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GAME OF THE
MONTH COLLECTION:
PHANTASY STAR
(SEGA, 1988)
Sega's Phantasy
Star for the Sega Master System is not only one of the first ever RPG's in North
America but it's also a outstanding game even today and it's my favorite SMStitle.
Phantasy Star is a huge 4meg game with 5save files and over 50+hours of gameplay.
If you haven't played this awesome game yet then you don't know what you're
missing.
You are Alis, a young women warrior from the Palma in the Algo Star system who
has just witnessed the death of her brother, Nero, by King Lassic's foot soldiers,
it's your mission to get help and then try to over throw the evil ruler before
he can summon the power of Dark Falz, a powerful demon.
Nero tells his sister Alis of Lassic's plan's before he dies.
When I found Phantasy Star at a pawn shop (for 5bucks), I also bought Square's
Final Fantasy VIII at a local EB later that weak (for 70bucks, uck!). Final
Fantasy 8 was very flashy but it just could not hold my interest despite how
good Final Fantasy 7 was, and I contiuned playing Phantasy Star instead. Phantasy
Star plays very similar to Dragon Warrior on the NES with random battles and
tough gameplay, but it's in a futurist Sci-fi setting and a not medieval one.
Travel to different towns and even different planets to become strong enough
to fight Lassic in his huge air castle. You have to find three other friends
(a cat, a strongman, and a magician) on the long quest, each one character has
different abilities needed for finishing the game.
I noticed the graphics were way better than either Final Fantasy 1 or any of
the Dragon Warrior's on NES, the dungoens are also in all in 3D, which can fairly
confusing if you don't draw maps, but very impressive for a 8-bit title(my friend
thought it was a 16-bit game when I showed him). The colourful enemies even
animate during the battles, this game looked unbelievible at the time and still
looks great even after all these years.
I hope you have
a pencil and a piece of paper ready when ya enter the dungoens?
If there is any
down sides to this awesome RPG, I would have to say the sound effects and music
are a little annoying. This is the Sega Master System afterall. Plus there can
be way too many random battles if you hate that sort of thing. These are only
minor problems to a very additive and revoltutary RPG. Name any other RPG that
starred a women, uh? Highly Recommend to any RPG fan.
For 1player only.
Score: 87/100
8: Graphics
5: Sound
9: Gameplay