Phantasy Star Collection (the review is now finsished)

[A Genius]

A collection of 3, not 1, not even 2, but 3 games on one package, for an almost insultingly low price of $20.00, none of which I've ever played before. The thing is, they're old games, do they compare with the new? The only logical thing to do then, is to compare it to the current most popular RPG, which I believe is Kingdom Hearts.

Unfortunetely, I've never played Kingdom Hearts (yet another reason to buy a PS2), so I'll have to compare it with Golden Sun. Don't get me wrong, Golden Sun isn't a "bad" game, but it just feels unfair comparing it with masterpieces like Phantasy Star. Nevertheless, a review is a review, so here goes.

Phantasy Star: The first. If I'm not mistaken, this was for the 8-bit Sega Master System, but it sure fooled me. This game looks like a low quality Sega Genesis game, which is high quality for the Master System. The overhead mode is nothing special, but when you enter a battle or talk to someone or enter a dungeon, the screen shifts to a 1st person view. Typically, this doesn't work in an 8-bit enviroment, but it's been hendled here in a way so that it will be really cool rather than annoying.

In fact, this is one of the games where graphics truly affects gameplay, and in this case, it's a good thing. Despite the insanity of the dungeons, they are very fun. The graphics in Golden Sun however, don't back up the gameplay at all. They're pretty, yes, but it honestly would have been the same game without them, where PS would've been completely different were the whole thing in overhead mode.

The battle system in Golden Sun was pathetic. Actually, it wasn't the battle system itself, it was the enemies. They were all the same, and not in the respect of pallete swaps. Every RPG ever made has pallete swaps. I'm complaining about how all of the enemies attack you in the same fashion. It's just using your best attacks and healing. The most basic strategies ever. PS has slightly upgraded that, there'll be considerable differences between the enemies, you'll also notice that there is no boss music. Every boss (other than the final one) has the same tune as the regular enemies. Eh, I'll let that slip. This is an early RPG.

In terms of story, Golden Sun FINALLY has an advantage. The story in PS is nice, but it's lack of dialouge sort of burns it out. Golden Sun had too much dialouge, but at least they tried at it. Heck, Golden Sun actually has more interesting characters than PS (but in PS's defence, the characters end up in so little dialouge, that it's excusable. The lack of character in GS is inexcusable due to the amount of dialouge).

Nevertheless, PS soars above GS in the most important aspect, gameplay. GS had acceptable gameplay, but it really fails in the hands of PS. As I mentioned before, PS has those nifty 1st person dungeons that work amazingly well, probably due to the fact that you're still fighting enemies in classic RPG format. PS is also harder than GS, you're not always given directions, and essentially, you're in the dark on where to go. But don't worry, you'll live. For the sake of sweet graphics and impressive gameplay, you'll love it.
9/10

Phantasy Star II: We're on the Sega Genesis now, so the graphics are expectedly better. The one big error is that in PS, there were a lot of battle backgrounds, if you were on a beach, then the battle occured on a beach, in a forest, yep. You'd fight in a forest. All the battles in PSII take place in some cyber-world, every one. But other than that, the graphics are quite well done. The enemies animate (they also animate in the first one, something I forgot to point out), which is neat. There's no 1st person mode this time around, but I can understand that.

Well, in a nutshell, the plot is that you kill monsters. Um, after that, it'd be spoilers. Golden Sun didn't have a big story like this, that's for sure.

The battle system is dramatically improved over the first one. It starts you off with 2 options, Fght and Stgy. Fght makes you fight automatically, you can't tell the characters how or what to attack, but if you're just leveling up, this lets you avoid aving to take your time picking commands. Stgy lets you decide how and what to attack, or you can run. Either way, it's fun to watch the characters fight.

Other points worth mentioning: -The magic names are weird.
-You can equip 2 weapons.
-You can't save anywhere this time around.
-The game is just more fun than Golden Sun. Deal with it.

Right so I'm just going to say this, PSII > GS. There.
9/10

PSIII: Most people say that this is the worst in the seies. I agree, but it's not that bad. The big innovation is the "generations" system, in which you play as 3 different generations of characters. Cool.

Graphically, it sucks. On the field, the characters are hideously ugly, and painful to look at. Battle isn't much better, even though they included background for them this time around. The enemy animations are TERRIBLE. You really have to see them to understand. So if you wish, there are some animations of them here.

Also, it's hard to figure out what's going on. Okay, that's in all the games. But it just seems more annying here. Can't say why, I think it's because they didn't move along the story enough. Too bad.

And the battle systems not that great either, it took me a while to figure out what all the icons did. They never explain that in the instruction manual, making it pretty dang annoying.

But other than that, it's a lot like PSII. Pretty fun once you understand everything. But even so, very little effort was shown by the programmers, making it the worst in the serie. Bu h it's not terrible.
7/10

The entire game gets an 8/10. By the way, they didn't include what's supposed to be the best in the series (PSIV). Probably because of space issues, but it's still a shame.

-A Genius (If PSIV is anything like II, it'll rule. And since it's supposed to be BETTER than II, it'll rule.)

[ February 12, 2003, 11:19 PM: Message edited by: A Genius wants a free salad ]

The first enemy keeps on slaying me.

i played a couple of the series on my old friend's genesis. pretty good games. Shining force 2 will probably always be my favorite genesis game

My notes:

PSI: Actually, both Lassic and DarkFalz have their own battle tunes (although DarkFalz's is more of a remixed Lassic)

PSII: When you fight Mother Brain, it's black instead of blue, the grid doesn't go as far, and there's glitter (not to mention you can't see how much damage you're doing to her).

PSIII: To give an idea how bad the enemy animations in PSIII are, there's one enemy that's a giant stone head, and attacks by wiggling its ears.

PSIV: Phantasy Star IV is Chrono Trigger, Earthbound (Rykros reminds me of Magicant), Phantasy Star II, and Blasting Again (the appearance of the casts of the two WILL make you think Sunsoft spent too much time on PSIV) with a pinch of Phantasy Star I in one package.

I'd like to get it to remind me of PSII which was my 1st rpg i ever played and to try the other ones. Ive got golden sun and am playing it jus now, its not that bad, but your spot on about too much text and not enough character development.

BTW your link doesnt work

I think this is the page he wanted:

http://synbios.net/wolfgang/psiii-web/index.html

You have to click "Enemies" on the bar at the top.

^ooooo, that grinder looks scary, i bet those giant ears could do some serious damage.
The best one was the giant, u can jus imagine him sayin ' who da man?'