Phantasy Star Joins The Sega AGES Line On Switch Today

waiting for IV

SOLD!

Never played it ! Might pick this up

Couldn't resist getting this.
Phantasy Star was my first RPG... it's been a while.
This release has some awesome features:
-you can switch between regular and the superior sounding FM music.
-there's an automap feature
-there's a SEGA/AGES mode, that'll have fewer random encounters, -you get more money and it's overall a little easier
-plenty of video modes
-a monster compendium
-lists with all spells, weapons and items for quick reference

If you ever had any interest in Phantasy Star, this is the definitive way to play it imho.

@GrailUK

Wait......did you sell it or buy it?!

That certainly took long enough to come over.

I am buying this today and will eventually get to it once Smash stop consuming my life. UPDATE - all characters unlocked and 350 spirits!

I read “phantasy Star” and “line” and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

But when is Sonic 2 coming?! 🤨

@derty That was my favorite also. Ill probably just end up getting the whole Sega Classics though.

@SBandy It's rubbish the site forces words into your mouth.

not a huge fan of the 1st person view style RPG's like these. I am possibly interested in 4 if we get it with ages.

@derty You can play 2, 3, and 4 on the Genesis collection that came out last week!

This version is a bit more newbie friendly with the map on the side. Any of the past versions you were hand drawing a map or looking for a walkthrough.

@adzix Thanks for positing that info!

I got my love of Phantasy Star with PSO on GC and always wanted to experience the originals, so I got em all on Wii/Wii U when they released on VC. However I couldn’t fully get into em as I’d get lost in the mazes, and didn’t feel like drawing maps. That auto map feature is making this a must buy for me!

@Dm9982 You're welcome. This is definitely the most user-friendly this game has ever been, the automapping does make life SO much easier, instead of having to go back to graph paper
Also the balance of the new AGES mode is quite nice, while not feeling to cheap.

I might have to give this a go. Phantasy Star 2 is one of my favorite Genesis games and PSO is one of my all time favorite games. It would be cool to play the game that started it all.

At last, but Where is Outrun?
Slackers!

@adzix wow so they added such an amount of beautiful features? 😯 nice

@Gerald 10th Jan

@BlackenedHalo definitely more than I had expected, there's way more stuff than, for example, with the Thunder Force IV release.

I love Phantasy Star, it was my 2nd JRPG after Miracle Warriors on Master System, but I really wish they would bring over the remake that originally released on PlayStation 2 in Japan.

@Dayton311 Congrats! I can’t, for the life of me, manage to take out Palutena. 7-8 tries now, using Link, Simon, Little Mac and Cptn. Falcon

@Antraxx777 Palutena was my second to last one I unlocked (prob took me 10 tries!). My toughest one however was Greninja...UGH at least 15 tries before finally prevailing!

This game’s graphics were far ahead of their time. The color palette is still really rich, even today, and the dungeons have a surprising visual depth to them when moving. To find that Yuji Naka was mostly responsible for that eye trick makes it even better. It definitely looked better than anything on the NES at the time.

This is the best version around. There's the new mode that reduces grinding by making enemies drop more gold and exp. There's an option to speed up walking, an option to play the Japanese version, an option for the FM sounds. And most importantly, there's an on-screen map now! I already loved this game, but the map alone makes it so so so much more enjoyable. And you can even turn it off if you're up for the old-school challenge anyway!

I have a question. What games are comparable to this? I've always heard people talk about Phantasy Star but have no idea what it compares to.

@Pink_Floyd This game is like early Ultima or Eye of the Beholder games I suppose.

One step closer to Virtua Racing!!!

@EarthboundBenjy @adzix Thanks for info on FM sounds. Was wondering why the music sounded so off. I have played this through a few times in the past, so I might even use the "easy mode". So impressed about the map, though I did like graphing that out on graph paper as a kid. Felt like a real skill.

@jruasap ooo I know haha I will b getting after xmas with that glorious xmas money. will most likely go digital. just makes the most sense.

@derty well wait no longer, IV is available on the Sega collection, along with 2 and 3.

I'm giving this game a proper chance now that the Ages version is out but it's not really clicking with me. Maybe it's a acquired taste. I'll keep plugging away but I keep dying within the first 10 minutes and I'm tired of restarting!! This game is real oldschool

@GrailUK Thanks, still not sure why it’s taking longer, the slackers 😀

@adzix -there's a SEGA/AGES mode, that'll have fewer random encounters, -you get more money and it's overall a little easier

This right here was one of the QoL changes I needed among others. I just don't have the time nowadays to do all that grinding. I just want to enjoy the game, so this is encouraging. Hopefully NL will still do a review.

@Pichuka97

Just save after you kill enemies. Especially near the beginning. You can save anywhere, so there's no worries about losing progress if you save often.

@MeloMan same here. I remember playing PS2 about 17 years ago and spending an hour or two a day for nearly a month doing nothing but grinding JUST to be able to face the penultimate and final bosses. That sheer amount of grinding plus the uninspired dungeons has scared me away from ever touching an old school Phantasy Star again, but QoL features like these are pretty tempting.

Sweet, big fan of PSO2. Now I can try out the original game where it all started. Instabuy. ^^

A 30 years old 8-bit game for 7 Euros?
Hahaha, I can buy the Xbox 360 Phantasy Star Universe for that price!

The creator of Sonic is Yuji Naka, not Yuki.

@burninmylight And that right there is my other bucket list item: PS2, 3, and 4 "one day". They're on the Sega Genesis classics, something else I don't currently have, but I don't think there is any QoL on that collection. So unless they are giving PS2, 3, and 4 the AGES treatment, I'm going to be right back at the same conundrum that scared me away from PS1.

Already bought! Never played phantasy star franchise but is definitely my cup of tea. I will start this holiday season but for now is just mega drive collection for me

@subpopz Same thing. It's certainly tempting. But my backlog is growing almost literally by the day at this point!

I've been playing this, it's great fun!

Even though the AGES mode makes the game a little more easy, there's very little guidance, so you might want to grab a walkthrough if you get stuck.

@Balta666
The first 4 (ok 3 maybe not) were groundbreaking, and entirely unlike the final fantasy games of the same era. 1 is manageable, with the map added here. 2 is hard as ballz. 3 is... 3 makes me uncomfortable. deeply. 4 is a masterpiece, but a little too easy by comparison.

On screen maps!? Man, when we played this back in the 80's, we had to literally chart our own dungeon maps with pen and paper. It's cool they're using the Japanese FM sound version, sounds much better than my original Master System copy.

Haha this game was so brutal. You'd walk out of the first town and you'd have to run from 3/4 of fights because you couldn't handle them. You'd get into a single fight and have to go back in town to heal up because you couldn't handle another one. After leveling up a couple times it got better, but you could still run into stuff that would rough you up real bad.

@EarthboundBenjy Yeah I didn't really clue in to that till later on. Guess I had a blonde moment

Already 3 hours into it. Love it - never played the original, but always wanted to. Playing on easier mode, though, as I don't have the time for hard RPGs that I used to.

Are the ganes in the AGES line up in anywqy enhanced? Or are they just a rom of the original?

@aznable thanks for the description! Even though I never played them (and never heard of them until a few years ago even though I had a mega drive when kid) I had a crude notion of what you described and I am actually quite curious in seeing for myself why everyone says 3 is such a shame in the series. Have to say that the part of drawing my own map is not something I am looking for but let's see if I do it or open one from the net straight away hehe

@derty after the first one, I'd say part 4 was next best.

@RagManX enjoy it, it's one of the greatest games you'll ever play.

Wow so they don't even remake the game. This is even lazier than only bringing 1/3rd of shining force 3 with Synbios' story.

Phantasy star has a 1-3 collection for gba with a remake for ps2 in japan, and psp/ps2 has 2-4 in that Sega Genesis collection. Naming it Sega ages when the ps2 was Sega ages 2500 (assuming yen) is a sheer scam. This is a vid of phantasy star 2 for Sega ages 2500 ps2. https://youtu.be/cs0xBLqGMNs
I might have bought a switch it they didn't pull this bs honestly. Modernizing some flawed old games can really make a difference.

@Balta666 The Sega ages version of ps1 features a self-drawing map that generates as you explore the pseudo-3D dungeons. You have the option of turning it off if you want to go hard core- but that would result only in your frustration and eventual usage of that map or online ones. I remember drawing these guys out pre internet.... it was so much harder than it seemed at first blush.

@mrvariant - they've rebalanced the game (switchable), feature a new soundtrack, monster compendium, map system (switchable), arranged music (switchable), item compendium, and a few other doodads i haven't gotten into yet. That's some pretty useful and unique shtuff, and I'm ok if they don't remake the game. Its only $8.

@aznable I get that. I was referring to the 2-4 that I will play the mega drive collection versions (original)

@derty Then get sega gensis classic for switch

PSG or FM soundtrack, or do you get to choose?

I generally tend to prefer more [quote unquote] "16-bit sounds" to more [quote unquote] "8-bit sounds" at large, but for whatever reason, I find myself still preferring a lot of Mastersystem PSG to Mastersystem FM in a lot of cases.

And by and large, that's the case with Phantasy Star as well. In fact, the PSG version of the shop theme is one of my all time favorite tracks! Feels soooooo good! I would be tremendously disappointed if it locked you into FM. Although, I would only be so much less disappointed if it locked you into PSG, because there's a lot of good stuff on the FM side as well.

Anyway, anybody know?

Thanks!

@NerdNoiseRadio

You can choose.

Physical option?

Phantasy Star is the best one to me. Have dungeon automaps now makes the game sooo much more playable and enjoyable.