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[discoalucard]

I always resented the Genesis (US) boxart for PSIV (it's the version I have). The Mega Drive (EU) version had the same image but at least it had the beautiful blue MD borders.

It's a weird box, that's for sure. The art is technically excellent since it's Boris Vallejo, but it's so...not Phantasy Star? I don't like the Japanese one either though.

At one point in Segagaga, you come across Nei as an enemy, and she complains about her depiction on the US box art of Phantasy Star II. That was certainly bizarre too. Was that old guy supposed to be Rolf?

Also, the Phantasy Star Series Complete Album was recently reprinted. It can be found here:

http://ebten.jp/p/4571164389585/

It's expensive, especially since they won't ship overseas, so you'll need to us a forwarding service. But it's an outstanding package. It has the full soundtracks for all four main games (including the FM and PSG versions of the first game, and the Japan and overseas versions of the second game, which used different drum samples) plus the bonus arranged tracks from the Saturn version. When my parents got a CD-R for their computer, the first thing I did was hook up my Genesis, boot up the Phantasy Star IV sound test, and recorded my own homemade soundtrack. So having it officially produced is excellent.

 

[Shion]

whaaaaaattt the FM soundtrack for Phantasy Star is terrible. That's true of every SMS game that isn't Ys or R-Type, but Phantasy Star in particular sounds so tinny and weak. The PSG soundtrack has a much moodier, more forlorn texture to it. In comparison, the overworld to Palma on the FM soundtrack sounds like circus music.

This sounds better than the PSG version to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-bPYeoxnU

I really think it depends on the song, though.

 

[pants]

The western PSIV cover is foul, but I love the western PSII cover

http://i.imgur.com/vPAlj.jpg[IMG]

I just think it's a great picture. Captures the fantasy/sci-fi look I'd imagine the series would have today if Sega had balls.[/QUOTE]

PSIV western art *spits*

Yeah I always thought PSII was well done in the west, but this right here is exceptional

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/BtTOm.jpg

It's a weird box, that's for sure. The art is technically excellent since it's Boris Vallejo, but it's so...not Phantasy Star? I don't like the Japanese one either though.

Yeah, it's not Rob Liefeld bad, it's just so out of place it becomes an eyesore and irritant.

 

[Phonomezer]

PSIV western art *spits*

Yeah I always thought PSII was well done in the west, but this right here is exceptional

Oh yes, the PSII Japanese art is by far superior. Very reminiscent of Mobius and Bande dessinée, moreso than just a Japanese style.

But I also think the western one is lovely ;_;

 

[Shion]

PSIV western art *spits*

Yeah I always thought PSII was well done in the west, but this right here is exceptional

Yeah, it's not Rob Liefeld bad, it's just so out of place it becomes an eyesore and irritant.

Oh yeah.

80s-early 90s style anime art is awesome.

 

[pants]

I do think the western one is lovely as well, that particular art peace is just sooo good. I'd much rather have PSII west over the majority of the rest of them.

 

[discoalucard]

This sounds better than the PSG version to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-bPYeoxnU

I really think it depends on the song, though.

I really dislike the percussion on the SMS FM...but the leading instruments on this track are very good. One of the better tracks, at least.

 

[pants]

Oh yeah.

80s-early 90s style anime art is awesome.

Thats not the artstyle on that box though, but I agree =P

 

[Phonomezer]

lol

 

[Beckx]

Go on JP PSN and download Sega Ages: Phantasy Star Complete Collection. I believe it was just added today! Or if not, it will be very soon.
It has both the US and JP versions of each game, and enhancements like 2x exp/money and walking speed improvements, etc.

EDIT: Yeah, it's up. 800 yen!

Oh, excellent. I haven't played around with buying JP PSN games - they prohibit out of region credit cards, so I need to get a JP PSN card from play-asia or the like, right? This is a must purchase for me, and a good reason to finally get around to buying CvS2 as well.



-----------------------------

So what are everyone's favorite monster designs in the series? Mine -

1. Head Rot (PSII)
2. Rabitgut (PSII)
3. Reaper (PSI)
4. Grass Assassin (PSO, PSII)
5. Fiend (PSII)
6. Cooley 61 (PSII)

 

[pants]

So what are everyone's favorite monster designs in the series? Mine -

EDIT: My post wasnt a reply to this!

 

[Phonomezer]

EDIT: My post wasnt a reply to this!

Bullshit. Rappies aren't monsters, you MONSTER.

Favourite monster design... for some reason I've always liked the sandworms and Darkmarauders from PSIV.

 

[uncledonnie]

Technically 2 could do this to...but only after a certain point.

Spoiler

One needed to get Shir up to at least 30 (gah, she was useless on the whole) so she could steal items from the Item shop (on Dezolis), and most importantly an item from the Capital Control tower/ship transport on Motavia. It took quite a few tries in and out of the damn thing to get the item in question (name escapes me since I havent played it in years)

Save States just made it way too easy ^^

Spoiler

Visiphone

. And yeah it definitely made the game much easier, but it was still hard as hell.

 

[pants]

Bullshit. Rappies aren't monsters, you MONSTER.

I posted that as a reply to your rappy pic, not as a monster! I'd have to think a bit about my favorite monster design as a liked a fair bit of them.

 

[Shion]

 

[Phonomezer]

 

[pants]

Wait, bosses included? Easy.

 

[Beckx]

Wait, bosses included?

I was thinking to exclude bosses, as that's more of a "what's your favorite boss" discussion (which I might answer differently if you're asking about design, story, or mechanics. Dark Force's mechanics in PSII made for an amazing challenge, I freaked out when he first turned my party members against me. Not sure any console game had ever done that before.)

 

[Noi]

Go on JP PSN and download Sega Ages: Phantasy Star Complete Collection. I believe it was just added today! Or if not, it will be very soon.
It has both the US and JP versions of each game, and enhancements like 2x exp/money and walking speed improvements, etc.

EDIT: Yeah, it's up. 800 yen!

This is now downloading on my PS3. I've never played a Phantasy Star before, but didn't want all the extra baggage that comes with the Genesis Game Collections.

May as well sub and post impressions as someone playing any of these games for the first time.

 

[Red UFO]

Does anybody have a link to that music from PS4 that's a re-working of the Tower song from PS1? Had a huge grin on my face the first time I heard that.

 

[pants]

Does anybody have a link to that music from PS4 that's a re-working of the Tower song from PS1? Had a huge grin on my face the first time I heard that.

I posted it earlier in this thread, let me just go find it.

Here

 

[Red UFO]

I posted it earlier in this thread, let me just go find it.

Here

Excellent! Thank you!

 

[Wyndstryker]

Reading this is making me want to get back into PSO2...

But I told myself that I don't want to keep spoiling myself for when PSO2 heads to NA. Must fight the urge to patch this client...

 

[pants]

I was thinking to exclude bosses, as that's more of a "what's your favorite boss" discussion (which I might answer differently if you're asking about design, story, or mechanics. Dark Force's mechanics in PSII made for an amazing challenge, I freaked out when he first turned my party members against me. Not sure any console game had ever done that before.)

I want to choose De Rol Le now, but it is also a boss technically


So D-Elm-Lars and Chaos Sorcerer

 

[commish]

Nice thread. Love these games, and the fact that there hasn't been a true sequel in almost 20 years is one of the biggest crimes in all of gaming.

 

[charsace]

Nice thread. Love these games, and the fact that there hasn't been a true sequel in almost 20 years is one of the biggest crimes in all of gaming.

I want a sequel bad. One of the reasons that I can't get into PSO series of games is because I remember how awesome the original series is. I still can't believe SEGA could handle the series so badly. They had their own FF and it was tied to them and them alone. and they screwed it up.

 

[SkyOdin]

The Chaos Sorcerer definitely deserves credit for being the only monster found in all four original games. It's look fits the feel of the setting perfectly too. I mean, it is a wizard wearing a Star Wars-ish gas-mask that shoots laser beams from its belt. It has that perfect crazy mix of magical fantasy and sci-fi.

 

[Kokonoe]

We need more Online appreciation in this thread, my posts have become empty nothings of sorrow and solitude.

 

[Dennis]

The first Phantasy Star game is one of my favorite games of all time.

And probably the game I am most nostalgic about.

 

[pants]

We need more Online appreciation in this thread, my posts have become empty nothings of sorrow and solitude.

I just posted about De Rol Le xD

Loving PSO2 at the moment

 

[Kokonoe]

As I was saying earlier, Olga Flow is my favorite evil boss in gaming.

IDOLA have the immortal feather

I want to choose De Rol Le now, but it is also a boss technically


So D-Elm-Lars and Chaos Sorcerer

Hmm...favorite enemy? I think mine is Chaos Bringer, not sure.

I just posted about De Rol Le xD

Loving PSO2 at the moment

I played it for a little bit, I may go ahead and start playing on the Japanese servers since the US ones have no release date yet and I'm tired of waiting. PSO2 from what I played is already vastly superior to PSU and PSP, it's fun.

 

[Aeana]

Talking about the Phantasy Star Complete Collection made me get out my disc and pop it in. I think I'm just going to do PS4 since I don't really have time to do all of them. Fun times ahead.

 

[TheFightingFish]

I gave 4 a try recently as my first Phantasy Star ever using the PSP collection, and I have to say that it really didn't do it for me. I loved the Fantasy / Sci-Fi settings mix, really unique and drew me in, pretty solid story / characters as well. But the battle / leveling system just killed the fun for me. First off there was no real way to customize each character, I really love systems that let me play with this more. The encounter rate was pretty high and the enemy groups very similar, so it was easy to arrive at the optimized tactic to fight any one group and then just roll it out ad nauseum. Sure the macros and combo attacks attempted to spice things up but I found myself plodding through very long sections of very repetitive battles and I just gave up maybe 4 hours in or so.

 

[Dark Schala]

We need more Online appreciation in this thread, my posts have become empty nothings of sorrow and solitude.

I want PSO2 soooo baaaaaad.

I always said that the Hedgehog Engine should be used in more games, and since PSO2 is actually doing that with success with a modified engine, I'm happy for it. It's PSO with all the improvements that PSU and some of the other games had so why not dip into it again. Plus it's f2p so that's way up my alley. And the music is great so far.

I'm guessing that Online isn't appreciated as much because, as I said in the OP, perhaps it was ahead of its time given the nature of how you could access it (I mean the Dreamcast ver)? I was guessing that more people on GAF would cherish it given the spread of GAF's population. It's really too bad because Online is essentially the precursor to a few of the MMO games we have on consoles and portables now. And the music's really good. Sonic Team, etc.

 

[Claymores]

Just wish they hadn't turned the series into a mediocre MMO wannbe.

 

[djtiesto]

For all the shit Phantasy Star III gets, it still has one of my all time favorite town themes

And one of the most genius reveals in the series... when you find out the truth behind the game's world.

Excellent thread, Schala. The (offline) PS series is my favorite game series of all time as I've probably stated many times on these boards before, and it's really heartwarming to see the people in this thread come out to celebrate.

PS1 wasn't the first RPG I've ever played (that would be DQ1, followed by Ultima 3 and FF1), but it was the one that made them my favorite genre. The game that would inspire me to want to design and develop my own video games - from learning how to draw to eventually getting into programming (which I now do for a living, though not in the games industry) and amateur game creation. It just blew my mind - the whole sci-fi setting, the 3D dungeons and animations far ahead of anything else at the time, the vehicles you get (a landrover! a hovercraft! a zamboni-like thing! and best of all a SPACESHIP).

And then of course came PS2, my favorite game of all time... the surprising plot twists, the labyrinthine dungeons (I've always liked this element about the game, though many people hate it), the setting that was even more sci-fi and one of the first RPGs I've ever played with a truly bleak, hopeless setting, and DAT ENDING. Loved the character designs too.

3 is a game that gets a ton of hate, and isn't anywhere near as good as the rest of them, but it was one of the first games I got with my new Genesis in Christmas '91, so I'll always have a bit of appreciation for it.

4 is the classic PS games refined with more user-friendly features, it's one of the best 16 bit RPGs ever made, though I was a tad disappointed about how easy it was compared to the others

 

[djtiesto]

Apologies for being so wordy and so rambling. I hope a bit of this made sense.

Again, thanks for making the thread.

Beautiful writeup, really enjoying hearing other peoples experiences with this series as it probably affected and influenced me more than any other.

Superior version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-bPYeoxnU

/waits for djtiesto to come in and champion the PSG version like a weirdo.

I did that in the other PS related thread that was posted today

 

[ShadiWulf]

Awesome thread... looking forward to PSO2.

 

[Aeana]

The Ristar voice clip in the Tonoe music in PS4 always makes me smile.

 

[perfect free]

I was very late to the PSO party--starting with Blue Burst in 2005 2004--but it's still the best MMO experience I've had. (It also nearly caused me to fail out of grad school.) It helped that since I was playing on the Japanese servers with about 10-15 other English speakers, we naturally stuck together, and the essential simplicity of the game combined with the drive to hunt for rare items meant we had lots of time to basically just hang out and chat while murdering things. Nothing else I've played has fostered that kind of interaction, although it doesn't help that I'm not a very social person. Anyway, I was the newbie of my group (most everyone else was a Gamecube vet) so I'm sure I did a lot of dumb things, but man did I have a blast. Still remember how excited I was when I finally got my Frozen Shooter.

Also, my God, dat PSO music. Despite hearing them for hundreds of hours, I have never, ever, ever gotten tired of the kinda-ambient-kinda-melodic tracks that accompany all your explorations on Ragol: serene on the surface but giving you glimpses of something twisted and sinister beneath. Even as I type this I have Revolution to the Origin running through my head.

 

[Zyrusticae]

It's no secret that the majority of my gaming time is currently devoted to PSO2. I have so much attachment to my characters in that game... There's no way I'm putting it down anytime soon.

I also have serious nostalgia for the original PSO. It was my first exposure to the series, and also basically the reason I got a dreamcast (yup, seriously). I just saw that crazy over-the-top advertisement on TechTV and it made me mad with game-lust.

But the music! Hogawd, the music! That's the one thing that's REALLY stuck with me throughout all these years. I still listen to the soundtrack every now and again. It's just that damn good.

There's the original boss theme...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jUvh-faBag
And then the, frankly, brilliant remix of it in PSO2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRvUUkJc-0s
Gawd, I love this series.

I'd write more, but I'm at work and must go be productive!

 

[jay]

This used to be my avatar

 

[Jack Random]

/me is so old school, my PSO2 toon is named Nei.

every so often, someone will get it, and i'll smile

 

[Jake Tower]

Are there any differences between the original releases and the collection for GBA?

I have PS I-4 for SMS and Genesis respectively, but I've never played them, and I'm thinking they are just the sort of game that would be perfect played on the GBA, much like the excellent Final Fantasy Advance games.

 

[Foxix Von]

Are there any differences between the original releases and the collection for GBA?

I have PS I-4 for SMS and Genesis respectively, but I've never played them, and I'm thinking they are just the sort of game that would be perfect played on the GBA, much like the excellent Final Fantasy Advance games.

Ehhhhh PSI on the GBA collection has a save corruption bug where it will randomly destroy your save file, and that collection also doesn't have PSIV.

 

[Bilix]

I just want to throw in my favorite track for PSO Ep. 3 for now:

http://youtu.be/YI_IGFBOTHE

It has some build-up, but it's my favorite track/stage in the game.

 

[red13th]

I spent the whole day playing the retranslated PS1. I love this game. I never realised how open ended it is, I just got Mirror Shield (Shield of Perseus in this version) and I haven't even landed on Dezoris yet. I don't remember ever getting it so early. Although I used play it when I was seven years old, about... 20 years ago. Wow.
Outstanding game.

 

[Phonomezer]

I spent the whole day playing the retranslated PS1. I love this game. I never realised how open ended it is, I just got Mirror Shield (Shield of Perseus in this version) and I haven't even landed on Dezoris yet. I don't remember ever getting it so early. Although I used play it when I was seven years old, about... 20 years ago. Wow.
Outstanding game.

Retranslated PS1?

 

[AgentOtaku]

The western PSIV cover is foul, but I love the western PSII cover

I just think it's a great picture. Captures the fantasy/sci-fi look I'd imagine the series would have today if Sega had balls.

Agree

I always ADOOORED this artwork

 

[red13th]

Retranslated PS1?

The one that was posted earlier in this thread, it's a patch for the Master System version.