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...
Oops. Yea. It works great as your first game. I recommend PSIV->PSII->PSIII and maybe skip the original unless you're really into it. It's quite outdated.
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
Oops. Yea. It works great as your first game. I recommend PSIV->PSII->PSIII and maybe skip the original unless you're really into it. It's quite outdated.
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