Vimm's Lair: Genesis Reviews - Phantasy Star IV

Genesis
Phantasy Star IV

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
9.41
9.46
9.51
9.51
Votes: 87
Reviews: 4


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Reviewer: motavia Date: Aug 30, 2023
I played through this game for the first time fairly recently and I can safely say this is my favorite game of all time. I'm a huge fan of most of the Phantasy Star series but IV is a masterpiece.

Graphics: 9
The visuals in this game hold up fairly well. The overworld sprites look nice, and the backgrounds are also fairly detailed. During battle the character and enemy sprites look nice, and they also brought back actual battle backgrounds like they were in PS1 as opposed to the grid battle background in 2. The cutscenes also look really nice, with the characters being very expressive.

Sound: 10
The music in this game is amazing, and I can't say that any of the tracks are bad. I think most of them fit where they're used as well. I love all of the songs, but my favorites are Motavia Field, Meet them Head on, PS1 Dungeon Arrange 1 and 2, Dezolis Field 1, Defeat at a blow, Laughter, The King of Terrors, Cybernetic Carnival, In the Cave, Take Off Landale, Tower, and Ooze.

Gameplay: 9
For the most part, the combat and dungeon exploration is fairly average for a JRPG. In combat there are 5 actions you can perform, with Attack, Item, and Defend being self-explanatory. There's also Techniques and Skills, with each party member getting a different set of. Techniques are sort of like how magic works in most other RPGS, with there being a large amount of them that have different effects and they all cost TP to use. Skills on the other hand have a limited number of uses that you can refill with things that heal the whole party. The mechanic that makes PSIV's combat excellent however is the Macros system, which lets you assign your party to do specific actions in a certain order. To add to the macros are combination attacks, which are even more powerful spells and such performed when 2 characters use certain techniques/skills back to back.

Overall: 9
Phantasy Star IV is an amazing game, and like I said at the start is my favorite game of all time. This game does a lot of things well, and if you haven't played it you should do yourself a favor and play it.

 

Reviewer: VeggyZ Date: Mar 23, 2008
I remember the first time I played this game was probably when I was 9 years old. I had just gotten a Sega Genesis from a pawn shop with no games, so I went out and being a 9 year old, I picked a game indiscriminately. Little did I know it'd turn out to be maybe my favorite RPG.. EVER! That's a really difficult line to draw, as I have always been an RPG lover ever since I played Final Fantasy on my NES a couple years earlier. I wasn't even old enough to really play these games well, I loved them and didn't even appreciate all the aspects of them that I do now.

Graphics: 9
The graphics in this game are nice. They're colorful and clear, the character sprites on maps are detailed enough to pass, and the map graphics themselves I always liked. They're quite detailed and for the genesis, really do create an "Atmosphere" in combination with the other aspects of the game. The manga-esq cut-scenes are also a nice addition and help add a lot of feeling and drama to the plot. The spell graphics are nice and detailed, and varied. And lastly the battle graphics are the gem of this game. There's not a whole lot of animation mind you, but the enemies are very well drawn and unlike a lot of rpg's, there aren't many stupid enemies like bunny rabbits in a head of cabbage (FF6), the enemies in this game actually look evil, and are highly detailed. Excellent.

Sound: 8
The music in this game I love as well. If anything on the Genesis emulates techno music it's this game. Not all the songs mind you, it has the typical soft peaceful rpg music when you're walking around towns etc. And the deep mysterious tracks for your spelunking needs. But what I really like about this game is the upbeat action music. They really create feelings of danger and suspense in the situations they're presented in. Just about everything is in it's place as far as the sound goes in this game. Some tracks are overwhelmingly average and unmemorable, but the majority are quite well composed and placed.

Gameplay: 6
The gameplay in this game is on par with just about any rpg of the time, which unfortunately doesn't say much. I myself don't mind picking commands from a menu but I know all too many gamers who hate rpg's for that particular reason. This game throws a few twists your way with the introduction of "Macro's" which is a programmable set of actions for your party to take at the push of a button. You can make different macros for different types of battles, but for any major battle picking the commands one by one is the best choice. The REAL use for macros lies in combination techniques. Certain techniques can be used in a certain order to combine into a completely new and more powerful technique. For instance casting the spell "Hewn", a whirlwind type magic, and "Foi", a fire based technique, you'll create a firestorm, a powerful and efficient full screen technique. Add in the fact that there are TONS of different techniques, many of them unique to specific characters, and a lot of characters, and you have a large addition to the gameplay with more than enough combinations to keep you re-creating and revising your macros throughout the entire game.

Overall: 9
Overall this is easily one of the best role playing games ever made. The plot is a killer, spanning 3 planets in a well conceived fantasy solar system. I'd recommend this game as an introduction to the series, despite it being the final installment, because it's much more player friendly than the other installments and generally has a lot more variety to offer and keep you interested enough to get wrapped up in it's A rate plot. Excellent game, a very under-appreciated and unfortunately relatively unknown classic in the console RPG world.

If you enjoy this game, try Phantasy Star or Phantasy Star II after it. Save the third for a day of boredom as it's more of a spinoff than a prequel.

 

Reviewer: James Date: Jan 18, 2006
I got hooked into this series with Phantasy Star 2 (which I also reccommend) and I have enjoyed this series ever since. This is an amazing game and if you've played Final Fantasy 7 and actually got a decent bit through it then you WILL see similarities. I think that playing this game is WORTH IT!! Just so you know, LEVEL UP FAST. Rune is a valuable character and Chaz is gonna be a strong character. Rika (if i spelled right) is also very good and I strongly reccommend Demi for her healing skills in the FINAL battle against Dark Force. This game goes along with the others so I definately reccommend geting the other ones (Except 1 has no true relevence so really start with 2)

Graphics: 9
During the time that this game was released these graphics were really good. I grew up playing this game and knew these graphics as a wonder (especially compared to the Atari 2600 which i also grew up with).

Sound: 8
Meidocre sound for now but good for then so I gave it an 8. The sound fits VERY well with the events in the game.

Gameplay: 10
The story-line is simply AMAZING! I can't say any more than kudos to the makers of this game. All in all the game is good especially the battles. Just give slashers to alice and remember she can equip 2. Also there are some magic combos like Wat and Zan, or Wat, Tsu, and Foe for Triblaster.

Overall: 9
Overall a 9 is what this game truly deserves, I can't say any more to that. All the game I am just being further amazed by the style and excellence put into this.

Just mind your levels and keep going back to the Hunter's Guild for more missions. The one with the lost dog is hard though it seems AMAZINGLY SIMPLE. It just requires alot of travel from town to town across the giant sand sea. Good luck.

 

Reviewer: JorgonQ Date: Aug 6, 2005
The final Phantasy Star game released by Sega. An amazing game, the only other Genesis games close are the Shining Force Series and PS2 and PS3. The story takes place roughly 1000 years after Phantasy Star 2. Monsters are on the rise, creating many jobs for Hunters, but, they are getting very dangerous as well. Also, a man named Zio has appeared, creating a castle overnight as well as supposedly destroying towns. All of this is compounded by the fact that the environment is getting bad, what with sand impeding on everything and erratic weather. Into this the man character, Chaz, is thrust.

Graphics: 8
Compared with the rest of Genesis and SNES, the graphics are really good. The character sprites on the overworld are only average, but the battle monsters are amazing as are the cut scenes, spell effects, and overall variance of background, palettes, and such.

Sound: 8
The sound is also very good. Not much else to say. I've never really found the sound to be annoying. The music is good and changes for village/cave/world/factory/etc. And the sound f/x for spells and such is also good.

Gameplay: 10
This is perfect. The menus are all easy to navigate, they have a "chat" (or something similar) command which runs over the current plotline and what you need to do next; the character movements are somewhat fluid and the battles have a unique feature: macros. When you start one is in there, its merely to have everyone attack, a useful feature once you have 5 folks in your group, time saver. But, whats not really mentioned anywhere in the game, once you get people who can use "techniques" and "skills" at a certain level, you can use them in the macros and a new, oftentimes far more powerful effect is created. Granted, you can try to do it in battle without the macros, but it doesn't work nearly as often due to speed and its effect on who goes when. Thus, the gameplay is perfect.

Overall: 10
'Nuff said. Perfect gameplay, pretty good graphics and sound that is halfway decent plus the random factor of storyline and so forth, gives us a 10 for this game.