"that probably ate all my cereal while I was away" is the best diss directed to a bad house guest ever. Thank you for sharing this review on a game that, at least from my perspective, was a hot mess. I'm pleased to be the 100th like! :)
@KidDynamite500 I stream on Twitch 4x/week (Sun/Mon/Thurs evenings and Fri afternoons Eastern), usually retro. Feel free to stop by there sometime if you like. The link's in the video description.
@@hungrygoriya I personally love how bleak the ending is. Alot of the issues with the game stem from it's short development cycle. Wish it had got a proper remake that fleshed it out and streamlined its mechanics. RIP Rieko Kodama (Phoenix Rie).
Oh goodness, not Phantasy Star 2... Yup, video did not disappoint. The piano nonsense is right up there with "fixing the bridge" in Lufia 1 as one of the most frustrating side quests in any game ever.
Ugh... right? Thankfully I was streaming the game so someone let me know to learn the spell before I got down to that stupid piano deep in the depths of that dungeon, but even then, I touched it instead of using the skill at it and got teleported back out!!! How else would you play a piano?! I had just saved so I just had to reload, but good LORD. I take it you've finished this one?
@@hungrygoriya Wow I just caught that you streamed this... impressive, even as a sugar-addicted child I could only play this game for an hour or two at a time. So grindy.
@@hungrygoriya Look for a website called MDShock, they have a fascinatinf story on the first licensed gme on the system, Osomatsu-Kun and it was rushed so much in Japan, they cut half the game out to meet the deadline.
@@Larry The thing is, it also has bugs (strength does nothing for example) and apparently the guy who designed the dungeons had no idea how to do that, hence why they're so sprawling and devoid of interesting stuff. If the dungeons had been better designed, this game probably would've been half its length, seeing that there aren't that many general plot points at all (bridge guy - Nei - kidnapping - Lutz - Mother Brain; everything else is just some NPC dialogues/huge dungeons).
@@mariusamber3237 I tested what you said and hacked a save state file so that Rolf has 999 strength (I also raised dexterity), and sure enough... no damage increase. Then I hacked in max experience for Rolf so he's level 50. At level 1 he's doing single digit damage with an attack of 17. At max level with attack power 272 and same weapon, he's doing 20 points of damage. So the attack stat doesn't increase damage much at all.
I was a kid when this game came out and was probably my first RPG experience. It blew me away. I was enamoured by the story and the characters. When you're a kid and this type of RPG is all you know, it's a life-altering gaming experience. If you're a seasoned gamer who has played many other RPGs prior, this is a grindy, confusing game.
"I steal because it makes me feel something." I don't know why, but that part cracked me up. But yeah, nice review. Does a good job of explaining a lot of the issues with the game.
Shir's description was something about her being so well off and having everything she ever wanted, so now she steals. She was by far the most selfish in her reasons for joining. And maybe Kain because he just wanted to go around chopping up machines.
@@hungrygoriya You definitely put some extra sauce on how you said it and it made me laugh too. I never played but Shir must have been really insufferable.
I had the pleasure of playing through it about a month or so ago now, and it's probably one of my favourite RPGs without question at this point. So good! It was a nice place to tie up the story, but I agree... more games like it would be welcome.
Dormant? I have't played the original series, so I don't know if you mean a storyline that wasn't completed or something, but there was Phantasy Star Online and currently Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis that is free to play on PC.
@@StewNWT PS2 is very what you see is what you get. If you don't enjoy the beginning of the game, it's doubtful you'll enjoy any of the game. It's pretty much just a sci-fi version of a NES Dragon Quest game where the point is to grind and grind for experience and meseta. The only positive change is that Dezoris dungeons aren't obscured as much by ceiling stuff blocking the screen. Otherwise, if you don't enjoy the beginning of the game there's not much reason to enjoy any of it.
When I bought this game new, I was satisfied with it, even the ending when I beat it. Your dislike is more a sign of the time and evolution of game design. This game was great back when it was new! Few RPGs age well after 30 years.
I don't know... I liked the first Phantasy Star game a lot more and that one's even older, but I think it's just a matter of preference. If there had been less dungeons and more story, I think I would've liked it more. I'm glad you got to play it when it was new though... a lot of people I've spoken with said this was one of their first big RPGs coming into the 16-bit era. It's definitely a special game for a lot of people.
The funny thing is that while I agree with the majority of what you argue here, I still recall enjoying this game immensely as a kid. I used to rent the game whenever I could save up the money. I thought that the music was really amazing and was very evocative of the "high tech society that is in crisis setting." Also, I think we were a lot more inclined to trial and error back in that time, and a good example of this was how my siblings and I thought it was too much fun taking Shir to every imaginable place and seeing if she'd steal something (which is how we found the save-anywhere device). Lastly, I think there were many games that really expected you to use your imagination and which distributed the story, world building, and details across media forms, whether it is the guidebooks for Genesis rpg's like PS2 or Sword of Vermilion, or perhaps Wizardry on NES. All in all, Phantasy Star 2 was one of many people's favorite games back then, but it is a hard game to revisit without realizing how much better the fourth game and most later really are.
I can appreciate why you loved this one. There's definitely a lot of neat stuff in it, but it just didn't suit what I particularly enjoy in my RPGs I suppose. It's great that you have some nice memories with your family while playing it though!
Whoah to say failed miserably is harsh... how about a little sensitivity and perspective yes every complaint you have is valid play any RPG prior to that Phantasy Star 2 and you'll see what the world was like you say you played the first Phantasy Star did you play the original or a remake that had nice cozy maps to help you Encompass to help you navigate those dungeons with hidden trap doors you could never find without a guide I'm going to assume you played a newer version because from what I've heard and read and watched the original Phantasy Star dungeons just had random doors and no way of navigating 3D dungeons and as far as PS2 obviously you don't enjoy meticulously directing your troops in combat for having an endless Arsenal to choose from to customize battle to particular enemies. Obviously the incredible enemy animations and look orange is that important to you I've seen the original zombies original games zombies and Stormtroopers and they're not anything to be excited about. From the giant praying mantises to the red-eyed bunnies do the sorcerer's play Phantasy Star 2 again I don't want to seem too negative towards you your review is great and I appreciate and understand your critiques but you could do a little better to point out the strong points which probably aren't that noticeable to you because the strong points are commonplace now so they are nothing spectacular but at that time they were all new and revolutionary
Finally got to watch this review I've been looking forward to for a long time having spent an enormous amount of time with this game! For me personally, this is a case of rose colored glasses if there ever were. The only RPGs I'd played before this were Phantasy Star 1 on SMS, Final Fantasy on NES, and Dragon Quest on NES. The sci-fi setting, the colorful graphics, nicely animated monsters and a massive world to explored blew me away as a kid. From a difficulty standpoint, those previous games gave me a lot of trouble in many parts, so this one being tough was no surprise to my younger self and I expected a tough grind. In fact, I figured this would be much easier since it came with that hint book with so much information, but not knowing the evil nature of the dungeons that lied ahead. I loved how you commented on how when the story was present, it was really well done and I too have always thought that. The Nei vs Neifirst encounter was very memorable to me, and it broke my heart when Nei was killed since she was such a good character. But, the game rarely presented story opportunity, and almost no instances where the characters actually interact. I feel just adding character dialogue all throughout the game depending on the events taking place would have dramatically improved the overall quality while giving the characters actual personality. As you said, they joined for selfish reasons and never seemed to be a team, and that alone made the game feel far more empty than it should have been. Not only would it have been fun to hear the team's thoughts and feelings on each objective, but clues and information could have been given that led the player in the right direction when the only other option left was random wandering which can be really tedious. The Dezo portion of the game was horrible in that aspect, and my least favorite part of the game by far. As far as character balance, this one is a doozy. Since I was a kid with a lot of time, I tried hard to level up all the characters and see what they all had in store at higher levels in an attempt to build the most perfect roster available. However, my efforts were mostly in vain, as Hugh and Shir turned out to be completely worthless(aside from Shir stealing the Visiphone, Star Mists and Moon Dews) while Anna was strongly effective against groups of enemies, Kain specialized against machines. Amy was almost crucial since she was a healer, but in my youth I was dumb and ended up going with Rolf, Rudo, Kain and Anna after Nei's death and just attempting to muscle through fights without having a dedicated healer. The only way to do this was overgrinding, which resulted in my time spent in the game being about 10% actually trying to progress, and 90% grinding. A few interesting tidbits I discovered was that the final two bosses, Dark Force and Mother Brain, are actually weak to Kain's hard hitting machine only direct damage technique, resulting in a whopping 150 damage per attack. Shir I tried hard to make useful besides stealing stuff, but if you dare take her to Dezo and she decides to steal from a store, you have to return all the way back to Rolf's house on Mota to retrieve her! It was pure lunacy! Also, the amount of EXP required for level in this game just plain ridiculous even back then, and looking at it now makes me really cringe. And as you touched on, the dungeons in this game are perhaps the worst designed I've ever seen, and more difficult to get through than pretty much any other RPG I've played, EVEN WITH THE HINT BOOK. My own hint guide is full of notes and numbers I took, and getting through the Ikuto dungeon on Dezo with the pittraps was an exercise in tedious misery. Even early in the game, the first few dungeons are overly complex, and does nothing to ease you into it. Did you happen to encounter the enemy called 'Blaster' in the Tower of Nido or Biosystems Lab dungeons, which are the 2nd and 3rd ones visited? They look like pink blobs, come in pairs, have very high HP, and their only attack hits the entire party for massive amounts of damage. One encounter with them can end a run that has lasted hours, and I was reduced to tears against these enemies as they wiped the party and left me feeling hopeless multiple times. Other dungeons like that evil spaceport on Dezo called Skure I still have hatred in my heart for, so you're not alone there! The map of that dungeon even in the hint guide doesn't help at all, and you're forced to delve into that place to get the Mogic cap so you can talk to people AND explore the entire planet with only that nightmare connecting it all. A trick I discovered by accident was that since the 'Ryuka' spell returned you to the last Data Memory building in town you visited, you could use the visiphone to save the game in the Dezo spaceport dungeon and then using Ryuka would confuse the game and teleport you to one of the towns on Dezo, allowing you to go back and forth to this particular town and Mota without having to redo the spaceport area for it, but you would still need to delve into it to find the other towns and dungeons. For the endgame, I never understood why the items you needed were called 'Neisword' 'Neicape' and those types. What did Nei have to do with anything on Dezo and why were those items plot significant? The game never really told why, it was as you said, a giant fetch quest with little story to be had. The final dungeon was a major disappointment, as it all looked the same, was too long, and had enemies designed to absolutely wear you out before you could deal with Dark Force and Mother Brain. I resorted to saving the game with the visiphone, taking a few steps, saving again, and hoping to avoid as many random encounters as possible to have a chance of killing the bosses which was harder than it should be since I didn't bring Amy along and went with what I thought was a more offense based party. The ending made no sense either, but as a kid I kind of liked it since it was just a complete surprise and nothing of what I was expecting. Maybe I was just too young to grasp it or realize how far fetched it turned out to be. Sorry for making this so long, but it's amazing how you touched on literally every major issue this game had and I griped about as a kid, but since I had so much time, I didn't really mind any of it that much at the time as I just saw as another hard RPG to figure out. The game just feels unfinished, as there's a myriad of ways they could have made this so much better without a massive amount of effort. More story, less exp required per level, less random encounters and simpler dungeon designs would have gone a long way towards making this a unique experience. I like going back and replaying all the old RPGs from my childhood, and despite my fond memories of playing this as a kid, I really have no desire to play this again thanks to the exp grinding and dungeon design. It will stay as a fun, happy memory for me despite being a deeply flawed game with missed potential. Thank you so much for this review Hungry, it was great seeing everything from your perspective playing it as an adult compared to when I played it back in 1990!
I really like your content, Hun. I never had a SMS or Genesis, and most of my friend didn't either. Learning about these games is a lot of fun. Thank you.
Thanks very much! I grew up with NES and Sega, but only a few games for each. I'm enjoying exploring the libraries and sharing my experiences here, so I appreciate you coming along for the ride.
@@hungrygoriya Watching through this video again after looking for reviews on PSIII or PSIV. What are your thoughts on those two? Do you have any plans on making reviews for them?
@@harelipnirnroots897 I've played Phantasy Star IV since this video but not the third one. I'd love to do a review, but I have a few other things on the fire at the moment. I'll see what I can do though!
Am I nuts if I didn't mind beating Dragon Warrior 1 on original hardware but quit PS2 on an emu with fast forward and savestates cuz of the deal breakers you mentioned in the same year?
I don't think that makes you nuts... I don't mind a grind in a game but the PS2 grind felt a lot more laboured since you were always potentially dealing with new level one characters coming in. At least in DW, you only had the one guy to worry about.
I only finished the first generation, but from what I got out of PS III I'd call it the black sheep of the series. It experimented some hit-or-miss stuff like technique distribution and the generations-based story giving you 4 possible endings and 7 different protagonists based on the choice you make at the end of each generation. PS III's story is related to the other games, but it doesn't pick up the story where PS II ends and PS IV vaguely mentions PS III's context in an optional sidequest. PS III can be played as a game of its own I think. I've been enjoying the game and it has way more bosses than PS II did. I think the generation-based story is interesting and there's a bit of adaptive music too which I think is impressive for its time. It's the first game in the series where you can have up to 5 characters in your party and the overworld theme will have extra layers added to it depending on how many characters there are in your party. However I do have a problem with PS III's technique mechanics. Technique distribution is interesting on paper, but it doesn't work so well in the end. In PS III your characters won't learn techniques. There are four technique groups ("Heal", "Melee", "Order" and "Time"), each group having four techniques. Each character has one technique group out of the four and will have access to all of the techniques in that group from the beginning. There aren't tiers either (instead of RES, GIRES and NARES, you just have RES), so the way techniques will evolve in PS III is where technique distribution comes into play. Each character has a square-shaped technique chart showing how many power points is allocated to each technique. The amount of power points a technique has determine how potent that technique will be, and as your characters level up their technique chart will grow, allowing you to allocate more power points to a character's techniques. However those power points are shared, meaning increasing a technique's potency will decrease another's, so you have to balance them out in a way that works in a given situation. The problem I had with technique distribution is with techniques such as ANTI or REVER which don't have a potency. For those techniques, it will determine their hit rate instead, meaning ANTI and REVER aren't guaranteed in this game, making them unreliable. If you have a poisoned character in your party you're better off using an antidote since it'll work everytime and it's super cheap while ANTI might miss and you'll end up wasting TP and a turn. Since ANTI is so unreliable, why would I give it power points in the first place? Might as well give it to GIRES (which is actually SAR) and have a better heal for the entire party. With that said, everything else has been pretty good so far. It has more dialogue than PS II which helps fleshing out each character's personality and it learned from its mistakes when it comes to dungeons. Technique distribution really is the only thing I've had a problem with in PS III as of now.
I’ve been waiting for this review. This has to be the most savage review you’ve done yet. I guess we can say you were “hungry” for a better game. *PLAYS SEINFELD THEME*
What makes Phantasy Star 2 is atmosphere and tone. There was absolutely nothing like it at the time. And gameplay wise it did new things that weren't super common at the time. Usually games that offered party choices were 100% personality less games where the characters weren't even named. PS2's characters had great deaigns... and that made a huge difference then. Other things that were great were the tonal consistency. The game takes place in a utopia that is in decline. And it comes across in townsperson dialog and the story itself. The whole story with Tiem and Darum was something you didn't see at all in JRPGs of that era. The game was.incredibly unique in how the story unfolded. It was a mystery. The question is what is happening? Why are there monsters? Why is everything going wrong? Other RPGs of that era had a large empire... or an evil overlord... or some mythical force dying. Not so here. Mix that with the amazing character designs graphics and music... and the game was revolutionary. It's just hard to see when there was so much change within the genre within a single year let alone from year to year. Remember this came out months after Final Fantasy 2 and Dragon Quest 3. The game isn't perfect. And it doesn't explain a lot of things. Each party member is useful. There are loads of fun party layouts you can make that can change things a lot. The default of Eusis, Rudo, Amia and Anne are.great all rounds that can carry you through the whole game. But the others are great too. Hugh just murders biomonsters... Kain wrecks machines and Shir is broken at higher levels when she has the right items on her. Gives it great replay value. Also. Cannot disagree more on the ending. It remains to this day my favorite ending on the Genesis. Watching the heroes fighting a doomed battle to free themselves from control is just so in line with the themes of the game. Of course back in 1990 or so I just thought it was super cool when I finally beat the game. So great. Even today. PS2 remains my favorite in the series even if PS4 is the more polished experience. Also... RIP Rieko Kodama... the mother of Phantasy Star and pioneering female game.designer. She will always be a legend.
There are definitely some things I agree with you on, but I just didn't enjoy my time with this game. I can appreciate its place in time but I still like other games in the series quite a bit better. Either way, I'm glad that you have fond memories with this game and enjoyed that ending. I really wish I did too!
Your experience with this game was very similar to mine. I tried it back in the mid 2000's and was completely put off. Mostly by the insane dungeons. You are spot on with this one.
I'm really glad I'm not alone in my feelings here. There was pretty much a strict divide when I played this. People either really loved it or hated its guts. And I fall into the latter category!
PS2 is not the best in the series, but it is memorable to me for its fun party composition options. In 1989, this game was mind-blowing for us because we were all about the battles and how the different characters brought different skills at the endgame, not so much the plot.
I'm curious to know which characters you liked best for their battle skills. I found the grind so heavy with people coming in at level 1 that I didn't deviate much later on in the game once I had a core party.
Games from that time - especially in Japan - were often build around guide books. I get the impression that many weird elements were only thrown in there "because" they wanted to sell more guide books. No wonder there was so much cryptic malarkey in many 8-bit/16-bit games. Sometimes it was the good kind of secret, where you really wanted to explore and find out more about what's going on, but other times... you ended up with the design like in Takeshi no Chou Senjou and the like. Agreed with your opinion, this game didn't age nearly as gracefully as PS4 in particular. It's worth noting that there was a (Japan-only, but fan-translated a while ago) series of adventure games (Nei's adventure, Rudger's adventure etc.), each centered around one character from PS2. They were there to flesh them out, but most aren't really anything spectacular.
I would love to see a guide for Phantasy Star II and see what they included in there. Some of the things just felt so off the wall and I'm guessing you're absolutely right about making it weird to sell guides! I just, just finished Phantasy Star IV a few days ago, and that was a real joy to play, especially after playing this one. I loved it so much. I just need to find a way to put my feelings into words for a video. And I've definitely heard about those other PS games. I honestly just want more Nei in my life. I'll have to look into them.
there was also the classic tradition of having to share hints and tips with your friends that doesn't really translate out of context from that era, without the guidebook and watching my friends play it occasionally, i would have been quite lost, but with that knowledge inscribed on my soul, it's a very enjoyable playthrough, i make it through once every 5-10 years at least, but i can't get enough of the music: the "High Definition" Model 1 Genesis puts out some LOVELY bass (and other) frequencies!
@@skuzzbunny Maybe some day I'll come back to it, but in the meantime, there's a lot of other new experiences to have. You're absolutely right about that soundtrack though... what great music!
When I played this as a kid I planned a route through each dungeon with the hintbook before I actually went there. But even planning the route via the hintbook was difficult
I had a hard time figuring out where you entered each place without going in there first, but that seems like a great plan of attack. The maps I consulted with the numbers on stairwells and things at least made it easier for my mind to wrap around! Did you end up finishing the game?
I can’t wait for you to start streaming your world record speed run attempts at Phantasy Star 2. It’s 35 minutes and 28 seconds. BTW, I’m not being serious.
I just think it’s funny how all the party members join by visiting Eusis’ house and going like “Hi I heard you were going on a space adventure so I’m joining up!” Sort of takes the charm of finding new companions away when they just knock on your door like an Amazon delivery.
You know, I streamed this game live for almost two months for a few evenings a week, and people consistently had the same story as you. Most people didn't make it off Mota, but wanted to see how things ended.
Nice review, but I can't help but feel that you're holding a game that was released in 1989 up to the standards of a modern day rpg. Having played Phantasy Star II back in 1989 when it first released, I can tell you that for it's time, it was revolutionary. Sure the inventory system was cumbersome, but so were Dragon Warrior's and Final Fantasy's. Yes there were only 3 boss fights in the game, but that to me, made the game more believable (Gotta love the trope of fighting a dragon in a 10ft x 10ft room at the end of a dungeon). It gave more credence to the bio-monsters you encountered out in the wild. Unlike Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, where random encounters eventually turn into a series of constantly clicking attack to whack through lower level nuisances, in PSII you actually felt a sense of character growth by fighting battles that were once a grueling challenge and then seeing them become easier instead of a cakewalk. It also promoted exploration / experimentation with your techniques and items. In regards to exploration in the game. Yes, the dungeons were difficult and confusing. But the joy of completing a dungeon in of itself was the reward with PSII. As for items not having descriptions. Again, the game was made in 1989. A time where player hand holding wasn't a thing like it is now in most modern day games. The game required you to pay attention and memorize what does what. To this day I can still remember the differences between Foi, Zan, Tsu, Gra... Etc. I can't say that for a game like Final Fantasy XIII, for example, where I beat it and still can't even figure out / remember what it was about. While I enjoyed your review, and you do bring up some valid short comings of the game. I think you failed to recognize that the game is old. Really old. Perhaps when you play and review Phantasy Star III and IV you will give a little bit of thought to the context of when these games were made and what their competitors were doing at the time, instead of how they do not live up to, nor provide the luxuries of modern rpgs. But, that being said... Phantasy Star IV is brilliant. Even today, absolutely brilliant, but be warned... It doesn't hold hands and give descriptions to any items and spells either.
Truth be told, I haven't played any modern RPGs really. I realize the game is old. I've played games that are older than this and newer than this, but I'm holding the game to the standards of other things I've played from around that time as well. Things like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy came with huge manuals that laid out their spells, equipment etc. in a meaningful way, so I found them easier to pick up and play and had a better sense of what was going on when I was buying items. Ultima IV is very similar to those as well... I don't think I need to adjust my lens too much based on my own experiences here. As far as dungeon completions being a reward in itself go, I can see feeling that way if you were playing as a kid. Finally getting through to the other side, etc. was probably meaningful, but it didn't do it for me personally. And I'm not trying to change your mind at all, I'm just saying that it wasn't a good motivator for me and what I personally like in an RPG. I'd rather have some form of anticipation at the end of a trial like a dungeon and try out what I've learned on a boss fight, have my party wiped several times trying to figure it out, rinse and repeat. You're definitely right about the sense of growth as the enemies grew with you on the overworld though, like going from biomonsters to robots, etc. That was a neat touch that I didn't really get into here, but I liked that it was tied into the story. As I mentioned, the story was just fine. I think I'm really looking forward to Phantasy Star IV, but I might not play III right away. IV first to play the best of the best, and then if I still want some more Phantasy Star, I'll play III since I've heard it's a side story anyway. Thanks very much for your insightful comments. I think you're among friends here that really loved this game for its time and what it brought to the genre.
Nice response bro! I feel like I enjoyed your response more than her review. Yeah I feel like you gotta keep in mind when these games were made. That said, I’m playing it now and feel it’s not as good as PS1, which I’m almost done with. I’m using guides and online maps to play it and I can’t imagine playing it without them. Props to you for beating it as a kid without the internet. And I gotta say I can’t wait to play PSIV!
Bruh. This game wasn't even good for 1989 standards Mother 1 came out the exact same year as this game, and even its worst dungeons aren't anything compared to these.
@@hungrygoriya FWIW, this game also came with a massive manual and hint book that included dungeon maps. So that's part of what made it enjoyable back in the day compared to playing a used cart or emulating it now. You had a good resource to get through areas.
I replayed through this game recently for the first time in decades, and one of the main things I wanted to do was map the dungeons myself, like players would have with the original Japanese market release (those that didn’t buy strategy guides, anyway). For better or for worse, PS2 doubled down on the the dungeon-exploration aspect of PS1, making it the focus of the game. But it still kept the dungeon gimmicks minimal, making a lot of the dungeons a bit monotonous compared to more complex dungeon-mapping games like Wizardry or Bard’s Tale, and the mazes made of map doodads presented visually at an angle were more tedious to map than the convenient first-person grid of PS1. I enjoyed conquering the dungeons, and overall I like the game, but I do still like PS1 more. PS2’s dungeons, while large and mazy, weren’t interesting enough to make up for losing most of the the planetary exploration element from PS1. One thing I noticed playing the game with only the maps I make myself, is that I never needed to grind levels. Exploring every nook and cranny of the dungeons provided enough encounters.
I agree with everything you've said here, especially the bit about more dungeons not making up for less world exploration. Good for you for making maps on your own though... I don't think I could do that sort of thing well myself since when you come up a staircase, you might know what floor you're on but not the proximity or how it connects with other things on that floor. I have a really hard time visualizing that sort of thing, so good for you for being able to. That's really impressive.
Well I'll agree with you both, I remember as a kid that those dungeons felt like packing for adventure, a dangerous one. Feeling that you had to pack for dimates and trimates trying to push your exploration the farthest. Arriving on the top or the bottom floor only to discover some even more dangerous Ennemies and trying to make it anyway... Or run to come back stronger. Almost like the experience of a roguelike today I wouldn't want something like that from my RPG... Or would I? Maybe if it was optional for a handful of mazes. I don't know.
I enjoy your style of review quite a lot also like you explaining in detail your likes and dislikes. I've seen that in the end you went all the way and finished PSIV, I am happy you seem to have liked it. Did you plan to make a video for PSIV?
Awww thank you! I figure the best I can do in these videos is provide my own personal account, and people can form their own opinions if they decide to give a game a try. I would like to review PSIV one of these days, no doubt about it. I've actually started into writing that one, but I have a couple of other projects on the go first. Stay tuned!
@@hungrygoriya great, I check every so often, I am sure I'll see it when you'll publish it. Best of luck for your progression on youtube and twitch, I saw you were highlighted on twitch this month, better get the best out of it. Seeya ^^
@@Stefanswiss It's pretty surreal being on the front page of Twitch this June. I'm trying to make the most of it and really try to represent Retro the best I can. Thanks so much for your patience and well-wishes!
I'm... kind of glad to know I'm not alone. I've always liked the character designs and atmosphere of Phantasy Star 2, but I never enjoyed it as much as the other games in the series, and I always thought there was something I wasn't "getting" about the game. I didn't finish it, but my frustrations mirrored yours pretty closely. This did get a Japan-only remake on PS2 which, from what I understand, added more character moments, dialogue and item descriptions
You are definitely not alone! When I played the game on stream and got talking with people there, people either really loved the game, or never finished it because they felt the task was insurmountable because of all of the dungeons and lack of direction. It's sad since they set up so much in the first game. This feels like a huge departure from that game's intention and its spirit. I didn't realize they did a re-release with what you've described here... that would've probably made it more palatable for me! Why Japan-only I wonder?
@@hungrygoriya Sony's American branch put limits on how many sprite-based 2D games publishers were allowed to put out on PSOne and PS2, and the remake is all sprites (though very nice ones). This kept a LOT of games from releasing outside Japan on those platforms, and it's pretty upsetting. On the bright side, there is a fan translation available for that PS2 version
You make a lot of valid points! I grew up with the Phantasy Star series since age 5, so I have a love and fondness for all of the games. Fun fact: Phantasy Star 2 also came with a foldable, overview world map of Mota and Dezolis. And on the back, it listed the following: • Every technique, who can perform them, how many TP they cost, what effect they have, how many party/ enemies they affect (and what "type" of enemies they affect); • Every weapon type, the price, who can wield them, and where you can obtain them; • Every armour type, the price, who can wear them, and where you can obtain them. Happy to hear you enjoyed Phantasy Star 1 and 4, though! They're classics! I also just finished your journey through Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun! Your playthrough was very enjoyable! It brought back a lot of fun memories. That's another game I love from my childhood. :) Anyway, keep up the great work! Cheers from a fellow Canadian (Nova Scotia)* 🇨🇦 🍁
An interesting review -- Phantasy Star II was my first RPG I ever played, and as a kid, I was absolutely ENTHRALLED with it. I'd never played anything else like it before, and it sparked my love affair with RPGs that continues to this day. It's also the only Phantasy Star game I've ever played, however. I never played the first, and never went on to play 3 or 4. (Though I suppose I did play Phantasy Star Universe on PS2, if that counts -- and unlike a lot of people, I quite liked it! It was like a playable sci-fi B-movie, and was just such a cheesy, campy joy that I couldn't help but enjoy its goofy anime-ness.) And I also could NEVER return to this game. The encounter rate, and the grind, is just too over-the-top. I have patience for slow games, but there's a limit to that patience, and this level of grind is well beyond that limit. But from the perspective of a roughly 10-year-old kid who'd never played an RPG before, I can honestly say that this game was pretty amazing at the time, and has always held a firm spot in my heart as a result. I think circumstances contribute to that more than the quality of the game itself, but nonetheless... it's not a game without its merits. It's just a messy, unfinished game that's more potential than it is delivery IMHO. ...I'm more fascinated by your insinuation that Illusion of Gaia was disappointing, though, as THAT'S a game I have some VERY fond memories of -- and while I haven't played it in a long time, I can't imagine it doesn't hold up, as that game had some great action, and a really heartfelt, really meaningful story to it that I remember really moving me back in the day. And its soundtrack was just A+ all around! Then again, as with Phantasy Star II, I've never played either Soul Blazer or Terranigma, so I have no basis of comparison to see how IoG could've been a disappointment. I think on its own merits, though, it's still a pretty damn good game! Time to see if you've got a review video of that one for me to watch through. ;)
This response is exactly what I've heard from many people: it was an RPG first for them, and where the game fell in their own experiences or in time for the genre itself really blew them out of the water. I definitely respect those sentiments and I only wish I'd been able to try it out at a time in my own life where it would've been a lot more meaningful. As a standalone game compared to others I've played from the same time though, I just couldn't bring myself to like it much past its story. It's nice to hear so many people have fond memories though! I've played Phantasy Star IV since and I'd honestly say that it was one of my favourite RPGs of all time. It's fantastic. I hope you'll play it someday.
Is this review a cliffhanger? Are we to never know your thoughts and feelings on 3 & 4? Thank you for sharing your experiences and reactions. While I share a lot of your genre affinities, we have very different takes on our experiences with them and I appreciate hearing yours.
Have to say this is one of my favorites but it is most definitely painful to play through. I think my fondness comes more from how it was an interesting transition point between 8 bit and 16 bit RPGs, with it coming out in 1989 and not really having a blueprint for how to progress the genre. It relies very much on the minimalist game design philosophy but also gives just enough crumbs to make you want to know what comes next. And I adore the vague, almost depressing, ending for how drastically different it was from anything the time with an almost somber tone. Still I very much I understand all the complaints here, it's very much not as enjoyable to play as the original or IV (III varies a lot person to person I noticed). But I also acknowledge I'm far more about concept over execution when it comes to stuff like this.
That's definitely a fair assessment that I can respect! I wish I'd enjoyed this one more but it just didn't do it for me. I wonder if I would've felt different back in the day or if it would've frustrated me as much anyway.
I might do something for PSIV when I get there, but I'm actually working on an Ys IV review that'll also address the others I've played in the series. I just just finished Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap a week or two ago too... lots coming down the pipe! Stay tuned :)
U absolutely nailed this review...I unfortunately played this game first before any other in the series and by the time I realized how painful things were getting I was already so invested time wise I had to force myself to finish it...fortunately I immediately played the fourth game after this one and got the satisfying closure needed
Thanks so much! I am glad PS4 came through for you. I played it this past summer and it was spectacular. Probably one of my favourite RPGs at this point!
Great review overall! I got this game along with a Sega Genesis in 1990, great memories! My older brother and I spent way too many hours trying to navigate the dungeons and the hint guide that it came with. The game was super challenging though back then, we didn't have anything to compare it to so perhaps its a different perspective playing it more recently compared to 30+ years ago. I would disagree regarding the ending, I think its one of the best of any game I've played and still resonates with me many years later. Could be that age and being impressionable as a kid / nostalgia plays a big factor here. I loved the twist and the fact that we never knew what happened. It left me wanting more as I played out different scenarios in my head as a kid. It hit me in a way that other games didn't. As a musician too, the pieces are super memorable and unique - kudos to the composers who really were able to achieve something special here!
Thanks for sharing some of your memories with your brother playing this one. I feel like challenging is an understatement, but I can see the appeal of playing this as kids with someone else and putting your heads together trying to figure everything out. I'm glad you enjoyed the ending so much! I just hoped for a little something more given how little story was sprinkled into the rest of the game. It was so sparse that it would've been nice to have something a bit more concrete but in terms of its shock factor? Definitely unique. The music's really good, for sure. The soundtrack has lots of range from dark and mysterious to upbeat and peppy. They did a fantastic job with it.
The music and sound effects were probably the only things that kept me stuck to this game when I was little. The way that all the music was at the same tempo made playing this game kind of a meditative experience for me, going in and out of battle, and the sound effects they came up with only compounded the effects with how a lot of the attacks or techniques took the same amount of time to go off. A machine gun would make like a soft thumping noise rather than a stressful realistic noise, and it was always satisfying to see Anna throw her slashers, watch 'em fade into the distance and twinkle out, and then suddenly come back to fly through a whole group of monsters. The scantily-clad women were what kept me going back to the game when I wasn't little :3
great review. I loved it back in the day, was playing it around ~1995 together with Shining Force 2. Loved them both, had nothing to compare them to but to one another:) I guess I was the kid with all the time in the world to hand-craft the maps of phantasy star 2; the guide book was obviously missing, there's no way you could memorize the places by heart.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time with this one so much. I had a few games I aimlessly wandered around in growing up as well like Zelda 1 and Faxanadu. I never finished them properly until I was an adult.
I like the style and themes of Phantasy Star 2, but story-wise it is a mess. The proposed original plot would have been better even if I think it was a good idea to have each PS have its own protagonists. This game would not so much need a remake but a rebuild to implement lessons from later rpgs. If the main character is an agent working for the government, let him do more jobs for it. Have all characters have their own personal quest and dialogue during the campaign, and the player running into them rather than them knocking on the player's house door because they want to join.
Agreed! I think random people showing up to join the party's a little weird and didn't really fit well with a grand RPG adventure, but at least there were party members I guess...
@@hungrygoriya True but even PS1 handled it in general better once the player had recruited Myau who would send the player to look for Odin and then Lutz. This would tie into the player carrying out various missions. While looking into the bandits (I refuse to call them rascals or whatever PS2's translator called them), the player would meet Amy while she is attending people injured by the bandits' attacks. She would then offer to join the player as she wants to prevent more people from being hurt. And when robots start to appear the player could run into Kain in some robot manufacturing plant as he is trying to find out what is wrong with the robots that makes them go rogue. I know hindsight is 20/20 but I see so many possibilities how this could go better. The player for example assisting Rudolf Steiner on his personal quest to avenge his family by tracking down the biomonsters that killed his wife and daughter.
Hey, just found out your channel! I love the way you talk about the games! Phantasy star is a franchise I've tried to play many times, but it's too slow for me, I prefer other stuff... One question, have you ever played a game from the ogre battle series? It's my favorite franchise from all time, and I would love to hear your opinion of it!
Turn-based stuff tends to be pretty slow sometimes, but I enjoy it quite a bit. Phantasy Star IV has some great autobattle features that speed things up a bit. I haven't played any Ogre Battle yet. I have the games for SNES and N64, and I think the PS1 remake. Do you have a favourite?
@@hungrygoriya I believe that the N64 version is better polished, but my teenage nostalgia makes me prefer the snes one, but I believe they are the best ones! There are some other games from the same saga that is good too, but they are way different systems!
Another great review! I honestly don't know why this game gets so much love, it really was a big come down from the original game. Personally I even think the original 8 bit looks better, especially that beautiful dungeon crawling which for some reason they dropped. Look forward to your next reviews, really are so many genesis rpgs out there for you to enjoy.
Thank you kindly! I think it's all very subjective about when people came to the game and what they had been playing beforehand. For me, I've experienced lots of other games after this one, so coming to it brand new at the time, it was probably a lot more impressive... I loved the first game quite a lot, but I also played that one in my 30s. I don't have nostalgia for this series at all, so it might seem harsher in a lot of ways. I've got something on Crusader of Centy in the works too, so keep an eye out for that if I can ever get it together!
@@hungrygoriya that's my experience too. The games were just so expensive when I was a kid and I was only lucky enough to get the original on rental for a few days at a time and never got around to trying the sequels until years later on emulators. As highly rated as they are nothing beats the impact of the original, its really iconic. Look forward to the Centy review! I have played it a bit and its a solid zelda type of game, believe its incredibly rare now though.
So many memories. This was the first RPG I remember playing. A baby sitter forgot it at our house when I was around six, and at that time my mind was very SMB shaped so the expansive, explorative nature of this one was lost on me. I did "imprint' on the music and aesthetics, however, and years later I played this for a charity event in basically two marathon sessions. That's NOT a good way to experience Phantasy Star II. Though after making it to the penultimate boss I don't really know if there is one. Aimless plot, bewildering fetch quests, and dungeon design that gives Final Fantasy II a run for its money. To this day when I encounter dungeons that basically force you take the longest possible route between two points, I think of PSII dungeon design. Still, couldn't resist picking up a Japanese copy for my MD collection when one drifted my way! Great video, have grown to really enjoy this channel!
I'm glad you have some fond memories of this game. The music is really fantastic so I can see why you would've had it burned in your mind for your whole life. And marathoning PSII sounds terrible... have you tried it again casually since or was that enough PSII for a long while for you? And thanks very much. I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!
I appreciate your channel’s “no nostalgia” take on some games, like this one. Helps balance things out to find a more honest answer to “Is this worth my time?”. I find everything about PS2’s aesthetics to be cool and what it pioneered, but I think I’m going straight to IV after having just recently been surprised by how much I enjoyed 1 (the Ages version on Switch with automap, etc.)
Wow, be brutally honest with us XD PStar2 is a game that really needed the player to adjust in order to enjoy it. I hated almost everything about it when I first started the game too, but eventually it became one of the greatest influences on my life ever. My appreciation for that game only got even stronger as the years went by, as besides the character development flaws you've pointed out, the game was an effort of pure love being put into the game gameplay wise. The visuals were lacking, but if I remember correctly, there were other reasons for that (I think half the team had split up to do another project). It's refreshing to hear another point of view, especially a negative one, but I'm not so sure personal distaste for the story's direction is very useful from an objective standpoint - this was groundbreaking story telling for almost at least 10 years after it's release. All in all, thanks for giving me more content to watch on this fantastic game.
It's nice to hear that it had such an impact on you. I wish very much I'd enjoyed this one more after liking the first one so much, but it just didn't do much good for me. I don't know that I ever really set out to be objective here in these videos. I'm no expert on video games, nor do I have the breadth and scope in my playing experience to become one. I'm only trying to convey my own experience with the game, and I have no doubt that the storytelling here was cool for the time. I just didn't like how it left me hanging after already struggling to get into these characters to begin with. If I'd cared about them a little more by the game's end, it might've been more impactful for me. You're very welcome. Thanks for coming into this video with an open mind!
My love for Phantasy Star 1 on the Master System could literally fill a Phantasy Star 2 hint book. I played PS2 back when it released and it was a slog, but as a new Genesis owner it was the only slog available. It's not great, it's ending is so little of what made me play games at that point and it's loss of Nei so early in the game made me wish for a "champions quest" or new game plus to fulfill having Nei as a part of your party and maybe a directive change. High hopes. I loaned my Hint Book to someone long ago and as of the ninth attempt in my life to play thru PS2, I usually make it to Nei's death, turn off the console and remove the cart. No replay has ever gone beyond that point regardless. Great channel, great reviews.
Thanks so much for the kind words. I think the game up until Nei's death is pretty great, and like I mentioned here, I did get off on the right foot with this one until the dungeons became insufferable. I think it has good bones but doesn't come together well in the way it needs to in order to feel cohesive and well... fun?
An extremely fair review, Goriya. I respect this game for having some of the most brutal dungeons I've ever encountered in a JRPG, but getting through them once was enough for me.
To be honest, being hard doesn't make it good. There was nothing interesting about these dungeons to make them worth exploring. The rabbits that had guts falling out and having them pulled back in constantly that ACTUALLY looked like something they were doing something else cracked me up though.
I am always so conflicted by this game. I wanted to play it when it came out but I did not get a copy of this game on a real Sega Genesis until the late 2000's. I think this game really needs the Sega Ages update and an option to lower encounter rate and gives for EP and meseta. I like the chances they took with killing Nei and the ending. The piano teacher and dungeons are brutal and an internet walkthrough helps a lot. I was so disappointed I could not go to Palma/Parma or experience Baya Malay again. The developers made a choice not to let you save anywhere because they were concerned that a player could save someplace where they couldn't get out and then have to restart the whole game. Overall I like this game. I like the dungeon graphics with the 3D look. I liked the enemy animations and story. I like this game's place in the series and that it is a true successor to the first game. I understand it's flaws and your review has a lot of valid criticism in it. I give this game a better grade but I like your opinion too and I really like the way you explained and justified it. I think 1 is my favorite game in the series but 4 is the best and most polished. 2 and 3 are not as good in my opinion.
I can see why you feel the way you do... it's not a bad game, but it just feels like a skeleton of one to me. It has such good bones and with a little more thought and development story/character-wise, it could've been a knock-out. I was also really bummed about not being able to go back to Palma too. Silly me thought that being one planet short was going to mean being that much of a shorter game, but nope! I loved Palma the best from the first game by a long stretch, especially since it was mostly where three of the four main characters were from.
Hungry Goriya there’s a good reason why it feels that way the development was rushed. This was originally going to be a master system game. www.sega-16.com/2018/02/behind-the-design-phantasy-star-ii/ I like your videos and opinions please keep making them.
It was my first JRPG and it got me hooked with the genre. I tried playing it without the hintbook and i got stuck on that island looking for the real tree.
The (full) hintbook tells you exactly how to get the visiphone. I bought this when it came out. Rpg's are supposed to be challenging. Try playing it without the maps. The ending was the best of any game because nobody expected it to reflect reality.
I realize that the hint book more or less has a full walkthrough, but I don't usually play with a guide. I try to figure things out and where to go on my own. The only thing I looked at in the hint book were the maps, which didn't really help me much as I mentioned here. And I only started consulting them because my attempts at mapping these places were futile. I'm usually up for a challenge and break out the graph paper whenever dungeons need to be plotted out (this time was no different), but I really struggled with these ones for some reason. I couldn't get my bearings and I couldn't really see how each floor was connected. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the ending. I think its novelty factor is cool, but it didn't resolve anything for the characters that we'd been adventuring with for hours and hours. I didn't like it, but it's fine if you did. I've met a lot of people in this comments section that enjoyed the game, but it's just not for me.
I think for a lot of people, it was their first 16-bit RPG so it's special to them. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I didn't have the privilege of viewing this game with that lens.
Never played it. Found your work through the SimTower 5 Star video. Please keep reviewing. I hope you'll try out SimCopter. It's recently had a fan-patch to work on Windows 10.
Nice! I have a bunch of other Sim games hanging around that I'd like to try out sometime. Thanks for the info about the fan-patch and for checking out the rest of the channel!
@@hungrygoriya No problem. It's an incredibly fun game, with an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack. The Patch is called SimCopterX, and since SimCopter is technically abandonware, I think you can get it for free and avoid trouble for doing so.
It was better than first 2-3 Dragon Quest games. They were horribly slow. The combat & music were good though (as stated) the dungeons got awfully confusing. Though PS 4 was solid.
This game is not overrated this game was insanely amazing at the time there was nothing that looked that good played that good was that much of an open world to explore and had intricate turn-based combat to that level of complexity it aged terribly and everything else is done it better sense NBA being rushed for a Christmas release heard it overall but I assure you in 1990 there was nothing even close to how amazing this game was
10:05 the manual explicitly says how to get the visiphone. The game came with a full walkthrough as you mentioned earlier your copy was missing it. I got this game when it came out. I was 7 years old. I had a visiphone. The game also came with a world map and on the reverse side was a full chart of every gear in the game with stats and a handy chart of who could equip every item. Many of your criticisms of the game are valid but these points show your lack of attention.
It's not really a lack of attention. I only used the hint book for the maps and didn't treat it like a walkthrough, so I didn't read words on the pages, just looked at the pictures to help orient myself. There's a big difference!
I’m curious to know if you’ve played 3 and 4 yet. 4 is so great. 3 is… well I’m curious to know whether you like it more or less than you did 2. I could see it going either way.
I haven't played 3 yet, but I did eventually get around to 4. I really enjoyed it. I think I'll get around to 3 someday, but not yet. I have other things I'd rather play first!
I remember it you would open your menu and close it constantly while walking you could move through dungeons without fighting. Annoying but a time saver
I did hear about this while I was playing through! It's nice that it's an option, but I usually livestream a lot of games when I play through them so I don't think it would've made for very good viewing as helpful as it would've been, haha
this is another of the games i rented and couldn't get far in. i think i got into the third dungeon when they started getting too complex (and renting it, i had no instructions/maps). i do remember getting to where nei died, but i didn't get much past that. do you still plan on playing phantasy star 3 and 4? it's been 3 years since this video and you don't have videos on them on your channel so it feels like this game killed your desire to play the others.
Although PS2 is one of my favorite games of all time, your criticisms are valid. But I don't think you give enough credit to the uniqueness of the plot twist at the end! It may seem mundane nowadays but in 1989 it was very original!
I think the twist was a fun idea, but I guess I was hoping for a resolution that felt like it fit the rest of the game. It seemed out of left field when we were immersed in a different galaxy and suddenly earth folks turn up. Not to mention how they left it hanging so hard and never spoke of these people again in later games other than a few lines.
I love your videos, your voice is the perfect balance of chill and intellect. All that being said, every time I replay PS2 I happen on the enemy robot that can attack you on the Motavia seas (in the Jet Scooter) called INFORMER, and like clockwork, I look up the rap song by Snow "Informer, You know say daddy me Snow me I go blame, A licky boom boom down, 'Tective-man he said me daddy me Snow stabbed someone down the lane, A licky boom boom down" And it's weird cuz the two have nothing to do with each other other than the name of that enemy, but the guy who sings it looks like someone who might have been playing Phantasy Star 2 at the time too lol... but man can that guy rap
Thanks so much! I think I would only know Snow's hits from the Much Music countdown back from the late 90s, but I don't know this particular song. That's hilarious though... I've definitely had similar associations once in a while too! Nothing Snow-related though!
I recently sold my physical copy of Phantasy Star II . A part of me wondered if I should’ve held onto it since it is an RPG. After watching this video I feel a little bit better about my choice to sell it. I feel like this is one of those games if it were the 80s and it was literally the only game I had I guess I could see how people would like this...But as an adult with limited time in 2020 I feel like I’d be better off playing other games . Great video !
Thanks so much for your kind words. And I feel exactly the same way.This game just didn't hold up for me, but I think what bothered me the most was how many steps backwards they took from Phantasy Star 1. I had high hopes, and unfortunately they were dashed.
This was my first JRPG back in the day, and it remains my fondest gaming experience of all time. I made my way though it armed only with the vague hint book, and it took me several months. I had no idea what grinding was, but I felt underpowered, so I just kept battling outside of the first town for literally weeks, slowly inching away from safety. I loved the music, how foreign things looked, the weird items and stats, the game was simply like nothing I had ever tried before. Without any preconceptions, I simply loved it, and I still do. Even though I can see that it is a massively flawed design on several levels. I picked up the SEGA AGES version of the original game last year and finally played it after all these years. I was shocked by how good it still is, and it really is more impressive than II. I sort of regret not playing it back then. But honestly, I was just as enthralled by it as I was by Phantasy Star II all those years ago, so it all worked out well. And then there's PSIII, which I did buy after finishing II. Now THAT was a disappointment to me. I respected the ambition in the generations system, but it just felt oddly depressing and not like Phantasy Star at all to me. But I have finally obtained a copy of IV, which I am going to play on my original Mega Drive. I am hoping that this experience will be just as special as the first two games were for me.
I'm glad you finally got to try out the first game. I liked it a lot better than this one for many reasons, and the Sega Ages version seems like a great reason to replay it one of these days. Good luck with Phantasy Star IV when you get around to it. I think it's a fantastic experience.
Say what you want about the cryptic gameplay, I found it to be very confusing as well, but I still think it was worth it for one of the best endings ever. I mean, think about it: what other game has an ending like this? I’m pretty sure if you try to leave the last area it says “You can’t go back again!” implying that they’re trapped forever, so they might as well all die guns blazing hatefully toward their final enemies. Really made me think. I love endings in movies and such where you have to use your imagination as to what happens afterward while still resolving some things. I feel like Phantasy Star 4 resolving what happens would kind of ruin it for me. Oh, and plus I played through 2 in 2010 so I was 23 and it was past the game’s novelty. Overall, great review, the game is definitely not for everybody but is so worth it for insane people like me.
I guess if you liked the ending, the struggle to get there was worth it, haha... glad you liked it! I wouldn't call you insane by a long stretch. There are a lot of folks in this very comments section that adore this game so you're not alone. I'm probably in the minority.
This was my legit first RPG. I remember buying it at Toys R Us and it costing about 80 bucks at the time. It was a toss up between this and The Sword of Vermilion. If it wasn't for that included book I would have been boned. LOL Absolutely love your reviews of these games!
For a moment, I thought I read Sword of Sodan and was convinced you'd dodged an enormous bullet there by picking up Phantasy Star II instead! But thanks so much! I didn't hate this game by any means... it was just different than what I had been hoping for in a lot of ways. I hope you enjoyed it! I know a lot of folks that also played this when it was first out, and it was their first big step into RPGs after Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, so their memories of that time are very rosy. I'm a bit jealous of them :)
@@hungrygoriya ROTFL. I honestly had seen ads in some game magazine for the original Phantasy Star and it just looked awesome, I really really wanted to play it but at the time i didn't own a master system and buying one would have been a step back as I think it was all about 16 bits then. But from the pics shown, it looked amazing. One day I will play that! As for part 2, It was an okay game, if you didn't have the book, it was very problematic. Especially when teleporting around those mazes. I think the thing I remember most was building up Nei into an unstoppable killing machine only to have her die and take all my experience with her...LOL... Later I found out you could cheat with a glitch and still get to keep her somehow. Anyways, keep up the fab videos, i'm sorta binging them!
@@nebulapig Well, do you think you'd enjoy playing the Sega Ages version? It does automapping and just streamlines the game in a few ways to make it better, but I played the Master System version and loved it as well. I couldn't even get through some parts with the book! I couldn't imagine not playing with it at all... Losing Nei was just the worst feeling. She was the best character and came and went so quickly :( People mentioned the glitch to me too but I had no idea how to go about it. I'm not sure at all how it works... something to aim for in the very faraway future when I probably won't play this one again! And thank you kindly about the videos :) I'm glad you're enjoying them. Have fun going through the channel, and thanks in advance!
@@hungrygoriya You are right, they do have it on the switch. Now i will have to search through and see if they have Golden Axe Warrior. Which I now also want to play thanks to you! Yes I wouldn't play through Part 2 again, unless like Resident evil 3 I could get a weapon of mass destruction with unlimited power.
@@nebulapig I know Golden Axe Warrior is definitely on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection as an unlockable. I'm not sure how else it's available these days, but I hope you love it as much as I did when you try it out!
So, Phantasy Star 2 was literally my first RPG ever, by merit of me borrowing it off a friend's friend back when I was around 11 or 12. I only had the game and manual, not the hint book, so not really knowing what to do or where to go on a clean save, I instead continued off the save file that was already there, which left off just after the Climatrol dungeon (So I had absolutely no idea where Nei went off to at that point in the game). Somehow, just by blindly stumbling through, with a moderate-to-okay grasp of the English language (I'm Dutch), and no guide book whatsoever, I managed to find the musician for the MUSIK technique, find the hidden control tower where the Dam's keycards are, make my way through the 4 dams, and reach Dezo, where I eventually got stuck because I never figured out that there was an entrance to the crevice leading to the Esper mansion. This while not really having grasped the concept of "buying new weapons and armor", instead powering through with the (admittedly very good) equipment upgrades you find in the dams. So you could say that for all its flaws, the game left a massive lasting impression on 11-year-old me who, while owning a Master System, did not own the original Phantasy Star, and never actually played an RPG before this. As a result, Phantasy Star 2 is actually a VERY nostalgia-blinded, rose-tinted personal favourite of mine, and I still love to play through it from time to time (although nowadays I tend to use improvement patches to cut down on the need for grinding). All of that said, while I was a little disappointed about the negativity of this review, deep down, I can't really fault you for it, either. It's possible that if I had played the original Phantasy Star before this one, I might have had the same feelings about it. This game has flaws, most noticeably how it's a shame that all the party members feel like "blank slates" (likely due to the fact that they can be interchanged at will, so it would be tricky to write situational dialogue for characters who might not even be in your party at all). This is partially remedied with the Phantasy Star 2 Text Adventure games, a collection of individual short adventures that flesh out each character's backstory and motivation for joining the fight against Mother Brain. Perhaps it might be interesting if you explored these for another video!
I recently bought Sega Genesis Classics for Switch and was trying to decide which games to play because there are so many. I remember some of them fondly, but some of them I barely remember or don't remember at all. I was a '90s kid who mostly liked the NES and SNES, but I also liked the Genesis, and this is a great opportunity to play Genesis games that I didn't get a chance to play at the time. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and one of the games that has the best reviews is Phantasy Star II. I just started playing it yesterday and looked it up on TH-cam to see whether people had advice because it's kind of confusing. This video makes me less enthusiastic about Phantasy Star II, but I'm going to try it anyway. I'm sure I would have started with the first Phantasy Star, but it's on Sega Master System, so it makes sense that they wouldn't include it among Genesis games. I would like to ask about Phantasy Star III and IV. How do they compare to the first two? I'm sure there are reviews on TH-cam, but I don't have enough time to watch them. I've been too busy playing Sega Genesis Classics, as well as the NES, SNES, Game Boy and Game Boy Color games from Switch Online. As you can tell, I'm obsessed with retro games, especially the 16-bit ones.
There's a ton of great stuff to experience on the Genesis, so I'm glad you're getting around to it. I'd say definitely try this game out for yourself and see how you like it, but use a guide if you need to. I wish I'd started using one sooner, especially for some of the tougher areas. I try to only use what the game provided and avoid walkthroughs (even if they're in the manual) but there's no shame in using them for this game. I haven't played Phantasy Star III yet, but I did play IV since this video. It's phenomenal. It's undoubtedly one of my favourite RPGs and one of the best games I've played on the Genesis.
It definitely requires a walkthrough, but I'm used to that sort of thing because I've been playing retro games on Switch like EarthBound Beginnings. I'd have no chance of getting anywhere if gamefaqs didn't exist. Sometimes I need TH-cam so I can see someone demonstrating how to do a certain task.
Totally agree on your assessment here. Fortunately for me, I played the original game and followed-up with IV as I took a brief hiatus from RPG's during my mid-teens. Going back to play II and subsequently III afterward felt even more clunky than they might have otherwise. The encounter rate in II is especially frustrating, and like you mentioned, the inability to save your progress early on without being in a town was anxiety-inducing. I think the biggest benefit from playing the series in the order I did was that the ending of II turned out to feel like more of a "fleshing-out" of the story and less of the garbage cliffhanger that it actually was. :) I can't wait to see how you feel about PSIV!
I've only dabbled with the first (and that's the modern Ages release on Switch versus the original release), and I've certainly dug the the concept so far. It's a shame that the production troubles led this to being a bit of a mess - let alone that ending. That's something which should be been resolved in the third, not the fourth. I guess the big question if you do decide to go onto IV, is whether or not you can actually pick up the story without too much being lost.
From what I understand, the third game was almost a complete sidebar to the main game thread, so I think I'd be alright skipping 3 for the moment. I also really want to get around to playing the Ages release for Switch! I've heard wonderful things, and the automapping feature sounds angelic.
Good review, in the middle of sega ages Phantasy Star 1 and kinda enjoying it so was looking to see if I should get the sega collection or just see if there's a romhack patch.... honestly doesn't look like a patch could save this game, it'd need to be completely rebuilt!
I can't really recommend this one. I think it pales in comparison to Phantasy Star 1, but Phantasy Star IV is phenomenal. I've played it since this review and it's definitely worth playing. I'd love to see PS2 get the Sega Ages treatment but have a lot of changes made to make it way less obnoxious.
@@hungrygoriya I do really hope to play 4 sometime soon! Thanks for the review, as for P2 getting the sega Ages treatment, I'm not sure, to make that game decent sounds like you'd have to strip so much out that it wouldn't really be the same game anymore, and I have to admit, while I'm kind of enjoying my p1 playthrough I wish it was more adaption than translation, as I would prefer the story to be expanded and retranslated a bit (like FF1 on GBA vs OG NES)
I found your channel looking for a review of this. Well thought out, well reasoned, and presented superbly. Subbed. And so should you, person reading this.
That's very kind of you to say... I'm glad you enjoyed the review. People are either hot or cold on this one, so I know I'm not necessarily among the majority here, but I just didn't have the best time with this one.
@@hungrygoriya I enjoy it, however it's definitely got design choices that are perplexing. And I agree with all your criticisms of the game. I guess it depends if the player decides if they can get over those bumps in the road. Different strokes for different fokes. Thank you for the content and reply.
Thanks very much! I've met a lot of people in this comments section that love the game, but it just wasn't for me. I'm glad it has fans because it does have a lot of good in it!
Hahahhah I like the humorous descriptions of this major let-down xD ...also I've heard a couple other reviews to a similar effect, but this got me laughing more
I never got into this one cause I tended to like the Medieval settings and even now I'm not likely to read a Medieval Fantasy novel as opposed to any Sci-fi novels for some odd reason I cant explain because I enjoy Sci-fi shows and movies
Is it maybe because it's a little more abstract? I'm a visual person and enjoy shows and movies a lot more than sci-fi books as well, but truth be told, I don't do a lot of reading these days. I do like games with sci-fi themes though, and really enjoyed the mix in the original Phantasy Star.
@@hungrygoriya I'm not sure what it is...but for instance I've read just about every single Warhammer novel there is but when it came to Warhammer 40K I barely made it through one book and now of the books are written by some of my favorite authors from Warhammer Fantasy. I can visualize a horde of orcs screaming towards an army of human and dwarves but I just can't do the same for a horde of orcs invading from a spaceship...
@@orionlsd Hmmm... that's probably a lot more common than you think. It'd be an interesting question to pose to a large group and see what comes up, honestly!
I’ve been patiently waiting for this review! Great job as usual and the end seemed very fitting for your thoughts of the game. Thank you for the review :)
Oh dear, my regards to everybody who didn't get the guide-book with their copy of the game. I was a huge fan of the ending but I was reading dark depressing sci-fi and horror at the time in the early 90's, and after a certain Falcom game I hold to the highest regard I'm clearly still into these sorts of endings. Ultimately it's hard to get back to PSII when PSIV is begging for another replay, what a phenomenally well-aged game..
I will take your regards :) And yeah, I can see how an ending like that can be exciting... I'm just sad it wasn't a bookend on a really great story overall. I can't wait to play PSIV!
So true. I was incredibly frustrated by this game back in the day. I just started replaying it on the Sega Genesis Mini 2, Easy mode for faster leveling. At least I have quick save states now. Great job on this video.
You are absolutely correct. Adding a level 1 character when everyone else is much higher level is bad game design that should be obviously a bad idea to anyone. No idea why the devs didn't see that.
Yeah! It's not even like they caught up quickly either. I've seen some games where they make it so that the new character levels up quickly but it didn't feel like that in this case.
Good review! However, I would like to add some points to what you said about the ending (spoiler warnings!): While the ending (and the final dungeon) might at first glance seem rushed and just drop off without a resolution, it is actually an attempt by the developers at a read-between-the-lines type of ending. I will describe some of these plot points (and by the way, none of these are taken from Phantasy Star 4 or any other media; they are taken from PS1 and PS2 only): First, regarding the fight with Dark Force (at 13:13 in the video): The implication in PS1 was that Dark Force possessed Emperor Lassic (this is what made him turn into a tyrant), and when Alis and her friends kills Lassic, Dark Force escapes to Paseo and tries to possess the mayor instead, but it does not have the time to complete this process, so it decides to fight you itself once you arrive at the Paseo castle. Then in PS2, the fact that Dark Force is onboard the human spaceship in a chest implies that it possessed the humans of Earth once, which is what caused them to destroy their own planet and set their sights on planet Mota. This makes Dark Force a much more frightening monster, as we now know that not only can it resurrect after having been killed, but it can also appear in any solar system in the universe. In other words, you are not safe from Dark Force, no matter when or where you exist in the universe. Then, about the message about the "duality of man" they try to force down your throat (at 13:30): Yes, that was indeed a bit forced, but there is a bigger message the game wants to tell you here: it was the greed and cruelty of the humans (influenced by Dark Force) that caused the destruction of their home planet, but it was also this greed and cruelty that lead to their downfall here in the ending of PS2. When the humans tried to kill Neifirst for being an early failed experiment, Neifirst went berserk and tried to destroy the climate and breeding of lifeforms on Mota as revenge, and this is what alerted Rolf and the government of Paseo to investigate the situation. In other words, it was the human's own cruelty, greed, and coldness that set the events in motion that would eventually lead to their downfall. It is a case of history repeating itself and poetic justice. (Side note: This makes Nei's death so much more tragic, as she had to sacrifice her life for the humans to be stopped.) Finally, about the final scene when the main characters battle the humans without revealing the outcome (at 13:46): yes, this is indeed cheesy, but having this open ending actually makes sense. When Rolf and his friends meets Mother Brain earlier, she warns them that the planet of Mota is likely to fall into chaos if she dies, as the people of Mota have become so dependent on her. And to add to this, the planet of Palma is destroyed (it got destroyed by the Gaira satellite earlier in the game), and the planet of Desoliz is just a cold, barren wasteland normally not suitable for humans to live on. In other words, regardless if they win the fight against the humans or not, they are facing a very bleak future which they might not survive. In conclusion, yes, the ending was not perfect by any means, and they could have done some things better, but at least they tried to do something a little deeper. As much as I like PS1, I prefer the PS2's ending over PS1's. PS1's ending feels a little too happy and cliché, with Alis becoming queen and living happily ever after, which feels like an ending more for a Disney princess than a powerful RPG heroine.
These are all interesting thoughts about the events of Phantasy Star 1 and 2 and how they tie into PS2's ending so nicely. You've clearly done a lot of thinking on the events from both games and I can appreciate some of the small details that were lost on me during my playthrough. Thanks for sharing!
I have this series of games. I'm saving them for this winter when I'm laid off from Construction. Your videos are an excellent resource for the games I'm collecting and saving for this winter.
I don't know what the release was like in the US or North America, but in Europe or Germany the game was sold with a small official solution/hint book at the time, so many puzzles, such as finding the piano teacher, were not a big problem in themselves. But of course I understand that if you didn't have the solution book, the game was a lot harder.
I was able to find an online copy of the hint book, but I don't usually like playing with a guide. I used it for the maps but didn't really read anything else in it. I prefer when games are built well and let me figure stuff out without having my hand held.
Maybe because parma being the planet with the most parmans was already organized. I'd love to make a remake where this would be implied, that motavia is down for being completly dedicated to people indulging in Utopia and leisure whereas on Parma the power in place is resisting this Idea and is at War with mother brain only to be defeated during PSII. Obviously the true reason is because they were short on Time and so they skipped a planet and gave a line of dialogue for explaination (this is also why dezolis is empty like that and also why there are si few boss) but I wish we could remake the game
The game was revolutionary for RPGs back in the day. The only thing that we complained about was the lack of backgrounds in the battles like the first game had. It took months to beat without a hint book, which was viewed in a much different light than today’s games that hold your hand and the tutorial lasts the first five hours of the game. You felt a sense of accomplishment reaching the Dam Sections. Because that is where a lot of people ended their play throughs. That’s probably why the plot really turns and gets you excited for the second half of the game. Because, if you thought the first half was hard, they turned it way up in the second half. 😅. I remember being heartbroken when PS3 came out that the finale of 2 was left unresolved. PS4 should have been PS3.
@@hungrygoriya Would love it see it! I remembered you wanted to let the experience settle down a bit before you were going to review it, i personally think it's one of the better 16bit era games out there, sadly due the 2 year late translation it didn't get as much respect as it deserved back in the day, as in the game came out in 93 but the English translation came out in 95, it did a lot of things first for the genre, which were overlooked due the very late English release.
P2 was my second rpg after dragon warrior, so for me it was amazing as a kid. At the time having to draw maps for games was normal. No games had them built in. That was actually one of the things i found enjoyable believe it or not.
I love making maps in games these days, but for some reason I couldn't keep track of these dungeons. It's cool that you had such a nice time with this one when you were a kid.
I remember playing this game as a kid after playing Phantasy Star 1 (one of my all time fave games)... and you're SO ON POINT. Being the sega fanboi I was for years I obsessed over this series and 2 was the one I wanted to like but just couldn't like as much as I wanted to. And I learned over time why... the game was rushed and never actually completed. The reason those backdrops are what they are is because they didn't get to finish them. The dungeons are drab because while Naka wanted to do a 3d dungeon they again didn't have the time AND the cart size they were granted didn't have the space they needed to do them justice. Basically the entire development of this game was crunch hell and it shows as a result. 3 is... not necessarily better. But at least we get our backdrops back, and they tried to do something creative/interesting with the generations system and play further into the game as your descendants. I hated this game the most as a kid because it just didn't "look" right, but as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate it more as I've come to just accept that what rubbed me wrong about 2 was that 2 just isn't as good as I wanted it to be. 4... well 4 is where they return to the form that 1 is and go even better. 4 is FANTASTIC! Unfortunately 4 also has various story beats that callback to 2 and 3. I wouldn't say you can't play the game with out 2 & 3 having been played. But there are just moments where the way the callbacks are put forward, they're very in your face "hey, hey, see... it's the older games you played!" Which could come off odd if you didn't play them.
It's a bummer that this one didn't get the development time it deserved. I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt there was something off about this game, but it's a shame that it didn't get a chance to reach its full potential, especially with how cool Phantasy Star 1 was. I still haven't played 3, but I've since played 4 and adored it. I do agree with you about the callbacks to other games and how it makes more sense if you've played the stuff before PS4, but I think for the few times they mention previous events, I would've preferred to save myself the strive of playing PS2, haha
"that probably ate all my cereal while I was away" is the best diss directed to a bad house guest ever. Thank you for sharing this review on a game that, at least from my perspective, was a hot mess. I'm pleased to be the 100th like! :)
It was a solid diss for those worthless lumps! And hooray for being #100 and for always being such a great source of support.
@KidDynamite500 I stream on Twitch 4x/week (Sun/Mon/Thurs evenings and Fri afternoons Eastern), usually retro. Feel free to stop by there sometime if you like. The link's in the video description.
@@hungrygoriya I personally love how bleak the ending is. Alot of the issues with the game stem from it's short development cycle. Wish it had got a proper remake that fleshed it out and streamlined its mechanics.
RIP Rieko Kodama (Phoenix Rie).
@@Relugus I don't mind bleak... I just wish it made a bit more sense. The humans kinda came out of nowhere.
But killing nei was so traumatic and left u emotionally empty..it was sad bit brilliant..and a decade before ff7 did it
"You know what this dungeon needs?....Another dungeon!"
Booooooooooo
Oh goodness, not Phantasy Star 2...
Yup, video did not disappoint. The piano nonsense is right up there with "fixing the bridge" in Lufia 1 as one of the most frustrating side quests in any game ever.
Ugh... right? Thankfully I was streaming the game so someone let me know to learn the spell before I got down to that stupid piano deep in the depths of that dungeon, but even then, I touched it instead of using the skill at it and got teleported back out!!! How else would you play a piano?! I had just saved so I just had to reload, but good LORD. I take it you've finished this one?
@@hungrygoriya Wow I just caught that you streamed this... impressive, even as a sugar-addicted child I could only play this game for an hour or two at a time. So grindy.
I've a feeling Phantasy Star II was rushed out the door to be an early Mega Drive release when it came out in Japan.
That's what I've heard... it's too bad :( It had a lot of potential to be a lot more polished than what it ended up being.
@@hungrygoriya Look for a website called MDShock, they have a fascinatinf story on the first licensed gme on the system, Osomatsu-Kun and it was rushed so much in Japan, they cut half the game out to meet the deadline.
@@Larry I will definitely check this out! Thanks for the cool website too... it looks like there's a lot of great reading here.
@@Larry The thing is, it also has bugs (strength does nothing for example) and apparently the guy who designed the dungeons had no idea how to do that, hence why they're so sprawling and devoid of interesting stuff. If the dungeons had been better designed, this game probably would've been half its length, seeing that there aren't that many general plot points at all (bridge guy - Nei - kidnapping - Lutz - Mother Brain; everything else is just some NPC dialogues/huge dungeons).
@@mariusamber3237 I tested what you said and hacked a save state file so that Rolf has 999 strength (I also raised dexterity), and sure enough... no damage increase. Then I hacked in max experience for Rolf so he's level 50. At level 1 he's doing single digit damage with an attack of 17. At max level with attack power 272 and same weapon, he's doing 20 points of damage. So the attack stat doesn't increase damage much at all.
I was a kid when this game came out and was probably my first RPG experience. It blew me away. I was enamoured by the story and the characters. When you're a kid and this type of RPG is all you know, it's a life-altering gaming experience. If you're a seasoned gamer who has played many other RPGs prior, this is a grindy, confusing game.
Yeah, I can just imagine how wonderful it was when it first came out. I'm glad you have such good memories with it!
"I steal because it makes me feel something."
I don't know why, but that part cracked me up. But yeah, nice review. Does a good job of explaining a lot of the issues with the game.
Shir's description was something about her being so well off and having everything she ever wanted, so now she steals. She was by far the most selfish in her reasons for joining. And maybe Kain because he just wanted to go around chopping up machines.
@Hungry Goriya
Maybe Kain was a luddite. He just wanted jobs for his fellow carbon based life forms. Ha
@@hungrygoriya You definitely put some extra sauce on how you said it and it made me laugh too. I never played but Shir must have been really insufferable.
@@estefencosta1835 Yeah, I wasn't a fan of Shir's character. She had one purpose and then it was back to the house for her!
This channel is so underrated it needs more support
Thanks very much! I'm glad you're enjoying the channel.
Facts. HG is amazing and she needs more followers ❤️
@@hungrygoriya just found it today, I'm binging it
@@BossBasher I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel! Thanks so much!
I LOVE Phantasy Star IV. It’s a shame this series has been left dormant for so long.
I had the pleasure of playing through it about a month or so ago now, and it's probably one of my favourite RPGs without question at this point. So good! It was a nice place to tie up the story, but I agree... more games like it would be welcome.
Dormant? I have't played the original series, so I don't know if you mean a storyline that wasn't completed or something, but there was Phantasy Star Online and currently Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis that is free to play on PC.
@@StasherDragon Yeah, I think that's what he means - PSO and PSO2 are pretty much completely disconnected from the original four games storywise.
I just tried to start it on the Switch Online service and my god it makes a god awful first impression. Does it really get better ?
@@StewNWT PS2 is very what you see is what you get. If you don't enjoy the beginning of the game, it's doubtful you'll enjoy any of the game. It's pretty much just a sci-fi version of a NES Dragon Quest game where the point is to grind and grind for experience and meseta. The only positive change is that Dezoris dungeons aren't obscured as much by ceiling stuff blocking the screen. Otherwise, if you don't enjoy the beginning of the game there's not much reason to enjoy any of it.
When I bought this game new, I was satisfied with it, even the ending when I beat it. Your dislike is more a sign of the time and evolution of game design. This game was great back when it was new! Few RPGs age well after 30 years.
I don't know... I liked the first Phantasy Star game a lot more and that one's even older, but I think it's just a matter of preference. If there had been less dungeons and more story, I think I would've liked it more. I'm glad you got to play it when it was new though... a lot of people I've spoken with said this was one of their first big RPGs coming into the 16-bit era. It's definitely a special game for a lot of people.
The funny thing is that while I agree with the majority of what you argue here, I still recall enjoying this game immensely as a kid. I used to rent the game whenever I could save up the money. I thought that the music was really amazing and was very evocative of the "high tech society that is in crisis setting." Also, I think we were a lot more inclined to trial and error back in that time, and a good example of this was how my siblings and I thought it was too much fun taking Shir to every imaginable place and seeing if she'd steal something (which is how we found the save-anywhere device). Lastly, I think there were many games that really expected you to use your imagination and which distributed the story, world building, and details across media forms, whether it is the guidebooks for Genesis rpg's like PS2 or Sword of Vermilion, or perhaps Wizardry on NES. All in all, Phantasy Star 2 was one of many people's favorite games back then, but it is a hard game to revisit without realizing how much better the fourth game and most later really are.
I can appreciate why you loved this one. There's definitely a lot of neat stuff in it, but it just didn't suit what I particularly enjoy in my RPGs I suppose. It's great that you have some nice memories with your family while playing it though!
Damn girl, you just slaughtered my childhood 😆. I promise you, this game was the greatest thing ever in the late 80’s!
I imagine at the time it was a fantastic sight to behold!
It was a great game back in the day and the first time I cried as a kid of a game, when Nei died!
Best RPG ever made!
Yes I'm w you.i series aged poorly..but at that time it was world's above anything else..
Whoah to say failed miserably is harsh... how about a little sensitivity and perspective yes every complaint you have is valid play any RPG prior to that Phantasy Star 2 and you'll see what the world was like you say you played the first Phantasy Star did you play the original or a remake that had nice cozy maps to help you Encompass to help you navigate those dungeons with hidden trap doors you could never find without a guide I'm going to assume you played a newer version because from what I've heard and read and watched the original Phantasy Star dungeons just had random doors and no way of navigating 3D dungeons and as far as PS2 obviously you don't enjoy meticulously directing your troops in combat for having an endless Arsenal to choose from to customize battle to particular enemies. Obviously the incredible enemy animations and look orange is that important to you I've seen the original zombies original games zombies and Stormtroopers and they're not anything to be excited about. From the giant praying mantises to the red-eyed bunnies do the sorcerer's play Phantasy Star 2 again I don't want to seem too negative towards you your review is great and I appreciate and understand your critiques but you could do a little better to point out the strong points which probably aren't that noticeable to you because the strong points are commonplace now so they are nothing spectacular but at that time they were all new and revolutionary
Finally got to watch this review I've been looking forward to for a long time having spent an enormous amount of time with this game!
For me personally, this is a case of rose colored glasses if there ever were. The only RPGs I'd played before this were Phantasy Star 1 on SMS, Final Fantasy on NES, and Dragon Quest on NES. The sci-fi setting, the colorful graphics, nicely animated monsters and a massive world to explored blew me away as a kid. From a difficulty standpoint, those previous games gave me a lot of trouble in many parts, so this one being tough was no surprise to my younger self and I expected a tough grind. In fact, I figured this would be much easier since it came with that hint book with so much information, but not knowing the evil nature of the dungeons that lied ahead.
I loved how you commented on how when the story was present, it was really well done and I too have always thought that. The Nei vs Neifirst encounter was very memorable to me, and it broke my heart when Nei was killed since she was such a good character. But, the game rarely presented story opportunity, and almost no instances where the characters actually interact. I feel just adding character dialogue all throughout the game depending on the events taking place would have dramatically improved the overall quality while giving the characters actual personality. As you said, they joined for selfish reasons and never seemed to be a team, and that alone made the game feel far more empty than it should have been. Not only would it have been fun to hear the team's thoughts and feelings on each objective, but clues and information could have been given that led the player in the right direction when the only other option left was random wandering which can be really tedious. The Dezo portion of the game was horrible in that aspect, and my least favorite part of the game by far.
As far as character balance, this one is a doozy. Since I was a kid with a lot of time, I tried hard to level up all the characters and see what they all had in store at higher levels in an attempt to build the most perfect roster available. However, my efforts were mostly in vain, as Hugh and Shir turned out to be completely worthless(aside from Shir stealing the Visiphone, Star Mists and Moon Dews) while Anna was strongly effective against groups of enemies, Kain specialized against machines. Amy was almost crucial since she was a healer, but in my youth I was dumb and ended up going with Rolf, Rudo, Kain and Anna after Nei's death and just attempting to muscle through fights without having a dedicated healer. The only way to do this was overgrinding, which resulted in my time spent in the game being about 10% actually trying to progress, and 90% grinding. A few interesting tidbits I discovered was that the final two bosses, Dark Force and Mother Brain, are actually weak to Kain's hard hitting machine only direct damage technique, resulting in a whopping 150 damage per attack. Shir I tried hard to make useful besides stealing stuff, but if you dare take her to Dezo and she decides to steal from a store, you have to return all the way back to Rolf's house on Mota to retrieve her! It was pure lunacy! Also, the amount of EXP required for level in this game just plain ridiculous even back then, and looking at it now makes me really cringe.
And as you touched on, the dungeons in this game are perhaps the worst designed I've ever seen, and more difficult to get through than pretty much any other RPG I've played, EVEN WITH THE HINT BOOK. My own hint guide is full of notes and numbers I took, and getting through the Ikuto dungeon on Dezo with the pittraps was an exercise in tedious misery. Even early in the game, the first few dungeons are overly complex, and does nothing to ease you into it. Did you happen to encounter the enemy called 'Blaster' in the Tower of Nido or Biosystems Lab dungeons, which are the 2nd and 3rd ones visited? They look like pink blobs, come in pairs, have very high HP, and their only attack hits the entire party for massive amounts of damage. One encounter with them can end a run that has lasted hours, and I was reduced to tears against these enemies as they wiped the party and left me feeling hopeless multiple times. Other dungeons like that evil spaceport on Dezo called Skure I still have hatred in my heart for, so you're not alone there! The map of that dungeon even in the hint guide doesn't help at all, and you're forced to delve into that place to get the Mogic cap so you can talk to people AND explore the entire planet with only that nightmare connecting it all. A trick I discovered by accident was that since the 'Ryuka' spell returned you to the last Data Memory building in town you visited, you could use the visiphone to save the game in the Dezo spaceport dungeon and then using Ryuka would confuse the game and teleport you to one of the towns on Dezo, allowing you to go back and forth to this particular town and Mota without having to redo the spaceport area for it, but you would still need to delve into it to find the other towns and dungeons.
For the endgame, I never understood why the items you needed were called 'Neisword' 'Neicape' and those types. What did Nei have to do with anything on Dezo and why were those items plot significant? The game never really told why, it was as you said, a giant fetch quest with little story to be had. The final dungeon was a major disappointment, as it all looked the same, was too long, and had enemies designed to absolutely wear you out before you could deal with Dark Force and Mother Brain. I resorted to saving the game with the visiphone, taking a few steps, saving again, and hoping to avoid as many random encounters as possible to have a chance of killing the bosses which was harder than it should be since I didn't bring Amy along and went with what I thought was a more offense based party. The ending made no sense either, but as a kid I kind of liked it since it was just a complete surprise and nothing of what I was expecting. Maybe I was just too young to grasp it or realize how far fetched it turned out to be.
Sorry for making this so long, but it's amazing how you touched on literally every major issue this game had and I griped about as a kid, but since I had so much time, I didn't really mind any of it that much at the time as I just saw as another hard RPG to figure out. The game just feels unfinished, as there's a myriad of ways they could have made this so much better without a massive amount of effort. More story, less exp required per level, less random encounters and simpler dungeon designs would have gone a long way towards making this a unique experience. I like going back and replaying all the old RPGs from my childhood, and despite my fond memories of playing this as a kid, I really have no desire to play this again thanks to the exp grinding and dungeon design. It will stay as a fun, happy memory for me despite being a deeply flawed game with missed potential.
Thank you so much for this review Hungry, it was great seeing everything from your perspective playing it as an adult compared to when I played it back in 1990!
New fan here! Incredible stuff. More quality Canadian content from someone with excellent taste.
Ha! Thanks very much!
When will you do a review of Phantasy Star 4?
Someday! I have a few videos I'm working on, and that's one of them.
I really like your content, Hun. I never had a SMS or Genesis, and most of my friend didn't either. Learning about these games is a lot of fun. Thank you.
Thanks very much! I grew up with NES and Sega, but only a few games for each. I'm enjoying exploring the libraries and sharing my experiences here, so I appreciate you coming along for the ride.
@@hungrygoriya Watching through this video again after looking for reviews on PSIII or PSIV. What are your thoughts on those two? Do you have any plans on making reviews for them?
@@harelipnirnroots897 I've played Phantasy Star IV since this video but not the third one. I'd love to do a review, but I have a few other things on the fire at the moment. I'll see what I can do though!
Am I nuts if I didn't mind beating Dragon Warrior 1 on original hardware but quit PS2 on an emu with fast forward and savestates cuz of the deal breakers you mentioned in the same year?
I don't think that makes you nuts... I don't mind a grind in a game but the PS2 grind felt a lot more laboured since you were always potentially dealing with new level one characters coming in. At least in DW, you only had the one guy to worry about.
This was a great video. It sums up a lot of my feelings and thoughts in solid way.
Thank you! I'm glad it resonated with you. I was worried I was alone in feeling this way, but misery loves company!
What did you think of PS III and IV? I’m curious because PS II’s lackluster ending
I never got around to PS III, but IV was amazing. I'm actually hoping to review it soon!
I only finished the first generation, but from what I got out of PS III I'd call it the black sheep of the series.
It experimented some hit-or-miss stuff like technique distribution and the generations-based story giving you 4 possible endings and 7 different protagonists based on the choice you make at the end of each generation. PS III's story is related to the other games, but it doesn't pick up the story where PS II ends and PS IV vaguely mentions PS III's context in an optional sidequest. PS III can be played as a game of its own I think.
I've been enjoying the game and it has way more bosses than PS II did. I think the generation-based story is interesting and there's a bit of adaptive music too which I think is impressive for its time. It's the first game in the series where you can have up to 5 characters in your party and the overworld theme will have extra layers added to it depending on how many characters there are in your party. However I do have a problem with PS III's technique mechanics. Technique distribution is interesting on paper, but it doesn't work so well in the end.
In PS III your characters won't learn techniques. There are four technique groups ("Heal", "Melee", "Order" and "Time"), each group having four techniques. Each character has one technique group out of the four and will have access to all of the techniques in that group from the beginning. There aren't tiers either (instead of RES, GIRES and NARES, you just have RES), so the way techniques will evolve in PS III is where technique distribution comes into play.
Each character has a square-shaped technique chart showing how many power points is allocated to each technique. The amount of power points a technique has determine how potent that technique will be, and as your characters level up their technique chart will grow, allowing you to allocate more power points to a character's techniques. However those power points are shared, meaning increasing a technique's potency will decrease another's, so you have to balance them out in a way that works in a given situation.
The problem I had with technique distribution is with techniques such as ANTI or REVER which don't have a potency. For those techniques, it will determine their hit rate instead, meaning ANTI and REVER aren't guaranteed in this game, making them unreliable. If you have a poisoned character in your party you're better off using an antidote since it'll work everytime and it's super cheap while ANTI might miss and you'll end up wasting TP and a turn. Since ANTI is so unreliable, why would I give it power points in the first place? Might as well give it to GIRES (which is actually SAR) and have a better heal for the entire party.
With that said, everything else has been pretty good so far. It has more dialogue than PS II which helps fleshing out each character's personality and it learned from its mistakes when it comes to dungeons. Technique distribution really is the only thing I've had a problem with in PS III as of now.
I’ve been waiting for this review. This has to be the most savage review you’ve done yet. I guess we can say you were “hungry” for a better game. *PLAYS SEINFELD THEME*
Hungry for a beter game just about sums it up.
Great review love this great classic game
Evil piano in a dungeon?
There's a knock at the door!
LIBERACE has joined the party!
He could've saved us, I bet!
What makes Phantasy Star 2 is atmosphere and tone. There was absolutely nothing like it at the time. And gameplay wise it did new things that weren't super common at the time.
Usually games that offered party choices were 100% personality less games where the characters weren't even named. PS2's characters had great deaigns... and that made a huge difference then.
Other things that were great were the tonal consistency. The game takes place in a utopia that is in decline. And it comes across in townsperson dialog and the story itself. The whole story with Tiem and Darum was something you didn't see at all in JRPGs of that era.
The game was.incredibly unique in how the story unfolded. It was a mystery. The question is what is happening? Why are there monsters? Why is everything going wrong? Other RPGs of that era had a large empire... or an evil overlord... or some mythical force dying. Not so here.
Mix that with the amazing character designs graphics and music... and the game was revolutionary. It's just hard to see when there was so much change within the genre within a single year let alone from year to year. Remember this came out months after Final Fantasy 2 and Dragon Quest 3.
The game isn't perfect. And it doesn't explain a lot of things. Each party member is useful. There are loads of fun party layouts you can make that can change things a lot. The default of Eusis, Rudo, Amia and Anne are.great all rounds that can carry you through the whole game. But the others are great too. Hugh just murders biomonsters... Kain wrecks machines and Shir is broken at higher levels when she has the right items on her. Gives it great replay value.
Also. Cannot disagree more on the ending. It remains to this day my favorite ending on the Genesis. Watching the heroes fighting a doomed battle to free themselves from control is just so in line with the themes of the game. Of course back in 1990 or so I just thought it was super cool when I finally beat the game. So great. Even today.
PS2 remains my favorite in the series even if PS4 is the more polished experience.
Also... RIP Rieko Kodama... the mother of Phantasy Star and pioneering female game.designer. She will always be a legend.
There are definitely some things I agree with you on, but I just didn't enjoy my time with this game. I can appreciate its place in time but I still like other games in the series quite a bit better.
Either way, I'm glad that you have fond memories with this game and enjoyed that ending. I really wish I did too!
Your experience with this game was very similar to mine. I tried it back in the mid 2000's and was completely put off. Mostly by the insane dungeons. You are spot on with this one.
I'm really glad I'm not alone in my feelings here. There was pretty much a strict divide when I played this. People either really loved it or hated its guts. And I fall into the latter category!
PS2 is not the best in the series, but it is memorable to me for its fun party composition options. In 1989, this game was mind-blowing for us because we were all about the battles and how the different characters brought different skills at the endgame, not so much the plot.
I'm curious to know which characters you liked best for their battle skills. I found the grind so heavy with people coming in at level 1 that I didn't deviate much later on in the game once I had a core party.
Games from that time - especially in Japan - were often build around guide books. I get the impression that many weird elements were only thrown in there "because" they wanted to sell more guide books. No wonder there was so much cryptic malarkey in many 8-bit/16-bit games. Sometimes it was the good kind of secret, where you really wanted to explore and find out more about what's going on, but other times... you ended up with the design like in Takeshi no Chou Senjou and the like. Agreed with your opinion, this game didn't age nearly as gracefully as PS4 in particular. It's worth noting that there was a (Japan-only, but fan-translated a while ago) series of adventure games (Nei's adventure, Rudger's adventure etc.), each centered around one character from PS2. They were there to flesh them out, but most aren't really anything spectacular.
I would love to see a guide for Phantasy Star II and see what they included in there. Some of the things just felt so off the wall and I'm guessing you're absolutely right about making it weird to sell guides! I just, just finished Phantasy Star IV a few days ago, and that was a real joy to play, especially after playing this one. I loved it so much. I just need to find a way to put my feelings into words for a video.
And I've definitely heard about those other PS games. I honestly just want more Nei in my life. I'll have to look into them.
there was also the classic tradition of having to share hints and tips with your friends that doesn't really translate out of context from that era, without the guidebook and watching my friends play it occasionally, i would have been quite lost, but with that knowledge inscribed on my soul, it's a very enjoyable playthrough, i make it through once every 5-10 years at least, but i can't get enough of the music: the "High Definition" Model 1 Genesis puts out some LOVELY bass (and other) frequencies!
@@skuzzbunny Maybe some day I'll come back to it, but in the meantime, there's a lot of other new experiences to have. You're absolutely right about that soundtrack though... what great music!
When I played this as a kid I planned a route through each dungeon with the hintbook before I actually went there. But even planning the route via the hintbook was difficult
I had a hard time figuring out where you entered each place without going in there first, but that seems like a great plan of attack. The maps I consulted with the numbers on stairwells and things at least made it easier for my mind to wrap around! Did you end up finishing the game?
I can’t wait for you to start streaming your world record speed run attempts at Phantasy Star 2. It’s 35 minutes and 28 seconds. BTW, I’m not being serious.
>:(
I just started playing this yesterday. I absolutely adore it.
I liked it at the beginning too, but the lustre wore off pretty quickly. I hope you enjoy it more than I did!
I just think it’s funny how all the party members join by visiting Eusis’ house and going like “Hi I heard you were going on a space adventure so I’m joining up!”
Sort of takes the charm of finding new companions away when they just knock on your door like an Amazon delivery.
I wasn't a big fan of that aspect of the storytelling.
Ha ha ha!
That is kind of jarring lol.
Are you going to do the rest of the phantasy star games?
I played Phantasy Star 1 ages ago and have since played PS4, but not the third game yet. I'd love to talk about PS4 sometime though!
Good review, I tried to get into this one, but those dungeons chased me away and I havent returned ;)
You know, I streamed this game live for almost two months for a few evenings a week, and people consistently had the same story as you. Most people didn't make it off Mota, but wanted to see how things ended.
Amen sister I totally agree with you
Right on! Glad we're on the same page!
Nice review, but I can't help but feel that you're holding a game that was released in 1989 up to the standards of a modern day rpg. Having played Phantasy Star II back in 1989 when it first released, I can tell you that for it's time, it was revolutionary. Sure the inventory system was cumbersome, but so were Dragon Warrior's and Final Fantasy's. Yes there were only 3 boss fights in the game, but that to me, made the game more believable (Gotta love the trope of fighting a dragon in a 10ft x 10ft room at the end of a dungeon). It gave more credence to the bio-monsters you encountered out in the wild. Unlike Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, where random encounters eventually turn into a series of constantly clicking attack to whack through lower level nuisances, in PSII you actually felt a sense of character growth by fighting battles that were once a grueling challenge and then seeing them become easier instead of a cakewalk. It also promoted exploration / experimentation with your techniques and items.
In regards to exploration in the game. Yes, the dungeons were difficult and confusing. But the joy of completing a dungeon in of itself was the reward with PSII.
As for items not having descriptions. Again, the game was made in 1989. A time where player hand holding wasn't a thing like it is now in most modern day games. The game required you to pay attention and memorize what does what. To this day I can still remember the differences between Foi, Zan, Tsu, Gra... Etc. I can't say that for a game like Final Fantasy XIII, for example, where I beat it and still can't even figure out / remember what it was about.
While I enjoyed your review, and you do bring up some valid short comings of the game. I think you failed to recognize that the game is old. Really old. Perhaps when you play and review Phantasy Star III and IV you will give a little bit of thought to the context of when these games were made and what their competitors were doing at the time, instead of how they do not live up to, nor provide the luxuries of modern rpgs.
But, that being said... Phantasy Star IV is brilliant. Even today, absolutely brilliant, but be warned... It doesn't hold hands and give descriptions to any items and spells either.
Truth be told, I haven't played any modern RPGs really. I realize the game is old. I've played games that are older than this and newer than this, but I'm holding the game to the standards of other things I've played from around that time as well. Things like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy came with huge manuals that laid out their spells, equipment etc. in a meaningful way, so I found them easier to pick up and play and had a better sense of what was going on when I was buying items. Ultima IV is very similar to those as well... I don't think I need to adjust my lens too much based on my own experiences here.
As far as dungeon completions being a reward in itself go, I can see feeling that way if you were playing as a kid. Finally getting through to the other side, etc. was probably meaningful, but it didn't do it for me personally. And I'm not trying to change your mind at all, I'm just saying that it wasn't a good motivator for me and what I personally like in an RPG. I'd rather have some form of anticipation at the end of a trial like a dungeon and try out what I've learned on a boss fight, have my party wiped several times trying to figure it out, rinse and repeat. You're definitely right about the sense of growth as the enemies grew with you on the overworld though, like going from biomonsters to robots, etc. That was a neat touch that I didn't really get into here, but I liked that it was tied into the story. As I mentioned, the story was just fine.
I think I'm really looking forward to Phantasy Star IV, but I might not play III right away. IV first to play the best of the best, and then if I still want some more Phantasy Star, I'll play III since I've heard it's a side story anyway.
Thanks very much for your insightful comments. I think you're among friends here that really loved this game for its time and what it brought to the genre.
Nice response bro! I feel like I enjoyed your response more than her review. Yeah I feel like you gotta keep in mind when these games were made. That said, I’m playing it now and feel it’s not as good as PS1, which I’m almost done with. I’m using guides and online maps to play it and I can’t imagine playing it without them. Props to you for beating it as a kid without the internet.
And I gotta say I can’t wait to play PSIV!
Bruh. This game wasn't even good for 1989 standards
Mother 1 came out the exact same year as this game, and even its worst dungeons aren't anything compared to these.
@@hungrygoriya FWIW, this game also came with a massive manual and hint book that included dungeon maps. So that's part of what made it enjoyable back in the day compared to playing a used cart or emulating it now. You had a good resource to get through areas.
will you be doing phantasy star 3 ?
Maybe some day! I have played PS4 since this review but I haven't played the third game yet.
I replayed through this game recently for the first time in decades, and one of the main things I wanted to do was map the dungeons myself, like players would have with the original Japanese market release (those that didn’t buy strategy guides, anyway).
For better or for worse, PS2 doubled down on the the dungeon-exploration aspect of PS1, making it the focus of the game. But it still kept the dungeon gimmicks minimal, making a lot of the dungeons a bit monotonous compared to more complex dungeon-mapping games like Wizardry or Bard’s Tale, and the mazes made of map doodads presented visually at an angle were more tedious to map than the convenient first-person grid of PS1.
I enjoyed conquering the dungeons, and overall I like the game, but I do still like PS1 more. PS2’s dungeons, while large and mazy, weren’t interesting enough to make up for losing most of the the planetary exploration element from PS1.
One thing I noticed playing the game with only the maps I make myself, is that I never needed to grind levels. Exploring every nook and cranny of the dungeons provided enough encounters.
I agree with everything you've said here, especially the bit about more dungeons not making up for less world exploration. Good for you for making maps on your own though... I don't think I could do that sort of thing well myself since when you come up a staircase, you might know what floor you're on but not the proximity or how it connects with other things on that floor. I have a really hard time visualizing that sort of thing, so good for you for being able to. That's really impressive.
Well I'll agree with you both,
I remember as a kid that those dungeons felt like packing for adventure, a dangerous one.
Feeling that you had to pack for dimates and trimates trying to push your exploration the farthest. Arriving on the top or the bottom floor only to discover some even more dangerous Ennemies and trying to make it anyway... Or run to come back stronger. Almost like the experience of a roguelike today
I wouldn't want something like that from my RPG... Or would I? Maybe if it was optional for a handful of mazes. I don't know.
I enjoy your style of review quite a lot also like you explaining in detail your likes and dislikes.
I've seen that in the end you went all the way and finished PSIV, I am happy you seem to have liked it.
Did you plan to make a video for PSIV?
Awww thank you! I figure the best I can do in these videos is provide my own personal account, and people can form their own opinions if they decide to give a game a try.
I would like to review PSIV one of these days, no doubt about it. I've actually started into writing that one, but I have a couple of other projects on the go first. Stay tuned!
@@hungrygoriya great, I check every so often, I am sure I'll see it when you'll publish it.
Best of luck for your progression on youtube and twitch, I saw you were highlighted on twitch this month, better get the best out of it.
Seeya ^^
@@Stefanswiss It's pretty surreal being on the front page of Twitch this June. I'm trying to make the most of it and really try to represent Retro the best I can. Thanks so much for your patience and well-wishes!
I'm... kind of glad to know I'm not alone.
I've always liked the character designs and atmosphere of Phantasy Star 2, but I never enjoyed it as much as the other games in the series, and I always thought there was something I wasn't "getting" about the game. I didn't finish it, but my frustrations mirrored yours pretty closely.
This did get a Japan-only remake on PS2 which, from what I understand, added more character moments, dialogue and item descriptions
You are definitely not alone! When I played the game on stream and got talking with people there, people either really loved the game, or never finished it because they felt the task was insurmountable because of all of the dungeons and lack of direction. It's sad since they set up so much in the first game. This feels like a huge departure from that game's intention and its spirit.
I didn't realize they did a re-release with what you've described here... that would've probably made it more palatable for me! Why Japan-only I wonder?
@@hungrygoriya Sony's American branch put limits on how many sprite-based 2D games publishers were allowed to put out on PSOne and PS2, and the remake is all sprites (though very nice ones). This kept a LOT of games from releasing outside Japan on those platforms, and it's pretty upsetting.
On the bright side, there is a fan translation available for that PS2 version
@@HybridAngelZero Well, that's incredibly frustrating :(
a modern translation would definitely be nice, i imagine the item descriptions were much more useful in japanese.....P
You make a lot of valid points! I grew up with the Phantasy Star series since age 5, so I have a love and fondness for all of the games.
Fun fact: Phantasy Star 2 also came with a foldable, overview world map of Mota and Dezolis. And on the back, it listed the following:
• Every technique, who can perform them, how many TP they cost, what effect they have, how many party/ enemies they affect (and what "type" of enemies they affect);
• Every weapon type, the price, who can wield them, and where you can obtain them;
• Every armour type, the price, who can wear them, and where you can obtain them.
Happy to hear you enjoyed Phantasy Star 1 and 4, though! They're classics!
I also just finished your journey through Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun! Your playthrough was very enjoyable! It brought back a lot of fun memories. That's another game I love from my childhood. :)
Anyway, keep up the great work! Cheers from a fellow Canadian (Nova Scotia)* 🇨🇦 🍁
An interesting review -- Phantasy Star II was my first RPG I ever played, and as a kid, I was absolutely ENTHRALLED with it. I'd never played anything else like it before, and it sparked my love affair with RPGs that continues to this day.
It's also the only Phantasy Star game I've ever played, however. I never played the first, and never went on to play 3 or 4. (Though I suppose I did play Phantasy Star Universe on PS2, if that counts -- and unlike a lot of people, I quite liked it! It was like a playable sci-fi B-movie, and was just such a cheesy, campy joy that I couldn't help but enjoy its goofy anime-ness.)
And I also could NEVER return to this game. The encounter rate, and the grind, is just too over-the-top. I have patience for slow games, but there's a limit to that patience, and this level of grind is well beyond that limit.
But from the perspective of a roughly 10-year-old kid who'd never played an RPG before, I can honestly say that this game was pretty amazing at the time, and has always held a firm spot in my heart as a result. I think circumstances contribute to that more than the quality of the game itself, but nonetheless... it's not a game without its merits. It's just a messy, unfinished game that's more potential than it is delivery IMHO.
...I'm more fascinated by your insinuation that Illusion of Gaia was disappointing, though, as THAT'S a game I have some VERY fond memories of -- and while I haven't played it in a long time, I can't imagine it doesn't hold up, as that game had some great action, and a really heartfelt, really meaningful story to it that I remember really moving me back in the day. And its soundtrack was just A+ all around!
Then again, as with Phantasy Star II, I've never played either Soul Blazer or Terranigma, so I have no basis of comparison to see how IoG could've been a disappointment. I think on its own merits, though, it's still a pretty damn good game!
Time to see if you've got a review video of that one for me to watch through. ;)
This response is exactly what I've heard from many people: it was an RPG first for them, and where the game fell in their own experiences or in time for the genre itself really blew them out of the water. I definitely respect those sentiments and I only wish I'd been able to try it out at a time in my own life where it would've been a lot more meaningful. As a standalone game compared to others I've played from the same time though, I just couldn't bring myself to like it much past its story. It's nice to hear so many people have fond memories though!
I've played Phantasy Star IV since and I'd honestly say that it was one of my favourite RPGs of all time. It's fantastic. I hope you'll play it someday.
Is this review a cliffhanger? Are we to never know your thoughts and feelings on 3 & 4?
Thank you for sharing your experiences and reactions. While I share a lot of your genre affinities, we have very different takes on our experiences with them and I appreciate hearing yours.
Haha ironic, isn't it? I've since played the 4th game but skipped the third. I do intend to review it one of these days!
Have to say this is one of my favorites but it is most definitely painful to play through. I think my fondness comes more from how it was an interesting transition point between 8 bit and 16 bit RPGs, with it coming out in 1989 and not really having a blueprint for how to progress the genre. It relies very much on the minimalist game design philosophy but also gives just enough crumbs to make you want to know what comes next. And I adore the vague, almost depressing, ending for how drastically different it was from anything the time with an almost somber tone. Still I very much I understand all the complaints here, it's very much not as enjoyable to play as the original or IV (III varies a lot person to person I noticed). But I also acknowledge I'm far more about concept over execution when it comes to stuff like this.
That's definitely a fair assessment that I can respect! I wish I'd enjoyed this one more but it just didn't do it for me. I wonder if I would've felt different back in the day or if it would've frustrated me as much anyway.
I know you've played all of Ys and Phantasy Star before, but will you ever make a review? Also, any thoughts on the Wonder Boy series?
I might do something for PSIV when I get there, but I'm actually working on an Ys IV review that'll also address the others I've played in the series. I just just finished Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap a week or two ago too... lots coming down the pipe! Stay tuned :)
@@hungrygoriya Dragons Trap is the best one!
U absolutely nailed this review...I unfortunately played this game first before any other in the series and by the time I realized how painful things were getting I was already so invested time wise I had to force myself to finish it...fortunately I immediately played the fourth game after this one and got the satisfying closure needed
Thanks so much! I am glad PS4 came through for you. I played it this past summer and it was spectacular. Probably one of my favourite RPGs at this point!
Great review overall! I got this game along with a Sega Genesis in 1990, great memories! My older brother and I spent way too many hours trying to navigate the dungeons and the hint guide that it came with. The game was super challenging though back then, we didn't have anything to compare it to so perhaps its a different perspective playing it more recently compared to 30+ years ago. I would disagree regarding the ending, I think its one of the best of any game I've played and still resonates with me many years later. Could be that age and being impressionable as a kid / nostalgia plays a big factor here. I loved the twist and the fact that we never knew what happened. It left me wanting more as I played out different scenarios in my head as a kid. It hit me in a way that other games didn't. As a musician too, the pieces are super memorable and unique - kudos to the composers who really were able to achieve something special here!
Thanks for sharing some of your memories with your brother playing this one. I feel like challenging is an understatement, but I can see the appeal of playing this as kids with someone else and putting your heads together trying to figure everything out. I'm glad you enjoyed the ending so much! I just hoped for a little something more given how little story was sprinkled into the rest of the game. It was so sparse that it would've been nice to have something a bit more concrete but in terms of its shock factor? Definitely unique.
The music's really good, for sure. The soundtrack has lots of range from dark and mysterious to upbeat and peppy. They did a fantastic job with it.
The music and sound effects were probably the only things that kept me stuck to this game when I was little. The way that all the music was at the same tempo made playing this game kind of a meditative experience for me, going in and out of battle, and the sound effects they came up with only compounded the effects with how a lot of the attacks or techniques took the same amount of time to go off. A machine gun would make like a soft thumping noise rather than a stressful realistic noise, and it was always satisfying to see Anna throw her slashers, watch 'em fade into the distance and twinkle out, and then suddenly come back to fly through a whole group of monsters.
The scantily-clad women were what kept me going back to the game when I wasn't little :3
Wow! You definitely have a lot of fondness for this game, from all different sources. Nice!
Someone made a remix and posted it on youtube, it is a marvel to listen.
great review. I loved it back in the day, was playing it around ~1995 together with Shining Force 2. Loved them both, had nothing to compare them to but to one another:) I guess I was the kid with all the time in the world to hand-craft the maps of phantasy star 2; the guide book was obviously missing, there's no way you could memorize the places by heart.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time with this one so much. I had a few games I aimlessly wandered around in growing up as well like Zelda 1 and Faxanadu. I never finished them properly until I was an adult.
I like the style and themes of Phantasy Star 2, but story-wise it is a mess.
The proposed original plot would have been better even if I think it was a good idea to have each PS have its own protagonists.
This game would not so much need a remake but a rebuild to implement lessons from later rpgs.
If the main character is an agent working for the government, let him do more jobs for it.
Have all characters have their own personal quest and dialogue during the campaign, and the player running into them rather than them knocking on the player's house door because they want to join.
Agreed! I think random people showing up to join the party's a little weird and didn't really fit well with a grand RPG adventure, but at least there were party members I guess...
@@hungrygoriya True but even PS1 handled it in general better once the player had recruited Myau who would send the player to look for Odin and then Lutz.
This would tie into the player carrying out various missions.
While looking into the bandits (I refuse to call them rascals or whatever PS2's translator called them), the player would meet Amy while she is attending people injured by the bandits' attacks.
She would then offer to join the player as she wants to prevent more people from being hurt.
And when robots start to appear the player could run into Kain in some robot manufacturing plant as he is trying to find out what is wrong with the robots that makes them go rogue.
I know hindsight is 20/20 but I see so many possibilities how this could go better.
The player for example assisting Rudolf Steiner on his personal quest to avenge his family by tracking down the biomonsters that killed his wife and daughter.
Hey, just found out your channel! I love the way you talk about the games! Phantasy star is a franchise I've tried to play many times, but it's too slow for me, I prefer other stuff...
One question, have you ever played a game from the ogre battle series? It's my favorite franchise from all time, and I would love to hear your opinion of it!
Turn-based stuff tends to be pretty slow sometimes, but I enjoy it quite a bit. Phantasy Star IV has some great autobattle features that speed things up a bit.
I haven't played any Ogre Battle yet. I have the games for SNES and N64, and I think the PS1 remake. Do you have a favourite?
@@hungrygoriya I believe that the N64 version is better polished, but my teenage nostalgia makes me prefer the snes one, but I believe they are the best ones! There are some other games from the same saga that is good too, but they are way different systems!
@@diegovazsantos Good to know! I will definitely try them all out someday but it's good to know that they're all decent entries!
Another great review! I honestly don't know why this game gets so much love, it really was a big come down from the original game. Personally I even think the original 8 bit looks better, especially that beautiful dungeon crawling which for some reason they dropped. Look forward to your next reviews, really are so many genesis rpgs out there for you to enjoy.
Thank you kindly! I think it's all very subjective about when people came to the game and what they had been playing beforehand. For me, I've experienced lots of other games after this one, so coming to it brand new at the time, it was probably a lot more impressive... I loved the first game quite a lot, but I also played that one in my 30s. I don't have nostalgia for this series at all, so it might seem harsher in a lot of ways.
I've got something on Crusader of Centy in the works too, so keep an eye out for that if I can ever get it together!
@@hungrygoriya that's my experience too. The games were just so expensive when I was a kid and I was only lucky enough to get the original on rental for a few days at a time and never got around to trying the sequels until years later on emulators. As highly rated as they are nothing beats the impact of the original, its really iconic. Look forward to the Centy review! I have played it a bit and its a solid zelda type of game, believe its incredibly rare now though.
So many memories. This was the first RPG I remember playing. A baby sitter forgot it at our house when I was around six, and at that time my mind was very SMB shaped so the expansive, explorative nature of this one was lost on me. I did "imprint' on the music and aesthetics, however, and years later I played this for a charity event in basically two marathon sessions. That's NOT a good way to experience Phantasy Star II. Though after making it to the penultimate boss I don't really know if there is one. Aimless plot, bewildering fetch quests, and dungeon design that gives Final Fantasy II a run for its money. To this day when I encounter dungeons that basically force you take the longest possible route between two points, I think of PSII dungeon design. Still, couldn't resist picking up a Japanese copy for my MD collection when one drifted my way!
Great video, have grown to really enjoy this channel!
I'm glad you have some fond memories of this game. The music is really fantastic so I can see why you would've had it burned in your mind for your whole life. And marathoning PSII sounds terrible... have you tried it again casually since or was that enough PSII for a long while for you?
And thanks very much. I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!
I appreciate your channel’s “no nostalgia” take on some games, like this one. Helps balance things out to find a more honest answer to “Is this worth my time?”. I find everything about PS2’s aesthetics to be cool and what it pioneered, but I think I’m going straight to IV after having just recently been surprised by how much I enjoyed 1 (the Ages version on Switch with automap, etc.)
I loved PS4! I think you won't miss much by skipping over 2 and 3. And heck... You can always go back later if you want more Phantasy Star, right?
Wow, be brutally honest with us XD
PStar2 is a game that really needed the player to adjust in order to enjoy it. I hated almost everything about it when I first started the game too, but eventually it became one of the greatest influences on my life ever.
My appreciation for that game only got even stronger as the years went by, as besides the character development flaws you've pointed out, the game was an effort of pure love being put into the game gameplay wise. The visuals were lacking, but if I remember correctly, there were other reasons for that (I think half the team had split up to do another project).
It's refreshing to hear another point of view, especially a negative one, but I'm not so sure personal distaste for the story's direction is very useful from an objective standpoint - this was groundbreaking story telling for almost at least 10 years after it's release.
All in all, thanks for giving me more content to watch on this fantastic game.
It's nice to hear that it had such an impact on you. I wish very much I'd enjoyed this one more after liking the first one so much, but it just didn't do much good for me.
I don't know that I ever really set out to be objective here in these videos. I'm no expert on video games, nor do I have the breadth and scope in my playing experience to become one. I'm only trying to convey my own experience with the game, and I have no doubt that the storytelling here was cool for the time. I just didn't like how it left me hanging after already struggling to get into these characters to begin with. If I'd cared about them a little more by the game's end, it might've been more impactful for me.
You're very welcome. Thanks for coming into this video with an open mind!
My love for Phantasy Star 1 on the Master System could literally fill a Phantasy Star 2 hint book. I played PS2 back when it released and it was a slog, but as a new Genesis owner it was the only slog available. It's not great, it's ending is so little of what made me play games at that point and it's loss of Nei so early in the game made me wish for a "champions quest" or new game plus to fulfill having Nei as a part of your party and maybe a directive change. High hopes. I loaned my Hint Book to someone long ago and as of the ninth attempt in my life to play thru PS2, I usually make it to Nei's death, turn off the console and remove the cart. No replay has ever gone beyond that point regardless. Great channel, great reviews.
Thanks so much for the kind words. I think the game up until Nei's death is pretty great, and like I mentioned here, I did get off on the right foot with this one until the dungeons became insufferable. I think it has good bones but doesn't come together well in the way it needs to in order to feel cohesive and well... fun?
An extremely fair review, Goriya. I respect this game for having some of the most brutal dungeons I've ever encountered in a JRPG, but getting through them once was enough for me.
My sentiments exactly. Thanks for taking the time to watch!
To be honest, being hard doesn't make it good. There was nothing interesting about these dungeons to make them worth exploring. The rabbits that had guts falling out and having them pulled back in constantly that ACTUALLY looked like something they were doing something else cracked me up though.
I am always so conflicted by this game. I wanted to play it when it came out but I did not get a copy of this game on a real Sega Genesis until the late 2000's. I think this game really needs the Sega Ages update and an option to lower encounter rate and gives for EP and meseta. I like the chances they took with killing Nei and the ending.
The piano teacher and dungeons are brutal and an internet walkthrough helps a lot. I was so disappointed I could not go to Palma/Parma or experience Baya Malay again. The developers made a choice not to let you save anywhere because they were concerned that a player could save someplace where they couldn't get out and then have to restart the whole game.
Overall I like this game. I like the dungeon graphics with the 3D look. I liked the enemy animations and story. I like this game's place in the series and that it is a true successor to the first game. I understand it's flaws and your review has a lot of valid criticism in it. I give this game a better grade but I like your opinion too and I really like the way you explained and justified it.
I think 1 is my favorite game in the series but 4 is the best and most polished. 2 and 3 are not as good in my opinion.
I can see why you feel the way you do... it's not a bad game, but it just feels like a skeleton of one to me. It has such good bones and with a little more thought and development story/character-wise, it could've been a knock-out. I was also really bummed about not being able to go back to Palma too. Silly me thought that being one planet short was going to mean being that much of a shorter game, but nope! I loved Palma the best from the first game by a long stretch, especially since it was mostly where three of the four main characters were from.
Hungry Goriya there’s a good reason why it feels that way the development was rushed. This was originally going to be a master system game.
www.sega-16.com/2018/02/behind-the-design-phantasy-star-ii/
I like your videos and opinions please keep making them.
Don’t forget to play the Phantasy Star text adventures.
I've heard they're pretty good!
They expand on the characters which is nice because as you know PS2 was severely lacking in character development.
It was my first JRPG and it got me hooked with the genre. I tried playing it without the hintbook and i got stuck on that island looking for the real tree.
I tried to only use the hint book for the maps and not the walkthrough parts. I have no idea how I found that damn tree!
The (full) hintbook tells you exactly how to get the visiphone. I bought this when it came out. Rpg's are supposed to be challenging. Try playing it without the maps. The ending was the best of any game because nobody expected it to reflect reality.
I realize that the hint book more or less has a full walkthrough, but I don't usually play with a guide. I try to figure things out and where to go on my own. The only thing I looked at in the hint book were the maps, which didn't really help me much as I mentioned here. And I only started consulting them because my attempts at mapping these places were futile. I'm usually up for a challenge and break out the graph paper whenever dungeons need to be plotted out (this time was no different), but I really struggled with these ones for some reason. I couldn't get my bearings and I couldn't really see how each floor was connected.
I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the ending. I think its novelty factor is cool, but it didn't resolve anything for the characters that we'd been adventuring with for hours and hours. I didn't like it, but it's fine if you did. I've met a lot of people in this comments section that enjoyed the game, but it's just not for me.
I hear ya, sister. Rose-colored glasses make this game appeal more to people, but it gets stale quickly and can bore you to tears.
I think for a lot of people, it was their first 16-bit RPG so it's special to them. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I didn't have the privilege of viewing this game with that lens.
Never played it. Found your work through the SimTower 5 Star video. Please keep reviewing. I hope you'll try out SimCopter. It's recently had a fan-patch to work on Windows 10.
Nice! I have a bunch of other Sim games hanging around that I'd like to try out sometime. Thanks for the info about the fan-patch and for checking out the rest of the channel!
@@hungrygoriya No problem. It's an incredibly fun game, with an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack. The Patch is called SimCopterX, and since SimCopter is technically abandonware, I think you can get it for free and avoid trouble for doing so.
This game is overrated. The Genesis was so starved for RPGs that people started praising this, but it's really not great.
I really didn't enjoy this one much at all. There are much better games out there!
Stop the hate.
It was better than first 2-3 Dragon Quest games. They were horribly slow. The combat & music were good though (as stated) the dungeons got awfully confusing. Though PS 4 was solid.
This game is not overrated this game was insanely amazing at the time there was nothing that looked that good played that good was that much of an open world to explore and had intricate turn-based combat to that level of complexity it aged terribly and everything else is done it better sense NBA being rushed for a Christmas release heard it overall but I assure you in 1990 there was nothing even close to how amazing this game was
@@shadowlazers Dragon Warrior 4 and Final Fantasy 3 were both better games than this.
YES! ALL.HAIL THE FIVE BUNNIES!!!!!
Great review Hungry
Allllll hail the five bunnies!
10:05 the manual explicitly says how to get the visiphone. The game came with a full walkthrough as you mentioned earlier your copy was missing it. I got this game when it came out. I was 7 years old. I had a visiphone.
The game also came with a world map and on the reverse side was a full chart of every gear in the game with stats and a handy chart of who could equip every item.
Many of your criticisms of the game are valid but these points show your lack of attention.
It's not really a lack of attention. I only used the hint book for the maps and didn't treat it like a walkthrough, so I didn't read words on the pages, just looked at the pictures to help orient myself. There's a big difference!
I'd love to see you review PSIV, if you ask me that game is on par if not better than FF6 if you look at it with a critical eye
I definitely hope to review it someday!
I’m curious to know if you’ve played 3 and 4 yet.
4 is so great. 3 is… well I’m curious to know whether you like it more or less than you did 2. I could see it going either way.
I haven't played 3 yet, but I did eventually get around to 4. I really enjoyed it. I think I'll get around to 3 someday, but not yet. I have other things I'd rather play first!
This review is absolutely spot on. Completely agree with everything you said you've said.
Thank you! I haven't wavered too far from these feelings since playing.
I remember it you would open your menu and close it constantly while walking you could move through dungeons without fighting. Annoying but a time saver
I did hear about this while I was playing through! It's nice that it's an option, but I usually livestream a lot of games when I play through them so I don't think it would've made for very good viewing as helpful as it would've been, haha
this is another of the games i rented and couldn't get far in. i think i got into the third dungeon when they started getting too complex (and renting it, i had no instructions/maps). i do remember getting to where nei died, but i didn't get much past that. do you still plan on playing phantasy star 3 and 4? it's been 3 years since this video and you don't have videos on them on your channel so it feels like this game killed your desire to play the others.
I skipped 3 and eventually played 4, but I never got around to writing up a review about it. I'd certainly like to sometime. I really enjoyed it!
As a kid I loved it…got a copy delivered FedEx and bought a copy at an electronics store on the day of release. I was obsessed.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time with this one! It's definitely got some good stuff going for it, but I liked the first one a lot more.
Although PS2 is one of my favorite games of all time, your criticisms are valid. But I don't think you give enough credit to the uniqueness of the plot twist at the end! It may seem mundane nowadays but in 1989 it was very original!
I think the twist was a fun idea, but I guess I was hoping for a resolution that felt like it fit the rest of the game. It seemed out of left field when we were immersed in a different galaxy and suddenly earth folks turn up. Not to mention how they left it hanging so hard and never spoke of these people again in later games other than a few lines.
I love your videos, your voice is the perfect balance of chill and intellect. All that being said, every time I replay PS2 I happen on the enemy robot that can attack you on the Motavia seas (in the Jet Scooter) called INFORMER, and like clockwork, I look up the rap song by Snow
"Informer,
You know say daddy me Snow me I go blame,
A licky boom boom down,
'Tective-man he said me daddy me Snow stabbed someone down the lane,
A licky boom boom down"
And it's weird cuz the two have nothing to do with each other other than the name of that enemy, but the guy who sings it looks like someone who might have been playing Phantasy Star 2 at the time too lol... but man can that guy rap
Thanks so much! I think I would only know Snow's hits from the Much Music countdown back from the late 90s, but I don't know this particular song. That's hilarious though... I've definitely had similar associations once in a while too! Nothing Snow-related though!
I recently sold my physical copy of Phantasy Star II . A part of me wondered if I should’ve held onto it since it is an RPG. After watching this video I feel a little bit better about my choice to sell it. I feel like this is one of those games if it were the 80s and it was literally the only game I had I guess I could see how people would like this...But as an adult with limited time in 2020 I feel like I’d be better off playing other games . Great video !
Thanks so much for your kind words. And I feel exactly the same way.This game just didn't hold up for me, but I think what bothered me the most was how many steps backwards they took from Phantasy Star 1. I had high hopes, and unfortunately they were dashed.
This was my first JRPG back in the day, and it remains my fondest gaming experience of all time. I made my way though it armed only with the vague hint book, and it took me several months. I had no idea what grinding was, but I felt underpowered, so I just kept battling outside of the first town for literally weeks, slowly inching away from safety. I loved the music, how foreign things looked, the weird items and stats, the game was simply like nothing I had ever tried before. Without any preconceptions, I simply loved it, and I still do. Even though I can see that it is a massively flawed design on several levels.
I picked up the SEGA AGES version of the original game last year and finally played it after all these years. I was shocked by how good it still is, and it really is more impressive than II. I sort of regret not playing it back then. But honestly, I was just as enthralled by it as I was by Phantasy Star II all those years ago, so it all worked out well. And then there's PSIII, which I did buy after finishing II. Now THAT was a disappointment to me. I respected the ambition in the generations system, but it just felt oddly depressing and not like Phantasy Star at all to me. But I have finally obtained a copy of IV, which I am going to play on my original Mega Drive. I am hoping that this experience will be just as special as the first two games were for me.
I'm glad you finally got to try out the first game. I liked it a lot better than this one for many reasons, and the Sega Ages version seems like a great reason to replay it one of these days. Good luck with Phantasy Star IV when you get around to it. I think it's a fantastic experience.
Say what you want about the cryptic gameplay, I found it to be very confusing as well, but I still think it was worth it for one of the best endings ever. I mean, think about it: what other game has an ending like this? I’m pretty sure if you try to leave the last area it says “You can’t go back again!” implying that they’re trapped forever, so they might as well all die guns blazing hatefully toward their final enemies. Really made me think.
I love endings in movies and such where you have to use your imagination as to what happens afterward while still resolving some things. I feel like Phantasy Star 4 resolving what happens would kind of ruin it for me. Oh, and plus I played through 2 in 2010 so I was 23 and it was past the game’s novelty.
Overall, great review, the game is definitely not for everybody but is so worth it for insane people like me.
I guess if you liked the ending, the struggle to get there was worth it, haha... glad you liked it! I wouldn't call you insane by a long stretch. There are a lot of folks in this very comments section that adore this game so you're not alone. I'm probably in the minority.
This was my legit first RPG. I remember buying it at Toys R Us and it costing about 80 bucks at the time. It was a toss up between this and The Sword of Vermilion. If it wasn't for that included book I would have been boned. LOL Absolutely love your reviews of these games!
For a moment, I thought I read Sword of Sodan and was convinced you'd dodged an enormous bullet there by picking up Phantasy Star II instead! But thanks so much! I didn't hate this game by any means... it was just different than what I had been hoping for in a lot of ways. I hope you enjoyed it! I know a lot of folks that also played this when it was first out, and it was their first big step into RPGs after Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, so their memories of that time are very rosy. I'm a bit jealous of them :)
@@hungrygoriya ROTFL. I honestly had seen ads in some game magazine for the original Phantasy Star and it just looked awesome, I really really wanted to play it but at the time i didn't own a master system and buying one would have been a step back as I think it was all about 16 bits then. But from the pics shown, it looked amazing. One day I will play that! As for part 2, It was an okay game, if you didn't have the book, it was very problematic. Especially when teleporting around those mazes. I think the thing I remember most was building up Nei into an unstoppable killing machine only to have her die and take all my experience with her...LOL... Later I found out you could cheat with a glitch and still get to keep her somehow. Anyways, keep up the fab videos, i'm sorta binging them!
@@nebulapig Well, do you think you'd enjoy playing the Sega Ages version? It does automapping and just streamlines the game in a few ways to make it better, but I played the Master System version and loved it as well. I couldn't even get through some parts with the book! I couldn't imagine not playing with it at all...
Losing Nei was just the worst feeling. She was the best character and came and went so quickly :( People mentioned the glitch to me too but I had no idea how to go about it. I'm not sure at all how it works... something to aim for in the very faraway future when I probably won't play this one again!
And thank you kindly about the videos :) I'm glad you're enjoying them. Have fun going through the channel, and thanks in advance!
@@hungrygoriya You are right, they do have it on the switch. Now i will have to search through and see if they have Golden Axe Warrior. Which I now also want to play thanks to you! Yes I wouldn't play through Part 2 again, unless like Resident evil 3 I could get a weapon of mass destruction with unlimited power.
@@nebulapig I know Golden Axe Warrior is definitely on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection as an unlockable. I'm not sure how else it's available these days, but I hope you love it as much as I did when you try it out!
So, Phantasy Star 2 was literally my first RPG ever, by merit of me borrowing it off a friend's friend back when I was around 11 or 12.
I only had the game and manual, not the hint book, so not really knowing what to do or where to go on a clean save, I instead continued off the save file that was already there, which left off just after the Climatrol dungeon (So I had absolutely no idea where Nei went off to at that point in the game).
Somehow, just by blindly stumbling through, with a moderate-to-okay grasp of the English language (I'm Dutch), and no guide book whatsoever, I managed to find the musician for the MUSIK technique, find the hidden control tower where the Dam's keycards are, make my way through the 4 dams, and reach Dezo, where I eventually got stuck because I never figured out that there was an entrance to the crevice leading to the Esper mansion. This while not really having grasped the concept of "buying new weapons and armor", instead powering through with the (admittedly very good) equipment upgrades you find in the dams. So you could say that for all its flaws, the game left a massive lasting impression on 11-year-old me who, while owning a Master System, did not own the original Phantasy Star, and never actually played an RPG before this.
As a result, Phantasy Star 2 is actually a VERY nostalgia-blinded, rose-tinted personal favourite of mine, and I still love to play through it from time to time (although nowadays I tend to use improvement patches to cut down on the need for grinding).
All of that said, while I was a little disappointed about the negativity of this review, deep down, I can't really fault you for it, either. It's possible that if I had played the original Phantasy Star before this one, I might have had the same feelings about it.
This game has flaws, most noticeably how it's a shame that all the party members feel like "blank slates" (likely due to the fact that they can be interchanged at will, so it would be tricky to write situational dialogue for characters who might not even be in your party at all). This is partially remedied with the Phantasy Star 2 Text Adventure games, a collection of individual short adventures that flesh out each character's backstory and motivation for joining the fight against Mother Brain. Perhaps it might be interesting if you explored these for another video!
I recently bought Sega Genesis Classics for Switch and was trying to decide which games to play because there are so many. I remember some of them fondly, but some of them I barely remember or don't remember at all. I was a '90s kid who mostly liked the NES and SNES, but I also liked the Genesis, and this is a great opportunity to play Genesis games that I didn't get a chance to play at the time. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and one of the games that has the best reviews is Phantasy Star II. I just started playing it yesterday and looked it up on TH-cam to see whether people had advice because it's kind of confusing. This video makes me less enthusiastic about Phantasy Star II, but I'm going to try it anyway. I'm sure I would have started with the first Phantasy Star, but it's on Sega Master System, so it makes sense that they wouldn't include it among Genesis games. I would like to ask about Phantasy Star III and IV. How do they compare to the first two? I'm sure there are reviews on TH-cam, but I don't have enough time to watch them. I've been too busy playing Sega Genesis Classics, as well as the NES, SNES, Game Boy and Game Boy Color games from Switch Online. As you can tell, I'm obsessed with retro games, especially the 16-bit ones.
There's a ton of great stuff to experience on the Genesis, so I'm glad you're getting around to it. I'd say definitely try this game out for yourself and see how you like it, but use a guide if you need to. I wish I'd started using one sooner, especially for some of the tougher areas. I try to only use what the game provided and avoid walkthroughs (even if they're in the manual) but there's no shame in using them for this game.
I haven't played Phantasy Star III yet, but I did play IV since this video. It's phenomenal. It's undoubtedly one of my favourite RPGs and one of the best games I've played on the Genesis.
It definitely requires a walkthrough, but I'm used to that sort of thing because I've been playing retro games on Switch like EarthBound Beginnings. I'd have no chance of getting anywhere if gamefaqs didn't exist. Sometimes I need TH-cam so I can see someone demonstrating how to do a certain task.
Totally agree on your assessment here. Fortunately for me, I played the original game and followed-up with IV as I took a brief hiatus from RPG's during my mid-teens. Going back to play II and subsequently III afterward felt even more clunky than they might have otherwise. The encounter rate in II is especially frustrating, and like you mentioned, the inability to save your progress early on without being in a town was anxiety-inducing. I think the biggest benefit from playing the series in the order I did was that the ending of II turned out to feel like more of a "fleshing-out" of the story and less of the garbage cliffhanger that it actually was. :) I can't wait to see how you feel about PSIV!
I really need to get a review together about PSIV one of these days. Spoiler: I loved it! Glad we're mostly on the same page about PSII though!
@@hungrygoriya I can't wait! :)
I've only dabbled with the first (and that's the modern Ages release on Switch versus the original release), and I've certainly dug the the concept so far.
It's a shame that the production troubles led this to being a bit of a mess - let alone that ending. That's something which should be been resolved in the third, not the fourth.
I guess the big question if you do decide to go onto IV, is whether or not you can actually pick up the story without too much being lost.
From what I understand, the third game was almost a complete sidebar to the main game thread, so I think I'd be alright skipping 3 for the moment. I also really want to get around to playing the Ages release for Switch! I've heard wonderful things, and the automapping feature sounds angelic.
Good review, in the middle of sega ages Phantasy Star 1 and kinda enjoying it so was looking to see if I should get the sega collection or just see if there's a romhack patch.... honestly doesn't look like a patch could save this game, it'd need to be completely rebuilt!
I can't really recommend this one. I think it pales in comparison to Phantasy Star 1, but Phantasy Star IV is phenomenal. I've played it since this review and it's definitely worth playing. I'd love to see PS2 get the Sega Ages treatment but have a lot of changes made to make it way less obnoxious.
@@hungrygoriya I do really hope to play 4 sometime soon! Thanks for the review, as for P2 getting the sega Ages treatment, I'm not sure, to make that game decent sounds like you'd have to strip so much out that it wouldn't really be the same game anymore, and I have to admit, while I'm kind of enjoying my p1 playthrough I wish it was more adaption than translation, as I would prefer the story to be expanded and retranslated a bit (like FF1 on GBA vs OG NES)
I was thinking of doing a Phantasy Star 2 review, but you pretty well hit all the points I was thinking of making.
Make it anyway! I'm sure people would love to hear what you have to say!
I found your channel looking for a review of this. Well thought out, well reasoned, and presented superbly. Subbed. And so should you, person reading this.
That's very kind of you to say... I'm glad you enjoyed the review. People are either hot or cold on this one, so I know I'm not necessarily among the majority here, but I just didn't have the best time with this one.
@@hungrygoriya I enjoy it, however it's definitely got design choices that are perplexing. And I agree with all your criticisms of the game. I guess it depends if the player decides if they can get over those bumps in the road. Different strokes for different fokes. Thank you for the content and reply.
I disagree with your review of PS2 but I love your channel! Great work.
Thanks very much! I've met a lot of people in this comments section that love the game, but it just wasn't for me. I'm glad it has fans because it does have a lot of good in it!
Hahahhah I like the humorous descriptions of this major let-down xD
...also I've heard a couple other reviews to a similar effect, but this got me laughing more
Thank you for appreciating my weird sense of humour!
I never got into this one cause I tended to like the Medieval settings and even now I'm not likely to read a Medieval Fantasy novel as opposed to any Sci-fi novels for some odd reason I cant explain because I enjoy Sci-fi shows and movies
Is it maybe because it's a little more abstract? I'm a visual person and enjoy shows and movies a lot more than sci-fi books as well, but truth be told, I don't do a lot of reading these days. I do like games with sci-fi themes though, and really enjoyed the mix in the original Phantasy Star.
@@hungrygoriya I'm not sure what it is...but for instance I've read just about every single Warhammer novel there is but when it came to Warhammer 40K I barely made it through one book and now of the books are written by some of my favorite authors from Warhammer Fantasy. I can visualize a horde of orcs screaming towards an army of human and dwarves but I just can't do the same for a horde of orcs invading from a spaceship...
@@orionlsd Hmmm... that's probably a lot more common than you think. It'd be an interesting question to pose to a large group and see what comes up, honestly!
I’ve been patiently waiting for this review! Great job as usual and the end seemed very fitting for your thoughts of the game. Thank you for the review :)
Haha yeah, I re-read that quote from the ending and I thought: this is it!!! Thanks so much for spending the time to watch.
Scrolling thru my subscription list and I see a new video from you and I'm like "Hey! A new Hungry Goria video! Awesome!"
Love your vids!
Thank you kindly for taking the time to check out the new video!
Oh dear, my regards to everybody who didn't get the guide-book with their copy of the game. I was a huge fan of the ending but I was reading dark depressing sci-fi and horror at the time in the early 90's, and after a certain Falcom game I hold to the highest regard I'm clearly still into these sorts of endings. Ultimately it's hard to get back to PSII when PSIV is begging for another replay, what a phenomenally well-aged game..
I will take your regards :) And yeah, I can see how an ending like that can be exciting... I'm just sad it wasn't a bookend on a really great story overall. I can't wait to play PSIV!
So true. I was incredibly frustrated by this game back in the day. I just started replaying it on the Sega Genesis Mini 2, Easy mode for faster leveling. At least I have quick save states now.
Great job on this video.
This is a smart way to play! And thanks so much for your kind words. I had to speak my feelings on this one!
You are absolutely correct. Adding a level 1 character when everyone else is much higher level is bad game design that should be obviously a bad idea to anyone. No idea why the devs didn't see that.
Yeah! It's not even like they caught up quickly either. I've seen some games where they make it so that the new character levels up quickly but it didn't feel like that in this case.
Good review! However, I would like to add some points to what you said about the ending (spoiler warnings!): While the ending (and the final dungeon) might at first glance seem rushed and just drop off without a resolution, it is actually an attempt by the developers at a read-between-the-lines type of ending. I will describe some of these plot points (and by the way, none of these are taken from Phantasy Star 4 or any other media; they are taken from PS1 and PS2 only):
First, regarding the fight with Dark Force (at 13:13 in the video): The implication in PS1 was that Dark Force possessed Emperor Lassic (this is what made him turn into a tyrant), and when Alis and her friends kills Lassic, Dark Force escapes to Paseo and tries to possess the mayor instead, but it does not have the time to complete this process, so it decides to fight you itself once you arrive at the Paseo castle. Then in PS2, the fact that Dark Force is onboard the human spaceship in a chest implies that it possessed the humans of Earth once, which is what caused them to destroy their own planet and set their sights on planet Mota. This makes Dark Force a much more frightening monster, as we now know that not only can it resurrect after having been killed, but it can also appear in any solar system in the universe. In other words, you are not safe from Dark Force, no matter when or where you exist in the universe.
Then, about the message about the "duality of man" they try to force down your throat (at 13:30): Yes, that was indeed a bit forced, but there is a bigger message the game wants to tell you here: it was the greed and cruelty of the humans (influenced by Dark Force) that caused the destruction of their home planet, but it was also this greed and cruelty that lead to their downfall here in the ending of PS2. When the humans tried to kill Neifirst for being an early failed experiment, Neifirst went berserk and tried to destroy the climate and breeding of lifeforms on Mota as revenge, and this is what alerted Rolf and the government of Paseo to investigate the situation. In other words, it was the human's own cruelty, greed, and coldness that set the events in motion that would eventually lead to their downfall. It is a case of history repeating itself and poetic justice. (Side note: This makes Nei's death so much more tragic, as she had to sacrifice her life for the humans to be stopped.)
Finally, about the final scene when the main characters battle the humans without revealing the outcome (at 13:46): yes, this is indeed cheesy, but having this open ending actually makes sense. When Rolf and his friends meets Mother Brain earlier, she warns them that the planet of Mota is likely to fall into chaos if she dies, as the people of Mota have become so dependent on her. And to add to this, the planet of Palma is destroyed (it got destroyed by the Gaira satellite earlier in the game), and the planet of Desoliz is just a cold, barren wasteland normally not suitable for humans to live on. In other words, regardless if they win the fight against the humans or not, they are facing a very bleak future which they might not survive.
In conclusion, yes, the ending was not perfect by any means, and they could have done some things better, but at least they tried to do something a little deeper. As much as I like PS1, I prefer the PS2's ending over PS1's. PS1's ending feels a little too happy and cliché, with Alis becoming queen and living happily ever after, which feels like an ending more for a Disney princess than a powerful RPG heroine.
These are all interesting thoughts about the events of Phantasy Star 1 and 2 and how they tie into PS2's ending so nicely. You've clearly done a lot of thinking on the events from both games and I can appreciate some of the small details that were lost on me during my playthrough. Thanks for sharing!
I have this series of games. I'm saving them for this winter when I'm laid off from Construction. Your videos are an excellent resource for the games I'm collecting and saving for this winter.
Thanks very much. I'm happy they're helpful, and I hope you enjoy Phantasy Star when you get around to it!
I truly enjoyed the first game and the second one I tried to like many times but the dungeon design made it hard to progress without a map
Totally! There are maps in the hint book that came with the game, but I found them pretty confusing.
I don't know what the release was like in the US or North America, but in Europe or Germany the game was sold with a small official solution/hint book at the time, so many puzzles, such as finding the piano teacher, were not a big problem in themselves. But of course I understand that if you didn't have the solution book, the game was a lot harder.
I was able to find an online copy of the hint book, but I don't usually like playing with a guide. I used it for the maps but didn't really read anything else in it. I prefer when games are built well and let me figure stuff out without having my hand held.
If the Earthlings wanted the Algo system, why did their Mother Brain completely destroy one of their inhabitable worlds?
That's a very interesting question!
Maybe because parma being the planet with the most parmans was already organized.
I'd love to make a remake where this would be implied, that motavia is down for being completly dedicated to people indulging in Utopia and leisure whereas on Parma the power in place is resisting this Idea and is at War with mother brain only to be defeated during PSII.
Obviously the true reason is because they were short on Time and so they skipped a planet and gave a line of dialogue for explaination (this is also why dezolis is empty like that and also why there are si few boss) but I wish we could remake the game
@@stefanswiss3760 I like that. And I agree. There is so much potential with this story. A complete remake could be great.
How do you review phantasy Star 2 without a single word about its stellar soundtrack?
The game was revolutionary for RPGs back in the day. The only thing that we complained about was the lack of backgrounds in the battles like the first game had. It took months to beat without a hint book, which was viewed in a much different light than today’s games that hold your hand and the tutorial lasts the first five hours of the game. You felt a sense of accomplishment reaching the Dam Sections. Because that is where a lot of people ended their play throughs. That’s probably why the plot really turns and gets you excited for the second half of the game. Because, if you thought the first half was hard, they turned it way up in the second half. 😅. I remember being heartbroken when PS3 came out that the finale of 2 was left unresolved. PS4 should have been PS3.
I can definitely appreciate this one's place in history!
Very fair and honest review ^^
Any plans for a PS4 review? I remember you loved it when you played it on twitch.
Thanks very much! I would love to write a review of PS4 sometime. I'm hoping to!
@@hungrygoriya Would love it see it!
I remembered you wanted to let the experience settle down a bit before you were going to review it,
i personally think it's one of the better 16bit era games out there,
sadly due the 2 year late translation it didn't get as much respect as it deserved back in the day,
as in the game came out in 93 but the English translation came out in 95,
it did a lot of things first for the genre, which were overlooked due the very late English release.
P2 was my second rpg after dragon warrior, so for me it was amazing as a kid. At the time having to draw maps for games was normal. No games had them built in. That was actually one of the things i found enjoyable believe it or not.
I love making maps in games these days, but for some reason I couldn't keep track of these dungeons. It's cool that you had such a nice time with this one when you were a kid.
I remember playing this game as a kid after playing Phantasy Star 1 (one of my all time fave games)... and you're SO ON POINT.
Being the sega fanboi I was for years I obsessed over this series and 2 was the one I wanted to like but just couldn't like as much as I wanted to. And I learned over time why... the game was rushed and never actually completed. The reason those backdrops are what they are is because they didn't get to finish them. The dungeons are drab because while Naka wanted to do a 3d dungeon they again didn't have the time AND the cart size they were granted didn't have the space they needed to do them justice. Basically the entire development of this game was crunch hell and it shows as a result.
3 is... not necessarily better. But at least we get our backdrops back, and they tried to do something creative/interesting with the generations system and play further into the game as your descendants. I hated this game the most as a kid because it just didn't "look" right, but as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate it more as I've come to just accept that what rubbed me wrong about 2 was that 2 just isn't as good as I wanted it to be.
4... well 4 is where they return to the form that 1 is and go even better. 4 is FANTASTIC! Unfortunately 4 also has various story beats that callback to 2 and 3. I wouldn't say you can't play the game with out 2 & 3 having been played. But there are just moments where the way the callbacks are put forward, they're very in your face "hey, hey, see... it's the older games you played!" Which could come off odd if you didn't play them.
It's a bummer that this one didn't get the development time it deserved. I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt there was something off about this game, but it's a shame that it didn't get a chance to reach its full potential, especially with how cool Phantasy Star 1 was.
I still haven't played 3, but I've since played 4 and adored it. I do agree with you about the callbacks to other games and how it makes more sense if you've played the stuff before PS4, but I think for the few times they mention previous events, I would've preferred to save myself the strive of playing PS2, haha