Phantasy Star IV fan boys/girls annoy me

[Zucca]

I dare to say that PSIII has maybe even better battle engine than PSII.
In PSIII battle you could encounter four groups of monsters. Also short range weapon users cannot attack enemy groups behing front enemies. ;) In PSII you simply have maxium of two enemy groups and everyone can attack each monster in the battle.
So is PSIII's battle engine more complicated or more advance battle system, it really how one looks at it: an OPINION. I personally haven't decided that, but the technique part in PSIII isn't as good as in PSII, I think.
In this area PSIV is the winner. All the combo attacks and skills really gives PSIV the trophy cup. Sadly those combo attacks also make the game so easy.

I think I play the hacked PSIV next time to get more challenge. ;)

[Aolish]

Goddamn, PS3 could use a remake. Surely Sonic Team couldn't mess that up, right?

yeah to true, of all the PS games... they should of remade PS3 since this is the most hated game of the series. PS1 and 2 certainly didn't need a total remake as those games were already great and PS4 speaks for itself.

[Zucca]

Goddamn, PS3 could use a remake. Surely Sonic Team couldn't mess that up, right?

yeah to true, of all the PS games... they should of remade PS3 since this is the most hated game of the series. PS1 and 2 certainly didn't need a total remake as those games were already great and PS4 speaks for itself.

I'd rather like to see "finished" version, not remake. ;)

[Heroic_Chaz]

It's finished plenty, Zucca. The only reason it was "subpar" in the battle and, in part, the graphics, is because they loaded it full of story... with all the generations, you can't expect everything, they had too little to work with to give it all like that. With today's engines it'd be easier, and if they were released on next gen consoles of today, PS3 might've been the best with it's branching storylines.

[BenoitRen]

No, it's not finished. They had to rush just to get a playable game because Sega didn't give them enough time. People who worked on the project said that development was "unpleasant".

There were plenty of things they still wanted to put in it. The development, the amount of empty space in the game, the amount of character sprite duplication, and the amount of unused space in the ROM image pretty much prove this.

[Zucca]

I wonder why SEGA didn't gave more time for PSIII devs..?

[Edless]

Maybe was it because Sega didn't want to take the risk to support a team that did not benefit from a good background, helping them to make a RPG that might reveal itself cash consuming with a concept that could be difficult to manage (and moreover a concept consumer might not have liked), the generation concept at that time (and probably now too) can be frightening.

We just have to see that there are 7 worlds (plus the "satelite") and three generation when they limited themselves to 3 or 2 worlds simple to handle in the previous episodes.

Moreover, could Sega be sure of the sales knowing that PSIII had a much more serious tone than other RPG (from the sprites to the story) and might not benefit from the Kawaii effect or the cool design effect you can see in Final Fantasy's sprites or Dragon Quest sprites (knowing that DQ has an added value with the design of Akira Toriyama)

Unfortunately, when you launch a new product, no matter how good the original idea is, every point that is still unclear when the project is launched can reveal itself really cash consuming.
Unless you have a very clear view of the final aspect of your project you won't be entrusted (I don't know how clear was PSIII for the developers but from the few information that can be gathered on PSIII, we can think that everything had not been thought through before they started the development.)

That might be what happened to PSIII. At least it's the point of view I get from being in the business related world.

[IndispensablePeaGuy]

For me, Phantasy Star IV was easy to get into whereas PSII-III sucked ass.

PSIV is the best because it's fun.

[Heroic_Chaz]

Good to have you and your smartass opinions back, Peegai! XD

But I like PSIV the most because it had the most character development, longest story, most side quests, and it got me into the series.

[meteor9]

Good to have you and your smartass opinions back, Peegai! XD

But I like PSIV the most because it had the most character development, longest story, most side quests, and it got me into the series.

Yup, seconding. While PS1 is a lot of fun, and PS2 is...uh..okay, so I can't bring myself to finish it because of it's 'new giant dungeon every five seconds' structure, but anyway, PS4 will always stand out to me as one of the best games of any series in the genre. Beats the hell out of most FFs, and is almost on par with the character and life of FF9.

That's probably why the fanboys/girls will never shut up about it: it's just that damned awesome.

[BenoitRen]

It's the most fun to play and the most accessible. But the most awesome! It's short and easy, and while its story is well executed, it's nothing special.

PSII has more relevance in the RPG genre because it's one of the few dramas, and in that regard well executed.

[CommieCowboy]

PS3 was released in 1991. Considering that FF4 came out the same year (and aside from sound quality and mode 7 special effects, could have easily been done on the Genesis) and that both Lunar TSS and Shining Force 1 were just a year away, I'd say that it fell well short in terms of presentation, aesthetics, variety, and battle system. The world also felt pretty dead...Go into any house and see what I mean. PS1 and PS2 were ahead of their time, the former moreso than the latter, PS3 broke that trend, and PS4 used PS2 as a template, streamlined the battle engine, greatly improved the interface and the characterization (the only notable interface deficiency is the inability to see stat changes before buying equipment...While partially mitigated by the game's generous saving system, it still wasn't good enough for 1994, imho), and eliminated the grinding. I enjoyed the story to: the presentation and characterization more than made up for its relative simplicity, and it did its legacy justice. Aside from the equipment issue, I wish that the game would have had more challenging dungeons. Overall, it's my favourite in the series. 2's grinding, interface issues (keeping in mind that prior to playing 2, I had already played PS4, FF4, Warsong, Shadowrun, and the Shining Force games...So perhaps I was a bit spoiled), and the lack of hintbooks in the rental copies I had access to in the mid-1990s held it back to me. Likewise, the movement rate was excruciatingly slow. I beat it on an emulator recently, though. And I do have a full copy stashed away somewhere in Cornwall that I purchased on EBay a while back, although I now live in Ottawa.

[BenoitRen]

Considering that FF4 came out the same year (and aside from sound quality and mode 7 special effects, could have easily been done on the Genesis) and that both Lunar TSS and Shining Force 1 were just a year away, I'd say that it fell well short in terms of presentation, aesthetics, variety, and battle system.

You're comparing it to the best games of the time instead of the average RPG of the time. Also, we already knew it was rushed.

[meteor9]

Considering that FF4 came out the same year (and aside from sound quality and mode 7 special effects, could have easily been done on the Genesis) and that both Lunar TSS and Shining Force 1 were just a year away, I'd say that it fell well short in terms of presentation, aesthetics, variety, and battle system.

You're comparing it to the best games of the time instead of the average RPG of the time. Also, we already knew it was rushed.

That's still a pretty good spread of RPGs for back in the day.

And, well, if PS is a series we hold in high regard, why wouldn't we compare a game from it to the best games of the time? It's one of the best series, after all.

[Zucca]

I think there's nothing wrong in PSIII besides that it's looks/(and)_is incomplete.
Most of the dialogs are short and animation is minimalistic. Playability is still very good.
The different behaviour (compared to other classic PS games) in some places may give some people negative image of the game (I myself didn't like PSIII when I first played it. It took some time get used to it.):
- Techniques: GiRes isn't GiRes at all, it's Sar... Also characters never learn new techiques, instead techs they already learn get boosted on level-ups... To be precise characters get "technique boost points" (I really don't know the real name of those "points") that can be distributed in a certain way among one type of techs.
- Poison: instead of taking damage every step, poisoned character cannot gain HP or TP in any way.
- Battle engine: It's actually like PSII battle engine but bit more advanced - four enemy groups rather than two. But it looks pale (imo).

I, myself, like poison and the battle engine. But I'd rather take different PSI/II/IV-like technique learning and using. I belive that this was made because it was faster to develop. Who knows..?