"Dungeon crawling at it's worst"

Phantasy Star 2 is a RPG developed by Sega. It is the sequel of the highly popular Phantasy Star of the Master System. The first game, at least in my opinion, was quite a good game that just didn't age well, a game good only for its time. This one however was bad even when it came out. Why? Oh, I'll tell you why… (Hey, did that sound like a threat?)

Story: 6.5/10
Presentation: 0/10

Well… to put it simply it's lame. I'm actually one of these people that NEED a plot in RPGs and not just dungeon crawling and random encounters and while PS2 HAS a plot it takes a MAJOR backseat throughout the 40+ hour dungeon crawling that stands between the intro and the ending credits of the game. The plot is somewhat good… you play the role of Rofl, who has nightmares including Alis & Dark Force, the hero and the bad guy of the first game. Furthermore the world you live in has a lot of problems especially from all the bio-monsters that run rampart outside of all cities. Finally there seems to be something wrong with the Mother Brain, a mysterious super computer that controls every aspect of your world, like climate, life creation, food production and so on. The problem? You learn all these in the beginning of the game… then a HUUUGE gap and you see the ending, which quite honestly is very, very good and quite original. So, want a story-driven RPG? Look elsewhere!

Gameplay: 3/10
Replay Value: -10/10

And here is where the big pile of pixeled doodoo hits the animated gif of a fun fan, (huh?). This game is one of the worst RPGs I've played, which is a same really, because even the original game was better. The concept here is the typical old school RPG concept: Talk in order to get clues and fight in order to level up. You'll meet several characters, each one with his\her strengths and weaknesses, like for example better at magic but low defense, better against monsters weak but lame when confronting robots and so on. You'll explore dungeons, find treasures and saaaaaave the world… but you'll loose all interest about 40 hours before this ever happens. You see Phantasy Star 2 is a just a titanic array of dungeon after dungeon, where random encounters happen so often that they can flip your geeky mind! Problem #1: The battles are boring and not only that but you'll have to level up before even daring to advance a bit because the game is TOUGH. Even worse the battles use a very lame Auto-battle system where you select the actions of your heroes and then watch them fight until you press the stop button and re-arrange them. Problem #2: The mazes are quite large but the real problem is how amazingly hard it is to find your way in them. From the moment you enter them to the moment you find what the hell it is you're looking inside them, every room & corridor looks the same and the dungeon structure can sometimes be insane, screaming for a FAQ or Map. If you get excited with dungeon crawlers like these, be my guest, this game is for you… I however have a life… I think…

Graphics: 7/10
Design: 3/10

The intro and the end of the game look magnificent… the in-between parts are simply lame! The game starts with an amazing fantasy artwork depicting to goddess-like figures surrounding 3 planets. From there on its tiles, tiles, tiles, tiles, tiles -goes on forever-. 4/5 of the game takes place in dungeons and this is where the game shows how lazy the developers where. Titanic mazes that use the same freaking floors & walls, on and on and on!!! On top of that, the developers though that it would be perfect to add an additional foreground layer on top of everything depicting the “ceiling” of each dungeon, or in some cases clouds\smoke, something that can become really annoying. The same goes with the enemies. There are about 6-8 enemy types with 3-4 color variations each and none of them are exactly design masterpieces, not to mention that battles take place in a boring monochromatic sci-fi grid. And then the ending comes and you observe a magnificent final boss and a nice slideshow of the game's heroes… after 40-50 hours of boredom that is.

Sound: 5/10
Music: 2/10

The sound effects are like what you would expect from any other average console RPG of its era and maybe even worse… however not annoying or anything, just average. The music on the other hand is below average and I simply cannot understand why most fans see it as wonderful. Most themes are pretty simple, unimaginative and boring to listen too but what makes the whole thing even worse is how repetitive they are. There are only a few music themes, some of which will be heard so damn often that your ears will bleed, like the dungeon theme.

[+]:
-Great ending, (not worth the trouble though)

[-]:
-The otherwise good plot gets a major backseat
-Way to complicated, challenging & long dungeons
-Ultra boring battles
-Extremely repetitive graphics & music

Also Play:
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Final Fantasy 6 (SNES)
Phantasy Star 3 & 4 (Mega Drive)

Overall: 2.1/10

So, that's about it. PS2 is one of those 0.1% RPG - 99.9% Dungeon Crawlers, with repetitive battles and irritating challenge. It's long, it's tedious and it's no worth your time or money.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 01/17/12

Game Release: Phantasy Star II (US, 1989)