Incidentally, there are remakes of the first two for PS2, released under the Sega AGES line of discount games. Unfortunately, only in Japanese at the time I played, though translation patches are now available. They’re called Phantasy Star Generation 1 and 2. There is also a release of a compilation of the original games for PS2.
Yes, it is surprisingly polished. I tried playing the first three Phantasy Star games, but each time was put off by one annoying design flaw or another (such as the camera not being centred in II, so that you can't see very far ahead when exploring). In the fourth game, everything just works.
Just about the only annoying flaw still left is that it's not obvious what items do, and you kinda will need to memorize lots of random names... (Well, or have a reference near you while you play) This is actually mentioned in the interview as them not wanting to be too explicit about what things do (not saying "attack +20" etc.) - unfortunately, it's one of those design decisions that does create friction for the player.
Reiko Kodama did some incredible work for Sega, Skies of Arcadia probably being her most notable after Phantasy Star. She unfortunately passed away in 2022, and it took some months before anyone was even aware of it due to her family's desire for privacy.
The OG phantasy Star was a little before my time but the GameCube version of Phantasy Star online was so good. They even have community servers for it today as Phantasy Star Blue burst. The game is now dated but honestly I could still play it because it had a good grind formula
I spent so much time playing PSO on the DC. I'd start the night playing with Americans, then Europeans, then Japanese. When the Japanese guys started getting on I knew it was far past my bedtime. My whole sleep schedule was messed up from it, but that's ok, I had fun. I made a bunch of online friends and we'd chat on MSN messenger and the PSOtakus message board.
This brought back a flood of wonderful memories. Tying up my parents phone line with the Dreamcast's 56k modem was a formative experience for me as a nerdy middle-schooler.
- The Dreamcast keyboard made communication so much better - I was studying French, and joined European servers sometimes for the thrill of using the language with real Francophones (VERY rudimentarily)
- I once met someone whose job was composing jingles and writing slogans for a greeting card company, which I found really fascinating for some reason, and I spent an hour peppering them with questions about it
- The lore of the "gladius spike", a supposedly really rare dual-saber weapon that never actually existed
- Being given a treasure trove of the rarest items in the game by a duper named "Cap'n PooBeard"; the drop rates were so ludicrously, absurdly low that I would never have seen some of this stuff otherwise (Chain Sawd, Spread Needle...)
- The fear and thrill of playing with strangers, due to the mechanic that you drop your weapon when you die, allowing others to steal it
- The vibey, synth-heavy soundtrack and diverse biomes
I haven't played it in decades, but I bet that it still holds up. :)
Phantasy Star is such an underrated series. They're all far before my time, I was exposed via a sega genesis collection on the xbox 360. I've played a lot of I, II, and IV. I've also played and enjoyed phantasy star zero on the ds and got some enjoyment out of it
Phantasy Star I was the first RPG I played when child. I remember my father showing us the basic commands, and then my brothers and I taking notes of items, magic, and drawing cave maps.
I like Phantasy Star IV, but my main love of the franchise is still Phantasy Star Online 1. From my understand during the planning phase of PSO it hadn't been decided to be a Phantasy Star game. It wasn't until later that they decided to skin the game to Phantasy Star. Funny how you can be well into development on the fundamentals of a game and not know what it will be called or exactly what it will look like.
I love Phantasy Star I-IV (except III, mostly everyone agrees it's too flawed and wacky despite some good ideas). I never got into Phantasy Star Online, which is the only game people today seem to be familiar with, though. Is it even related to the original RPGs? I heard 2 has Dark Force as a boss but the events of IV make it...strange. That shouldn't be possible in-universe.
Still, Phantasy Star IV is my favorite and most likely the best RPG on the Megadrive by a long shot. It had good combat, good music, it stayed away from medieval fantasy and generally speaking was full of good vibes (except after the first battle with Zio. If you know you know.).
If you want to replay it there is a randomizer called Profound Distortion that allows to mix things up and I believe it's still in active development.
Anyway, I really loved some of the things it did with enemies like the witches using combined attacks or monsters fusing together like the Dualblade and the Life Deleter. Even today that stuff is rare to see, last game I remember with enemy fusions is Etrian Odyssey V.
I never managed to find the game in a normal shop, but when the local Blockbuster closed up, they happened to have a rental copy that I managed to get. It's still with me.
Sega decided to make a console-first online game. It was sci-fi from the beginning, but the Phantasy Star veneer was added later in development. The creators of PSO are on-record saying that the only thing PSO shares with the classic PS games are names of things.
Strangely, I posted this just a few days ago (I've been playing Phantasy Star Portable recently)
For me the height of the 16-bit era was Final Fantasy VI, but wow was Phantasy Star IV great. The intro, the savage twang of those Genesis basslines, the aesthetics, it was really something special.
III was my favorite. Lyle was so cool to 13 year old me, the multi-generation cyborgs were awesome (in fact, the multiple ending were all kind of neat), I loved the biomes connected by tunnels, and the art direction was kind of gross and funky compared to how clean the PSII enemies were.
I did not, but since my nephew got a network adapter, he told me about the game he played online, and showed me around. Thanks for the tip about Profound Distortion.
Phantasy Star Online was fantastic. It had some connection to the original games, but many new ideas and systems. The game was originally developed without plans to make it a Phantasy Star game and that was bolted on midway through development, which could account for why the plot was somewhat lacking. Overall though, it was like most Phantasy Star games - There's the Dark Force/Profound Evil, it's possessing people and animals and corrupting things, and you have to stop it. Usually they've explained the discrepancies by setting various games in the past. I think ultimately you're supposed to just not care and accept that ok, it's a PS game, of course you're fighting the Dark Falz.
Phantasy Star Online 2 was perhaps even better. It is a huge game, and was around in Japan for years, receiving many large updates, without a US release. Eventually Microsoft brought it to the US because they wanted to be involved with the successor, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. It was released with a rapid fire schedule where they compressed 9 years of updates into 2 years. Now, it's unfortunately not fully playable, and receiving no more new content, but is still mostly available. NGS has been doing... okay. The success of that game is mixed. It's decent though and is still receiving new content.
This part fires me up to create art for arts sake:
Kodama: That’s also partly why this development was a lot of fun, I think: we (the developers) started the project on our own initiative, and many people on the team had worked on PSII and were able to address the shortcomings and unfinished ideas they had from that game in PSIV.
> A memorial message dedicated to Kodama was included in the end credits of the Sega Genesis Mini 2, which was released on October 27, 2022.[16] Addressing inquiries by IGN and Famitsu, Sega confirmed that Kodama had died on May 9, 2022, aged 58,[17][18] and initially refrained from a public announcement to respect her family's privacy
Proud player of phantasy star I on sega master system here (I was a really, really, young kid when I played it)
Yeah, and I don't want to play more phantasy star games, and you know why? I am klinging to those amazing positive emotions I can still remember, namely I don't want to ruin them.
Fantastic game, and the only PS game I actually finished! Unfortunately Rieko Kodama passed away not too long ago, fantastic game director and artist she was...
I really like the Manga style cut scenes in the game, it really added to the production value, and the plot is once again, full of twists and turns.
This is a JRPG that did age well and it's still engaging to play today, so it's a classic... like Breath of Fire III, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger,... they have well crafted stories & characters and they are not too hard to play or too grindy... and they all have a certain care for presentation.
Is there any extensive interviews with Japanese Console programmers? I feel all these interviews focus on the writing/design side, which make sense for popularity, but I do hope there are extensive interviews with programmers.
There are plenty of interviews with EU/US console programmers.
Thanks for sharing! I've been a great fan ever since childhood. Phantasy Star 1, 2, 3 and 4 played a huge part in the world of games I grew up with and I consider the series among the best Japanese RPG universes ever made.
Phantasy Star remains to this day my favorite RPG. I was the kid in the neighborhood who's parents bought a SEGA Master System instead of a NES. I would play Final Fantasy a bit over their houses but it always paled in comparison to Phantasy Star. I recently replayed it on Nintendo Switch. Still a very challenging RPG and stil feels great.
My friend had the Master System, so I got to experience the first two, and loved the dome shaped buildings it had going on.
Another friend had a Dreamcast and had pondered getting Phantasy Star Online, but never did. Anyways, I'm glad it's still "a thing" even if it's not the same.
It'd be wild to see it come back the way Dragon Quest did with XI.
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[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 46.9 ms ] threadJust about the only annoying flaw still left is that it's not obvious what items do, and you kinda will need to memorize lots of random names... (Well, or have a reference near you while you play) This is actually mentioned in the interview as them not wanting to be too explicit about what things do (not saying "attack +20" etc.) - unfortunately, it's one of those design decisions that does create friction for the player.
https://www.phantasystaronline.net/
- The Dreamcast keyboard made communication so much better - I was studying French, and joined European servers sometimes for the thrill of using the language with real Francophones (VERY rudimentarily)
- I once met someone whose job was composing jingles and writing slogans for a greeting card company, which I found really fascinating for some reason, and I spent an hour peppering them with questions about it
- The lore of the "gladius spike", a supposedly really rare dual-saber weapon that never actually existed
- Being given a treasure trove of the rarest items in the game by a duper named "Cap'n PooBeard"; the drop rates were so ludicrously, absurdly low that I would never have seen some of this stuff otherwise (Chain Sawd, Spread Needle...)
- The fear and thrill of playing with strangers, due to the mechanic that you drop your weapon when you die, allowing others to steal it
- The vibey, synth-heavy soundtrack and diverse biomes
I haven't played it in decades, but I bet that it still holds up. :)
Or perhaps it should be understood as a full-size qwerty keyboard with the two halves of a Gamecube controller glued onto the sides.
I wish like for Sonic (Mania) there would be additional Phantasy Star entries in the IV formula
I love Phantasy Star I-IV (except III, mostly everyone agrees it's too flawed and wacky despite some good ideas). I never got into Phantasy Star Online, which is the only game people today seem to be familiar with, though. Is it even related to the original RPGs? I heard 2 has Dark Force as a boss but the events of IV make it...strange. That shouldn't be possible in-universe.
Still, Phantasy Star IV is my favorite and most likely the best RPG on the Megadrive by a long shot. It had good combat, good music, it stayed away from medieval fantasy and generally speaking was full of good vibes (except after the first battle with Zio. If you know you know.).
If you want to replay it there is a randomizer called Profound Distortion that allows to mix things up and I believe it's still in active development.
Anyway, I really loved some of the things it did with enemies like the witches using combined attacks or monsters fusing together like the Dualblade and the Life Deleter. Even today that stuff is rare to see, last game I remember with enemy fusions is Etrian Odyssey V.
I never managed to find the game in a normal shop, but when the local Blockbuster closed up, they happened to have a rental copy that I managed to get. It's still with me.
Strangely, I posted this just a few days ago (I've been playing Phantasy Star Portable recently)
https://www.avclub.com/sega-phantasy-star-online-gaming
Phantasy Star Online 2 was perhaps even better. It is a huge game, and was around in Japan for years, receiving many large updates, without a US release. Eventually Microsoft brought it to the US because they wanted to be involved with the successor, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. It was released with a rapid fire schedule where they compressed 9 years of updates into 2 years. Now, it's unfortunately not fully playable, and receiving no more new content, but is still mostly available. NGS has been doing... okay. The success of that game is mixed. It's decent though and is still receiving new content.
Kodama: That’s also partly why this development was a lot of fun, I think: we (the developers) started the project on our own initiative, and many people on the team had worked on PSII and were able to address the shortcomings and unfinished ideas they had from that game in PSIV.
> A memorial message dedicated to Kodama was included in the end credits of the Sega Genesis Mini 2, which was released on October 27, 2022.[16] Addressing inquiries by IGN and Famitsu, Sega confirmed that Kodama had died on May 9, 2022, aged 58,[17][18] and initially refrained from a public announcement to respect her family's privacy
Yeah, and I don't want to play more phantasy star games, and you know why? I am klinging to those amazing positive emotions I can still remember, namely I don't want to ruin them.
I really like the Manga style cut scenes in the game, it really added to the production value, and the plot is once again, full of twists and turns.
This is a JRPG that did age well and it's still engaging to play today, so it's a classic... like Breath of Fire III, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger,... they have well crafted stories & characters and they are not too hard to play or too grindy... and they all have a certain care for presentation.
There are plenty of interviews with EU/US console programmers.
Another friend had a Dreamcast and had pondered getting Phantasy Star Online, but never did. Anyways, I'm glad it's still "a thing" even if it's not the same.
It'd be wild to see it come back the way Dragon Quest did with XI.