Phantasy Star Series

[Durandal]

PHANTASY STAR V(?) INCOMING

Spoiler

on mobile

[BryanM]

Excellent strategy by SEGA, as always. It's not like the platform is saturated with soap opera RPGs already, like Grandblue Fantasy, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Fire Emblem Heroes, Danmachi, Makai Wars, or FATE: Something Or Other Order.

Good thing they avoided the vacant harbor of the Nintendo Switch. Octopath Traveler selling a billion copies due to being the only RPG on the system means nothing. No one could foresee that having zero competition could be an advantage.

A dead franchise will kick all their asses, no problem.

[Sumez]

The staple of a mobile platform is an immediate indicator that absolutely zero ambition went into this. They don't care.

[Stevens]

Ugh...Really Sega?

This could have been amazing.

[Sumez]

I bet they could even have hired fans to make a great Phantasy Star 5, for peanuts. A Sonic Mania for RPGs.

[wgogh]

I bet they could even have hired fans to make a great Phantasy Star 5, for peanuts. A Sonic Mania for RPGs.

I really like that idea. The fans know better than Sega in that case. It would at the very least be something pretty interesting.

[ryu]

woah! another gatcha game...

[BryanM]

The staple of a mobile platform is an immediate indicator that absolutely zero ambition went into this. They don't care.

Let's not slur the platform here. They could in theory make a splendid game-as-a-service dishwasher game full of adventures, which may or may not continue to be a Dragon Quest clone.

They're just not gonna because SEGA.

Whatever the heck they've been doing with the 7th Dragon franchise, has more care and investment than this series has gotten.

woah! another gatcha game...

Fuck, we would be so lucky...

[Mischief Maker]

PHANTASY STAR V(?) INCOMING

YEEEAAAAAH!

Spoiler

on mobile

Ooooooooh...

[BIL]

rofl

and that's why god gave us spoiler tags ;3

[Sumez]

The staple of a mobile platform is an immediate indicator that absolutely zero ambition went into this. They don't care.

Let's not slur the platform here. They could in theory make a splendid game-as-a-service dishwasher game full of adventures, which may or may not continue to be a Dragon Quest clone.

It's not gonna be crap because of the platform. It's gonna be on that platform because it's already decided that it's gonna be crap.

[BryanM]

Hey, maybe a miracle can happen?

(Seriously, I'd only be about 4% more optimistic if it were on the NX. It's all about who is making it, and well...)

[Specineff]

They want to play it safe, given that everyone and their grandma has access to a cell phone now. Not that I approve, of course... and there's no way this isn't going to be a puzzle or an F2P/Freemium MMO.

[GaijinPunch]

The unforgivable part is that they are making bank on Phantasy Star Online 2 (as they should - they learned from basically every mistake they made with PSO... which was a lot). This will suck ass.

[Blinge]

why am I awake
why are we still here..

[Sumez]

Randomly came across a copy of Phantasy Star Collection on the GBA. I actually had no idea it existed, or maybe I forgot.

Can't really find a lot of coverage about it from people really into the series. Does anyone know how it compares to playing the originals? I'm mostly interested in PS1 and 2.

[BIL]

Its PS1 has a nasty save bug, as I recall. I don't know the specifics, but just in case. A bit more about it here.

[BryanM]

It's strictly inferior to the originals. Lower resolution screen, lower quality music, and no extra content. (These kind of ports during that era were always a bit cheap and slapdash - Final Fantasy 4 GBA has the dignity to at least have more content, uses some graphics from the Wonderswan Color version, and a new translation. But, BUT... they couldn't figure out how to make the menu arrow move 100% of the time when you pushed a directional button.)

There seem to be fan translations of the PS remakes for the PSX2.

[Sumez]

Man sounds like I made a bad deal then I just came across it in the wild and thought it was cheap enough to not warrant any research.
But with the prices the original is going for nowadays, maybe it's for the better.

[Specineff]

The droid/cyborg image on the upcoming new PS page has changed to it being a girl removing a helmet, with the letters "RPG for IOS/Android". One day and a half to go.

[BrianC]

Final Fantasy 4 GBA has the dignity to at least have more content, uses some graphics from the Wonderswan Color version, and a new translation. But, BUT... they couldn't figure out how to make the menu arrow move 100% of the time when you pushed a directional button.)

I heard the EU version (and later JP versions?) fixed a few of the bugs, but I'm not sure if everything was fixed.

[evil_ash_xero]

I cannot get into Phantasy Star, sadly. I tried to get into the 4th one, since it's so acclaimed. But the random battles were so numerous, that I just gave up.

I like the vibe though.

[GaijinPunch]

I cannot get into Phantasy Star, sadly. I tried to get into the 4th one, since it's so acclaimed. But the random battles were so numerous, that I just gave up.
.

Sega Ages Phantasy Star Collection on PS2... you can set it to easy so the battles, while numerous, don't butt fuck you so hard.

[BIL]

Oh shit, the AGES comp includes easy mode for PSIV as well? I'd no idea, have only messed about with the earlier games on it (it was only IV I actually had back in the day). A truly comprehensive work, that thing.

I refuse to use handicaps though. I want to feel the heat as it burns my balls. (・｀W´・)

[GaijinPunch]

Oh shit, the AGES comp includes easy mode for PSIV as well? I'd no idea, have only messed about with the earlier games on it (it was only IV I actually had back in the day). A truly comprehensive work, that thing.

I refuse to use handicaps though. I want to feel the heat as it burns my balls. (・｀W´・)

The search is busted on gamengai's forums, unfortunately. Ganelon (hope he's well these days) did an analysis of it. It focused mainly on the (outstandingly handled) music and sound but in the thread most of the features were covered. Pretty sure all games allow not only an "easier" mode which will level you up quicker, but also frame skipping w/o effecting the music or sound. You could probably cut the play time down by 2/3 for each of them.

[Blinge]

PSIV's battles were super easy though..
Compared to 1 and 2 at least.

[evil_ash_xero]

I cannot get into Phantasy Star, sadly. I tried to get into the 4th one, since it's so acclaimed. But the random battles were so numerous, that I just gave up.
.

Sega Ages Phantasy Star Collection on PS2... you can set it to easy so the battles, while numerous, don't butt fuck you so hard.

Oh, thanks for that info. I'll look into that.

PSIV's battles were super easy though..
Compared to 1 and 2 at least.

They just got on my nerves. It was way too frequent for my tastes.

[FinalBaton]

Nothing in that trailer is reminiscent of Phantasy Star... wtf??? It's just some generic rpg with super-lazy-flash-animation(especially janky here, holy fuck!) and generic ugly-modern-anime character designs, with the name "Phantasy Star" slapped onto it. (not that I'm shocked by any of this)

[GaijinPunch]

that trailer

Garbage. Go away.

Why do people question old farts like us that reminisce about decades old media?

[BryanM]

While it's about exactly what I was expecting, for a couple seconds there at the start I thought it was going to be a rhythm game with idols in it. Which also had a large possibility.

> The story is set in the war-ravaged land of Vandoll.

What.

> In this world ruled by swords and magic

Uh, guns?

> Meanwhile, a god of destruction sealed long ago known as “Dark Farce” has begun the stages of its resurrection

Uh, can't the cosmic horror that dwells at the end of all things take a break this time? Seems a little beneath his jurisdiction. Why not bring back Dark Dragon? That guy hasn't had a gig for decades now.

> Will you be able to stop Dark Farce’s resurrection?

No. I don't want to. I'm on his side this time, we need to kill all the things.

> Idola Phantasy Star Saga uses an entirely new command-based battle system. Further information will be announced at a later date.

Wow. I'm super curious how they've revolutionized the process of pressing a button, and then having a thing happen.

> In this game, there exists two camps—Law and Chaos—and the characters that appear in the game will belong to one or the other.

Hmmm yes, homoerotic shirtless evil cartoon biker rejects from Fist of the North Star is definitely a thing that comes to mind whenever I think about Phantasy Star.

> The Idola, descendents of the Dark Farce sealed away long ago, threaten the livelihood of the people, and the battles against them are one of the highlights of this game. [Pictured - cute smiling yellow baby chickens.]

Wow Dark Force's brood has really gotten sinister these da..... wait a minute.

Dark Force.... Dark... "Farce"....? Who, who translated this shit. Is this right? Or is the translator mocking this crap, too?

> Characters
> Stella

Staff chick for sex perverts who like pink fluffs and legs.

> The head of the Aries Knights armed brigade that fight the Idola, as well as the heroine. She has a shy personality, but usually hides her true feelings behind an iron mask. When wearing the iron mask, she acts boldly and confidently, but when the mask comes off, her shy behavior comes out.

.... serious time, I kind of threw up. Inside my soul. 14 year old shy introvert girl, leader of a defense force that's possibly the last line holding against the extinction of the human species.

> Yuri

T-shirt sword tween. Fearsome battle armor of shorts with kneepads sewn in them. So beta that his name is about the love between two women, because this guy certainly will never know the touch of one.

> The protagonist. He lost both of his parents at a young age and was taken in by a ship captain that was an old friend of his father, and was raised as a sailor. After his fated encounter with Stella, he joins the Aries Knights as the leader of their commando unit.

.... jesus christ.

Can't anyone just... just be a guy anymore?

Here's a better generic jRPG protagonist: "Sam Swordguy - A mercenary that gets paid for killing monsters. Officially he's an orphan, because we're lazy fucks who don't want to create characters for his parents, even though having parents is 40% of what being a kid or teenager is really like. We don't bring up the orphan thing very much because it's a downer and also brings attention to our hackery. More importantly - he uses a sword. What the fuck else do you want from us? Go make the little numbers get bigger, ya fuckin' nerds."

> Pre-Registration Bonus. If pre-registrations reach 100,000 users, all players will be rewarded a five-star Quna from Phantasy Star Online 2. [Pictured: Space bimbo with space guitar.]

... now I wish they had gone with the idol rhythm thing.
___________

It's pretty obvious why it is the way that it is. The design team are not gamers, nor programmers. Nor forever alone anime watching otaku either. Forget about any of them giving a shit about Phantasy Star - that's like step 6 on the filter on the question "can this be good for some particular market, not necessarily classic PS fans, out there?"

What this is, is what a bunch of soulless normies think gross slimey nerds want.

Because it's not made for any real people who exist in the real world, just imaginary people in their heads, there's no market for this thing. It's even worse than using or making a bottom of the barrel scifi derivative fantasy crap license like Hundred - at least that's marketed toward perverts. As most mobile jRPG games are. Staff Chick is like orange juice going against crack cocaine in that particular battlefield.

While on this subject, the Shining Force series character art designer these days is a porno artist dude. This Phantasy Star Idol Rhymatica game, doesn't look like it has a porno guy doing the character art, but looks can be deceiving. Can anyone find out the answer to this very important question??