/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.7944385]

Just starting this. It's my first retro JRPG besides Pokemon, what should I expect? There's not much in the way of a tutorial, I'm just camping around the starting town to level up for the moment.

[Anonymous No.7944395]

>>7944385
>what should I expect?
A fun game. Enjoy!

[Anonymous No.7944406]

>>7944395
Can you give me some pointers on how to get started? What does anything mean? Should I wikia it or will I pick it up as I go along?

[Anonymous No.7944436]

>>7944385
The game is fun. Get ready for a lot of grinding, though. If you don't know what you're doing or what anything means, read a walkthrough. You'll understand what the game wants you to do to progress pretty easily.
If you're not playing one of the newer ports with maps, you might end up making your own or looking up some of the dungeon maps. They're in first person which might be jarring if you're only used to Pokemon.

[Anonymous No.7944463]

>>7944385
Get some maps bro. Only people in their 50s can be assed to draw out dungeons on graph paper

[Anonymous No.7944470]

>>7944385
You playing the original or the Switch release? If the original, might be worth drawing maps. If you've never done it before, I'd say give it a fair shot before poo-pooing it. It's definitely slower but it's deeply satisfying once you get into it.

[Anonymous No.7944559]

>>7944470
The original. It's on the PS3 Sega collection

[Anonymous No.7944575]

>>7944385
Read the manual.
Expect fun. One of the best 8-bit RPGs that one.

[Anonymous No.7944586]

>>7944406
You should read the manual like a normal person. It explains everything you need to know.
https://segaretro.org/images/4/4b/Phantasystar_sms_us_manual.pdf

[Anonymous No.7945131]

>>7944385
>Just starting this. It's my first retro JRPG besides Pokemon, what should I expect?

The overworld is basic RPG fare, walk around, hit random invisible enemies. Engage in menu driven battle. The enemy sprite animations look great for 8bit. The dungeon portions are first person, and look pretty good. This is where the game's challenge is. Mostly remembering landmarks, and being able to navigate through maze-like dungeons. This is where the idea og graph paper comes in. The earlier dungeons are not insanely hard to navigate. The later ones can be though. Game has a sci-fi theme, and you do visit multiple planets. There are vehicles that can be driven on the overworld. But you only get 4 party members who stay with you for the whole game. You can level up, do other RPG things. The English dialogue is typical 8bit bad localization. Best RPG on the Master System. People find the sequel PSII to be too grindy, and for whatever reason the game moves from 3D dungeons to 2D Dungeons. PSII was disappointing for not having backgrounds in the fight sequences. It has this sci-fi grid.

[Anonymous No.7945182]

>>7944406
>Can you give me some pointers on how to get started? What does anything mean? Should I wikia it or will I pick it up as I go along?

The starting town that you are in gives you everything you need to learn the game. It even has a simple 3D Maze that is like a tutorial. When you get to the overworld you can kill random monsters for gold and exp points. The core game is working your way through 3D dungeons that can get confusing. It is a hybrid dungeon crawler.

[Anonymous No.7945306]

>>7944406
Playing blind is half the fun, m80. There is a huge stumbling point right at the beginning though, so here's a getting started tip: grind for meseta until you can afford the 'secret' item in the town to the east of the starting area. You have to try to buy the item 3 times, which is kind of a ridiculous thing to try that most people do not think of. After that, everything should be discoverable through trial and error. Have fun.

[Anonymous No.7945314]

>>7945306
>playing blind is half the fun.
>btw here's an unmarked spoiler you've already read by the time you realize it's a spoiler, hope you didn't want to figure that out yourself
Nigga really?

[Anonymous No.7945396]

>ProTip
>Get IRN Sword early. Grind up to 75mesetas, but sword in the other area right beside the starting area. But 75metas sword, equip it, sell old sword at pawn shop. That should speed up grinding.

[Anonymous No.7945407]

>>7945314
To be fair, that doesn't sound like something that would be fun to find out on your own. Especially if it's a barrier to progression, that would take forever

[Anonymous No.7945437]

>>7945407
>To be fair, that doesn't sound like something that would be fun to find out on your own. Especially if it's a barrier to progression, that would take forever

You can approach the first task in different ways. Like, you can get 50mestas off the bat in the 3D dungeon demo maze, fight a few monsters and upgrade your weapons/ armour early. Plus you can save at any time. In the game menu. You do get magic spells at level 5. And after the starter area, you pick up other team members quickly early on in this game. The party doesn't change, though.

[Anonymous No.7945438]

>>7945314
Yeah, allright. I accept that valid criticism, but that one part of the game is extremely frustrating and not terribly fair to sane people and I wanted to warn him about it even if it means technically being hypocritical.

[Anonymous No.7945440]

>>7944406
No.

[Anonymous No.7945443]

>>7944586
This! Manuals are underrated by zoomers. Just google for the pdf. Step brother played ff1... didn’t know he had to equip items....

[Anonymous No.7945470]

>>7945407
>>7945438
Been forever since I first played it, but I know I never looked anything up and never got stuck at any point for any memorable amount of time, so I'm pretty sure it's not particularly difficult to figure out on your own.

[Anonymous No.7945649]

>>7944385
Be ready to draw some maps for the last few dungeons.

[Anonymous No.7945906]

>PROTIP:
> Woman in start town gives out free health. She is located in a house. A chime sound will play when it happens. Use it to grind until you are bored.

[Anonymous No.7946980]

>>7944385
Depending on whether or not you're playing one of the more verbose retranslations or pure vanilla, you're likely going to run into a couple of "what the fuck do I do now" parts especially early on, so don't be afraid to briefly look something up if after a couple hours of banging your head on a progress block you can't even begin to see a solution.

That aside a few things to remember:
>always talk to people twice, if they say something different the second time, keep doing it, several vital NPCs refuse to cooperate, help, etc unless you badger them
>guns are fucking awesome and axes are worthless
>the Fishmen along the beaches north of your starting town are a great place to farm cash and get levels once you have a party of 3 going
>Noah/Lutz can use a Laser Shield once those become available
>always save enough MP to teleport out of a dungeon once you get the skill to do it
>if someone asks if they can touch your cat, say no

[Anonymous No.7947042]

>>7944385
If you're not playing the switch version, either use map guides or use grid paper.
I'm a moron who memorised a lot of the dungeons up to Medusa through trial and error. Her dungeon got me, and I quit.
The switch has auto mapping and I really enjoyed my play through on it.
It's about 15-20 hours long. You're gonna want to grind a few levels as soon as you start the game. I think the first town has free healing too.

[Anonymous No.7947108]

OP here, thanks everyone for the pointers. I've decided to go in as blind as possible, once I figured out how the game works. Really loving it, it's weird how much fun I'm having with what is essentially a simplified pokemon.

[Anonymous No.7947196]

>>7944559
I'd say draw maps for a bit. If it's not enjoyable at all, then there's maps online. There's something extra special about drawing maps on graph paper though, even if it can sometimes be annoying.

[Anonymous No.7947708]

Also note, the compass you find really early in the game can be used as a real compass in the 3D dungeon areas. It's clunky, since you have to click on it every time.

[Anonymous No.7947824]

>>7947108
It's genuinely my favorite 8-bit system RPG. Fantastic for its time, still holds up today. Glad you're enjoying it.

[Anonymous No.7947829]

>>7947196
Phantasy Star's dungeons aren't so complicated you need to map them, you can keep track of their layouts in your head.

[Anonymous No.7948043]

>>7947829
Maybe if you've got a photographic memory, but seeing how every corridor is identical I'd be pretty fucking lost without them

[Anonymous No.7948116]

>>7948043
More like a good sense of space. A photographic memory won't help since everything looks the same.

[Anonymous No.7948156]

>>7947196
>>7945649
Where my map bros at?

[Anonymous No.7948159]

>>7948156
should've used graph paper or made squares

[Anonymous No.7948162]

>>7948156
Your handwriting is so bad I thought the titles were in Japanese

[Anonymous No.7948436]

>>7944385
>JRPG

shit's baby's first dungeon crawler more than jrpg and the final dungeon will probably filter you

[Anonymous No.7948863]

Question: does anyone ever try to play as pacifist? You can avoid most battles by talking to enemies. Though the lesser intelligent creatures will still try and kill you. You can avoid the farmers and other humanoid 'enemies' on Motiva by just using the talk command in battle. Sometimes they give you helpful tips.

[Anonymous No.7949172]

>>7948159
I'm not that autistic, counting every step I take

[Anonymous No.7949193]

>>7948863
Can talk to even more enemies with the telepathy options, there's a spell and...some item? consumable? I forget

[Anonymous No.7949323]

>>7948156
based

[Anonymous No.7949852]

>>7947829
Drawing graphs is just fun. Maps are fun. Maybe not for everyone, but if you're one of the lucky few sometimes you'll get a boner while doing it it's so fun.

[Anonymous No.7949894]

Get the AGES version on Switchch. It makes the game a lot more bearable and fun without holding your hand. You still have to explore dungeons on your own and still have to traverse the world map on your own, the AGES Mode just boosts the EXP and money gains to literally just reduce time spent grinding, despite what purists say.

[Anonymous No.7949897]

>>7944586
>>7945443
this
been reading manuals lately and it improves the experience for me. even if it doesn't give me any useful information in-game, it gives me a deeper connection to it, and makes me feel like a kid again

[Anonymous No.7949962]

Are the 3D dungeons bearable? I like the 80's anime-esque art style

[Anonymous No.7949982]

>>7949852
Oh, I enjoy drawing maps. I was just saying I never had to draw any maps for this game since I was able to keep track of the layouts in my head. It's not exactly Wizardry 4.

[Anonymous No.7949987]

>>7949962
Unless you have some ridiculously autistic aversion to 3D dungeons in general, in which case you wouldn't be asking this in the first place, they should be no issue.

[Anonymous No.7950140]

>>7949962
>Are the 3D dungeons bearable?

Early stages are not too hard to navigate. Later stages can get confusing with multiple levels. I never found the maps to be impossible. But they are a core part of the game. If you're going in blind, you might be able to see the logical paths. Using the compass helps. The game is designed to encourage map drawing if you get lost. i wonder if there is a generic graph paper app?

[Anonymous No.7950158]

>>7949962
>Are the 3D dungeons bearable?

Early stages are not too hard to navigate. Later stages can get confusing with multiple floors. I never found the maps to be impossible. If you're going in blind, you can get a pretty good sense of where the logical paths are after a while. But the game can be a bit confusing at times with everything looking the same. PC FPS dungeon crawlers use to be like this too. Using the compass helps. You can get through the game without drawing a map, I know I did. But the Maps can be big enough to encourage using some graph paper. I wonder if there is a Graph paper app?

[Anonymous No.7950245]

>>7950158
I made this as a simple map drawing tool for Paint some years ago and got surprised when anons started saving it and using it for themselves.

[Anonymous No.7950249]

>>7950245
Just open it in Paint, zoom in if needed, and use the fill tool to fill in the squares as you go.

[Anonymous No.7951073]

>>7949982
I missed the miracle key the one time played it without drawing maps but overall I agree it's manageable with just memory

[Anonymous No.7951643]

>>7949894
I only played through the AGES version. I enjoyed it, but it makes me wonder how the original played. One thing I fucking hated about the AGES version was the awful event triggers. Despite knowing where to go next, I couldn't actually trigger the game to move forward because I didn't use the 'help button' twice in some town. It's absurd.

[Anonymous No.7951798]

I remember a dungeon where you needed to fall through a trapdoor from the 12th floor to the 7th. Fun times.

This is a little spoilerish, but just to save the frustration: when you go to the aerial dungeon (there's only one in the game), make sure to bring an item to warp out, and don't throw it away. Alternatively, just make sure Myau isn't KOd by the boss.

[Anonymous No.7952006]

>>7951643
Leveling up to level 2 takes a couple of battles in AGES mode.
It makes take up to 30 minutes in the original game. Seriously, AGES doesn't make the game easier, it just reduces the time spent leveling up.

[Anonymous No.7952720]

>>7944385
>what should I expect?
Grinding.

Get yourself maps for the dungeons or you'll never finish it, there's shit hidden behind secret walls that you need to proceed.

[Anonymous No.7952797]

>>7952720
Git gud, scrubbington.

[Anonymous No.7953118]

>>7944586
>>7949897
Did the Sega ages version have a virtual manual?

[Anonymous No.7953143]

>>7952720
>implying everyone desn't look for a cake seller in a dead end of some random floor of the dungeon

[Anonymous No.7953675]

>>7953143
I mean, there was a guy that told you there was a cake shop in the cave, so I don't know what to tell you buddy.

[Anonymous No.7953879]

>>7953675
It was so absurd that almost every other PS game makes a reference to the Naura Bakery.

[Anonymous No.7953930]

Hey a Phantasy Star thread! I beat the first on Switch now I'm playing PSII. The grinding isn't THAT bad. Great music too. I just got the recorder and made my way to the lake resort town. I picked up Hugh and Amy back home too.

[Anonymous No.7954091]

>>7953930
2 is special.

[Anonymous No.7954165]

>>7953930
>grinding wasnt so bad
you will change your tune if you keep playing the series

[Anonymous No.7954259]

>>7954165
I heard III is worse but isn't IV supposed to be really good?

[Anonymous No.7954321]

>>7954259
If you think 1 and 2 are not grindy, you'll be fine with 4. I don't know 3 well, so I can't say.

[Anonymous No.7955380]

>>7954259
4 is great.

[Anonymous No.7955456]

>>7952720
You only need to like grind at the start, never anywhere else

[Anonymous No.7955542]

Get a translation

[Anonymous No.7955560]

Whatever you do, do not use any of the desperate meme-lated, ego-driven 'retranslations' r recent years. Original only.

[Anonymous No.7955573]

>>7955560
The original translation is shit.

[Anonymous No.7955604]

>>7955573
>>7955542
>Takes twice as long to say the same thing
>'I don't have long, here is a giant, detailed speech.'
>Degenerates into retranslator's fanfiction while they tweet about what a moron the original translator must have been. Like, why didn't they just add more memory to the cart, right lol?

[Anonymous No.7955609]

>>7955542
The 1.02 translation is a hell of a lot better than that overly verbose mostly made up junk. I don't know why they downgraded it so heavily. Fortunately the old patch is still available to download, and I urge people to choose it over the bizzarre version 2.

[Anonymous No.7955612]

>>7955560
The old retranslation was good, m8. It's only the recent 'update' that went full retard.

[Anonymous No.7955901]

>>7955612
Oh yeah?
I might take a look at the older one. I think I only tried the second version and I basically deleted it in disgust.
Retranslations are such a gamble. There is a 70% - 80% chance that the translator is deluded and believes that they have special unique insight into the writing or the original language; and I have not seen even one that could contain their contempt for the work of the original translator.
It's at the point where I am likely to play a bad original translation out of spite.