Generations of Doom:
When I was a kid, I owned a Sega Megadrive console and only owned a few games. One in particular became my obsession. I played it through over and over again without ever getting sick of it.
As an adult, when I started to look this game up online, I was somewhat taken aback by how unpopular it seemed to be. Ultimately I figured that it was because I'd never played the other games in the series, to which this game has an only indirect connection.
I loved it for its complex narrative, its character design and its well-realized milieu. The main conceit of the game is that it plays out over three generations, each one having a slightly different story play out as a result. Only two games can be saved at a time, so one has to replay the game from the beginning at least once.
I find that having your own head-cannon is necessary for Phantasy Star III (PS3) since the script is, to put it mildly, somewhat underwritten. That wasn't a problem for me because the story gave my imagination enough to chew on. I won't lie to you, there are a few problems and the game takes forever to get you from point A to point B. But I personally feel that the good outweighs the bad.
One of those good things is the soundtrack. There are a few duds here and there that get old after the second time you hear them (like some of the fight scene music). But a lot of the music in this game is awesome especially considering that this is a 16-bit console game form the 90's.
The real draw here is the generational gimmick. At the end of the first and second generations the protagonist has to choose between two women. The protagonist of the next generation will resemble his mother and carry on with the story. PS3's overarching plot is mostly the same story from different angles building up to a confrontation with the same main villain. The coda is different for each of the four end-game protagonists. I especially love the 'road not taken' aspect of this game and if a bit more care had been taken with it's development it might have a better reputation.
I find that having your own head-cannon is necessary for Phantasy Star III (PS3) since the script is, to put it mildly, somewhat underwritten. That wasn't a problem for me because the story gave my imagination enough to chew on. I won't lie to you, there are a few problems and the game takes forever to get you from point A to point B. But I personally feel that the good outweighs the bad.
One of those good things is the soundtrack. There are a few duds here and there that get old after the second time you hear them (like some of the fight scene music). But a lot of the music in this game is awesome especially considering that this is a 16-bit console game form the 90's.
The real draw here is the generational gimmick. At the end of the first and second generations the protagonist has to choose between two women. The protagonist of the next generation will resemble his mother and carry on with the story. PS3's overarching plot is mostly the same story from different angles building up to a confrontation with the same main villain. The coda is different for each of the four end-game protagonists. I especially love the 'road not taken' aspect of this game and if a bit more care had been taken with it's development it might have a better reputation.
A wonderful site devoted to this underrated classic can be found here.
2 comments:
I loved Phantasy Star. I had a Sega Genesis as a teenager and Phantasy Star II was one of the earliest games I got. It was my favourite of the series. I never actually played the original Phantasy Star as it was made for the system that came before Genesis. Phantasy Star III was great too. Unfortunately, I found Phantasy Star IV rather weak and pretty much figured it was the beginning of the end for that series. I have no idea if there was ever a Phantasy Star V or higher because by then, I had stopped playing.
This post has certainly brought back memories though!
As far as I know, the series was continued as Phantasy Star Online which was essentially a reboot of the whole thing.
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