Phantasy Star Marathon!

[Archendrus]

So, despite growing up with a Sega Genesis, and around the time that the Phantasy Star games came out, I've never really played them.  I didn't really get into RPGs till Chrono Trigger, at which point my Genesis was long since traded in.  I think I messed around with PS II  briefly on an emulator, but wasn't prepared for old-school-ness of that magnitude.  I just couldn't understand why monsters right outside of the first town were handing me my ass lol.

For some reason, a lot of new games just aren't doin' it for me. I've been playing games that are older and older, Dragon Warrior 1, the first Might and Magic games on the PC, so now I have a feel for just how unforgiving old school RPGs can be.  Even more recently, I've started a boxed old school console collection =D  I have an NES, a Genesis, and a Sega Master System in original boxes.  And then, I remember the Phantasy Star series! 

So I hunt around and buy all the actual games, about $60 for all four, and start plowin' into the first one for the Sega Master System.  I gotta say, I'm impressed!  I was expecting a sci-fi Dragon Warrior I, where the name of the game is grind, grind, grind, move to new area, accomplish small task, grind, grind, grind.  But there's really hardly any grind at all.  Tons of areas to explore, cutscenes, vehicles, all kinds of hidden stuff.  Still workin' on it, I'm not using any walkthroughs and I'm mapping out the 1st person dungeons on graph paper....of which I now have 12 pages of maps XD  I think this may now be my favorite 8-bit RPG. 

So now I'm havin' a Phantasy Star marathon, gonna play through all four games one after another...who's comin' with me?! lol       

[Sagacious-T]

I want to but they feel so slow and outdated

Sigh

[Starmongoose]

Oh...I really want to. But I only have 2 and 4. >.<

I think my friend might have them all. I'll give him a call tomorrow and see if I can borrow them.

[Archendrus]

I want to but they feel so slow and outdated

Sigh

It's true, but since I've been playing so many old school games lately, it's become the norm for me lol

[MeshGearFox]

Phantasy Star 2 is fucking awful.

[Hathen]

Phantasy Star 2 is fucking awful.

[Eusis]

I want to but they feel so slow and outdated

Sigh

Skip to 4. 1 might be ok, but I'm guessing you already tried that, 2 I have a soft spot for but can not seriously recommend to anyone, 3 is interesting but not particularly well made, and 4's one of the top ten RPGs of the 16-bit era, likely top 5 too.

[Sagacious-T]

I think I will try 4. It doesn't use those old fashioned first person dungeon perspectives does it? I know it does for combat..

[Starmongoose]

I think I will try 4. It doesn't use those old fashioned first person dungeon perspectives does it? I know it does for combat..

No, no. It isn't first person.

I lurve 4. Though I do understand a lot of the bashing of 2. I won't try to defend it.




I will always love you, 2. You'll always have me.

[Hathen]

I'm sure 2 was amazing when it first came out, but I'm not one of those lucky people to have experienced it when it was first out.

1 shows its age too but it doesn't get infuriating like 2 does- I was still able to enjoy 1 once I got into the old school mindset. 2, not so much. I was pretty impressed by 4 when I finally got around to playing it.

[Archendrus]

I see there's mixed feelings XD  From my experiences so far, and from the various things I've read about the rest of the games I've yet to play,

1 is a new favorite for me, but you have to like that super old school style.

2 is apparently a love it or hate it lol. It seems to have fallen into a weird transitional period where it's beyond RPGs of old like Bard's tale, but not quite up to Final Fantasy VI.  Apparently it was one of the first RPGs have a character driven story.

3 I hear is the black sheep of the series, being a big departure, in terms of style and story, than the first two.  Another love it or hate it, but for different reasons than 2.

4 is supposedly the 2nd coming of Christ and the very best the Genesis had to offer in the RPG department

I'm psyched to be playing all of them because all four are connected story-wise (just going off of various reviews and articles).  I'm a huge fan of long sagas and continuing storylines and there's so few RPGs that do this. Outdated graphics, interfaces, mechanics, cliches don't bother me.  I think they're actually kinda refreshing in a weird backwards sort of way

[MeshGearFox]

PS2 is just a stupid grindfest with bad dungeons. There's nothing transitional or whatever about it. It's badness is its own.

[Hathen]

PS2 had amazing graphics for its time and more story (Not saying much), though personally I think there's some really dumb parts to the story (Especially the ending).

The grinding is horrible (Everyone joins your party at level 1, the enemies are incredibly hard, etc), and the dungeons are mazes in a bad way- probably the most annoying thing the developers did was use the foreground to block you.

Most of the people I know that like it were people that were blown away by it as kids. I'm sure I would've felt the same if I had played it back then.

The first one is still enjoyable in that old school way, 3 was a really cool idea executed poorly, and 4 is a good game that has aged infinitely better than the other 3.

[Eusis]

I know it does for combat..

Not even for combat really. From a quick glance without much thought, perhaps, but you see your characters when battle starts and you're putting in commands, and you see them when they're using abilities. It's definitely an over the shoulders angle, just that characters unnecessary duck out of sight.

[Raze]

 I had the original phantasy star back in the day. I'm sure it's crap now, but it was ages ahead of the original dragon warrior and final fantasy. The now overused scifi/fantasy setting was actually different from the competition back then and it looked gorgeous for a 8 bit game. Enemies were even animated. Granted it was usually stuff like swinging a swordarm while the rest of the body didn't move, but hey, 8 bit. Most rpgs enemies just flashed until the playstation.

Then, after begging for a genesis for christmas my parents went and got me a snes(Or perhaps they got me a snes and then I started begging for a genesis). As it turns out, I'd say getting the snes ended up being the better deal. But that meant that aside from playing PS2 for a hour or so when a friend rented it I never played anymore PS until many years later on a emulator.

PS2 I played for awhile, but eventually it got to the point where you had to say 'fuck this shit' and stop.

PS3 I avoided because everyone said bad things about it. I may give it a go one day though anyway, I like the gimmick of playing your kid and then grandkid.

PS4 is just a damn good game that I'd recommend even now. Though it's not like chrono trigger I'd compare it to it as far as quality goes. CT is the snes game you have to go play if you never did. PS4 is the genesis game you have to go play if you never did.