Is Phantasy Star IV Really The Best One? 

It's been a while, but as I recall macros execute attacks in sequence, making it a more reliable way to execute combo attacks.

Phantasy Star was a really innovative series, it seems to get brushed aside in favor of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest

Wish Sega didn’t hate JRPGs, what i wouldn’t give for a new Phantasy Star, Shining Force, Skies of Arcadia, or Panzer Dragoon Saga game

Such a good game. I played it for the first time on the Genesis mini. I absolutely loved the OST. Cybernetic Carnival, Runes theme and Motavia Theme are probably my favorite tracks.

Macros are actually useful for getting combination attacks more reliably, since they force the characters to act in the specified order.

Thats the first phantasy star i ever played as a kid and i loved it. Played it first on sega channel if anyone remembers that lmao. IDK if its the best but definitely my favorite one

It's just one of the most well rounded, well designed, balanced and fleshed out overall games ever made, made all the more epic by being an elite and satisfying conclusion to this series, getting everything right where earlier entries got some things right but others wrong. I adore this game. It's even better on repeat playthroughs, IMO.

I played Phantasy Star 4 about 2 years ago and I absolutely loved it. I don't think it get enough praise for it's looks. I mean I looks amazing to me. 9 out 0f 10 from Retro Ron

Literally the first JRPG I ever played to completion, as part of the Sega Genesis Collection on PSP. It'll always have a soft spot in my heart. A truly special game.

I wish this video was like, an hour longer.

That good ol' Genesis twang is inescapable. And wow you did videos on the 4 old Phantasy Star games before the series changed forever. It is cool they have an ongoing universe which I don't know how many series back then did. DQ did but I wonder any others atleast with console JRPGs lol. Such an interesting series for sure.

Thanks for this! To answer the Q in the title, yes (I might be biased though)! While it may not have the mechanical depth of its stiffest competition, it has amazing art and sound design and the QoL features make it easier to pick up and play. Setting up macros to push combo attacks is very satisfying, and good use of macros can actually allow you to clear areas a good few levels lower. The characters are pretty basic, but they all have their own distinct roles and personalities, and the relationships between the characters are fun. Also, that evolutionary world-building was nearly unheard of in 1993. At the time I first played it, I had only seen PS3; didn't get to play 2 until years later, and I still haven't beaten PS1. Still became my favorite RPG of its era, even over games that are objectively "better" like FF6 and Chrono Trigger.

This game is forever in my heart, I love the serie. the speedrunner run through the game without any glitch and with well thought out strats manage to finish the game in less than 3 hours, that's very impressive and sweet to see. If the game had a remake or a continuation, it would need an in-game indication to help you discover some game mechanics like combos (either seeing other people do it or going in a school and having a couple of combos being told to you, or indications from dialogues) I understand your review and the game is filled with hidden game mechanics, ennemies being weak against some elements, items having magic powers etc. Al these make the game sweeter and easier on your first play you probably miss 50% of that which is a bad thing because you don't enjoy the game to the fullest but good when you rediscover the game later on ;)

im playing this one right now, its good

Hey man! I am glad you loved Phantasy Star IV as well. While PSII will always be my favorite, when looking at the series objectively, I know that PSIV is, indeed, the best one. Perfectly fair criticisms as well. Outside of the absolute bop that is the theme music on boot up, none of the tunes are very memorable. As you said, the hardware on the Genesis just wasn't up to the task for the kind of epic, sweeping music we expect from RPGs. I encountered the exact same issue with the sidequests. Did the first one when it came available, then had a ton of them stacked up next time I was in town because the story never took you back. I actually did not have much of the grinding issues in my playthroughs, but that is probably just a product of you being better at navigating dungeons than I am. Unlike PSII, you don't NEED a map for PSIV dungeons, so I don't use one, but I do end up doing a ton of extra fights just because I get lost or forget to grab something all the time. One thing that I really want to emphasize to anyone out there who is thinking about playing this game is how downright fucking charming it is. While the story itself is just a serviceable "go out to save a school, end up killing god" JRPG plot, the characters and their interactions are what MAKE this game. They are just so damn likeable and funny. You WANT to hang around with them and you keep pushing through the game just to see them in new situations. A standout example is when, not too far into the game, the ship they are on is crashing. Wren is calculating, Rune is calm, fully aware that panic won't help, Rika is excited, as she is young, has never been in a crash landing before, and is just happy to have a new experience, and Chaz is freaking the fuck out and screaming "WHY IS NO ONE ELSE CONCERNED ABOUT THIS?!?!" And the character growth you see of the main 4 is so great too. Watching Chaz and Rune go from a silly rivalry to a true friendship, or Rika learning what makes life worth living, it is just so, SO wonderful. I love this game so much, and I hope everyone else who experiences it gets the same joy as I have from it.

This was the game that really got me into RPGs in general, back in the day. I had played Final Fantasy on the NES and I think Dragon Warrior (Quest) and Hydlide and didn't care for them that much, but this game made me see the genre in a new light, and I ended up going back and playing the rest of the series as a result. It holds a very special place in my heart. It's not perfect, but it's still an amazing title. Oddly enough, PS4 takes place at the same time (roughly) as PS3, if memory serves. Both are 1000 years after the destruction of Parma, and that just makes it all the stranger that Dark Force shows up in PS3, God knows how many light years away from Algo. I know a lot of the weird directions PS3 took have to do with the massive change in development staff and all, but I wonder if the multiple Dark Forces that show up in PS4 are supposed to retroactively suggest that the thing can split itself under certain conditions or something...? Who knows 😂

This review really illustrates how concepts like "old school" vs. "new school" are subjective and based on the observer's unique experience. I grew up with these games and played them all as they came out, so to me, the chasm between PSII/PSIII and PSIV in terms of gameplay and presentation is absolutely vast. It was a huge leap forward at that time. But I can see how these games might seem more alike in their presentation if you play them all for the first time in the present day. One thing I will say in defense of the Hunter's Guild sidequests, you can do the first half of them before leaving Motavia, so I wonder if you missed some your first time through. That would create a huge backlog of them when you come back to Motavia later. Anyway, I really enjoy your content--keep up the great work!

Will you review Shining Force 3?

PS4's is the best battle system in the series. PS1 had first person battle with backgrounds and large enemies that dynamically animate on attack. However it didn't show characters, only slashes or magic when the player attacks. PS2 added the behind the player's view allowing you to see your characters from the back during battle. It rendered the enemies similar to PS1, but they also have idling animations and multiple types of enemies can display at once in a single battle. However it removes any backgrounds during battle other than one generic line grid which means the top view map is the only way you see the world other than character portraits. This is aweful because the "on the ground" backgrounds add so much character to the worlds that the abstracted top view map can't do as well. I know I want to play PS2 less because of this choice. PS3 had the worst looking battle system. The backgrounds are back, but PS1's looked better. PS3's are bare bones and repetitive. You can't see your characters again only slashes like PS1, and worst of all the enemies have no animation frames except for a few exceptions with partial animation. The PS1 8 bit version looks better than it. PS4 has everything good listed here and none of the drawbacks. Glad backgrounds returned as their omission was a black mark on PS2's battle system. PS4 also has the deepest mechanics of any of PS battle system in the 8 and 16 bit era.