This is going to be one of my absolute longest series of reviews I done in a long time. But considering all of them were pulled from Sega Genesis Classics. Maybe others that were quite unhappy with it's delisting find some enjoyment in reading any of these reviews. Seriously it would mean a lot to me to just read one of them that's it.
Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I secretly had a rather interesting idea. If I could get more into any video game genre I barely played much out of. I kept coming back to Role-playing games aka RPGs for short. Some of the longest video games I heard of are in that genre. We are talking enough content to play for hours.
A lot of them also has random battles that can easily slow everything down. I will confirmed I played a handful of these classics through Sega Genesis Classics recently. I confessed I started one of them prior to my visit seeing my family. I have since finished that game along with two others that just happened honestly.
Originally I was going to delay a little longer to include a fourth game. But it's vastly different from these to stand out on it's own. I figured at a later date I could eventually finish it. Also one of today's games was not only among a lot of Sega Genesis games I had growing up. It also among the very first RPG games I ever played.
I also plan to rank these for sure. But I'm sure as soon I start talking about my favorite among em. You quickly figure out which was my favorite. I'll even confirm my favorite stands with the finest Genesis games in two great Sega compilation games I played. In all honestly it truly was a fantastic game. I really had a lot of fun writing all of this thanks to anyone that reads at least some of it.
I put a lot of hours into making this three in one Sega RPG reviews blog entry. I took my time to do one playthrough each. I also will confirm two of them are from the same RPG franchise. A former competitor to Final Fantasy no less. A major hint what I'll be reviewing shortly. I know the introduction longer than normal is fitting for a huge RPG review.
1. Sword of Vermilion (1990)
I actually grew up with two RPG games on Sega Genesis. Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun and Sword of Vermilion respectively. I always remembered their cover pictures. Despite being games I never gotten far in. Sword of Vermilion dramatically changed my opinion of it during a playthrough.
Keep in mind, this was an early Sega Genesis game. Not debut year but close to that. You only get one playable character. Which is unusual for most RPGs at the time having a lot of playable characters. You play as a prince that learns the truth. He goes on a quest to save the world from a man.
Thankfully you can easily grind up levels as well as money. This game has several unique genre usages within the game play. You get the typical exploring towns like most older RPG games. A different style within dungeons called dungeon crawlers. Virtually first person exploring dungeons works wonders here.
Personally I was a slightly bigger fan of Shining in the Darkness' usage more. A different style altogether exploring the actual map outside towns and dungeons. You get two views during these sections. You see your character moving around the huge map. You also get a map screen to sorta help you out.
The big issue is you have to find maps for that section. Some of which an old man among talking gives ya. Some villagers among talking to em does the same thing. I do strongly recommend follow a guide. As for the random battles it's way better from most games in the genre. Even this follow aspect I didn't know what to think as a kid years ago.
Instead of being in teams against one or more enemies. Which also would've given you options you could do. You simply appear onscreen with enemies. You have two major options either fight to attempt killing them all or run away. Which the later option gets much trickier later on to do. It's rather annoying sometimes you're forced to face em knowing your chances to get further decreases.
The final major game play style actually are the boss fights. Most of them is one on one with your character finally prepared for battle. However you can't use magic or jump. Although you can easily duck to a degree. A handful of them has a few enemies before you could directly face em. To be fair, it could've been worst than this.
I dislike the final boss altogether. The only boss with a few phases. The first phase actually similar to a previous boss with skeletons. The actual boss doesn't have much health. Then he transforms into a surprisingly cheap final boss. You are already limited what you could do. Well you really feel that the most here.
You have to take out four heads it's a weird abomination of a creature. By the way the game doesn't end with his defeat I'll explain later. The actual map connecting everywhere is rather confusing to navigate. Some issues like not having maps to sections or limited light equipment. Earlier these issues can be quite frustrating to deal with.
Sure you could go to a store to buy candles or lanterns. But lanterns stops after you leave dungeons. Which is why I prefer the later light spell just wasting some magic that's it. As for getting poisoned, a particular shield helps against it. What's better than that shield is a spell to counter it altogether. To clarify you can still get poisoned but you can easily get rid out of that afterwards.
Later on those no longer is an issue. Like the light problem easily countered by a light spell. Very late into the game is you find an object. Then you use it instantly gives you every map in the entire game I'm not kidding. I also gotta mention this game absolutely loves caves!!! You have to travel through em being your dungeons for the most part.
The actual story if you care enough is in all honestly quite decent. There's a particular twist that affected me emotionally. There's a particular merchant that's rude to you at first. You don't even get allowed to leave or see the prices. He rudely replies saying you don't have enough money. Trust me, this truly stood out as it's happening to me.
He takes all your money plus whatever sword you had equipped. Before I fully seen the twist to this. I was quite mixed being forced to trigger this among following a written guide. It turns out he was a secret ally that used what he's taken from you to make. Wait for it, the Sword of Vermilion!!! I didn't expect this twist when I noticed it in the written guide I was following.
Yes he later reveals he was being watched by enemies. Up to a point poison enemies is rather annoying. You are forced to get a particular item that cures you. Except for a mysterious woman that offered you food. Which you quickly realized poisoned you. Sadly that item doesn't cure you of that. Sure it does serve as a cheap excuse to explore another location.
You have no choice but go out of your way to find a particular plant to cure yourself. By the way the woman in question actually one of the final bosses in the game. I do enjoy some of the art design to a degree. The absolute best aspect of all is the music. Some sound effects takes a little getting use to. In all honestly, for an early Genesis game it's decent.
Man some of these songs are very decent. For my first RPG game with one playable character I finished. I was quite amazed how fun portions of this game was. Yes it quickly gets repetitive to a degree. At the same time, the game has ways to balance itself out. Also need to point out back in the day.
Some RPG games like this could include books to help you out starting the games. Which is exactly why originally they cost more than normal. Honestly Sword of Vermilion seems like parts of it could be somewhat beginner friendly. Some the bosses are slightly altered variations with the later ones being trickier to beat.
Sword of Vermilion likely take you a couple hours to finish. Surprisingly the actual map connecting everything quite huge. It's sorta like metroidvania games in that department. Just not as well executed in my opinion. I could recommend this game. Of course there's better RPG games around. To be fair I rather play this over Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest.
I also gotta mention the walking speed is a little slow. If you're playing this on Sega Genesis Classics. You may wanna hold down the fast forward button you'll thank me. It's not the slowest I ever experienced in a game though. Another major factor is towns differs which stores they have. Thankfully issues like that no longer a problem at that point in the game.
Which can be somewhat frustrating. Although you do later get a flight spell to make getting around the map much easier. Let's be honest, it's a huge back track RPG game. A good amount of it you can't avoid. At the same time, some of that ends up being well worth the effort later on. As for the main antagonist the truth is revealed among his defeat.
It turns out these evil rings originally your father the deceased king and this guy had good intentions. Neither was prepared for getting corrupted by the evil rings. They wanted to help save the world. Instead indirectly cause it to go into chaos. The other guy kills your father. Among revealing the truth, he regretted many actions from those rings.
A little weird you must use sixteen rings. It's literately called sixteen things in your inventory on the throne. Which triggers the ending to the game. But it's a little confusing on how many rings there actually are within the story. Thankfully it's not ripping off The Lord of the Rings franchise. Although a set of evil rings corrupting people would be similar to the One Ring.
There's one more character I wanna discuss. There's a rather selfish king I really don't like. I actually enjoyed the master of disguise king way more. Just wish the game had more stuff with that king instead. This prick forces you to get him three different crystals. All within dungeons guarded by bosses. He kept going back on his promises.
Inevitably the main character forces him to hand over a particular ring. However an servant of your dad confirms he handed over a fake ring. Which led to his own kingdom's downfall after you left. Amazing how everything was fine until his selfishness led to his own kingdom's demise. I was in all honestly glad he's gotten this fate.
For an early Genesis RPG game it's better than expected. Some mechanics takes a little more than others to get used to. Parts of the game may not aged as well as other aspects. This still turned out to be a surprisingly fun game. Some items are frustrating to find for many reasons. Despite things I could recommend checking this game out.
2. Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom (1991)
A weird start to a review I only done three character's paths. This will get rather confusing later on. This is the third entry in the classic Phantasy Star series. Back when the franchise was a more direct competitor to Final Fantasy series. Personally Sega knew when to quit lol. This also seen by many fans as the black sheep of the series.
Among looking at the game it doesn't looks similar to the other entries. Yes the game does later explain it's connection. The game is actually broken up into three sections called generations. Generation 1 will always be the same except for the end decision. You play as a prince with a small group of characters.
You actually go against orders of the king aka your dad to pursuit these monsters. Rhys was about to get married to Maia a mysterious women. Originally there were plans for him to marry Lena. Whose ends up in your party during Generation 1. The actual farming of experience points as well as money the slowest here.
It's not game breaking but sure takes awhile to truly get going. There's two bosses Rhys' party faces during Generation 1. Lyle suddenly leaves your party to end up as the first boss of the game. What's unique about this is whatever level he's used as well as how much HP he had prior to leaving. Determines the difficulty of Rhys facing him exclusively one on one.
Thankfully with a good strategy he'll go down. The final boss of Generation is Maia's father that's also a king of a different country. I guess by that point you should've seen that twist coming. Her dad is also accompanied by a few monsters. Of course, he is the biggest threat by that point in the game. I recommend stocking up on health items.
Not to mention grinding up a couple levels to better your chances. Also take advantage of using Gisares that heals the entire party to a degree. You better get use to that during the later boss fights. After the king defeated Rhys is presented with his final decision. He has the choice to marry either Maia or Lena. Which also determines your main character in Generation 2.
Keep in mind, these paths notably differ from each other. For this review I chosen to go with Lena. I ended up playing as their son Nial. Farming money as well as experience is notably increased to a degree. Some characters notably level up much faster than others. Oddly the magic user in two generations required the most experience points to level up.
Basically despite being the lowest leveled within parties. They actually secretly among the strongest characters you play as. You just gotta be patience for them to level up longer than everyone else. Nial's path does start throwing out some awesome stuff you can do. Like you get to see more of the worlds. Oh okay you're in a spaceship with each section in vastly different worlds.
Later on, you do use an spaceship to fly away a few times. The other path I didn't choose had a few more boss fights. I didn't realize that prior to writing this. I ended up with just one boss fight with Lune. The other path where you play as Ayn slightly more boss fights. Ultimately regardless who you picked for Generation 3 the same two final bosses.
Either Nial or Ayn gets to choose between two women to marry. In total you get four final paths from Generation 2's final decision is crazy!!! I ended up choosing Laya whose sister shares the same name. She also ends up in Nial's party as well. Generation 3 there's a lot of major changes. If Generation 2 wasn't fast enough for ya.
Trust me, Generation 3 gives you some awesome surprises. Two particular characters in every path you can take. Being Mieu and Wren whom are both cyborgs. They end up being your most played characters in this game. Grinding experience points as well as money actually kinda ridiculous. Majority of your party levels up faster than your main character.
For some weird reason Nial takes longer to level up. Wren gets a few vehicle forms. He can transform to fly or move across the water. Obviously his flight form much faster in comparison. Not only that you might've noticed some air fields around the worlds. Generation 3 also delivers major lore drops. You can expect some good surprises.
It turns out everyone here within the three generations are survivors of Parma. Which was directly caused by the conclusion of Phantasy Star II. I know some might see that being a rather loose connection. Among researching where it fits in the timeline, this actually the last to happen. Almost sandwich in terms of where it fits into everything.
Parts of this felt somewhat like an classic Final Fantasy game. Probably why some quickly didn't like it over. I will give em credit for making all these possible paths you can go. Now that's a lot to pull off for it's time. Random battles is what you expect not much to say. I do like the boss fights are somewhat distance.
In all honestly, this was much better than I expected. The maps are much easier to follow than Sword of Vermilion. Most towns had majority of stores. Speaking of that, Inns acts as both fill your party back to max after paying em. You also could go an in game save following em. If you're playing this through either huge Genesis compilation game you don't need to.
I also need to point some locations has a passage through a cave as well as a temple. Starting from Generation 2 you can directly use temples. They mostly act as short cuts to the same locations from passages. Now passages is filled with enemies that's tricky to navigate. You don't wanna risk going in low on resources.
You also need to collect five weapons for each member of your party for the final battle. Now I can finally discuss the final two bosses. There's two similar floating locations only reachable by Wren in his flight form. The first of them only has enemies in the dungeon section. However the later one is all filled with enemies.
This guy like King Cile also accompanied by enemies. Thankfully some members of your party could be altered to directly target him. I been avoiding discussing these combat options for a good reason. Unlike most of the series easy to memorize commands. You may have to experiment to a degree to know how they properly work.
Even running away option at first you may not realize what it does. There's a brief animation for these options as well. One of them allows you to decide what each member of the party could do during fights. It's not as simple as you automatically can choose which enemy to target right off the bat. This guy right behind the final dungeon too.
You will notice there's two major dungeon designs. Either you get a more rocky maze that you might have trouble seeing further of or a more glass theme dungeon. Several broken glass preventing you from moving forward forcing you to find alternative paths. Thankfully in the rock dungeons it's mostly find someone as well as a few stuff.
Mostly with the more glass theme ones it's finding items. A handful of times you need to interact with technology that's automatic. Obviously that's the easy part of exploring em. If you have Escapipes you can use em to instantly get out of em. Just not fully for some weird reason. However this item doesn't work on the later floating city where the game ends prior to the final dungeon.
The logic for this it's not an actual dungeon despite eventually leading into one. Some of these sucks if you lack that item. You can't imagine how confusing some of them are unless you play this. I'll try to give an good example. Back in Generation 1 prior to facing the king. You had to navigate a rather unusual style.
You may notice a lot of stairs on the way to eventually getting to the first set of stairs. Which means you gotta navigate underneath trying to figure where to go often. It's trivial of error without a guide. I didn't follow the guide in those sections. I did try to later on though. It also doesn't help how the main section where the boss is.
You can't even reach that opening unless you find a direct way into that section of the location. Which makes an already confusing, frustrating situation more so. I also like merchants could refuse giving you equipment. Mostly due to those doesn't work with that character.
Although you could still end up buying em. You also can option up the menu to swap items around to a degree. Which can be a little confusing at first to do. If your main character has too many items. Whatever you find simply goes to the next character within your parties. I do like that since it does help you out later on.
The overall pace goes from somewhat slow to wow you may wanna slow down a bit. I am not kidding when experience points and money earning notably increases. I had a team mostly in level 40s for the final battle. I didn't even do an grind section to clarify. I simply do my best to follow the guide mostly fighting enemies.
The final boss regardless of paths is Dark Force. I simply love you work your way to a particular chest in a dungeon. Can you imagine open a chest to find such an evil being inside? I don't know if that's meant to be a reference to a story with pandora's box. You know a woman assigned to keep guard of this box.
Inevitably her curiosity led to opening the box causing the apocalypse to happen. If you think about it this is kinda similar to that. Dark Force is usually among the final bosses in this particular Phantasy Star series. He actually has three separate health bars with no phases. Which is weird but it kinda works in it's favori.
Both his hands has HP you could took out. I highly recommend taking out his left hand which is on your right to clarify. This hand at times will quickly do a spell to heal all the health bars up to a degree. Which means as soon as that hand taken out he can't heal anymore. Despite being leveled up this could be a tough final boss fight.
Phantasy Star III is more overlooked for it's reputation. At the same time, it's also somewhat underrated as well. The characters are rememberable to a degree. I do actually enjoy a good amount of the game play. Sure it can get quite repetitive at times. Also playing it through Sega Genesis Classics helps with rewinding as well as quicker save/load features.
This sorta felt like three short RPG games in one. I am still quite surprised it wasn't much longer. I also gotta mention the audio as a whole I absolutely loved it!!! There's a lot of depth into everything. Sometimes a game quickly turns you off. Simply because you prefer how the older ones plays in comparison.
I had that same reaction with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Then I gave that a chance, I ended up loving it. The same ended up happening with this game. It's not the best entry in the original Phantasy Star series. I will say this was quite an amazing RPG game indeed. Honestly you may wanna consider giving this one a try.
3. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium (1995)
Easily not only the best Phantasy Star game but also the very best RPG Genesis game I ever played!!! Originally intended to be an Sega CD game. Which didn't have many notable RPG games there. Mostly Shining Force CD that's also in Sega Genesis Mini 2. The person in charge was convinced this Phantasy Star game as ambitious it was could work insanely well on Sega Genesis.
Of course, they were right in the end. Phantasy Star IV is in all honestly mind blowing awesomeness. The game starts with two hunters Alys and Chaz investigating into monsters showing up at an university. I really gotta mention I love these anime style cutscenes. They sorta pop on your screen like panels of a comic book or an manga volume for that matter.
The audio as a whole really well done I'm deeply impressed. If it's obvious by the game's title. Sega made this to be the conclusion of that Phantasy Star series. Despite actually taking place in between Phantasy Star II & III. Don't worry I'll explain how they wrap everything up later. The story is incredibly well done.
This is a rather long game that somehow kept things fun as well as refreshing to a degree. It never begins to start over staying it's welcome. I haven't fully played the first two games. I never did finish Phantasy Star I through Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. You get some rather interesting party members on the way.
You actually get to travel between locations around an solar system. Just like Phantasy Star III, later on is such a deep lore drop. It's actually quite an epic one at that. They also reveal a major threat about a recurring boss character you face in all of them. Dark Force actually shows up three different times in the entire game!!!
Later on I'll full explain how Dark Force fits in to all of this. You get a few temporary party members on the way. Kyra fights like Alys to a degree. By the way the game attempts to trick you into thinking Alys being the main character. Then a rather sucky situation occurs that took her life. If it's obvious her apprentice, Chaz the true main character of the game.
She's also named after the famous original protagonist back in the first Phantasy Star game. Ultimately you can only have five party members. Which does play a role prior to the final boss fight. You surprisingly get a choice between a few characters. You also get a man named Seth whose actually Dark Force in disguise briefly in your party.
This is different from facing Lyle in Phantasy Star III. He had good intentions while Dark Force a true monster in comparison. Before I can even discuss that version fully. On an satellite is where you first face Dark Force. You later face him in a cave funny enough. Where he took on a more insect form. The final Dark Force boss fight happens as soon as you leave a particular location.
You go in for an key item that's meant to find a hidden planet. But this also forced Seth aka Dark Force to expose his true identity. None of these boss fights are easy. I really gotta mention this one is filled with boss fights. You have to grind a lot more than normal to attempt getting further. There's also some guardians you defeat on your journey that's helps set the end game up.
This still felt somewhat easier than normal. I have virtually no complaint about the combat system it's perfectly done. You also get some vehicles that can get random battles. Which is kinda awesome you can do that!!! Sure these vehicles are planet depended usage. They quickly make up for that though. There's even good story within the side quests.
They really put a lot of work into everything. Not even one notable bad location in the entire game. Each major location being planets or satellites is done amazingly well. This game truly screams epic in every sense of the word. Phantasy Star IV even was good enough to make it into Sega Genesis Mini 1's lineup.
The art style is among my most favorites on the system. The true antagonist is Profound Darkness. It turns out Dark Force was avatars of Profound Darkness. Which explains why all three Dark Force avatars you face were notably different from each other. You discovered a huge hole in the ground of a particular planet.
I highly recommend leveling up as high as you could go. Stock the hell out on health items. If you can run away from major random fights inside do so. This final boss has three phases I'm not kidding. Now this will test your determination how bad you wanna beat the game!!! I guess people who fought Lavos in Chrono Trigger felt the same as I did here.
Phantasy Star IV was the perfect ending entry to a once legendary RPG franchise. Everything about it is top notch. I can't even criticize much of it at all it's that damn good!!! I do recommend following a guide it's a long game after all. This could be a great beginner RPG game as well. You just aren't living until you play this!!!
Now I previously promised to rank the three classic Sega RPG games down below...
3. Sword of Vermilion
2. Phantasy Star III
1. Phantasy Star IV
Between 3 and 2 it was surprisingly closer. I do felt Sword of Vermilion had slightly better songs. Ultimately it was easier to understand maps in Phantasy Star III. Also having a couple more characters helped spice up the game play. Not to mention, all the possible paths from Generation 2 to Generation 3. There's simply more in depth within the game play.
Obviously neither came close to Phantasy Star IV. Now it's crazy PHIV came out late into the system's run. Especially not many Genesis games gotten people's attention that year. Unless you count Vectorman 1 or Comix Zone. Both of which also in several Genesis compilation games. Around that point people were quickly getting ready for PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 respectively.
For what it's worth Phantasy Star IV is a truly amazing video game. I couldn't imagine such an RPG game exists!!! I know many had similar reactions to several RPG classics. I did notice after playing em. My view on the genre changed notably. I don't expect to jump into more right away. I'm just glad for such a random thought I had.
It actually led to something mind blowing. Something that's already changed my life to a degree. Sometimes you gotta take chances to find more stuff you like. Ultimately that's the entire point of doing this. I sure had a lot of fun playing these three RPG games. I would for sure consider playing em again. I personally would place RPGs over Simulator games well weird ones.
