The original Phantasy Star series has always had its loyal fans but it's a shame that Phantasy Star IV in particular seems to be excluded from so many "Greatest RPGs of All Time" lists because it definitely deserves all the admiration that the more popular SNES RPGs seem to take when people look back on this era.
The four Phantasy Star games are all connected in one big narrative that this game does an incredible job of calling back to. References to earlier adventures in the series are everywhere, and previous characters have become immortalized in legend. This is a real treat if you've played through the earlier games but PSIV feels like such a complete experience, you can enjoy this game on its own without any prior knowledge of the series and not feel like you're missing something.
Another thing that sets this game apart is the sci-fi setting. At a time when RPGs and adventure games were exclusively set in worlds with dragons and castles and all basically followed the same fantasy mold, Phantasy Star was all about computers, soldiers armed with guns, cyborgs, space travel, genetic engineering, and aliens. It's way ahead of its time, and while the characters don't have the exposition of games like FFVI, the game does a good job of giving them unique personalities and quirks in limited dialog sequences that make them very likable and memorable. Certain key points in the story are told in manga style cut scenes that look fantastic and really keep you emotionally invested in everything that's going on.
The random encounter rate in battle is very high but the combat is so fast paced and fun, it never feels like a chore. It even has multiple macros you can set for each character, which is even cooler when you find more than a dozen spell combinations between characters that unleash massive damage. The game is very challenging and some bosses will absolutely crush you the on the first couple attempts, but the difficulty never feels unfair.
I love this game! It may not look pretty by today's standards but it is so fun to play and anyone that considers themselves an RPG fan owes it to themselves to experience it.