Phantasy Star IV for Sega Genesis - A Review | hungrygoriya 

R.I.P to the lovely Rieko Kodama for her amazing artistic creations and contributions to this game franchise.

Despite all the fantastic 16 bit RPGs of the era, Phantasy Star 4 will always hold a special place in my heart. None of my friends had Sega systems so I was the only one in my friend group that had played it. No one believed there was an RPG on the Genesis that could hold its own against Final Fantasy. Glad you enjoyed it! My 90's child self feels just a little smidgen of vindication today.

I love the little detail that every time Alys hustles Hahn for meseta, the amount she takes from him gets added to your money. They didn't have to do it that way. It could have just been a story thing, but nope. You get the funds! This game is great. I also love all of the secret combination techs. Super fun mechanic!

Everyone always talks about great Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III are from this era, but this game is their equal. It needs way more press than it gets. Banger of a soundtrack too.

This was one of the best games I have ever played back in the day. Great music, minimal grinding, and it wrapped up the original story perfectly.

Great review HG! Glad you took your time, I loved the streams a while back. "I won't spoil what they dew" haha nice one ^^ In my humble opinion, this is the greatest and well-aged JRPG on cartridge. In loving memory of Phoenix Rie 🙏 PS III is a bit slow but still great on its own, with some nice music of the same composer (the fanbase is very divided on liking this one or not) I see you liked Grandia on the PSX, if you have access to a Sega Saturn I'd highly recommend trying that version, since it was made for that and the conversion to PSX made it lose a lot of its beauty and performance.

It would be great if Sega made more 2D single player Phantasy Star games.

I replay Phantasy Star IV every year. Few games can reach the same level of writing, music composition and overall satisfaction as this game provides.

Having only played RPGs on the SNES as a kid and never owning a Genesis this was the game that made me notice there were good ones on that system too. For over a decade I didn't even know Phantasy Star had sequels. IV is definitely a highlight not only for the Genesis but that 16-bit generation itself.

I'll always remember being blown away by this game when I was younger. My cousin has a sega genesis, and always complained that there were so few RPG's worth his time like the SNES had. When he got this game, it was MY turn to be jealous despite having an SNES and a library of RPG's.This game was amazing! Correction, it still is!

I loved Phantasy Star IV I played through it on rental about a year after it came out. Its a beautiful story and while it ties up the story of the original series brilliantly, it stands on its own as good stand alone title. Honestly though its a good thing you did hit IV before III because the way that one works is beyond confusing for most. What with its multiple choice storyline. Also it can effectively make sense being played after IV because of its questionable placement in the timeline and distance from the Algol Star System. Not to mention its considered the black sheep of the franchise for being a little too experimental and obtuse with its storyline. Frankly though when it comes to Phantasy Star IV it is what most influenced the Phantasy Star Online games as well as Phantasy Star Universe with how it approached the organizations of Hunters, Guardians and eventually PSO2's ARKS. It is my opinion that everyone should play this game at least once if they try to go through the original series at all. I do fully intend on having my son play through this title soon.

I've had to think a lot about my top favorite games from ANY era and after much deliberation, I came to the conclusion that Phantasy Star IV takes the number one spot. It's just so good, so memorable and so fun to play fights delicately in every stage of the game. It can be as hard or as easy as you want with the amount of grinding you do and it's never THAT much time spent even if you want to over level hard. Every time I play the game I learn something new and figure out some new combination I didn't get to use in previous runs. The dungeons are simple so they never get too frustrating with the sometimes too frequent encounters. It's just so good from start to finish with the story and gameplay. "Noob traps" don't feel too punishing (looking at you sand worms) and bosses generally feel fair even if you're under leveled besides a couple exceptions. I could go on and on but, the long and short of it is, this IS my favorite game of all time and I am grateful I get to share it with gamers who haven't even heard of it, or the phantasy star series itself.

that intro gave me shivers! I love this game and your reviews always get me so excited to revisit them :)

Oh my God you're covering my favorite game. This is my first RPG when I was a kid. I've had a very rough month and this really cheers me up. Thank you so much for being so awesome.

Played it in my college years when I was deep into JRPGs. Shocked at how well systems were thought out, planning and grinding actually felt fun, and had good writing. This game (+ Reiko Kodama-san) needs more recognition than they are getting.

The first JRPG I ever beat. It still holds a lot of good memories for me. The music alone is so nostalgic to me.

Oh my gosh I spent all vacation playing this on my switch and it absolutely rules. It was thanks to your video on the first that gave me a hankering for it. Only had Nintendo growing up so a lot he sega RPGs are new to me!

Your thoughts on the world building really hit the nail on the head. One of my favourite universes in any series ever.

I loved the macros because it allowed you to set the pace with hard boss battles. It reduced the amount of grinding that was common with turn-based RPGs. Putting a member with slower speed as the first attack and your healing set for the end of the round forced the boss to attack first, do their massive damage, your attacks go through and then your healer brings you back to full HP. Raja was a must-have member in your party.

Great review, HG! Johnny Millennium would be proud!

Glad to see you finally covering this classic. Being a huge fan of Phantasy Star 2 and JRPGs I imported a Japanese copy when I went on a family trip to Hong Kong. Beat it again when I got an English copy when it was released for the Genesis. This and Final Fantasy VI were the pinnacle of 16-but RPGs back then. Great times. So nostalgic.

I love your reviews so much. So straightforward lots of gameplay and osts just ❤ Easily one of my fav channels to watch

Finally! I first found your channel looking for reviews of this game. Great review.

This was the game that got me to love JRPGs, and was the first one I ever beat. I had played some older titles like Final Fantasy I and Dragon Quest I before, but for some reason, just couldn't get into them, or beat them at the time. I had never heard of the Phantasy Star series before (being in the days when the Internet was still in its infancy and me not having access) and randomly stumbled on it for rental at a local grocery store. I was pretty much immediately hooked, as I had never seen a game with such visual flair before. It also didn't hurt that I was becoming an anime nerd around that time, so the manga-style cutscenes were a big draw for me. The game may have its mysteries, like what all the techniques and skills do, but I had fun figuring them out, and overall I thought the game was very newbie-friendly. After cutting my teeth on PSIV, I eventually went back to play the older titles, and boy was I in for a lot of surprises in terms of the difficulty and overall design of the previous entries! Some of my favorites from the game's soundtrack are the PSI dungeon music arrangements found in some familiar historical locations (😁), The Black Blood, Laughter, Her Last Breath, and Ooze. It's a great OST, even given the quirkiness of the Genesis' soundboard compared to the SNES'. I have a lot of fond memories of this game, and while it has its flaws, it is still one of my favorite titles, and does such a great job taking all the positives of the series and wrapping them up in a single package. Definitely worth a playthrough!

9:22 "really adore the setting of Phantasy Star Games since they're a perfect blend of fantasy and star"

That intro music takes me back. Put maybe a dozen hours into PH4 when discovering emulation some ~18 years ago. 🤔 Maybe an RPG is what I need in life at the moment...

Phantasy Star IV is peak pixel art style. New games that look to recreate a 16 bit aesthetic look to this game for inspiration.

I am happy you had a good time with this one. It's one of the best games on Genesis. My sister and I played this one through 100% several times after school. My dad also played it through. My sister loved to power level Rika solo to 70 around when you got to Monsen, and then Rune would level to match. Personally I liked having a balanced strategy. I liked hunting for the combination skills. It had so many cool ideas. Also, the naming of abilities can be weird. The lady who was one of the leads recently died but she had a philosophy that magic names should be obtuse and obscure in fantasy. Magic words and what not. She also worked on Shin Megami Tensei hence similar issues.

I was hoping to see you talking about this game for a long time! great work, as usual

interesting how this and the 7th saga use a similar over-the-shoulder with high animation and big sprites visual battle arrangement, like as if you the player are standing behind the heroes watching the battle unfold, and aside from elnard 2/mystic ark and maybe phantasy star 2, i struggle to think of any other games that really use this kind of visual format

Awesome review! Thanks for always putting such focus and detail discussing the game mechanics 👍🏻

I think PSIV is great. It avoids most of the worst pitfalls of JRPGs by having relatively simple, yet charming characters, a plot that is easy to follow and not bogged down by a lot of mumbo jumbo or attempts at being philosophical and both villains and heroes with clear motivations. Add a snappy combat system and some kick ass music on top of that, and i think it's a classic.

lol Chaz repeating every damn thing montage was hilarious

I'm so happy you played and enjoyed this game HG. I think this was my first time I watched a whole game on your Twitch channel so it brings back streaming memories for me. I was dancing to the music thinking HG is going to get to the music. So many good memories in this series and I do wish they make another but I'm glad they didn't because I'm afraid no matter how good they make it the game will fall short because my nostalgia for Phantasy Star 1 and 4. Also having played all 4 in the series several times I would say 1 is excellent 4 is even better 2 and 3 are both good but have flaws in them. I think playing 4 is more enjoyable if you played and liked 1 and 2 and there are ways to get through both quicker now but you don't have to play 1 and 2 to enjoy 4. If you want to get through 1 fast play it on Switch with ages mode you get 2-3 times the money and experience per fight and the encounter rate was lowered. I hope everyone gets to enjoy this masterpiece of a game. I have this and Chronotrigger as my 2 favorite 16bit RPGs that I've played. (Sorry Ys, Earthbound, and Secret/Trials of Mana)

Always love to see one of your reviews pop into my subscriptions feed. Your chill presentation and thorough delving into these classic titles is an enjoyable mix - especially for games like this, which I haven't played (yet)! 🕹😸

One thing I think deserves special mention is how well the game builds up Zio - he feels like the main boss when you finally take him down because of how much he's been built up as an imposing and truly evil individual. This was particularly well done because one of the characters literally does see him as the final boss, and quits the journey after taking him out & getting his revenge. I don't think any other RPG I've plated builds up a mid-game boss / antagonist to be as hated as this guy was when I first played it. The fact that the game opens up to introduce space travel almost straight after was a great moment to show the player things are just getting started. Comfortably sits alongside Shining Force 2 and Soliel as my top 3 RPG / adventure games from the Mega Drive system & that era as a whole. And there aren't even that many RPG's that came after this game that I think were better - it truly I'd a classic that holds up very well.

I slept on PS4 for a long time. I had the third game growing up and that’s not exactly the best introduction to the series. I finally played it this year and was completely blown away!

I enjoy this one the most out of the series, probably because it's the first one I played. But it also doesn't pull the mean tricks that come up later in 1 and 2 that make me like those less near the end. I can understand the frustration with not knowing what each skill does. Some of them have really straightforward names, so it's like "oh, I know what Rayblade does" but then the more oddly named ones also usually don't do anything obvious when you use them, so it's hard to figure out what they do. I still tend to use each character's skills when I get them as a refresher, particularly Raja since he's got a TP healing skill I can't remember the name of. A huge thing that makes this game stand out among its SNES peers: No "family friendly" self-censorship like in so many SNES RPGs of the era. The script is pretty much the same between Japanese and English, despite changing some character names.

Excellent review, great to see part 4 get the love it deserves!

Oh beautiful! This video is back. I was watching it when it first dropped and it all of the sudden went to private. I think the sound is better this time around? Anyway, can't wait!

I was in elementary school when this came out. I had to walk to school and damn when this dropped I sprinted home from school every day just so I could get a few extra precious minutes with this masterpiece.

Guess what? I actually just finished a play through of this game the other day! I largely agree with you, its one of my favorite RPGs of the 90s. I like the Star Wars/Dune by anime aesthetic and the smooth, fairly deep combat that rewards repeated play-throughs. I'm surprised the macro system isn't something other games have tried to copy. Not a lot of grinding, though I did re-enter the Air Castle a couple times and just the right amount of extra content that you don't need to complete to beat the game. Also, I found the game quite humorous, which is where I think I appreciated the writing the most. Love your videos!

Wow, you've sold me on this game. I hope I get a chance to play it someday.

Excellent review! I played this game long ago, and I remember enjoying it, but I barely remembered anything about the game itself. Whenever someone mentioned it, the cutscene comic panels were always the first thing that I thought about, it really stuck in my mind. I should play this again!

Phantasy Star is a funny franchise to me as I have played 2 and 3 on emulation, the games people say are the lessers in the series, but have only experienced 4 via Let's Play... and man I wish I had played this one instead of those two. The pace, the environments that finally felt like they put some effort into creating cool and varied dungeons and towns, and the characters who finally felt like they were properly developed after the characters were more functions than anything else... It's a journey that has both opened my eyes up to the incredible increase in quality the series had and the wild ride that was it's behind the scenes operations... but also an understanding of why it's never become a big name series, deapite it's quality. That uneven quality curve, man... Still. Any video out here talking up IV's qualities does a good deed in my book, even if I had more patience for Chaz than I think you did... maybe because by the time I actually Let's Played this game I had gotten SO used to jrpg leads who start off kinda whiny and ineffective and gradually grow, that Chaz just felt like par for the course. Besides, he has Alys, Rune and the green grandpa (whose name unfortunately escapes me) to hassle him throughout the game, so I have my fun with him anyway :)

Wow. I remember playing this game for years. What a beast of a game.

Youve gone through most of my childhood favorites, but this was one of the absolute best that I was surprised you hadnt covered yet. Im glad you enjoyed it so much! In a world where so many indie games are touted as a tribute to CT and FF6 (which are also fantastic), I wish someone would go more in the direction of PS4.

Yah I absolutely love this game, this was the first one of the Phantasy Stars I played and I because of how good it is, I've been able to forgive all the other ones of their issues and love the whole series :P One of my favorite games for sure. 19:05 poggers collection :O

My favourite Rpg ever. Phantasy Star 2 was amazing too but 4 just made it all much much better. Especially after the lacklustre PS3,which still was interesting,but alas didn't hit the mark lik 1,2 and 4. Great story,wonderful memorable characters,beautiful fleshed out worlds,genuine connections between the characters,vehicles,spell combos oh wow loved finding a new one by accident.And the music,will haunt me till I die. Everything about it made it a unique game,I don't think ever recaptured since. Great video,thank you!

I love this video so much. Phantasy Star(OG Series) will always be so near and dear to my heart. It is the first video game I remember watching my dad play when I was a kid. Thank you for this!!!

That intro gave me chills; excellent job on that! This is one of the few times that I agree with the masses: this really was the best of the bunch. After playing 3 (an absolute *warehouse* of tanks of fresh air after the disaster that was 2), I couldn't imagine any other Phantasy Star could top it, but 4 absolutely delivered. Some of the absolutely over-the-top boss encounters you run into - and with such frequency! - made it the perfect swan song for the series; no sense in making a Phantasy Star 5 when it'd have no choice but to pale in comparison to this. I hated Chaz, too; if I hadn't played Grandia and met Justin, Chaz would be a shoe-in for my least favorite RPG protagonist of all time.

1 and 4 are my favourites in the series by far. 4 has the best music/most interesting battle system and characters in my opinion, and avoids most of the pitfalls of 2 and 3. 1 is really important historically, especially compared to most console RPGs at the time, and still plays pretty well. Good stuff. Sega isn't really known for RPGs (but rather for arcade games), but this is a good showing.

Good review! This was one of my favorite games on the Sega Genesis. I loved Phantasy Star 2 back then and I really enjoyed the more fleshed out revisit to the planets Mota and Dezo in PS4. I think I agree with just about everything you brought up, and I especially agree about how the game made battles snappy. I also always wondered why more games in that era or even afterward did not make use of the story panels. They were so effective for narration and fun to see. The characters were cool and well realized (for the most part) and I recall that my youngest sister always thought that "Zio" was the most evil sounding name she could think of. Lastly, I was really glad to see that the musk cats on Dezolis were still doing okay. I thought it was really sad that the cats in PS2 were abandoned by their owners when they fled the planet.

One of your best videos yet! Saw another RU-vidr I watch give you a namecheck/shoutout the other day - I love seeing people I like get recognition for their good work :) Interesting to hear you bounced off PS2! I did too, repeatedly - mainly due to the lack of bg art in the battles; its surprising how much you miss something like that when it's gone. Eventually I got used to it; it's one of those games that's hard to appreciate outside of its time and context - it came out in 1988 ffs, less than a year after Final Fantasy! It's arcane as hell though; I'd be interested to see you do a video on that but I understand if you'd rather watch paint dry. PS4 is one of those games that should be perfect for me - "16-bit Sci-fi JRPG" is the intersection of most of my favourite things in gaming. Yet somehow I've never made it past maybe 4 or 5 hours in. I'm sure I'll get through it sooner than later. You point out one of the biggest issues for me with the series - no description of anything in-game. I understand ROM space was at a premium, but Sega had its priorities in the wrong place. At least PS4 has top-class music - PS2 fell short here, and good music is so important in a game you spend 30+ hours with! Onya Hungry :)

One of my favorite games of my childhood. Hardcore agreed on Chaz kind of being a ditz and not really compelling outside of being the main character. As a kid, I remember that incredible feeling after beating Zio and thinking the game would then be over, only to realize that dude was barely a boss. I will say that the hardest characters in the game for me when I was younger were the three witches (died so many times trying to fight them until I learned how to best approach it).

Love your channel, always glad when a new video drops

I played this game for the first time ever a few months ago and was blown away at the gameplay and music. Just loved it and it holds up well even by today's standards. The spells and abilities was confusing at first but I used a guide online to show me what each ability does and it fixed that issue.

I love this game. The first Phantasy Star game I played and still my favorite. Never played Generations of Doom. I loved how the hunter guild missions are little stories that flesh out the world and characters. It's not just go here and kill the monster (that's only part of it). It's integral to experiencing the complete story, so it never felt like a waste of time. It's shocking that most games still don't do that today.

Another great video! I always love to see your videos pop up in my feed!

This is one of the few Sega Genesis games that I’ve played. It really surprised me after my friend said that I’d love the game. He was right. I really love how they do the cutscenes most of all. Was that your pet Chipmunk at 2:17?

My favorite rpg of all time. I love how at the end of the game Hahn is an absolute beast.

I know what I'm going to pick up for my next business trip! Thank you for the well made review as usual!

Was waiting for this one! My fav sega game, I remember renting it from blockbuster my first time playing

The visuals look simply stunning and I like how much artwork there is of the characters all interacting together. I will say it's bizarre to think there was a time where we had moves with no in game explanation. Final Fantasy Tactics made the most use of that with utilizing the select button giving explanation. The exploration looks solid and thank God for that inventory system. Great work here!

I have played the first three games but never the fourth one. This is something I have to remedy! The games were expensive back in the 8 bit or 16 bit era but I played them in the GBA collection. I ended up buying the carts for all four games and it is finally time to see the fourth game to the end

So glad you got to this one! It was a really hard title to get back in the day. On top of that, I recall that it sold for $95usd, which was very high for the time. I think that the pacing of this game is its strongest point. It just seems so spot on, with no real need to spend hours needlessly grinding against enemies. Also, the vehicles and space travel set this game so far apart from the other titles at the time. Combat in the Land Rover???? That blew my mind the first time I saw that. always enjoy revisiting this one every other year or so. It never seems to get old.

Thank you for this very in-depth review of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RPG OF ALL TIME!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤

Stumbled upon your channel today. Good content. Subscribed.

Thanks for the review, always nice to listen to you :) yeah Phantasy Star is a serie that I hold really dear to my memories!

thank you so much for your video reviewing this game series! it was something i wanted to play as a child but i was too poor. much appreciated!

Nice work on this one.

Happy to know it knows its encounter rate, and tries its best to respect your time for it. Recently inherited this from an unexpected source so its moved up in its place on the rpg list!

As usual, this was a fantastic review! I hope that you and your husband find this kind of work to be fun and bonding! I have a little history with this game. It's the only Phatasy Star that I have not personally played. When I was in high school, one of my best friends use to rave about how good it was. I can remember that when I visited he always wanted to show me the new combination move he had figured out. To my child eyes the game seemed magical but I didn't have a Sega to play it on. I told my friend that someday I would play through all 4 games and he and I could nerd out about how cool they were. He passed away suddenly a couple of years after we graduated. I never got to keep my promise to him. Over the years I have played the other games, but I haven't started this one yet. It was his favorite too, so I feel like I want to have lots of extra time and be in a good head space to enjoy it. But then, it's been almost 20 years since he passed and I still haven't started it yet... Watching your review makes me think that I should just make the time to play it. But once it's over then it will be over... Ugh, pesky feelings!! I need to just play my best friend's favorite game and get past it!

And another fantastic video for a fantastic game from my favourite content creator :)

Wow, RU-vid suddenly works today despite having been banned over here in the biggest country in the world! Great review as always! Luckily, the four Phantasy Star games are all available on the Nintendo Switch, thanks to Sega Ages and the Sega Mega Drive Classics collection. This game is the best of the four, but there's fun to be had with all of them!

I loved this game, played through it a couple years after it came out. I couldn’t believe that it was just deemed mediocre at the time. It’s nice to see it recognized as being just as worthy as it’s contemporary RPGs.

Excellent review, I grew up with the phantasy star series, it holds very dear to me, for part 1 I definitely recommend the switch version cause u can level up faster cause the grind is hardcore in the original version, I love the callbacks and ending in part 4 it was perfect

Phantasy Star 2 was meant to have 3D dungeons like the first in the series. It's development was rushed and the 3D dungeons were scrapped. That's also why there are no backgrounds for the battle scenes, just that isometric grid. Same thing happened to Phantasy Star 3, rushed development. Sega actually let them cook when it came to Phantasy Star 4 and it turned out awesome.

Another great review. You are one of the best reviewers on youtube. Do you feel like Phantasy Star IV is good enough to belong in the small but elite pantheon of the Amazing 16 bit rpgs like FF6, Chrono Trigger, FF4, etc?

Great review, as always! Love these since you provide such an objective approach to retro games. I just played this for the first time a year or two ago, with many of my thoughts mirroring what you stated.

Goriya, the great work you do always sums up a titles fun and the developers strengths. PS4 is no different. It is a shame Sega did not choose to make Phantasy Star a continuing series of single player turn-based RPGs. There was a need for more of them during the Saturn and Dreamcast. It is also a shame the North American releases all came with westernized art for the covers and did not embrace the original Japanese art. The game is a masterpiece, regardless. Thanks for featuring Phantasy Star 4. May we see Sega one day reestablish this awesome series.

Hey, you played it! Cool! Definitely my favorite 16 bt RPG, and maybe just my favorite RPG period. And it came out before almost all the SNES RPGs that people praise most strongly (Chrono Trigger, FF6, Earthbound, etc). The difficulty is perfect. It's a bit rough your first time through, but thorough exploration is mostly enough to deal with it. On replays you know more about how to fight, but you also don't get lost as much in dungeons, so you fight less enemies get places at lower levels. It still keeps just enough challenge until you get really familiar with the game and go on low level runs to see if you can beat it at level 40 or something. Pro tip for boss fights: Starting the battle with Saner and Barrier will make your life much easier. Deban (or Warla or Blessing) helps good bit, too. If combat is going a little too fast for you, you can adjust the speed in the menu: press start and there are text and combat speed options to adjust. I prefer combat speed at 2, but then I'm really familiar with the game. A lot of this game's design stems from it originally being designed for the Sega CD. But midway through development it got changed. (Probably because Sega CD sales weren't doing so hot.) Those static images were originally intended to be fully animated cutscenes. And so much text and dialog was probably because they planned on the CD format storing way more data. They were originally planning first person dungeons like the first game, but they suddenly had to cut back on a lot of features. But I think these losses actually made for a better game. They had to cut, and so they cut the bloat, leaving a very lean fast-paced experience that is still way ahead of its time. There's a lot of people who wish for a Phantasy Star 5, but I'm happy with what we got. Instead of running the franchise into the ground, we got a clean beautiful ending that doesn't leave me wondering what happens next. I think in this case a graceful farewell is better than always yearning to recapture the bygone glory of the past, like the way Final Fantasy keeps trying to chase that high point of FF7, usually to underwhelming effect.

Was thrilled to see you covering this one. This was the first game that really made me want a Genesis as a kid (I had gone with the SNES) but eventually I did play through the entire series. This is easily the most accessible Phantasy Star title along with having the most complex narrative so it's easy recommendation to someone who enjoys 16 bit RPGs. I feel the story gets kind of rushed in the last third or so, with the ending be a touch underwhelming, but given how excellent everything else is doesn't really hold it back much for me. While I would put 1 and 2 as personal favorites (for way different reasons) this is by far one of the best offerings Sega had in the 90s for sure.

Also my favorite in the series with a pretty recently play for me! I played 2, 3, and 4 officially. I liked 2 quite a bit, but I think I can admit that it's nostalgia for me, as it was the 2nd RPG I ever played after the original Dragon Warrior. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this awesome game!

Considering mortals have such limited lifespans, it is a mercy that game provides vehicles that let you blast your way through the overworld if you don't feel like suffering all of the random encounters. It is an excellent way of saving time without being pulled out of the game's reality by some sort of "turn off encounters" toggle.

My favorite genesis game, and one of the best RPGs of the era. This also, unfortunately, was the first game in the series that i ever played. 2 and 3 just didn't measure up for me. 1st game was still good. Loved Raja, Rune, and Rika. Raja is one of the best healers I've ever seen in an RPG. Glad you enjoyed the game, HG. Thanks for the review.

another great review Daria - I've never been able to get into this game. I hold out hope for your ALundra review

As a kid, I saw an advertisement for this game in a magazine. Game Informer , I believe. I had to get this- just released, RPG Phantasy Star 4. $80 I had mom order it Omfg My 1st RPG and I was HOOKED.

Excellent video! Back in the day this was my favorite RPG of all, even more so than Final Fantasy VI! It's nice to see someone give it some love again as I personally feel like it's a critically underrated title, and series.

Another great video. I’m playing the first one now. Looking forward to getting to this game.

I won't pretend we don't have many great RPGs in modern gaming, but 16 bit RPGs will always have a certain charm that more recent efforts lack(imho). Phantasy Star was a great example of that and it is nice to see HG covering what is (arguably?) the best entry in the series. It is a shame we never got any real sequels. The MMO version of the series is fine, but it would have been great to see how Rudy(not Chaz, never Chaz) and Fal's lives turned out after Phantasy Star 4. That and I wonder if you know who could have returned. Thanks for another nostalgia trip HG!

I always wished I could have played this series, growing up in a Nintendo house.

One of these days I'm going to play all the Phantasy Star games, I just need to find copies of them and time to play. I especially love that jab at the genre trope of robbing houses.

I'm interested to see how you're going to think of the PSP phantasy Star and Xbox 360 and GameCube phantasy Star games

I played the game shortly after it came out. It had more of a space fantasy feel and I had a much clearer idea of what was going on than Phantasy Star III. The random enemy encounters seemed excessive in the dungeons. If your vehicle was destroyed, then your party is defeated. Vehicles seemed to just take item slots after you found a travel point. After learning HINAS and RYUKA, vehicles were redundant. I don't know if this was a solid competitor for FF III/ VI or Chrono Trigger but the art style is unique. The music is enjoyable. Definitely one of the best releases for the Sega Genesis.

7:17 Extra kilometer?! I didn't know this phrase existed North of the border.

It is a shame they never continued this series after hitting their stride here

great I've been hoping for your review ever since you did the first episode So "WAT was what?" I believe wat was wat ^^

Yeah Chaz is not all that, it must be said. Love the comics cutscenes style. The only aspects that were a slight letdown to me were the mysteries of the Combo system and certain in-battle Item effects. Truly one of the most well-polished JRPGs of the era, I enjoyed watching you play it.

Phantasy Star IV is a real gem. My personal favorite is Phantasy Star II.