Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

PHANTASY STAR 4 is an old-school turn based JRPG. One that is well loved, and after clocking 25H on it, I understand why. ※ PLEASE NOTE: In order to be allowed to review on this AppID's title, I had to do shenanigans on Steam, on my end. Otherwise - users CANNOT review these. Only the "SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" exe! Not the games (sadly). This will explain readers why my review seems to have mere minutes as playtime. Let's get into the review! :)


PROS:
- Illustrated Cutscenes (love them!)
- Narrative is great and always has an unexpected twist coming at you, making things interesting.
- Party Members: Alys is amazing (MC's mentor). She seems "Mary Sue" but its not the case. I would say more but spoilers would apply. She's kinda rough sometimes, but she pairs off well with Chaz (MC). She's a human, and my favorite. Demi (android)'s is really likeable waifu. Her counterpart, Wren, is a welcome addition to the story - and your party. Stoic and ressourceful - he also has kickass specials! <3 There's the old alien priest that always cracks jokes... etc. The party members you get along the way are very colorful and diff from one another. Its never a dull time with the whole cast!
- Animated Battle Sprites. They are great eye-candy, especially the AOE attacks like HOLY and "Burst Rocket." Early on in the game, its pretty basic, but as the story goes on its more and more involved, animation-wise.
- 1.5O$ (cheap as hell) "But wait Nirriti, why shouldnt I just [REDACTED] instead to play it?" Well, here's the thing: the SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics adds some features I think are vital for this game and can save you a lot of time/accidental frustrations. SAVE STATES, yes, but also CHAOS CONTROL: You press L2 and time rewinds for a long as you hold - for a limited time. But its very forgiving. It saved me a lot of headaches. Sometimes its good to test out spells too!
- Controllers: PS4/Switch (HORI) works flawlessly. You can remap easily.


NEUTRAL:
- OST/SFXs are alright. Its *very* Genesis. Its not something one fan would listen on loop after playing the game, but it serves its purpose fine in all departments.
- A handful of bosses will DESTROY YOU mercilessly. Difficulty goes from easy to hard, back and forth. Overall I say it still was good. :) Theres a saying online for this game: "You dont need to grind." (Thats a lie) You should, but its up to you if you want to grind obsessively or not.
- Super easy to get lost for hours on some WORLD MAPs. I say try to remember what others tell you (PCs/NPCs) to figure it out. But if you struggle, perhaps you should seek a map online. DUNGEONS THOUGH? You DO NOT need a map. Do it blind! Thats what I did, and was fine.
- Monster designs are alright, although surprisingly for me, are more alien/grotesque here than on the serie's fantasy/future titles - PSO (Phantasy Star Online), PSU, PSO2, etc. I still like most of it, but the BOSSES better! :D

CONS:
- To an average RPG fan, mid to late game (when you're lost/mass exploring dungeons) you might start feeling like the game is boring/stale a bit. You start wanting to see the bosses/cutscenes and want to finish the story. At some point I was almost falling asleep.
- Last dungeon is an eye-sore (epileptic hippie nonsense) visually speaking. Thankfully its not "that long."
- It will be hard for a non Phantasy Star player, even for PSO fans themselves, to figure out spells names/descriptions without a guide. You NEED a list. The phys. game manuals were very descriptive, in that classic serie, for a reason.


CONCLUSION:
PHANTASY STAR IV is as good as people claimed online. :) Has parts that drags but overall I do not regret my experience. If you like PSO, youll feel really weirded out at first. But it will expand on your lore/knowledge of the serie in a meaningful way, especially at the end. For other non-PSO fans, I think youll still enjoy it for the most part. Look up gameplay footage online, if unsure. Good game!