Hello there. I’m LunaStik, and I plan on using this space to write reviews for some video games. Mainly I hope to specialize in handhelds and N64 era or earlier.

Anyways, for my first review, I’d like to start off with a semi-classic from a series you might have heard of: Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom for the Sega Genesis. Phantasy Star is now known more for its MMORPG’s, but the series has existed well before those were feasible. The original Phantasy Star series is a turn based strategy RPG like the Pokémon and Final Fantasy series. Of course, the first two in the series are not very refined, being new and limited. The combat system for the older games was somewhat difficult, with a steep level curve at the beginning of the game, with some of the beginning enemy combinations able to kill you in one or two hits until you leveled up to a half decent level. These problems were fixed in Generations of Doom. In this game, it functions much like the early Final Fantasy games. You can select targets, and have the option to do two turns at once without pressing the action button again. However, this is marginally useful because, against most enemies, you kill them all in one shot or want to change your targets during the second round, and against bosses you will constantly having to re-select the heal option on one of your party members because they will always attack, not heal, on the second round.

In regards to the story, the game has a good amount of replay value for the time. There are 7 stories total in the game which follow a branching pattern depending on certain choices you make, which is a pretty unique experience. The game starts you off as Rhys. Rhys is a descendant of Orakio, and, like many other followers of Orakio, has an abiding hatred of Layans, those who follow Laya who opposed Orakio 1,000 years before the start of the game. This is essentially all I can give of the pregame story, because it is all that is really given to you before spoilers start. After you face the first boss, you can end up choosing to play the story one of two other characters, and for each of those two there is another choice between two characters after their boss. At the end of the third generation, you face Falz, the final boss of most Phantasy Star games which I can say without really revealing too much about the story. And that is basically all I can reveal, especially with the unique story format (four separate ways with different stories to reach the end of the game) that makes it hard to give a specific plot summary to begin with. So, it is worthwhile to play at least four times to play each story. However, all the endings are similar, the primary differences being which characters say each part of the dialogue.

The graphic style should be pretty familiar for a game of its genre. In the overworld, you control the characters while watching them overhead until you encounter enemies in a random battle. Once this occurs, you see only the enemies in their formation. You then choose attack patterns and targets. The slight trouble is that you have to (usually) kill enemies on the front rank before hitting the ones in back. This can be really frustrating when you want to kill the back right enemy because after you kill the front rank, you will start hitting the enemy on the left by default until you can re-select targets. This is what I consider to be the only (mostly minor) flaw of the main game.

So, for a game of its time, it is outstanding. It has easy to understand game play, and a not-too-difficult level curve, assuming you don’t try to rush through too quickly (which is a distinct possibility with how easy it is to unlock the different parts of the map). So, for my first game review, if you enjoy the series or genre, it is a decent get. It will also be enjoyable many people outside those categories, so I will give this a solid rating if I were so inclined to do so. Just play it for yourself.

Happy gaming.

Oh, and I will be using this random pic for my posts until Matt gets around to giving me my own @tI avatar (because, you know, I suck at drawing).