Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium (1993)

Preliminary: Cute, nice colors, feels a bit improved from prior Phantasy Stars I guess but not by much, I wish you could move diagonally. I like that there are still Macros and other QoL features definitely prevail. However, it looks like there's alreayd a bit of a meh grind to start with (which is fine by me, but I remember how intense Phantasy Star grinds tend to get!) and the random battle frequency is very high. I also didn't love the first boss music, nor the overall vibe so far (tho I can tell I will like the plot). I think I'm just burned out from so intensively playing Dawn of Ys then Link's Awakening. I should take a break for tonight.

Early Game

It's not that the music is bad, I just have very high expectations for Phantasy Star music. Plus I just came from 2 excellent games.

Wow surprised there weren't QoL improvements for the shops/buying/selling things... But the music is appealing more and more. I love the world map tune in particular.

Even tho the music continues to be hit or miss, the adventure aspects and RPG grinds are fully hooking me and I'm immersed. Never a big fan of constantly changing party rosters, but again, I am hooked, referencing a guide, wandering aroudn, upgrading equipment, the usual.

Wehn you accidentally sell the Wood Cane >.< Woops. And my save was from so long ago. Welp.

I always loved the bio control and sci-fi plotlines/concepts of Phantasy Stars. And I'm loving Rika's introduction. Ugh but then my game froze?! That is so strange... I read how there are glitches taken advantage of for speedruns where if you press a button 17+ times or something during menus it causes glitches, so I purposefully didn't mash the button like I usually do during conversations and I finally got through the conversation... Very odd. But it killed my momentum for tonight.

Wow FF12 definitely got some inspiration from the Hunters Guild in this! And holy cow that Sand Worm gave a relatively lot amount of exp! I am definitely fully hooked now, so I am glad to be fully immersed in the Phantasy Star world again and curious about the connections to the others' plot. Already see several, and the concept of the biome ships always fascinated me.

Yesss the music for Zio's Fortress is great. And although the Look has overall been good, this was the first notably good screen

I like this screen too, tho potentially spoiler if people connect dots

Wren! Yep I'm definitely hooked as I approach mid game. Got that RPG hook and the adventure game hook, but also the hunt job sidequest hook. I wish there was more of an oomph, a more spectaculary innovative Look or concept, etc., but it still ist just a good addictive retro-JRPG. I love how early you can teleport/Ryuka (these spell naems etc are quite frustrating but luckily with modern technology, I have a convenient list to help :-p ) and this helps a lot with making the Hunt jobs feel fun and quick, rather than having to wait till late game to be able to teleport ot make them doable/fun.

Like with Phantasy Star III, I wish there were more variety with the tunes. Phantasy Star 1 was so ahead of its time/its contemporaries that I hadn't even much noticed repetitive tunes, cuz it was all so impressive Look and Sound wise.

Mid Game

I'm considering Dezolis to be mid game. And fittingly, some new tunes have begun. I like the aesthetic, both look and sound, of the Dezolian towns so far

Gosh! Seems awfully early to be fighting Dark Force. Either this game is really flying by, or I am jsut intensely hooked to it and don't realize how many hours I've alreayd played, or it has tight pacing. Overall it does feel very tight despite being a Phantasy Star/a retro JRPG. I could do without some of the silly humor dialogue, but it's not overburdened by it and the game flows well.

Tho I am enjoying it, the plot is a bit tacky in the way it just keeps being omg! who would've thoguht this planet's climate issues weren't caused by [blank] either?! Oh and btw here's a new vehicle :-p but can't complain

Breaking ice/snow with the Ice Digger was oddly enjoyable and borderline therapeutic :-p A good animation/sound/movement to that.

I dunno exactly why but I like this boss sprite (tho the changing lights/animation were a part of it that I couldn't capture)

Late Game

Still completely hooked. Getting a bit old and the storyline is quite repetitive so far, but it's still feeling fresh and addictive.

I wish the storyline had more of a kick/oomph so far, but I really like this version of Dark Force

Ooo I love the Look of Rykros.

And something I havent mentioned: I love the QoL feature of how fast the text appears and can be moved on. I like to read the dialogue fast and get moving!

I feel like I'm in the final dungeons and yet the music is the same selection of tunes smh. And I wish I liked Chaz more :-X Time to do the sidequests for the final/best equipment. I skipped some of the Hunters Guild tasks since the rewards were... abysmal, but this Anger Technique is supposed to be worth the sidequest. Otherwise, I think I am at the end! This game went quick!

Ahhh I could beat it tonight but we got stopped by two of our neighbors when we walked and they wouldn't let us escape lol. And I accidentally forgot to save before our walk and lost that progress. But I'm still hooked and ready to finish up after dinner. I like that you can have a different end game experience depending on which 5th teammate you choose. I like the trippy design of the final dungeon (well, I assume final dungeon. The Edge), but not in love with it. And definitely not in love with the tune (tho I'm happy it's a unqiue one, as endgame tunes should be).

Nice another cool boss sprite. And the tune finally got good for the final form

Jeez did that final form get harder tho! But at last!

Good ending tune. A bit silly how nonchalant they're acting after all that. (Oh, I assume the dialogue changes depending on who you chose as your 5th character). While I think the panel-based cutscenes are interesting, it did detract a bit from how powerful some of the screens could've been. And pretty lackluster ending overall

Look: 9/10 Some really cool boss sprites and screens. Certain boss sprites gave this the push up from 8.5

Sound: 8/10 Pretty disappointing for a Phantasy Star, but still good.

Play: 9.5/10 I couldn't put it down. It could've used some improvements like with showing your total HP in battle, what status ailments/boosts you have, clearer descriptions for items and skills, and so on. But in the end, I was hooked start to finish.

Feel: 9/10 Best overall of the Phantasy Stars since the original imo. Tho not the best of the plotlines

Attachment: 9/10 This and the first one will be the ones I fully replay. The others will be more about the music and reading up on the plot.

Overall: 8.9/10

Completion: Main Story, Most Hunters Guild quests

Phantasy Star IV felt mostly carried by it's setting, and while an enjoyable adventure, it is just a little held back from being amazing.

Pros:

+Fun fantasy/sci-fit setting with a diverse cast of rotating party members

+Story moments have added weight with scenes that play out, as well as a party talk mechanic to add flavor and direction for what to do next.

+some unique battle mechanics such as combo attacks, unique differences between androids and humanoids, and separating skills dependent on TP, and techniques with a set number of uses per rest.

+Macros and speed settings help cut tedium and are a nice feature

Cons:

-Some inconveniences show the game's age like needing to buy equipment to see how it impacts your stats, or needing to consult the manual or depend on trial and error to determine the uses of items and abilities.

-some later dungeons and bosses can be harsh and cruel dependent on RNG which may make players feel the need to grind or take a break.

-a weak localization at parts puts a damper on party dynamics and some key plot moments.

Gameplay, Story and Value:

In Phantasy Star IV you take on the role of Chaz, a newly appointed Hunter in the Hunter's Guild. Along with your mentor Alys, you set out taking on jobs for the guild helping people with various problems in exchange for pay. On your first job as an official Hunter, you and Alys stumble across information that could spell the end for your entire world! Naturally, you take it upon yourselves and variably sized group of companions to save the world from imminent destruction!

Sure, the story's not terribly original, but it doesn't really need to be. The formula is tried and true and it works well here, especially when you throw in a health dose of Sci-Fi. The dialogue is pretty cheese-ball, invoking more than a few memories of anime like Crest of the Stars, and it can be a little hard to take seriously at first. Unlike the aforementioned anime, however, it didn't take long before I eventually warmed up to it, even finding it endearing.

The story itself provides some surprising twists and interesting turns, and there are enough sidequests and option content to keep you pretty busy.

It is unfortunately, then, that the gameplay itself seems hellbent on preventing me from enjoying the story it's trying to tell. For every thing Phantasy Star IV does right, it seems to also find something to infuriate me! There are minor issues, like the controls. Button configuration is completely customizable which is fantastic, but then the character movement is slippery and walking into object, even ones that can be interacted with, causes your character to turn and move off to the side. Minor, but it's there. Also fun is the return of the feature that makes it so when you press the action button when nothing's in front of you, the game will take the time to stop and inform you that there's nothing in front of you...

A more prominent issue lies in the game's naming conventions concerning abilities and items. Nearly everything that can be cast or used is named some semi-obscure gibberish. This would be fine except that abilities come with no descriptions whatsoever, and while items do have descriptions they don't display in combat and the descriptions themselves are often very vague. Star Dew, an item that revives and restores your entire party (even KO'd members) is described as "Dew with a sweet scent". Needing to keep a cheat sheet with me at all times to remember what all my characters' abilities do ends up making combat feel extremely cumbersome, and I often try to just get away with attacking as often as possible, losing a fair deal of depth in the process.

Now let's talk about the combat system itself... It's great! Combat is fairly fast and fun to watch, and when you have a translator on hand it can be pretty involved with the bevy of skills at your disposal. Characters have access to TP consuming "Tech" abilities as well as limited use but generally more powerful "Skill" abilities. Combat is front-view and turn based and you get to see your characters engage the enemies when they act. All of this is mostly par for the course save for the Macro function, which is absolutely fantastic. From the field menu you can create a series of macros, assigned to letters, where you can issue any available command to your entire party. You can then execute these macros in combat. The easiest one is having all your characters attack, but it's having subtle variations between macros where the system shines. I had one where all but one character attack where the healer casts a healing spell. Another where two casters will heal the party, another having casters use offensive abilities, one for attacking enemy groups, etc. All macros are issued with a single command, and the feature turned what could have been a slow and boring combat system into one that's fast, efficient, and fun.

Once again, however, I find reason to complain. While the combat system is great, the difficulty and frequency of said combat are somewhat less awesome. Phantasy Star IV is a very grindy game, and I feel the grind to story ratio is not great, as you'll need to grind after just about every single plot point if you want to progress. This wouldn't be so bad, except experience comes very slow, and combat is on the difficult side. Most dungeons will leave you completely depleted by the time you're out of them.

The difficulty aspect is magnified when random encounters seem to occur every few steps, even every couple on occasion. Dungeons typically have some very good treasure in them, but also several dead ends, and when you can't go down a hallway and back without experiencing five or six battles it can really dissuade exploration.

Presentation, Music and Sound:

I don't find Phantasy Star IV particularly appealing in the visuals department. Many games of (and prior to) the time available for both the Genesis and SNES featured much better sprite work and animation. What saves this game is its fantastic way of telling its story through manga style cutscenes, like the one above. In doing this, characters can be seen portraying ranges of emotion that didn't always come across in even its significantly more acclaimed contemporaries.

These scenes were easily the highlight of the game for me, and without them I feel Phantasy Star IV would have fallen firmly into the bland end of the visual spectrum. Environments were fine, animated battle backgrounds were a nice touch and combat visuals in general were pretty good, but all in all I found the presentation (outside of cutscenes) to be very generic.

The stacking menu systems could get a bit... intense, but for the most part they were just fine. One major complaint comes from using items, where every time you use an item the cursor is sent back to the beginning of the item list. With no way to sort your inventory this can make using multiple restorative items a real headache. There's also the bizarre item and ability names, as mentioned in the last section. Battle commands were selected via icons for attack, defend, tech, skill and item, and while I could complain about how labels would have been nice, it really only took one or two encounters before I knew what did what.

Sound effects are typical RPG fare with nothing particular special, nor anything detrimental. Music, while not bad for the most part, is sorely lacking for variety. None of the tracks stick out and all the music is reused throughout the game. You have same music playing for each cave, each factory, each town and, to disastrous effect, each shop.

Afterthoughts:

Add Phantasy Star IV to the growing list of games I was really looking forward to enjoying but didn't. Every day went pretty much the same way, with me just not being into playing it, then the story doing something interesting enough that I wanted to press on! Sadly, my final play session ended pretty unfairly, enough so that I was compelled to call it.

This is definitely one that I'll revisit someday, but right now I just find it more frustrating than enjoyable. On top of that, I feel like it demonstrates an overarching issue I have with the Genesis as a whole when it comes to game quality compared to its competitors, which I'll talk about in the console retrospective.

Review:

Gameplay: