The Best Way to Play Phantasy Star - The Original Series / MY LIFE IN GAMING

The original Phantasy Star are an iconic part of Sega history, so we take a look at the the original cartridge versions, ports and official emulations to decide which ones to play for new and old fans alike.

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Coury Carlson
My Life in Gaming
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My Life in Gaming
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My Life in Gaming makes documentaries, deep dives into retro console hardware, and more.

[YouOpaOpa]

Phantasy Star was the RPG entry point for a LOT of people in Brazil because it was the only JRPG translated to Brazilian Portuguese back in the 90s. Tec Toy translated Phantasy Star 1, 2 and 3 back in the day.

[GameSack]

I want Try's "Whoo boy!" sound as a ringtone.

[PabstOban]

Phantasy Star 1 was the first RPG I ever played on a home console and it was on my friends Sega Master System. When he showed it to me, I wasn't blown away and all I could think about was playing Double Dragon which was what I was obsessed about in the arcades at the time. Later in my childhood, I signed up for a subscription for Nintendo Power which conveniently came with a free NES game pac (Dragon Warrior). I honestly didn't care what it was... it was a new game, and it was mine... and hey, it came with a hint guide! I ended up loving the game and that is what made me revisit Phantasy Star. At that time, I had already finished Final Fantasy and moved on to Genesis. I bought a power based converter for it and purchased Phantasy Star from that same friend for $7. That game had me so sucked in that I barely played any Genesis games until after I beat it... then moved onto Phantasy Star 2 and Sword of Vermilion. Phantasy Star 2 stuck with me... even till today. That game, while as grindy as they come... inspired me to draw, and want to make games myself (as a kid). The story was just so personal to me and how it ended changed how I looked at games in general. I'm grateful you payed homage to one of the most underrated RPG series today, you did it justice!

[TimDavis]

Phantasy Star IV is one of my favorite 16-bit RPGs. Glad to see it getting some love!

[piratebear]

The PC Genesis collection gives you unencrypted ROMs of 2-4, meaning you can load them into your own emulators on any system, load them on an Everdrive for real hardware, and use all those nice difficulty/translation hacks that exist. You don't even have to extract them anymore, they make a folder in the Steam installation.

Nice to see a legal way to get your own ROM files beyond dumping a cart.

[HappyConsoleGamer]

Never heard of this series will need to give it a go one time!

[djsquarewave]

Phantasy Star IV is still one of my favorite games of all time, I adore everything about it. The story, the music, the characters, the combat, the cutscenes. It really is a top-class JRPG experience that gets unfairly overlooked by people who think only the SNES could do that kind of game.

My sister and I played through all four games on the PS2 Complete Collection a number of years ago; she hadn't played them since they originally came out, and I had only played II and IV. While it was a lot of fun, we ultimately decided that IV is the only one that really still holds up today. The speed and difficulty adjustments really laid bare how empty and rushed of a game Phantasy Star III in particular is, even if I do still love the hilarious enemy sprites.

[rawhide]

Epic. Who needs Netflix when you have videos like this.

[jetstreamdefalpha]

I love the way the intro theme plays softly in the background while you explain, then it kicks in full blast.

[gosbong]

Phatasy star 3 is bar far my favorite game in the franchise. Love the music and the artwork so much. Makes me sad so many people dislike it.

[LonSeidman]

Phantasy Star was mega expensive for that 4 mega power! $75 at the time.

[KaskelotenZebbe]

Great job! You guys really know your stuff!
One thing I love about Phantasy Star is that it's one of the very few RPG series on consoles from that era where the plot of the games are connected to as many as four entries. In the Final Fantasy series for example, the games are completely separated with only reoccuring themes and gameplay. But Phantasy Star ties the whole series together with locations, characters and events.

[JiltedValkyrie]

I finally plunged and bought a sealed copy of Phantasy Star Collection for the Saturn. Since I can read Japanese, I wanted to experience the games as they were originally written (especially character names and plot details). I just beat Phantasy Star in essentially two sittings and loved it! I started with the series with PSO on Dreamcast. I have no complaints. I LOVE the Saturn compilation.

[zerorock]

I truly hope you all continue making these "Best way to play" episodes. I've never seen this much effort in these types of comparison vids.

[austineruption]

I've been waiting for something like this from y'all for so long. <3

[wallacerigby]

Just bought the Switch version because of this video! Thank you for shinning a light on Phantasy Star 💫

[thebossthusiast]

This is hands-down the best Phantasy Star series retrospective I've ever seen. I didn't play this series until 2006 but I'm still nostalgic for it. Thanks for putting so much effort into this video, it's very much appreciated!

[Fellipek]

My first RPG. In Brazil Phantasy Star is popular in the 90'

[Ghaleonh]

Ah, Phantasy Star. I remember looking for an RPG for the Master System back in 2003, found PS1, & was instantly hooked. Phantasy Star is one of my favorite RPG series! 2 is amazing, but tough. 3 I have yet to play, but I will eventually. 4... Man, if Sonic 3 was Sonic Team's magnum opus, 4 is also up there! It's really too bad that Sega never finished the remake for 4! Gotta give Generation 1 another playthrough & Generation 2 a try! My main way of playing the series now is the Complete Collection for PS2.

I also enjoyed the Text Adventures & Game Gear games, should probably give those another roll.

[gauwoof]

My first RPG was Phantasy Star III when I was like 6 or 7. I fell in love with it.
After beating it several times (and it was a problem because it turned out my console could not save the game, whereas my friend’s console could) I switched to PS2 and it was amazing. I was the happiest person.
And how happy I was playing PSO on GameCube to find out that the ost to the game is composed using lots of original tracks from the first games.
Episode 4 has some remakes from PSIII.
Nostalgia is such a thing :)