In 2017 Apple one of the world's biggest companies admitted to intentionally slowing down phone batteries. Referred to as "Batterygate" this action opened up a string of lawsuits that Apple were intentionally using 'planned obsolescence' to encourage people to upgrade their phones or fork out to apple for replacement batteries. Apple always denied this by all reports stating it was actioned to preserve the device.

Moving forward 5 years and we have Citizen Sleeper, an indie game made by a one person studio Jump Over the Edge. In this game you play as a Sleeper, an emulated copy of a person with no rights as part of a Essen-Arp Megacorporation contract. Through design without the right treatment your body will decay over time making you reliant on them in a form of indentured servitude. Planned Obsolescence of a copied person. You escape however ending up on the Eye, a self run Space station surviving after the collapse of the Megacorporation Solheim it and many companies were once part of. Somewhat lawless but welcoming, it's a perfect place for a Sleeper trying to survive.

The lore and world created here is a fascinating one. The way the game takes examples of situations like that of Apple as a form of consumer control but exaggerated into the extreme Cyberpunk Megacorp world really stands out. The characters you meet on this independent space station are broken, struggling, running and surviving but are a great cast to interact with as further world building about the outside universe is dribbled to you through these events.

The game actually plays akin to a visual novel mixed with a dice placement tabletop board game with a few light sprinklings of RPG stats on top. Each turn or cycle (as there is no day and night on a space station) you get several dice rolls based on your Sleeper's physical health condition. Each dice can be used towards actions, some immediate some building up charges to complete. Depending on the number result of the roll will depend on it's chance for success with a positive (5-6), neutral (3-4) or negative (1-2) outcome. These numbers can be bolstered with + values depending on the skill involved and you level in it such as 'engineering +1' to increase your chance. All along the station are different locations with different characters and events that can feed you, repair you or push along character quest lines.

How you choose to progress is entirely up to you after the opening couple of quests. It's a fairly open ended adventure with multiple different endings depending on who you interact with and when. This is both a positive and negative in my view having seen them all. Citizen Sleeper despite it's grand ideas for the outside lore of the world feels more like a slice of life story so each character questline is personal and don't interconnect with each other in anyway leaving everything feeling a little directionless. Additionally though your circumstances are in many ways quite dire it never feels that way in the writing which at times is a little too matter a fact. What writing there is though outside of that small caveat is excellent. The characters, their problems and events are all really interesting, I got rather absorbed into their lives and personal struggles which is why I went out of my way to see all the endings on offer.

My only real issue with the game is actually if you are wanting to see all events there is a lot of downtime mechanically. Initially every dice you use has to be really thought out in regards to survival / story progress balance but it soon becomes extremely obsolete meaning you are mostly just burning down clock cycles to get to the next story beat sometimes doing nothing. The thing is I am a board gamer and this reminds me a lot of a game called Alien Frontiers where you place dice for resources to build colonies. What I hope Citizen Sleeper learns from this is to use the full range of numbers for actions rather than high = good and low = bad. Have certain actions only available on a 1 or 2 etc. and smaller ways of knocking them up and down would have made the turn based element more strategic and interactive throughout.

When all is said and done though I had a really good time with this and the fact that it was made by mostly one person is pretty nuts. The wonderful character art, somber music and writing pushing this along make for a wonderful experience and I do look forward to the announced sequel.

+ Fantastic art, music and atmosphere.
+ Citizen Sleepers universe and lore.
+ Mostly excellent writing and characters.

- Dice mechanic could have been more interesting.
- Sleepers personal situation often felt detached from events writing wise.

Cyberpunk 2077 is one of those games that has no doubt had and will continue to have "what happened" case studies and documentaries. It's a fascinating game in a lot of ways before even playing it. Riding high off the success of The Witcher III and the goodwill gained from that release and it's superb DLC it felt like the developer CD Projekt Red could do no wrong. Even a simple beep tweet on Cyberpunk's twitter account after a dormant time from announcement caused a lot of discussion and hype leading up to their next big project. Cracks under the surface though unknown to most with troubled development led to launching on platforms the game wasn't ready for. The game came out with performance, AI and balance issues in abundance. Overnight after it's rushed release CDPR's bubble burst. Noise about it for the PS4 specifically was so bad that Sony did the unthinkable removing it from the PSstore and handing out refunds. It stayed that way for months. Moral of the story here? never pre-order no matter who the developer is in this day and age.

So very quick background about Cyberpunk's history out the way, how is the game 3 years later after all it's patching, PS5 version release and 2.0 Update release? All in all pretty good though I have nothing to compare it to prior to this as I was waiting for it to be finished before I played it. So this will not be a No Man's Sky or FFXIV redemption story review. Simply one of how I experienced it as it is now.

First thing I have to comment about is that as a role playing game I still found Cyberpunk disappointing and to be honest I just don't count it as one. I remember in an interview when the game was still just an announced CGI trailer 10 years ago from a developer that the game would be dense and vertical. I clearly misinterpreted that taking it to mean it would be a bit more like Deus Ex but the end result is quite the opposite. This left it feeling extremely wide and flat with a few buildings to traverse at key points. It just feels like any other open world game with a Cyberpunk skin. This may be a me problem rather than a Cyberpunk 2077 problem but I just expected more to it than that. The level up and skill system is actually just bad and this is after it has been revised, stripped down and balanced as I understand from launch. Normal level up perk point skills seem pointless mostly. Slightly more damage, quick hack damage at 10%? It's all just a bit...boring. I think I would have preferred they scrap perk abilities completely and had all abilities attached to the Cyberware you install. Having gorilla arms that increase physical strength for melee attacks and forcing open doors? Legs giving double jumps? Optics for seeing enemies through walls etc. There are just more useful abilities that offer more utility for both exploration and combat. Additionally these type of upgrades fit the cyberpunk thematic a lot better to boot. Instead it's got multiple systems that feel uninteresting and tacked on. Equipment and Cyberware should have been the focus.

Now I know that so far I have come across as negative but the thing is I actually had a really good time with Cyberpunk 2077. I mean sure as an RPG it's pretty crap and the overall main story feels a bit disjointed but so much of the rest of it is a real blast. A lot of the characters and set pieces really build up Night City as a living result of a corporation only future which is often bleak with a large almost class divide. You play the role of V, a character who through misfortune ends up with a countdown clock dying and is trying to find a solution to that predicament. This leads you to finding fixers, mercs, prostitutes and corporation suits to try and save yourself. It's an interesting setting in that so much of it looks like a modern skyscraper idyllic future city covered in neon lights yet there is a constant layer of filth and garbage bags almost everywhere undermining it's more grandiose appearance at first glance. Many of the characters reflect the city coming across as guarded and jaded but with their own reasons underneath it all. Johnny SilverHand played by Keanu Reeves is a prime example. He is your companion throughout the game and for most of It I actively hated the guy, yet the game with the best ending in was through him in the end. I liked how the characters and city are unveiled and the shades of grey between them all.

From a larger gameplay perspective it's somewhat less interesting though that could be my build. Stealth silencer head shotting goons with an over powered pistol sweeping through areas. AI was pretty unimpressive but I enjoyed some of the abilities and weapons available. It lacks the depth of an immersive sim but jumping onto a roof, finding a hidden entrance, hacking a turret remotely to turn it on it's enemies whilst throwing grenades in to cause carnage is fun, if not especially deep. I guess what you need to know going into this game is where to set your expectations to. I didn't have any really going in and had a good time exploring around the vistas killing gang members and exploring the city. The technical side of things seem to have mostly been fixed. I had one crash and a couple of items fall through floors but otherwise this is a pretty fun open world game with a large amount of content. It's not the game I wanted, nor is it the game CDPR promised but it's not bad either. The characters and set pieces are good fun as is the combat but even fixed a few years later it doesn't reach the clear ambitions CDPR had when starting development. I hope they learned their lesson from this going into the sequel and their other projects.

Still, I got to ride a cool looking Akira motorbike with a katana drawn power sliding into enemies to start a fight. What other games can you finish a review with that in?

+ Night City is a cool looking location.
+ Fun set pieces and fairly interesting characters.
+ Johnny Silverhand is a likeable dick.
+ Akira bike.

- As an RPG it's pretty crap frankly.
- Lacks depth for combat, skills and level design.
- Some story beats and resolutions don't quite land at the end.

"Back already?"

After spending around 20 hours with Hades resulting in feelings of highs and lows I've come to the only conclusion these emotions could finally ascertain. I love everything about Hades, except actually playing it. This is both the best roguelike game and worst I've ever played and it's impressive how much that swings backwards and forwards.

The interesting thing to me mulling this over in my head, and to use a Greek mythological term of phrase, is that Hades greatest strength is it's Achilles heel. This game wants you to die, yes it's how Roguelikes function, but I have never felt that more in others than in Hades. Each time you die you get a bit more character interaction, a bit more dialogue between characters by design. These interactions are eked between the protagonist, Zagreus the son of Hades the Greek God of the underworld and it's occupants. Each attempted escape from the underworld Zagreus gets a little more development from the mythical residents of the house of Hades such as Cerberus, Nyx, Hypnos, Thanatos etc. They will slowly grow and reveal more about themselves and the situation Zagreus is in and it's great. The characters are well written and the amount of content and spoken dialogue is absurdly impressive. Dying is how you progress this, dying isn't failure, dying is a reward for the setting, for the theme of Hades. Death is Hades business and Supergiant games was extremely clever in how it's implemented that as not only the known Roguelike mechanic but as a fundamental mechanic to the story of Hades.

I really like the cast. Getting snippets of conversations with the gods of Olympus and lesser known Greek mythological characters is a real treat each time. I also love their art design, it's pretty clear who each character is without stereotyping them too much. The voice acting equally puts in work to match the excellent writing. My favourite being Dionysus the god of wine who comes across as such an extremely laid back almost surfer like attitude but there is a tone of strength behind it all in his voice as well as art with his chiselled physique. Hades presentation really is excellent.

So where is the weakness here you ask? It's the actual dungeon runs in which the game wants you to die in to get these slow roll story sequences that hurt it sounds badly. This game is 40 minutes of gameplay dragged out into hours and I despise it for that. Each run has so little variety that it gets stale to actually play each time. Finishing a run didn't make me want to go again, it made me sigh that I would have to fight the same 3 bosses over again on the same levels in the same order. It's extremely linear and stale and the more I played the game, the less I wanted to.

I stuck with it for the excellent setting, art and characters. The thing is it actually plays really well. The animations are smooth, the combat is fun, there are 6 weapons to choose between that all have great moves and the boons from the gods of Olympus you collect can add some good variety to how the combat plays out. In the end though it's all the same, you will fight the same limited enemies, bosses and room types in the same order. I expected a variety of bosses that would be random on each run, corridors, challenges, just something? It's 40 minutes of game you play repeatedly. It felt like groundhog day.

Later in the game you can add modifiers to make it harder which can change things slightly and there are some prophecies to aim for in trying to get certain boons but it doesn't change those 40 minutes enough in any way to not feel like this is just a short experience painfully dragged out. To get the full credits you need to complete 10 playthroughs once you are strong enough or get lucky enough runs. It took me 25 runs just to beat it once. There is some permanent progress you can unlock with skills in a mirror and construction requests but equally they feel like padding to make it take you time to unlock all the story rather than rewards. This is felt more than anything with the god mode option. In the settings you can switch it on "To make it easier or if you just want to see the story". The issue is that the game wants you to die to progress the story and character interactions so god mode gives you some base damage resistance then 2% each time you die. Even trying to speed through the game after I had beaten it the first time it's still doled out at a trickle as it counters what the game wants you to do. It wants you to die, thematically and narratively, this is clever, this is great, it lacks the variety to keep that interesting in practice though.

It's a real shame too because a greater pool of bosses, levels and enemies to make each run feel fresh would have made this a truly great game. After a certain point though I died to Hades with a pretty sub optimal boon run and just felt, exasperation. I would have to do the same levels and bosses again and decided to put the game down. I watched the true ending on youtube and it was cute, I just didn't want hours of repetition to get there. I didn't feel I'd missed much by watching the ending and skipping the faff. Maybe it's me? I mean I played Vampire Survivors, this game designed for addiction. I did three runs for 30 mins each and put it down feeling like I'd seen everything. I guess that "one more run" mentality for games like this just don't have that effect.

I happily play 500+ hours in each Monster Hunter game though so what do I know?

+ Setting as a Roguelike is excellent thematically.
+ Characters, voice acting and artwork are great.
+ Combat is smooth and fun.

- Dungeon runs lack variety, same bosses and enemies makes things feel dragged out.
- Gets boring fast.

Retro gaming is an interesting topic for a lot of reasons. Original hardware? Ports? Remasters? CRT? There are so many ways for people to play them and everyone has a different preference. In this instance I played this with a friend using the PS3 Sega Megadrive Collection as one of the extra games. What really matters to me though isn't how you choose to play, but how the game holds up. Considering this game came out in 1987 (and is nearly as old as I am) I was actually impressed by a lot of it but after discussing with the friend I played this with after beating it we decided your enjoyment of Phantasy Star is probably going to boil down to an entirely binary decision.

With, or without a walkthrough?

You see this game is very much a product of it's time, and I mean no insult by that. It plays akin to an adventure game as much as an RPG meaning you have to find a lot of strange items in dungeons from very cryptic clues from villagers you talk to. Going through the wrong dungeons in the wrong order without the right items or knowing how and when to use them can mean you hit frustrating dead ends. Magic spells and items don't have descriptions and the localisation feels almost machine translated it's so wooden and clunky. Wrong pronouns and spelling errors abound!

Unless you want the original experience of mapping out dungeons on graph paper and trying to work it out on your own, I'd advise using a guide personally to get the most enjoyment out of it. Playing with a friend was like rally car driving with one person in control whilst the other gave directions. The dungeons themselves were impressive in some ways regardless, despite their repetition. Phantasy Star has this cool effect where the traditional top down view of the world map changes to a first person dungeon crawler. The view change for a Master System we found really impressive with the dungeons wireframe programming and perspective being something feeling more like a Megadrive game, (I also love the catchy dungeon theme).

The game does some other really neat things too, the character and enemy designs are really neat. Having a female protagonist is still rare in JRPGs now never mind in 1987. though the story is incredibly threadbare of Alis avenging her murdered brother by going to kill the evil king, she doesn't come across as some weak damsel in the few animated cutscenes either, she just gets the job done. Other party members follow you on screen as you move around and I loved Myau the space cat's animation as he runs behind you. A lot of the enemy designs and sprites are really unique too with Phantasy Star's heavy Star Wars influence at the forefront with robots, sandworms and Jawa looking enemies. Some of these have surprisingly fancy and varied attack animations that kind of show what the Master System was really capable of for an 8 bit system.

Honestly I was surprised just how much I really liked this. Yes engaging with it as you would have in 1987 on it's own terms in 2024 is a somewhat painful experience, but playing it with a guide to experience this sci-fi and fantasy mix is kind of a delight. The music is surprisingly great, the art design is good and overall it still holds up well still. All that said I wouldn't play it again, at least this version. I do want to try the Sega Ages 2500 remake at some point, just to see an updated space cat if nothing else.

+ Great art design and enemy sprites.
+ The first person dungeon crawling is a neat effect.
+ Surprisingly catchy music (if limited on tracks)

- Dungeons do all look identical.
- Extremely difficult to know where to go or what to do without following a guide, a product of it's time.

As a gaming new years resolution I set myself three goals this year; to try and beat over 100 games, buy less than I beat and to try and play at least one game from every system I have access to. So, here is the Super Nintendo Entertainment System entry for the year, Final Fight 2!

I chose this as I beat the original Final Fight on both arcade and Sega CD last year for the first time. To be honest I didn't actually like it that much which was kind of a surprise as both a beat 'em up and Capcom fan. It was a pretty early game in the genre though coming out in 1989 and helped pioneer a lot of later games so I could forgive it a bit for it's rough edges. Final Fight 2 a little less so though overall I do actually like it more.

So firstly the game feels a lot less swarm heavy, perhaps because it's a SNES exclusive (I still haven't played the Final Fight SNES port). Enemies come in smaller groups and don't feel quite as insanely aggressive though they will still try and circle around you which I like. There are three playable characters. Hagar returning from Final Fight, he's a wrestler (you can see him drop kicking a goon flexing his huge muscles on the cover art here), his South American friend Carlos who fights with a sword, (and by that I mean he has it on his back but uses it for 1 move), and Maki, who dresses a bit like a Kunoichi, a student of ninjitsu. They are after Maki's sister and father who have been kidnapped by the sudden re-emergence of the Mad Gear Gang from the first game who have suddenly gained a worldwide presence. This is evidently an excuse for visiting more locations than anything truly plot related.

The characters all play pretty much the same regardless of who you choose. A basic attack combo, a jump and a special move used for crowd control. They can grab enemies in holds when close enough and do throws is about it, it's pretty basic for a beat 'em up. My only real input on the characters is I appreciate them adding a female playable character instead of the three men from the original. My issues really stem that this game feels pretty run of the mill generally. Similar to Final Fight 1 you have seen the few enemy types by the start of the second stage and just beat the same 4 enemies over and over from there onwards with no surprises. Andore is the only memorable enemy and that's mostly because he was in the original Final Fight, is clearly andre the Giant, has a large health bar, and is everywhere. Nothing new appears over the course of the game to make it feel fresh from level to level. The level design itself feels pretty similar in that you go to multiple world locations but the set pieces are all pretty uninteresting and you fight the same 4 guys in each part of the world.

Compounding that is the bosses which all feel like a non event. They feel almost like regular enemies just with slightly higher health bars. a lot of them have really dodgy grab animations and range where you teleport into their hands a few feet away and the worst of these is Rolent, a boss from Final Fight brought back with the same grenades and running around. He can outmanoeuvre and outreach your limited move set and is just awful to fight. He's the only boss I really remember, mostly because he is frustrating. Weirdly the music doesn't change during a boss fight either to the point it's just tracks like this which is ok for a stage but not a boss. The first boss I fought I didn't even realise was the end level boss due to this uneventful feel.

Speaking of music, it's fine but I don't think a single track stood out from the whole game and I guess that sums up Final Fight 2. Nothing about it really excels and when it's been 4 years since the first game and it feels exactly the same is a bit disappointing. All that said though I had fun playing through it and don't want to sound too negative as I don't think it's a bad game, it plays well, sounds decent and looks nice, it's just forgettable.

Also, I always thought Maki was an SNK character when playing Capcom vs SNK 2 back in the day. Gaming knowledge increase. (+1exp!)

+ Maki as a playable female character.
+ It's fun enough and well made.

- Feels uninspired. Seen all enemies by the start of level 2.
- Bosses feel like a non event with huge hit pools.
- Some questionable grab detection.

For many years I actually thought that Sonic the Hedgehog on the Master System was the same as the Mega Drive version only with 8-bit visuals. Not only is it a completely different game but it actually came out almost 6 months after the Mega Drive original.

There are some similarities, the opening stage is a version of Green Hill Zone (Complete with a nifty version of the level music) as are two others leaving 50% completely original locations. The general gameplay and structure of the game is also the same with several levels per each of the 6 zones followed by a fight with Robotnik and freeing the animals he captured as was the original game's premise.

The rest of the zones contained are different for both better and worse:

Zone 1 - Green hill - I like this zone, it's an easy going classic, there are reasons it or variations of it are normally starting zones
Zone 2 - Bridge - this is weirdly for a sonic game an auto scrolling zone. It kind of works though as this is a much slower paced platformer like it's Mega Drive counter part
Zone 3 - Jungle Zone - I have issues with this one listed below
Zone 4 - Labyrinth Zone - Another similar level from it's big brother, I like the underwater Sonic levels though I know I'm a minority there
Zone 5 - Scrap Brain Zone - So much better than it's big brothers version again, easier and less frustrating
Zone 6 - Sky Base Zone - I liked this level, had a great atmosphere

Of all the zones the only one I wasn't keen on was the Jungle zone. there is a section that's a bit tricky where you climb up a waterfall jumping on ledges and rocks. once the screen goes past a platform though it locks meaning if you try to jump back to it you instantly die even if it's a millimetre which is just kind of stupid. Other minor gameplay annoyances including how the rings work as the amount only matters for gaining extra lives. If sonic takes a hit he loses them all with one visible ring dropping you can't collect so essentially you only have the one hit to take regardless. The boss levels you don't have any rings at all though I kind of liked that as you had to learn the pattern and play skilfully. The bosses themselves aren't brutally hard though, especially to a seasoned Sonic player. Interestingly when you collect a bubble shield from a TV though it does transfer between levels so you can head into a boss with one as a possibility, I liked that.

There are Special Zones accessed through non boss stages when finishing with more than fifty rings as the only other use for them. This gives you the chance to get extra lives or continues by bouncing on springs to the end of the level in a time limit. There are no chaos emeralds here though, for a bit of a change they are actually hidden in the main levels requiring good jump control, using invincibility boxes to reach in spikes etc.

The game handles really well, the jumps and animations feel like a Sonic game should. The visuals and art design are the level of coloured and varied as I would expect, though the tiny enemy models are hilariously cute. The backgrounds are pretty static but Sonic's character model and animations are really well done. Interestingly this is actually the first game made by Ancient, the company formed by legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. It was initially created to make this game specifically and it's Game Gear counter part before going on to later fame making Streets of rage and Beyond Oasis.

Overall I had a good time with this and the thing is I didn't expect to. It looks really nice for an 8-bit game, has a banger OST and plays well with some neat little ideas. Not everything works but overall it's a good little game.

+ Nice visuals and music.
+ Zones are fun and varied.
+ No ring bosses and emeralds on stages are different.

- Jungle Zone instant death isn't very well designed.
- Losing rings all at once is kind of lame.

The start of the digital era of online game services is quite an interesting one as many companies experimented with what would work both in terms of both service and software. Take Wiiware for example, a service Nintendo introduced on the Wii in 2008. It allowed small teams to release small games (40mb limit) at budget prices. This was back at a time when shovelware appearing on these digital stores was a lot less of an issue and even some of the bigger known game developers were trying their hand in this type of market. This led Konami to release a trilogy of 'rebirth' games on the Wii. These games used existing intellectual property of Konami to make remake / remixes of older titles of Contra, Castlevania and the first of these three, Gradius.

The thing is that Gradius Rebirth just feels like a remix in every way. There isn't anything here that feels like this release was actually necessary. It's not that it's bad, it isn't. It plays like Gradius, looks like Gradius, sounds like Gradius but that's also kind of the problem. It's just so uninspired in a series hardly know for variation or innovation between titles. If you weren't a fan of Gradius this won't change your mind, if you were then you've basically played this game already. Otherwise it was just a Gradius title available on the Wii.

You play the role of James Burton piloting the iconic Vic Viper sent out to defeat the Bacterians. Like the rest of the series in Rebirth you can collect power ups that you choose when to use depending on how many you have collected which will upgrade a different element of the ship. Depending on the ship you choose (or later unlock) will depend on the load out available to upgrade. The upgrades are mostly weapons such as missiles, lasers, or two way firing but can also include the ships manoeuvre speed or force fields and shields as well. The various power up load outs have levels when used multiple times to gain strength to deal with the waves of enemies you will face over the course of the five levels.

I like the power up system, it gives control for what you want to upgrade and different ships handle different levels and bosses differently due to their slightly varied load outs. What I don't like is how utterly punishing it is when you die losing everything. Often if you die it will be because a section is hard to get by so going back into it with only a portion of your previous strength often means, (at least in my case) I will die there again. It feels there should be greater balance for a game that isn't an arcade coin gobbler like some of it's predecessors.

Whilst unfortunately Gradius Rebirth and the rest of this trilogy are currently lost to the annals of time with the Wiiware store closing in 2019. I also can't say unless you're a super fan you are missing out much with this one either. It's fine, it's just forgettable. Still I hope it does get a trilogy Rebirth release on modern platforms for preservation so that other gamers can at least find that out for themselves.

Half a star for the cover art. Gradius covers nearly always have stunning artwork and the usage of almost prism colours here really stand out.

+ Looks like Gradius, sounds like Gradius, plays like Gradius.
+ Gradius power up system and ship options are still pretty great a mechanic.
+ that cover art.

- Looks like Gradius, sounds like Gradius, plays like Gradius.
- Dying still feels brutally punishing.

The first Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System was a surprise to me. Maybe it's a feeling I had that because it was the oldest one in the series on an earlier console it would be bad? It's dated in many ways but bad? Not even close. Impressive art, music and technical feats on the system made it a really fun little game. The second Phantasy Star title is equally a surprise to me but literally in the polar opposite direction. I assumed because it was on the megadrive it and a sequel it would be an improvement on everything laid before it.

I was wrong.

I actually kind of actively hate this game and I just didn't expect that going in. The story starts with an interesting premise. Set 1000 years after Phantasy Star the Algol star system is ruled by a super computer called Mother Brain that has made every decision for it's residents. Controlling everything to make their lives easy but when something goes wrong they are not equipped to deal with it. As an agent of the governor you are chosen to find out the cause behind a new wave of monsters appearing due to Mother Brain not taking action. I like the idea a lot of people becoming too dependent to act on their own though the game never feels like that in the actual world.

The 80s/90s anime sci-fi visual design is still quite striking. Characters have mixture of, knives, boomerangs, magic, laser swords and plasma pistols in a mixture of high fantasy and sci-fi. It's a great blend the game works well cohesively with the character designs of shoulder pads and big hair dos with obvious Star Wars influences. Whilst I like the art and atmosphere I did find it actually less impressive from a technical standpoint than it's predecessor. The dungeons losing their first person view into the more traditional top down exploration with that was disappointing though, but that's the least of the dungeons problems.

They. Are. Terrible.

Initially they aren't too bad but as the game progressed further and further my drive to continue lessened with my progress. Each dungeon is a giant sprawling maze filled with warp points zooming you from floor to floor. It's full of unrewarding dead ends and twists with no in game map to help you navigate the labyrinthine nightmares. It's no wonder on release the game came with a guide book with a walkthrough and maps, they knew. I followed an online walkthrough in the end because I couldn't see myself brute forcing through without one. At one point the guide describes a new dungeon you come to as: "The first floor has no less than 69 chutes leading up to the next floor (No, I'm not kidding. There really are 69 chutes. Stop laughing.)" and many later are even worse. In an interview in 1993 whilst promoting Phantasy Star IV the game designer Kotaro Hayashida discusses Phantasy Star II and when asked about the dungeons he is translated as stating:

"Another issue was related to the dungeons, which were created by a new employee. Because he was new, he put a ton of effort into the maps and kind of overdid it… the game became more about the complex dungeons than anything else. I think you really see that on the Dezolis dungeons. They were really well done, and when Chieko Aoki saw them she didn’t want all the new employee’s work to be for naught, so we ended up using those maps… albeit with some mixed feelings. They contributed to the latter half of the game being unbalanced"

I agree with this though think Phantasy Star II being generally unbalanced from the get go. Due to the huge twisting warping bland looking dungeons and encounters every two steps the amount of combat in the game is kind of staggering. The amount of experience you get from them though is pitiful to the point that grinding and battling over and over just to gain one level up that does little towards improving your overall strength made the experience of playing extremely tedious. (Fans have created a double money, double experience hack due to this) I was even using fast forward playing this on the Playstation 4 Megadrive collection so god only knows how it would have felt at the original speed. To compound matters the games combat feels slightly unwieldly but to it's credit also a little ahead of it's time in some ways. There is a button to fight where the party will just auto combat each turn. In between you can manually select orders to the team to make them use spells, items or defend but it means going through extra menu steps each time unnecessarily. The menus generally feel kind of poorly implemented and equipping items, giving them to each other or using healing spells outside of battle was irritating every time. Despite all of this I did continue on as I wanted to see all the game had to offer only to reach an ending that actually made me think all the effort flat wasn't worth it.

In the same interview mentioned above on shupcompilations they discuss the game originally being made on the Master System then changed and ported in an extremely short amount of time. It sounds like it was a miracle and hard work the game came out at all to which I respect them greatly. I'm glad I finally finished the first RPG released on the Sega Megadrive and such a pillar of gaming history I was missing. It doesn't change my opinion though that Phantasy Star II is actually pretty poorly designed and not actually very fun to play.

As a Sega fan, retro gaming fan and RPG fan, this hurt to write. Half a star for the art design though, especially the cover art. Hitoshi Yoneda's work is stunning.

+ I like the story premise.
+ The ingame art design and promotional artwork is wonderful with a blend of high fantast and tech heavy sci-fi.

- It has possible the worst dungeons of the nearly 150 JRPGs I have played. Extremely tedious. Every one made me want to quit.
- It's a huge grind but feels unrewarding with it.
- Story is generally unsatisfying.

A game that can make you fall in love with video games all over again.

It's a masterclass in every sense of the word, from the art to the music to the meticulous level design. The game is practically flawless and hasn't aged a day.

I lost my save about a third of the way into the game and having to replay that portion didn't even faze me because this game is just that good.