Phantasy Star II (1989)

Preliminary: Oooo this and Castlevania III were the main 2 games I was excited for for 1989! I was so surprised by Phantasy Star 1, and this jumps up the quality of graphics so much compared to its contemporaries. It's interesting how much the Final Fantasys feel outdated compared to their contemporary Phantasy Stars, yet I had heard so little about PS growing up. I am reading that the plot and music are good--things I look for in RPGs--but the dungeons are awful. The FF2 dungeons were pretty awful too heh. So we shall see. Lord knows I'm not even gonna attempt them without a map. No siree. And I have no shame in it. I've never done RPG dungeons without a map and that's how I enjoy them and that's fine :) (Oh, wow, no longer the first-person dungeon crawling... I was actually looking forward to flexing my newfound prowess with that...) Neat that the original Japanese version has a Lesbian character... but why can't I find a fan translation of the original Japanese version??? Only of the American version. Argggggh. I want that original Japanese version snare drummmmm (also not sure why multiple sources said Lesbian character, from what I gathered the character is a Gay man)

Omg right off the bat I'm in love with the title screen/select music!!! And I am absolutely loving the classic RPG, level up for techniques, etc. without being overly convoluted. I read there are some heavy grinds, hopefully the music and good graphics make me enjoy the grinds more than I did with FF2. Here goes nothing! This is a long one so I wont separate by days, it'll be by early, mid, and late game. And I'll try not to write too much :-X But just know, the graphics are very impressive for the time, and the music is such a higher quality than the NES games at the time (makes sense considering this is the next gen of consoles).

Early Game

Ok I swear I wont take screenshots of everything I like--just trust me, the Look is phenomenal for its time--but yessss to this weapon shop

Ok so time to focus. The battle system isn't as straightforward as I would have liked. It didn't seem like Nei would attack until I pressed on Stgy and told her too? Time to read up on the combat system heh. And what TP etc is. Boo, I was hoping for straightforward but I'm assuming that's just Technique Points like PP etc in Pokemon/Earthbound. Omg wait I love this!!!! It's like you set up what they will do and otherwise the game will just Fight for you. I'm in love! I admit I already had to resort to Fast Forward during the grind but whatevs, not a sign of a bad game just classic early RPG grind. Someone said the translation I picked instead of the other fan translation is bad and very literal... I may switch over but based on the beginning texts it's the one I preferred.

Glad to see many basic niceties here like, if an enemy dies, you don't then attack that blank space. In fact, with your dual wielding weapon, you are wise enough to then attack the other enemy on your 2nd attack. Way ahead of FF2 just months before this.

I definitely see why many people consider the dungeons the weakest part. It's like the developers' whole goal was just making it as hard to see and frustrating as possible. Exploration isn't really rewarded since it's almost always the farthest teleporter thingy (Imma call it staircase lol) that gets you where you wanna go. Luckily I am spared most of the frustration because I am using a guide and leveled up as much as the StrategyWiki recommended, which so far has seemed a bit OP. But I'm only on the first dungeon so I will bite my tongue now. Anyway, look at the screenshot above... like cmon I like most the Look but no need to add that "foreground"" if it's just to convolute haha (imo).

Yessss the guy who lets you pick what song to jam to. But wow yea, the grind is real. Complete unashamed use of Fast Forward rn lol. And tho I'm still loving this and can't put it down, the tedium of the dungeons is very real too. Long grinds and tedious dead-ends and meandering around the whole map to get to next step are characteristic of this era of RPGs, just was hoping for more advanced Play considering the advanced Look and Sound and Feel/plot (well, it's silly so far but it's still already leagues ahead of its contemporary RPGs and I'm only just finishing the Biosystems Lab... the murder-suicide among family situation was a bit... absurd but).

People just keep knocking at my door wanting to join the team! But I can only hold 4! Heh. Not that I went for it, but neat that there is an item to allow you to save anywhere, and a unique way of getting it.

Mid Game

I suppose their logic was that they can have such intense grinds needed because the dungeons are so trial-and-error and lengthy that you inevitably get the grind done (unless you're using a map, like I did :-p ). I can only imagine without a map........ And do not believe I would enjoy it one bit. I'm all for trial and error and grinds, but this would be at a torturous level. Even with a map, the climate dungeon was so confusing.

Lol I see the dramatic plot moment people reference. It was... a bit underwhelming, but I wonder if it's due to the very literal translation I'm using. And just the times. And omg this boss is ridiculously hard.... Ugh I wish the game had just embraced its excellent Look and Sound and not bogged the game down with obnoxiously difficult gameplay.

So, I was really bummed out by that boss battle. I had been so looking forward to this game and excited for the first bit. I decided I will do what I used to do with retro RPGs and grind grind grind till I think I might be OP. If I still don't enjoy it, I may have to drop it :( I have grad class for 6 hours in total this week, so sounds like plenty of time to sit and over grind haha. I also loaded up on so many Trimates lol

Ok, I am enjoying this grind. Hopefully the next dungeon doesn't burn me out and there's not another huge difficulty spike for the boss. I realized I don't have Musik anymore due to, uh, the epic plot moment I mentioned above.

Trying to get back into the actual game after a nice long grind and right back to the tacky NES tricks like walking along edges of town, needing a certain hidden spell after getting through a whole dungeon, and a confusing dungeon... Good things the music is so darn good. And ok I'm learning: forget maps (tho have one ready), an outright guide for the dungeons is the way to go lol. Yay for all this usable equipment now. And in general, now equipped with maps and a guide, these Dam dungeons aren't so bad. We shall see when/if there's another boss...

Because of Final Fantasys and DQs, I was so ready with a crapton of Antidotes and I've not had to fret about that almost at all lol. (Ironically soon after typing that I got Poisoned while on Dezo, but fortunately we have Anti spell). Neat idea with Shir but I left her at home for most the game.

End Game

Ok sweet, I like that the story is connecting more and more to the first Phantasy Star. And the music continues to be consistently excellent. Having the guide to reference is making the dungeons more tolerable.

Hey I know you! Neat that with the [brutal] final dungeon you can tele out back to a safe space with free healing (finally).

I'm glad the final dungeon has a nice Look to it, nice star background (it's a spaceship after all) and glad there's no annoying foreground effect like most the dungeons. Plus great music like usual.

Sweet boss here (not many bosses in this game) and great music, tho not as evil and epic as I expected for the string of final bosses (I'm assuming...). I can't deny I really got into the RPG groove by this point (tho mind you, I abused savestates to run from all enemies on the way up here loll), but like with FF2, there were frustrations, limitations, and overly hard parts that I needed to use modern conveniences like guides and savestates to get through.

Ugh these bosses.... just way too hard and frustrating. Bahaha I won the fight with 1 Hp for Anna, 9 for Rudo, and 6 for Amy. Some crazy animations for Mother Brain boss. Oh so we Earthlings are the bad guys. Kind of an ambiguous ending. I suppose I just have to believe we won? Or is that a build up to number 3? We shall see.

Look: 8/10 Some really impressive sprites and colors for its time, but I was not in love with a lot of the dungeons' Looks.

Sound: 9.5/10 Just nonstop impressive. Only thing holding it back is that the combats were so common that you didn't often get to enjoy the songs. But the fact I would listen to this soundtrack on youtube or with the musik guy says a lot. Several genuinely striking tracks.

Play: 7.5/10 I wound up falling into my usual RPG grind obsession, but it definitely had the usual retro faults. One thing that was even more than the usual retro fault though, was, as many have pointed out, the absolutely brutal and incessantly confusing dungeons. So many stairs and teleporters etc....

Feel: 8/10 As frustrating as parts were, I can't deny it's ahead of its time in terms of Look for an RPG, Sound in all ways, and the plot in several ways. To think FF2 was just a few months before this. Too hard for my usual taste to earn the perfect rating I thought it was going to get in the first excitement, but still showing that the Phantasy Star series was often not just on par with its contemporary FFs and DQs, but in fact better.

Attachment: 8.5/10 How often I want to deal with these dungeons... not often. But I am truly getting attached to this series and that deserves to be recognized! In sum, this and the first Phantasy Star have established the Phantasy Star series as one I wont forget and am excited for the later editions, but the overly hard retro RPG mindset really bogged this one down.

Overall: 8.3/10

I am having a hard time deciding on how I want to review Phantasy Star 2. On one hand, I loved the game. The story was great, the characters were cool and unique, and the combat was satisfying. There is something about the Phantasy Star world that really enthralls me and I love being there and playing many of the games.

All that being said, Phantasy Star 2 was one of the most grindy RPGs I have ever played and the dungeons are the worst I have ever encountered. That is not an exaggeration. The dungeons in this game are all designed to be as confusing as possible, with tons of dead ends and maze-like layouts.

I would say that a fan of RPGs should play this game... but it is a recommendation that I find hard to give. Its not bad and the good parts are great... but you really have to have the patience of a monk to be able to get through some of the later dungeons.

1989, y’all. Incredible graphics, animation, music, and a pretty groundbreaking story for its time.

By today’s standards, the plot and character development is silly, melodramatic at times, and nonsensical at its worst. The grind is real. Praise be to the fast forward feature on the Genesis collection on Playstation. But as a product of its time, this game is a monument. Compare this to Final Fantasy 2 which came out three months earlier, or FF3 which came out the year after. It’s really something.