evil baddie Zio, and when he hears that you are going to find Zio, he comes along so he can get his revenge. Once Zio is dead, Gryz leaves.) You can have up to five characters in the party, and they all get to fight.
One of the most important aspects of the fighting is that while you can beat the game just doing basic attack-cast in battles, you'll miss out on the cool (and powerfull) combos. Certain magics can be combined with each other or with skills for some devastating attacks, if you plan it right.
Ah, almost forgot about macros. The play is turn based, so you define what each person is going to do before the turn starts. This lets you do the combos. But they added in a very usefull feature that I haven't seen anywhere else: Macros. These are defined though the menu while outside of battle. They are just preprogrammed attack sequences that let you quickly tell all of your characters what you want them to do, and in what order. the 'A' macro is almost always used as a basic 'everybody attacks' macro for your basic fights. The others I generally use for quickly setting up defence in the first round of a boss fight, or for setting up delicate combos. (IE, set up the combo with the slowest person going first to reduce your chances that a medium-speed monster will interupt the combo in the middle.) A great time saver so you don't have to go through and say "you attack, you heal, attack, attack, attack" every time. You can just say "macro A" and watch the fight commence.
Misc:
A few misc points: One is the talk function. This is VERY nice. It avoids two problems. The first is the "Where the hell do I go now???" problem, even if you've been away in a cave for a week and forgot what you were doing. The second is having the game constantly remind you of what it wants you to do. (Zelda 64 anyone? "HEY!" "HEY!" "HEY!" "All right you damn fairy, the next time you say hey, I'm getting the swatter out...." "HEY!") The talk function is just an option in the menu "talk" that makes your characters have a short conversation on what's going on, and where they should go next. It doesn't bug you, and if you know, you don't have to hit it. Nice.
Again, fans of the series who have played the previous games will see all sorts of references to the previous games, from statues of previous characters, to just the names of familiar places or spells.
Another aspect is that your characters all have lives outside of the story. They've all got hometowns, histories, friends, relatives, etc. If you choose to talk to the people in towns, you get to meet these people, and see how peoplke react to them. (Hahn isn't altogether welcome at home, while Raja is quite popular at his local bar...)
OVERALL:
I cannot recommend this game enough. Die-hard RPGers and newbies both will like this game. The story and the history really draw you in, the graphics are excellent (dated by today's standards, but still damn pretty.) It allows it self to be funny and serious, dark or fun, depending on what is happening. The character development is handled very well, and you have a good mix of wise, experienced characters, and naive, new to the world ones.
New players can choose to take it slow, take time out to fight and level up, while more experienced players can go straight through at lower levels. (The FAQ for this game says of the final boss: Be at least level 50. If that doesn't work, try 55. Then try 60. etc. My second play through got me there at level 30. It was a tough battle, but it is doable, and extremely fun.)
And oddly, whenever I play any other RPG, it starts to get a little tedious and I just start hankering for this game. I've left off in the middle of FF1, 7, and 8 just to go play this one. It really sticks with you.
Whatever your style of play, you will enjoy this game. Go get the emulator and the ROM now! (And remember to look in the Genesis section, because you won't find it in Nintendo.)
Note: I didn't play Phantasy Star Online, because from what I learned before it came out, it was not actually set in the PS universe nor did it have any reference to PS. It was just trying to cash in n the name... Gee... Sort of like all the recent FFs.... But as I recall, nobody else played it either, so I don't think there will be any comparison issues.
Anyone else remember this game as fondly as I do? Anyone actually going to listen to my recommendation? Am I just going to get bounced out of the forum because I wan't actually talking about a FF game, just one that kicks all of the recent FF games's ass? We'll see...
Mycroft