It's also not the same Wren. lol That's why he says "In variety, I am Wren." He's a mass produced SOB. I made one in PSU and I made one that is a combination of Wren and Siren in PSO2 and named him Laconia. He's very similar. Laconia: i.imgur.com/m2MV7re.jpg
@@tatertots3337 The point is he's using the name as a frame of reference, not because he's THAT Wren (which he couldn't be anyway since the events of PSIII haven't happened yet).
I feel like you might’ve missed a lot of plot points when doing your playthrough here. First off, the ship that the group investigates is not the one from phantasy star 3, as 3 canonically happens after 4. It is implied to be one of the other ships that escaped from Parma and got destroyed early on (a plot point from 3). There is even some dialogue from Rika where she remarks that she hopes there are some ships still out there searching for a home (subtly alluding to the story of 3). Secondly, where the characters go to try to fix the problems is an organic extension of there individual histories and experiences, and I believe it makes for a more believable/interesting plot than if they were to just know where exactly to go from the jump. Thirdly, Chaz’s taking on problems outside of Zio and Motavia is played as his realizing that there is more that he can do to help people (as a desire to help people has been shown to be a very important part of his character), which culminates in the scene on Rykros where he has an existential crisis regarding his place in the universe and what all is expected of this one kid (at least, that was my interpretation). And lastly, you seemed to drastically misunderstand the ending as a whole. Rykros, the fourth planet, is not what causes Dark Force to reincarnate (as he does not actually reincarnate as is revealed on Rykros), it is meant as a reminder to the Great Light’s “Guardians” to watch out for him, as well as serving as a training ground of sorts. It’s revealed that a being called The Profound Darkness was sealed in the Algol system at the beginning of time and every 1000 years, the planets align in such a way that allow it to push out its most hate filled part of itself, which becomes known as Dark Force. The destruction of Parma weakened the seal, allowing PD to send more Dark Forces before finally breaking free itself at the end of the game. The point of the rings that you wear is to protect you from the immense hate that you will experience, going into the pit to fight PD (it is implied that you couldn’t survive without them). The characters from the previous games never needed to go to Rykros because they never needed the rings because they were never fighting PD directly. What allows you to kill it is the special sword you received on Dezolis: the Elsydeon. Defeating PD prevents it from creating new Dark Forces, thus ending the cycle. I would agree that the whole storyline with Lashiec felt a bit random and out of place, but it was a pretty neat call back, and it served as a fun lead up into the reveal that Rune was Lutz from the first two games. Otherwise, pretty fun review. 👍
Yeah, Although the translation in the American / EU version doesn't help understanding well everything. Wren for instance, we get to see Wren from PSIII but we actually encounter Wren III types as ennemies in the wreckage. "Our" PSIV Wren is actually another type of android named Foren. People will also often throw theories around Alis / Alys but there is no connections at all, in Japanese she is named Lyla I follow you on the explaination of the end story (rykros, profound darkness and the rings). The ending is also bitter-sweet, everyone goes back to his life but... It is something that I can relate to, you graduate from a school or you change job, you go and talk with your group annnnd... well you are lucky if you some of them a couple of time in your life. Something I like in Phantasy star in general is the feeling that the world lives without you, you are important to kill the profound darkness yet, people still strugle in their hard struggle living in an environment poor in resources. That is why I like PSO without liking its lore because it is too high tech for my taste. Most people you meet in PS 1,2,4 are almost common people for 60% of your party that would have lived a normal grounded life had you not been there, I relate to that too "a common man that can live a big adventure that takes him out of his normal life"
It's more than implied you couldn't survive without the rings. Everyone in Mile is dead and they're not even IN the pit, but just close to it. The pit opened up and belched out hatred that was so powerful that everyone in Mile spontaneously dropped dead. Also a small correction to the second post. PS1 has a party of people that are hardly common. Note that three out of four of them can use Magic, and as you learn in the series, Magic is an insanely rare art that only a few individuals in the entire universe can cast.
Honestly, I've Seen many streamers plunging into this game blind, it is almost Always a success. The rythm of the game, quality of life, balance, graphics really hit a sweet spot if enjoyability. Playing the other games make it even better but without knowing the serie at all it is still a wonderfull game
But I also agree with you on your second half of the video : it is not uncommon to view the PSII as a landmark thinking we did something that profoundly stays with us while PSIV is plenty enjoyable but doesn't strike as strongly as the dramatic story of II. I would say that PSIV has a very good first third, the second third up to lashiec (maybe Dark force II) is good and the ending is medium. All the characters you meet are quite original and enjoyable until Raja leaves your party and then you meet Kyra... bleh, and then Seth ... Bleeeeeehh Dark force 3 and the bosses on Rykros don't strike me as well crafted bosses (from a narative point of view), profound Darkness is a boss I like though but the final zone isn't great, it is psychedelick but in the end , it is a no zone, an abstract place. After having learn about this serie for so many years, I would say that I would have loved to see a PS five but seeing the level of writing of the sonic team back then I would guesstimate at 40% the chances of it to be a truely good phantasy star game : the PS on game gear hardly give you any feeling of being good or being coherent within PS lore, and the extra side manga chapters are pretty basic (sometime low tier) with the writer wanting to justify tenous link between the episodes or bad justification for employing the characters from PSIV before the game happens but still making it so they don't remember having met while in the game... (one example of bad writing for instance in my opinion : for PSII the original idea was to make Lutz/Noah the main protagonist but he was the mage of PS1... let's not bother with that "let's say that because of the cryo sleep his caracteristiques changed somehow...and so did his blue hair that turned green) Still lot of potential to this serie that I love
The 2nd half of the game was kinda glossed over in this video, I think that's where the plot gets most interesting. Seeing dark force 3 times was awesome, and getting to know why he spawned so quickly is great. This is not Chaz's story, it's the algol system's conclusion story. Alys may have been killed by Zio, but it was Dark Force's power that killed her. Zio was insignificant.
Yea a lot of interesting stuff happens. Finding out rune, chaz's rejection of his role ect. Dark force's little twist in one dungeon. The pace does change. But I don't think he understood or explained why. I think he noted the change but came to the wrong conclusion as to why I can't explain it well either. maybe the air castle exhausted me a little. Or the game gets a little harder and less fast. It's slightly less of a straight line. But it definitely builds to one thing after Zio. Just slower, over the last past of the game as they try to figure out. Maybe he got stuck on Zio being a target. They sort of combined PS1 and 2. Zio as lashiec and the rest of the game like 2's. Even the profound darkness kinda looks like the computer a bit.
@@DSan-kl2yc I honestly don't know how this guy got confused and thought Zio was the prime antagonist given 1. you can see dark force above his head, 2. he talks about the dark force and 3. the previous 3 games all had the dark force as the final antagonist. It's obvious that zio isn't the final boss, he literally talks about his master. This guy just wasnt paying attention
Really love this one. I have to agree with you on the plot progression though: It's just a typical JRPG story progression. You get a quest, finish half of it, then a highlight appears and the quest is done. Rinse and repeat. At least the characters are shockingly well written and the references to the previous games are pretty good. Weirdly, I like this about Phantasy Star 4. You're just in a group of lovable people, who randomly meet each other, and fix IT problems of the galaxy, because otherwise the planet dies or something.
This has been tied with Shining Force II as my favourite game since, like, 1994. So when I heard your criticism of the story and pacing... ...I had to use my big adult grown up brain and totally understood said criticisms. Had a hell of a time watching these videos! Great work Jason!
I get that the PS4 theming is not as strong or interesting as PS2. But I think it is there still. I personally think it is all about the human struggle and unity in the face of adversity. We are in the aftermath of the apocalypse of PS2, Parma and Mother Brain were destroyed and so humanity has to learn how to live and solve their own problems. Which leads to a lot of interesting concepts, for the first time parmanians, motavians and dezolians are working together, despite the fact that they dislike each other in various ways and were sometimes enemies. Throughout your whole adventure you try to again relie on technology to solve all the problems just to realize that it is useless and has always been useless and both Wren and Demi speak of how they eventually have to stop everything and leave people to fend for themselves... which is the whole point of the "Daughter Brain" sidequest. A new Mother Brain tries to come and solve all the problems of humanity and we stopped it, because it is we, the habitants of algo that have to solve them. Rika which was an artificial creature, didn't know anything about the human experience, she only knew about the machines that kept algo working. But particularly in the cutscene of Alys dead she explains how she has learnt the value of the human experience and human warm and ultimately choose to abandon the mechanical life to live among humans and her friend. I particularly like when the team learns the truth about the profound darkness and the light that left the galaxy to fend for itself, and Chaz lashes out at the concept of this God leaving them to fend for themselves and him being just a pawn in two Gods battling. "We are no better than Zio" he says. But it is in the Alys cave where he gets the final sword where he realises that it is all about the people, he is not going to kill this God of darkness because the Light God wants him to, but because people are counting on him, to protect his loved ones. Sure it is cheesy... but I think it is a natural continuation to the story of PS2, there people relied on Mother Brain to the point of not knowing what to do, how to live or what to fight for. This game is about recovering all that, they try to fix everything with machines and they can't... they have to find the courage and strenght to do themselves, to finally unite all the species of algo and fight the evil of the world. Which dark force ultimately always is just a stand in for human problems, desires, greed, lust for power, control and all that.
There's some irony to the fact that all the in-battle quality of life improvements arrive with the entry that requires the least grinding. Thanks for the month of Phantasy Star, it's been phun!
This feels more like cataloguing an experience over multiple games than reviewing PS4. I don't disagree about the build up to Zio and not quite hitting the mark again after, but you seemed to get hung up on it far more than I did. Also sensing a "stockholm syndrome" bias in favour of PS2; I'm not sure I could get through that game period.
Playing this game is one of my earliest memories. Yeah I can barely remember the stuff that happens after you kill Zio. I could never beat him as a kid. Love the Landmaster theme "Cybernetic Carnival"
Crazy how much of a turnaround 4 was from 3. I definitely sympathize with enjoying a title in a series most that might not be the best on a technical level. A complete triumph getting all of these out in a single month! Well-planned and executed, I learned so much about old RPG's I'll never play! ✨
Well, 3 wasn't made by the same people, and was instead made by a team who never made an RPG before. There's a lesson to be learned here about only hiring people for things they're competent at.
@@THEGREATMAX Why the hate about ps3? Was one of my first RPG on megadrive and I loved it. Ps4 is great of course, but I think the lesson to learn is that people from different horizon bring new/fresh ideas. The generation system was great. Discovering the truth about the world, seeing how thing evolve at each generation... I have more memories of psIII. It's like shining force, the II as a better gameplay, but the 1 is still my favorite.
Can't get over the fact that this hasn't had some sort remake yet. It is like not remaking Final Fantasy 6. Oh wait...anyway, this deserves a remaster at least, damnit. Oh yeah, very good review by the way. Keep it up.
@@Dekent Yeah it is kinda bizzare that they haven't gotten enhanced remakes. Still, I wouldn't put FF6 in the same bucket as PS4. FF6 has gotten remade tons of times (the meaning of that word is shifting, but things like the Pixel Remaster absolutely count, it was a remake from the ground up). By comparison, PS4 has gotten no remake that I'm aware of. Just rereleased on emulation packages. Even PS1 - PS3 were remade ( ?) on the GBA.
@@Geraki0n yes. It is due to happen one day, that's what I stand for, that's what I hope for. I bought the two remakes in Tokyo (happened to be there at the time), I bought 5 copies to support the cause. But alas others didn't share my enthusiasm...
I absolutely loved the game when I first played it some years back and I have a hard time agreeing with your gripes. I gotta play it again soon, and I suppose I will see
I pre-made all of these Phantasy Star videos before the month began, so I didn't cram playing all of these into 1 month... But that totally would be doable if you're just playing the games and not producing videos on them.. If that's the only thing you're doing that is. The PS2 remakes look like garbage, and the MMOs I guess I'd be a little more interested in trying out, but I don't see it happening any time soon.
Long hail Phantasy Month! Really enjoyed the commentary and that you took the time to shine a light on side-story curios like the text adventures and GG games. PSIV is one of my favorite games of all time (that I received "at launch" as my belated and only xmas gift--because it was so expensive!) That being said, your criticisms about the second half do align with my own sense of its main weakness with regard to storytelling. For the past few years, my brother and I have been working on a ROM hack that may go a good ways in ameliorating the issues you had with it. It's a very careful re-working of the script with a lot of loving attention put into each and every character and their individual arcs, paired with some actually quite ambitious event scripting/programing enhancements (bringing it even more in line with the Final Fantasy series in that regard). These enhancements are too numerous to list here, but... You mentioned that its pacing is a bit too brisk for its own good. So, for example, one such programing change is that we actually slow the walking speed on the Dezolis field *while the storm is raging*. The interaction with bartender Gyuna is now rendered as more of a proper story beat, offering greater character interactions/development, etc. Then, when the party arrives at Tyler we add an introductory cutscene that better contextualizes that and other Palman settlements to an extent (lore pertaining to the mining crisis is woven in here quite smoothly, if I do say.) Coming off the big victory over Zio and the sudden crash on Dezo, it feels like such a good point for the story to slow down, stew in its juices a bit, and to broaden out its contextual horizons with an eye towards series lore--to the "what-it-all-meant-ness" of the whole saga, if you will, and how the evolving cast of characters resonates with that. And we do our best to pay this off in some (hopefully) pleasantly surprising ways until the very end credits roll. And I am generally a big fan of "swampy middles" in fiction. At the same time, this lofty goal coincides with a perhaps monomaniacal drive towards not unnecessarily bogging the pacing--the kind of script where not a single word is wasted, and if I can say it in a single text box, I damn sure will (unless there's a reason not to). ps4grandcross.net/ Wish us luck! P.S. My bother (the programmer) loved the crack about Chaz, the IT guy.
As you said, the game proceeded too quickly, I wonder why nobody did a remaster with additional dungeons to spread it out a bit. Make Dungeons bigger, hidden dungeons, new weapons, enemies, etc. All in all, this game seems like fan service, the best fans could get. I love it but your points are valid, it was pretty unfocused plotwise. Phantasy Star 2 is my personal favorite as well.
@@planexshifter I can't even remember who the final boss was, the ultimate evil I guess? The game went wild with it's bosses and events, just like life itself is sometimes, never knowing what comes next. So in this way I think PS4 went right. Not having an obvious boss.
I think it is so need to see other peoples reviews on the Phantasy Star series. My favorite game in the series is an always will be the very first game. The fourth game is my second favorite. The second game was always a letdown for me as I was growing. I’m playing through it right now and it’s not as bad as I remembered it but I make sure that I have something else to do while I’m grinding. Eventually, I will force my way through the third game which I have never played. May be more than 30 minutes each time I try it I just hate that game.
I never understood why the classic series ended here. If I had been in charge of Sega when Final Fantasy VII hit I would have ordered work to start on Phantasy Star V and make it a high priority for resources. I hate to disappoint Phantasy Star III's haters but given that Phantasy Star III doesn't occur until a thousand years after Phantasy Star IV that almost certainly is not the evac ship from III. Its probably the first of the evac ships to be taken out when the effort to destroy the fleet began. In fact the ancient war which played a major role in Phantasy Star III's backstory is occurring at the same time Phantasy Star IV is taking place. The only way it can be the ship III occurs on is if the canon ending results in the ship being warped back to Algos, and I don't think any of III's endings do that. They all show that the ship got warped back in time to the Sol system from what I remember.
Phantasy Star 2 was done in only 6 months. Phantasy Star 3 was done by the Golden Axe Team. Basically only the first and the last were made without some such circumstances.
I kinda get what you say about Zio being killed too early as the main driving force, and I do wish he stuck around a bit longer for the personal motivation. But at the same time I think the focus on battling and destroying Dark Force is a great motivation, maybe less so for the cast of the game but more for me as a player who has played the earlier games. Sure, I'd appreciate a more prominent and personal antagonist through the later half of the game (I do think they kinda stumble with Lassic's return), but I do appreciate how they use a foe that's been built up throughout multiple games as the final obstacle. It's something not a lot of games could do after all, even if the excuse to why it will work this time is a bit questionable.
Good stuff, was looking forward to the end of the milennium at the end of the month! Wasn't disappointed, some thoughts... The name changes are definitely localization differences. The change of Parma -> Palm(a) and Dezoris -> Dezolis is a well known issue from translating from Japanese; both our "r" and "l"s map onto one sound in Japanese (that is halfway between). I also think PS2 must've had a 4 letter naming limit for some reason (hence calling them Palm, Dezo, and Mota). There are some good rom hacks that patch up the dialogue and make the names more consistent for all the games (usually using PS1 names). Speaking of translation stuff, the Wrens are a good example. PS3's Wren in Japanese is "Shiren", PS4's Wren is "Forren/Fouren", making it obvious in Japanese that they're different characters. Not sure if it's meant as a direct PS3 reference or just a general android suffix (maybe both). I'm definitely with you on the back half of the game being sloppy. Bringing back Lassic in particular felt like kinda pointless PS1 fanservice. But other parts were very welcome, like Chaz connecting with the previous saviors of Algol. But I do disagree that the game is only just flailing around at that point, it becomes a mystery to see what the heck is going on with all those Dark Force incarnations. The game ends by tying them together and all the previous games together with the profound darkness. It's not a pinnacle of a good writing or anything, and Dark Force definitely should've tied into the game earlier. But it does at least explain things and I did find it much more satisfying than you I suppose. Liking PS2 best I do find a bit perplexing, if interesting. It has good themes (and music!) but not a lot else going for it. And it's very hard to enjoy but in retrospec because of how terrible its gameplay is. I'd sooner replay PS3, frankly.
Also while I have y'all here... I've thought a lot about how the destruction of Palm in PS2 is a great moment for PS2 specifically, but made it hard to follow up on. PS1 established planet-trotting as a huge feature of the series but 3 planets is kinda the minimum number for that theme, so the next two games had to work with only 2 remaining. PS3's solution was actually kind of clever (just about the only thing clever about that game) to leave with sorta mini planets you can travel between. PS4 had to introduce Rykros but it felt shoehorned.
Memory limitations were still an issue in the 8-bit/16-bit era such that I can see limiting proper nouns to 4 characters as a design decision. This might not have been as large of a problem in Japan, as by its nature written Japanese can pack a lot of meaning into a couple of characters, but the localization teams who were working with the Roman alphabet probably only had truncation as an option. But like Jason implies, I can easily see the names evolving over 1000 years.
It's not THE spaceship from 3, there were a lot of spaceships like it, most of which Dark Force destroyed, hence why there were only the two left in that one ending in 3.
Okay then, what should the series' ending be? Something about the hero's own actions leading to their downfall? An interstellar adventure where you travel between locations found in the MMO, or a trip to Sol where the locals worship Dark Force as a deity? Or maybe Alis becomes evil and decides to conquer everything herself Just don't talk to the mmo fanbase about a sequel they despise the idea for some reason
this series was my introduction to your channel, and as a PSO player, I'm actually now really interested in playing the pre-Online Phantasy Star games. interestingly, the scriptwriter for PSIV actually went on to write the script and scenario for Sonic Adventure, and then directed the Sonic Advance games and at least one of the Rush titles - and the dude actually still works for Sega! tracing the lineage of old Sonic Team staff is kind of an interest of mine, so it was fascinating to see this kind of history. awesome stuff!
A good ending adds to the replay value. I like 1 best with 2 a very close second. 4 is better than 3 but at least 3 gives you the ability to replay with slightly different endings.
It is so refreshing to hear someone say even though Phantasy Star 4 is probably a better game in every way it's Phantasy Star 2 that sticks with you Phantasy Star 2 was a dark drama how far is Story and you nailed it precisely saying how much you didn't like playing it but yet when you reflect you're strangely attracted I haven't played end of the millennium it looks fantastic maybe one day I'll play it on my phone put the themes and narrative 02 obviously hit home a little harder
there is a hack patch for retranslation, it is a big miss in my opinion. It takes a lot of leeway for some interpretations and I would say Alys' comments become quite demeaning in places that don't match the japanese text. For instance in the beggining in front of the principal, he starts to not recognize Chaz and is interupted by Alys who corrects him saying Chaz is a full fledge partner. in the translation, she says he is her partner associate yet he still have to bring her coffee... in bird culture this is called an assh*le move ^^ I didn't play it to the end but having done it in japanese, I wasn't impressed by this new fan trad
@@stefanswiss3760 Well then, I debated using that patch on my first playthrough (I played all PS1 - PS4 earlier this year for the first time) and I'm glad I turned it down. I really do want a minimal patch that just makes for consistent naming though. I learned it as "Algol", "Motavia", "Dezoris", and "Palma" in PS1 and it's staying that way damnit!
@@noaht2005 contrary to PSIII where translation do change the story and make many points obscure,Iwould say that the PSIV regular translation is quite accurate. Only a few play on words with Raja are not possible to translate and because japanese can sentences with fewer written caracters, I've noticed just one line from Rune that didn't make it. Otherwise except for the names you don't miss much by playing it in english, you get 98% of the text right. (from what I remember having played it in japanese 10 years ago or so but back then I tried to see if I could notice anything and compare and was pleasantly surprised)
Im a Dezolith guy because its supposed to be like desolate in my head. Phantasy Month was great and like the series it peaked at 2 😊❤ Jk i enjoyed them all. THANKS
Chaz in the version I played is called Rudy,only did a few minutes of the game compared to the others it seems really better,the combat is fun and the comic like cutscenes are refreshing to look at at...can't wait to play more of it.
8:17 That’s not the ship from Phantasy Star 3. That’s just one of the ships that didn’t make it. Phantasy Star 3 takes place 1000 years after the ships escaped from Parma, meaning it happening at the same time as this game. Also Wren fro PS3 is not Wren from PS4. In the Japanese versions PS3 Wren is Shiren and PS4 Wren is Fouren. A small bit of this exists even in the English version. If you pay attention to daughter’s dialogue she say Fou…. And then trails off when talking to wren.
Did you upload this in 4/3? It fills the full screen on my old ass 1999 4/3 CRT. That never happens on TH-cam-weird. I just finished this game. Played it on your recommendation. This is the most anime RPG I have played from the 16 bit era that is a North American release. Reminds me of PC engine RPGs like Xak. It's funny that they bother to change the box art. As soon as you start playing the game you know you are playing a Japanese game...Okay I played your RPG. Now you play mine. I choose Alundra on the PS1.
2 was my first RPG video game. 4 is my favorite of the series, not for the story but for the gameplay, presentation and characters. I with 3 they absolutely f*ed up. So much wastwd potential.
dude you had only one job: tell us that EoM finally revealed the fantasy star itself 😂 btw I understand what you tried to say. PS4 is my least favorite plotwise, because it was toned down on purpose for the noobs who only like gameplay, graphics and linear entertainment. It's still the best jrpg of that era anyways, and the team had the guts to put a real ending to the series without grounds for sequels. What's fascinating in retrospection is that it was initially meant to be released for sega cd, but it ended up to represent the greatest developing effort and result by showcasing the soon-to-die Megadrive's specs. Maybe someday fans will have enough understanding and willpower to develop a single big classic Phantasy Star with EoM's engine and an ideal game design to fix all its downsides.
4 builds up to one event too. There's a mystery to it. The mystery is figuring out what it is, and understanding dark force and the profound darkness Zio is working for dark force, worships it as a god. So they have to understand what that is. There's no sense in saying 2 builds to something, and 4 doesn't. Both are about figuring out what's happening, and why. There is camaraderie at the end.
That whole bit of losing credibility in the second half? Sadly I'll have to agree on that. There's a ton of aspects regarding the story that you clearly missed out on. It isn't "stupid" to want to end the cycle of Dark Force's influence. Especially regarding the ending where it's clear that they do have camaraderie, especially regarding Rune and Rika. It's a bittersweet yet hopeful ending.
The game never builds zio up as the final boss. In the fight you can clearly see dark force from the other 3 games, and he references his dark master. So I really don't see how you could think Zio was the last boss when the entire series is about the dark force. It's obvious from the get go that the final boss is dark force, like it was in the other 3 previous games.
The first time I played this game it was a rental and sadly the cartridge's battery was dead so if I turned off my Sega the games save files erased. What initially drew me to the game was its harsh difficulty. This was largely due to me not understanding how to equip stuff. I made it all the way to Zio's death in one session wearing each character's starting gear! Then someone must have stolen it from the rental place because it just disappeared and I never got to play it again until YEARS later. This made me really appreciate the Rune metaphor. Because when he joins you... he is powerful ASF! and everything is pretty much one shoting everyone else (because of the starting gear). So I took the time and used Rune in the cave to grind exp. One Hewn or Gra kills everything. Rinse repeat until he is out of TP. Go rest and do it all over... at least 3 times. I still will do that today if I pick it up to play again. This my all time favorite game. Great review! The only thing I think you missed were the way ahead of its time combo attacks.
Props to your take on the early plot peaking too early; it's a good observation. But man, oh, man are you terrible at details. You completely missed how much IV incorporates its history (prequels) to finally crystalize its lore--why Dark Force remerges, the timing of that re-emergence, the repetition of resistance. The game plainly spells it for you man!
They should have put PS4 on the Sega CD and thought a bit more deeply about the story. PS3 gets an undeserved bad rap. It’s really only lacking in rom space. I don’t think 8megs was enough. When I think PS4’s 24megs is too much! They blew it on a load of rubbish.
This game was a fitting swan song to the series before future installments went online. The explanation to Dark Force re appearing was revealed, as well as the return of Lutz ( Noah) Wren and the female android from 3, the shuttle that helps them travel from planet to planet and finally, your characters can fight in the vehicles you travel in, instead of magically appearing out of them. I enjoyed this game, though it cost more to buy back then.
I haven't played IV since it came out. It was funny getting to the end of this review and hearing your conclusion because the whole time I was watching I was thinking how I remember loving this game when I played it, but looking back I can't really recall too many vivid details beyond the basic mechanics and characters.
I think this is a perfect conclusion to the tetralogy and honestly I'm fine with them not making a 5th episode (especially since we also won't get any new PSO nor PSU games, and no, PSO2 isn't the actual sequel to PSO, even New Genesis looks like its own thing compared to PSO2 Classic). Although I want Sega to make a new entry that can be played offline in single player mode like PSO and PSU (and PS Portable), not just Online only F2P entries since PSO2... I don't mind if it's ARPG as long as there's a bit of strategy and good fanservice for the older players (like seeing the Varista in Portable 2 or the Psycho Wand in PSO).
I think you missed the point you killed zio only to learn he was a puppet you didn't avenge alys all you learned is the real monster is still out their. You can also make the argument that lacisic is well built up with an optional boss and a huge dungeon with major boss all building up.
I played them all when they were new and many times since then, and share your conclusions and impressions. IV was very polished and fun, but not as memorable as II. III was just sort of unfinished. Entertaining but not great. The original was great, and that and II are my favorites.
I kinda feel the same. PS4 is Objectively the better game, but I have always felt really torn between PS2 and 4 as the favorite. A lot of time 2 is. Sometimes I feel 'that's just nostalgia talking you KNOW PS4 is better.' Well put. That said, Alys being killed was so impactful to me, I did not even flinch when Aeris got killed in 1997 and I had tears welling in my eyes when Alys died.
the plot problems with 4 after zio didnt bother me as much back in the day. admittingly i was rolling my eyes a bit at the misdiagnosing a problem/fixing it not working etc. i saw it as an obvious homage to 2 since that game is basically rolf similarly trying to fix things in ways that don't work until they realize the problems were actually caused by motherbrain. the lurking dark force presence helped (seth sequence is my fav in the game). collecting magical rings to defeat dark force is dumb, but again i feel this game is so designed as a kind of reference on its predecessors, like collecting the rings could have easily been a task from the original game. it feels like this game does have a melding issue between the more serious themes they kept from the second game and the simpler fare from the other 2.
It's Deso(ri)s, so depending on your translator they took l or r as the proper english letter. Another victim of the R combined sound in japanese language.
I liked this game more than I did Final Fantasy VI. Everytime someone points to tech limitations as an excuse for FFVI not having cutscenes, this is the reference game I use to prove that at the time such thing was possible.
Do you know the chronological/story order of the Phantasy Star games? I'm trying to figure out if there was another game after End of the Millenium and thus referenced 4.
yes, zio is the best villain of the game and dies too early. i never knew ren could transform, i'm going to have to look that up. the most unique thing about this game is the interplanetary travel which is the only rpg to have that feature. i'd say the third best rpg ever after games like chrono trigger and final fantasy 2 (snes).
I tried to get into the Phantasy Star games, but the naming conventions for spells and items were what killed it for me. They were just so non-intuitive.
I guess now yeah, they could've built up profound darkness better towards the whole game and not just put the Algo creation myth in one cutscene 95% into the game.
2 over 4 is nonsensical if we are judging them as video games. Sure the story of 2 was better but it's basically an unplayable piece of trash. 4 is actually fun to play through from time to time as a video game. It's an RPG they didn't want to just end it 10 hours in. They wanted to give you bang for your buck and by the end all the abilities and choices for party composition got pretty interesting for the last few dungeons from a game play perspective.
The way I see it, is that PS2 reviews better after playing it a marginal amount. PS4 reviews worse after playing it a marginal amount. But PS4 starts out like... 3 or 4 tiers higher than PS2 and so I don't think the post-facto adjustments are enough to make PS2 feel better.
@Geraki0n PS2 is just unplayable trash. Dragon Warrior and FF1 are infinitely more fun games to play through even today. The story for PS2 is S tier for it's era but that doesn't redeem it for being so abysmal to try to play through. It'd be way better as an 80s style violent anime like ninja scroll or Vampire Hunter D
Great video. The Job Board. Crushing on someone 2 grades older. The idea that kids in the IV world are playing in universe Game Gear games. I agree with what you say about it moving swiftly. I played it recently on the Switch and was totally surprised how quickly I got to the point where I stopped playing it as a kid. I don't know if its nostalgia, or childhood, but the long walks to all those cities felt more impactful than they do now. I thought the game had ended with the death of Zio, but then there was the semi-episodic stuff that followed to pad out the story. Kind of like Chrono Trigger with the build up to Magus, and then everything to do with Lavos. Great vid, great series, I'm sure it was a ton of work.
PS 4 didn't really suck me in. I was hooked immediately by 1, tho. Beautiful graphics, incredibly limited storage space for healing items, insane DW1-level grinding. OTOH, my fave Shin Megami Tensei is on the Game Gear, so...
COMPLETELY AGREE! I played this one first and had low expectations for the rest of the series story-wise. This one was over before I knew it but made me curious about the others, and in the end 2 is the one that will stay with me.
@@KCUFyoufordoxingme Are you ready? He champions auto-battle, but didn't mention Macros, which is auto-battle on steriods. He didn't mention the new Skills, which are separate from Techniques, and have stocks instead of TP. No mention of Combination Attacks, either. The party now contains a native Motovian and a native Dezolian. The final battle is NOT with Dark Force. The final battle is with the Profound Darkness, and the 4th planet does NOT call it. The planets of the Algol system are a seal placed by the Great Light to hold the Profound Darkness out. The seal weakens every 1000 years, and the 4th planet is intended to increase the strength of the barrier, as well as to act as a beacon for would be heroes. With Parma destroyed in PS2, the seal is compromised. There is no mention of any of the LORE of the Phantasy Star universe. This series has continuity, and so much of the lore is explained within this game, and Jason mentions NONE of it. There are now separate vehicle battles. Countless callbacks to previous games. Remixed music from PS1, Myau is in a Dezolian cave with other musk cats, the layout of the Air Castle is the same as it was in PS1. He didn't mention the dancers in the Hunter's Guide. Something that Nintendo at the time would've never allowed. And when they dance, it plays the music from Fantasy Zone. Another Sega franchise. The are multiple battles with Dark Force. You even gain a false party member who turns out to be Dark Force. Chaz has an internal struggle that gives him his strongest Tech: Megid. Should I keep going?
Just rewatched this video and I had to comment again. I still can't believe what I'm hearing. Jason, I am personally inviting you to a conversation with me, because we need to talk about your hot take.
I am again curious, What did he leave out as a comparison of this game to the others? Within the context of his stated broader project? He is not repeating what others have said. It is not that hard to understand.
I don’t understand the love for this game and the series as a whole. It’s always compared to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest but doesn’t seem to have much to offer. Great series month! Looking forward to more
Final Fantasy 1 had so many bugs that the INT stat does nothing and your elemental weapons do no elemental damage. Dragon Quest 1 was grind heavy and shallow, even by 80's standards. Ultima was anything but user friendly. Basically, Phantasy Star became a legend because it was beautiful and approachable ...but also for the charm and lore ... And still being deeper than nearly every other English translated game on console, even if we expect much more, after all this time.
I get it! It's not the exact same ship! Those responsible have been fired.
It's also not the same Wren. lol That's why he says "In variety, I am Wren." He's a mass produced SOB. I made one in PSU and I made one that is a combination of Wren and Siren in PSO2 and named him Laconia. He's very similar.
Laconia: i.imgur.com/m2MV7re.jpg
@@millgiass They had different names too. Shiren for 3's and Forren for 4's (I know Forren is right at least, it sounds like 4!)
@@millgiass He says "in VERITY, my name is Wren", not variety.
@@tatertots3337 The point is he's using the name as a frame of reference, not because he's THAT Wren (which he couldn't be anyway since the events of PSIII haven't happened yet).
I feel like you might’ve missed a lot of plot points when doing your playthrough here. First off, the ship that the group investigates is not the one from phantasy star 3, as 3 canonically happens after 4. It is implied to be one of the other ships that escaped from Parma and got destroyed early on (a plot point from 3). There is even some dialogue from Rika where she remarks that she hopes there are some ships still out there searching for a home (subtly alluding to the story of 3). Secondly, where the characters go to try to fix the problems is an organic extension of there individual histories and experiences, and I believe it makes for a more believable/interesting plot than if they were to just know where exactly to go from the jump. Thirdly, Chaz’s taking on problems outside of Zio and Motavia is played as his realizing that there is more that he can do to help people (as a desire to help people has been shown to be a very important part of his character), which culminates in the scene on Rykros where he has an existential crisis regarding his place in the universe and what all is expected of this one kid (at least, that was my interpretation). And lastly, you seemed to drastically misunderstand the ending as a whole. Rykros, the fourth planet, is not what causes Dark Force to reincarnate (as he does not actually reincarnate as is revealed on Rykros), it is meant as a reminder to the Great Light’s “Guardians” to watch out for him, as well as serving as a training ground of sorts. It’s revealed that a being called The Profound Darkness was sealed in the Algol system at the beginning of time and every 1000 years, the planets align in such a way that allow it to push out its most hate filled part of itself, which becomes known as Dark Force. The destruction of Parma weakened the seal, allowing PD to send more Dark Forces before finally breaking free itself at the end of the game. The point of the rings that you wear is to protect you from the immense hate that you will experience, going into the pit to fight PD (it is implied that you couldn’t survive without them). The characters from the previous games never needed to go to Rykros because they never needed the rings because they were never fighting PD directly. What allows you to kill it is the special sword you received on Dezolis: the Elsydeon. Defeating PD prevents it from creating new Dark Forces, thus ending the cycle. I would agree that the whole storyline with Lashiec felt a bit random and out of place, but it was a pretty neat call back, and it served as a fun lead up into the reveal that Rune was Lutz from the first two games. Otherwise, pretty fun review. 👍
Yeah,
Although the translation in the American / EU version doesn't help understanding well everything.
Wren for instance, we get to see Wren from PSIII but we actually encounter Wren III types as ennemies in the wreckage. "Our" PSIV Wren is actually another type of android named Foren.
People will also often throw theories around Alis / Alys but there is no connections at all, in Japanese she is named Lyla
I follow you on the explaination of the end story (rykros, profound darkness and the rings).
The ending is also bitter-sweet, everyone goes back to his life but... It is something that I can relate to, you graduate from a school or you change job, you go and talk with your group annnnd... well you are lucky if you some of them a couple of time in your life.
Something I like in Phantasy star in general is the feeling that the world lives without you, you are important to kill the profound darkness yet, people still strugle in their hard struggle living in an environment poor in resources. That is why I like PSO without liking its lore because it is too high tech for my taste.
Most people you meet in PS 1,2,4 are almost common people for 60% of your party that would have lived a normal grounded life had you not been there, I relate to that too "a common man that can live a big adventure that takes him out of his normal life"
Good job and yes 3 does come after 4 but your comment made me remember a lot of stuff I forgot from 30 years ago!!!! Damn I’m getting old
That clears some things up
It's more than implied you couldn't survive without the rings. Everyone in Mile is dead and they're not even IN the pit, but just close to it. The pit opened up and belched out hatred that was so powerful that everyone in Mile spontaneously dropped dead.
Also a small correction to the second post. PS1 has a party of people that are hardly common. Note that three out of four of them can use Magic, and as you learn in the series, Magic is an insanely rare art that only a few individuals in the entire universe can cast.
I unsubbed to him thanks to you pointing out his errors. Ridiculous.
The Chaz Linkedin Profile made me literally laugh out loud.
Honestly, I've Seen many streamers plunging into this game blind, it is almost Always a success.
The rythm of the game, quality of life, balance, graphics really hit a sweet spot if enjoyability.
Playing the other games make it even better but without knowing the serie at all it is still a wonderfull game
This was my entry into Phantasy Star and I loved this game! 1 of the best RPGs I ever played.
But I also agree with you on your second half of the video : it is not uncommon to view the PSII as a landmark thinking we did something that profoundly stays with us while PSIV is plenty enjoyable but doesn't strike as strongly as the dramatic story of II.
I would say that PSIV has a very good first third, the second third up to lashiec (maybe Dark force II) is good and the ending is medium. All the characters you meet are quite original and enjoyable until Raja leaves your party and then you meet Kyra... bleh, and then Seth ... Bleeeeeehh
Dark force 3 and the bosses on Rykros don't strike me as well crafted bosses (from a narative point of view), profound Darkness is a boss I like though but the final zone isn't great, it is psychedelick but in the end , it is a no zone, an abstract place.
After having learn about this serie for so many years, I would say that I would have loved to see a PS five but seeing the level of writing of the sonic team back then I would guesstimate at 40% the chances of it to be a truely good phantasy star game :
the PS on game gear hardly give you any feeling of being good or being coherent within PS lore, and the extra side manga chapters are pretty basic (sometime low tier) with the writer wanting to justify tenous link between the episodes or bad justification for employing the characters from PSIV before the game happens but still making it so they don't remember having met while in the game...
(one example of bad writing for instance in my opinion : for PSII the original idea was to make Lutz/Noah the main protagonist but he was the mage of PS1... let's not bother with that "let's say that because of the cryo sleep his caracteristiques changed somehow...and so did his blue hair that turned green)
Still lot of potential to this serie that I love
The 2nd half of the game was kinda glossed over in this video, I think that's where the plot gets most interesting. Seeing dark force 3 times was awesome, and getting to know why he spawned so quickly is great. This is not Chaz's story, it's the algol system's conclusion story. Alys may have been killed by Zio, but it was Dark Force's power that killed her. Zio was insignificant.
Yea a lot of interesting stuff happens. Finding out rune, chaz's rejection of his role ect.
Dark force's little twist in one dungeon.
The pace does change. But I don't think he understood or explained why. I think he noted the change but came to the wrong conclusion as to why
I can't explain it well either.
maybe the air castle exhausted me a little. Or the game gets a little harder and less fast. It's slightly less of a straight line.
But it definitely builds to one thing after Zio. Just slower, over the last past of the game as they try to figure out.
Maybe he got stuck on Zio being a target. They sort of combined PS1 and 2. Zio as lashiec and the rest of the game like 2's.
Even the profound darkness kinda looks like the computer a bit.
@@DSan-kl2yc I honestly don't know how this guy got confused and thought Zio was the prime antagonist given 1. you can see dark force above his head, 2. he talks about the dark force and 3. the previous 3 games all had the dark force as the final antagonist. It's obvious that zio isn't the final boss, he literally talks about his master. This guy just wasnt paying attention
Really love this one. I have to agree with you on the plot progression though: It's just a typical JRPG story progression. You get a quest, finish half of it, then a highlight appears and the quest is done. Rinse and repeat. At least the characters are shockingly well written and the references to the previous games are pretty good.
Weirdly, I like this about Phantasy Star 4. You're just in a group of lovable people, who randomly meet each other, and fix IT problems of the galaxy, because otherwise the planet dies or something.
This has been tied with Shining Force II as my favourite game since, like, 1994. So when I heard your criticism of the story and pacing... ...I had to use my big adult grown up brain and totally understood said criticisms.
Had a hell of a time watching these videos! Great work Jason!
I loved playing through it, but fuck if I know why happened in the last half. I think it’s so fun, but you’re totally right about the story.
I get that the PS4 theming is not as strong or interesting as PS2. But I think it is there still. I personally think it is all about the human struggle and unity in the face of adversity. We are in the aftermath of the apocalypse of PS2, Parma and Mother Brain were destroyed and so humanity has to learn how to live and solve their own problems. Which leads to a lot of interesting concepts, for the first time parmanians, motavians and dezolians are working together, despite the fact that they dislike each other in various ways and were sometimes enemies.
Throughout your whole adventure you try to again relie on technology to solve all the problems just to realize that it is useless and has always been useless and both Wren and Demi speak of how they eventually have to stop everything and leave people to fend for themselves... which is the whole point of the "Daughter Brain" sidequest. A new Mother Brain tries to come and solve all the problems of humanity and we stopped it, because it is we, the habitants of algo that have to solve them.
Rika which was an artificial creature, didn't know anything about the human experience, she only knew about the machines that kept algo working. But particularly in the cutscene of Alys dead she explains how she has learnt the value of the human experience and human warm and ultimately choose to abandon the mechanical life to live among humans and her friend.
I particularly like when the team learns the truth about the profound darkness and the light that left the galaxy to fend for itself, and Chaz lashes out at the concept of this God leaving them to fend for themselves and him being just a pawn in two Gods battling. "We are no better than Zio" he says.
But it is in the Alys cave where he gets the final sword where he realises that it is all about the people, he is not going to kill this God of darkness because the Light God wants him to, but because people are counting on him, to protect his loved ones.
Sure it is cheesy... but I think it is a natural continuation to the story of PS2, there people relied on Mother Brain to the point of not knowing what to do, how to live or what to fight for. This game is about recovering all that, they try to fix everything with machines and they can't... they have to find the courage and strenght to do themselves, to finally unite all the species of algo and fight the evil of the world.
Which dark force ultimately always is just a stand in for human problems, desires, greed, lust for power, control and all that.
There's some irony to the fact that all the in-battle quality of life improvements arrive with the entry that requires the least grinding. Thanks for the month of Phantasy Star, it's been phun!
Phantasy Star IV is a great game. Major comeback from Phantasy Star 3. My favorite RPG game on Genesis along with Shining Force 2.
This feels more like cataloguing an experience over multiple games than reviewing PS4. I don't disagree about the build up to Zio and not quite hitting the mark again after, but you seemed to get hung up on it far more than I did. Also sensing a "stockholm syndrome" bias in favour of PS2; I'm not sure I could get through that game period.
Playing this game is one of my earliest memories. Yeah I can barely remember the stuff that happens after you kill Zio. I could never beat him as a kid. Love the Landmaster theme "Cybernetic Carnival"
Such good pixel art featured in this game's cutscenes. Kinda reminds me of obscure PC-98 and X68000 visual novel graphics.
Is this the phinal phantasy?
Love it.
Crazy how much of a turnaround 4 was from 3. I definitely sympathize with enjoying a title in a series most that might not be the best on a technical level.
A complete triumph getting all of these out in a single month! Well-planned and executed, I learned so much about old RPG's I'll never play! ✨
Well, 3 wasn't made by the same people, and was instead made by a team who never made an RPG before. There's a lesson to be learned here about only hiring people for things they're competent at.
@@THEGREATMAX Why the hate about ps3? Was one of my first RPG on megadrive and I loved it. Ps4 is great of course, but I think the lesson to learn is that people from different horizon bring new/fresh ideas. The generation system was great. Discovering the truth about the world, seeing how thing evolve at each generation... I have more memories of psIII. It's like shining force, the II as a better gameplay, but the 1 is still my favorite.
Can't get over the fact that this hasn't had some sort remake yet. It is like not remaking Final Fantasy 6. Oh wait...anyway, this deserves a remaster at least, damnit.
Oh yeah, very good review by the way. Keep it up.
The great irony, FF6 and PS4, two of the best 16 bit era rpgs, have yet to get full on remakes.
@@Dekent Yeah it is kinda bizzare that they haven't gotten enhanced remakes.
Still, I wouldn't put FF6 in the same bucket as PS4. FF6 has gotten remade tons of times (the meaning of that word is shifting, but things like the Pixel Remaster absolutely count, it was a remake from the ground up).
By comparison, PS4 has gotten no remake that I'm aware of. Just rereleased on emulation packages. Even PS1 - PS3 were remade ( ?) on the GBA.
@@Geraki0n yes. It is due to happen one day, that's what I stand for, that's what I hope for. I bought the two remakes in Tokyo (happened to be there at the time), I bought 5 copies to support the cause. But alas others didn't share my enthusiasm...
PSIV > PSI > PSII > PSIII
P.S. I didn't think PSIII was all that bad.
I absolutely loved the game when I first played it some years back and I have a hard time agreeing with your gripes. I gotta play it again soon, and I suppose I will see
How long did it take to plow through 4 RPGs?
Are you interested in the Ps2 or dreamcast entries?
I pre-made all of these Phantasy Star videos before the month began, so I didn't cram playing all of these into 1 month... But that totally would be doable if you're just playing the games and not producing videos on them.. If that's the only thing you're doing that is.
The PS2 remakes look like garbage, and the MMOs I guess I'd be a little more interested in trying out, but I don't see it happening any time soon.
Long hail Phantasy Month! Really enjoyed the commentary and that you took the time to shine a light on side-story curios like the text adventures and GG games. PSIV is one of my favorite games of all time (that I received "at launch" as my belated and only xmas gift--because it was so expensive!) That being said, your criticisms about the second half do align with my own sense of its main weakness with regard to storytelling. For the past few years, my brother and I have been working on a ROM hack that may go a good ways in ameliorating the issues you had with it. It's a very careful re-working of the script with a lot of loving attention put into each and every character and their individual arcs, paired with some actually quite ambitious event scripting/programing enhancements (bringing it even more in line with the Final Fantasy series in that regard). These enhancements are too numerous to list here, but...
You mentioned that its pacing is a bit too brisk for its own good. So, for example, one such programing change is that we actually slow the walking speed on the Dezolis field *while the storm is raging*. The interaction with bartender Gyuna is now rendered as more of a proper story beat, offering greater character interactions/development, etc. Then, when the party arrives at Tyler we add an introductory cutscene that better contextualizes that and other Palman settlements to an extent (lore pertaining to the mining crisis is woven in here quite smoothly, if I do say.) Coming off the big victory over Zio and the sudden crash on Dezo, it feels like such a good point for the story to slow down, stew in its juices a bit, and to broaden out its contextual horizons with an eye towards series lore--to the "what-it-all-meant-ness" of the whole saga, if you will, and how the evolving cast of characters resonates with that. And we do our best to pay this off in some (hopefully) pleasantly surprising ways until the very end credits roll. And I am generally a big fan of "swampy middles" in fiction.
At the same time, this lofty goal coincides with a perhaps monomaniacal drive towards not unnecessarily bogging the pacing--the kind of script where not a single word is wasted, and if I can say it in a single text box, I damn sure will (unless there's a reason not to).
ps4grandcross.net/
Wish us luck!
P.S. My bother (the programmer) loved the crack about Chaz, the IT guy.
That sounds cool as fuck
As you said, the game proceeded too quickly, I wonder why nobody did a remaster with additional dungeons to spread it out a bit.
Make Dungeons bigger, hidden dungeons, new weapons, enemies, etc.
All in all, this game seems like fan service, the best fans could get. I love it but your points are valid, it was pretty unfocused plotwise.
Phantasy Star 2 is my personal favorite as well.
Recut the game to make Zio the final boss?
@@planexshifter I can't even remember who the final boss was, the ultimate evil I guess? The game went wild with it's bosses and events, just like life itself is sometimes, never knowing what comes next. So in this way I think PS4 went right. Not having an obvious boss.
I think it is so need to see other peoples reviews on the Phantasy Star series. My favorite game in the series is an always will be the very first game. The fourth game is my second favorite. The second game was always a letdown for me as I was growing. I’m playing through it right now and it’s not as bad as I remembered it but I make sure that I have something else to do while I’m grinding. Eventually, I will force my way through the third game which I have never played. May be more than 30 minutes each time I try it I just hate that game.
Great series of videos. I cannot for the life of me say PS2 is the best, but if that's what stuck with you...
I never understood why the classic series ended here. If I had been in charge of Sega when Final Fantasy VII hit I would have ordered work to start on Phantasy Star V and make it a high priority for resources.
I hate to disappoint Phantasy Star III's haters but given that Phantasy Star III doesn't occur until a thousand years after Phantasy Star IV that almost certainly is not the evac ship from III. Its probably the first of the evac ships to be taken out when the effort to destroy the fleet began. In fact the ancient war which played a major role in Phantasy Star III's backstory is occurring at the same time Phantasy Star IV is taking place.
The only way it can be the ship III occurs on is if the canon ending results in the ship being warped back to Algos, and I don't think any of III's endings do that. They all show that the ship got warped back in time to the Sol system from what I remember.
Phantasy Star 2 was done in only 6 months.
Phantasy Star 3 was done by the Golden Axe Team.
Basically only the first and the last were made without some such circumstances.
4:34, how do you compete? m u r d e r
I kinda get what you say about Zio being killed too early as the main driving force, and I do wish he stuck around a bit longer for the personal motivation. But at the same time I think the focus on battling and destroying Dark Force is a great motivation, maybe less so for the cast of the game but more for me as a player who has played the earlier games. Sure, I'd appreciate a more prominent and personal antagonist through the later half of the game (I do think they kinda stumble with Lassic's return), but I do appreciate how they use a foe that's been built up throughout multiple games as the final obstacle. It's something not a lot of games could do after all, even if the excuse to why it will work this time is a bit questionable.
maybe is time to play it
Jason did you pull off any of those team combos?
There was a fire thing I used quite a bit with Wren and Rune
I knew of 3 and that was all I found
@@planexshifter I always just randomly cast them but I know a couple early combos. Their is a ton of them.
Good stuff, was looking forward to the end of the milennium at the end of the month! Wasn't disappointed, some thoughts...
The name changes are definitely localization differences. The change of Parma -> Palm(a) and Dezoris -> Dezolis is a well known issue from translating from Japanese; both our "r" and "l"s map onto one sound in Japanese (that is halfway between). I also think PS2 must've had a 4 letter naming limit for some reason (hence calling them Palm, Dezo, and Mota). There are some good rom hacks that patch up the dialogue and make the names more consistent for all the games (usually using PS1 names).
Speaking of translation stuff, the Wrens are a good example. PS3's Wren in Japanese is "Shiren", PS4's Wren is "Forren/Fouren", making it obvious in Japanese that they're different characters. Not sure if it's meant as a direct PS3 reference or just a general android suffix (maybe both).
I'm definitely with you on the back half of the game being sloppy. Bringing back Lassic in particular felt like kinda pointless PS1 fanservice. But other parts were very welcome, like Chaz connecting with the previous saviors of Algol. But I do disagree that the game is only just flailing around at that point, it becomes a mystery to see what the heck is going on with all those Dark Force incarnations. The game ends by tying them together and all the previous games together with the profound darkness. It's not a pinnacle of a good writing or anything, and Dark Force definitely should've tied into the game earlier. But it does at least explain things and I did find it much more satisfying than you I suppose.
Liking PS2 best I do find a bit perplexing, if interesting. It has good themes (and music!) but not a lot else going for it. And it's very hard to enjoy but in retrospec because of how terrible its gameplay is. I'd sooner replay PS3, frankly.
Also while I have y'all here... I've thought a lot about how the destruction of Palm in PS2 is a great moment for PS2 specifically, but made it hard to follow up on. PS1 established planet-trotting as a huge feature of the series but 3 planets is kinda the minimum number for that theme, so the next two games had to work with only 2 remaining.
PS3's solution was actually kind of clever (just about the only thing clever about that game) to leave with sorta mini planets you can travel between. PS4 had to introduce Rykros but it felt shoehorned.
Memory limitations were still an issue in the 8-bit/16-bit era such that I can see limiting proper nouns to 4 characters as a design decision. This might not have been as large of a problem in Japan, as by its nature written Japanese can pack a lot of meaning into a couple of characters, but the localization teams who were working with the Roman alphabet probably only had truncation as an option. But like Jason implies, I can easily see the names evolving over 1000 years.
It's not THE spaceship from 3, there were a lot of spaceships like it, most of which Dark Force destroyed, hence why there were only the two left in that one ending in 3.
I played through this game. It was good, but nothing i would play a second time.
Honestly, about where I stand.. Even though this was the second time I played through it.
Okay then, what should the series' ending be? Something about the hero's own actions leading to their downfall? An interstellar adventure where you travel between locations found in the MMO, or a trip to Sol where the locals worship Dark Force as a deity? Or maybe Alis becomes evil and decides to conquer everything herself
Just don't talk to the mmo fanbase about a sequel they despise the idea for some reason
this series was my introduction to your channel, and as a PSO player, I'm actually now really interested in playing the pre-Online Phantasy Star games. interestingly, the scriptwriter for PSIV actually went on to write the script and scenario for Sonic Adventure, and then directed the Sonic Advance games and at least one of the Rush titles - and the dude actually still works for Sega! tracing the lineage of old Sonic Team staff is kind of an interest of mine, so it was fascinating to see this kind of history. awesome stuff!
Love it when the final entry in a series is the masterpiece. Rarely happens.
New Genesis was released in 2021...
@fehmeh6292 ...and it fucking blows
A good ending adds to the replay value. I like 1 best with 2 a very close second. 4 is better than 3 but at least 3 gives you the ability to replay with slightly different endings.
It is so refreshing to hear someone say even though Phantasy Star 4 is probably a better game in every way it's Phantasy Star 2 that sticks with you Phantasy Star 2 was a dark drama how far is Story and you nailed it precisely saying how much you didn't like playing it but yet when you reflect you're strangely attracted I haven't played end of the millennium it looks fantastic maybe one day I'll play it on my phone put the themes and narrative 02 obviously hit home a little harder
I’ve heard people say the translation is a bit lacking. I wonder if the retranslation fixes any of your issues
there is a hack patch for retranslation, it is a big miss in my opinion.
It takes a lot of leeway for some interpretations and I would say Alys' comments become quite demeaning in places that don't match the japanese text.
For instance in the beggining in front of the principal, he starts to not recognize Chaz and is interupted by Alys who corrects him saying Chaz is a full fledge partner.
in the translation, she says he is her partner associate yet he still have to bring her coffee...
in bird culture this is called an assh*le move ^^
I didn't play it to the end but having done it in japanese, I wasn't impressed by this new fan trad
@@stefanswiss3760 shame really, though as a non-speaker I'm not the best judge. It would be interesting to see your take translation though
@@stefanswiss3760 Well then, I debated using that patch on my first playthrough (I played all PS1 - PS4 earlier this year for the first time) and I'm glad I turned it down.
I really do want a minimal patch that just makes for consistent naming though. I learned it as "Algol", "Motavia", "Dezoris", and "Palma" in PS1 and it's staying that way damnit!
@@noaht2005 contrary to PSIII where translation do change the story and make many points obscure,Iwould say that the PSIV regular translation is quite accurate.
Only a few play on words with Raja are not possible to translate and because japanese can sentences with fewer written caracters, I've noticed just one line from Rune that didn't make it.
Otherwise except for the names you don't miss much by playing it in english, you get 98% of the text right. (from what I remember having played it in japanese 10 years ago or so but back then I tried to see if I could notice anything and compare and was pleasantly surprised)
@@stefanswiss3760 Thanks. IDK who said the translation was bad, but I'm sure they weren't super qualified
I agree, Phantasy Star 4 is the best game in the series.
I loved this game so much!
Im a Dezolith guy because its supposed to be like desolate in my head. Phantasy Month was great and like the series it peaked at 2 😊❤
Jk i enjoyed them all. THANKS
Phantasy month happened so fast.
: (
I would love an HD remaster with some additional content.
6:27 Nice theory.
Your hair looks really good.
Full and healthy.
Dare I say makes you appear trustworthy, yet creative
Chaz in the version I played is called Rudy,only did a few minutes of the game compared to the others it seems really better,the combat is fun and the comic like cutscenes are refreshing to look at at...can't wait to play more of it.
God knows i was waiting for this one.
8:17 That’s not the ship from Phantasy Star 3. That’s just one of the ships that didn’t make it. Phantasy Star 3 takes place 1000 years after the ships escaped from Parma, meaning it happening at the same time as this game.
Also Wren fro PS3 is not Wren from PS4. In the Japanese versions PS3 Wren is Shiren and PS4 Wren is Fouren. A small bit of this exists even in the English version. If you pay attention to daughter’s dialogue she say Fou…. And then trails off when talking to wren.
yep, you even get to fight Shiren type Wren (Wren III types) in the wreckage
Ohhhh! God catch on the Fou bit.
Its really cool when your party gets the land rover. Advanced tech for the win.
Was Phantasy Star 4 the inspiration for the Star Wars sequel trilogy?
Lol, I've been thinking the same.
Did you upload this in 4/3? It fills the full screen on my old ass 1999 4/3 CRT. That never happens on TH-cam-weird.
I just finished this game. Played it on your recommendation. This is the most anime RPG I have played from the 16 bit era that is a North American release. Reminds me of PC engine RPGs like Xak. It's funny that they bother to change the box art. As soon as you start playing the game you know you are playing a Japanese game...Okay I played your RPG. Now you play mine. I choose Alundra on the PS1.
2 was my first RPG video game. 4 is my favorite of the series, not for the story but for the gameplay, presentation and characters. I with 3 they absolutely f*ed up. So much wastwd potential.
dude you had only one job: tell us that EoM finally revealed the fantasy star itself 😂
btw I understand what you tried to say. PS4 is my least favorite plotwise, because it was toned down on purpose for the noobs who only like gameplay, graphics and linear entertainment. It's still the best jrpg of that era anyways, and the team had the guts to put a real ending to the series without grounds for sequels. What's fascinating in retrospection is that it was initially meant to be released for sega cd, but it ended up to represent the greatest developing effort and result by showcasing the soon-to-die Megadrive's specs. Maybe someday fans will have enough understanding and willpower to develop a single big classic Phantasy Star with EoM's engine and an ideal game design to fix all its downsides.
4 builds up to one event too.
There's a mystery to it. The mystery is figuring out what it is, and understanding dark force and the profound darkness
Zio is working for dark force, worships it as a god. So they have to understand what that is.
There's no sense in saying 2 builds to something, and 4 doesn't. Both are about figuring out what's happening, and why.
There is camaraderie at the end.
That whole bit of losing credibility in the second half? Sadly I'll have to agree on that. There's a ton of aspects regarding the story that you clearly missed out on. It isn't "stupid" to want to end the cycle of Dark Force's influence. Especially regarding the ending where it's clear that they do have camaraderie, especially regarding Rune and Rika. It's a bittersweet yet hopeful ending.
The game never builds zio up as the final boss. In the fight you can clearly see dark force from the other 3 games, and he references his dark master. So I really don't see how you could think Zio was the last boss when the entire series is about the dark force. It's obvious from the get go that the final boss is dark force, like it was in the other 3 previous games.
The first time I played this game it was a rental and sadly the cartridge's battery was dead so if I turned off my Sega the games save files erased. What initially drew me to the game was its harsh difficulty. This was largely due to me not understanding how to equip stuff. I made it all the way to Zio's death in one session wearing each character's starting gear! Then someone must have stolen it from the rental place because it just disappeared and I never got to play it again until YEARS later.
This made me really appreciate the Rune metaphor. Because when he joins you... he is powerful ASF! and everything is pretty much one shoting everyone else (because of the starting gear). So I took the time and used Rune in the cave to grind exp. One Hewn or Gra kills everything. Rinse repeat until he is out of TP. Go rest and do it all over... at least 3 times. I still will do that today if I pick it up to play again. This my all time favorite game. Great review! The only thing I think you missed were the way ahead of its time combo attacks.
Props to your take on the early plot peaking too early; it's a good observation. But man, oh, man are you terrible at details. You completely missed how much IV incorporates its history (prequels) to finally crystalize its lore--why Dark Force remerges, the timing of that re-emergence, the repetition of resistance. The game plainly spells it for you man!
They should have put PS4 on the Sega CD and thought a bit more deeply about the story.
PS3 gets an undeserved bad rap. It’s really only lacking in rom space. I don’t think 8megs was enough. When I think PS4’s 24megs is too much! They blew it on a load of rubbish.
This game was a fitting swan song to the series before future installments went online.
The explanation to Dark Force re appearing was revealed, as well as the return of Lutz ( Noah) Wren and the female android from 3, the shuttle that helps them travel from planet to planet and finally, your characters can fight in the vehicles you travel in, instead of magically appearing out of them.
I enjoyed this game, though it cost more to buy back then.
I haven't played IV since it came out. It was funny getting to the end of this review and hearing your conclusion because the whole time I was watching I was thinking how I remember loving this game when I played it, but looking back I can't really recall too many vivid details beyond the basic mechanics and characters.
I think this is a perfect conclusion to the tetralogy and honestly I'm fine with them not making a 5th episode (especially since we also won't get any new PSO nor PSU games, and no, PSO2 isn't the actual sequel to PSO, even New Genesis looks like its own thing compared to PSO2 Classic).
Although I want Sega to make a new entry that can be played offline in single player mode like PSO and PSU (and PS Portable), not just Online only F2P entries since PSO2... I don't mind if it's ARPG as long as there's a bit of strategy and good fanservice for the older players (like seeing the Varista in Portable 2 or the Psycho Wand in PSO).
I think you missed the point you killed zio only to learn he was a puppet you didn't avenge alys all you learned is the real monster is still out their. You can also make the argument that lacisic is well built up with an optional boss and a huge dungeon with major boss all building up.
I played them all when they were new and many times since then, and share your conclusions and impressions. IV was very polished and fun, but not as memorable as II. III was just sort of unfinished. Entertaining but not great. The original was great, and that and II are my favorites.
I kinda feel the same. PS4 is Objectively the better game, but I have always felt really torn between PS2 and 4 as the favorite. A lot of time 2 is. Sometimes I feel 'that's just nostalgia talking you KNOW PS4 is better.' Well put. That said, Alys being killed was so impactful to me, I did not even flinch when Aeris got killed in 1997 and I had tears welling in my eyes when Alys died.
the plot problems with 4 after zio didnt bother me as much back in the day. admittingly i was rolling my eyes a bit at the misdiagnosing a problem/fixing it not working etc. i saw it as an obvious homage to 2 since that game is basically rolf similarly trying to fix things in ways that don't work until they realize the problems were actually caused by motherbrain. the lurking dark force presence helped (seth sequence is my fav in the game).
collecting magical rings to defeat dark force is dumb, but again i feel this game is so designed as a kind of reference on its predecessors, like collecting the rings could have easily been a task from the original game. it feels like this game does have a melding issue between the more serious themes they kept from the second game and the simpler fare from the other 2.
It's Deso(ri)s, so depending on your translator they took l or r as the proper english letter. Another victim of the R combined sound in japanese language.
I liked this game more than I did Final Fantasy VI. Everytime someone points to tech limitations as an excuse for FFVI not having cutscenes, this is the reference game I use to prove that at the time such thing was possible.
Phantasy Star II is by far my favorite, too.
Do you know the chronological/story order of the Phantasy Star games? I'm trying to figure out if there was another game after End of the Millenium and thus referenced 4.
yes, zio is the best villain of the game and dies too early. i never knew ren could transform, i'm going to have to look that up. the most unique thing about this game is the interplanetary travel which is the only rpg to have that feature. i'd say the third best rpg ever after games like chrono trigger and final fantasy 2 (snes).
I tried to get into the Phantasy Star games, but the naming conventions for spells and items were what killed it for me. They were just so non-intuitive.
Dude I’m so glad you covered these, these videos and commentary are top shelf
He’s 17, has a 92 Honda Civic and is a short chef at Olive Garden! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE!!!😂
Actually Chaz is not the one who figured it out. I focused more on Rika, because she is a beast in that game.
I guess now yeah, they could've built up profound darkness better towards the whole game and not just put the Algo creation myth in one cutscene 95% into the game.
I enjoyed this back in the mid 90s. I do remember how much I wanted it to just keep on going. I didn't want it to end.
Actually, Daughter is a Daughter of Mother Brain the computer AI from Phantasy Star 2
your feelings on this game are exactly how i feel about xenoblade 3
hey dude, found you through red cow. i like your stuff. have an awesome day.
I played Phatasy Stat IV for the firist time recently. It was good.
2 over 4 is nonsensical if we are judging them as video games. Sure the story of 2 was better but it's basically an unplayable piece of trash. 4 is actually fun to play through from time to time as a video game. It's an RPG they didn't want to just end it 10 hours in. They wanted to give you bang for your buck and by the end all the abilities and choices for party composition got pretty interesting for the last few dungeons from a game play perspective.
The way I see it, is that PS2 reviews better after playing it a marginal amount. PS4 reviews worse after playing it a marginal amount. But PS4 starts out like... 3 or 4 tiers higher than PS2 and so I don't think the post-facto adjustments are enough to make PS2 feel better.
@Geraki0n PS2 is just unplayable trash. Dragon Warrior and FF1 are infinitely more fun games to play through even today. The story for PS2 is S tier for it's era but that doesn't redeem it for being so abysmal to try to play through. It'd be way better as an 80s style violent anime like ninja scroll or Vampire Hunter D
@@CosmicCosmo1 Unplayable trash is an exaggeration. Though yes I'd much rather play the NES release of FF1.
Nice to hear my arguments about Alys repeated word for word.
Thank god this is over, now you can get back to the real videos.
Phantasy star 4 > final fantasy 3/6!!! I SAID WHAT I SAID!!!😅
So in Japanese R's and L's sins the same so Desoris is the same as Desolis.
Cannot wait to get home and watch this.
Great video. The Job Board. Crushing on someone 2 grades older. The idea that kids in the IV world are playing in universe Game Gear games.
I agree with what you say about it moving swiftly. I played it recently on the Switch and was totally surprised how quickly I got to the point where I stopped playing it as a kid. I don't know if its nostalgia, or childhood, but the long walks to all those cities felt more impactful than they do now. I thought the game had ended with the death of Zio, but then there was the semi-episodic stuff that followed to pad out the story. Kind of like Chrono Trigger with the build up to Magus, and then everything to do with Lavos.
Great vid, great series, I'm sure it was a ton of work.
phantasy star 4 was really the best
PS 4 didn't really suck me in. I was hooked immediately by 1, tho. Beautiful graphics, incredibly limited storage space for healing items, insane DW1-level grinding. OTOH, my fave Shin Megami Tensei is on the Game Gear, so...
I appreciated your no biased review if PS IV and I agree with you regarding PS II.
But dude the music you didn’t mention the rocking sound track!
COMPLETELY AGREE! I played this one first and had low expectations for the rest of the series story-wise. This one was over before I knew it but made me curious about the others, and in the end 2 is the one that will stay with me.
Excellent review. I think you saved me from playing through this if Chaz is a glorified IT specialist 😂😅
Yeah, I agree. You've lost all your credibility.
You've left so much out of this review that I'm genuinely stunned.
There's some nice grass outside for you to touch
Keep off the grass
What did he leave out as a comparison of this game to the others? Within the context of his stated broader project?
@@KCUFyoufordoxingme Are you ready?
He champions auto-battle, but didn't mention Macros, which is auto-battle on steriods. He didn't mention the new Skills, which are separate from Techniques, and have stocks instead of TP. No mention of Combination Attacks, either.
The party now contains a native Motovian and a native Dezolian. The final battle is NOT with Dark Force. The final battle is with the Profound Darkness, and the 4th planet does NOT call it. The planets of the Algol system are a seal placed by the Great Light to hold the Profound Darkness out. The seal weakens every 1000 years, and the 4th planet is intended to increase the strength of the barrier, as well as to act as a beacon for would be heroes. With Parma destroyed in PS2, the seal is compromised. There is no mention of any of the LORE of the Phantasy Star universe. This series has continuity, and so much of the lore is explained within this game, and Jason mentions NONE of it.
There are now separate vehicle battles. Countless callbacks to previous games. Remixed music from PS1, Myau is in a Dezolian cave with other musk cats, the layout of the Air Castle is the same as it was in PS1.
He didn't mention the dancers in the Hunter's Guide. Something that Nintendo at the time would've never allowed. And when they dance, it plays the music from Fantasy Zone. Another Sega franchise.
The are multiple battles with Dark Force. You even gain a false party member who turns out to be Dark Force.
Chaz has an internal struggle that gives him his strongest Tech: Megid.
Should I keep going?
Just rewatched this video and I had to comment again. I still can't believe what I'm hearing. Jason, I am personally inviting you to a conversation with me, because we need to talk about your hot take.
I am again curious, What did he leave out as a comparison of this game to the others? Within the context of his stated broader project?
He is not repeating what others have said. It is not that hard to understand.
Awesome video man. Really enjoyed the way you covered every aspect and your thoughts on the series as a whole. Looking forward to the next dude!
Your videos give me peace. But get back to the snes finish what you started because every other channel quit on their so called mission
PSII is my favorite too. You said it well; it's much more memorable and it really leaves a lasting impression.
I think it's more memorable but in a bad way. Memorable doesn't necessarily mean "good".
Ah, see? You get it.
I don’t understand the love for this game and the series as a whole. It’s always compared to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest but doesn’t seem to have much to offer. Great series month! Looking forward to more
Final Fantasy 1 had so many bugs that the INT stat does nothing and your elemental weapons do no elemental damage.
Dragon Quest 1 was grind heavy and shallow, even by 80's standards.
Ultima was anything but user friendly.
Basically, Phantasy Star became a legend because it was beautiful and approachable ...but also for the charm and lore ...
And still being deeper than nearly every other English translated game on console, even if we expect much more, after all this time.