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SEGA Ages – Phantasy Star launches for Switch in September
- Thread starter Shard Shinjuku
- Start date
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Auto-mapping looks nice. I hope there's some fast-forward functions too, would help with grinding.
I played it a few years back. It's very much an old RPG, but I think it holds up better than most have. Hell, I think it aged better than Phantasy Star 2 and 3 did.
I played it a few years back. It's very much an old RPG, but I think it holds up better than most have. Hell, I think it aged better than Phantasy Star 2 and 3 did.
For a game of its vintage, extremely well.
The new enhancements they're adding for this version will make it a lot more approachable: there's an auto-map for the first-person dungeons, a setting to adjust difficulty, in-game descriptions for all the weapons and items, etc.
The team behind this going back and essentially adding features to older games like the spin dash and drop dash in sonic 1 is pretty neat.
Might just grab Sonic 1, tho
Might just grab Sonic 1, tho
Thank you. When are Sonic and Thunder Force coming out in the West?
It holds up about as well as the early Dragon Quests/Final Fantasys
Phantasy Star 4 is up there with any of the SNES greats . I hope SEGA brings them all to the Switch eventually.
I played and beat this about 10 years ago with the PS collection on GBA. I think this holds up better than FF1 and DQ1 today IF you're fine with making maps. Fortunately, my Etrian Odyssey experience was useful here. The dungeons are WAY simpler in Phantasy Star 1.
I actually never needed to grind without progression outside of the early portion with just Alys, which was surprising.
I actually never needed to grind without progression outside of the early portion with just Alys, which was surprising.
Of the series, Phantasy Star IV is the only one that's a must-play today, and that's aged as well as any classic (just use a guide for all the weird-ass spell/item/skill names, which have no descriptions).
It's too long for the kind of scenario it went for, but it's otherwise competent.
Considering that it's FF1's peer, it's an absolutely incredible experience. I played it for the first time in 2007, and it immediately became one of my favorite games of all time. I don't have a single complaint with it, and the 3D dungeons blew me away.
Wow the bonus features look fantastic. There isn't that much you can add to the game while keeping it as a faithful port, but adding item lists and a monster book is definitely super useful! This and Thunderforce IV look pretty good. Sonic and Alex Kidd is whatever. Will probably get Gain Ground too. Hope they announce another batch of titles at TGS next month!
This was the only game that I played for a straight 24 hours. I picked it up the day it came out in the U.S. on the Master System. I only stopped playing to eat, restroom breaks and a quick run to the Store to get graph paper so I can map out the dungeons. It was an incredible experience back then with the best visuals of any game for some time.
Damn, the auto mapping and bestiary are brilliant additions to an already incredible game. Hope this version comes in future compilations and the like. It is going to be hard returning to the original.
It is worth noting that there are fan updates on the Steam versions of these games if you are willing to try that out.
Sadly they really need some serious QoL improvements nowadays I think, but Phantasy Star IV is still a Chrono Trigger level masterpiece that should not be missed. Phantasy Star II is super awkward and punishing to get into now and I would skip Phantasy Star III entirely.
It is worth noting that there are fan updates on the Steam versions of these games if you are willing to try that out.
Phantasy Star II is horrendously grindy and features massive overhead dungeons coupled with slow walk speed, it's pretty brutal.
Phantasy Star III sucks but it's not particularly tough or hard to understand.
Phantasy Star IV doesn't really require any tweaking... if anything, a harder mode would be nice.
The studio doing these Switch ports also did the PS2 Phantasy Star compilation where they added all sorts of difficulty toggles (walk speed, EXP gain, currency gain, etc) so I'd expect those to carry over if they get to the later titles on Switch.
they launch in Japan this august, no date for the western release.I doubt it will take too long.
That sounds good. Maybe I'll wait on them then.
I kinda hate most 8-bit games but Phantasy Star with QoL improvements sounds nice enough.
How much do I miss out if I only play IV?
Yep back when they revealed them, they also said worldwide would follow japan as quickly as possible depending on the title
Haha. This was the first, and one of the very few games where I actually used graph paper to map all of the dungeons.
What hasn't held up better than the third game? That game was basically Dark Souls 2, before that was even a thing.
It's only as grindy as you want it to be outside of the very high encounter rate, other than maybe spending a half an hour getting enough PST for a few decent weapons early on. But yeah, four is probably the best out of the three 16-bit games, with the second almost tied (nostalgia!).
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Wut =O
First time hearing that... do you have a source on that ?
Will they do it for other SMS games ?
Yeah, this can't be emphasized enough - in the US, Phantasy Star 1 came out before stuff like Dragon Warrior 1 & Final Fantasy, while simultaneously being more advanced technically in a lot of ways than those NES titles. It was an incredibly impressive game when it came out.
It's written on the Japanese website.
There's a good chance they'll do it for other SMS games--when they brought the SMS version of Fantasy Zone to 3DS they added a new FM option from scratch, after all.
Yusssssss. Time to go take down Lassic again.
I think maybe the best part about all this is that by coming to Switch it will expose more people to this series, and how formative it was for the RPG genre. I feel like Phantasy Star always takes a back seat to Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in those conversations, but this game was right up there with them back in its day. I remember thinking what a big deal it was to have animated enemy sprites and big, colorful battle backgrounds. Add to that the sci-fi setting (instead of the usual high fantasy) and one of gaming's first female protagonists, and you have a game that helped define what an RPG could be. Still quite playable too, as long as you don't mind all the corridor-wandering you get with a dungeon crawler like this. Can't wait!
I think maybe the best part about all this is that by coming to Switch it will expose more people to this series, and how formative it was for the RPG genre. I feel like Phantasy Star always takes a back seat to Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in those conversations, but this game was right up there with them back in its day. I remember thinking what a big deal it was to have animated enemy sprites and big, colorful battle backgrounds. Add to that the sci-fi setting (instead of the usual high fantasy) and one of gaming's first female protagonists, and you have a game that helped define what an RPG could be. Still quite playable too, as long as you don't mind all the corridor-wandering you get with a dungeon crawler like this. Can't wait!
I ended up buying the Power Base Converter specifically for that game. I think the only other Master System game I ended up getting for it was Miracle Warriors. Even getting it a few years after release, Phantasy Star still looked better than most of its contemporaries.
