EU VC Update: Phantasy Star IV and Mega Man 3

Kinda disappointed. No Mario Golf. No Secret of Mana. Final Destination. Downloaded Megaman, unsure about PSIV.

No comments yet... why not be the first?
Yay Now can I type my stuff b4 "Wahs Sekrot of Many. Fhantasy Star suxs"

The peaks of two franchises*. Release weeks don't get much better than this.

While I can't priase the games enough I have to dismiss the service. 50Hz only for no reason whatsoever by the muppets at NOE. What this means in real terms is fat borders and slower gameplay. You don’t get a discount for this…if anything you get to pay more for an inferior product. How lucky us Europeans are.

But if this doesn’t bother you go ahead and enjoy.

It does bother me which is a shame, as that was 1300 points I read to spend in a heartbeat

*-well actually Mega Man is debatable but Phantasy Star is not.

Edit: Turns out I can't...at least the latter part didn't happen...

Sorry. Got you. While you were typing, i made a small message then went back to edit it. lol. anyway, I beat Top Man already. seems very easy after playing Mega Man 9. The Sega Mega Drive Collection is £8.49 with free delivery for PS2 on play.com - instead of getting PSIV for VC then I'll get the collection for PS2 for a few pound more.

Oh my goodness.
Two 5-star games on this site?
Enjoy our European friends!
Hopefully PSIV makes it's way to NA sometime in the near future.

Phantasy Star = RPG = meh IMO
MM3 = YAY = bad timing due to Wii Points going towards upcoming WiiWare. Ah well...

This is a suprise, didn't see these two games coming out so quickly.
Anyway, everyone here who has at least heard of Mega Man 3 should check this video on Youtube out!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL30lU26egw

You guys are lucky! PSIV is awesome!

Great week in Europe. No complaints here. Hope we get PSIV soon.

The Sega Mega Drive Collection is £8.49 with free delivery for PS2 on play.com - instead of getting PSIV for VC then I'll get the collection for PS2 for a few pound more.
And in 60Hz...making the 50Hz only verison found on the VC even more crazy, but thats NOE for you. That reminds me, I wonder if the battle finishes sound glitch (the delay with the dungeon music starting after the victory tune is longer) that collection has is fixed for this VC release.

Anyone who wants to jump into PSIV, isn't sure or is getting confused by the spell names the first two posts of this thread are good reading (its very much spoiler-free).

Have fun, Europe!

Phantasy Star IV!!! Hopefully this means we'll get it on monday! It's a sure download for me, what a great game.

@Bass. Cheater.

Another awesome week for Europe. Though I was hoping you would have to wait a year for MM3. PSIV is awesome on the Genny collection. I'd love to see that in America... as well as Castlevania III and Devil World (it had to be said).

Mega Man 3 AND Phantasy Star IV?!? O.O Holy crap!

I wanted to play both games but weren't expecting them in the same week - now I don't know what to play first...!
Anyway, definitely an awesome week for sure

I hope that next week Wii Americans will get 2 VC releases.

Both games would make a single-game week bearable. I sure hope we get PSIV on Monday. Good VC week, France!

Great week for Europe.

Phantasy Star 4 is one of the greatest rpgs during the 16 bit era imo. I first played it back in 1995. I managed to get the game as Christmas gift in 1996.

Phantasy Star 4 is the best rpg on the Sega Genesis/Megadriver imo.

great releases never played any mega man games or phantasy star games so it will be interesting to see if I like them or not

(too busy playing Earthworm Jim to care)

I got my Wii Shop Channel fixed! At least the releases are good (in 50Hz know which sucks). Thank god for the US Wii Shop Channel!

Phantasy Star IV is amazing. Anyone with even the slightest interest in RPGs would do themselves a massive disservice in not downloading this one.

Aha! The Euros win again! Fantastic stuff here tonite
Ya know, despite gaming for over 15 years, Iv never once played a mega-man game. Is that strange?

Good week. SofM must wait until next fortnight I suppose...

This news makes me glad Phantasy Star IV in is the Sega Genesis Collection game.

Congrats to our friends in Europe. PS4 and MM3 are (for me anyway) two of the best games from their era.

A solid sci-fi RPG and arguably the best of the Mega Man series!

YOU EUROPEANS ARE SO FRICKIN LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on not waiting forever to get Mega Man 3.

Damn, I don't have any Wii points. I guess I'll just longer for Mega Man 3.

@Bass X0: If you have a PS3 or Xbox 360, you're better off waiting a few months and getting the recently announced Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, or SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection as it would be to you in Europe. Check it out:
http://www.sega.com/games/?g=592
Amazing deal compared to the collection you're looking at, assuming you have an HDTV and are interested in some of the other games on the collection that aren't on the PS2 game you're looking at. I'm planning to get it, anyway. Just trying to help...

As far as the release goes, pretty snazzy! I know people wanted these games. Particularly since a collection wasn't an option for Mega Man in Europe (stupid Capcom...). Enjoy!

Phantasy Star IV would be a good game for me to grab... i member i use to play it for genesis like everyday until i beat it and i did too... one of the cool rpg games to have.

20. Will
"Ya know, despite gaming for over 15 years, Iv never once played a mega-man game. Is that strange?"

Now is a perfect time to get into them, LOL!

Damn it! What`s with Secret of Mana?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I don't have money for thos right now.
Cruel World.... ;_;

I really wanted MM3 and PSIV...

Heh, I find this so strange. America gets a total of three releases but complains about getting only one VC game. Europe gets two releases for the VC, and I don't hear a single complaint about the lack of releases. Heck, I would be whining about Nintendo's failure to deliver at least three games total this week if this happened to the States. Hmmm...perhaps this should be a lesson to Americans...nah....

Great games but no SoM, another 2 weeks of wait. Phantasy star is on a compilation disc anyways so that really isn't worth 800 points as the sega megadrive collection is still available.

Virus, we had a couple of months of one-game-weeks not so long ago, so we'll take two games and be happy about it!

I'm still waiting for the first Phantasy Star...

Good week for you Europeans I've never played any of the Phantasy Star games, the grinding way of levelling up always turns me off

I've never played any of the Phantasy Star games, the grinding way of levelling up always turns me off
I completed Phantasy Star 4 with absolutely no grinding whatsoever provided you keep your equipment up to date and learn about about the system (when to use magic and abilites, when not to). Or if I did grind I grinded less than I did in titles such as Final Fantasy I-VI. Even if there was significant grinding Macros make that a breeze.

"Just the two on VC this week - But both of them are terrific, so there's nothing to really complain about!"

Um still no SoM, Super Turrican 2 and Mario Golf dispite them been released in NA well over a month ago. Glad theres 2 great games this week but we still need tons of catching up to do. I may as well just give up waiting for Secret of Mana

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I wanted to try Mario golf, been waiting for it for FOUR weeks to come out

Now THIS is the week I've been waiting for.

Great week with Mega Man 3, and also nice to the another wonderful RPG on "Virtual Console" with Phantasy Star IV =).

But can it be, in comparison to Mega Man 2, that there are a lot of more slowdowns in MM3? Sometimes it is really stressful...

Great week but still no mana love

Great Week! But i also hoped for Secret of Mana...ah well...i have to play Dead Space first and then i will download a few Wii Ware or another VC Games

Awesome week - I can't wait for PSIV to head on over here!

Two more 50hz border filled disasters. Great effort Nintendo and Sega. Another 1300 points you won't be getting from me.
Hope you're enjoying not spending our money.

I love these whiny little geeks who have nothing more to complain about other than 50Hz refresh rates in games. Too bad ya boring little phishers, 50Hz is what you get, If you don't like it - tough.

Nice week. Nothing for me though, which is probably a good thing considering how many Wii points I've got through in the past week.

Great week for you guys...

@Virus: I'd say that's because they got two highly anticipated VC games without also getting barraged with WiiWare shovelware. We only got one VC game that a lower percentage of VC fans for our region wanted (due to the collection), and two crappy WiiWare games. So I'd say they have all the right in the world to be happy with this release, just as we had all the right in the world to be mad about ours.

IMO, two VC games per week should be the minimum. I don't care how many WiiWare games they tack on along with that. That's why I think they got a better week than we did this week. Three games total doesn't seem necessary to me, as long as enough of them are VC (and there's not only one game).

in Secret of Mana's absence, I downloaded My Life as a King on WiiWare. I'm enjoying it. i think i would much rather have had Secret of Mana though.

"Or if I did grind I grinded less than I did in titles such as Final Fantasy I-VI. "

None of the Final Fantasy games require any grinding at all. Neither does PS4.

....I'm still stuck on Y's Book II...I've got to find that stupid Blue Orb...

@Adamant, I haven't played the rest of the games for a while, but the first Phantasy Star does require a lot of grinding in the early part of the game.

@Kelvin. Is the grinding nearly as the bad as it is in PSII? The amount of grinding in that sucker is insane!

I do have one recommendation to say...
If you're going to play any Mega Man games on the Wii, download them from the Virtual Console because playing Mega Man with a freakin' Gamecube controller really sucks...Sure, the turbo button sure is great for the initial bosses, but some of those technical jumps are so insanely hard with the Cube controller.

yeah, i wouldn't even use the gamecube controller for many VC games. sure it has its good points - playing F-Zero X is better with a Gamecube controller than a Classic Controller but for 2D platformers then no.

Viral/Bass

If you dislike the GC D-pad(and who doesn't) I would reccomend buying the Horipad
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/features/hardware/hori-digital-controller/
It's an excellent Snes like controller with GC face buttons. You can probably buy this, the collection and a freeloader for less than it will cost you to eventually download all the games on the collection. Plus as UK gamers you won't have to put up with the horrible squashed picture and reduction in speed as the collection will run in 60hz full screen lovliness

ignoring the fact that both games were released in cheaper collections for ps2 (and one for gc and xbox as well), this is still an amazing week in terms of quality for anyone in europe who is without the previously mentioned systems (the gc mm collection really isn't that good because of the aforementioned button config problems... i.e. the swapped A and B button placement and the annoying gc d-pad)...

also, if you have a ps3, the the Ultimate collection that's coming out next year that has 40 genesis games and some still unknown unlockable arcade classics as well. that has phantasy star 4 in it. if you have a Playstation 3, i'd wait for that...

@deggs: I mentioned that already, in post #26. I guess you didn't read it (that happens a lot, it seems). No problem, it just made me laugh.

@Adamant: What alternate-reality Final Fantasy series have you been playing? Final Fantasy II is almost nothing BUT grinding, and Final Fantasy IV (especially more recent, harder versions) requires a fair bit as well. More recent Final Fantasies don't really require any grinding provided you do all the side quests first thing you can, but the older ones are notorious for it!

As far as grinding in general goes, I'm usually pretty tolerant of it. My main exception is Pokemon, especially if you're trying to get every Pokemon legit. That battle system SUCKED for grinding, especially considering how little EXP you tended to get from wild Pokemon. I'm speaking primarily about the old Red and Blue, with similar complaints about Gold and Silver, because I got sick of the series after that point.

I will say that I like the OPTION of grinding that RPG's tend to have. Opposed to action games where there's nothing you can do but try again if you lose, that is. The ability to level up my characters to get past a tough spot is invaluable to my gaming sanity.

The ability to level up my characters to get past a tough spot is invaluable to my gaming sanity.

Very true. Which is why I love the Castlevania GBA/DS games - anyone of any skill level can beat them... providing you spend time raising your levels. Not that you need to do so too much.

I'm very disappointed. ONM reviewed Secret of Mana in their last issue which led me to believe it was coming this week. A tad miffed over here... Also, yes 50hz thing is crap too. Wish they'd sort that out.

@Viral
If you hate the GC D-Pad so much, just use the analog stick like normal people. I'm never going to get a Classic Controler when I can just use my GameCube controllers (using the analog stick, not the D-Pad) that I already had from my GameCube, while also being able to use them for my GameCube games. My SNES and Genesis VC games (Streets of Rage 2 & 3, Gunstar Heroes, Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG) as well as all the games on Sonic Mega Collection for GC work just fine with my GC controllers' analog sticks.

Thanks you Capcom and NOE

" @Adamant: What alternate-reality Final Fantasy series have you been playing? Final Fantasy II is almost nothing BUT grinding, and Final Fantasy IV (especially more recent, harder versions) requires a fair bit as well. "

FF2 only requires grinding if you have no clue how the game works, and FF4... just... doesn't require it at all.

Nice update! Makes me wonder if we'll be getting PSIV or Castlevania III on Monday. I'd guess Castlevania, to promote Judgement which comes out next week, but either way they are both really good games. I won't complain about 1 title a week as long as they maintain this level of quality.

@Adamant: I take it our playing styles are a bit different, as least in regards to FF2. I think FF2 requires grinding because there are some spells you won't really be running around using on every enemy (or boosting your stats in every battle), but you do need them leveled up for the tougher bosses.

With FFIV, though, I have no idea what you're talking about. Which version have you played? Have you beaten it? On the PS1, I had to grind at least ten levels at the end of the game just to beat the insanely difficult final boss. "Level grinding" seems a bit less necessary in FFIV on GBA or DS due to my obsessive need to fill my bestiary. When an enemy just refuses to show up, big levels can be earned killing what you do find.

Any other games that require grinding that you don't think do (such as Breath of Fire or Secret of Mana)? I'm not trying to be rude, but rather understand your point of view, which currently makes no real sense to me at all.

Awesome!!! Since we just got Mega Man 3, Phantasy Star IV should be here come Monday! Too bad I have no Wii points left after Mega Man 2 though...

The only type of "grinding" nessecary in FF2 is a bit of random spell-spamming at the very beginning to up your pathetically low MP, but that can be done by simply attacking with magic rather than normal weapons in the regular battles you get into. Attack magic is so weak in FF2 there's no reason to bother boosting it much, and the stat system will automatically increase your stats to the nessecary level once you enter a new area. I mean, did you even try playing the game without grinding at every point some stupid guide told you to?

With FF4 - I've played both the American and Japanese SNES versions, the PSX version and the DS version, and was able to beat all of them without any real trouble by simply taking each dungeon on at whatever level I was at when I got to it. Same with every other game in the series - as long as you just truck on and use your resources right, there's no need for grinding.

@ Betagam7 & Hori Digital Controller:

Can you still can buy it? Because i don't find it for example on Play-Asia.

@ Mega Man 3: After i played several hours, i can definitively say that there are (unfortunately) much more slowdowns than in MM2...

Mr Cheez, in all fairness, there's not much grinding in the first Phantasy Star, but what there is, is all at the beginning of the game, so it might be a bit off-putting to newcomers.

I only heard about the Phantasy Star grinding in most reviews I've read on the games, which is why I'm turned off.

I haven't played FF2 on my GBA yet (but I have the 1 & 2 collection so I will soon), but FF's 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 didn't require much grinding throughout the game, I just never ran away from any battles I happened upon when I was heading to my next destination.

But then again I never bothered trying to beat the Weapons in FF7, I didn't see the outcome as much of a reward. But I'm sure I probably would've grinded my levels up to beat them though.

Thanks Kelvin. Good to hear.

I have been playing Mega Man 2 on the Anniversary collection (using my freeloader and Gamecube controller) but the thing I don't like is the analog stick and the D-Pad on the Cube controller is uncomfortable after long periods of playing. I guess I'm oldschool in the fact that I liked games without the analog stick and the Mega Man games shine better to me without the analog stick...Thank you to BetaGam (55) for the recommendation, I am going to look into that now.

I assure you you won't regret it. I've got two of them and there also great for 2D fighting games like CAPCOM vs SNK on GC as well as some of the Japanese Hudson remakes like Adventure Island.

Thanks. I'm headin' out to see Max Payne.

Is Phantasy star 4 like breath of fire 2 to super nintendo beacuse i really liked breath of fire 2 and i have only heard good things about this game. I will download this if someone convince me to

@Adamant: With FF2, I think it's just a matter of my playing style, which is use very little magic against random enemies, then break it out big time for the bosses. And a severe and unexplainable mental block against using recovery items. However, you're still the first person I've ever heard say that the game requires so little grinding.

As for FFIV, I still don't get how you say you don't have to grind in it. Maybe you just enjoy seemingly impossible battles and don't want to be stronger to make the match more fair? I couldn't beat the final boss on PS1 without a LOT of grinding; I kept getting game overs. There was also a bit of grinding to prepare characters for the cave where you couldn't equip metal weapons and armor. I just don't see a way around it. But if you do, great for you, I guess. It's not like arguing about this is doing anybody any good anyway, and it's gotten too far off topic. Other people are still talking about the releases, and I suspect we should limit our comments to same.

In FF4 DS I just beat Rubicante in the Tower of Babil and I don't think I've done much grinding so far either.

" With FF2, I think it's just a matter of my playing style, which is use very little magic against random enemies, then break it out big time for the bosses."

That's my playing style, too I never said you had to use a lot against random enemies, but at the very beginnign of the game, once you only have 5 MP, go a bit crazy with magic in a couple battles to boost your MP to acceptable levels. I'm not saying you spend an hours doing so - 10 MP works fine, 15 is more than enough, and that can be accomplished in those few battles you get into on your way to and from Fin anyway.

Yes, a lot of people say FF2 requires grinding. They say it because the guide they followed and the people on the internet said it, and they never bothered learning how the game really works, instead going with the "you need to spend 10 hours cheating your characters to insane power at the beginning of the game. That's boring, so this game sucks" mindset (and then they complain about how impossibly hard the game is when monsters start doing percentage-based damage and hit them for thousands of HP at once, something their Cure spells can't really handle, heh). Don't listen to those people. FF2 is not hard, and does not require grinding.

As for the FF4 cave where you can't use metal equipment, there are relatively competent equipment that still orks down there if you just bother seeking it out. Otherwise, you can just run from everything and leg it straight to the boss, then return for monsters and treasure later, once the spell is lifted. Grinding is not nessecary at all.

ff4 did require a little grinding as did ps4 but it was always enjoyable for me. dragon quest/dragon warrior games though... grinding in those games gets pretty brutal (granted i only played the gbc versions but after dw3/dq3, i'm done with that series...)

SPOILER ALERT

The reason no game past PS4 was part of the main story was because PS4 wrapped it up pretty thoroughly by not only defeating Dark Force, but also the entity RESPONSIBLE for Dark Force...

SPOILER END

I would like to see either Contra, Castlevania 3, Dragon Warrior, or announcement about Turok being a future release on the VC for Monday's news.

@Stuffgamer1

To begin, I understand you want more than one VC game a week and nothing I say will change that, but I cannot see why our releases should be considered crappy while Europe's should be considered awesome. First, yes, Mega Man 3 was already released on a collection, but many people still wanted it (a fact proven by the game's appearance on the "most popular" list). Second, while one WiiWare release was crappy, the other, Brain Challenge, received generally positive reviews. That means we got two good releases.

Europe also got two good releases, and just like us, one of them was already available on a collection.

We both received two good releases, so our weeks should be considered equally good. I know you have your opinion--and I respect it--but please consider this situation. It seems we do not disagree that there is no problem with Nintendo releasing three games a week (due to financial decisions). However, you say two of those games should be VC games. That means there is only one WiiWare game. Now, I'm sure there are people who like WiiWare as much as you like the VC, so won't those people be mad with only one game a week? I know it would be great if we could have four games a week, but alas, I don't think that is fair to ask for.

I understand your anger, but once again, I ask you to consider the alternative. I think the best decision Nintendo could make to make everyone happy would be to alternate the number of WiiWare/VC releases each week (in other words, two WW and one VC this week and one WW and two VC next week), but who knows if that will ever happen.

^plus, Europe only got 2 VC games for this and the previous week, just like the US. You can't compare the releases directly like that when the two regions use different release systems.

You may also want to take note of the fact that Europe doesn't get weekly VC updates. We get them once a fortnight which technically equates to the same amount as America's one per week.

Yeah, we're getting one less game a fortnight than America is getting right now (they get four WiiWare games a fortnight, we get three). I hope things improve.

Ideally we'll get PSIV and EB tomorrow. And it'll rain money.

@ 2hip2beskware: Wait, the weather isn't like that where you live?

@Virus: Well, I did say before that I already have Brain Challenge on Xbox Live Arcade. I have no faith in that game with motion controls. If those can be disabled, that's okay, I guess. Even so, for the same price, I'll take HD and Achievements. Sure, that's not an option for everybody, but I tend to build my opinions factoring in multi-system releases, as I have all of them.

I do agree with your alternating releases idea. That's not so bad. It's one VC game week after week that's getting to me. I like WiiWare sometimes, don't get me wrong on that. I have Tetris Party and Toki Tori eating up a good chunk of my system memory, plus there's a new SBCG4AP every month. I'm also looking forward to Cave Story. But come on, Brain Challenge and Yummy-whatever-I-don't-care vs. Phantasy Star IV? And I wouldn't even download that game, as I'm getting it on a $30 collection in three months (and already have it on an older collection regardless). Face it: Most people who'd want to buy that shovelware (which I THINK everybody agrees Yummy-etc. is) don't have their Wii's connected to the internet. So the majority is getting shunned for no good reason.

@Stuffgamer1

Once again, I ask you to consider the situation through Nintendo's eyes. Yes, Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam has not received good reviews, but can Nintendo not allow that game to come out? No, YYCJ's developers made that game so it had to come out at one point. The only thing to do to soften the fall of YYCJ's release on WiiWare was to release games beside it, which Nintendo did.

It also puzzles me that you contradict yourself. You would rather have PSIV than YYCJ and BC, but you admit you wouldn't buy PSIV on VC anyway. Why would others buy it then? Those who probably like it have already bought the collection, right?

As for me "facing it," while YYCJ has already been deemed shovelware, I'm sure many people would enjoy it. Look at Pong Toss. That game is an example of a shunned game loved by many. As for BC, while it is available on other systems, people will buy it like they will buy PSIV: They want the game on their Wii system. I realize this week's releases may not have been to your liking, but the majority was not shunned.

When we get two releases, I'll argue with you that we have been shunned. Seeing Monday's releases forcast one VC release, I don't think it will be this week.

@Virus: I didn't really contradict myself. I would rather PSIV was released than the other two, because I believe it would be more popular overall. Generally speaking, VC is more popular than WiiWare, at least among those of us who use these two websites. I do my best to be happy for those who got what they wanted, and it seems to me that more people would've been happy with PSIV than these WiiWare games. It also goes back to how I'd rather have VC releases than WiiWare shovelware anytime. Heck, I'd actually rather have crappy VC games released than WiiWare shovelware.

It had seemed to me that the majority was upset, based on my reading of the US release comment thread. This whole thing makes very little sense anyway. I just hope tomorrow's release is good.

I love these whiny little geeks who have nothing more to complain about other than 50Hz refresh rates in games. Too bad ya boring little phishers, 50Hz is what you get, If you don't like it - tough.
I didn't catch this comment earlier...I whine because I want to hand my wallet over to Nintendo...I've played and beaten Phantasy Star IV on my DS thanks to the homebrew and the wonderful jEnesisDS emulator. I can do the same on my Wii via the Gensis Plus emulator. I'm not the one being put out, NOE and SEGA are...as PSIV was a game I'm actually prepared to throw the 800 points at rather than think "overpriced ROM". But I want a good deal and substandard 50Hz only isn't it.

As I forgot to throw in my two cents in the FF grinding argument. FFIV has an intended grind spot right before the final boss (which is the part I sometimes need to grind on). The enemies in the last room are easy to kill and give out lots of EXP (though one of them gives out lots of money instead ). Not to mention the events before the final boss will fully heal you. FFV has spots for your job levels. That caslte basement where level 5 death wipes the enemies out (so battles are pretty quick but the reward is okay) and also some enemies rarely seen in the final dungeon (very great reward in terms of AP but tendancy to run away).

Well there was me thinking about downloading PS4. Since i found out that the music runs slower than the NTSC version i think i will give this a miss for now. Keep up the poor conversions Nintendo/Sega all it's doing is stopping me from downloading more games that have slower music.

Why didn't VC Reviews review last Friday's VC releases, you guys kinda remind me of IGN, only they can't review worth a crap anymore!