Thoughts on Phantasy Star II, III, and IV!

I've been on a bit of an RPG binge for the past couple of months, and while I am currently occupied with the Shining series, I have completed Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III : Generations of Doom, and Phantasy Star IV : The end of the Millennium. First off:

Phantasy Star II:

This was the sequel to the original Master System title, and was quite innovative through it being the first RPG to use a certain major plot element (you'll know it when you see it). This, along with the other two titles, removed the first person perspective of the dungeons to a top-down view of exploration, but still keeping the random encounters throughout. There are some of the RPG game design tropes of its time: you will find yourself needing to grind quite a lot, both in order to afford the more expensive equipment in this game and to gain the levels needed to be able to sustain hits and gain helpful techniques to last in the many dungeons in this game. You will find yourself needing to grind levels as every ally you get for your party starts at level 1, and they don't gain any experience when not in your party, and you will almost certainly be grinding for meseta upon the discovery of a new town or village. The dungeon design in this game is the most complicated of the Genesis titles, no thanks in part to the use of teleporters and pitfalls which make keeping track of where you're going through intuition alone quite difficult. If you plan on playing this, either get a pen and paper or use a map guide, as the dungeon designs increasingly get more and more brutal as the game progresses. The battle system is simple and intuitive, but trying to get an understanding between the various weapons and their stats can make for a confusing mid-game (the attack stat doesn't paint the clearest picture of which weapon is best for each situation, since the weapons themselves act quite differently in terms of calculating damage). That being said, the art and music in this game is quite good, and the story bits you get throughout the game should keep you interested as long as you don't mind the old-fashioned gameplay. No spoilers, but the ending itself really does make the journey worth it. I should also note that there are a series of text adventures called Phantasy Star II Text Adventures that give a fun prequel story to each of the playable characters, which you should check out after completing this game.

Phantasy Star III : Generations of Doom:

This is considered the odd one out of the quadrilogy and right from the beginning it's easy to see why, this game was evidently rushed and made with little input from the team that made the first two Phantasy Star games. This differs from the other three titles in two ways: The first is having the game split into three generations. After the end of the first two generations, you have to choose to marry one of two women, who will also be the mother of the protagonist for the next generation, which each choice making a different protagonist, and opening different routes in the game. While a very interesting concept on it's own, it doesn't save the game from it's many flaws. The second addition is the use of the technique distribution system, which allows you to increase the power of a spell in exchange for decreasing the power an opposing spell. The tech distribution is interesting concept at first, but you soon realize that many of the non-support spells are quite useless. To make a long list of flaws short: The characters and world really aren't as fleshed out as they should be. A lot of the presentation is extremely basic and uninspired (although the character and enemy designs are quite good). The battle system is worse than it's predecessor, being a lot slower and less fleshed out (get used to mashing C), almost every single fight having the quickest path to victory being your usual attacks and the occasional Gires. You also don't get the party sprites in battle, which gives each fight significantly less visual flair. The dungeon designs are extremely basic, the worst the series has to offer. It is also less convenient to travel to place to place, as you only get the finite use of Escapipes as your only method of quick travel for the vast majority of the game, and the characters in this game walk very slowly. Don't expect much of a payoff for getting through III in IV, there are only a couple references and that's it. This may be worth it for the die-hard Phantasy Star fan, but for anyone else, best to skip to IV.

Phantasy Star IV : The End of the Millennium:

The conclusion to the classic series, Phantasy Star IV delivers well on every aspect: the music (although not as good as II), graphics, plot, presentation, battle system, and characters are all quite excellent. Party sprites make a return here, and the many different backgrounds in battle and used in the various locations are much more varied than the previous entries. Phantasy Star IV has a much denser and faster-paced plot than it's predecessors, and the use of the panels for cutscenes makes the characters and journey quite memorable.  The plot builds upon the foundations of the world laid out by I and II (III only really gets a couple references and a similar looking, but not the same, party character) in a very satisfying manner.  There are also many opportunities in this game for various character interactions, whether through side quests, the "Talk" function, or just throughout the story. Phantasy Star IV introduces two new elements to it's battle system: Skills and Combos. Skills are limited but useful abilities that a character can do that doesn't cost MP to use, and Combos are very powerful abilities done by multiple party members using Techniques and Skills in certain orders. This adds a lot of depth to the battle system, and I found myself using techs much more in IV than with the previous games. The battles are fast-paced but still demand your focus, as even common enemies can score critical hits, which can quickly turn a already sticky situation for the worse. The dungeons are well-designed but also the easiest in the series by far. The side quests, although small in number, do add to the worldbuilding of the game, and are enjoyable. The npcs in each town and village have quite a lot personality, and it's interesting to see what they say as major points in the story affect their places of residence. Definitely one of the best 16-bit RPGs I've ever played, and I would highly recommend anyone even remotely interested in RPGs to check this game out.