Saturday, August 3, 2013

Let's Play Phantasy Star Generation: 1

Platform: PlayStation 2
Released: 2003
Genre: RPG
Setting: Science Fiction
Developer: 3D Ages
Publisher: Japan Art Media Co., Ltd.

Playlist:

First Video in the Series:

This, my friends, is a remake of the original Phantasy Star - the one that spawned three sequels, a slew of spin-offs, and two MMORPGs. The first Phantasy Star was released in 1987 or 1988 (depending on what part of the country you live in) on the Sega Master System. It's one of the first RPGs (if not *the* RPG) to feature a female protagonist. It's also one of the first sci-fi RPG games, and the first to feature 3D dungeon crawling on a console. This is a remake for the PlayStation 2 which was only released in Japan. Fortunately, someone named Kyence has fully translated the game into English. So here I am, playing an English translation of a Japanese remake of a video game from the `80s... on PCSX2, a PlayStation 2 emulator.

[Total Game Time - 28:45:54]

Links of Interest:

7 comments:

  1. Interesting - I did not know this existed. It visually reminds me a lot of Phantasy Star II. I have played all 4 (I didn't play the SMS first game until several years later) - and thoroughly enjoyed them. Would love to know where you got the translated version from and how well it's running for you on your machine. I think that's pretty cool. :) Nice video so far - seeing the combat screens in particular just gave me pause, because I recall how spartan the first game's visuals were.

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    Replies
    1. Hiya, Chalgyr! It's good to hear from you. :)

      I've previously played II and IV, but I played II twice, trying to beat that beast! It's a really hard game. Because of that, my nostalgia value is quite high with PSII. As far as the link to download, it's right at the bottom of this article, and also in the video's description on YouTube. It's a PlayStation 2 game, so you either need an emulator like PCSX2, or you can burn the disc and put it in your PS2. You need a modded PS2 to do that, though.

      It's running perfect on my rig, but the music slows way down when I record with Fraps. So I set Fraps to output at 30 FPS and all is good. There is a bit of a blur with the scrolling because the character moves so fast, and a tiny bit of a stutter when running through the dungeons (both of these only on video playback... so it actually looks fine to me while I'm playing it), but otherwise, it's perfect. The same person (Kyence) is translating the 2nd remake (of PSII!), and it should be done by the beginning of next year. I'm SO psyched for that! :D

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    2. Niiiiiiice - because until I read this, I never knew about the remake of PSII either. I played the heck out of II, III and IV back when they first came out. I know a lot of people did not care for III, but I enjoyed it enough (or was lacking in life enough) to go ahead and get all four endings. :P

      I have a PS emulator - not sure if it's that one or not, but if not, I'm pretty familiar with them. I will have to give this a look. Thanks for posting it - just never knew about the remakes of these titles.

      So... did you ever beat II? I noted the word 'trying'. It had quite the ending to it, if you haven't seen it before...

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    3. The remake of PSII doesn't have a translation yet. So it's Japanese only or now. And keep in mind that you need a PlayStation 2 emulator. PCSX2 is considered the best out there. I never finished the second game. I was disillusioned with a certain character's death, and the game was brutally hard besides that. I will finish it with the translated PSG2 though. ;)

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    4. Wow - yeah, that death in PSII floored me at the time. I know a lot of people look toward Final Fantasy VII as one of the games with a more popular team member's death being surprising, but PSII did it first. Maybe not with quite the same impact due to less advanced visuals and music, but I recall just being... bummed, after that. I did get stuck the first time I played it - for quite a while. I wound up putting it up, playing something else, and then coming back to it and suddenly finding what I had been overlooking previously - and was able to progress the story again.

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    5. Yeah, the death in PSII really upset me. I was sad and pissed off. Final Fantasy VII actually succeeded in making me cry, though.

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