Phantasy Star IV (Genesis) review "The greatness of this game is no Phantasy. "

The 1990s were glorious years for JRPG fans. Not only did a ton of great games get released on a variety of systems, but many of them tended to be reasonably short, allowing players to finish them off before they became tiresome to endure — something that also played a role in these offerings having legitimate replay value.

A lot of RPGs saw release during this time — even if many only became playable in American via emulation due to the big companies not being sold on their popularity on these shores at that time — making it easy for even their most ardent fans to have missed out on one or more of the biggest names. Maybe they didn't have the particular system necessary to play one; maybe they just were bogged down by a seemingly never-ending deluge of Breath of Fire, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Lufia, Lunar, Phantasy Star and so on to be able to pick up every single desirable title.

At least that's how I'm going to explain away the fact it's now 2023 and I'm finally getting around to writing about Phantasy Star IV after finally getting around to actually playing it. I mean, it was 1995 when that game was ported over to the United States. If I can't rely on those attempts at justification, I have nothing…

Growing up, I always found Phantasy Star to be an intriguing series. Part of that was because its games were hosted by Sega's systems and Young Rob possessed neither a Master System nor a Genesis. But the main reason was its use of a science fiction setting. It's not like that wasn't seen in these games — even the very first Final Fantasy had robots and flying castles in it — but this series didn't just possess a multitude of robotic foes, but also included interplanetary travel. You'd control a group of heroes, travel all over the galaxy and fight off a bunch of enemies under the control of recurring villain Dark Force, who's one of those baddies who always can find a way back from the grave, no matter how many times it winds up in one.

Phantasy Star dials all of that up a notch or three. Don't get me wrong, as expected in this genre, things start out pretty tame with youthful bounty hunter Chaz and his more experienced partner Alys visiting a university on the planet Motavia in order to clear monsters out of its basement. Things quickly escalate incredibly, however. The duo will gain allies, confront a cult desiring to bring about the end of times with tragic repercussions and eventually find out that Dark Force no longer is the be-all, end-all of evil and instead just a manifestation of the true villainous force's hatred for all things living.

This is one epic quest that flows so smoothly that a person might wonder just how they accomplished all the stuff they'll get through in a mere 20-25 hours. One reason for this is that the difficulty has been lowered to a very manageable level, so you won't have to grind for hours to gain incremental character improvements like in the second game. Don't get me wrong — if you're unprepared or use questionable tactics, a number of bosses will utterly demolish you and there are a few marathon dungeons that will test your skills at resource management, but this is nowhere near the toughest retro RPG I've played through.

Chaz and Alys will gradually see their team expand with all sorts of useful characters. Rune is great with offensive magic, while Raja is capable of keeping everyone healed for roughly an eternity. Gryz is a physical powerhouse, while others such as Hahn, Rika and Kyra offer varying degrees of both magic and physical prowess — with Rika being a match for Chaz in filling the "jack of all trades" role. In keeping with the sci-fi theme of the series, you'll also have a pair of androids. While neither Demi or Wren can be healed by standard means, they have their own skills and items for that and also regain health by walking. Oh, and you'll also spend a bit of time with a dude named Seth. While his role in the game might not be the largest, it is pretty damn memorable!

Combat is pretty standard in this game, with your characters gradually gaining an allotment of skills and/or spells to augment their basic attacks. One addition to the formula is the ability to program battle turns for your party in advance. For example, in boss fights, you could set up a first turn in which your characters use buffing and debuffing moves and automatically run it without the need to delve into each party member's collection of skills and spells to find the ones you want. It's not a necessary thing and it's easily possible to play Phantasy Star IV without ever utilizing it, but it is a nice convenience that can be helpful in certain situations.

Really, this is one of those RPGs that doesn't stray too far from the norm, but hits the right notes and does so with enough consistency and proficiency that it's hard for me to find much more to say than to simply tell you it's one of those essential games that fans of the genre should find a way to enjoy sooner rather than later. If I ware to come up with flaws, I'd probably land on how things might feel a bit too compressed with a number of plot elements feeling a bit rushed.

Take that aforementioned doomsday cult, for example. Its leader makes an immediate impact when he appears and gives every impression of being an enduring rival for Chaz and company, with multiple characters quickly developing a personal grudge against him. And then, just like that, he's out of the picture and replaced by adversaries possessing power he could only hope to attain — many of which have little impact on the story beyond being a really tough fight the party must overcome to continue progressing.

On the other hand, that rushed nature does lend this game a certain degree of unpredictability. You obtain a wide variety of characters to fill out your five-person party and it's not until the very end that you'll have the option to pick-and-choose who fills ANY of the slots. While a couple members stick with you consistently, you'll find the composition of your group changing often, causing you to regularly alter how you approach things. After all, you never know when a character will be replaced by someone with a different set of skills, giving you superior physical capabilities at the cost of magic or vice versa.

Phantasy Star IV was a quite satisfying experience that made me nostalgic for the days when there weren't expectations that a game of this sort has to last for 60-80-100 hours. Sure, I felt that a few plot aspects were a bit rushed, but I also loved how smoothly my progress through the game flowed. Add in a diverse assortment of party members and a rapidly-shifting team to accommodate all of them and this was a very fun game where I could count on my experience being a bit different nearly every time I picked it up for an hour or two. Now that I've finished it, the only question is to determine what will be the next game that I play a few decades too late!

Community review by overdrive (June 01, 2023) Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.