/vr/ - Retro Games

It's a tradition

Am I wrong in thinking this game added a shitload of innovation to the genre? I recently started replaying it and am impressed by how well it holds up today due to innovations it had.

>Auto Battle system (Phantasy Star IV had a macro system which ends up being better but it came out a bit later as well), great for dealing with trash
>Things to do on the field aside from run into random encounters, dungeons, and towns (hunting, fishing, dragon doors, dragon marks, fruit tree bashing)
>Party member leading actually makes a difference (Bo can walk through forests and hunt, Ox can bash walls and trees, Mogu can dig, Karn can unlock doors, Nina can fly, Gobi can swim)
>Party member fusion, allowing you to take some of the strengths of multiple party members from your benchwarmers into your battle lineup)
>Large party you could freely change members in and out of active party (Phantasy Star series do this earlier maybe? I don't know, but this was before Final Fantasy VI for sure)
>Animated enemy sprites (possibly in earlier games but I can't think of any off the top of my head, this was 1993 though)
>Setting up your own shop (kinda rudimentary but you can get rare items doing it)
>Different prices at different stores for the same items allowing you to be a Jew.

Though it still has some underwhelming aspects, such as spells doing flat damage, which can be good and bad I guess, but you can't tune up your casters to do more damage.

The next few games of the series obviously were much better