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
To clarify: Blue Burst was actually the PC port. [0] I put alot of time into that one, once an English patch became available on Schtserv. They made a bunch of the perks/models available to everyone that were previously only available to Sega employees and holidays. Running through the game with a trio of friends, all skinned as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, is one of my treasured gaming memories.
Uff Blue Burst, fantastic online game, it's one of those blasts of sheer nostalgia that is almost unbearable, I'd give everything to go back. It's partly the game, and partly my life around the time I was playing the game, a time of constant wonder and exploration and true excitement. There are times every few years that I just put the games' music album on a loop to relive the memories. Though just watching some gameplay is also fantastic with the sound and graphic design.
Phantasy Star Online was so far ahead of its time. I remember connecting it up to my early modem via phone jack.
Gameplay was amazing, story and graphics were great, the community was really fun.
Oddly it’s also the last MMO I ever really played. As I got into high school I focused more on music and whenever I would try a new MMO game they never felt nearly as good as PSO.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
edit: If you have the space, a Nintendo Wii running Genesis Plus GX with the video mode set to "Original" and a CRT with at least composite (yellow cable) blows all of those handhelds out of the water. If you only have composite, the emulator has a "trap filter" option which utilizes some custom hardware and the Nintendo Wii's graphics chip to isolate the chroma and luma channels, resulting in a much cleaner composite image. Of course, component is still better, but it's becoming harder to find a 15kHz CRT with component hookups.
Otherwise, I recommend Retroid Pocket 6 if you like Android or want to play GC/PS2/N64, or a Miyoo Mini Plus if you don't care about any of that. Neat thing about the mini plus is its 640x480 screen, so you get Genesis/Mega Drive games edge to edge 2x integer scale if configured properly. Also has OnionOS which is a pretty good custom firmware.
Other than that, lots of these things have major problems. Watch out for things like improperly calibrated joysticks (can't run in certain directions in 3D platformers, only walking speed), screen tearing, saves disappearing from the filesystem if the system shuts down improperly during gameplay, audio crackle/poor audio in general, IPS bleed around display edges, soggy dpads, face buttons too firm, etc. A lot of problems with any given device you can run into that don't fall under the usual umbrella of review metrics, so you won't know until you realize a week into owning it why something feels off about it...
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.
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
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.
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
https://www.phantasystaronline.net/
To clarify: Blue Burst was actually the PC port. [0] I put alot of time into that one, once an English patch became available on Schtserv. They made a bunch of the perks/models available to everyone that were previously only available to Sega employees and holidays. Running through the game with a trio of friends, all skinned as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, is one of my treasured gaming memories.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasy_Star_Online#Blue_Burs...
Uff Blue Burst, fantastic online game, it's one of those blasts of sheer nostalgia that is almost unbearable, I'd give everything to go back. It's partly the game, and partly my life around the time I was playing the game, a time of constant wonder and exploration and true excitement. There are times every few years that I just put the games' music album on a loop to relive the memories. Though just watching some gameplay is also fantastic with the sound and graphic design.
Phantasy Star Online was so far ahead of its time. I remember connecting it up to my early modem via phone jack.
Gameplay was amazing, story and graphics were great, the community was really fun.
Oddly it’s also the last MMO I ever really played. As I got into high school I focused more on music and whenever I would try a new MMO game they never felt nearly as good as PSO.
I still play PSO weekly online with a small guild of friends.
How can I play with you all!?
5 replies →
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.
Raise your hand if you got Megid without a guide.
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.
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.
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.
Awesome game, highly recommended. It's fine if it's your first PS game
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.
PS3 was one of my favorite games, maybe it's time to get myself one of those pocket emulators and play PS4 finally.
edit: If you have the space, a Nintendo Wii running Genesis Plus GX with the video mode set to "Original" and a CRT with at least composite (yellow cable) blows all of those handhelds out of the water. If you only have composite, the emulator has a "trap filter" option which utilizes some custom hardware and the Nintendo Wii's graphics chip to isolate the chroma and luma channels, resulting in a much cleaner composite image. Of course, component is still better, but it's becoming harder to find a 15kHz CRT with component hookups.
Otherwise, I recommend Retroid Pocket 6 if you like Android or want to play GC/PS2/N64, or a Miyoo Mini Plus if you don't care about any of that. Neat thing about the mini plus is its 640x480 screen, so you get Genesis/Mega Drive games edge to edge 2x integer scale if configured properly. Also has OnionOS which is a pretty good custom firmware.
Other than that, lots of these things have major problems. Watch out for things like improperly calibrated joysticks (can't run in certain directions in 3D platformers, only walking speed), screen tearing, saves disappearing from the filesystem if the system shuts down improperly during gameplay, audio crackle/poor audio in general, IPS bleed around display edges, soggy dpads, face buttons too firm, etc. A lot of problems with any given device you can run into that don't fall under the usual umbrella of review metrics, so you won't know until you realize a week into owning it why something feels off about it...
Not sure if it was on PS (except as part of the Sega Collection disc), but I played it on the Sega Genesis. Loved it.
PS = Phantasy Star
4 replies →
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 would say it showed though. The game basically had zero story, and that's why.
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
one of the best RPGs on Mega Drive
I wish like for Sonic (Mania) there would be additional Phantasy Star entries in the IV formula
By far one of the best games I have played.
RIP Rieko Kodama
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.
Phoenix Rie <3
This game was ahead of its time, and had a most excellent sound track.