Sunday, October 6, 2013

Away game special: A phantasy ended

It is done. With the power of three, Phantasy Star IV was finished in the space of a weekend. At a guess, the whole game took us about 20 hours to complete.

At that time, the game comes  up a bit short for a 16-bit JRPG. A lot of comparisons we're made to Chrono Trigger (another short game if you know it well) and I think the two games share more than relative shottness.

Both games have a sleek, slim main plot line. Both also use intuitive, pace-quickening combat mechanics. However, the games differ wildly in the range of their extra content.

Chrono Trigger has a quest or event for each character's best weapon (at least); Phantasy Star IV really only has quests to outfit two of your four core characters. We probably would've cared more about Gryz (the butt of nearly all of our jokes and riffs) if we could've walked through a chapter of his life for something to make him a worthwhile addition to our battle party.

Stepping away from matters of combat efficiency, we never really learn much of anything in-game about Phantasy Star IV's four non-core characters. The priest Raja is something of an exception here, but jovial, life-loving priest characters always have a tremendous presence.

Nonetheless, the game is, overall, something to experience (though, nostalgia aside, once is enough). Plus, Phantasy Star IV does something no Final Fantasy game has ever done: it effectively (and, a little affectively) ends its series' saga.

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