Collection essentials #129: Phantasy Star IV (Genesis)

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are the two big-name pioneers in the world of Japanese RPGs from the early days, but another very significant series was Sega’s Phantasy Star. The most immediately-obvious way that this series stands out from the other two is the futuristic sci-fi setting with different planets and alien races, as opposed to the medieval fantasy world of those other two. 

I haven’t played a lot of Phantasy Star in my lifetime. The first game was before my time on a console I’ve never owned, and II and III on the Genesis are very flawed games. However, IV marked a huge leap in quality and has a reputation that I just couldn’t ignore, so I got around to playing it nearly a decade ago. 

The big thing that sticks out in my mind about Phantasy Star IV is the incredible quality of the presentation. The game features incredible detailed artwork whenever the story plays out, and features a quality translation into English, which may seem like an odd thing to compliment, but believe it or not that was not the norm back in the ‘90s even in games with a lot of text. When compared with Breath of Fire, another quality Japanese RPG that came out on a competing system in the same year, the difference in presentation and translation with Phantasy Star IV is absolute night and day. This is a game you can tell got a lot of love, as it delivers in pretty much every way you’d want a game like this to. The mid-’90s is when RPG developers really got a good grasp on what makes for fun, well-paced gameplay without requiring the player to “grind” for more level-ups very much, and the developers of Phantasy Star IV certainly got the memo. The banter between the characters is certainly amusing and well done at times, though I have to confess that the story didn’t leave much of an impression on me, and I struggle to remember any details about it years after my playthrough.

Now, Phantasy Star IV was also clearly made with fans of the first three games in mind. You certainly don’t need to play them in order to enjoy IV, but there are plenty of connections and nods to the previous games that didn’t do anything for me. That and the fact that I didn’t play it ‘til adulthood means that I don’t have the same unwavering attachment to this game as some other classic RPGs. But I still had a lot of fun with it and will consider it for a replay at some point in my life. Phantasy Star IV is one of the jewels of the Genesis and a real essential.