Zerker on 24/7/2016 at 11:18

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* Strongly Disagee * :D
Capcom's version has charm, and while slightly on the easy side, has rather interesting level design and excellent play control. The Genesis version felt way too hard, and some of the levels felt rather uninspired (e.g. the Prison levels).

Regardless, here are my personal favorite Genesis games, with an asterisk beside the ones available in the bundle above. I've also placed a + beside the one game available on Steam but NOT the bundle, and bolded all time favourites bolded :)

Beyond Oasis*
Contra Hard Corps
Fire Shark
Granada
Gunstar Heroes*
Light Crusader*
Lightening Force
MUSHA
Mega Turrican
Phantasy Star 4*
Ranger X
Ristar*
Rocket Knight Adventures
Rolling Thunder 3
Shadow Dancer+
Shinobi 3*
Sonic Series*
Thunder Force III
Toe Jam & Earl*
Monster World IV

Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean machine is also good if you don't already have another version of Puyo Puyo.

If you have a Wii or Wii U, a number of the other games above (e.g. MUSHA, Monster World IV) are available on Wii Virtual Console.

Sulphur on 24/7/2016 at 11:48

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Heh. If buying titles from the legal owner of an IP long after the original creators are gone counts as piracy, I guess I should just as well torrent the original games instead of buying Okami HD and the Ico/SotC collection, because the original creators aren't making other games I could get to show my support.

Oh wait, false equivalences. Do carry on, Manwe.

Jason Moyer on 24/7/2016 at 14:02

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If people spent as much time on every other scenario where workers create value and aren't adequately compensated for it...

Zerker on 25/7/2016 at 21:53

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I'm quite aware they are rather different :). I'm mostly objecting to the assertion that the Genesis version is vastly superior. I personally had a lot more fun with the SNES version, though both have their merits. You may want to turn down the baseless hyperbole ;) .

Starker on 31/7/2016 at 07:38

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So, I played the first Phantasy Star game and I thought I'd share a few impressions and screenshots to give an idea what the game is like...

The title screen already promises something different from your typical fantasy fare. The girl on the screen is actually not just eyecandy but the protagonist. And she actually does use a sword in the game. Truth in advertising!
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/start.bmp


The game starts off pretty dramatically right off the bat. Your brother who's just a regular dockworker has gotten into some serious trouble. As you can see he doesn't look so good. Didn't really expect that kind of biting social commentary on the living conditions of the working classes from an old 80s RPG like this. You can tell that it's going to be a sci-fi setting by the unusual hair of the character. Oh, wait, that's just normal anime hair. Never mind.
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/oniisan.bmp


Now it's up to Alisa to... wait, is that a dagger? Where did she get this? Does she just always walk around with a weapon? Something tells me she just might have the stuff heroes are made of. After all, one of the common traits of heroic characters is a higher than average propensity for violence.
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/alisa.bmp


Anyway, it's time to take in our surroundings. The town looks pretty neat, though the shop signs in English indicate it might be kind of a tourist trap. There's even a church where you can practice Space Christianity. Also, not to be outdone by Earth Christianity, you can resurrect dead party members there. Too bad your brother wasn't a party member.
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/machi.bmp


Looking around town, I just happened to find some money lying around. Here's another heroic character trait off the list: complete and utter disregard for private property. As a sidenote, there's no need to worry that the dungeons might start to look the same after a while, for they come in a several different colours.
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/takarabako.bmp


Also, a guy gives me a Laconian pot. As you might guess from the name, there's not really much to say about it. I mean, it's pretty short? You come home either with it or in it?
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/laconianpot.bmp


This space store specialises in shields. You can tell that it's an advanced society by the wide variety of archaic weapons on display. At the very least you can be sure that they have mastered the technology of making bronze.
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/mise.bmp


You can't really go just anywhere, though, as the space port is guarded by guys similar to, but legally distinct from Boba Fett:
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/bobafett.bmp


So the only remaining option is to take a stroll outside of the city, whereupon I immediately get curbstomped by these stingy fellas. Oh well, at least it's not rats.
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/curbstomped.bmp


Bravely running away I go back into the city to visit a friend who lets me rest at her house whenever I want. Friends with benefits! This is really fortunate, as there isn't a single hospital in town. Thanks, space Obama!
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/suelo.bmp


A metric JRPG worth of grinding later and armed with a black market road pass to get past those pesky Boba Fetts, it's off to the space port and then to space. The game has three predictably thematic planets to choose from: Earth world, ice world, and desert world.
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/spaace.bmp


Finally, no JRPG worth its Js would be complete without companions and with the game adhering to the finest JRPG traditions, this is your first companion, Meow:
https://randomqoute.000webhostapp.com/ps/meow.bmp


...and with the maximum amount of screenshots per post reached, it's time to finish the introduction and start with the conclusion. Overall I'm fairly impressed by how well the game holds up, in no small way thanks to 2D art and chiptune music aging pretty gracefully. The animated monster sprites and backgrounds still look really good and, although I was making fun of them earlier, the dungeons actually look better than in most other games at that time.

The story, the setting and the characters are somewhat barebones but serviceable and even have a bit of nuance to them here and there. The characters have their own distinct backgrounds and are colourful enough to let you at least flesh them out in your imagination a little. The setting is a fairly unique mix of fantasy and sci-fi and there's even some tension between the natives and colonists, as you have the space people in futuristic floating cities and domed buildings on one hand and natives in caves and huts on the other. The plot of "defeat the big bad" is as cliche as it comes, but even that has some thought put into it, like for example being able to see the encroaching police state in action as well as the corruption it causes. Stuff like the restriction of travel, the closing of trade making the communities wither, black markets popping up, local authority only caring about themselves, etc.

As far as gameplay is concerned, though, it's very much a game of its time and feels somewhat clunky if you are used to the modern conveniences. It's mostly the small things like being able to equip things you bought or sell off old equipment on the shop screen. Or how you have to go through two menu screens just to check how much money you have. There's also some cheap game design like random trash mobs, traps that drop you down a dungeon level without warning, not being able to target individual enemies, so the combat is a bit of a crapshoot, etc. Combined with grinding (though it's nowhere near Dragon Quest) it adds up to a small but noticeable amount of artificial difficulty.

These are all nitpicks more than real complaints, though. The game actually offers quite a few options to smooth out some of the kinks. There are vehicles in the game that speed up your travel, there are teleport spells to get out of dungeons and back to towns, and there are weapons that allow you to make quick work of low level trash mobs. You can even talk to some of the monsters later on to avoid fights altogether. Eat your heart out, Doom! All of this makes the game perfectly playable and even enjoyable to this day.


If you want to check the game out for yourself, one of the better options is probably the Phantasy Star Collection on PS2, a part of the Sega Ages line. It has both the English translation and the Japanese original and you can even play the game with hiragana, which does wonders to your sanity if you're just learning the language. It also has a small art gallery with original concepts, if you're into these sort of things.

Outside of that there's also a remake on PS2 called Phantasy Star Generation 1. It comes with several additions to the original, such as an improved combat system and interactions between characters. But even though the graphics are higher quality, the art style has transitioned less gracefully IMO. All things considered, I'd say it's not a bad alternative, though, as it follows the original story pretty closely and cuts out some of the clunkiness of the original.