Phantasy Star IV truly is a masterpiece and is comparable to the best 16 bit RPGs, you are correct.

This game needs a full remake So. Badly. The premise is fantastic. It is arguably only let down by presentation.

I think there's a lot of lore for PSIII not touched on here. While I personally feel there's a lot to recommend this game, fans of the others in the series tend to dislike this and vice versa (I'm slightly inclined to the pro-PSIII camp). One thing I want to point out is that there is something said about the choices each character makes about marriage and how it changes the political climate, as marrying a Layan is not something a good Orakian would do; at least with Rhys there's a fairly strong implication that following his personal desire (marrying Maia) is neglecting the needs of his homeland (the alliance with Satera). That being said, as a player the choice obviously depends on whether you want your next generation hero to have magical powers at his disposal.

Keep up the amazing content and I will keep sharing!

Don't remember ever finishing PS II, but I have played III several times. I like it but the slow walk speed is my frustration with the game. PS IV rules and as far as the original, it's hard to remember because I beat the game like 30 odd years ago so I just remember it being a challenge as I had few if any peers for playing RPG games and had to figure everything out for myself, including using paper and pencil to map the dungeons.

PS III was the only one I truly loved in the series! Thank you for the review!

My friends and I were big fans of Phantasy Star series in the 8 and 16 bit era. I never had PSIII but my friend did. He stayed over and we played the hell out of it. I really liked the generational storyline being different on who you marry and all that. I haven't played PSIII since the 90s and your video made me remember how much I hated the very limited animation in combat. Felt like a big step back compared to PSII or even the 8-bit PSI. I will agree with the dungeons for PSII were awful. I actually liked that game but the dungeons weren't pleasant. PSIV was peak Phantasy Star but PSI is quite strong in nostalgia for me. But PSI dungeons were kinda rough though. I needed grid paper for that one. Unfortunate that SEGA's flagship RPG series died, at least with the main line Phantasy Star RPGs. PSIV was it.

Great video, dude. I remember reading something or another about a fifth Phantasy Star game being in the works for the SEGA CD. Not sure if it was purely a rumor or not, but I can't help think about what might've been. :D

The Phantasy Star series is one of the most difficult I ever played. The plot and setting are quite unique to most any other RPG; it kept me interested, yet I never was able to complete them.

There are some brilliant experiment on that game. Thanks to show that great game. The opening is the best of all the Phantasy star’s serie

I’m shocked this isn’t another video dedicated to trashing this cart AVGN-style. Thank you for giving it a fair shake. I realize that some of the mechanics of the game make it the weakest in the series, but as a child discovering it I wasn’t concerned with mechanics. I fell in love with the graphical and musical feel of this game.

Hahaha, your tier list at the end is very amusing to me. It feels like you haven't even touched the game. :P The game basically revolves around moving your sluggishly slow walking party from point A of the map far to the other side to get a key, to only return to point A again to enter a cave, then looking at the same dungeon designs again and again, then the horrible battle music starts up again, and again, it basically haunts you throughout the game...I cannot wake up from that nightmare of a game. And I know where I'm coming from after all. This game could have been neat, great even - it sure had potential, like A TON of it. It saddens me, but I wouldn't play it again, even though I appreciate the effort which definitely went into it (conceptually). Verdict: Watch a let's play or longplay to get through this one.

Thank you. This is a WHOLLY underrated game. I do think, though, that it would have gone over better if it had been presented as a side-story instead of a numbered entry. And yes, MUCH better than Phantasy Star II. That was a completely generic RPG that just happened to have 16-bit graphics.

Phantasy Star III was my first real entry in the series. I got all 4 endings. You have an option to have a main character that can use techniques as Ayn. The other one, Crys, doesn't have any. It gives a whole different play experience. The funny thing is that you can start with 4 characters in the third generation is your choose correctly whom to marry. And Wren (not related to his PS4 counterpart) and Mieu stick with you the whole way.

With character battle sprites and a little more plot development, this game could've been a great spinoff title. It's still one I hold fondly despite loving PSIV that much more.

A great addition to the Phantasy Star Series and one of my favorites growing up.

I remember paying seeing the price tag for Phantasy Star 4 as a kid. $104. Blew my mind. Thank God for Blockbuster!

Finally someone saying 3 is better. 3 is the first game in the phantasy star series I played and I still love it. 4 is off course much better but 3 still has a special place in my heart.

Loved this game did solo play through challenges with most characters.....good times.

Is balancing technique honestly worth it? I never bothered in any of my playthoughs

This game just screams REMAKE ME PLEASE

My personal order for the series is IV, I, III, II. I think not continuing the main series during the Saturn or Dreamcast eras was a major mistake on Sega's part. Especially once Final Fantasy VII hit and JRPG popularity outside Japan exploded.

This was the first RPG I ever played.

I love the world ship idea, the Alisa III was fun to explore, except for Frigidia

PS2 was my favorite. In this one I had to go with the fiance who was kidnapped. To do otherwise would be rather caddish

I followed this weird Machete Order-esque suggestion to play the Phantasy Star quadrilogy in this order 4-2-1-3 but I was actually really curious about 3 long before I got there, partially from hearing about the whole game-lock Easter Egg thing with the Escapipe. Having played them all now, 3 is a really weird an flawed game but I'm still glad I tried it. I think that what could have helped the game a bunch would be cutting it down to just two generations like Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (which was also originally going to be three generations long), then maybe they could fit more meaningful choices and differences in their limited space. Doesn't help that at least some of the third gen stories feel like racing to grab a bunch of event flags and then poke the final boss. As for the play order thing, I think for most I would just recommend playing in reverse order, if nothing else than for the amount of grind.

Nice video, keep up the good work.

The problem with PSIII is that it's just a chore to play: 1. Bland, easy battles, 2. Completely forgettable monsters (although I do like the robotic signpost with giant balls at 10:13 in this video), 3. Boring dungeons that are all very similar, 4. Towns are half empty and all look the same, 5. Music, while good, does become grating after a while, 6. Everything in the world has a sameness to it so exploration is just not that enjoyable. This is the only jrpg that I owned back the 90s that I never played through a second time. Aside from the marriage gimmick, it just wasn't a fun game. For those bringing up the slow walk speed, there is a rom hack for that. With that, you should be able to fly through this game.

I thought it was pretty fun anyway. Not as good as the fourth or first, but I would say it is on par with part 2 at least.

Crazy how divisive PS3 is. I played through them in order. It wasnt bad for it's time but not good. And westerners didn't get the parallax battle backgrounds. I tried to patch a rom but just didn't get it goin.

PSIII was the first jRPG i owned outright. Tragic that SEGA dropped PS for the Sega CD and Saturn.

This game has great ideas, rough execution, it really would benefit from a remake. I think it aged better that PSII with its absurd dungeon design and boring battle backgrounds.

Wow. Smb 2 is a HORRIBLE example of a sequel thats the black sheep because the developers wanted to "do something different".

I agree with you 100% about PS4 being the top game but believe that PS3 is the worst game of the series. I liked everything about PS3 UNTIL you get to the combat system! The graphics and the extremely annoying music were like scratching nails on a chalkboard! It was like I didn't want to run into random encounters! I liked the different generations storyline, graphics outside of the combat system, music outside of the combat system, the different quests and puzzles. All of these great things were RUINED by the horrible combat system! My favorite to least favorite: PS4 then PS2 then last and certainly least PS3(I can't judge the 1st one because I have not played it yet).

This game is so rough after playing 4, it's just so frigging slow and overly difficult in comparison, while being exceptionally boring visually.

One was interesting 2 had the best story 3 was Innovative but completely boring and confusing story-wise 4 was the absolute best it got all the mistakes of the past out and just made a really good Innovative game