Trying out Jeff's favorite JRPG - Phantasy Star II

How I came about playing Phantasy Star II recently probably says too much about my personality, but I'm going to explain my reasoning nonetheless. Because it is not often that I dip back into the Mega Drive/Genesis era of the early 1990s to play a 16-bit Japanese role-playing game that just about tells you nothing as you go from futuristic building to building, fight to fight. See, some time ago, somebody asked Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann what his favorite JRPG was, and his response was a flat, non-emphasized Phantasy Star II. I'm forever always interested in people's answers to this question and--despite that JRPGs are such a niche, often dismissed genre--preferences can surprisingly run the gamut.

First I had to see if I had a copy of Phantasy Star II somewhere in my collection. The name certainly sounded familiar, but maybe only because I've been hearing a lot of grumbling online about how Phantasy Star Online II--totally a different game--is probably not ever coming to U.S. shores. Evidently, Jeff's favorite JRPG is available on a number of platforms, but it turns out it's included in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, a gathering of Genesis titles for the Xbox 360/PS3 that I played through some years back, eventually unlocking all the Achievements, too. At that time, I was embarrassingly more crazy about Achievements than I am now, and I only played the games included in the collection that were tied to a ping-able digital award, and Phantasy Star II was not part of that big bunch. Either way, it was fun to discover that I already had a copy ready to go, ready to be experienced blindly.

I have no idea what happened in the first Phantasy Star and if II is an actual narrative sequel or more like the Final Fantasy franchise where every story is separate and unique. Anyways, it begins with a nightmare. The embodiment of evil called Dark Force has returned to the peaceful Algo Star System. Mother Brain, a computer system built to control and maintain order, has began to malfunction, and the main character, a blue-haired boy named Rolf, has to figure out why.

And that's all I know so far because I've basically spent my first two to three hours in Phantasy Star II grinding for essential experience points and Meseta, walking back and forth between the town of Paseo and the wild grasslands just outside its walls. Rolf's commander has ordered him to visit the Biosystems Lab where Biomonsters are created and bring back a recorder, and I'll get there soon enough, but it seems impossible to survive the trip unless Rolf--and his purple-haired, pointy-eared friend Nei--are both around level 5 or 6. Something I wasn't prepared for when going into this JRPG was just how little it told you: I've had to learn the combat, what the items do, how the menus work, who can equip what weapon and armor, and so on all by my lonesome. It's all about self-discovery, but for those struggling, there's also this fantastic website: http://www.phantasy-star.net/psii/psii.html. A great example of this is that Nei has a technique called RES, which I stupidly assumed had something to do with raising a character's resistance, but it actually restores health, a spell I should have been using from the first step into the wild.

I walked away early on in Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light because I found the hands-free combat frustrating, and I'm unfortunately seeing similar trends in Phantasy Star II's battle system. Combat is continuous, meaning you press a button to have your party members begin attacking/defending, and they'll keep doing that until they defeat the enemies or you step in to change something up. If you want to change any character's actions for the next round, all you have to do is press a button before the current round ends. Right now, Rolf is my main attacker, and Nei handles healing and being a tank, taking a lot of damage. Thanks to writing this post and doing some light research across the Interwebz, now I know that Nei can attack too if you equip her with Steel Bars. Will do that pronto, for sure.

So far, the music is devilishly catchy, worming its way into my brain and looping for hours. The two tracks I'm loving and hearing the most are, naturally, Paseo's town theme and the jams for exploring the overworld map. The bass is bouncy warm, and the cheery town tune is so dang cheery that I don't ever want to go into a shop and have it stop playing. First-world problems, I know. However, I'm not actually sold on the battle music, and considering you are not actively involved for most of the battles and are just sitting there listening, that's a bummer. And according to Wikipedia, everyone's favorite website to trust, snare drums are much louder in the Japanese version of the game.

I'm definitely going to keep playing Phantasy Star II because I don't think I'm still seeing it. Whatever it is. I mean, in truth, I've barely started this sci-fi journey to save a realm from monster invasion. I just hope I neither find myself overleveling the characters or stuck grinding to make it safely ten steps across the map. I guess once more people join my party and I can better equip everyone, progress will be much smoother, but until then I have to take things slow because I have no clue what anything is, money is tight, the threats are real, and without coddling learning is a poky process.

@pabba I just hope I neither find myself overleveling the characters or stuck grinding to make it safely ten steps across the map. I guess once more people join my party and I can better equip everyone, progress will be much smoother, but until then I have to take things slow because I have no clue what anything is, money is tight, the threats are real, and without coddling learning is a poky process.

Dont worry about overleveling, it aint pokemon. This Phantasy Star 2. One of the earliest open world RPG's that was so deep and open they released the strategy guide along with it in the box, since they were afraid people would be too overwhelmed and not understand how to play it since games were simpler before.

Grinding will be a fact since old JRPG's has the tendency to have you overlevel on the minions however go to the boss. Nope your waaaay under leveled. It then your turn by turn strategy is what lets you win. You spend more time prepping for the boss fights and realy feeling like its a battle. Not the usual "Oh no not the dreaded Dark lord! oh you killed him without much damage.....but we are going to still act like it was a major battle."

The game has always been known as a very hard game, which earns itself alot of accolades. Some stuff are backwards such as the buying and equipping, you buy an item and find out "oh you cant use this...no one I have can...WTF." then an hour later new party memeber and you go "oh you must use this....no...but I had to click options and see..."

I advice useing the strag guides to stream line it a little, try and use a none spoiler one since dungeons are a literal maze that goes over several floors, Items are valued, dungeons are tough to get through just by fighting.

Your paying on the Sega collection. So you have the fancy option of saveing mid game,mid battle,mid anything. Instead of being 2 hours deep in a dungeon then haveing to run back to a save point, like times gone by.

The story is great and quite detailed with a bunch of twists and turns in the story that still hold up to day in my opinion, if you are blind then you are going to be happy with some later stuff. I mean its stuff that modern rpgs dont so so much and I feel it should be more common.

Keep slogging through it does take a few hours before you get much story going.

Also glad you love the music, there is sooooo many awsome tunes. The game knows this and you will eventually be able to go to a building that lets you just cycle through ALL the music and listen the them.

I love Rise and Fall (the battle music.) it is pretty much the ONLY music in battle, some poignant moments will have it change.

About Phantasy star 1, it was a Master system game and is rare in region, I think america. That there was only 2000 cartridges made.

The girl you saw in the dream fighting Dark force, that was alis. She was the first heroine to seal Dark force 2000 years ago.

The amazing thing about the collection you have, you also have Master system games under unlockables and you unlock them along with achievements. So YOU have Phantasy star 1 unlocked if you were the achievement whore you once were.

Phantasy star 1 is an oddity, very similar to Phantasy star 2 however. Dungeons were first person like Legend of Grimrock.

Just keep at it and get more into the story.

@akyho: Wow, thanks so much for the detailed responses, as well as the tips! I'll definitely put them to use as I march forward. It's crazy to think that they had to ship a strategy guide with the game, that's how open and quiet it is. Didn't Nintendo do that with Earthbound, too?

PSII wasn't bad, but like the entire PS series, it never did really live up to its potential. Which is a shame since PS was so much more compelling than Final Fantasy.

Like any classic JRPG, be ready to grind for hours. Oh and pro tip, offense over defense. Given the choice between a shield or dual-wielding, always go for the latter.

I'm pretty sure Persona 4 dethroned Phantasy star 2 on Jeff's best JRPG list. Someone should ask him about that

Jeff just likes it because you bone down on a chick at the end of every chapter.

@differenceengine: Offense over defense is pretty much how I tackle every RPG :P

@pyrodactyl: I'm sure he wanted to avoid be predictable or transparent in his snappy tumblr responses.

Man, everything costs money, even fast-traveling! MESETA DOESN'T GROW ON TREES, Y'KNOW.

Oh man, this game, so good. You're gonna need a faq to find that one plant on plant island, that shit killed me as a kid as that place is full of bad news. I forgot what the place was called but it's my most vivid memory of PS2, christ. lol

I absolutely loved II back in the day. I've tried replaying it a couple times over the years. I can't get past the grind, frequent death and the incomprehensible mazes. Now if I get a Phantasy Star craving, I'll blast through I and IV, which are both totally awesome. (III? THERE WAS NO PHANTASY STAR III!!!!)

I like to pretend it doesn't exist as well. But I played through the whole thing just for the.........you know, I really have no idea why I did it now that I reflect upon it.

@differenceengine: For the sick, earworm tunes. That's why you went back.