Phantasy Star One 35th Anniversary: A Retrospective Gaming Documentary

Phantasy Star was Sega’s flagship RPG back in the gold old days. 35 years on, it’s time to celebrate and reflect on the adventures of Alisa Landale and her friends (Chapter Markers and more below…)

Episode information
GTV 143 “Phantasy Star One" Season 7 Episode 21
Original Airdate: December 23, 2022
Produced December 10-22, 2022
Recorded at Butsudan Studios and edited on my 14” MacBook M1 Pro! Edited and produced with Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, all while riding the train to work and home, back and forth, day after day, and lunch breaks too!

0:00 In Memory of Rieko Kodama
0:05 GTV ID: Back to Basics!
0:11 Prologue: Hold on to your Laerma Nuts
1:05 Act: 1 The Road to December 20, 1987
13:24 CM 1: Phantasy Star (Japan, 1987)
13:42 Act 2: The First Worldwide RPG
21:00 CM 2: Magical Hat Buttobi Turbo Daiboken (Japan, 1990)
21:18 Act 3: Phantasy Stars Reborn
28:03 CM 3: Magic Knight Rayearth (Japan, 1995)
28:21 Act 4: The Quirks of the Game
35:31 CM 4: Super Thunderblade + Phantasy Star (U.S., 1988)
36:04 Epilogue: Nothing Lasts Forever

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Five years ago I made a video covering the Phantasy Star Series, as the original entry passed the 30 year mark. It was a fun, interesting retrospective that covered everything! I followed things up with deep dives on Phantasy Star II and III later on. Someday I’ll cover Phantasy Star IV, don’t worry. 2017 wasn’t the end of Phantasy Star, as the story still continues to this day! New releases have hit the stores! Unknowns, both known and unknown were discovered. Then it hit me that the Original Phantasy Star needs its own dedicated video! So let’s do just that, and celebrate the start of this great series! Hold on to your Laerma Nuts, because Phantasy Star One is 35!!!!

Its hard to believe that we’re moving through the third decade of life during and after the 8-Bit Era. 1987 seems so long ago when you look at the calendar. But thinking about those days gone by, it feels like only yesterday. The story of how the game Phantasy Star came to be is quite interesting. Truly a moment when the state of the art met a sign of the times.

Back in 1987 Sega Enterprises, in Japan, released the fourth iteration of its 8-bit Hardware, The Master System. The long road began with the SG-1000 in July 1983, released on the same day as the rival Nintendo Family Computer! The next year the exterior was redesigned, becoming the SG-1000 II, the internals were upgraded in 1985, becoming the Mark III. This machine outperformed the Family Computer in many important areas, with more colors and more RAM that could bring many of Sega’s early 80s arcade games home!

Sega still had one more upgrade with the FM Sound Card, which gave games an amazing boost in audio that made the low quality beeps and boops sound like they were coming out of a high-end synthesizer! This accessory could attach to the Mark III and was built in to the next upgrade, codenamed Mark IV and known to the public as the Master System! Named so because Sega intended this to be the highest, ultimate, final iteration of 8-Bit technology!

Sources from: Shumpulations 1993 PS 4 Team Interview, Rieko Kodama Sega Interviews, Retrogamer No. 167. CMs by Chris Aaron 83, other clips by Raven XP, Mr. Burns, Eirlaron.