March Retro Community Playthrough - Phantasy Star

[singlebanana]

Really nice work in finishing the game douglie and mike. I'm happy to see so many of our participants getting through it. Can't wait to start talking about this and hearing everyone's thoughts on the game.

[JerryGreenwood]

Can't wait to start talking about this and hearing everyone's thoughts on the game.

Some of you may know that this game (or PS II) is my favorite game of all-time. I fully believe that if the Master System was as popular as the NES or if Sega hadn't become an inept company in the mid 90's, that the Phantasy Star series would be the premiere RPG of all-time. I also believe that if you guys had the chance to play this game in 1989, you'd feel the same way. I have nostalgic ties to Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy too, and I think PS  beats them both.

I admit I'm blinded and I cannot think of too many negatives. If I had to pick the games weakest point, I'd say it's the lack of magic and it's effectiveness. In DW and FF, using magic was vital. I RARELY use magic in battle in PS, although Myau's HELP spell is super powerful.

Speaking of magic, what did you have Noah do against Lassic and Dark Falz? There's always been debate whether using Wind or Thunder is more effective. I can't say for sure, but I think Wind is actually better.

As for the good, I'll keep it short and sweet....
- 3 different planets with their own environments and music, awesome.

- NPC's with useful and interesting things to say, awesome.

- The end when you think it's all over and then you fall thru a trap and the (awesome) tower music starts up again and you scroll thru a dungeon with the credits on the wall, soooooo awesome. The first time I saw that I think I broke a beer bottle over my head and cheered at my TV.

- All of the "RPG things" this game invented. I think I listed a few on page 1.

- The "liar town" on Dezoris, so cool. And then if you go left in the Ice Cave and fall down all those traps. Oh man soooo freakin cool.
 
I got more, but I don't wanna blow it all at once.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Dezoris... Dezorian... wait a second.

[techwizard]

fairly sure wind was the better attack for a single or small number of targets. it seems to do more damage per hit, but it only hits 3 times no matter the number of enemies (I think it was 3). thunder on the other hand is weaker per hit but always hits every enemy the same way Odin's guns do.

have to agree about the credits sequence, that was one of the most awesome credits sequences I've seen on an 8 bit game.

the only major negative for me is how every dungeon has the exact same look besides colour, there's not much variety. though it makes up for it with the amazing 3D visuals which were very well done.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

Having that second wand in the inventory, sure was handy at the end.

[singlebanana]

Yeah, I too used wind over thunder and thought it was much better for the boss battles. I liked the credits sequence as well and is something you never saw in the high majority of NES games.

I hate dungeon crawlers and still do even after playing this game. For me they are just extremely disorienting and frustrating. However, I loved the overworld(s) experience and story of PS, but like most early RPG's (even my beloved Dragon Warrior) it's not a game I would come back to often.

I did like the helpfulness of the NPCs and thought that the game flowed pretty well, though there were a few trouble spots. Enemy battles were very fun and I very much enjoyed the animated action screen that you don't get with most early RPGs. Beautiful sprites and tight animations. Treasure chests were annoying and I thought were pretty time-consuming and useless. Do you want to open this? Well, duh.....

All in all, I'm super happy to have played this game and it really makes me appreciate what Sega was doing and how much effort they were putting into their games at that time. Nintendo definitely won the marketing war in the mid to late 80's and as such, the SMS is almost an ignored console. It's quite a shame and because of games like PS, I'm definitely going to be digging into and filling my SMS library.

[JerryGreenwood]

Nintendo definitely won the marketing war in the mid to late 80's and as such, the SMS is almost an ignored console.

Yup. Bland box art for most of the library (although I thought the plastic case idea was very innovative), letting Tonka (?) handle all the NA marketing, and lack of 3rd party titles really hurt the SMS. There are a few gems though if you look hard enough.

[singlebanana]

Nintendo definitely won the marketing war in the mid to late 80's and as such, the SMS is almost an ignored console.

Yup. Bland box art for most of the library (although I thought the plastic case idea was very innovative), letting Tonka (?) handle all the NA marketing, and lack of 3rd party titles really hurt the SMS. There are a few gems though if you look hard enough.

Yeah, the hard casing was a great idea. Is is just me, or is the SMS box art kind of awesome? I collect SMS CIB for that reason. I know it's "griddy" and generic looking, but the uniformity of it is kind of cool. So nostalgic for me.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

Nintendo definitely won the marketing war in the mid to late 80's and as such, the SMS is almost an ignored console.

Yup. Bland box art for most of the library (although I thought the plastic case idea was very innovative), letting Tonka (?) handle all the NA marketing, and lack of 3rd party titles really hurt the SMS. There are a few gems though if you look hard enough.

Yeah, the hard casing was a great idea. Is is just me, or is the SMS box art kind of awesome? I collect SMS CIB for that reason. I know it's "griddy" and generic looking, but the uniformity of it is kind of cool. So nostalgic for me.

I find it necessary to collect SMS CIB. Those loose carts look BORING.

[douglie007]

I loved playing this game again, if you watch my video ( thanks for fixing it tech) I used help on then wind.  We need to do psii soon

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

[ericeskapade]

i have could "copy and pasted" the art for the MS-gamecovers by gluing random comic characters into my math-notices but i like them,too. when i imagine how shining force had blown me away when i played it around 1994, i think if i had gotten my hands on Phantasy Star right in 1987 it would have immediately become my favorite game back then. The graphics still don't hurt your eyes nowadays Maybe it wold have been little bit to difficult, if you never ever have played these kind of games before. but you would have been sunk into this adventure-world as a kid completely, i am sure. so i fully understand how jerrygreenwood digs this game!

[JerryGreenwood]

Is it just me, or is the SMS box art kind of awesome?

I don't have a problem with it, but I know a lot of people don't like it. If you look at Zillion (below), I can see what people mean. It's a very good game (Metroidesque), but looking at the cover, most people would probably be turned off because it doesn't make any sense or give any indication as to what the game is about.

I don't think I'm alone in saying the 2600 had the best art work and nothing will ever come close

[singlebanana]

Is it just me, or is the SMS box art kind of awesome?

I don't have a problem with it, but I know a lot of people don't like it. If you look at Zillion (below), I can see what people mean. It's a very good game (Metroidesque), but looking at the cover, most people would probably be turned off because it doesn't make any sense or give any indication as to what the game is about.

I don't think I'm alone in saying the 2600 had the best art work and nothing will ever come close

Yeah, my primary enjoyment of the artwork is admittedly nostalgia. I know it's not spectacualar, but I love the quirkiness of it all the same. You are correct sir, the box artwork on the 2600 is hands down the best ever made! I mean, they could even make Chess look cool. I've always wondered who the artist was and where one might be able to track down some originals.

[img width=320 height=460]http://cdn0.sbnation.com/assets/3205635/atari_finalart2.jpg[/img]

[img width=545 height=475]http://www.hexanine.com/zeroside/wp-content/media/2010/10/atari_pkging_blog_02.jpg[/img]

[img width=320 height=460]http://cdn3.sbnation.com/assets/3205643/atari_finalart.jpg[/img]

[Addicted]

Speaking of 2600 artwork I would like to take a look at this book when it is finished:

http://www.edge-online.co...by-filling-in-the-blanks/

[singlebanana]

Speaking of 2600 artwork I would like to take a look at this book when it is finished:

http://www.edge-online.co...by-filling-in-the-blanks/

That is amazing! I like the idea he has behind it in that these covers basically sell the game based on imagination due to limitation of graphics. I believe I even mentioned this in the Collectorcast episode. You would never get away with this today. If any of you hear of a release date for this book PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know.