March Retro Community Playthrough - Phantasy Star

[Fleach]

Overview:
One of the earliest story-based games with a large play time, and one of the earliest RPGs to have a female protagonist. Combining a mix of overhead and first person perspectives, Phantasy Star was ahead of it's time for graphics and pioneered many staples in the RPG genre.

Playthrough Notes:
This game has a fairly high difficulty level and a long play-time (up to around 30 hours roughly). I highly encourage trying to play without any walkthroughs or maps, but I expect we'll need them at some point or other. If you're stuck try to ask help here first and we can figure it out together, let's leave the walkthroughs as a last resort! I recommend graphing paper to hand-draw the dungeon maps like it's 1987 again.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection DO NOT USE THE ORIGINAL IN-GAME SAVE FEATURE. It doesn't work, you have to press select to bring up the compilation disc menu (where you can "reset" game and other options), and select "save game" from there instead, which saves to your actual PS3 or 360 hard drive. If you try to save with the in-game option it'll work while the system is on, but as soon as you turn it off it'll forget everything you saved. Whenever you die or restart your system you need to use the same select button method of loading the file, and it'll bring you right back to where you last saved.

INSTRUCTION MANUAL:
For those playing on one of the compilation releases or who don't have a manual for their SMS copy, this will be extremely useful. Download it from the link below by clicking on the blue arrow next to where it says download. Requires Adobe Reader (.pdf).
http://replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.3240

Platforms:
 - Sega Master System
 - Nintendo Gameboy Advance - "The Phantasy Star Collection" (I'm not sure how much might differ on this one compared to the original and later releases as it's on a handheld, not recommended just in case but is still an option)
 - Sony Playstation 3/Microsoft Xbox 360 - "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" (unlocked by beating the first boss of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with 2 players. Turn on a second controller and select the 1 player option, then beat the boss. Second player doesn't have to participate for it to work, just has to be there.)

Checkpoints:
Week 1 - Add Noah to your party (~7 hours)
Week 2 - Find and get the Hovercraft and Flute (~6 - 8  hours if you don't branch too far off the clearest path)
Week 3 - Finish Medusa's Tower (optional - get the Laconian Sword and Frad Mantle if you don't already have them)
Week 4 - Complete the game!

Participants:

• techwizard
• douglie007
• JerryGreenwood
• EngineerMike
• ericeskapade
• singlebanana
• Addicted
• Disposed Hero
• h1ghw1nd

Hosted by Techwizard

[JerryGreenwood]

Has the game been decided? March is less than a week away. I'd like to know if I already own it, I need to scramble to find it, or if it doesn't interest me.

[Fleach]

I've submitted the front page article for this month and I'm waiting for it to be reviewed by a staff member.

All I can say is that it's a Master System game.

[douglie007]

I'm for phantasy star

[JerryGreenwood]

I see it now, Fleach. I'm in.

I hope that people who have never played Phantasy Star can appreciate how advanced it was for it's time.

[Fleach]

Paging techwizard, your car is parked in a no parking zone. Please report to the Phantasy Star playthrough thread.

[techwizard]

sorry for the delay guys, first post is now up to date! first checkpoint will go up March 1st. ignore that it says Fleach posted, as i modified it with my content so it's essentially my post now

[MaterialHandlerMike]

Sign me up

[ericeskapade]

I am in! Never played a P. Star before and looking forward to get my rarely used Master system out of the box. I am not sure now: has the Master System region-lock? I will play a Pal-Version, that was a little to expensive, but i want to participate in this experience this month.

[techwizard]

i'm not sure how region locking is on the master system, someone else will have to answer that one

[ericeskapade]

ok, i found this on several-game-sites: Master System games are region free between the US and the UK. I looked up the US and UK prices: it seems at 40 €/ 55 $ i didn't overpay to much for a CIB here in Germany.

[douglie007]

I need to find my graph paper note book that I used to draw up every map... before the days of the interweb

[singlebanana]

The Banana is in of course and very excited to play this one. SO excited, in fact, that I started a few weeks ago. Hey, someone has to play ahead to help with checkpoints for you wastoids!   Anyway, I am taking notes so that I can discuss the game with you guys and not throw in any spoilers. As I've told the playthrough guys, I was a Nintendo kid growing up and never knew anyone with a Sega console, SMS or otherwise. Sega consoles are like having a completely new library for me in my late 30's, which is AWESOME! I actually purchased Dragon Warrior (NES) at release and absolutely loved it (insert geeky D&D paper background here)! I'm really excited to see how this compares and looking forward to discussing it with all of you. Happy Gaming!

[Duke.Togo]

I won't be playing along on this one, but have played through it before. I'll be curious to see what everyone thinks, and I'll be chiming in a bit as things move on. No spoilers though...

[Addicted]

Count me in. I'll pick up from where I left the game though as my gaming time is very limited due to parental duties.