One of the truly great RPGs of all time.
User Rating: 9.3 | Phantasy Star: Sennenki no Owari ni GEN
Phantasy Star IV isn't a very well known RPG, but it is one of the best RPGs ever in my opinion. Everything about the game is well done... the story is great, the presentation is top notch, the graphics are incredible for the Genesis, and the gameplay is fun. Starting off with the graphics, all I can say is WOW. When the game is telling the story, it breaks away into a manga cutscene type picture, with small pictures portraying what is happening during the scene. No RPG to this time really conveyed what was happening in a way as good as this. The ingame graphics are quite good also. During battles, the characters all are very well animated, and monsters are of very high detail. Outside of battle, the graphics aren't breathtaking, since the characters are just small sprites, but the cities and places that you go to are beautiful to look at, since they are full of color and detail. This is a beautiful looking game. The music is very good, and I still remember alot of the songs by heart to this day. Phantasy Star IV has the best music of any 16 bit game with the exception of Chrono Trigger. The music perfectly fits the situations, and there are alot of different songs so you won't constantly hear the same music over and over again (save for the battle music). Sound effects are good too, but they are in no way astonishing. They get the job done. The meat of the game is obviously the gameplay, and it doesn't disappoint in any way. The battle system is quite deep for a classic RPG. You can have 5 characters in battle, and each character is quite unique, since they get exclusive magic and skills that they can only use. Also, you can do combo attacks if 2 or more characters use skills and magic that correspond to eachother. There are about 25 combo attacks altogether, and they can be quite deadly. Phantasy Star IV is also very long for a Genesis game. The first time you play it, it can actually take over 30 hours to beat it. There are also a few sidequests to do, so it will keep you playing for a long time. It is now hard to find Phantasy Star IV, and it goes for about 40 dollars on Ebay. If you've never tried out this game, and you are an RPG fan, I recommend you play it. It is one of the best RPGs of all time.
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