Phantasy Star IV

The Good
Being released during the golden age of 16-bit CRPGs, Phantasy Star IV took some of the best qualities of the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series and gave them its own spin. The game features a Star Wars-esque mixture of epic battle deeds of an adventuring party, set in a refreshing sci-fi setting with a heavy dash of anime seasoning.

The adventure plays straightforward, told in a crisp manner with very little idle time between adventures. Where 16-bit Final Fantasies often dwelt tediously on situations and early Dragon Quests offered way too little plot, Phantasy Star IV found a good measure between the two that doesn't interrupt the gameplay's flow.

This carries over into the battles, one of the game's strong points. The parties comprised of up to five characters require a pleasant amount of tactical thinking. Text information, combat animation and battle summaries are concise, making the many random encounters just long enough. Clever damage and XP balancing result in a perceivable character progression. Although a watchful eye must be kept on characters' hitpoints, extensive dungeon crawls are actually explorations, not gradual advances interrupted again and again by overpowered enemies forcing a retreat to the nearest town.

Outside of combat graphics are functional rather than fancy, although personally I appreciate it that character sprites aren't super-deformed compared to their surroundings and that the whole party can be seen while wandering around rather than the lead character representing everyone. In battles characters are even more realistically proportioned and overall appropriately sci-fi-looking. Dropping the 3D dungeon view of the early Phantasy Star instalments, the battle view focuses on the enemies like in Dragon Quest. However, it also shows active party members from behind, rushing forward to deliver blows, which creates a nice and almost cinematic way of presenting encounters.

A trademark feature of the game, its cutscenes deserve special notice because they are presented as fully illustrated and very effectually arranged comic book panels which are visually superior to mere text boxes or the use of limited sprite animation to tell the plot.

On the same note, I must admit at this point that generally I despise the Sega Genesis' sound capabilities. If (arguably) nowhere else, the SNES was clearly superior to Sega's machine in that department. Surprisingly, the soundtrack of Phantasy Star IV is very decent. While not as orchestral and rich as the best pieces the SNES has to offer, the techno-influenced musical style of Phantasy Star IV seems to fit the Genesis' sound chip perfectly, rather gracefully dodging the flat and scratchy tunes heard in so many other games.

The Bad
Like most Japanese CRPGs of its time, Phantasy Star IV plays extremely conservatively. Its gameplay formula is a strict "rest and resupply in towns - overworld map - isometric dungeons - random battles" procedure, looped ad infinitum and set in a linear story with linear character development. It takes players' willingness to see beyond those unoriginal aspects to discover what actually sets Phantasy Star IV apart. The real qualities lay mainly in the details.

Graphically, Phantasy Star IV doesn't disappoint although enemy and scenario depictions in the separate battle screens are noticeably better than in the isometric overworld, town and dungeon views. It is solid 16-bit fare and little else.

The cutscenes are perhaps the game's most outstanding visual feature but they were designed in a generic anime style by today's standards. The very idea was unusual for its time to be sure but whether or not one finds the character designs overly outstanding is a matter of taste. Personally, I find Akira Toriyama's quirky Dragon Quest designs more appealing, considering TV shows like Saber Rider had already established a character style comparable to PSIV even in Western regions.

The plot is carried mostly by its setting as the characters populating it are for the most part classic fantasy stereotypes outfitted with sci-fi weapons. The writing itself adheres to many clichés, be it the sword-wielding, youthful firebrand hero or the dark, sorcerous overlords who reveal themselves and their plans only gradually which seems to be directly related to the heroes' party level. Thankfully, the game isn't bereft of humour or exciting moments but the impression of 'seen it, give me more' is often hard to shake.

The Bottom Line
What Phantasy Star IV copies it copies well. What little it does differently it does very well. Above all else, the game is a joy to play because its main gameplay aspects, combat and exploration, are well balanced. Although repetition cannot be denied, Phantasy Star IV tends to not get as tedious as many of its better-selling rivals at their worst.

While the series isn't as expansive or successful as other 16-bit CRPGs, especially Phantasy Star IV holds up even today. The game isn't punishingly difficult or so flawed that only die-hard fans can tolerate its shortcomings. Instead it is nothing less (or more) than a solid experience with an excellent gameplay flow.

The Good
Since the original Phantasy Star for the Master System, this is the only game in the Phantasy Star series that's gotten the formula completely right; and they really did get it right - this is probably the best rpg the Genesis ever had.

First some context: The original Phantasy Star was well-balanced, filled with creative touches, really innovative for its time. I mean, it had an involved plotline across three planets, several vehicles, great characters, even the fake-3D dungeons were pulled off in a way that's still really fun and not cheesy. ::remembers drawing the maps of each dungeon - my god, has it been that long::

 Then Phantasy Star II came out: the graphics were kind of weak (especially considering that it was written for *better* hardware than the original), and the interface was kind of clunky, but there was some good art and design, and the storyline was solid, maintaining the combined magic/technology-based setting of the original. The music was alright, too.

 The only game in the series developed without the aid of Yuji Naka and Rieko Kodama - Phantasy Star III came out with the promise of being BIG. Three generations of heroes - and at the end of each generation you decided which of two people you wanted to marry, thusly determining who your offspring and next playable character would be. In all, that meant 1+2+4=7 different character/quests. That's the good part - the bad part is that there weren't enough save slots to cover all this distance. Ouch. The random encounters were irritating and bland, and a lot of the new enemy designs (which had been such a solid aspect of the first two games) were either uninspired or just plain bizarre; too many enemies seemed determined to inflict mortal damage on you by flicking their wrists or wiggling their ears (I wish I were joking). The storyline hardly touched on the rest of the series at all. Some people have played this game without prior exposure to the other Phantasy Stars and enjoyed it - but coming into it with the expectations of someone familiar with the first two games the disconnect is a real disappointment.

 And so we come to Phantasy Star IV, the last game to be made with the traditional top-down rpg approach. The original creators' influence is back on this one. Great graphics, great soundtrack, great story - you're planet-hopping again, just like in the first game, but with far more places to go - planets, asteroids, satellites, a floating castle... Lots of references to the prior games, particularly

the original (although even the characters from PSIII make a quick appearance in one vision-scene). At no place does it bog down - some dungeons and bosses are difficult, but just enough to make things interesting. There are lots and lots of side-quests: your original job within the game is as a bounty-hunter/all-purpose problem solver, and the Hunter's Guild provides several money-making quests nonessential to the main storyline - not to mention all the abandoned facilities strewn across the planets where you can discover interesting weapons/devices and things that relate to the previous games. The characters are all solid. The cutscenes are done in a comic/manga style with overlapping frames and are well drawn. All the vehicles that were so handy and fun to drive around in the first game are back - and this time you can fight in them, using their advanced weaponry to absolutely vaporize some monsters. The best creatures from the first and second games are back: sandworms from PSI, robots from PSII - they even brought back the "baby chick" monster from PSIII that was kind of boring and stupid and made it the focus of a fun quest! Random encounters - the achilles heel of so many rpgs, are handled with a smooth combat system, and the combination of this system, cool weapon animations, cool combination attacks, and good enemy designs make it one of the game's seemingly endless strong points.

Long story short - this was made by people whose love for the best parts of the series is obvious and they crammed every good thing they could into this overflowing game cartridge!!! Get it!!! Get it now!!!

The Bad
There's nothing not to like about this game - this is where they got it perfect.

The Bottom Line
The best of the Phantasy Star games!

The Good
I first played this in 1997 and have replayed it so many times, somehow never managing to become over-familiar with it. Whenever I play it, I seem to understand better why I like it so much and sometimes notice little flaws that perhaps could be tweaked. Over time, I've learned to appreciate how much work went into it, I believe that the team was trying to give the players a really epic story experience, unlike previous Phantasy Star games where you're kind of given a skeletal story and forced to flesh it out in your mind and create the gaming experience yourself. I think the difficulty level is just about right, I was almost a complete rookie in turn-based combat when I first played it and being such a long game, it gives you the first few battles at little cost, slowly challenging you more and more. I've gotten better and better at the game and don't sweat the battles like I used to, but they can still be pretty edge of your seat, after all, your success is still quite dependent on luck i.e which party member the computer targets, with which attack. The game has mostly done away with "grinding", which is a huge help in my book. So long as you don't evade too many battles, comb all the dungeons for armour upgrades and make the most of your techniques and skills, you should be able to afford armour upgrades from shops and beat bosses i.e you shouldn't find yourself utterly crushed by a boss, leading you to go about in circles, leveling up.

I think there is a lot to take from the game's story. Overall it's meant to bring an end to the series, explaining the origins of "Dark Force" from the previous games and presenting a "make or break" situation for Algo. One large theme running through the game is "science and legend". Though most of the party members are magic wielders, their logical attitudes suggest that their magic is some advanced form of science. Your party thinks logically to determine the root of a problem, but is willing to put faith in superstitious ideas e.g planet Dezolis is plagued by bad snow storms, logic says they're caused by a fault in the planet's weather control system, but there's also this idea among the Dezolisians that this mysterious, "evil" tower, is the source of the problem. There is a sort of climactic point in the game where one of the characters rebels against blindly trusting ancient stories and legends, which leads to a scene where he sort of discovers his purpose, what he believes in, his reason for fighting etc. I think the game's story has a lot in it and one can keep gaining from it, from replaying the game and experiencing it again.

The Bad
I think there's some attempt at presenting men and women as equal, though ultimately I think the male characters Chaz and Rune dominate a little. I think the team deserves credit for female characters like Alys and Rika, neither of whom I would call female stereotypes, two of the most interesting female characters I've come across. But though Rika has her moments, the game gets to a point where it seems to be mainly about Chaz and Rune and their difficult friendship. I think the game could be better if they'd found a way to mix Rika in with Chaz and Rune a bit more. As for Wren, I suppose his inclusion in the main plot is quite respectable considering he's a cyborg, albeit a relatively human one. There is some rather undisguised ill treatment of Raja though, not necessarily because he's a green-skinned Dezolisian, but because he's elderly i.e they call him an "old fart", resent having to "drag him around" and call him their "strange, travelling companion" even though he's clearly equal in terms of usefulness in battle.

The Bottom Line
I'd recommend it to anyone, even those who hate RPGs. The game is kind to players new to RPG, I was lucky enough to play this game before most other RPGs. It's worth any hardship to experience the story, which is of course told in a comic strip form, some very nice artwork. On top of all this, some excellent music by Izuho Takeuchi and Masaki Nakagaki.