Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millenium - Part 1

As I have mentioned numerous times, I grew up a Nintendo/Sony kid.  Most of my experience with Sega/Microsoft/Etc. Consoles came from playing at relatives’ houses, so my experience with them was very, very different.

You see, I mostly stuck with those consoles because of their deep RPG libraries.  Up until I was older, I probably couldn’t have named a single RPG for the Sega Genesis.  Add in the fact that most of my time with those consoles were spent on more action oriented, quick playthrough games or multiplayer titles and you can understand why I lacked frame of reference with these games.

The first I had ever really heard of Phantasy Star was via Phantasy Star Online for the Sega Dreamcast, a game that was probably too far ahead of its time for its own good.  It wasn’t until later that I found out there was an entire series of these games, that were traditional JRPGs dating back to the Sega Master System.  It wasn’t until even later I was able to get my hands on any of them, but finally that has changed.  I was told IV was the best entry in the series and I figured I may as well start with that.  I wasn’t in the mood for something too old school (this was released in 1995, while the second game came out in 1989) and besides, how good could an RPG on the Genesis be?  This was the system for jocks and hedgehogs with attitude, not sci-fi and fantasy nerds.

First, my biggest regret here is not playing these in order. I didn’t realize they told a cohesive story and I am a bit upset I payed the end first. My second biggest is missing out on this series in the 90’s, because PS IV was absolutely phabulous (I’m sorry, I had to).

While I can’t say I am completely surprised at the quality, there aren’t too many reviews out there but its hard to find a bad one, its kind of amazing how influential this game was.  Sci-Fi RPGs are common now, but there weren’t too many of them in the 90s.  Final Fantasy had gone steampunk with FF VI, but, this was totally out of the ordinary.  I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, but PS IV featured the death of a critical party member years before Final Fantasy VII.  Sure, Chrono dies in Chrono Trigger, but you can bring him back.  Apparently, this was pretty common in the Phantasy Star series.  It may seem common, almost to the point of being a trope, nowadays, but permanent party member deaths did not happen very often at the time.

It also featured cutscenes, which weren’t very popular in early 90s RPGs.  I can’t think of too many games at this time of any genre that had them, Ninja Gaiden and Street Fighter 2010 are the only two that come to mind.  PS IV presented major story moments through dynamic cutscenes with comic book style panels popping up tho keep the action moving.  These were all extremely well done and really conveyed a sense of urgency.  They also did a very good job of conveying motion, even if they were just still images.  In terms of presentation, these were unmatched at the time, even by heavyweights like Final Fantasy.  They still look great, even today and I kind of wish more games did this.

In general, the game features pretty good graphics.  Everything is big and colorful and you always know exactly what you are supposed to be looking at.  It has a very distinctive style, particularly with its character sprites.  The battle screens are excellent, think Earthbound but with actually animated attacks.  The attack animations are generally pretty cool and you can even pull off combo attacks with multiple characters.  The enemy sprites look great too, although they do recycle quite a few throughout the game.

Sound is such an important part of the video game experience, especially for RPGs.  I have always found it to go a long way in setting the tone and atmosphere and and making plot twists more impactful.  It’s also no secret that the Genesis was very limited in what it could do sound-wise.  The Genesis titles that did have strong soundtracks tended to either maximize the chips potential in what it did well (like the Sonic games) or work around it to provide strong audio experiences that were fitting to each game.  That is what I believe Sega did here.  The soundtrack isn’t always the best quality, but it perfectly fits the motif of the game.  The battle theme is memorable and the dungeon and overworld themes do a good job at conveying a sense of exploration and danger.  

I think world building is PS IVs strongest asset.  Everything about the worlds of Motavia and Dezolis feel lived in, from the way the characters interact to the omnipresent themes.  It really made the game stand out to me...and I will discuss why in next week’s post.