Phantasy Star - Part 01: Sword Upgrades
1I recorded this last year on an emulator during my absence, but I was missing half of one of the later dungeons through rendering problems. I bought the Megadrive Collection for 360 a few days ago. The original four Phantasy Star games were among them, as well some other classic games I remember owning/renting and a few great looking games I'd never heard of.
The music is definitely sped up in this port. I don't think the gameplay is faster though. It makes it feel that way though, which is kind of nice in the older RPGs like this which are grind intensive in nature.
Comparisons will always be drawn between Dragon Warrior I (Quest), this, and Final Fantasy I. In terms of graphics, this wins hands down. The animated in battle sprites, and that cool first person view through dungeons clinches it for me. Music, Final Fantasy probably pips it for me. This falls short on replayability, whereas Final Fantasy is king for that with the different, although in many respects similar, classes. Dragon Warrior kind of had replayability, as the name you gave your guy determined his stats.
Story. Hard to pick. Dragon Warrior had a VERY traditional RPG story. Final Fantasy was traditional with a twist. This twisted it even more, and the characters as they were preset, had more depth to them. The pseudo futuristic theme, and the female lead character, made this VERY unique at the time.
It's hard to pick a winner out of the three personally, but I do think Dragon Warrior is somewhat lacking. Final Fantasy has the tunes I love to hear, and the replayability, this to me has the better story and the characters are more interesting as a result of being fixed personalities rather than "four light warriors",
Anyway on to the game. The story starts with Alis witnessing the murder of her brother Nero at the hand of Lassic's men. Before he dies, he tells us to seek out Odin to aid us in the fight. Alis' in game sprite has black hair, probably because it contrasts better with the grassy/sandy terrain rather than the fair colour it shows.
Like most RPGs of the time, random battles outside of dungeons take up most of the time, whether it to be to level up sufficiently, or in the case most of the time in this game, to buy equipment upgrades and key items for story progression.
Get the 50 Mesetas from the building in the north east corner and leave out of the eastern exit of Camineet.
Camineet, along with Parolit are two towns connected to the Spaceport of Palma.
Head outside the walls surrounding these three areas and move north-south along the east side. Don't enter a forest type patch though. The fights will be fairly tough to start off with. There's 3/4 encounters that you can beat right now, and 2/4 only with more than 1/2 health. One Sworm is easy. With half health or more you'll have no problems. Two are twice as hard, so make sure you have at least half health in the first round of this fight, do the same with One Scorpion. For two, just run.
When low on health, head back into Camineet and heal in the building just west of where you enter from. Suelo will do this whenever you enter, for free. Take note of this, because otherwise you'll be paying for healing through items/doctors. This will limit your ability to save for equipment.
When you have 75 Gold (probably just after levelling up) head for Parolit and upgrade your Sword to an Iron one. Sell your previous Sword.
Head back outside and kill all four encounters, even with half health remaining. The Sworms should be going down in one hit each, and the Scorpions shouldn't take more than two.
At level four Alis will learn heal. This heals roughly 20HP for 2TP, so will extend your trips out. Shortly after levelling to 4 you should hit 330 Meseta, so buy a Titanium Sword and sell your Iron one.
I usually like to upgrade armour before weapons, but this early in the game the attack power is more useful as the enemies hit fairly low. At least for a couple of parts.
In the next part we get our second party member, spend some cash in the process, and train our party up a bit more.
In terms of max stats... Alis is definitely the defense orientated character of the four, and is the best all rounder, which you should expect for a lead character. Highest HP & Defense, joint 2nd highest physical attack with the next character (considering the cost/rarity of the equipment, it should be higher to be honest). She has the 2nd lowest MP, but unlike the next character, Alis has an attacking spell, if a rather weak one. Her healing powers although weaker than this character's, heal more/MP used, so are useful outside of battle. I'd say she's still the best all rounder.
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