A good game that pushes the Master System to it's limits.
Graphics:
Cartoonish and well made with bright colors and nice atmosphere. As I enjoy futuristic environments in videogames I really like the atmosphere that Phantasy star project. The animations are well made too. The graphics are just nice to look at and it's cute, but not too cute, the first person perspective as you walk around in the dungeons are impressive and you'd think it's a Megadrive game at times and not an 8-bit game. There's a graphic glitch which is irritating enough though; when you face a wall and turn to face another direction in the dungeon the wall in front of you disappears and it looks like a tunnel. Many times when I have been tired and played the game I have thought that I missed a tunnel and turned back.
93%
Sound:
The music is varied and you get quite a few tunes and short pieces of music to wander around to. The sound effects are not much to speak of. Some beeps and slashing sounds as you hit your foes in turn-based combat. The music changes as you enter caves, shops, dungeons and cities. My favorite
tune is the one where you enter the governor of Motavia's golden palace. The music really sticks and is top-notch. That the developers crammed so many tunes into an 8-bit cartridge containing an already huge role playing game is really awesome.
95%
Game play:
The learning curve is really short for this one. Well made menus and an interface which is easily understood and easy to use (well it would have to be considering the 2 buttons on the master system controls). It's a joy to walk around and discover the world. It's also very easy to save and load the game. The dungeons are just the right difficulty and they are actually possible to remember without drawing maps, well most of them anyway. The puzzles and figuring out what to do is not too easy and they make sense. It's a true pleasure to unfold the story throughout the game. The one thing I could maybe feel worth mentioning in the negative department would be that the random encounters on some parts of the map are a bit too frequent. This could be annoying when you actually try to get somewhere to check something out and it takes like an hour to get there.
93%
Lastability:
As most of the old role playing games, once you've beat it, there is no real reason to play it again. There just aren't enough different weapons and armor and items to make it worth a second go once you've completed it. Even so, I have played through it three times. If there would have been side-quests or more things to do maybe, but turn-based combat and unfolding a storyline you already know is not interesting enough. Once you have started it though, you won't stop until you finish it. The hookability is definitely there. Once.
80%
Overall:
An enjoyable RPG that stands out in it's atmosphere and originality. It is lacking a little in items, armor and weapons. Also spells are easily counted. A good game that pushes the Master System to it's limits.
94%