Douglas's game of the week: Phantasy Star IV

In the words of Codiekitty:

"From my experiences on it, there is a common belief out there. A belief so common it's almost a religion. That belief is that Squaresoft is the only company that can make an RPG."

Tragic, and what's even more tragic is that the whole world thinks only squaresoft can make an RPG. I was never like that because I played Crystalis, Dragon Warrior, Zelda, Phantasy Star, and the Genesis RPGs first. (I didn't play Chrono Trigger until a friend showed me the ROM which massacred the Music and made Frog weak as a Shortbread Cookie as well as make Magus incredibly cheap). If you think that only Square-Enix can make an RPG or that Shining Force was the only Genesis RPG, then you have not played this game.

The graphics are at an all time high-The cut-scenes are done ingeniously, And everything looks anime quality. Okay, so maybe the status portraits in Chrono Trigger are maybe a little better done, but this is throughout the whole game. I'll never ever forget how cool the final boss looks (Made me forget the awsomeness of DarkFalz).

The storyline is excellent. The plot moves faster than some Playstation titles (It certainly defeats the Boring with a capital B plot of the Highly overrated Final Fantasy 7), and considering this is a 16 bit RPG...
The one minor flaw of Phantasy Star IV is that the plot seems kind of confusing at the beginning. It's easy to ignore though.

The music is simply some of the best music I have ever heard. Laughter is the best music in the game-And I'm listening to a MIDI of it right now. Laughter is the Genesis equivilant to One Winged Angel and The Dark Messenger and to the NES's classic Mario theme. The sounds sound realistic (At least we don't have weapons that "Doink" enemies to death like in a specific Teenage Mutatn Ninja Turtles Fall of the Foot Clan) and almost everything is something that you'll want to listen to again and again.

The controls easily seperate themselves from other 16-bit RPGs. I can't really go on more about the controls except for that they are very easy to pick up (It 'aint anything as complicated as Dual Analog combat featured in some games, especially Ape Escape 2 and Kicked in the Ghoulies)

Overall, Phantasy Star IV is one of the best games of all time (If not the best.) It is truly worthy of bearing the name of Phantasy Star (Especially after the tragedy of Phantasy Star III), and this game is probably one of the most overlooked of Phantasy Star games. (See Phantasy Star collection? It made Phantasy Star 2 look like Trash and, worst of all, it didn't even have IV), which is why Phantasy Star IV desperalty needs a remake, because it's not like it's the best 16-bit RPG next to Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Tactics Ogre, and Link to the Past. To this day, I still argue whether this or Crystalis is the best RPG I played in my first 10 years of life. 10/10

Awards:
Great Graphics
Tolkien quality storyline
Orff Quality music
One of the best games of all time

[ December 21, 2003, 01:47 AM: Message edited by: Douglas of the Red Atlamilla ]

Wow, I can't believe I missed this topic.

I kind of wanted for forget about my writing reviews for GameFAQs. But thank you for quoting me anyway.

There was this guy who wrote a really... what's the phrase I want... effed up I guess, review about this game. It didn't mind him having a a different opinion about the game than me. However, he used a lot of false information (yeah, walking around in circles, leveling up for five hours in the Air Castle is the only way to defeat Lashiec[/sarcasm]), talked about the graphics and sound like he was either exaggerating them to make it look bad or emulating the game (the graphics and sound are crap on my emulator), and the "Phantasy Star Fanboy" comment was uncalled for.

What disgusted me the most was that that thing won Review of the Day while my Shining Force review got flamed to high Heaven. I mean, I admit I ranted too much, and I exaggerated many things... oh right, I forgot to insult the reader.

That guy might also be another reason for my dislike of Shining Force. My hate of him may have transferred into hate of Shining Force... although it's not quite "hate" towards the game, just dislike.

I made an .mp3 of Laughter if you want it. That midi chops it up really bad, but the .mp3 was dumped form an emulator and isn't as good as what the real thing puts out.


Where are these lemmings going? The Super Nintendo Super Shire! Hop in line and follow them there!

[ January 01, 2004, 01:29 PM: Message edited by: CodieKitty ]

I saw that. I saw the review and I KNEW he was probably making it up. But I never played the ROM of PSIV. I saw the topic here and them found out the guy was emulating it.