1988: Phantasy Star celebrates 25th anniversary
As far as RPGs go, Phantasy Star was among those that set the stage for future games of the genre. It’s also fondly rememeber by some as being among the best games for the Sega Master System. In the game, players traversed a planetary system called Algol that was under the thumb of a belevolent-turned-malevolent ruler named King Lassic. They took on the role of Alis, a member of the rebellion forces, who was joined by a drew of characters, and fought over the course of several different worlds to eventually face the evil Lassic. Phantasy Star set itself apart from other similar games of the time with its story-driven play and female protagonist.
Phantasy Star was hailed for its plot, gameplay, and graphics, and it was later ported to the Gameboy Advance and Sega Saturn. It was also re-released as The Phantasy Star Collection for the PlayStation 2, and then remade for the same system in Japan as Phantasy Star Generation 1. Most recently, Phantasy Star Generation 1 received a fan makeover and can be downloaded from Phantasy Star Cave.
Phantasy Star players, leave your favorite memories of the games in the comments! Would you like to see Phantasy Star brought into the current or next generation?
I’ve still never touched the original RPG series, though I’ve always intended to. I did love Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast though.
I remember seeing ads for Phantasy Star Online — it looked pretty cool. Never gave it a go though. Of course, never had a Dreamcast either, so…
WHAT! Cary, go get a Dreamcast. You can burn copies of the games on blank CDs and play whatever you want. (Yay bad copyright protection!)
I didn’t know that about Dreamcast games! Hmmm…looks like I have some work ahead of me… :)
I could look it up, but it does require a specific program to burn the discs. I got seriously back into my Dreamcast a few years ago, and bought all the accessories for it, but didn’t have extra cash to rebuy all of my old games. Not my proudest moment, but I’ve got everything I’d ever want to play in an old school cd case.