A classic RPG that doesn't stand the test of time very well at all.
I will start by saying I have never been a huge fan of the Phantasy Star series. My main chunk of time has been spent with PS2, PS3, and PS Online Version 1. So I have never played this game before I just started to recently. To be honest, I haven't played an old-school RPG like this in a long time. After playing this for awhile, I really wonder why I was so into these back when they came out.
Classic RPG's are a completely different animal than the RPG's developers are putting out these days. Back in the day, playing a RPG meant a TON of random battles, dungeon crawling, random battles, a little story, random battles while dungeon crawling, meeting characters, and some more dungeon crawliing with random battles. Now I have never been one to complain about having too many random battles in a game. But after playing recent RPG's, Phantasy Star just felt annoying. Not only that, but at the ripe age of 30, I certainly don't want to have to draw dungeon maps to figure out how to get to certain points in said dungeon to find treasure or the boss. Just give me a friggin' in-game map!!!
My point is that RPG's are maybe the genre of videogames that have changed the most over the years. Sure people might complain about developers catering to the casual gamer a bit too much. But if it's between that and me having to go through the tedium that is Phantasy Star again, then I will take today's game by a long shot. That's not to say this is a bad game per-se, it just goes to show how far current RPG's have come.
Although, I might have even been annoyed with this title back in '88. I have already talked about the excess of random battles and the horrid dungeon crawling. Other problems pop-up as you go along that really keep this from being the engaging RPG that it could've been. The story is ok, but you spend most of your time going through the countless annoying dungeons and not with the story. The characters are nothing special. Although the three different worlds you will visit in the game are completely different asthetically, you will be doing the same thing on all three. The battle system is ancient, of course, but more annoying than it had to be. Get ready to press one button A LOT. And I would recommend using a FAQ of some sort if you plan to play this game all the way through. If not, get a pen & paper ready to draw some dungeons. And yes I wish I was kidding about that last statement. Don't even get me started on the music or the SFX, which were poor even for 1988.
Not all of this game is bad though. In many ways, Phantasy Star was way ahead of it's time. The visuals are very nice and pretty much kick anything on the NES to the curb. At the time, this was a great looking game and the fact that it's not a complete eyesore to this day is a tribute. Knowing that this game came out well before a lot of RPG's that emulated it afterwards, just goes to show that Sega had something special here. And if you are into running around in dungeons and leveling up characters, than you will love this game.
I recall when this game came out it was very costly. And I think it was the first (and maybe only) game for the Sega Master System to have a battery back-up save option. It's a good thing, because you will/should be using that A LOT. I know a lot of people love this game and love this series. I just haven't seen why over the years. I love RPG's, but after playing this game again it made me wonder why sometimes. For what it's worth, this game is a classic and if you can find a chance to check it out, you should. If for no other reason than to play the first game in a classic RPG franchise & one of the first console RPG's ever. Just be sure to bring your patience with you.