Phantasy Star 2 is one of those classic RPGs that I've started to realize is a struggle to write about. I just finished a play-through less than a week ago. However, once again I'm staring at the infinite whiteness of a completely blank screen. I claim to be a fan of the classic Phantasy Star series, yet the only entry I can wholeheartedly recommend without a conga line of asterisks at the end is part 4. This is one of those times where I'm caught in the internal debate of how much of a game's problems are a result of the actual game and not just because of a particular way I decided to play through it.
This review needs at least one definitive statement, so here goes: Phantasy Star 2 is best experienced today with a romhack. You're absolutely going to want one that increases walking speed, doubles or even quadruples experience/meseta gains, and alleviates other issues such as the screen flashing whenever party members take damage. Here's a great hack that does all that and more. I've been playing this RPG off and on for almost 35 years, and there's absolutely no going back to the original. There's only one other serious problem that isn't nearly as easy to fix, and that's the lack of an auto-map.
In fairness, this RPG is a dungeon crawler first & foremost. It lives and dies by the complexity of its dungeons as well as the brutality of its random encounters. Otherwise, there's little else to talk about. I mean, what can I possibly say about the whopping three boss-fights? They're tough no doubt, but so much of the game is spent on the lead-up, that players are liable to find themselves over-prepared. Some might think "Oh that Dark Force is going to be a serious pain". They'll show up with a wad of trimates, an average level of 38 or higher, only to be met with a boss that can be bumped off relatively easily. Heck, you could probably just have everyone but Rolf and Rudo dual-wield shields and tank both final bosses into oblivion. It's all about the journey and not the destination. This is where my attempts at a PS2 write-up hit a brick wall. If the journey is so important, why am I suggesting the means & methods to sand away all its friction until there's nothing left but the destination?
My internal deliberations on this subject are still ongoing, so my attempt at reaching a conclusion is almost entirely in service of this write-up. Either this piece ends or it ends me. With that said, let's consider why Phantasy Star 2 would need an auto-map. Look, let me just say it right now: some of this game's dungeons are too convoluted to be enjoyable. They're teleporter mazes, yet they're also not? Those panels that the party uses to jump between floors are called chutes. They're functionally the same as taking the stairs. In multiple instances however, dungeons come off as a series of teleporters, bumping the party between this floor and that floor. At no time does a location ever feel real. I can excuse part of the "that's by design" argument, because most of the facilities were built by Mother Brain, and not for humans to easily navigate. Still, I would've expected to see at least a little efficiency. If something breaks down, a technician should be able to - oh right. A central theme of this game is machines doing everything, leaving humanity without purpose. It creates a society that collapses the second the rug is pulled out from under them and - did another brick wall just magically appear in front of me?
Perhaps I'd be more forgiving of this game's philosophy if it wasn't for particular locations that exist solely to screw with me. Ikuto! No idea what anyone was thinking with this mess. Just look at it. You're supposed to fall into the right combination of holes to land in the rooms where the Neishot and Neislasher are kept. Imagine not having a map for such an ordeal. Granted, I'd still probably deal with this again over most anything in The Bard's Tale 2, but if I dare to invoke that ridiculous game, then perhaps there's a major issue here. Ikuto isn't a dungeon. It's that Plinko game they play on The Price is Right. I'm not even certain that an auto-map could save it, but having the full map just renders it pointless.
It's probably worth noting that the party is going to be hassled by monsters the entire time. Encounters are brutal early on and stay consistently mean for nearly the length of the adventure. Although, it also has some of Final Fantasy 1's reverse difficulty working against it. Upon reaching the Dams, you'll likely stumble onto incredibly useful (and overpowered) items like Amber Robes and Storm Gears. These cast a mid-tier healing tech and a mid-tier AOE, respectively. The Snow Crown is top-tier since it's a free Deban. Deban buffs the party's defense for the entirety of the battle. Enemies that did 45 damage might end up doing 15 or even less. It's very strong, and occasionally I wonder if I could ever imagine the late-game without it. However, the cycle of Snow Crown, Attack, and low HP party members using the Amber Robe or Crescent Gear in their pocket, starts to get pretty mind-numbing. The repetition is massively compounded by messy locales such as Ikuto, Menobe, Green Dam... Just thinking about all that has got my head spinning two different directions at once.
With every solution in my hands, reaching Mother Brain and achieving victory was less a game and more a process. All I did was go through the motions and slide through a frictionless series of locales. I was even fast-forwarding through the fights because they were foregone conclusions, and I've already seen the - admittedly fantastic - battle animations a thousand times over. If M2 could've done just one more Sega Ages release, they could've slapped an auto-map on Phantasy Star 2. At least then I'd feel obligated to earn something. Perhaps, I've just gotten soft. Too quick to soften the experience, even when it's unnecessary turmoil.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that however you decide to play through Phantasy Star 2 is the right way. If that means busting out the graph paper and grinding an hour just to afford Ceramic Knives, then sure, go for it. In the end, it's your experience that matters. All I offered was my point of view.
... Yeah, that's it. There's likely a better realized conclusion I could've written, but that's a brick wall I'm just not in the mood to scale.
No comments:
Post a Comment