Oh boy, it's time to talk about Phantasy Star after the few times I've mentioned the series. Let me just start by saying that I have only played Phantasy Star 1-4, and all of them are included within Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (and to this day I still haven't beaten 2, cause of that RNG garbage that is the final battle with Dark Force. I never even made it to Mother Brain. Then again I think I was way underleveled according to the guide I followed, as I kept running from fights at the end.. Partly my fault, really...), and they're all so much fun. Currently I'm actually replaying Phantasy Star 3 and I'll be finishing it again soon as I'm at the 3rd generation and I'm getting ready to hunt for the legendary weapons. But back to PS1.
So, for a Master System game that came out in '87, this game still holds up, in my opinion. I use a guide, since I've beaten it before, and so that everything becomes easier to get through, especially with dungeon maps, because these dungeons are long and winding and ugh, that's a whole different topic. But all the same, I love this game. I love slowly recruiting Myau, Odin, and Noah to Alis' cause to avenge her brother Nero, and to defeat the evil Lassic - and by extension, Darkfalz, which is what they called Dark Force in this game.
A funny thing I love in this game is that they didn't use the items we know now, such as Monomates, Trimates, etc. If you wanted healing items, you go to a food shop to buy Cola and Burgers. Considering this was 1987, they probably picked some American foods widely recognized by American culture, and what could be more iconic to us than soda and burgers, eh? But all the same, it's a lot of fun.
This was also back in the days of "different palette swaps of enemies means they're tougher," so a scorpion you'd see early on has this magenta color, while later gold and blue variants appear for a tougher challenge, but that's a common theme in these RPGs, probably to also conserve space without having to make a bunch of new enemies, sprites, etc. It's still funny to see a color change and suddenly be more afraid of it due to its change in power (unless, of course, the color change is a weaker variant, naturally).
The game seems like it's long, but honestly it's because of the random battles and the dungeon-crawling. But with a guide and maps, they're certainly not a match for you. Either way, it's a fun game and a wonderful start to a fun series that I've come to love thanks to the ability to play it. If you're able to, you should definitely try it out sometime, and if you think it's too daunting, definitely consider finding a guide online to read off of so you don't get stuck, since we're in the day and age of having all of the knowledge at our fingertips, after all. But anyways, thanks so much for reading, and I'll see you all again soon!
Have a nice day!~
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