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Virtual Console Mondays: April Round-Up

Phantasy Star III Generations of Doom

by Les Thomas - May 5, 2008, 12:50 pm EDT

This traditional console RPG is the third installment of the Phantasy Star series (unless you count the Japan-only text-based adventures, making it the 11th game in the series). You play as Prince Orakian who is preparing to wed Maia, a woman from a rival tribe. Her kidnapping sets the game's action into motion. You must build your strength and stats through turn-based battles in order to find your missing bride and deliver justice to her kidnappers. The game introduces characters from the previous installments and who you interact with and how will determine one of the game's various endings.

Phantasy Star has become an epic RPG series with several successful games spanning over a decade. But Generations of Doom is the usual, clunky, early console RPG. Phantasy Star III clearly did not set the standard for the series' success. The game is surprisingly shallow for this early franchise, which often placed emphasis on a more linear story within a single universe (there were eight point-and-click text-based adventures on the short-lived Sega Meganet online service). Even the intro capture of the bride during her wedding was anticlimactic, especially for the generation graphics and the expectations of RPGs at that time. So why make the worst game in the series available on the Virtual Console? Well, we have further proof standard-bearer franchises can produce real duds, but hopefully this is just a brutal tease before a proper Phantasy Star Wii game.

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