Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom

The Good
Ok so the game has very little to do with Algol(THE Phantasy Star), it's planets and their problems, but I'd have to say that PStar III is stronger than the first two in some areas and probably better overall. The story is nothing compared to PStar IV's, but probably better than PStar II's. Graphically it's probably inferior to both previous games, but overall it plays better I think. I completed the game in about a week, which is fine by me. Completing PStars I and II was like torture.

Most of all though, Izuho "Ippo" Takeuchi(Numata)'s music. Tokuhiko "Bo" Uwabo's music for the first two was good, but I think Ippo's PStar III music was better. She is one of the best. Of course she also did excellent music for PStar IV(with Masaki "Gakichan" Nakagaki).

The Bad
Graphically it's pretty boring. I think the story was OK for RPGs of the time, but there is one thing that is revealed about 2 thirds of the way through that is so stupid that it hurts the whole game. You're forced to walk very slowly around the towns and fields. I thought techniques(i.e magic) were a bit wasted in this game. They're not well animated and there doesn't seem to be much incentive to use them. It seems a lot easier to just rely on weapons. I wouldn't complain so much about the game having little to do with Algo, if they'd given it a different title. Phantasy Star III make it appear to be the next stage of the Algo story and I don't think it qualifies as that. PStar IV is the real next stage.

The Bottom Line
Firstly, it's not much to do with Algol, THE Phantasy Star and doesn't involve the planets Palma, Motavia and Dezolis. If that's OK with you, then I'll say that it's a decent RPG for the time. It's hard and boring, but bearably so. Overall thought I think it's still aimed at '80s RPGers i.e people who care more about "building characters" than being told an interesting story.