I cut my RPG teeth on Shining Force and FF4 - relatively forgiving entry points into the genre - but I had older schoolmates and relatives who would regale me with tales of the brutally uncompromising RPGs of their day. Phantasy Star is the quintessential high-friction RPG/dungeon crawling experience and is everything I expected from it for better and worse.
The limited inventory space, low MP totals and labyrinthe levels mean that progress was impossible without drawing my own maps, several 'test runs' through a dungeon, plenty of grinding, and a good deal of luck. This made dungeon crawling an extremely tense experience - fumbling around dark corridors and gradually getting my bearings while not knowing when the next encounter will be and whether I have enough resources to get to the end or need to escape to try another day - it adds a layer of decision making that is generally absent from the more forgiving RPGs of later years. But it's the 'luck' part that kind of gets on my nerves here - the heavily-randomized damage and booby-trapped chests can really screw a run over, and the lack of a way to target specific enemies or a rudimentary front/back row system means that there is very little strategy or tactics that goes into battles either. In other words, luck is maximized, tactics is minimized, and the only skill that the game really tests the player in (besides patience) is judgment on when to press on or retreat.
Engaging with it on its own terms though, there are plenty of merits to Phantasy Star, the strong female lead being the most obvious. The quasi-3D dungeons are mighty impressive, and the large enemy sprites (each with their own attack animation!) made me forget I was playing a Master System game! The fact that it didn't have to contend with Nintendo's infamous censors is obvious: some enemy sprites are delightfully horrifying, and the game pulls no punches about what happens when you run out of HP - you're not knocked out, you can't "fight no longer", you're dead.
From a gameplay perspective, Phantasy Star is great with exploration, giving the player a steady supply of hints of where they could go next, and unlike many other games where all but one option will lead you to getting annihilated by the random encounters, PS actually encourages nonlinear exploration by having several dungeons your party can handle at any time! And while I suspect it's more by coincidence than design, the difficulty curve is so much smoother than Phantasy Star 2's.
Perhaps its greatest achievement is its legacy - Phantasy Star is not only the birthplace of a great tetralogy, but from what I can tell it's also the first console RPG to be released in the West. Its success was arguably instrumental in early installments of FF and DQ getting Western releases, and for that I am grateful.
TL;DR - equal parts archaic relic and venerable classic, this is worth playing if you have any interest in games from that era. I'd recommend an updated port though, unless you have the patience of a saint.
The limited inventory space, low MP totals and labyrinthe levels mean that progress was impossible without drawing my own maps, several 'test runs' through a dungeon, plenty of grinding, and a good deal of luck. This made dungeon crawling an extremely tense experience - fumbling around dark corridors and gradually getting my bearings while not knowing when the next encounter will be and whether I have enough resources to get to the end or need to escape to try another day - it adds a layer of decision making that is generally absent from the more forgiving RPGs of later years. But it's the 'luck' part that kind of gets on my nerves here - the heavily-randomized damage and booby-trapped chests can really screw a run over, and the lack of a way to target specific enemies or a rudimentary front/back row system means that there is very little strategy or tactics that goes into battles either. In other words, luck is maximized, tactics is minimized, and the only skill that the game really tests the player in (besides patience) is judgment on when to press on or retreat.
Engaging with it on its own terms though, there are plenty of merits to Phantasy Star, the strong female lead being the most obvious. The quasi-3D dungeons are mighty impressive, and the large enemy sprites (each with their own attack animation!) made me forget I was playing a Master System game! The fact that it didn't have to contend with Nintendo's infamous censors is obvious: some enemy sprites are delightfully horrifying, and the game pulls no punches about what happens when you run out of HP - you're not knocked out, you can't "fight no longer", you're dead.
From a gameplay perspective, Phantasy Star is great with exploration, giving the player a steady supply of hints of where they could go next, and unlike many other games where all but one option will lead you to getting annihilated by the random encounters, PS actually encourages nonlinear exploration by having several dungeons your party can handle at any time! And while I suspect it's more by coincidence than design, the difficulty curve is so much smoother than Phantasy Star 2's.
Perhaps its greatest achievement is its legacy - Phantasy Star is not only the birthplace of a great tetralogy, but from what I can tell it's also the first console RPG to be released in the West. Its success was arguably instrumental in early installments of FF and DQ getting Western releases, and for that I am grateful.
TL;DR - equal parts archaic relic and venerable classic, this is worth playing if you have any interest in games from that era. I'd recommend an updated port though, unless you have the patience of a saint.
FallenGrace
11 months ago