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Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

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Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#51

Post by ForOldHack »

falsaberN1 wrote: post #30

Raise your hand if you got Megid without a guide. I love Phantasy Star I-IV (except III, mostly everyone agrees it's too flawed and wacky despite some good ideas). I never got into Phantasy Star Online, which is the only game people today seem to be familiar with, though. Is it even related to the original RPGs? I heard 2 has Dark Force as a boss but the events of IV make it...strange. That shouldn't be possible in-u…

I did not, but since my nephew got a network adapter, he told me about the game he played online, and showed me around. Thanks for the tip about Profound Distortion.

Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#52

Post by hbn »

xphos wrote: post #10

The OG phantasy Star was a little before my time but the GameCube version of Phantasy Star online was so good. They even have community servers for it today as Phantasy Star Blue burst. The game is now dated but honestly I could still play it because it had a good grind formula https://www.phantasystaronline.net/

The only reason I'm familiar with this game is that insane Gamecube controller that had an entire full-size qwerty keyboard on it.

Or perhaps it should be understood as a full-size qwerty keyboard with the two halves of a Gamecube controller glued onto the sides.

Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#53

Post by bcardarella »

Phantasy Star remains to this day my favorite RPG. I was the kid in the neighborhood who's parents bought a SEGA Master System instead of a NES. I would play Final Fantasy a bit over their houses but it always paled in comparison to Phantasy Star. I recently replayed it on Nintendo Switch. Still a very challenging RPG and stil feels great.

Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#54

Post by rybosome »

jjk7 wrote: post #49
rybosome wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This brought back a flood of wonderful memories. Tying up my parents phone line with the Dreamcast's 56k modem was a formative experience for me as a nerdy middle-schooler. - The Dreamcast keyboard made communication so much better - I was studying French, and joined European servers sometimes for the thrill of using the language with real Francophones (VERY rudimentarily) - I once met someone whose job was composing…

It went beyond duping, you could construct your own completely unique weapon stats with gameshark codes at the bank. Prototypal item crafting

I had no idea. Did you take part in it?

Typically I would feel that this sort of thing is "cheating" and takes away from the fun of a game, but in this case it didn't have that effect on me. The rare loot hunt wasn't what pulled me in so much as the simple joy of grinding away at monsters and hanging out with friends.

The drop rates on dreamcast were absolutely broken, some weapons had a literal one-in-a-million (or worse!) chance at dropping. I spent over 200 hours playing the game, and the only legitimate rare I ever found was a double-saber, which isn't even that rare.

Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#55

Post by wormius »

My friend had the Master System, so I got to experience the first two, and loved the dome shaped buildings it had going on.

Another friend had a Dreamcast and had pondered getting Phantasy Star Online, but never did. Anyways, I'm glad it's still "a thing" even if it's not the same.

It'd be wild to see it come back the way Dragon Quest did with XI.

Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#56

Post by aperrien »

hnlmorg wrote: post #23
mghackerlady wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what version do you play? I believe that affects it. There are custom servers for pc and gamecube, but there's more work on dreamcast

I use https://schtserv.com which supports both GC and Xbox versions of PSO. The Dreamcast has it's own community servers and isn't compatible with Schtserv. Though I believe that might just be because Episode 2 wasn't release on the DC. I do have an account for the DC servers too but I wouldn't recommend them. The DC takes too much hassle to get online for the value when most people on the DC PSO server are there for…

Is there a server for the PS2?

Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#59

Post by npunt »

S_Bear wrote: post #50
falsaberN1 wrote: post #30

Raise your hand if you got Megid without a guide. I love Phantasy Star I-IV (except III, mostly everyone agrees it's too flawed and wacky despite some good ideas). I never got into Phantasy Star Online, which is the only game people today seem to be familiar with, though. Is it even related to the original RPGs? I heard 2 has Dark Force as a boss but the events of IV make it...strange. That shouldn't be possible in-u…

III was my favorite. Lyle was so cool to 13 year old me, the multi-generation cyborgs were awesome (in fact, the multiple ending were all kind of neat), I loved the biomes connected by tunnels, and the art direction was kind of gross and funky compared to how clean the PSII enemies were.

The generations system in III was amazing. I didn't care that the art wasn't top notch, I loved the game and seeing the story over three generations. Decades later I wound up making a storytelling game mostly based on it.

Re: Phantasy Star IV – 1993 Developer Interviews

#60

Post by kdamica »

npunt wrote: post #59
S_Bear wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

III was my favorite. Lyle was so cool to 13 year old me, the multi-generation cyborgs were awesome (in fact, the multiple ending were all kind of neat), I loved the biomes connected by tunnels, and the art direction was kind of gross and funky compared to how clean the PSII enemies were.

The generations system in III was amazing. I didn't care that the art wasn't top notch, I loved the game and seeing the story over three generations. Decades later I wound up making a storytelling game mostly based on it.

My favorite thing about 3 is that the soundtrack has tracks based on the number of characters in your party. Gain a character? Suddenly the music is richer. Lose someone? The music sounds more lonely.

Truly underrated game.

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