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TSTR wrote:Having played this and both the first Final Fantasy (PSP remake) and Dragon Quest (NES), I'd put this above both.

100%.

Dragon Quest is a bit older and much more primitive than the likes of Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star. It's Dragon Quest II that served as the basis for the party-based JRPG - though that game is admittedly still much worse than FF and PS.

Glad you liked the remake, TSTR. Sounds a lot more streamlined than the original. I'll have to try it out.

TSTR wrote:Modern gaming is fucking amazing y'all.

Congrats on finishing a remake of one of the best JRPGs ever made. I encourage you to play through the original game some day though, it's more challenging and has its own idiosyncrasies. I do not believe you'd be disappointed with PS2, PS3, or PS4 either.

1. Sly 2 Band of Thieves HD (PS3)
2. Black (Xbox) [3h 49m]
3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox) [32h 57m]
4. Super Mario Bros Advance 4: SMB3 E-Reader Levels (WiiUVC)
5. Galerians (PSX) [6h 44m]
6. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (WiiU) [6h 06m]
7. TRAG / Hard Edge: Mission of Mercy (PSX) [4h 17m]



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnFgF25d454

Hard Edge rules. It's a goofy anime Die Hard plot Resident Evil style clone with epic 90's elevator synth music. In this you can switch between different characters on the fly, whom all control a little differently. I like how in the first half your party is split up throughout the building and there was nothing annoyingly complex about item trading or whatever. I ended up liking Michelle the best by far, she was the fastet, looks cool, and had awesome combos. Kind of had to use Alex the gun guy for the bosses though. Some of the bosses were frustrating, but I never lost much progress between save points. A fun romp if you're a sucker for RE clones and 90's cheese. On the technical side, the backdrops look fantastic and whatever Sunsoft's engine here was better than the RE games, as the camera angle changing is completely seamless and the door loading is incredibly fast, it ran really smoothy and controlled well.

Cool beans.

I figure this is unpopular, but I find the combat significantly worse in Phantasy Star than in Dragon Warrior II. At least you had multi-enemy encounters that forced some interesting strategy on you. In Phantasy Star, you get a single-enemy stack, and you can't choose what to target, and your party isn't even smart about who they hit. Magic is reserved almost solely for bosses.

I guess I just don't like Phantasy Star much, even if I can acknowledge its superior tech and scope. I need to finish off that playthrough, though. I might transition into that as my next game, I figure I can polish it off in under five hours at this point.

Now, the rest of the series? Love 'em. And Phantasy Star IV is one of my favorite RPGs of all time. It's right up there with the SNES greats.

I think Phantasy Star was the most ambitious of the early JRPGs but that came at a cost. As you mentioned the combat was largely terrible; three people select attack and Odin uses his gun because it hits everything and does constant damage. I think there's exactly one fight where it's better to use his Laconian Axe. And magic is far too expensive to be used on random fights.

You guys are crazy. Phantasy Star is the greatest 8-bit JRPG there ever was or ever will be.

fwiw, those combat issues are not present in the remake

TSTR wrote:noise is once again exerting his magical influence over me, y'all. Phantasy Star it is.

1. Flag to Flag - Dreamcast (January 12)
2. The Battle of Olympus - NES (January 18)
3. Thunder Force AC - Arcade/MAME (February 6)
4. Golden Axe - Arcade/MAME (February 14)
5. *NEW* Rod-Land - Arcade/MAME (February 22)

Another 1cc @ the Yolympics!

Released in 1990 by Jaleco, Rod-Land is part of the single screen Bubble Bobble clones that came out long after that game's popularity. There were many different home versions, but the most infamous has to be the NES port that came out only in Japan and Europe (with the PAL version being very pricey!)