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Phantasy Star III Game Sample - Genesis/MD

547 views · Published 18 June 2010 · 10:57 · Indexed 21 October 2026

Channel: Vysethedetermined2 · 2010 · Gaming

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Original Air Date: May 31st, 2009

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom...there is a LOT that can be said about this game, and many have discussed it, in fine detail, but I will say this:

When the game was initially released, it received a lot of praise and promotion, and it is confusing that it is both the black sheep and a sort of "crown gem" of 1990 (given Japan's release date). It had to contend with Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem, among other things. The arguments out that "people haven't truly played it", are stale and old, and used to shut down people who simply have different tastes, but it is hard to truly find the things of the game "awful", given the time it was made, and the elements the game had that stood out, most notably, the "generation system"/branching paths.

I've never been one to be a rabid fan about things, so I only know what does and does not appeal to me. A lot of things, from some of the downgraded animation quality from Phantasy Star II (and in some cases, PSI), did not win enthusiasm from me, though battle backgrounds were okay (clouds moving were nice, etc.). The new "color scheme" was blah to me. Character portraits were fine, however.

Some music compositions felt fine and some did not. I dig the IDEAS that went behind the music --- to have different compositions for different battle states, etc. --- It was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, for the most part, I found the loops too repetitive or they just lacked the right "punch". I can praise the idea and feel sorta "meh" about the execution. The opening theme is wonderful, and I found the world map theme quite grand, *if* you had a full party, or near full. Other times, it was kinda just like "eh."

That said, it was sort of a quality over quantity thing for me. PSII, for example, didn't have as much variation on world themes or battle music, but the battle music was quite iconic, whereas, none of the battle themes of PSIII really "stuck with me". Not all of them were bad, but I felt that the ones that had potential just...stayed there. There was a small build-up, then I heard the loop, and realized that what was okay, could have been so much more. Also, the town music of PSII --- it had a sort of anime style that was "fun" and stuck with you. Same with the shop music. PSIII had decent town music, but I generally found the compositions of music from its predecessor superior and made earlier. However, it should be noted that the music from PSII fit its world more, and the music for PSIII (with more fantasy/medieval elements) fits its world more. I wouldn't expect PSIII to have the same "style" as PSII.

Now, I covered visuals and audio, but the gameplay? The gameplay is certainly functional, and has things that are ahead of its time, like modifying the "balance" of magic users, and of course, the generation system, that added replayability in a time where many games were "one and done" affairs...however, the merits of the generation system, I feel, are overstated, and the simple reasoning for that is because, in order for that to matter, one has to like the new story direction (or the story direction, period, if they are new to PS) enough to put up with some things they might have found questionable or not up to their standards, such as reduced animations from PSII or battle themes that, personally, while more varied, tended to lack punch from tunes from PSII or PSI.

I can praise the generation system for being what it is, but it only really matters if one is already enthralled with the game, rather than one who may be sorta indifferent, or worse, doesn't like it. Magazine publications gave a lot of rave reviews, but people are not monolithic, so magazine publications don't really speak for everyone.

My general feelings about PSIII are that it has a lot of good ideas, but things about it didn't quite "wow" me. I do feel it is a PS game --- I won't go as far as to say it isn't, but there were things about the visual stylings and such of PSI/II that I liked, given their times of release, and I feel like PSIII left me feeling sorta mixed --- I don't have particular memories of it, compared to PSI or PSII. That doesn't make it a bad game, but I feel it could have been more than it was, not because of the (mostly) new team that did PSIII, but because it had good ideas for a game that was fresh into the 90s. For that reason, when I was playing the Playstation 2 "upgrades", and found out that they only did I and II, I was disappointed. 

I wanted them to do all four, but PSIII was the upgrade I wanted to see the most, even though PSIV is my clear favorite. If you saw all the ads for PSIII back in the day, I think part of that is why PSIII is a black sheep --- a ton of hype after PSII, in all sorts of media, when people were high off of PSII, only for some to play PSIII and be like: "Uhhhh...hmm..." --- hype existed before stuff like a new Grand Theft Auto --- it just looked a bit different, but it was hype, nonetheless.

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