I have found the lack of the video game tag being used a sad, sad thing; and I tend to fix this, by talking about one of the greatest RPG series that no one ever played, but oh its ideas lived on; even in the bad game Final Fantasy VII. There is only one thing that will start this off right, and that is going “NEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

May 27, 1986 - Dragon Quest 1
December 18, 1987 - Final Fantasy 1
December 20, 1987 - Phantasy Star 1

Let us take a look at these dates more closely shall we (why, because I said so). Obviously, Dragon Quest came out first; most people know of this series, this was/is Enix. The series is the biggest thing in Japan. It was one of the first JRPGs, no arguing against it; though there is no plot to the game and it is damn primitive. So a year or so later Final Fantasy 1, same kinda thing; no plot, damn primitive. Now three days later, Phantasy Star 1; does the opposite of the other two. One it has a plot, and two it isn’t as primitive. The game ran smooth and looked nice and had great animation of all enemies and everything. Phantasy Star is what I like to think as the blueprint of all JRPGs to come. The sad fact, no one played it though; it was on the Sega Master System/Master Drive. It is a sad fact, but Sega was not that popular when the game came around and got overlooked.

Phantasy Star I Title Screen

Anyway, Phantasy Star had more plot than Final fantasy 1 and Dragon Quest 1 within the opening. In the opening, the main characters brother is killed, right in of her. Yeah that is right her, the main character of Phantasy Star is a girl, Ails. I mean just look at this, its only 1987 and this RPG is doing things that RPGs don’t even do today, in that time it was not common to have a female for the main character. Then look at that plot, that is some dark stuff, another thing to note is that it is also sci-fi, which is not done often. Now I really don’t want to stay on PS1 forever, so we’ll just end it with talking about Kero..er..Myau. Myau is the cute creature that helps out and such, and has that cute problem solving. For since Myau is a cat, it couldn’t open a flask to save Odin and thus and to meet Ails. Also, since most RPGs don’t do this; first person dungeons, that are epically hard. Battles will also done in that fashion, which is why it is such a huge deal that the game looked the way it does, and that it played as well as it did.

Phantasy Star I Battle

All right enough PS1 talk, now I get to go all fanboy over Phantasy Star II, which has to be one of my favorite games of all time. It is not my favorite with out reason, this game just improved on Phantasy Star I in quite a few ways. Firstly plot, shot up and became more epic. The game itself takes place about a thousand years after the first game, come on what game series does that; its awesome. Also the game is on a different planet of the Algol star system which is the area the series takes place on..mostly (just wait till we get to PS3). Though Phantasy Star is my holy grail for sci-fi RPGs, this game just hits it so well. The game has a very Blade Runner feel, your main character is an agent for the government, and his job is to investigate the biomonster outbreak, yes that is right the random battles and people hiding being the plot and not just something that needs to be accepted.

Phantasy Star II Town

…Maybe I need to back up a bit, Phantasy Star II is a dystopia though and though. The plot shows it right away, at first everything seems perfect and all of that. Though it becomes apparent, quickly that everything is not like that. The world is watched over by the Mother Brain (no, I’m going to be good and avoid the Metroid reference). OK, that is done back to where I was.

All right, anyway main character Rolf, agent. Your not alone though when you start your quest, you are joined by…well a cat girl when you get down to it. Nei is a Newmen which is half human, half biomonster. So that is about as much as I should give away for the plot, it does some crazy stuff though in the length of the game. Though since the game came out late 1989, you had your time to play it, Nei dies and does not come back. She is the Aries before Aries even existed. This is really the tone set for the game to, this game is depressing, is full of down notes and all of that.

This game also adds a bit more with gameplay, one big thing is that the first person dungeons are gone and it is replaced by top down dungons. They are still epically hard though, and warp panels will become your new nightmare. Also the way you get new party members is not a orthodox way, lets use that wording sure. Party members come to you, when plot points are meet, the next time you head back to your house they will be there waiting for you. Also party members are very categorized very well, they each have a job and those skills are basically there battle skills. Doctor (healing), Biologist, biomonster expert (he kills them well), and so on.

Phantasy Star II Battle

All right I’m going to pull myself away from PS2 talk, to talk about the sad thing that is Phantasy Star III. While in no means is it a bad game, it just doesn’t live up to what is PS1 and PS2. See I talked a lot about the sci-fi of the games so far and how much I loved it, PS3 doesn’t really feel like a sci-fi RPG. The game just doesn’t fit with the rest of the series, and there are reasons for this. One was that the game was done by a different team, I believe it was the Golden Axe team…that just doesn’t work. For those of you who don’t know the Golden Axe games were side scrolling beat um ups. Another reason is that the game came out only a year after PS2. Then really with the plot it doesn’t really fit in with the other games, even PSII dealt a lot with PS1 even though it took 1,000 years after PS1. PS3, kinda, maybe hinted to PS1, but there were no PS2 references what so ever.

Phantasy Star III Town

Now, there was the good that PS3 did have, it just seemed to be few and far between. The big thing with PS3 was the generation idea, where depending on who you married in the early part of the game decided the plot of the game later and who would be your main character. So, it did offer replay for the game; but with it being as mediocre as it was, it could go either way if it was good for not. Now for a random note, I have been at this point for the past 2 weeks, I need to get this damn thing done so lets go! Anyway, the other thing that PS3 that brought to the series that didn’t get wrote off was the whole cyborg thing, and cyborgs are awesome. Then there were some other ideas that seemed nice at the time, like how depending on well you do in battle the music is between 3 different tracks. Though the music isn’t very good, which is a real downer because the music from PS1 and PS2 were great. I still hum PS2 music, it is about my favorite overworld theme ever.

Phantasy Star III Battle

All right, we now have hit the true end of the PS series, because the Online and Universe series are…its another post, well leave it at that. Phantasy Star VI was the last hurrah for the series, and the people who made the game knew it. This game is filled with fanservice if you have played any of the other PS games, even some PSIII is in there to tie everything in. Which is really what the game does, it brings the series to a close. Yes, an RPG series, that comes to a definitive close! Now again, there has been 10+ years for you to already play the game so I see nothing wrong with spoilers (though really hearing about something and playing it are two different things, but again another post). Anyway, (man I must have used that word a lot) the game ends with the party killing the…well the idea of evil, so there is no more evil. Dark Fails was destroyed for good, and thus since it was…the evil…OK I know it sounds stupid, but it works. Lets take a wiki quote to help me out here:

Dark Force is a physical manifestation of the hate-filled spirit of the Profound Darkness.

All right, also Dark Force is the English name, and Dark Falz is the same thing, its just a preference to me that I call it one and not the other. Since Dark Falz had been around in PS1, PS2, PS3, and then it is finally killed off in PSVI, and as I said ending the series.

Phantasy Star IV Combo

Now PSIV is also very dystopia like PS2, though some of this is though events of PS2; because blowing up a planet causes problems. The starts off, well in a normal sense, your main character (Chaz if you don’t rename him), and his teacher, Alys (who is a chick, important for later), are just off on some simple job. Though oh so shortly after, it has been found out that the university they were sent too, had biomonsters in the basement. Now, there is not a lot of tech in the world of PSVI, its not high enough for this to be happening so this mystery starts up. Then there is this whole evil mage Zio dude who you are after, who is connected to Dark Falz, and there is a lot of stuff going on. Not to far in the game, the group finds a ruin of sorts that is very high tech and at the end of it they meet an AI called SEED. SEED informs them of the events that are happening and how things are going to hell for the most part. Then to help the heroes on their quest he orders Rika to help them out. Rika is Nei..I mean another newmen that SEED was raising and is to be used to carry on his will and saving the planet.

Phantasy Star IV Manga

I figure I’ll stop with story while I’m ahead, PSIV has a lot too it and I won’t be able to touch on it all. What also is interesting about this one is how the battle system got an upgrade. The big thing that PSIV adds is the macro system, this system allows the player to macro moves for each character to do so they won’t have to input them every time and all of that stuff. Though the system was really used to create combo attacks where 2 or more characters combine spells/skills to create some new deadly attack.

Now even though PSII is my favorite, PSIV I would say is the better game; because of the upgrade it makes to the gameplay and that the story is done better and deeper than PSII. Then PSIV looks great and the way that some things are told are in beautiful manga style panels and this is an Genesis game! PSIV is the great end the series deserved, it is just a shame it was the ending. Why didn’t the series go on, and there be a PSV released. Well, it came out for SEGA systems; they are not well known for RPGs, I think its just a simple fact as that. It wasn’t on the SNES which was a RPG heaven. It was a great game series coming out for the wrong system at maybe even the wrong time. The series did so many firsts that are in RPGs today, its just the series is not really noted for anything it did. Hence why I see it as a blueprint of RPGs to come, though its only what I think and maybe a few others here and there. Lastly, it is one of the few Sci-Fi RPGs series out there, and it is my favorite I would have to say.

And now, I shut up, hope you enjoyed and are going to think about giving the series a look at.

Tags: JRPG, Phantasy Star, RPG, SEGA, Video Games

Category: Video Games