I finished Phantasy Star IV (360 Ultimate Genesis Collection).
A superb game, and the best Sega RPG I've played. It's kind of funny looking back that I grew up on Sega RPG's (Shining Force I & II, Shining in the Darkness, Phantasy Star 1-III, Shining the Holy Ark, Sword of Vermillion and others) but never played what appears to be their masterpiece.
It's clearly a direct sequel to Phantasy Star II, but with its roots sunk deep into the first game. (References to the third are there but are appropriately light). I think it recognizes some of the mistakes PS II made, namely how that game abandoned all connections to the first game beyond general settings and some deep back story. By returning elements like sand worms, ice diggers, the natives of Motavia and bringing back enemies from the first game, it feels much more like a sequel set in the same universe than PS II ever did. And then if fuses those roots with the combination of high tech and fantasy that the second game brought.
Small, smart design changes make critical refinements. Things like allowing us to target specific enemies in combat, cleaner menu navigation, characters who remain centered on the screen rather than wandering off to an edge before scrolling kicked in (thank goodness), a much more humane save system. It cleaned away a lot of the frustrations of the second game and just focused on gameplay and story.
And the story...wow. Actual characters, whom I actually cared about. A character death I didn't expect (despite the clear echoes to Nei) that impacted me, but more than shock value it affected the story straight through to the end. Some funny characters who are actually amusing as individuals, rather than just spouting jokes. And a thoroughly satisfying explanation for the 1,000 year cycles in Algol. The boss designs were all pretty awesome, especially the three-part final battle.
I was very surprised at the scope of the game. The story ran for about 1/3 longer than I thought it would, with some nice twists and turns along the way. It's got a guild to do a string of side quests (some hard, some funny, some strange), several optional dungeons (including a few that really powered up Wren) and a well detailed world. Lots of little character touches, such as the banter between party members when searching areas or finding items. Two hilarious moments I recall are finding an old man's porno stash in his house, and how the "talk" option in the menu changes to "mumble" when Chaz is on his own. Very detailed stuff, and all startling well written and translated after coming from Phantasy Star II.
The weakest element of the game is the sound. The music ranged from excellent (some town and dungeon themes) to alternately forgettable or annoying (shopping, combat music). And the combat sound effects are very weak across the board, just nondescript bloops and ploppy sounds, a far cry from the variety and punch that PS II's combat had. The remixes from the first game were a nice blast of nostalgia.
The dungeons were okay, some fairly long but none approaching the intricacy of PS II's. As a consequence they were not challenging; I missed the dungeon crawl aspects of the first two games. And the encounter frequency felt about 25% too high.
Thoroughly excellent, ambitious and polished game overall. I regret not playing it back when it came out (the price kept us away), but I'm glad I had the chance to discover it now. It'll be one I revisit again in future years.
