Phantasy Star Collection – GBA – Review

Before the RPG market became big, there were two
really popular RPG series, and each had a very faithful following. Sega had
Phantasy Star series, and Nintendo had the Final Fantasy series. Ever since the
Game Boy Advance was released, it has been a perfect system to port older games
from the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo to. Recently THQ in cooperation
with Sega released the Phantasy Star Collection, which includes Phantasy Star I,
II, and III. This is a collection following the growing trend to combine more
than one game in a port, and gives players more bang for their buck. The bottom
line is Phantasy Star provides a bare minimum of 50 hours and every gamer should
rush out and pick it up as soon as possible.

Phantasy Star I takes place in Space Century 342 and on the Camineet on Palmas,
which is one of the three planets in the Algol Solar system in the Andromeda
galaxy. Since space travel has been discovered, many of the other planets of the
solar system have been inhabited. Everything was peaceful under the rule of King
Lassic, but he is getting old, and a new, dark religion started flushing
throughout the land. The priests of this new religion promised immortality to
everyone who joined, and so the King joined, but he changed, and became
extremely malicious. Nero, a brave warrior trying to overthrow the king, fought
him until he was caught, and sentenced to die. Before he was executed, he gave
his sword to his sister and told her to find a fighter named Odin. Now it is all
up to Alis to defeat the king, and avenge her brother’s death.

Phantasy Star II takes place in the Algo Solar System, and around the sun there
are three planets, Palm, Mota, and Dezo. Mota has the saddest history, and it
tells of the legend of Ali, the brave young woman who fought and vanquished the
malevolent King Lassic. Now many years have passed and a new evil is lurking
around this planet, which is even worse than the king. Everything that this
creature comes in contact with, gets corrupted, machines, weather, and many
other things. Every day, many people are killed by the strange creatures that
inhabit the entire world. Why is this happening? Why is the Mother Brain not
helping? Can the players be brave enough to defeat this evil?

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom has a little different beginning. It
starts off at a marriage ceremony, Rhys’s marriage ceremony. He is marrying the
mysterious Maia, a young woman who was found on the shores of his kingdom. As
the two lovebirds walk down the aisle, a dragon swoops down and kidnaps her.
This is the start of your journey to get her back, as he will face seemingly
impossible odds. Players will live through three generations of people during
the course of this quest, and find out what is behind it all. Depending on the
gamer’s actions they will get one of the four different endings.

Phantasy Star Collection is rated E for Everyone for violence.

Gameplay: 9.2
Phantasy Star Collection will bring hours of entertainment to anyone who
owns a GameBoy Advance. The three games play a little bit differently and bring
something new that the others don’t.

Phantasy Star I battle system is extremely easy to learn, but to be most
effective, lots of strategy is involved. Players can give characters different
weapons, some hit just one enemy and others hit all the enemies on screen. Also
you choices will effect what happens in the game, if you talk to people in a
certain way; they will either help or attack you. One thing that I really
enjoyed about this game is the dungeon designs, since they are all in pseudo-3D
(think Quake); it gives a new twist to this genre. Also players travel between
the different worlds. These differences set this game apart when it is competed
to other RPG’s that were released during this time period, and brings a fresh
twist to the genre.

Phantasy Star II is a little bit longer, and employs more strategy than the
first title, and continues a few hundred years after the first title. The
battles are still turn based, but this time characters can choose whom to
attack, instead of it being random. This game offers more enemies on screen than
the original, but the psudeo-3D dungeons are gone. One problem with this game is
that players will come across many extremely long dungeons to transverse, and
some even contain traps that will end up infuriating the players but it is
nothing to make players want to stop playing.

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom really strays from the formula set in the
other two games, and many other RPG’s. Instead of just playing with one main
character for the entire game; gamers will play through three generations of
characters, and the decisions they make in a previous generation, will affect
the next. To me this is a really ingenious idea, since it also allows for more
than one ending, and gives this particular game an enormous replay value. One
thing that is really interesting about the battles here is the music. When you
begin to lose or win the tone of the music will change. The game is still turn
base battle, but it is still extremely fun to play.

The games here fit the GBA controller really well, the only complain one might
have is looking down at the GBA screen for so long. The ports were done with
great authenticity, and play like a dream!

Graphics: 6.0
You can not judge this game on its graphics at all. These games were made in
the late eighties and early nineties and were some of the best looking games
around. Players will be able to tell the graphics curve on how things are
getting better from the first game to the last on this collection. The graphics
show how mush games have improved in the past decade, and is a testament to how
no matter how good the graphics are, it boils down to how fun the games actually
are, and these three games are extremely fun to play.

Sound: 8.9
The sound for the games sound exactly like the originals, which is great
since a lot of ported games usually slack off in this area, since the audio
isn’t as good as being hooked up to a TV. The sound effects and music will make
players swirl in an extreme nostalgic state. The theme music will pump the
gamers up from the minute they turn the game on, until they turn it off! Do not
act too surprised if you find yourself humming the theme music when you are not
playing the game.

Difficulty: Medium
The game at times learns toward the easy side, and other times it can be
extremely difficult. At some points in each game, players will survive each
battle but luck, or an extremely good strategy; while other enemies are
extremely easy to defeat. The game can be a mixed bag, but it never is unfair,
and always remains fun.

Concept: 9.0
I had to give the game a higher concept grade for a two reasons. The games
were originally made where there were hardly any RPG’s on the market, so
everything was fresh, and no idea was over killed. Another reason is there are
three, count them, three, great RPG’s for under thirty dollars, this is just a
great deal in itself! These are great games and they are not to be missed!

Overall: 9.0
I can not stress how much you need to stop reading this and go pick up this
game now! There have been only a few good RPG’s released since GBA launch, this
game makes it one more. If you stop and think about it, these games were going
to at least sixty dollars when they were first released, instead of paying a
minimum of two hundred for three games, you only pay thirty! This is one of the
best ports on the GBA, and you owe it to yourself to purchase it!