10) Phantasy Star 4 (Sega Genesis)
I’ve always liked the Phantasy star games. They tend to have cool, well developed characters and stories, fun battles, and good pacing. All the games in the original Phantasy Star, series are good, so it was tough to only choose one. In the end however, I have to choose Phantasy Star 4. The first game set up a fun game world and atmosphere, and those traits get built upon and become better with each game. (Except #3. Three is...different.) Phantasy Star 4 takes the best elements from the previous four games and puts them together in one great package.
It has great, detailed backgrounds and graphics and sprite animations in and out of battles like Phantasy star 1 did with Master System. The Story and characters are complex, mature, and captivating like in Phantasy Star 2, and… I guess… it goes in unique directions like Phantasy Star 3 does. (But without a near total departure from the established world., like #3 does.) Also, like all the games in the franchise, Phantasy Star 4 has a good soundtrack that makes the most out of the Genesis’s limited sound capabilities.
The only reason this game isn’t ranked Higher on my list is because the gameplay isn’t very unique. It’s pretty run of the mill turn based combat and standard exploration. Don’t get me wrong, it truly is a fun, engaging game, but by the fourth installment the core game mechanics haven’t changed much. Nevertheless, it’s an enjoyable experience.
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9) Princess Crown (Sega Saturn)
Ah, Princess Crown. One the absolute, most beautiful looking games on the Sega Saturn. What’s that you say? You’ve never heard of Princess Crown? Well, that’s not surprise. Princess Crown was only released in Japan. I got an import copy a few years back, and it’s surprisingly easy to play if you don’t know Japanese. All od the map text is in English ass well as some other text like signs and such. There’s also a pretty good translation guide on gamefaqs so I didn’t have too much trouble. You may of heard of it’s spiritual sequel, Odin Sphere. Odin Sphere is extremely similar to Princess Crown and was developed by the same team, the main difference is Odin Sphere has faster battles.
Like I said before, Princess Crown is a beautiful game. I might even go as far as to say it’s the prettiest 2D game of the 32 bit generation. It’s made by a joint effort of Sega and Atlus (who has made other games on my list,) ant the development team took full advantage of the Sega Saturn as the 2D powerhouse it was. The sprites move smoothly and the fighting is fun.
The game is technically an Action/RPG, but since the RPG elements are so prominent, I put it on the list anyway. You play as princess Gradiel, a young Princess who is soon to be queen that sets out alone to explore the land she will rule and it’s troubles. Don’t let this fool you though, this isn’t an easy, fluffy, game. You need to have good RPG skills and Action gaming skills to get far. But it’s here that lies my one complaint with the game. The controls in battle are a little bit sluggish, which makes battling a sprinting quick baddie a pain sometimes. But, for the most part, this game is WICKED fun. If you like Odin Sphere you’ll like princess crown, if you can find a copy.
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