Phantasy Star

aka: PS, SEGA AGES: Phantasy Star
Moby ID: 8194
SEGA Master System Specs

Description official descriptions

Algol is a star system that consists of three planets: the green Palma, the arid Motavia, and the icy Dezolis. Recently, the formerly benevolent king Lassic converted to a new religion and begins to rule Algol with an iron fist. Nero, the leader of a rebel group, is brutally killed by Lassic's robotic policemen. His last words were addressed to his sister Alis: he implores her to find a warrior named Odin. Alis swears revenge against Lassic and embarks on a journey to find Odin and other companions who would help her defeat the tyrant.

Phantasy Star is commonly considered one of the progenitors of Japanese-style role-playing games. Unlike Dragon Quest, it has distinct anime-style visual aesthetics, and contains many characteristic gameplay elements of the genre. Rather than being cast as an adventurer or warrior on an impersonal quest, the player controls a character with her own background story, motivations and desires. The game introduces the genre's typical template of specific non-player characters joining the party for plot-related reasons. The game is also notable for being one of the first RPGs with a pre-determined female protagonist. It is set in a sci-fi environment in which advanced technology and magic co-exist, somewhat reminiscent of Star Wars.

The core gameplay is influenced by Ultima games, with simpler turn-based combat against randomly appearing enemies, which is similar to Wizardry. The player navigates Alis over top-down overworld, visiting towns and dungeons that are represented by icons. Dungeons have pseudo-3D graphics and are maze-like.

The player can purchase new weapons, armor, shields, as well as healing and restoring items in towns, or find them in treasure chests in the dungeons. Each character utilizes unique weapon types (e.g. Myau uses claws or fangs, Odin handles guns and axes, etc.). Experience points are awarded for defeating enemies; after a character has accumulated a sufficient amount of those, she or he levels up, gaining additional maximum hit points (HP) and higher combat parameters. Some characters can cast magic spells, requiring magic points (MP), which also increase when leveling up. Characters can visit doctors in towns, recovering HP and MP. Game progress can be saved anywhere.

Spellings

  • Phantasy Star: Fukkokuban - Japanese Megadrive spelling
  • SEGA AGES ファンタシースター - Japanese Nintendo Switch spelling
  • ファンタシースター - Japanese spelling
  • ファンタシースター 復刻版 - Japanese Megadrive spelling
  • 梦幻之星 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • 환타지 스타 - Korean spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (SEGA Master System version)

19 People

Executive Planning
Story
Scenario Writer
Assistant Coordinators
Monster Design
Design
Executive Design
Game Testing
Assistant Programmers
Sound
Lead Programming
Presented by
  • Sega

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 36 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 73 ratings with 5 reviews)

Unique & convincing game world with some "1st in the series" shortcomings.

The Good
Phantasy Star is a series that has it's own unique look and feel while capturing what is specific about being an RPG.

Even though this is an 8-bit game the graphics are clean and easy to look at. They're not overly attractive but clearly convey the world as intended and most important never obfuscate game play. Cut scenes using the familiar anime style helps give the game it's unique look.

Phantasy Star sports a wide variety of monsters that are both interesting and intimidating. Most of the random encounter drawings are large and reasonably detailed. During these encounters the background matches the world map terrain (nicer than seeing solid black), which adds to game atmosphere.

The music is pleasant enough and doesn't grate on your nerves after a few hours. The tunes are simple affairs similar to what can be found in Dragon Warrior.

A nice attempt at adding magic is present (3 of 4 characters can use spells) but I found myself saving magic points for some anticipated battle at the end of a given dungeon. While this may be somewhat normal for an RPG, in Phantasy Star the magic points are very limited, so this effectively turns your party of characters into hack and slash warriors.

A linear storyline unfolds during game play, but the gaming world is not linear, except where constrained by the strength of random encounters or impassable geography. Two great design choices contributed to this:

  1. Multiple vehicles are available for travel, including an ice digger for burrowing through glacial plains, a hovercraft for water, and a land rover for some hostile grounds.
  2. Access to inter-planetary travel between 3 planets, a defining point for the Phantasy Star series.

Furthermore the story, not being stereotypical, has Alys the female protagonist remain the game’s strongest character. Even her axe-wielding, non-magic using warrior friend Odin is inferior.

A final comment on the story: as game play progresses you never lose sight of the fact that the antagonist has caused much suffering; in various ways NPC's remind you why you are trudging about the world.

The designers decided on 3D dungeons like in early Wizardry titles – this is both good and bad. They attempted to add something not found in other competing titles like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior, unfortunately the result is a bit boring, but at least each dungeon has a different colour and it's more than just a wire-frame outline.

The Bad
Being first in the series means a few bad design choices shouldn’t surprise us too much. Here is my list of personal gripes:

  • The contents of many chests found in the dungeons are meaningless. For example it is quite common to find a chest with 20 mesetas, meanwhile each random encounter renders 2-3 times that amount. Obviously there is little motivation to seek out and retrieve chests if they are often disappointing.
  • This was a BIG complaint for me when I first played Phantasy Star: At the end of each random encounter the dead creature(s) leave(s) behind a treasure chest and you have to decide whether to open it or not. This happens at the end of EVERY fight for the ENTIRE game. This was almost enough to turn me off the game but somehow I got used to this and didn't think about it (maybe it was the wonder of how a blue slime could manage to carry a chest). The idea behind this is that each chest has a 5-10% chance of being booby-trapped depending on the monster that leaves it, so you have to decide on the risk of opening the chest, but the thing is you need mesetas to buy some very expensive items so you always say yes, and it just becomes an annoyance.
  • But my biggest complaint was not being able to selectively attack an enemy when fighting a big group during a random encounter. The game would randomly select a monster for each attacking character. It was very frustrating to see a couple of enemies linger with 1 hit point while the party hammers away at the others.
  • The game has another problem with time spent levelling up at the start of a new game. Things get interesting after a new character joins the party, which doesn't take too long, but this obligatory levelling-up period could be enough to turn away interest in Phantasy Star. Personally, walking in circles to generate random encounters to grow in strength enough to access new areas is a pain. Fortunately this character growth happens naturally by travelling the world map and traversing dungeons after Alys hits level 5 or 6.
  • A final complaint: I found having to heal each character separately at a hospital to be a nuisance, it wasn't so much the cost (1 meseta per lost point) but this task slowed down game play for no good reason. Although in the first town a place exists where instantaneous party healing can occur (for free even), but for the other towns this was not the case and the player had to use the cumbersome hospital interface.

To the credit of Phantasy Star designers these 'features' for the most part do not make a re-appearance in the other installments of the series.

The Bottom Line
Phantasy Star came out in 1988 for an 8-bit system. The designers did a lot with the hardware they had and it shows by how convincing the game world is. Being the first in the series also means that the designers discovered some features work great and others ensnare the player with unnecessary maintenance. Despite design problems enough balance is present in Phantasy Star to call it fun and worth trying out for those who are curious about this unique series.

SEGA Master System · by jlebel (2190) · 2006

The Game the started it all.

The Good
Phantasy Star, was the first Japanese rpg to be released in America. In Phantasy Star, Alis Landale's brother is murdered by the diabolical King Lassic. Thus begins her quest for vengeance. As well as the start of one of the best rpg series' ever! Along the way three others will join Alis on her journey. Myau, the musk cat, Odin the warrior, and Noah the wizard. Spanning all three planets of the Algol solar system. Battles play out in a first person perspective, with animated monsters and colorful back rounds, unlike earlier Final Fantasies and Dragon Warriors. The graphics are among the best of games of the time. The story was fresh and original for it's time as well. When you hear of an rpg cliche it likely originated from Phantasy Star. I.e. "Cute" mascots. And anime style characters, among many others. The music is good, and catchy. I find myself humming the tunes often. Phantasy Star is one of the best examples of an rpg ever! Past and Present.

The Bad
The sound chip on the Master System was weak, so some sound glitches abound. Those not used to "old school" rpgs will likely find this a difficult game.

The Bottom Line
Phantasy Star is one of the finest rpgs ever created. With three sequels and several spin offs it also has built quite a legacy.

SEGA Master System · by MasterMegid (723) · 2006

The Greatest 8-Bit RPG Ever Created.

The Good
In the days when the Nintendo Entertainment System was king, Sega released a little game called Phantasy Star, which blew away everything else that came near it.

There's a lot to like about this game. It starts out with highly detailed cut scenes focusing on a young girl named Alis, who swears to bring justice to Nero's death. From this point, the game introduces lush, well-animated landscapes, a remarkable soundtrack, and the biggest technical marvel of them all....

The dungeons.

No 8-Bit game ever came close to emulating the smoothly animated and scrolling dungeons found in Phantasy Star. In fact, several 16-Bit games had trouble touching the graphics found here. The result was nothing short of impressive.

It would be a crime not to mention the graphics and sound in further detail. The planets, towns and dungeons offered a rich, haunting soundtrack full of moody themes and poppy, upbeat music in an unforgettable soundtrack.

The graphics were lush and colorful, with lots of animation in the planet, and even in the battle scenes, where the numerous monsters each had their own animations, as did the attacks from the heroes. There was very little repetitive anything to be found in the graphics.

The game also had an interesting, generally well-written story about revenge, deception, mystery, heroism, sorcery, space travel.... It felt very "Star Wars" in its approach of mixing swords and magic with hovercrafts and laser guns. And even the characters had their own identities. Gone were the generic "fighter" and "wizard" characters. The team of Alis, Odin, Noah, and Myau all had personalities and individual abilities. They may be generic by today's standards. But back in the time it was released, this was something special.

The Bad
There were a few minor complaints. Mapping was a must, as some of these dungeons were as confusing as they could be. A few careless spins could mean wandering the hallways and fighting monsters for quite some time. Map making for the game was almost mandatory.

Some of the Japanese to English translations were a little questionable. It would have helped to have run this through just a little more in some places, but you got the gist of the conversation regardless.

And a word to the unwary: Be careful how you answer those "Yes/No" questions. A wrong answer can lead to a lot of backtracking.

The Bottom Line
As much as I enjoyed series such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, the true gem in the Sega Master System crown was Phantasy Star. It's a fantastic game, untouched by other 8-Bit (and some 16-Bit) games in the RPG genre. Even now.

The game offered great graphics, sounds and plot that surpassed most games of the time. It's a shame that every SMS game wasn't this remarkable. Otherwise, they could have been a much stronger contender against Nintendo. The series, however, still survives in its 16-Bit sequels and current online versions today.

Any Sega fan, old-school gamer, or RPG enthusiast owes it to themself to play this game. It's a remarkable benchmark in console gaming history.

Highest possible recommendation.

SEGA Master System · by Guy Chapman (1748) · 2004

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Credits j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】 (93195) Jun 2, 2013
Do any ROMS exist for this version? MasterMegid (723) Mar 20, 2008

Trivia

Genesis version

The Genesis version of Phantasy Star is in fact nothing more than the Master System ROM in a Genesis cartridge, with enough start-up code to put the system into its Master System backwards compatibility mode; it can be regarded as a Master System converter integrated into the game.

Portuguese

Phantasy Star was the first Master System game (if not the first console game) to be totally translated to Portuguese.

References

Phantasy Star is one of many games that break the so called fourth wall.

In Sopia, the player finds a girl named Miki who asks: "Do you like Sega games?". If the player answers yes, she'll say "Of course! Sega games are best". If the player answers no, she says "I can't believe it. If you don't like the game,....why have you played so far!?!".

The same question in the Brazilian version has Sega replaced by Tec Toy.

Title

Sega spelling Fantasy, with a "PH", instead of an "F" is not an error or Sega just trying to be clever, it is in fact the old English spelling of the word, thus Fantasy Star is Phantasy Star.

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Most Challenging Video Game
    • 1989 Buyer's Guide - Best Graphics
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #62 (Best 100 Games of All Time) (Sega Master System version)
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #94 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • Power Play
    • Issue 01/1990 - Best Master System Game in 1989

Information also contributed by Игги Друге, chirinea, Master Megid and PCGamer77

Analytics

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Related Sites +

  • Game & Dungeon Maps (Sega Master System)
    Maps of dungeons and landscapes.
  • Phantasy Star
    A fan site revealing all there is to know about Phantasy Star gameplay - such as planets, towns, items, enemies, dungeons and more.
  • Phantasy Star Wiki
    A comprehensive database that covers the characters, locations, items and games in the Phantasy Star series.
  • The Phantasy Star Pages
    A comprehensive fansite that covers all the games in the series, including the Japanese titles that never made it to the states.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8194
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Unicorn Lynx.

Wii added by Charly2.0. Nintendo Switch added by Rik Hideto. Genesis added by Игги Друге.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Guy Chapman, chirinea, Alaka, Игги Друге, coenak, —-, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, Jo ST.

Game added January 17, 2003. Last modified February 4, 2024.