Phantasy Star Promo Art

I found this awesome Phantasy Star promo art piece today and thought I'd share it. I'll never get enough of the 1980s anime style. The same goes for Phantasy Star in general :D

Song of the Week: Phantasy Star II "Mystery"

This week's song is another great track from the Phantasy Star series. This music plays in some of the dungeons I'm trying to get through, and the second half is super catchy.

Rock on, Sega Genesis, rock on.

Song of the Week: Phantasy Star Tower Theme

Phantasy Star has some of the best music on the Sega Master System (plus it's my favorite 8-Bit RPG!).

The Tower theme has a tension too it, and drives the player to explore. There is a subtle note of triumph in the song as well; it gives me the impression that hard times are going to follow but victory eventually awaits.

Pixel Art: Alis, Hero, and a Dragon

A roundup of some sketches:



Alis from Phantasy Star, Atari-style.



A PC-style sci-fi hero.



A crazy dragon.

Phantasy Star II -- Part One

I killed Lassic. Peace could now return to the Algol system, but the game instructed me to go to the Governor's mansion on Mota. There I fought a demon, the real boss of Phantasy Star. Rolf, the protagonist of Phantasy Star II, dreams about Alis fighting this demon in the into to his game. He wakes up on Mota. The star system is a very different place than the one Alis inhabited.

The Mother Brain handles all of humanity's problems: from money to the weather. One suspects early on that this power extends towards the government as well. Rolf works for the Mother Brain, in fact, he's its top agent. Right from the start, a tension exists between what the player knows must happen: information about Mother Brain's supposed evil plans needs to be gathered, and what Rolf wants: to do his job as a field agent, go home, and watch TV.

In Phantasy Star, the people of Algol were beaten down, but some of them have hope. In Phantasy Star II, this virtue has degenerated into apathy and amorality. A band of rebels dynamites an entire town and steal everything in sight, and still it remains unclear to me as a player who, if anyone, I should be rebelling against. Probably not the misguided rebels, but probably not Mother Brain either. If there is one thing Star Trek has made perfect clear: computers lack the human emotion to rule people. Still, the question is chillingly relevant, and, surprisingly, Phantasy Star comments on real life more effectively than fantasy-RPGs.

The battle system is greatly improved, and I'm glad to say goodbye to first-person dungeons as well. Phantasy Star II compensates by providing the player with amazing music, easily on par with Final Fantasy 7, Sonic, Mega Man, Lufia, Ninja Gaiden, and other acclaimed video game soundtracks. Usually the battle theme in an RPG is "okay" and sounds vaguely "tense" which sometimes just translates to "unbearably annoying" or "seizure inducing." Phantasy Star II's battle music could roughly be categorized as "fucking awesome."



Sega brings this level of quality to every single track in the game.

I really enjoy the new battle layout, it's nice watching Nei and Rolf slash at the enemies. Battle formations are now varied, and Phantasy Star feels futuristic and exciting. Many genre perks missing from Phantasy Star (moving NPCs, huge cast of characters, dual wielding, etc.) are now, thankfully, present. Sega takes full advantage of the Genesis hardware and create a technical rival to Final Fantasy. But Final Fantasy 4 was really easy, even the Japanese version. You could basically beat it and sleep at the same time. I'm hesitant to call Phantasy Star II "underrated," because it's actually quite popular and I know many gamers out there already consider PSII to be the best 16-bit RPG ever created. I look forward to testing that claim.

Continue reading in Part Two!

Phantasy Star Review

Martial law has been declared across the star system, and your brother was beaten to death in the street for rebelling against Lassic's government.

I've always known about Phantasy Star, and I've briefly test-driven the roms a few times, but I've never dedicated time to beating any of them. In the past, I don't think I had the patience. But a few days ago, as I mournfully looked at my well-played copy of Dragon Warrior 2, I was desperately in need of something to play. I found Phantasy Star.

Phantasy Star is a world not unlike Earth. It's made of concrete, houses, shops, cars, airplanes, governments, passports, fast food, guns, violence, death, friendship, family, moving sidewalks, spaceships, money, and corruption.

Alis and her friends will explore first-person dungeons, travel to other planets, find treasure, and exact an unsettling revenge for the death and destruction evil King Lassic has wrought across the 3 planets of Palma, Motavia, and Dezoris. One imagines life would be a lot like this if the Sol system had three habitable planets.



But nothing engrossed me like the first-person segments. The first-person buildings are far smoother than, say, Moraff's World, but a lack of any overhead view makes them a serious challenge. Without mapping these places out manually, many areas are simply impossible to navigate because everything looks the same. Liberal use of Phantasy-Star.net makes the impossible into a nice challenge, so modern gamers have little excuse to avoid this game. Sometimes these areas are used masterfully, for example: an abandoned installation in a later town is represented in first person, and walking through this building conveys the feeling of actually being in a very strange and faceless cinderblock building. Ultima Exodus attempted first-person segments, Phantasy Star nearly perfects them.

Over time the series has spawned maybe sequels and MMORPGs. Admittedly, I'm just getting into the franchise.This game, however, started it all. Its $5.00 pricetag offers no excuses to the Wii owner -- buy this game now! You may have been putting off Phantasy Star in favor of another series like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior, but if you're looking for a more serious story in a world much more familiar and exciting then look no more. Nothing else will make you miss 1988 like Phantasy Star. Pretend you rented it from the video store for $5.00 (more like $10.00 in 1988)--and hurry, because the entire solar system is counting on you and your friends!

The artwork is an early example of anime art reaching America, and the sprites have the distinctly 1980s highly-detailed style. The world feel so complete, that it's a wonder so many games chose to go the fantasy, instead of sci-fi route. In Phantasy Star, the towns feel like real towns (no 3-house "towns"), and exploring some buildings in the first persons creates a surreal pseudo-3d environment. It is like nothing else you have ever played.



Many RPGs feature a random monster trying to destroy the world. This isn't really scary, because everyone knows dragons and giant monsters don't really exist. But Phantasy Star (and FFVII) feature human enemies with crazy goals. It's easier to believe that Lassic is running a town into the ground because he has declared martial law and blocked the trade routes than it is to believe you are reviving an elf prince under a sleeping spell. In Final Fantasy, you save that town, and this is expected. In Phatasy Star, the demolished towns keep on being shitty--and that's realism; Phantasy Star doesn't offer easy moral answer to every situation (it's got its share of cliches, no doubt). Often the heroes do nothing to save the day.

In fact, the entire quest is questionable. Should Alis be seeking vengeance? Even bloodbaths like No More Heroes 1-2 and willing to ask this question. Unlike Travis Touchdown, however, Alis can't just walk away: Lassic rules all three planets in the system and his crimes are arguably worse than the Santa Destro Corp.

The story remains puzzling in the end, though some closure is offered. Playing through Phantasy Star this week has been one of the most memorable RPG experiences of my life. I anticipate exploring the Algol System in Phantasy Star II, and wonder what Alis's brother meant about her "being reborn." Other games abandon characters and stories in each game; Sega offers cliffhangers. Phantasy Star for the Sega Master system: the greatest 8-Bit RPG of all time.

Song of the Week: Phantasy Star Title Theme

I'm going to try out a weekly song posting of some underrated amazing video game music.

For week one, a Sega Master System classic and a really great theme that fits the game perfectly: The Phantasy Star Title Track. I'm playing Phantasy Star on the VC right now, and I'm going to be making a more in-depth post about it in a few hours.

This song reminds me of the Lufia menu theme because of the drums and happy synths.