Phantasy Star

[Anonymous No.5763223]

What are /vr/‘s thoughts about the phantasy star series pre pso?

[Anonymous No.5763248]

Sega should have focused more effort on Phantasy Star III. Fleshed out the characters, added more dialogue and story threads between generations, added side quests and sped up the walking speed. Just think of the missed potential of this game.

[Anonymous No.5763264]

>>5763248
Someone took that concept to Edo Japan and it's called Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke.

[Anonymous No.5763272]

>>5763223
the first game has bad scaling, I calculated the grind for basic equip and came up with somewhere around a day, so I found the variable for money in gameshark instead.
otherwise great, scifi fantasy mashup is always a good setting. the nightmare boss spooked me.

[Anonymous No.5763280]

PS4 is an all time great, the rest are honestly pretty bad.

[Anonymous No.5763289]

>>5763223
>PS
Never played it, and never was a fan of any 1st person RPG
>PSII
Pure retro-gaming kino. 8 years before Aerith, there was Nei. Was a fucking arduous grind back in the day, but with modern emulators, this game travels along at a nice pace. Probably the best music in the series
>PSIII
a quintessential example of a game with a great concept, but flawed execution.
>PSIV
The most polished of the series, but for some reason lacks some of the magic of PSII, in my opinion.
>PSO
Why do great RPG series commit suicide by MMO?

[Anonymous No.5763293]

>>5763280
Shittiest taste on /vr/ this week, congrats

[Anonymous No.5763336]

>>5763289
>Shitting on PSO
Anon why would you do this? PSO was and still is kino!

[Anonymous No.5763348]

>>5763336
It's a very basic repetitive monster hunter.

[Anonymous No.5763351]

Whole series has great music, 4 is the best game.

>>5763264
The sequel, Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines, came out in the West for Vita. It's okay.

[Anonymous No.5763365]

>>5763351
Haven't played it but that game was infamously beaten down by the Japanese fans of the original. Japanese have notoriously bad taste and even them had a problem with it.
The change to a more moe art direction alone puts me off from it.

[Anonymous No.5763597]

>>5763348
I always see people comparing PSO to Monster Hunter but it reminded me of Diablo (II anyway; never played the first Diablo)
Monster Hunter wasn't even out yet

[Anonymous No.5763603]

>>5763348
I'm pretty sure monster hunter wasn't a thing yet when PSO released on the Dreamcast.

[Anonymous No.5763608]

>>5763597
Yeah PSO is closer to Diablo. And to be fair to PSO, all SEGA was doing with the Phantasy Star license before PSO, was releasing compilations of the old games. Hell there still isn't a proper Phantasy Star V.

[Anonymous No.5764016]

>>5763289
>for some reason lacks some of the magic of PSII, in my opinion
I like PS2 better than PS4 because
- you can name your party members
- it's incredibly A E S T H E T I C
- you can choose your party members, opening up a lot of equipment / development options and strategy
- it's really fucking hard, you are always poor until the endgame, the mazes are PSYCHO and as a result progress feels earned
- the minimal narrative lends the game an exploratory feel, although it's linear your progress along the line is up to you, if that makes sense
- LEGENDARY ending
PS4 is much more pacey, you are essentially hurried along someone else's story and rarely get confronted with the same dilemmas you get in PS2 (e.g. 2 dead party members and just enough TP to teleport out the dungeon BUT do you risk dropping down the next chute to see if your goal is there rather than leave the dungeon and have to retrace your steps later). You don't really make any choices in PS4, there's always a best weapon and armour for whoever's in your party and exploration / grinding is unnecessary.
That said, PS4 is definitely the most *lovable* game I've played, it's just stuffed with callbacks and details to make players of the previous games happy

[Anonymous No.5764850]

i liek gaem

[Anonymous No.5764915]

>>5763223

Greatest science fiction based JRPG out there. Yes, even better than the abortion of Takahashi.

[Anonymous No.5764950]

>>5763272
What do you mean? Earning money to buy the shit? It depends on the path you take, I know at least two paths where you never have to grind besides the very beginning of the game to survive the first monsters. Also, there are hidden dungeons in this game that aren't on online maps at all, at least 5 that I know of on the world map, some of them give you early access to tougher monsters and bosses as well as equipment.
Also if you guys didn't know, the game Hoshi wo Sagashite is in the PS Universe. You go to the worlds and there are references. It's a short, okay game.

[Anonymous No.5765995]

>>5763272
Not at all dude. I was able to obtain basic gear within a couple of hours and by the end of the day I was already exploring the desert planet.

[Anonymous No.5766002]

>>5763264
I'll try the Playstation game. But the vita game seems too generic.

[Anonymous No.5767926]

>>5763223
I've only played PS1. It was good, but I played it long after it came out, so I don't have a frame of reference to compare it to other contemporary games.

I liked the 3D dungeon navigation, but I played it emulated on my PSP, and I feel like it would've been far better to play on an original console with graphing paper in hand. Due to the identical graphics for wall tiles and lack of way markers, it's easy to get lost. Also, it felt a little grindy early on.

[Anonymous No.5768239]

Posting images on imageboard.

[Anonymous No.5768289]

>>5763223
I liked the psvita version, somehow was more enjoyable than the rest.

[Anonymous No.5768296]

>>5768289
>psvita version,
Why do you do that? You know damn well it is it's own game not a port of another and almost entirely unrelated to what we've been talking about in this thread.

[Anonymous No.5768470]

Dumbest skill naming convention in the history of video games second only to FF's English-sandnigger hybrid spells.

[Anonymous No.5768570]

>>5768296
so now I am sinful because enjoyed?

[Anonymous No.5768603]

>>5763223
I feel like the original games can only be fully appreciated when you play them in order (Gaiden and Adventure are optional).
I remember playing PSIV for the first time and enjoying it a lot, but only when I gave the whole quadrilogy a try, I started really loving it.
All the small references to the early games really make it glow.

I just wish there was as many character development/interaction in II and III as there's in the concept art.

[Anonymous No.5768650]

>>5763223
2 and 4 are absolute kino.

[Anonymous No.5768653]

>>5768470
Fuck off.

[Anonymous No.5768685]

>>5763223
Good series but it had a huge amount of design flaws, it would've benefited from skill and spell descriptions especially in 2.

>>5763289
PSO isn't MMO, you get four players in a session tops.

[Anonymous No.5768910]

>>5763223
I and IV were great.
III was wasted potential.
II was fucking dull and I never got far into it.

[Anonymous No.5769002]

It's crazy how good the original Phantasy Star looks compared to Dragon Quest (released a year earlier) and Final Fantasy (around the same time as PS), but it's not as good game as either of them, imo.

[Anonymous No.5769012]

>>5763223
>pre pso
Not even worth talking about desu.

[Anonymous No.5769020]

I love Phantasy Star 2 for being an amazing dungeon crawler with top notch dungeon design, music, and aesthetic.

I love Phantasy Star 4 for being on the most solid traditional JRPGs ever.

Don't really care for the rest of the series.

[Anonymous No.5769075]

>>5769020
Replaying through Phantasy Star 4 I can't help but have the feeling that Reiko Kodama was aware that the age of the classic JRPG was over, or was soon to be supplanted by the cinematic over the story-driven.

[Anonymous No.5769092]

>>5769075
I'd blame CDs, but then I think that Lunar 2 is actually very well paced, with all the cutscenes and story segments directly push the game along.

I think the culprit is the idea that RPGs needed to be long, rather than good, that took off in the mid/late 90s.

[Anonymous No.5769108]

>>5769092
Not even that far ahead. Look at the opera scene in FF6. People talk about how "moving" and "revelatory" it was, but to me I always found it pretentious and annoying. Sometimes Chrono Trigger seems like an apology for that.

[Anonymous No.5769115]

I always felt like PSIII had the most potential out of all of them, but they fucked literally everything that could make it good.

[Anonymous No.5769116]

>>5769108
I think the opera scene was just a flop,. They were trying to make a moving scene and it didn't quite work. Its kind of like the Cid's death scene, that does work. I don't think its an example of anything nefarious.

[Anonymous No.5769125]

>>5769116
I didn't mean to imply that there was any malice, but the existence of a 16-bit opera scene shows a big change in the central "thesis" (for lack of a better word) of a JRPG.

[Anonymous No.5769180]

IV is alright.

[Anonymous No.5769201]

>>5769002
>Dragon Quest (released a year earlier)
DQ2?

[Anonymous No.5769206]

>>5763248
>>5769115
Phantasy Star III has SO MANY extra content created by the original character designer (Toyo Ozaki, iirc?), that you can't help but admire her dedication. We are talking about artbooks with detailed story and character descriptions, manga, doujins, novels, all stuff that never made it into the game.
Imagine a current-gen remake/remaster where they could let her go wild.

[Anonymous No.5770347]

>>5768570
There is nothing wrong with the game, but it's not a different 'version' of Phantasy Star, it's an entirely different game, full stop.

[Anonymous No.5771017]

What's the consensus on the Sega Ages remakes?

[Anonymous No.5771139]

>>5771017
Best remembered as a puke-fest fever nightmare.

[Anonymous No.5772437]

>>5771017
I played the Sega Ages PSII, and I have to say it's a very ugly game with forgettable music. Really the only positive thing I could say was that Rolph has a meter you can hold down to dish out a sliver more damage then a regular attack, didn't make it any easier.

[Anonymous No.5772458]

>>5763289
Nei's legs alone in that image are enough to make me melt. The way she caresses that massive rifle and looks at the viewer in what can only be disgust is icing on the cake. Was this cover art also done by the Guardian Legend's Japanese cover artist?

The initial time investment the earlier games require is what's kept me from playing them. Now that my office is cleaned up, I have a Master System with the FM mod, and a Master Everdrive, I have no real excuse at this point. I was a big fan of PSO, then later Universe. Not exactly retro, but Universe starts off shit, then gets less shit, then has a callback to II, then gets progressively less shitty until Phantasy Star Portable which is a little barebones, then gets real good for Phantasy Star Portable 2, and then breaks your heart into a million pieces because Sega decided English speakers weren't allowed to play games with pretty girl create-a-characters without a guide or a VPN.

[Anonymous No.5772674]

>>5772458
>a VPN.
Years later the myth persists...

[Anonymous No.5773164]

>>5768239
thx

[Anonymous No.5773270]

>>5763272
The only part that's kind of bad I'd say is the very beginning where you need to grind a bit. After that you gain enough experience just exploring.

[Anonymous No.5773285]

>>5763223
Pretty cool monster designs throughout the series. I loved how the creatures look alien and I like the enemy robots. Even a simple zombie looks menacing.

[Anonymous No.5773369]

>>5763223
That's Seppo Star, not Phantasy Star
At least post the original artwork not the autistic fan art Sega of America came up with

[Anonymous No.5774181]

>>5772674
Hm. So were players just banned for being English speakers? I did learn at least that PSO2 is coming west next year. Will my heart break again?

[Anonymous No.5774602]

>>5763223
I wanted to get into the PS series but the first game is kind of a slog, didn't even do a dungeon in the time I played it. How do I into PS?
I like PSO1 though so I guess that is good enough./spoiler]

[Anonymous No.5774607]

>>5769108
>the opera scene in FF6 was pretentious and annoying
Fuck you faggot that scene was fun

[Anonymous No.5774615]

>>5774602
Just start with psiv, it has throwbacks but no prior knowledge is needed. It's very accessible and well done all around.

[Anonymous No.5774618]

>>5774615
I have cucked myself out of one too many games by just starting with the most accessable or best one. One day I will force feed myself the PS series starting with number 1. I want to experience something organically instead of just going "Well this is the best way to do this so I'm doing it that way".

[Anonymous No.5774702]

>>5774181
>So were players just banned for being English speakers?
No. Anybody claiming that must simply have been an obnoxious turd. Sega is quite aware that there are foriegners playing the game. Recently a GameGuard update came out that temporarily prevented anyone with the English patch from playing and Sega made GameGuard roll the update back so as not to lose paying customers.
>Will my heart break again?
If you expect an Americanese version powered by bloody Microsoft cloud technology to be any good, yes. Most certainly.

[Anonymous No.5774801]

>>5763608
I remember hearing once somewhere that there were rumors for a fifth game on Saturn, but when fans got wind of it they damn near rioted and didn't want a sequel messing up four. Those rumors turned into PSO on DC.

[Anonymous No.5774806]

>>5768470
You ever play lufia?

[Anonymous No.5774821]

>>5763223
I finished IV today and am starting gaiden tomorrow. I have fallen in love with this series. I played the first one with a retranslation on an emulator with the FM sound and was blown away by how pretty a game from 1987 looked. The fish monsters on the beach in particular facinated me with their animation. It's such a fun series, I wish star ocean was more like phantasy star.

Nobody ever really talks about zero on the DS. The reviews make it sound okay though.

[Anonymous No.5774985]

>>5774607
If it sounded exactly the same, but was on the Genesis, people would say it was just 10 minutes of fart sounds (which it is).
>braaap brap braaap braaaaaaaaaap

[Anonymous No.5774989]

>>5774821
I have Zero and its guide. Picked it up while I was on my PSU/PSP/PSO kick eight or so years ago. Girlfriend nagged at me when I wanted to start it up while she was watching braindead TV and I never got around to it. Pretty sure each playable race learns exclusive plot details. There's an interview in the guide and it sounded like they were happy with the final result.

Does anyone have any recommended staff interview resources for the earlier games? There's no shortage of art books and fan sites, but a generic search tends to yield a lot of results for PSO.

[Anonymous No.5775454]

>>5774821
>am starting gaiden tomorrow.
Ah, keep those expectations very low. Gaiden's bad. I don't say games are outright bad lightly, PS2 and 3 have their problems but they're not at all bad. Gaiden is bad. Just letting you know what you're getting yourself into.

[Anonymous No.5775780]

>>5763223
The first one is very nice, Yuji Naka is a wizard. The Switch port is incredibly well done, I'd recommend it.

[Anonymous No.5775781]

>>5774821
won't talk about it too much cos not retro but PS Zero on the DS was a decent little game - it played much more like PSO than the PSU games (which were at best merely okay and inferior in every respect to PSO)

[Anonymous No.5775797]

>>5769108
>>5769116

[Anonymous No.5775798]

I've only played PSO. Is there a proper starting point or should I just start with the original? It's been on my to do list since I played the shit out of PSO 20 or so years ago.

[Anonymous No.5775863]

>>5763223
1 is good for its age but 4 is great.

[Anonymous No.5776453]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1FrArZp9vHg

The greatest, perkyest BGM ever in the history of gaming.

[Anonymous No.5776469]

>>5763223
I don't even remember where I downloaded it, but there is a port of Phantasy Star I for the mobile phone. It was only released in Korea but someone took the uploaded rom and made an English patch for it. The graphics and sound are a sliver better than the original, and you move much faster in dungeons.

[Anonymous No.5776664]

>>5776469
I vaguely remember hearing about that one. Isn't it missing monster animations or something? That would make it a terrible downgrade.

>>5775798
>should I just start with the original?
If you think you're a bad enuff dude, yeah. Absolutley no handholding in that game though. If you want something far more accessible and very well presented then 4 is the way to go.

[Anonymous No.5776698]

>>5775454
>>5775454
I played it for a few hours today and I'm really enjoying it so far. It certainly does have a strange vibe.ans is really grindy, but with a turbo button on an emulator it makes it much more pleasant. I think I'm actually enjoying it more than 3 so far. I did spoil the big twist though, so I'm just waiting for the reveal to happen.

[Anonymous No.5776892]

>>5776453
Really dissonant considering how hopeless and bleak, and nihilistic, the story is. It's almost Texhnolyze before Technolyze.

[Anonymous No.5777392]

>>5776453

That's not even the most perky and upbeat tune in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRETMbS95NM

[Anonymous No.5778580]

>>5776892

And it would have been PERFECT to play after the final scenes with the Earthmen.

[Anonymous No.5779609]

>>5763280
my exact thoughts

[Anonymous No.5779959]

>>5771017
QoL is better but art direction and music (specifically for PSII) is worst

[Anonymous No.5780913]

>>5769108
I thought the Opera scene was great at the time, certainly one of the bigger setpiece moments I saw in a console game until that point. Looking back, it's a little bare though and it ultimately only is really moving if you "fill in the blanks" so to speak for Locke and Celes's characters.

[Anonymous No.5781308]

>>5763223
RPGS are shit.

[Anonymous No.5783604]

>>5774985
fuck you faggot that scene was fun