Great Rumbler Recommends: Phantasy Star II

[Great Rumbler]

PH2 recently showed up on the VC, last week I believe, and I just yesterday decided to pick it up and give it another try. I'd played it some years earlier on the Genesis, but I never really got very far in it. The biggest reason is that it has a rather steep learning curve, particularly if you don't have an instruction manual. But also because of the way it is designed, having very difficult to navigate menus, items that don't tell you what they do until you equip them, a overworld that is difficult on starting levels, and other reasons.

On the other hand, it has really good music, an interesting scifi setting and storyline, and good-for-their-time graphics. Plus, it's still a fun game to play.

It's worth $8.

[Dark Jaguar]

Well even for the time the graphics weren't all that good, but then I'm comparing SNES to Genesis again.

It's a good game though. I already own the original Genesis game so I have no reason to get the VC version.

[Great Rumbler]

It came out in '89 before the SNES hit. Other RPGs around that time were FF2 in '88, FF3 in '90, DQ3 in '88, and DQ4 in '90, all of which were a step down from Phantasy Star 2.

[Dark Jaguar]

I actually thought FF2 looked better. I guess it's a matter of preferring blocks to sticks.

[Great Rumbler]

Vs.

[EdenMaster]

He may have been referring to IV.

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah, I was. I thought we were using the original US name for IV's release. Of course then I'd still have been wrong about the year thing but that's what I thought you were talking about.

[Great Rumbler]

Alright then.

I find it interesting how PS2 actually had characters with realistic proportions, as opposed to FF and DQ's stumpy dwarf characters that had enormous heads.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Hmm. I could see the merits in both those designs, but I'm not sure which one I'd like better. If I played this game and were nostalgic about it, I'd probably be a purist, preferring dwarfs to anatomically correct characters.

[A Black Falcon]

Hard and impossible, with dungeon mazes that absolutely require maps (from the internet, preferably).

Really, it's only worth the effort if you love old-style "you will only play this game if you hate yourself" kind of RPGs... like Roguelikes, or '70s/'80s dungeon crawlers like PS 1 & II. :)

(And yes, I have PSII for Genesis.)

Oh yeah, and in classic PS tradition (PSIV is just as bad on this), the plot is really depressing.