Phantasy Star IV

[Anonymous No.9407876]

Just started this one, and I’m impressed.

>Battle Macros- actually brilliant
>Talk function that reminds you what you’re doing if you’ve been away for a while
>the battles are over the shoulder of the heroes, it’s a cool perspective
>the genesis sound chip makes some surprisingly good RPG music
>The game looks incredible
>cutscenes are comic book style, instead of just text boxes


Yeah man, good shit. It’s way ahead of its time as far as mechanics go.

What’s up with the magic names though? “FOI” and “SANER” in a bulleted list, i had no idea what to think when I first saw these, haha

[Anonymous No.9407882]

>>9407876
Yep. Outstanding game.

[Anonymous No.9407892]

>>9407876
I had never played PS4 until like 2015 or something, and it was great. easy 8.5/10. i can see how it could be considered a classic. great characters, great music, good pacing and quick, succinct combat. it just does everything right.

[Anonymous No.9407893]

>>9407876
Should I just skip to this one? First seemed grindy and boring

[Anonymous No.9407936]

>>9407876
the series uses the weird spell names, just get used to it as it carries to the mmo games.
only bad thing about ps4 is the inventory, but the rest is phenomenal.
maybe look into the patch that fixes the level 99 bug and brings back the cut woman enemies

[Anonymous No.9407970]

>>9407936
If inventory is bad in PSIV then what do you think about the other ones in which the characters had limited slots and had to carry all the items rather than a general inventory.
>>9407893
You could always play the SEGA Ages one since it has a mode that alters exp and meseta you earn from battles. I enjoyed the first one, the second one seems like a one of a kind game, but number four is the easiest for most people to get into. I played through the whole series this year.

[Anonymous No.9408014]

>>9407876
the cutscenes are so great, I wish more games did that

[Anonymous No.9408249]

>>9407876
>What’s up with the magic names though? “FOI” and “SANER” in a bulleted list, i had no idea what to think when I first saw these, haha


Got you, senpai. Page 33.

https://manuals.sega.com/genesismini/pdf/PHANTASY_STAR_IV.pdf

[Anonymous No.9408268]

>>9407893
They are ALL bad except for 4. Each one being worse than the last and they are amazingly bad too.

That said, there's something I think is unique to the series and it's how all the games are set in the same solar system and throughout the series you see more of the worlds change and they kinda play a bigger role than the characters. So while 1-3 have almost literally nothing good about them, if you experience their stories, it does add to 4 quite a lot.

[Anonymous No.9408284]

>>9407893
>>9408268
Compared to other rpgs of the time I think PS1 is a quite good game. But most back then.were pretty bad over all.

[Anonymous No.9408290]

>>9408268
The only one that's bad is PSIII due to being painfully unfinished. The first two are more akin to dungeon diving.

[Anonymous No.9408363]

>>9408268
2 is the main one I've played and it's fine. Nothing too spectacular these days, but it's every bit as good as the first few final fantasy and Dragon quest games.

[Anonymous No.9408376]

>>9408363
Absolutely not. It's incomprehensible AND unfinished. Those dungeons and everything about the combat is completely terrible.

>>9408284
Only compared to absolute garbage and even then it's barely above that. DQ1 and FF1 completely demolish it and it's not even close. Though that's not fair as they were stand outs. Still, PS1 is a tedious, time wasting game with no plot, no characters, backwards game design, horrible FPS sections, and awful combat. It's still somehow the best the series had until 4, but everything it did, it did wrong.

[Anonymous No.9408383]

>>9408376
I liked PS1 more than those. One of the best 8-bit RPGs in my opinion. First person dungeons are cool.

[Anonymous No.9408619]

>>9407893
I think it's possible to play it on its own and both PS1 and especially PS2 can be mindnumbing grinds in spite of their good stories. But it'd be good to familiarize yourself with the stories of 1 and 2 (3 is basically a gaiden game) first otherwise certain things like the entire Air Castle dungeon will feel out of place.

[Anonymous No.9408623]

>>9408376
>with no plot
You're trying to defeat a powerful wizard that lives in a sky castle. In fact Phantasy Star IV you go back to the castle, you get a remixed version of PSIs dungeon music, and fight him there.
>no characters
Yet you mentioned DQI and FFI demolish PSI and yet you don't see your party developing story wise much.
>backwards game design
You say that with no examples.
>horrible FPS sections
I don't see how they are horrible, and they scroll very smoothly. Never played a first person dungeon crawler before?
>awful combat
How? It's standard turn based combat from the 8 bit era.

[Anonymous No.9408692]

>>9408376
I think PS1 is far, far better than DQ 1 and at least as good if not better than FF1. I like the first person dungeons though.

[Anonymous No.9409709]

>>9407876
love this game, need to do another playthrough soon

[Anonymous No.9409719]

>>9408376
This guy is exaggerating a lot, the dungeons un PS1 are awesome, the fact that you have to draw your own maps to beat them adds to the game. I had a fucking great time with it.

[Anonymous No.9409740]

>>9407876
>>9407882
When Switch NX remake?

[Anonymous No.9409778]

I really like the bright and vibrant color palette in PS1.

[Anonymous No.9410030]

>>9407876
Phantasy Star IV is a contender for Top 5 16-bit jarpigs released in English:

>Final Fantasy VI
>Chrono Trigger
>Lunar II
>Super Mario RPG
>Phantasy Star IV
>Earthbound
>Lufia II

[Anonymous No.9410096]

>>9409709
Raja is based af

[Anonymous No.9410112]

>>9409719
The Sega Ages version with the automap is comfy as hell too. I don't care if it's cheating or whatever, I had a lot of fun filling out all the maps.

[Anonymous No.9410113]

>>9407876
while PSO is fine I wish the series hadn't become exclusively an MMO. Would be great if it was still a real contender in the JRPG sphere.

[Anonymous No.9411690]

>>9410113
You can play PSO (as well as PSU, PSP, PSP2, PSP2I, PS0 and PSN) offline as a Diablo-clone Action RPG.
And well, almost all JRPGs lean into Action RPG nowadays. Unless they are Wiz 1-3 style dungeon crawlers that is.

[Anonymous No.9411973]

>>9408249
This thread sold me on playing the game, thx for this.

[Anonymous No.9411996]

>>9410030
I'm surprised there hasn't been another remake of Lufia II yet. Even a complete remake of The Legend Returns would be nice, especially with proper dungeons.

[Anonymous No.9412002]

>>9408268
you're high. the story in psii is one of the better ones in JRPGs period. the west got this before FF I.

[Anonymous No.9412339]

>>9411996
My second play of Lufia:TLR, I was wondering why it was a tad tougher than I remembered only to realise that during my first play through, I got some ultra rare drop from one of the early sinistral encounters that made the game a cakewalk.

[Anonymous No.9412365]

>>9408249
I feel stupid this never crossed my mind. Nta but thanks all the same, I got confused a few times trying out the series by misremembering what name did what action.

[Anonymous No.9412438]

>>9408268
>So while 1-3 have almost literally nothing good about them, if you experience their stories, it does add to 4 quite a lot.
4 does quite a great job keeping you up to date with the story and really love the small bits you get
>The liquid you need to bring back to life the people on Birthvalley is the same one you use on PS1 for that guy turned into stone
>There's an optional event showing the aftermath of PS2 and connections to PS3
>When you meet Lassic
>The whole flashback event on the final part of the game
If PS4 is your first PS game, then those look like nice world building. But if you played all the previous entries, then it hits just right. The game feels like a reward for sticking to the series

[Anonymous No.9412467]

>>9412438
It's cool how you have sort of Lutz, Nei's descendant, and another Wren unit standing in for the first 3 games too.

[Anonymous No.9412579]

My main gripe with the game is the fact that has almost nothing else to do on it other than the hunter quests. I wish it had post-game content, heck, even more hunter quests would've been good, since supposedly Rika and Chaz continued working as hunters

[Anonymous No.9414503]

Is good jRPG.