After A Short Delay, Phantasy Star Joins Sega AGES Line At The End Of This Month

Damn Sega when will you guys remake the four main Phantasy Star games already? We need these games evolve to the next level please. Also how about making PS5 while you're at it.

There's far too much time between these releases.It's going to take AGES (couldn't resist) to get just the announced games out.

Sweet, it's about time. Big fan of the PSO sereies. Enjoying PSO2 game. Can't wait to play the original Phantasy Star game.

Until the Sega AGES lineup, I’d never heard of this game except for Phantasy Star Online on GameCube. I’m not interested. I think if I want a turn based rpg, I’ll just replay Undertale again

I will give this go sometime in 2019 as it's always been on my shame list of never played games. Not sure how if I will enjoy it given how dated I am sure it is but will try it out

Been playing the unlockable version on the Sega Megadrive PS3 comp lately so I'm more than happy to shell-out for an improved version...especially if it has the Japanese music.

Cool! This series is great!

Why are you mentioning the Saturn???

Phantasy Star Collection was released in 1998 for it and contained all four original games in one package. They were all emulated and carried only new difficulty and speed options.

This is an enhanced port of the Sega Mark III/Master System original and has nothing to do with the Saturn.

@Whalehome Passing up on Phantasy Star in favor of Undertale? I recommend you reconsider. The Phantasy Star series stands as one of the genre's greatest.

Anyway, this is a welcome addition. The Switch is an excellent JRPG machine. I hope it isn't too long until we see the rest of the mainline entries added.

Must buy! And just like the previous two, announced a few days before release!

Good thing someone admits it's a delay. They promised one or two games per month, regardless of the commendable work they put into it, but a promise made is a debt unpaid.

Nice ! Not only in Japanese i hope.

I think it's simultaneous release (I think)

The emulation quality of these games is decreasing & the price increasing with each iteration to the point where it's just so much better to download & emulate them yourself for free instead of paying for inferior versions of those games.

@Velocirapstar actually you're not correct on the sega ages emulation. It is the best you can have and all games have enhances as well (both visual and of gameplay)

I totally missed this series so I am happy to start now and then continue on the sega mega drive collection by Christmas (sad that this is coming at the same time as diablo though)

@Whalehome @jtmnm yeah as great as Undertale is, it's a postmodern subversion of classic JRPGs. There's still plenty of enjoyment to be had in playing it straight with the real thing.

Even Dreamcast games would be too expensive at that price...
Oh well, the Megadrive Collection will still be sweet on the Switch. 40 games for 30 bucks. I can hardly wait.

Is this the one where there is a cat that's one of the main characters? Cause i remember playing one with a cat, and i never finished it, and would love to play it again 😁

@OorWullie it is a pity but i'm not gonna keep waiting for AGES interpretation of future Phantasy Star games when there is a Megadrive Classics collection coming out soonish that contains Phantasy Star 2-4...

Fantastic. Instant buy.
I am surprised they are not releasing Alex Kid in Miracle World at the same time. Get your skates on M2 (no pun intended for Jet Set getting an Ages release request)

More looking forward to Phantasy Star IV on Sega Mega Drive Classics when it hits Switch sometime this Winter.

Previous Sega Ages games launched worldwide on the same day, I believe.

@Xaritah

That sounds like Phantasy Star 4. WHICH WAS THE AWESOMENEST EVER.

Dang I'd love to remake but I can live with this.

@Finntendo ohhhh i tought it was this one 😭 thanks for the answer anyway 😀

My first Phantasy Star game was on the GameCube Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2. I also have Phantasy Star Online Ep. 3 C.A.R.D. for the GameCube too. I still have those games in my collection. I really enjoyed those games. But I also played Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, Phantasy Star Universe, I really liked those games, as well as Phantasy Star Online 2. Great games! But I never played the original Phantasy Star for the Genesis because I played Sonic 2 Sonic Spinball Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. Loved all those games. But it would be nice to play Phantasy Star from the Sega Ages.

@Xaritah

Oh I stand corrected! This one has cat indeed, I must have mixed to another PS. Cat named Myau.

PS 3 has no cats or cat-type robots. 2 and 4 has cat-like bots..erm.. numans

I'm waiting on this one, and if the QoL enhancements are enough, it will be an instant purchase. Looking forward to its release and review.

It's interesting that in the years following the Japanese releases of Ultima IV on MasterSystem and NES, and Wizardry on the NES, quite many JRPGs sprouted and took heavy inspiration from those.

And Phantasy Star is probably the one that most closely resembles Ultima IV.

Which is interesting, seeing as the NES version of that game was the one with the fancy graphics, while the MasterSystem release featured Richard Garriott's original janky pixel art.

@Dayton311
C’mon now your not that dated. Life in the old girl yet and all that.

@Pod That's a connection I never made before. I was relatively unaware of those games on the NES because they weren't released in the US, until that Ultima that was based on Ultima IV which was a bit shocking to see having played through the originals on Apple ][ computers and Commodore 64.

Tell me more about why you are comparing Phantasy Star to Ultima VI though. I'm not quite seeing that. That was the first to land in VGA on PCs, and I didn't have a good enough PC at the time so never played through it (just studied it from afar).

Loved me some Phantasy Star on the Master System. It was so impressive at the time and I'd always enjoyed the first person dungeon mapping from Wizardry and Bard's Tale, so it was a welcome and amazing looking take on it all.

I'm impressed with the extra work put into this.

Phantasy Star Online was impressive in what it was accomplishing, but I was always sad that the traditional approach was left behind as they pursued that type of game.

I’m always down for an old school RPG.

(Still hoping Sega puts out Sonic 3&K!)

The fact that in most aspects Phantasy Star 1 feels like a 16-Bit game.

Was a childhood favourite of mine on the GBA. Now it's got an ingame map AND a monster encyclopedia? I'll need this!

@aaronsullivan
I made a mistake in typing "VI" in my second paragraph! I would only compare this to Ultimate IV. Sordid roman numerals.

If you'd still want to hear more about that, though, I compare it mostly because it retains the first-person dungeon crawling that Richard Garriott and Robert Woodhead championed back in 81 with the first entries to Ultima and Wizardry, and because it actively uses sci-fi elements for a mostly fantasy-inspired world and genre, which both western series series were known to do as well. Although, Ultima IV did do away with those completely, as the first in the series.

With Dragon Quest only having existed for a year and a half at the time Phantasy Star released, and with Final Fantasy releasing only two days (!) before, the creators have had to rely on their experience with prior western PC/Mac games, and the few that made it to consoles, during the production, for laying the groundwork.

How the japanese in general decided to incorporate manga art and storytelling for launching their version of the genre is a great chapter of game history all by itself.

I might only be telling you things you already know, considering you just asked about Ultima VI, though. ^_^;;

@Xaritah the first one has a cat in the team as well

@Balta666 i actually think it was the first one, and i tought that this one was the first one

I absolutely love the Phantasy Star Series. To be clear, the proper PS series from 1 to 4. I have such fond memories of getting and playing each of them. This one I purchased from Toys R Us the day it came out. Up until then, I had never played a role playing game. The art on the back of the box looked so exciting! With a first person view of the dungeon, the flying Tie Fighter eyeball monster and cool anime characters. It looked action packed!! I was so excited! So imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was no action. No fast arcade gameplay... i mean.... how do you even PLAY this thing????

So I tried to take it back to Toys R Us. And as we know, they didnt take back opened video games. I was stuck with it. And then I'll never forget. I went to my older brother (5 years my senior) and whined to him about it. He was/is not a gamer. But he asked me, "Did you try it?" "Yes!" ..."Did you REALLY try it?" ..."No". "Then quit your whining and go play your game..." and I did just that. I figured out how it was supposed to work. Got into my head that this is a different kind of game than the rest. And from there, I fell in love with a whole new genre of games. To this day, I credit my brother for getting me into my favorite genre of gaming. No coincidence that he also introduced me to D&D as well! Good memories.

@Xaritah this is the first one. I saw somebody saying to you that the one with cat was 4 and jmwaa just saying that this one definitely has one.

@Balta666 thanks!!! Then this is the one for sure!!! I'm so buying it!

I really hope this is a simultaneous release, ive had 10 bucks on my switch since the last week of September in hopes for Phantasy Stars release. But seeing how its already released in Japan using my Japanese Switch account, I doubt it, but maybe they're just waiting for it to be 12AM in the west? Who knows.
Feel free to @ me when this game releases, im honestly so hyped for it!

@Pod It's fun to discuss! My viewpoint was so limited as these things were being released. Even though I was playing the games, the stories of how they were made or how they got into my hands the in US were rarely told, and, you know, no Internet.

Did you read the interview about this over on Nintendo Everything? I think you'll enjoy it as one of the SEGA AGES team working on it was an artist on the original game. Many nice tidbits in there. https://nintendoeverything.com/kodama-and-m2-on-phantasy-star-what-development-was-like-in-1987-sega-ages-games-on-switch/

@aaronsullivan
Oi, thanks for returning to this topic, I should be VERY interested in checking that out!

@Pod
Wow this was from October wasn’t it? I keep reply messages in an email folder if I intend to reply one day and then go through them when I get a chance. I must have been busy for the past few months (I was).