Ancient classics like Phantasy Star II, which came out at the end of the eighties, are inherently hard to review. A giant step forward for its time, Phantasy Star II does show its age in 2011. It still has an instantly distinctive sci-fi atmosphere (PSII is the most deeply sci-fi of the original four PS games), its story concepts, events and themes are still intriguing and mysterious, and the gameplay is still fun for the most part once you get over the steep learning curve; but many of the presentational aspects, interface issues, and pacing issues in regards to the very minimalist story do make the game hard to adjust to for modern gamers and therefore it is not as recommendable as the much more refined Phantasy Star IV. However, the game is still recommendable in its own right and I urge any JRPG fan in search of atmospheric games to give it a try.
Phantasy Star II's story is a simple one, but it instantly arouses interest. You are Rolf, a government agent, and it is your job to figure out why Biomonsters have begun to appear in Mota. The reason the appearance of these monsters is such a surprise is that Mota is under the control of the Mother Brain, who provides for the people of the Algo Solar System, leaving them in a state of dependency. Why would the monsters be appearing when Mother Brain has everything under control? It is under this premise that you start a journey that takes you all over Mota and to planets beyond. Your primary companion is Nei, a pink-haired girl with elf ears and claws. She is half bio monster and thus has quite a large role in what ultimately happens with the Biomonsters, but I won't spoil this for you. Though Phantasy Star II's story is very minimal---the characters don't interact with each other much and the story can go into complete hibernation for several dungeons before coming back with a vengeance--the game does have several twists and turns and one of them in particular is quite shocking even today. A more fleshed-out presentation would give these moments more meaning, but this was 1989 and back then, these story events must have been quite ambitious.
The story in a conceptual sense is more interesting than that in Phantasy Star IV, but the presentation is what holds it back from the high storytelling standards of that final entry. One of the longer scenes in PSIV probably has more character dialogue than PSII in its entirety and the dialogue that you do get in PSII is awkwardly translated, untagged so you can't always tell who is talking, and generally so brief that a lot of potential is unrealized. Sometimes the minimalism, however, works out for the best since there are some scenes in which the brevity fits the situation.
So what about the gameplay? Does it hold up?
The answer to this question is yes, but not without caveats. Phantasy Star II was made in an age in which game developers did not hold the players hand, so, the game has a very steep learning curve. Heavy level grinding is required (and characters level quite slowly), running away from battles is difficult, and at the beginning of the game, money (called meseta) just barely pays for the health potions (called monomates, dimates and trimates) and escapepipes that you'll need. However, these things seem like minor hurdles in comparison to the dungeons, which are very hard to get through even at the beginning. These dungeons are true labyrinths and they might seriously frustrate you if you are not patient or are adverse to escapepiping out and trying again several times. The dungeons are full of dead ends that you can't immediately see due to ultra wide hallways, bulkheads and pipes that block your way, and overhead pipework that partially obscures the screen. But what really turns the dungeons into intimidating mazes, however, is the chutes. These are teleporters that take you to random points in the dungeon. To get through the dungeon, you have to really explore, seeing which chutes go where and in some cases, memorize them, and even then, you may still get lost since there are no obvious points of distinction to mark your progress. Add tons of random encounters to deal with and a limited supply of healing items and you're looking at the kind of dungeons that are tests of survival.
You might think that I count these dungeons as a negative, but I actually think they are quite fun. After playing a game as mind-numbingly linear as Final Fantasy XIII, these distinctly unlinear mazes actually feel somewhat refreshing and unpredictable. Sure, they do frustrate, but actually completing your objective in these dungeons gives you quite a sense of accomplishment. Thankfully, boss fights are very rare in this game (I think there are only three), so you won't have to deal with a boss after you soldier your way through the many floors of Phantasy Star II's unforgiving dungeons.
The battle system will probably be more familiar to modern players than the alienating dungeons. With the exception of weird spell names that don't tell you what they do and the lack of individual targeting (you can only target groups of enemies), the battle system is pretty standard JRPG fare. You can use regular attacks, you can use techs that come in the form of stronger attacks, healing spells and buffs and debuffs, you can use items or you can defend. But what sets PSII's battle system apart from its contemporaries is its speed. The battles don't play out as fast as they do in PSIV, but they are still pretty quick and to the point. Another thing that sets the battle system apart is auto-battle. If you don't interrupt your characters to change the strategy, the characters will continue the same actions that you last set. This is a moderate time saver if you're grinding, but I wouldn't recommend letting battles play out for the most part since you'll need to heal a lot as Phantasy Star II's monsters can be quite tough.
Another thing that sets Phantasy Star II apart is that you don't pick up companions as you travel the land like other JRPGs. Rather, new party members come to you. Every time you get to a new town, you have to return to your house and someone will knock at the door, requesting to join your cause. Almost all of these party members are useful in some way and one can even steal items if you get them to a high enough level. However, you can only have a party of four, so you'll have to choose wisely, and the fact that new party members start at level zero can be a bit frustrating.
One criticism that Phantasy Star II often gets is that it requires an inordinate amount of grinding for the player to progress, but I don't believe this to be the case. Yes, you will have to level quite a bit, but no run-around-in-a-circle grinding is required. Through the course of regular gameplay, you will fight enough that your characters will be properly leveled. It's not really much different from other RPGs in this respect.
Another criticism that this game gets is that there is not much variety in its progression: you go to towns, buy equipment, find out where you go next by talking to townspeople, and slog through another maze-like dungeon. While I won't deny that this is the basic structure of the game, the game mixes up your objectives more than people give the game credit for. In one section of the game, your objective is to save someone's daughter from a bandit hideout. In another section, you have to find something to help you breath underwater. There is also a section that requires you to find a climate center beneath the sea, etc. The fact that your objectives are not immediately clear makes the game more dependent on exploration than simply A to point B traveling.
Although unclear objectives make the game less linear and more exploration-oriented, the obscure nature of some them can become frustrating. A hint system like the one in PSIV would have been welcome, though I do understand that the game originally came with a hint book.
One aspect in which the game excels unquestionably is the atmosphere. Everything on Mota looks artificial and high-tech, giving the game its own distinct feel. There are tons of artificial domed farms, lots of greenery that looks distinctly non-organic, metal bunker-like houses in the very bright homogeneous-looking towns, cone-like control towers, unnatural looking dams and canals that look more like futuristic racetracks than rivers. Even the battleground, a minimalist Tron-like blue and black grid, looks very unnatural. As for the lack of backgrounds in battle, some people complain about that after the beautiful battle backgrounds of the first game, but I think the grid drives home the heavy sci-fi theme, just like almost every aspect of the game's environment. Sure, things get a little more organic in the icy planet of Dezo, but even there, Mother Brain has made things look artificial and homogeneous.
The game's visuals are not cutting edge by any means---textures are simple, sprites are undetailed, and there is not much in the way of fancy effects---but the bright, sterile color palette goes a long way in creating the game's artificial atmosphere and the monster designs are amazingly drawn. The Biomonsters and the game's myriad of robots are very nasty looking and are so well-animated and lively that you can almost imagine what they would smell like (and they would smell quite gross of course). There are also some portraits that are displayed during story events that have a certain mysterious beauty to them that enhance the minimalist storytelling.
And then there is the sound. The sound effects are kind of awkward and are not very well done, but the music is iconic. The musical theme is a kind of melodious MIDI electronica that perfectly underscores the game's 80s sci-fi anime feel. The title theme is especially superb with its mysteriously lovely tones.
The game has its fair share of typos and glitches and the game's interface seems to get in your way quite often, but the game is so engrossing that these things cease to matter. If problems like these turn you off, steer clear. But if you can overlook these things, you probably have enough patience to ride out the learning curve and dig out the diamond that lies within Phantasy Star II's rough edges.
GAMEPLAY: 4/5
DESIGN: 3.5/5
STORY: 4/5
VISUALS: 3.5/5
PLAYABILITY: 3.5/5
VALUE: 5/5