Phantasy Star (sms)
Categories:
[blog]
Tags:
[video games],
[review],
[master system]
Boy, what an incredibly impressive title for 1987. One of the earliest RPGs, and not only that, encompasses a surprisingly progressive story with a revengeful female lead, robots, space ships, and magic cats. There's not a lot of interaction with the characters, so unfortunately personality is more inferred than presented.
The combination of 2D overworld map/towns sections and first person 3D dungeon exploration are mindblowing for an 8-bit platform. The animations featured on the enemies were groundbreaking at the time, and still pleasing to the eye today.
The remake on the switch helpfully adds an 'ages' mode, which increases XP gain, money gain, lessens random encounters, and adds an auto map, all of which are greatly appreciated, and are the only reason I was willing to play such an old and grindy RPG in the first place. Having said that, there are many surprisingly friendly gameplay elements in place, including a free healing location from the very start of the game.
To be frank, the combat itself is a fairly repetitive affair, with little in the way of strategy to keep things interesting. Using a walkthrough if you get stuck or lack resolve to find whichever macguffin you need next is probably also wise. Regardless, it's still a great game and well worth exploring.