This game really gets elevated by the way it animates it's cutscenes. I saw nothing like it in other games on the Genesis/SNES. I thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but it really helps with the immersion. I would give this game half a star just for those alone. Just imagine Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games having them like this. I wonder why they don't do these kind of cutscenes on snes based indiegames these days, it really is a lost art.
It also reminds me of Dragon Quest 3 in the ways it connects with earlier Phantasy Star games and the lore of those games (except 3, they want you to forget that one). PS 1 wasn't really that loreheavy, but 2 was and it is great to see the characters rediscover what happened in the millennia before. It does it in a way like the Trigun anime, with advanced technology lost, and people trying to make the best with what they still know of it. I love that kind of setting, and while the year it came out holds back it's full potential, the story was interesting throughout.
The gameplay is the regular JRPG experience of the time (turn based, high encounter rate, some grinding required), with the added annoyance of having to try out and remember what each spell and skill does, because the names of them are not intuitive and there is no description what they do. Hated it in Lufia and hated it here.
This definitely is the best JRPG on the Genesis, and better than a whole lot of those on the SNES. Highly influential with the way it does party chat and develops it's cast. I'm pretty sure this is a game the developers of games like Tales of Phantasia and Legend of Heroes looked at. The whole hunter association and how you can complete jobs for it is really familiar to the adventures guild Legend of Heroes came up with not much later, and that eventually evolved in the Bracer guild from the Trails series.
It's a shame there never was a PS 5, there was potential to chase the darkness in other solar systems. I guess some later PS titles go into that (the PSP ones which i didn't play), but i heard it was not on a level a good main line title could have. And PS online is a MMO.
It also reminds me of Dragon Quest 3 in the ways it connects with earlier Phantasy Star games and the lore of those games (except 3, they want you to forget that one). PS 1 wasn't really that loreheavy, but 2 was and it is great to see the characters rediscover what happened in the millennia before. It does it in a way like the Trigun anime, with advanced technology lost, and people trying to make the best with what they still know of it. I love that kind of setting, and while the year it came out holds back it's full potential, the story was interesting throughout.
The gameplay is the regular JRPG experience of the time (turn based, high encounter rate, some grinding required), with the added annoyance of having to try out and remember what each spell and skill does, because the names of them are not intuitive and there is no description what they do. Hated it in Lufia and hated it here.
This definitely is the best JRPG on the Genesis, and better than a whole lot of those on the SNES. Highly influential with the way it does party chat and develops it's cast. I'm pretty sure this is a game the developers of games like Tales of Phantasia and Legend of Heroes looked at. The whole hunter association and how you can complete jobs for it is really familiar to the adventures guild Legend of Heroes came up with not much later, and that eventually evolved in the Bracer guild from the Trails series.
It's a shame there never was a PS 5, there was potential to chase the darkness in other solar systems. I guess some later PS titles go into that (the PSP ones which i didn't play), but i heard it was not on a level a good main line title could have. And PS online is a MMO.