More Thoughts From Me #224: I finally play Phantasy Star

Happy Console Gamer on YouTube is a huge fan of the Phantasy Star series. He talks about it a lot. I had never played the series. Until now. Last week I finally bought the first Phantasy Star for the Nintendo Switch! What do I think of the game?

I’ve been curious about Phantasy Star ever since I first heard Happy Console Gamer talk about it. The footage he showed of the game looked neat. I had never played the game before because I did not have a Sega system back in the day. So Phantasy Star is a new game to me. I wasn’t 100% positive that I’d like the game but I really wanted to try it.

My curiosity finally got the better of me last week. I wanted to download it. I asked twitter if I should and my good friend Jon Faust said yes. Hey, I’m not going to argue with him! So I downloaded Phantasy Star onto my Nintendo Switch.

This is the first game in the series. It is the Sega Ages version. It has new features like an auto-fill map and the pause menu lists. The graphics are the same as they were originally. I think the gameplay is too.

As I said, I have nothing to compare this game to. I never played it on its orignal Sega system. I’m playing it now for the first time and…

I really like it!

The graphics are very retro. I like how colorful they are and the character/enemy design is very nice. I like the world map and town graphics. I also like the first person dungeons.

As for the gameplay, it goes between third person rpg and first person rpg in dungeons and battles. I’m usually not a big fan of first person rpg dungeons and battles but Phantasy Star pulls it off well. The battles are fun. I like how you never know what you’ll find in the dungeons too.

The new auto-fill map really helps. I’ve been using it a lot to navigate the dungeons. Its hard to imagine the game without it.

Phantasy Star is not an easy game. It does not give you many directions, so you have to figure out where to go. I admit I’ve gotten lost a few times. I did use an online guide to help me out a little and I’m sure I’ll do that again in the future.

Despite its difficulty though, I like Phantasy Star a lot. I love the sci-fi setting and how you go to other worlds. The story is neat, the characters are too, and as I said, the gameplay is well done. It looks like I really missed out on a cool game back in the day. Glad I’m finally getting to play it.

I plan on checking out more of the Phantasy Star series in the future. I’ll have to get that Sega Classics collection on Switch to check out Phantasy 2-4! I’ve heard that the 4th one is especially good.

So I want to thank Happy Console Gamer for talking about the game so much. And for my friend Jon Faust who gave me an extra push toward this game.

Have you played Phantasy Star? What do you think of it? Which game is your favorite in the series?

Next week: The first Bioshock on the Nintendo Switch! I downloaded it and I’ll let you know what I think. Does the game still play well? Is it worth downloading?? And this and a bag of chips (not really) on next weeks More Thoughts!

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. I’m looking forward to playing more of this series!