Phantasy Star III
System: Genesis
Release Date: July 1991
Developer: Sega AM7
Publisher: Sega
Genre: RPG
Save the world from destruction once again in Phantasy Star III! It’s been 1000 years since the Great Orakio and his cyborg army clashed with Laya and her monster hordes. The tunnels between worlds have been collapsed and civilization has been left to rebuild. But even a millennium later, the country of Landen has not recovered. A beautiful woman washed up on the shore and Prince Rhys took to her. Now, they are set to be married! But it is not to be… was that one of the Layans stealing her away? A quest spanning three generations begins with saving the girl.
After your father imprisons you and you escape, you leave town for the next and… enter a battle. Alright, now that we’re going on, it’s time to fight a battle… These guys are easy enough, back to the world map and battle… Yikes! I’ve been poisoned. Well, my hit points aren’t dropping, at least. Wait, why can’t I heal? Poison prevents healing… that’s novel, I guess. Almost to the next town… aaaaaand battle… poisoned again? Ugh!
Okay, let’s talk battles. Right off the bat, obviously, they happen way too frequently. This issue could have been negated if the battles required any strategy. Unfortunately, the battles typically consist of you clicking auto battle for the turn or until the battle is over. You can issue specific orders to each character, but it requires clicking the manual orders, then the character you want to order, then what category of thing you want to do, then the specific thing you want to do, then the target. And you have to do this for every character you want to have control over for that turn. It’s way too many clicks to be used outside of desperation. There are battle techniques that I didn’t bother using, because they are all weak compared to physical attacks. I did use the healing techniques in battle on rare occasion. There are also buffs to strength, defense, and speed, of which I buffed up my main character in the final battle.
The Monitor is your world map, but it’s of limited use because it doesn’t keep track of the different places of interest, except on the Landen continent. I broke down by the third generation and pulled up maps I found online to navigate more quickly. This would have been less of an issue if there was a form of fast travel, but I didn’t get access to one until the last chapter of the story. Even then, you’re just avoiding having to walk through a dungeon as you change worlds.
There are four different quests that you could embark on. The decision on what to do comes down to who you choose to marry. I had Rhys marry Maia, as dumping her for Lena didn’t seem right with me. Their son Ayn then had two choices himself at the end of his chapter. Ayn has a choice between Thea, who is his cousin if I worked it out correctly, or Sari, who is Lena’s daughter. I figured this wasn’t Kentucky, so picked Sari. This led to Crys being my final character. Each combination leads to a path of four possible princes at the end, creating a replay value not really seen in other RPGs. Their stories and paths, as well as supporting characters are different.
No matter who your main characters are, you are accompanied by two cyborgs through each generation. Mieu is your first companion and joins you very early on. Together, you find Wren, which is a transforming cyborg. You’ll find parts that transform him into a submarine, jet plane, and jet ski. These give you more ability to move around the world, but again come too little, too late. The final two slots go to specific characters that differ among the princes. They all have specific sets of weapons and armor they can equip, which can get annoying when you’re trying to get everyone outfitted properly for battle. Because equipment is so expensive and meseta gains are relatively sparse, I skipped upgrades a few times, but wasn’t penalized for it. The final few dungeons give you most everything you need to take out Dark Force and once you do you save your VARN and get back to peace and harmony… at least until the next millennium…
Graphics: 2.5
The overworld and dungeon backgrounds aren’t anything great, but I do like the character and enemy sprites.
Sound: 2.5
The music could have been a lot better, especially if your spot in the song was remembered between battles.
Gameplay: 2.5
The options you’re given aren’t really useful, and the gameplay is sparse, but the different paths give it replayability, which I’ll put here.
Difficulty: 3.0
This isn’t a hard RPG, but you will probably have to wander around before stumbling into what you’re supposed to do without a hint book.
Fun Factor: 2.5
I had this for years, but never played it. I probably would have liked it better 30 years ago, but I did spend 14 hours on this adventure instead of quitting.
Overall Rating: 2.6
Phantasy Star III earns a B-. It’s better than the original, and about as good as the sequel. I hope PSIV is as good as I remember. Hopefully I’m still doing this in seven years to find out.