So, I’ve never ever written a review for an RPG in my entire life. Which is exactly why I intend on doing this retrospective on the Phantasy Star franchise, reviewing four RPGs in the order of Phantasy Star I, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star IV, and finally Phantasy Star III. If you’re at all curious as to why III is after IV, that’s because III is really weird and in fact takes place after IV does canonically, whereas IV is the actual sequel to II and III is best described as a side-game. That and my feelings on III are exceedingly negative and I want to save my negativity for the last entry.
Now, if you’re at all familiar with me and my opinions, you’d know I absolutely love Phantasy Star as a franchise. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Pokemon, etc. are all rpg franchises I greatly enjoy to varying degrees, but none of them hit the sweet spot like Phantasy Star does. Phantasy Star is a series that manages to build upon each subsequent entry while introducing new concepts that make each game better than the last. Each game has it’s own core identity so no two games in the series feel similar yet there’s more than enough differences between each game to not feel monotonous. Of course, one could argue that’s exactly why III is the way it is, but that’s a tangent for a later time.
Now, because this review is looking at a game that is older than I am (Which is 24 at the time of this review, if you’re curious) by two years that means that this particular game is dated. Really dated. I still enjoy this game regardless of its age, but that means a lot of criticisms will be levied at some of the more archaic design choices Phantasy Star makes. If someone who is more accustomed to modern gaming conveniences, they would be hard-pressed to get past some of the things Phantasy Star forces upon the player, so I think these criticisms are more than fair. Now, since I’ve already brought up the subject of archaic game design, I feel that I should start this review off with the less archaic elements of Phantasy Star that actually have aged well and move on to its criticisms later on. And if there’s anything Phantasy Star does well is how it handles its themes. I specify themes because the actual plot itself of Phantasy Star may be a bit quirky yet nothing terribly original. But I find how Phantasy Star uses its themes to be quite interesting for an 8 bit title, if nothing else.
Phantasy Star begins rather abruptly in the fictional Solar System of Algol, taking the place of Alissa Landale who in the span of less than a minute witnesses the brutal death of her brother, Nero. Nero in his final breath pleads to his sister to avenge his death and tells her to acquire the help of a local hero, Tylon. Alissa agrees to her brother’s final wish and resolves to murder LaShiec, whose soldiers were responsible for Nero’s death to begin with. Now, I want to make it clear what this opening scene establishes in such a short time span: motivation. Right out of the gate, Alissa’s entire reason for going on this adventure is established very neatly. What also makes it really stand out for me is how efficient it handles motivation. Less than five minutes in, and the entire reason for the adventure is established. It doesn’t meander around, incessantly doodling around until the motivating force is finally established, it does so in a very compact and efficient manner and I commend Phantasy Star for that. Too many games stifle any sense of pacing by forcing an excessive amount of cut-scenes on the player before the game can even begin. By not doing so, the player is free to progress as they please.
Now that the motivation has been established, the player is able to do as they please, crossing over different areas, towns, dungeons and fight a large variety of enemies as is common fair in this sub-genre. One thing in Phantasy Star’s structure is that direction is heavily influenced by talking to NPC’s. There’s not much in the way of a linear plot to lead the player in the proper direction, so this is how Phantasy Star handles direction and I think it’s done adequately, if nothing else. There was rarely a time in my playthroughs I found myself confused on the overall direction and where to go to next. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few snafus in this department, but overall I’d say direction is satisfactory. Now, getting back on track after the previous tangent, I commented on themes and how they relate to Phantasy Star. You see, the game’s primary antagonist – LaShiec sits alone in his Air Castle which is invisible to the naked eye. The majority of the game is spent trying to gather party members and then trying to find the necessary plot items to reveal the Air Castle and finally take out LaShiec once and for all. While having the villain sit in their fortress the entire time may seem a bit weak as far as villain presence is concerned, it’s interesting thematically. Because the Air Castle is naturally invisible, it gives the impression that LaShiec is untouchable, his fortress impregnable, and Alissa’s mission impossible. Because LaShiec is perceived to be untouchable, that makes Alissa’s resolve to assassinate LaShiec all the more impressive, given the odds that are stacked against her. As the player progresses through the game, they’ll come across more NPCs that given their plight give the impression that LaShiec does not give a fuck if his subjects are living in hellish situations or not. This only strengthens Alissa’s position that LaShiec needs to be eliminated, not only for the sake of revenge, but to protect innocent people that are being hurt by his rule. Of course, this is all interpretive, but it’s what isn’t said that makes this stand out all the more strongly to me.
So, as far as storytelling goes, Phantasy Star certainly succeeds if you’re into interpretive speculation like I am. However, Phantasy Star also has a number of failings, most of which are due to its age. There are a number of archaic issues that I feel are necessary to bring up. First, is combat. Like many other rpgs of this era, Phantasy Star employs a turn based combat system. Players are given the option to attack, use a magic spell, use an item, Talk to the enemy (Which is horribly under-utilized but interesting nonetheless) or run from combat. There’s nothing wrong with this setup at all. It’s simplistic, but at the same time it’s far from confusing. What it lacks though, is variety. Magic is certainly useful, and it’s not the most useless in the series (That would belong to III), but the point to bring up is the availability of magic. Even the “Mage” archetypical character, Lutz, doesn’t have enough MP to dish out spells in every combat the player is in, forcing them to pick and choose when it’s the most efficient time to actually use their spells. The spells that are given aren’t that expensive, but the characters themselves have very poor pools of MP to draw upon, leaving them starved for magic. That leaves the player using the attack function a good chunk of the time, leading to the lack of variety I mentioned. This doesn’t mean magic is useless (Far from it) but it makes the scenarios in which a player can reasonably use magic are quite limited. This particular grievance isn’t unique to Phantasy Star but a pretty common occurrence in early generation RPGs, but it’s still a quality that makes Phantasy Star seem fairly archaic. The two later sequels would build upon this magic system immensely and make it far more enjoyable to use.
Going from one negative attribute to a more positive one, while Phantasy Star’s balance and battle mechanics aren’t particularly engaging, one thing Phantasy Star does well with combat is presentation. Enemy animations are surprisingly fluid and well-animated for the time period and are a lot more interesting visually than a very small sprite barely wiggling his or her arms. Another aspect of Phantasy Star’s presentation is its music, and by that I mean the japanese Master System FM soundtrack. There are three distinct dungeon themes that Phantasy Star rotates between, each with their own distinct personality and flair. This keeps the music played from growing stale to the player, especially when a good chunk of Phantasy Star’s playtime is spent dungeon-crawling. The music itself is quite vibrant, full of color, catchy and hits home a very distinctly “fun” impression upon the player.
Speaking of dungeons, now that the subject has been brought up it’s probably prudent to go in a bit more detail about them. I’ve already mentioned before that they take place in the 1st person and that the lack of a mini-map is a huge detriment to the game, so I’ll leave that criticism at the door for now. What I do want to focus on is the other aspects of Phantasy Star’s dungeon design. Like most rpgs of this era, encounters can happen at random every time the player takes a step, but the encounters don’t have a transition effect, they game places the appropriate menus without any need for a transition. I think that’s pretty neat for it’s time, especially with some of the lengthier battle transitions rpgs have come to embrace. The game’s dungeons though, do seem to have a logical flow in terms of complexity and difficulty. The early dungeons, even with the flaw of having no map function, are relatively easy to navigate. It isn’t until the later dungeons that get hideously difficult as the game has earned its reputation for being extremely difficult. Of course, the specific order in which you tackle the dungeons can very due to the game’s semi non-linear nature, but in general the dungeons will get harder as you progress through the game.
I figure this is the best time to transition into the game’s structure. As I mentioned before, it retains a semi non-linear structure, somewhat reminiscent of Dragon Quest III. The beginning of the game is linear, with the player heading from point A to point B to point C and so on. After a specific point in the game (In this case, the construction of the space-ship and the acquiring of Hapsby) the entirety of the game’s three planets opens up to the player. In order to get to the game’s goal of killing LaShiec, the player needs a variety of “key items” in order to gain access to the Floating Castle. There’s not a terrific amount of plot involved in collecting these, outside of some slight backstory relevance to them, but they give a purpose and something to look forward to, and offer a sense of satisfaction once collected. It’s not much, but those little things can help offer a sense of gradual progression to a player, which I think is a much underplayed aspect of rpg design that some of the better games of this genre utilize very well. NPCs in Phantasy Star tend to at least poke the player in the proper direction of what “plot tokens” are needed, though this is not always the case. I feel that’s a good middle ground in between the dichotomy of just how much games are expected to hold your hand or to leave you completely out in the open.
As far as progression and structured are concerned, Phantasy Star is rock solid, as we’ve clearly established. A tad archaic when it comes to combat, but its presentation is solid enough to at least counter that criticism. I think it’s time to nitpick at various points of the game, since most of Phantasy Star’s mechanics have been dissected fairly in-depth by now.
I’ve mentioned before that the universe of Phantasy Star is split into 3 distinct planets – Motavia, Palma and Dezolis. I have no issues in how Motavia and Palma are structured into the game, but I do have some significant problems in how Dezolis is thrusted at the player. Now, the player can choose to tackle the events on Dezolis last, which is a good thing. What’s wrong with Dezolis? It’s extremely segmented. What I mean is that Dezolis is branched off into several areas divided by very short dungeons that are easy enough to find one’s way through it. To get from one end of the planet to the other, you’re likely to have to go through 5-6 of these passages, so making ones way through this planet is a bit tedious. This is especially jarring when the player has to move all throughout this planet to acquire multiple plot-relevant items necessary for completion. Even more so when you include the necessity of an item to illuminate dungeons. Gven the limited inventory space of the game, that can add up pretty fast and serve to make Dezolis more frustrating than it should honestly be. I think this map does a decent enough job illustrating what I mean about Dezolis’ structure.
Now, continuing off a previous tangent – inventory management. Due to how Dezolis is thrown together, it definitely becomes an issue in that section of the game, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem in other parts of the game. The game allots thirty item slots to the player, but plot items count against that number. Fortunately, equipped items do not, but with the considerable amount of plot items thrown at the player at the tail end of the game, there isn’t much room for healing items.
This is especially worrisome when it comes to the most complicated dungeon in the game, Bala Malay. A dungeon this complex shouldn’t have to be bogged down with inventory management issues, because it takes a dungeon that’s clearly complex to the point of absurdity and compounds the issue. Making it so that key items didn’t clog up the inventory would definitely have alleviated most issues that this game has, especially with this sadistic dungeon waiting in the wings at the end of the game.
Now that I’ve talked about most things related to the game itself, I’d like to discuss a fan translation of the game. The original game had a pretty spotty translation; that was pretty par for the course for games of its era, but today it’s really glaring. Fortunately, the folks at SMSPower have done a wonderful job in fixing the translation problems, changing the font to something more readable and using the superior FM soundchip the Japanese version had. The following link will bring you to where you can properly play the game it should be played.
http://www.smspower.org/Translations/PhantasyStar-SMS-EN
With all these considerations in mind, Phantasy Star is an archaic, dated game. But for the time in which it was released, it was also incredibly ambitious and far-reaching, doing things the jrpg genre had not even conceived of before. It added sci-fi elements to a genre that was almost always stuck in the mindset that all jrpgs needed to be medieval, among other things. In the end, if we evaluate the game for when it was released and not by modern conventions, I think Phantasy Star is definitely a success. It’s not my favorite game in the series, but it establishes more than enough to justify its existence in the franchise and to this day is still one of the most influential jrpgs of its time. That’s good enough for me, and hopefully for you.
TheHukosExperience 