There were a lot of improvements made between the first and fourth games in the Phantasy Star series. They still have a number of similarities because of the setting, genre, and series. It is kind of fun that Sega was so consistent with what was in the Phantasy Star games.
I don’t have too many memories of the first game. Phantasy Star was a game I knew existed when I started collecting retro games, but I didn’t know where to find it. The Master System wasn’t something I knew about until 2000. I eventually played the game on the Game Boy Advance and didn’t like it at first.
Phantasy Star IV was the first game I played in the series. I have a lot of fond memories of this game and playing with my friends. For some reason, my neighborhood was a Sega Genesis neighborhood. Most of my friends owned one, so many of my memories of playing video games are connected to it.
While I am going to compare these games, most of this will be documenting the changes to the series over time. It will be fun to see what plot points were abandoned as the series went on. I don’t think there were too many from the first game that had been abandoned. Let’s get into both games and see what they have to offer.
Game Descriptions/Overviews
Because these games are in the same series, there is a lot of overlap. They have very similar settings, the stories are intertwined, and the gameplay is very similar. There were several improvements made between these games. Not everything that was changed was an improvement, though.
Phantasy Star is a science fantasy game where you control four characters. The game starts out as a revenge tale, turns into a rebellion against an evil king, and ends with a fight against the source of all evil. There are some elements of Greek Mythology in the game, but most of it is science fiction. You travel to different planets in your quest to find your allies and gather the items you’ll need to beat the game.
Phantasy Star IV is a science fiction game. It has a large cast of characters, and it starts with the player controlling a pair of monster hunters. It then moves on to you fighting an evil wizard, and then you have to fight the source of all evil. There are a number of false boss characters in this game, and several callbacks to the other three games.
These are the brief descriptions of each game. There is more to them, and they have quite a bit to offer. Phantasy Star IV is a little more accessible to new players than the first game. Let’s go over the main differences between these games.
Main Differences
There were quite a few improvements to the series between the first and fourth games. Much of what happened gets explained in the fourth game. The things that stood out to me were the dungeons, the number of playable characters, and how complex the battles were.
The approach to making dungeons is totally different. Phantasy Star’s dungeons are closer to how a Dungeon Crawler works, as you have a first person view, and it would help if you had some graph paper handy to make a map, or you can just go online and find them. Phantasy Star IV has something closer to what you will see in most console RPGs.
There are more playable characters in Phantasy Star IV. You still meet them as you travel through the game, but there isn’t a lengthy quest to get them all. Phantasy Star has the player going on a few quests to assemble their party. You only have four playable characters, so there isn’t any room to customize things.
The battles are more involved in Phantasy Star IV because you have an extra party member, and you fight more enemies. The magic and technique system is also more complex. The first game had defined roles for each character, which don’t really exist in the fourth game.
These are the significant changes I saw in these games. I enjoy both stories and the gameplay in these games. Let’s get into some of the core mechanics in these games.
Comparing Core Mechanics (Combat, Story, Visuals, etc)
At their core, these games have similar mechanics. They’re both turn based RPGs, have similar settings, and the same narrative beats. The Phantasy Star series uses comic book cutscenes to tell its stories. The fourth game uses them more, and minimizes the use of in game graphics as a narrative device.
Phantasy Star uses a party of four characters and has you fight a smaller variety of enemies in each fight. Phantasy Star IV has a bit of a rotating cast of characters and has the player control up to five at one time. The battles are more complex because you’ll be fighting several enemy types at once.
The two games have similar ending points to their stories. Phantasy Star starts as a revenge tale, and then turns into a struggle against a tyrannical king. It gets revealed that you have to defeat Dark Force at the end. With Phantasy Star IV, you eventually learn about Dark Force and the Profound Darkness after you defeat a few red herrings. Once you get to the “secret” planet in the solar system, then more of the story is explained.
Both games have very good cutscenes. They use comic book cutscenes to tell much of their stories, which is something that I always enjoy about the Phantasy Star games. The fourth game uses more of them, and they look better. This has to do with there being quite a technology gap between the two games.
These are just some of the differences in the core mechanics. While there are several differences, these are more minor than the others I could think of. Let’s get into what each game does better than the other.
What Does Phantasy Star IV do Better?
There are a lot of things that this game does better than the other. Sega made quite a few improvements to the series over the four games. Many of the problems I had with the first game were corrected by the time this game was released. Phantasy Star IV has better dungeons, story, and the setting is a little better. I also like having more playable characters.
The dungeons in this game are much better than those in the first game. I’m just not a fan of the first person perspective, and the monotone color palette is pretty boring. Phantasy Star IV has some pretty simple dungeons, but they’re done quite well.
I like the story in Phantasy Star IV more. It has the benefit of connecting all the games, which is part of the reason I like it. There is more character development, and I enjoy how everything concludes. It is also more complex, which is a good thing in this case.
Phantasy Star IV introduces a reason why all of these things are happening to this solar system. While it isn’t the best explanation, I do think it works well. The developers also dropped some of the plot points that didn’t make that much sense, such as the ending of the second game.
Having a larger cast of playable characters helps to add some variety to the combat. It also helps that you have a party of five characters instead of four. It makes combat and boss fights more fun as there is a little more strategy to it.
These are the things that stood out to me. I’m sure that there are other things, but these are the significant ones in my mind. Let’s get into what Phantasy Star does better.
What Does Phantasy Star do Better?
There isn’t too much that I can point to as being significantly better than the fourth game. The first game in the series does a lot of things well, but has a handful of archaic game mechanics. What I do like is how you go on a quest for your characters and some of the items in the game.
Phantasy Star sends you on an adventure to assemble your party and gather the key items you need to beat the game. This is something that I always enjoy, and wish that more retro RPGs did back in the day. I love that this game sent the player on a trip to find the characters, which is better than just stumbling across them as the game goes on.
I’m not sure if this is better or not, but I enjoyed carrying around a backpack full of burgers as your health items. In the first Phantasy Star, your healing items are burgers and soda. It was so comical when I thought about all of it, and it is something I wish the other games had stuck with. They could’ve even added bacon cheeseburgers as a better healing item, or something like that.
These two things were the only things that came to mind when I sat down to write this section. It is a solid game, but it is more of a product of its time. Sega tried some things, and not all of them were kept for the rest of the series. Let’s get into which is better overall and which I would rather play.
Which is Better Overall and Why?
Phantasy Star IV is the better game overall. It has fewer archaic game mechanics, the dungeons are better, the combat is better, and the story is more fun. I also have more memories of playing this game. This is one of the cases where I put that above a game that I like now, but don’t have memories of it.
You don’t have to open a menu to do some of the basic things in this game. I never like it when I have to stop and open a menu to talk to an NPC. That is what you have to do in the first game, and thankfully, this isn’t the case with the fourth.
Phantasy Star IV has better dungeons. I wasn’t a fan of the first person dungeon crawler style the first game used, and that has been removed in the fourth game. This game uses an overhead perspective that looks much better and is easier to play.
Having five playable characters makes the combat more fun. It helps that you fight more enemies, and the fights are more complex. I also enjoy having more playable characters. This lets you customize your party a bit, and it changes how you play the game from time to time.
The story is much more fun for me to go through. I like how this game brings in parts of the other three games and explains most of what happens in them. You learn that there were a bunch of ships that fled the solar system when one of the planets exploded, and that there is now an asteroid belt. The whole reason for this solar system’s existence is also explained.
There is more, but I want to try to keep this section brief. I feel like I could keep going for a while with this. Phantasy Star IV is one of those games that stuck with me. I’m sure everyone has something like this when it comes to a video game that they really like.
Which Would I Rather Play?
Phantasy Star IV is the game that I want to revisit. It helps that I love the game, but I also think it is better than the first game in the series. It has the best story, gameplay, and I love the graphics in this game.
While the story isn’t the best out of all the RPGs from the early to mid-1990s, it is much better than many of them. I love the story and how it brings in elements from the other games in the series. It also does a great job of ignoring things that weren’t all that great.
This game has great gameplay. You will need to grind for levels, but it isn’t excessive. The combat is very good, the magic system is excellent, and I like getting to know all these characters. Boss fights are also very good, and I like that you fight a bunch of versions of Dark Force in this game before you get to the Profound Darkness.
The graphics in this game are excellent. Phantasy Star IV has great comic book cutscenes, and they are used very well. This is a staple of the series, and this game has the best ones. It also helps this game stand out when compared to the best games on the SNES because most of them don’t have this style of cutscenes.
Those are the reasons I like to revisit it. Phantasy Star IV means a lot to me. It is the best RPG on the Sega Genesis, and it is one of my favorite games overall. While I like a lot of the other games I’ve played, they’ll have a tough time competing with this one.
Conclusion
Phantasy Star is my favorite series of retro RPGs. The fourth is my favorite of the series and is one of my favorite games overall. It isn’t just the gameplay, I love the story and have a lot of memories of playing this game. This isn’t exactly the case with the first game in the series.
Phantasy Star is a game I first played when I was in the Navy. That might’ve been a part of why I didn’t connect with it right away. I really didn’t understand the game all that much. After playing it again in the 2010s, I really enjoyed what the game had to offer.
Phantasy Star IV is a spectacular game! It is the best of the two, and the one I like to revisit. It has everything that I enjoy in an RPG. I don’t have a bad thing to say about the game.
It will be fun to see how other games stack up to Phantasy Star IV. After I go through the Phantasy Star series, things get a little crazy, which is a good thing, as I’ll have to think harder about what each game has to offer. This is the part of this series that I really enjoy.
If you like this post, check out some of the others in this series. Such as Final Fantasy II vs Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy II vs Phantasy Star.