/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.3451661]

I've heard it said many times, and I'll always believe it to be true. Phantasy Star III had the potential to be one of the greatest JRPG's of the 16 bit era.

I sometimes wonder what the game would have been like if the team had more experience, and at the very least, had more time to expand.

For what it is, I don't consider it the worst thing to exist out there, but if they could have just fleshed out the already implemented content, such as battles, dungeons, dialogue, story, and music. Also I think a more experienced team could have done much more with the time given.

Also Phantasy Star thread.

[Anonymous No.3452984]

Good thing IV was a great game.

[Anonymous No.3453013]

>>3451661
I have a soft spot for the original Master System Phantasy Star.

I was the very first jrpg I ever played and it blew my fucking mind.

I still had the dungeon music as my alarm until recently:
https://youtu.be/HIx7Z-LMeV4

[[BANNED ACCOUNT] No.3453017]

>>3452984
4 was... mediocre

lots of fetch quests

weak overall story, they just send you new places to retrieve item x, which sidetracks you, then you need to new item to rescue person x...

oh, then dark force.

[Anonymous No.3453656]

>>3451661
Just making the towns feel more populated would have helped a lot. It's a pretty decent game but it's got that real unfinished feel.

[Anonymous No.3453663]

>>3453013
>PSG version
Not even nostalgia can make it acceptable anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7idZjwKz9w

[Anonymous No.3453768]

>>3451661

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Phantasy Star III IS a great game, for the following reasons:

1. The music is legend tier. I defy anyone who claims to enjoy 16-bit JRPGS not to get shivers down their spine from the title sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXlSRnB6QlE

And PS3 has the best "RPG village" music of all time. Of all time! It's so comfy but so full of sadness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CoeHxE9PAc

2. It has a fantastic storyline. It's a really great science fiction plot, and the way the storyline drip-feeds revelations to the player is really well done, from finding out Lyle was dragon and your first venture into the tunnels under the world suggesting this is not your average fantasy landscape to finding out the moon is a spaceshipthen finding out the entire planet is a spaceship and the final revelation of what happened to Orakio and Laya and that the game really IS part of the Phantasy Star series, and follows the fate of those who escaped Palma

3. It's highly innovative, featuring dynamic music, a "choose your lineage" (or "choose your waifu") system, adjustable techniques, and multiple endings. The technique rebalancing system was sketchy, but an interesting effort.

4. "Creative" monsters. I am the first person to admit that the battle graphics were very poor in terms of animation (there is barely any) but the monsters were certainly original. Pic related. at least, you never knew what you were going to meet next, whether it be a robot made from traffic lights, or a stone tablet engraved with runes, or a fairy, or the ghost of Rudo from PS2

PS3 gets a hard time for being "sparse" and "unfinished" but to me, all that critcism really means is the graphics are boring and repetitive. Which they certainly are. But it's no less linear than PS4 and has more storyline content (text, panels) than PS2.

[Anonymous No.3453775]

they really should've just called it phantasy star gaiden

[Anonymous No.3453783]

I want to give it another try but then I remember the slow walk and that battle theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7AbFYuOIaQ

[Anonymous No.3453785]

>>3453768
>robot made from traffic lights
Don't forget the one made entirely of road signs with arrows on them.
Man that games enemies gave me a real good chuckle. I only played through it once, that was a damn long time ago, but maybe some time i'll do another playthrough.

[Anonymous No.3453803]

>>3453017
Lel, sure special snowflake, sure.

[Anonymous No.3453804]

>>3453768
>ghost of Rudo
Wot?

[Anonymous No.3453826]

>>3453804

The sprite is called "Hunter" and is encountered in Lashute. Rudo from PS2 was a Hunter. You have to agree the resemblance can't be ignored. As a kid I figured Dark Force was using evil apparations of former heroes to torment you.

[Anonymous No.3453939]

>>3453826
Yeah, I looked it up after posting. The resemblance is uncanny. Thanks

[Anonymous No.3454102]

Best waifu right here.

[Anonymous No.3454132]

>>3453803
Chaz is a pretty terrible MC and I'll never finish PSIV

I stopped playing exactly when Alys dies and if Chaz had died instead everything would have been better.

[Anonymous No.3454348]

>>3454132

Well that's pretty silly because you should at least kill the fuck out of Zio for what he did to her.

[Anonymous No.3454365]

>>3451661
Why was there never a PS5 for Saturn? WHYYY

[Anonymous No.3454376]

>>3454132
Chaz is a terrible MC, but he improves.

The rest of the cast is amazing, though.

[Anonymous No.3454397]

>>3454365
The team was finished with Phantasy Star and moved onto Skies of Arcadia. Same reason why we got NiGHTS instead of Sonic for the Saturn.

[Anonymous No.3454398]

>>3454348
No I literally lost faith in the development team at that exact moment and dropped the entire game like it was hot garbage. It was never going to be what I wanted it to be.

[Anonymous No.3454402]

>>3454376
After getting spoiled by Alis and Rolf I really wasn't going to put up with his shit long enough to see if it gets any better.

[Anonymous No.3454414]

>>3454397
This. Not every company is like Capcom and Nintendo who feel the need to milk and rehash their successful IP's.

[Anonymous No.3454421]

>>3454402
It gets better in the second generation by a bit, but not much better.

[Anonymous No.3454438]

>>3451661
Why? I seriously don't understand this hype for Phantasy Star games. The series was a repetitive sequence of generic RPGs, which is only ever good if you want to have a casual RPG experience, but that's about it.

[Anonymous No.3454482]

>>3454438
>The series was a repetitive sequence of generic RPGs
Same could be said for FF, DQ, Baldur's Gate and so on, but evidently PS has something special for some people.
Mind you, I don't like PS, only 4 can be considered somewhat decent imho, but I can understand why people like it, I don't agree with them but saying that it's generic really isn't much of an argument, 90% of all games of all genres are generic, but sometimes, something in the game just clicks, no matter how generic or boring.
Also, PSIV had god tier reaction image material

[Anon No.3454489]

>>3454482
Theyre better than most final fantasies.

[Anonymous No.3454532]

>>3454489
Mechanically speaking?
Not really, only IV can be vaguely more interesting than the average FF in terms of gameplay, III having two route checkpoints for generation swaps was decent but the rest of the game was so primitive it really didn't help its cause, II and I were all in all generic uninteresting garbage on par with most of the RPGs of their generations, at least FFII tried to do something new in terms of systems even if it didn't turn out all that good due to various oversights and bugs.

If you want to talk about story, music or characters, be my guest, but that's a matter of personal taste that doesn't have much to do with the objective qualities of the games.

[Anonymous No.3454547]

>>3454482
the difference is that ps1 and 2 were ahead of their time, and ps2 actually still has an interesting base concept, which could be remade into a modern compelling game. 3 also was onto something, but they lacked the technical abilities to really run with it until the new fire emblem game.

the problem is that unlike ff, or bg, 3 lacked execution in every aspect, and 4 had execution, but the base content was simply mediocre.

when ps2 came out it was ahead of the game in every aspect, and in some ways still holds up. the others basically have no redeeming qualities at this point besides the music.

generic doesn't quite mean what you think it means.

a good example is : haha, you want the psycho wand, you almost had it, but now spider monster steals the psycho wand!

haha, you want item x, but now mystery assassin steals item x and takes it to sky palace!

that is what generic means. it doesn't only mean to hold by convnetion. it also means that they could have easily done better than that, and simply didn't.

[Anonymous No.3454550]

Dragon Quest V did the generations thing way better than PSIII, jsyk.

[Anonymous No.3454750]

>>3454398
You sound like an entitled manbaby who throws a tantrum when his favorite character on some CW show does something he doesn't like as well. Dropping one of the best rpgs of the 16 bit era because of Alys dying is some dank edgemaster stuff

[Anonymous No.3454813]

>>3454438
Hey at least it's futuristic with robots and aliens instead of medieval stuff all over with the occasional "ancient technology" mechgolem thrown in. That's enough to set it apart. Not every RPG has to be D&D/Tolkien fantasy stuff.

[Anonymous No.3454941]

>PS3
I dislike remakes/reboots. However, if there is one game that needs to be fixed up it's PS3. Personally I loved it when it came out. I liked the grim look of it all. You were literally living on a post apocalyptic device. So some of the dreariness was apt as fuck. The characters weren't fleshed out. But a lot of them were cool as shit. (Ryan,Lune,Sari,etc).
The magic system was bad ass, flawed to shit as it was. Want to have a balanced spell book? Go ahead. Want to have 1 spell that's tough as fuck? sure. I remember some years ago a fan made a full remake on RPG maker2k. As close to a remake as I can think of.

BTW, now Im gonna go back and play this mutha again

[Anonymous No.3455238]

>>3451661
>>3453768
>>3454941
All of this. It took me a while to finally bite the bullet and play PSIII, but it's become my fav ever since. Including what was mentioned earlier, there was lots of info and lore (such as characters personalities and stuff) that didn't make it into the game (at least the NA version) due to limitations at the time that could certainly be put into the game now if they remade it right which chances are extremely slim ;-;. I think even the head designer of this game would be done for it, it's your play Sega. I just want to be able to see this game at it's fullest potential and also have others stop dismissing it as the Phantasy Star game it is.

Also the remake mentioned I think was Lysander88's remake, which is still pretty good though only the first Gen.

[Anonymous No.3455372]

>>3454397
Huh. I had no idea the Phantasy Star folks worked on Skies. What did they do after that?

[Anonymous No.3455375]

>This game could have been great if wasn't for the bad execution.
I don't even.
You can say that to almost every game ever conceived. Why are you so full of yourself because of the intention only?

Anyone can try to build a castle, you're not supposed to brag about yourself about how your shanty was supposed to be great, but had a bad execution.

[Anonymous No.3455603]

>>3453939

Oops. After 20 or so years I've just realised the sprite is actually a partial image of the penultimate boss, Rulakir.

[Anonymous No.3455613]

>>3453775
>phantasy star gaiden
That game got made. It was bad. Not bad like people claim PS3 is, actually bad.

[Anonymous No.3455617]

>>3453826
>Lashute
All the enemies there are supposed to be living humans who worship Dark Force. I know it can be hard to tell with the wacky style the battles have, but it's not a ghost or even a real 'monster' it's just a dude who lives in Lashute like every other enemy who encounter there.

[Anonymous No.3455619]

>>3454397
They were kept busy in the Saturn era by working on Sakura Taisen but the way I hear it they were open to doing a PS5 but the opportunity never arose. Once PSO happened, and I like PSO, all hope was lost for a true continuation of the franchise.

[Anonymous No.3458890]

How is the GBA collection ports of 1, 2, 3? Specifically 1? I played most of it emulated back in the day but would like to start over and finish it. Should I emulate the SMS version or play the GBA natively?

[Anonymous No.3458970]

>>3454941
>>3455238
Im playing it again. I patched it with Nials patch. It fixes some of the shit dialogue. I'm halfway through Nials quest. The game can get rather arduous with the convoluted over worlds. One note of lore just hit me. Why do the Lyans have a cryogenic fetish? I plan to dig deeper into this mutha once more.

[Anonymous No.3459172]

>>3455372
They made valkyria chronicles somewhere along the line. Vyse and Aika show up.
Music is also delish

[Anonymous No.3459203]

>>3455372
Yeah, the team's name became Overworks. They also made the early Shinobis and Ristar.

http://segaretro.org/Sega_CS2

[Anonymous No.3460232]

>>3458890
>Should I emulate the SMS version
Yes. Retranslation, better sound, better script.

And when I say better sound I mean better sound than the official English MS version, not the GBA version which of course has terrible sound being a classic Sega game on Nintento hardware.

>How is the GBA collection ports of 2, 3?
I don't know, obviously expect terrible sound and messed up aspect ratio, but otherwise they should be more or less the same games. One of them has a save bug than can fuck you, I don't remember which. Might actually be 1.

[Anonymous No.3460240]

>>3458890
1 has a save corrupting bug tied to something stupid like saving while he music loops or something. And 2/3 obviously look and sound like ass since the GBA can't into Genesis

[BatOwl No.3461294]

>>3458890
Get sega ages remakes or the saturn colllection.

Or the rare port of one to genesis.

[Anonymous No.3462509]

>>3461294
>Get sega ages remakes
Awful suggestion.

>the saturn colllection.
Pretty bad choice too. PS1 doesn't even play in fullscreen. The Playstation 2 collection is a good choice for 2-4 but not in the case of PS1. The English version will be missing the FM sound and suffers from the same awful translation that all official releases have.

>Or the rare port of one to genesis.
This does not exist. It's just a Master System rom on a Mega Drive cartridge. I pity any sucker who ever paid for that.

[Anonymous No.3463146]

>>3462509
Really the PS2 collection doesn't have FM sound for 1? That seems strange considering it's a Japanese exclusive release.

Doesn't that version have "dip switches" though for you to adjust things like walking speed? In that case it would be the best English-capable version you could get without emulating

[BatOwl No.3463157]

>>3462509
Mope

[Anonymous No.3463161]

>>3463146
The PS2 collection DOES have FM sound for PS1, but you can only use it if you're playing the Japanese version. And yes there's options to make the game easier

[Anonymous No.3464746]

Phantasy Star > Final Fantasy

[Anonymous No.3465330]

I loved PS3.
I got it as a gift and was blown away when the game didnt end after picking a wife.
It was probably my favorite console RPG.

I never did get PS4, i seem to remember it being stupid expensive.

I was surprised years later when i realized it wasnt well received, or whatever. It seemed most people online hated it.

[Anonymous No.3465485]

>>3465330

Have you actually played Phantasy Star 4?

It's really very good. In my opinion Phantasy Star 2 is better, but PS4 is one of the most lovable games I've come across, if you've played the other games in the series.

[Anonymous No.3465829]

Oh yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1vZ3Un4yRY&list=PLM61SnQMU4vwMazsDHXSyuB2Vy1i2MpHO&index=24

is this best "flying over JRPG landscape" tune ever?

Yes. Yes it is.

[Anonymous No.3466246]

the PS games have been in my backlog for 20+ years. finally started playing the first PS game last week and I'm enjoying it immensely

[Anonymous No.3466292]

>>3466246
When you get to PS2 take a break and play the text adventure games when new characters show up for the party. The text adventures give a lot of backstory to all of them. You can easily find english translated roms of them.

[BatOwl No.3466297]

>>3464746
Agree. They even ripped off Phantasty Star with technology and alien like humoid creatures later on.

[Anonymous No.3466517]

>>3466292

will do, thanks

[Anonymous No.3466554]

>>3464746
No.

[Anonymous No.3466583]

>>3466297
but warmech...

[Anonymous No.3468464]

One thing that's slightly interesting about the Phantasy Star games is the difference between "techniques" and magic. Magic is used in PS1 but in PS2 special abilities like shooting fireballs and lightning are called "techniques". Is there a fundamental difference between techniques and magic? Or is it just different names for the same psi powers?

In PS3 techniques are very weak in comparison to the other games. Why? Perhaps they've been forgotten like the rest of the people's history. In PS4 the techniques are very powerful. Is this an evolutionary development in response to the increasingly harsh environment of Motavia? How come Rune uses what he calls magic, as well as techniques? These are more like D&D spells in that Rather than using up TP to cast them, he has a limited number of castings per day. Why us this?

[Anonymous No.3468492]

>>3468464
seems like all religion and magic was suppressed by the mother brain regime in PS2

you had churches in PS1, they're gone in 2

[Anonymous No.3468748]

>>3454365
>>3455619
Pic related: PSIV was strongly advertised as being the final Phantasy Star game ever, the nail in the coffin for the series.
Making a PSV would reneg on the whole advertising scheme.
I and several other people were hugely disappointed when PSO was announced because we shelled out $98+ for our copies of the game. Back in 1995. That's $155 of today's money. For one game. With near zero replay value. And we paid it, happily, while trudging through fifteen feet of snow, uphill both ways, to and from the store to buy it. You kids today with your downloadable games don't know what REAL dedication is.

>>3453656
>>3451661
>>3452984
>>3455238
>>3454941
I'd toyed around with the idea of using PSIV as a template game to redo and improve on PSIII, but I had trouble figuring out how to implement the generational system, multiple endings and shit like that. Plus, there are addresses only for eleven playable characters v PSIII's eighteen and I have no idea how to create more characters.

>>3465829
I like the black chocobo theme in FFV more.

>>3465330
The reason it was expensive is because of the whole advertising thing I mentioned. It was hyped as being the very last PS game ever made, ever, so those of us who were with PS from the beginning would fanboy out and hand our hard-earned shekels over to our Sega Jewnesis overlords. Those of you under 30 who only heard of the games from some YTer or other mentioning it who then downloaded it to give it a go wouldn't know the excitement it gave for fans of the series back then. And all the bits of fanservice in it, too, for those of us who played all of its predecessors.

[Anonymous No.3468780]

>>3468748

um yeah, advertising had zero to do with PSIV being expensive.

[Anonymous No.3468786]

>>3468780
It had everything to do with why we paid that amount, though. You'd know that if you were even a tickle in your daddy's sack when the game was released.

>yfw people born in 1998 are allowed to post to 4chan

[Anonymous No.3468826]

>>3454102
You. I like you.

[Anonymous No.3468848]

>>3454102
>>3468826
My niggas.

[Anonymous No.3469294]

>>3468464
Supplementary material (meaning creator approved but sort of wonky to consider 'canon') says that Lutz and Alisa went into space and learnt techniques from aliens. Lutz brought techniques back to Algol and spread the knowledge. Techniques are something that can be used by people who can't into magic.

Bit wacky but there you go. What can be confirmed is that magic and techniques are different things.

>That whole second paragraph
Those are just game mechanics, don't think too hard about that stuff.

[Anonymous No.3469384]

>>3468786

I'm 37 you shit eating moron

[Anonymous No.3469494]

>>3469384
Sure you are, kiddo. Sure you are. Now run along and play and maybe you'll live long enough to hit that age in 19 years.

[Anonymous No.3469521]

Do I have to play the previous entries before PS4?
It's a favorite game of one of my friends and I want to give it a shot

[Anonymous No.3469532]

>>3469521
2 was an innovator for its time but has not aged well. play the updated version. it still has charm

1 and 3 are just kind of bad, desu. although 1 was also an innovator for its time

4 is just overall very mediocre. better games had come along and the genre had made large leaps which the sega devs failed to bridge, but is probably most tolerable by todays standards

[Anonymous No.3469550]

>>3469532
For being developed in 1991 and 1992 then released in 1993, PSIV was a pretty important game, too.

[Anonymous No.3469554]

>>3469550
yeah, it WAS considerably more advanced in terms of storytelling than the other ffs up to that point. but the story hasn't aged well at all, and the gameplay never really matched up.

it only took 2 more years for CT and ff6 to come out, which still hold up today.

[Anonymous No.3469556]

>>3469521
>Do I have to play the previous entries before PS4?
You don't have to do anything you don't want to, m8. You'll miss some refrences to earlier games but the story shouldn't be confusing or anything, so yeah no worries.

[Anonymous No.3469569]

>>3469554
Yeah, but I detest Chrono Trigger and have since I first plopped it into my SNES in 1995.
FF6 is pretty okay.

The problem I have with PSIV is the overuse of the important-thing-X-got-stolen/broken/killed-just-as-the-party-was-about-to-grab-it trope.

The problem I have with PSII/PSI was translation.

The problem I have with CT is its extreme linearity masquerading as something other than. For a game with multiple endings and time travel being the backbone of the story, it's more straightforward than the Eyre Highway.

[Anonymous No.3469592]

>>3469569
>token gets stolen
that IS the entire plot of psiv. there is literally no other plotline. no backstory, no personal quests. nada.

the new ps2 translation is okay. there's a little extra content. you can revive nei 2

>hates ct
u wot. it opens up at the end and you can get like, a dozen endings. I still don't think today there is a nonlinear jrpg

[Anonymous No.3469607]

>>3469592
>opens up at the end to get a dozen different endings
Except no. You can beat Lavos at eleven different points within the linear story, but that several of those points require either New Game + or a cheat device.
The twelfth one was retrofitted in with its rereleases.

And I've gotten them all. The endings, I mean. Even VHSed them (because no one knew Youtube would have ever been a thing back then). Wrote a FAQ and a steal guide. Did literally everything there was to do in that game way back in 1995 (except get the stone that Frog is supposed to catch from those Tengu-lookin' things because I didn't know that was a thing back then since I never used guides in games). Still disliked it.
>b-but why did you do all that if you disliked it?
I tend to finish things I start. And saying that I detested CT is a bit extreme, honestly. It's more that I wasn't wowed by it at all. No, not even at that part. Nor that one, no.

[Anonymous No.3469770]

>>3469607
> did everything possible in the game
> disliked it
Pick one mate, you clearly got some enjoyment out of it to pump that much time in.

[Anonymous No.3469772]

>>3469607
> Hurr I don't like this game
> Maybe if I just sink another twenty hours in...
/vr/ is literally this retarded. I wish it weren't so, but here it is.

[Anonymous No.3469793]

>>3469770
>>3469772
Yet had the post said
>i played about halfway through and gave up because it sucked
you would have said
>"doesn't play the whole game through"
>"thinks he can judge it"

There's no winning. To its fanboys, CT is beyond reproach. It can do no wrong, despite being piss-easy, extremely linear, having little to no character progression, hackneyed dialogue (yes, even in the nipnong version) and plagued with end-game fetchquests.
It's no better nor worse than PSIV.

The best things about it are as follows:
• Lavos.
Lavos is, quite simply, the very best end boss of any jRPG by mere virtue that its motivations are believable and clear-cut (and beyond the common megalomaniac villain, gentlemanly villain and psychotic/nihilistic villain), that it's neither evil nor even malicious and that it's incapable of negotiation or even meaningful speech.

• dat music

[Anonymous No.3469795]

>>3469569
>that shit taste
Incredible in and of itself.

[Anonymous No.3469797]

>>3469793
Calm your autism, PSIV and CT are beloved classics.
Stay mad. Also:
>linearity
>bad
Fucking kek

[Anonymous No.3469804]

>>3469797
You're bad at reading.

[Anonymous No.3469806]

>>3469804
You're absolutely terrible at shitposting

[Anonymous No.3469843]

>>3469806
>if you don't like what i like, you're a shitposter
okay then

[Anonymous No.3470242]

>>3469569
the problem with PSII is that it has so little happening in terms of story that it's not worth retranslating

[Anonymous No.3470482]

>>3468748
So just make 1 storyline instead of marrige. Example, just go Rhys/Nial/Adon instead of Rhys/nial,ayn/ etc. Thought the marrige part was fucking awesome. You can technially make the game without it.

[Anonymous No.3470756]

>>3453768
>And PS3 has the best "RPG village" music of all time. Of all time! It's so comfy but so full of sadness

Yeah. Fuck those feels. When the day finally comes that I take a deep breath and kill myself, this is what I'll be listening to.