Will we ever see Phantasy Star V?

[Missagh]

We are approaching a new year and lets discuss the possibilities of the next chapter of Phantasy Star. Do you believe that Phantasy Star V will be out before 2010? Within two years?

More interesting, do you believe that Sega will take the step of creating an offline (only) Phantasy Star game? Do you think they will take the risk? Evidently, Sega has been living on the online part of the PS games for many years and I have a feeling that we will not see a proper offline PS saga soon (like the FF games).

Maybe it is time to relaunch the PS V project

[The HuBBs]

I think you should as I can't see sega making an offline PS game. Or a good one for that matter. The only way they could've is if they allowed Overworks to do it, but they were forced to merge with sonic team and I believe half of the team left.

[suoturska]

Overworks was merged with Wow Entertainment, not Sonic Team. They're known as SEGA WOW now.

And it seems they've still got it, since their recently released PlayStation 3 strategy RPG Valkyria Chronicles is supposedly fantastic.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42355.html

[The HuBBs]

ah.... then which R&D merged with ST?

[Jeric Hikari]

I'm actually somewhat glad that they havne't tried activly making a sequel in the original series. Too much fear that they'd do a sloppy job of it.


the idea of PSZ acting as a quasi prequel to what the earth-men did in ps2, or as a post-script to one of the PS3 endings I can accept though, as its not going on with what happens after the profound darkness dies.

[Sange Mahlay]

We are approaching a new year and lets discuss the possibilities of the next chapter of Phantasy Star. Do you believe that Phantasy Star V will be out before 2010? Within two years?

More interesting, do you believe that Sega will take the step of creating an offline (only) Phantasy Star game? Do you think they will take the risk? Evidently, Sega has been living on the online part of the PS games for many years and I have a feeling that we will not see a proper offline PS saga soon (like the FF games).

Maybe it is time to relaunch the PS V project

As much as I'd like to see it, I don't think it's likely. We're going on fifteen years since PSIV. We'll probably see more stuff along the lines of PSO or PSU. It's just as well, I suppose. It probably wouldn't feel the same as the others. I mean, look what's happened with the Shining series (SF Neo, I'm looking in your direction). That's a perfect example of a great series that lost its' identity when the original creators left the project.

[suoturska]

ah.... then which R&D merged with ST?

United Game Artists, according to Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Team

[The HuBBs]

After lookng at I can understand more clearly why the recent sonic games have all sucked. The had too many studios. STI, Sonic Team JPN, Sonic Team USA, and the staf kept changing. Jeeze you can't make quality products when your new workers don't know the mistakes were made in the last game.

[BenoitRen]

Except that "Sonic and the Secret Rings" and Sonic Unleashed don't suck.

[The HuBBs]

not according the majority of gaming networks and publications. Unleashed would've been the best sonic game since the Adv 1, but the werehog segements made a lot of people mad due to its bad camera(seems to be a problem in every game), slow gameplay and tedious controls and combat.

[BenoitRen]

The majority of gaming networks and publications know jack about games. Everyone knows this by now.

[Missagh]

I find it rather funny of how Sega advertises a new PS game (relating to PSO, PSU etc) of possibly being "Phantasy Star V?". Maybe it is time now to actually make the game before the fans of the classics become pensioners

[The HuBBs]

The majority of gaming networks and publications know jack about games. Everyone knows this by now.

I don't know about the pubs you read but the ones I do I have read for years on end. Gameinformer, IGN, Nintendo World Report, EGM are among the best in the industry. I don't like 1up, gamespy or gamespot however. Nor do I like Gamepro after they switched their review system around and made their magazine smaller.

[Danny]

We are approaching a new year and lets discuss the possibilities of the next chapter of Phantasy Star. Do you believe that Phantasy Star V will be out before 2010? Within two years?

More interesting, do you believe that Sega will take the step of creating an offline (only) Phantasy Star game? Do you think they will take the risk? Evidently, Sega has been living on the online part of the PS games for many years and I have a feeling that we will not see a proper offline PS saga soon (like the FF games).

Maybe it is time to relaunch the PS V project

As much as I'd like to see it, I don't think it's likely. We're going on fifteen years since PSIV. We'll probably see more stuff along the lines of PSO or PSU. It's just as well, I suppose. It probably wouldn't feel the same as the others. I mean, look what's happened with the Shining series (SF Neo, I'm looking in your direction). That's a perfect example of a great series that lost its' identity when the original creators left the project.

Same here. In all honesty, I also don't think it's likely that we'll see PSV being made. I mean, in PSIV the Profound Darkness was defeated along with Dark Force. If the source of all darkness has been defeated, what else can happen in PSV? Sure there could be another evil king like Lassic, but he wouldn't even compare to the power of the Profound Darkness in PSIV... The game would be pretty anti-cinamatic in comparison to the previous PS games in my opinion. And also what Sange Mahley, without the original PS cast, the game would most likely not be as good as the others before it. Also, most games now-a-days seem to focus more on the real time multiplayer feature rather than offline turn based games as they were in the past. Most companies these days focus on making maximum profits than before so most games are more of "beat-em-ups" rather than "good story" games. I guess it's also the fault of people who buy them... They wouldn't be made any more if people didn't buy them. Strange people, they don't know a good game when they see one...

[Lucid]

I would only want to see a PSV if it was an honest attempt at making a classic style, true RPG like we all used to play back in the good ol' days. If it's more like an mmorpg or a hacker/slasher game with some RPG elements (which is really what 99% of RPG's made today are IMO)... then no thanks.

Sadly, there isn't really a market for a classic RPG in todays gaming landscape. Nobody wants to spend hours finding their way through complicated mazes or leveling up, they want that instant gratification of shooting somebody else in the head. It's the A.D.D. era of gaming.

It wouldn't be difficult at all to devise a storyline for a PSV though. It just takes some creativity and an active imagination. Did they really "kill" PD? Afterall... even the Great Light himself couldn't do that. He could merely contain him with that seal. And is he really at the top of the totem pole? There might be a "Prounder Darkness" (I jest, of course). Perhaps there are more Earthmen stashed away somewhere, lurking in the shadows? There's an infinite amount of ideas. The imagination is the only limit to them.

Unfortunately, I don't think many game developers nowadays have much of one. That's why we're subjected to this endless onslaught of first person shooters with regurgitated scripts.