Overall score on pook's 100-point system (TM): 79, or just 8. Considered a classic of the genre yet among the least favorite of the Phantasy Star classic games, this one ends up more playable today than its predecessors.
-the breakdown-
Graphics (22/30, judged by era)- PS3 does make a small leap up from PS2, and places this within something you'd believe came out on the Genesis. Better drawn background tiles, good sized over-world and lots of dungeons, along with better drawn enemies help boost the score some. However, the game takes a step down from PS2 in that while the enemies are better drawn, the animations are much cheaper. Strange choice.
Sound- FX/Voice (8/10) Totally respectable sound effects for the era. Doesn't have the problem of balance of sound volume that PS2 had.
Sound- Music (6/10) Unfortunately, the soundtrack, even though by the same composer, took a hit. While the tracks on their own are pleasant enough, with decent variety, and even change dynamically at times according to the status of a battle, or how many party members there are (nice touch), a lot of the songs are slow and lulling, often making me sleepy, especially when in town. That's not something you want your game music doing.
Gameplay- Length/Replay (15/15) This is a pretty long game, somewhere in the 20-something hour range. Thankfully PS3 does not resort to unnecessary leveling-up to pad its game length, nor ridiculously large dungeons that get you completely lost in minutes. That said, the overworlds are larger and will suck up more time than in PS2, and the towns this time, of which there are many, are quite large and do pad the game considerably as you even walk from town entrance to weapon shop and back! Additionally, some non-dungeons, particularly towards the end are tiresome walk-a-thons with no point since they aren't even meant to trigger random monster battles. So, 2 steps forward and one step back, as they say.
Gameplay- Story: (5/5) For its time the game has an interesting story, and it's made more interesting by the fact that the game has a story-tree that changes slightly depending on how you play the game. Very nice touch. There is a lot of potential replay here-you can play the game again and 2/3s of it be different the second time. You can then replay and have the last 1/3 be different another few times; by marrying different women along the way, your offspring changes, as does your new hero's goals in the next generation. Very interesting. However, I think I was Phantasy Star-ed out by then, and could not do it. Had I thought about it, I might have saved a game at the first marriage decision, to go back and start from there (and then do it again at the second decision). Unfortunately the game is still paced such that replaying the parts needed to hit a new branch are a bit tiresome after finishing.
Gameplay- Game Design (23/30)- An ambitious game, for sure. It's huge with tons of enemies and dungeons. Add that this game broke lots of new ground in character management, beyond even what its predecessor did. The generational nature of the game presents a lot of potential replay, and adds considerably to the depth of an RPG for the time. It's interesting to find there are caves you can never enter your first time through because your hero is not on the story path that would open them to you.
The game succeeds in fixing many of the faults of PS2, in that mapping dungeons is not necessary. Even the more complicated dungeons are navigable by memory. So there were very few times I needed to consult a guide in that respect. And while the overworld is prohibitively large in some respects, the game works in a useable but barebones and not entirely accurate overworld map to help, and it does. Battles themselves are sped up significantly, with post-battle text being very fast to get through-something that eventually was annoying in PS2. However, adding completely unnecessary walk-a-thons and suffering from a certain amount of goal-vagueness once again plagues an early RPG game. "Planets" and cities are often referred to but are never memorable enough to recall which was which, causing at times aimless wandering. The game comes with a weapons/armor sheet, which is large and invaluable in learning how to equip your character.
Final Thoughts- I've enjoyed going back and playing many of these older classics. They're educational, and fun at times. PS3 was enjoyable overall, however I think fatigue with PS2 affected my enjoyment of this game. Thankfully it was nowhere near as long and frustrating. Though I hear PS4 is the king of all PS games (and not currently available), of the first three I would say PS3 is the one that survives the best to this day, though 2 may have been considered greater at the time.
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