Phantasy Star II

"A very difficult and unremarkable RPG that has few flaws but not much in the way of fun."

Phantasy Star II is an early Genesis Role Playing Game. Released in 1989, it was known for being more story-based than most RPGs at the time, and its futuristic space theme was a contrast to the fantasy/medieval settings of most RPGs. The sequel to the 1st-person dungeon crawler Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star II has gained a cult fan base. I'll admit that I only got through part of this game before giving up, but I did give it a chance.

Phantasy Star II is a traditional overhead RPG, with a world map and various towns. You start out the game as Rolf, an agent, and gradually obtain other characters. You must talk to townspeople to gain information on where to go next, and go through the basic things of a traditional RPG. If you've played 2D traditional RPGs before, you'll be familiar with the gameplay.

The combat system of Phantasy Star II is standard but well done. Battles are concise and have the basic fight, magic, item, and defend commands, but you can only aim at a group of enemies, and not at an invidual. Also, you can choose to give orders at the beginning and watch the rest of the battle. I appreciated this aspect, as this made battles very quick and saved me the trouble of repetition. Phantasy Star II uses random battle encounters, and the encounter rate is normal.

The dungeons of Phantasy Star II are huge mazes that will overwhelm you if you don't use a map or make a map. This game clearly shows its first-person roots with these treacherous areas. In fact, Phantasy Star II is a very challenging game. It is not easy to know where to go, and you need to constantly gain levels and stock up on equipment. The game isn't exactly user friendly. The interface is fairly clunky, and you're often given new party members at level one right in the thick of things. Phantasy Star II is a tough as nails game and is for hardcore RPGers only. If you play through it, it should last around 25-40 hours, which is fairly lengthy but not ridiculously long, either.

I found the story in Phantasy Star II to be a bit of a disappointment. The game starts out with an intriguing tale about an unquestioned and unseen ruler, mother brain, who might resemble Big Brother. But things do not seem to be very fleshed out. In fact, it is easy to forget about the story with all the extreme dungeon exploring and leveling.

The graphics in Phantasy Star II are fairly bland. The areas are neither colorful nor detailed. The towns and map areas don't have much flavor to them. The battles, however, feature well-animated monsters that add some flair in this regard. Phantasy Star II contains some very good musical tunes. They help make a good space atmosphere, and the soundtrack from Bo is worth hearing even if you do not like the game.

In the end, Phantasy Star II is an unremarkable Role Playing Game in almost every respect. It looks bland, the story is dull, and the game is difficult to the point of being a chore. I give it credit for its good combat system and the fact that most things are serviceable and not so flawed, but I did not find much to make this game fun. The game does at least have an intriguing atmosphere, but I've played many 2D RPGs that do this type of game better. RPG freaks may want to complete this game as a badge of honor, but this is certainly
not for everyone.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/07