History VideoGame / PhantasyStar

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' (2010): The long-awaited and highly successful continuation of the ''Online'' series, released for free on PC, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch in Japan. As members of ARKS, the military organization of the Oracle Fleet, players must contend with a dangerous breed of monsters known as "Darkers" that threaten all life in the cosmos.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Localization teams lacked consistency with translations; as an example, the name of the Algo/Algol System's planets (as well as the system itself, as noted here) have ''plenty'' of variations on their names (Palma/Parma/Palm/Parm, Motavia/Motabia/Mota, Dezoris/Dezolis/Dezo).

* ManaPotion: Many games use Fluids as the magic restoring item. [[AvertedTrope Dropped completely]] from ''Portable 2'' onwards, as the Tech Points system was replaced with the Photon Points system, which serves the same functions, but has a much lower cap and regenerates automatically.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII (1989): At the End of the Lost Age'': Peace has reigned on the planet of Mota for a thousand years under the guidance of the supercomputer known as Mother Brain, but with bio-monsters on a rampage, government agent Rolf must get to the root cause of the planet's woes. While the first-person dungeons were removed, the game featured several recruitable characters and graphical improvements befitting the series's jump from the Master System to the Sega Genesis.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII (1991): Generations of Doom'': A young prince of the kingdom of Orakio is to marry a MysteriousWaif when she is abducted by the forces of Laya, setting into motion events that would determine the fates of not only both kingdoms, but his descendants. Developed by a completely different team from the previous console iterations, the game was ambitious in its scope, but the end result is what many consider the black sheep of the original console [=RPGs=].

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarI''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII: At the End of the Lost Age''
** ''Phantasy Star II Text Adventures''
** ''Phantasy Star Gaiden''
** ''Phantasy Star Adventure''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII: Generations of Doom''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV: End of the Millenium''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline''
** ''Phantasy Star Online Episodes I and II''
** ''Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution''
** ''Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst''
* ''Phantasy Star [[VideoGameRemake Generation 1]]''
* ''Phantasy Star [[VideoGameRemake Generation 2]]''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse''
** ''Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus''
* ''[[VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse Phantasy Star Portable]]''
** ''Phantasy Star Portable 2''
*** ''Phantasy Star Portable 2 infinity''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarZero''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2''
** ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2es''
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarNova''
* ''VideoGame/IDOLAPhantasyStarSaga''

All four games from the original series are available on ''Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection'' for the Xbox 360 and [=PlayStation=] 3, though the first installment (because it isn't a Genesis game) must be unlocked, which isn't that hard to do.[[note]]Defeat the first boss of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' in two-player mode.[[/note]] As of 3 May 2012, the original versions of ''Phantasy Star II'', ''III'', and ''IV'' for Sega Genesis can also be purchased and played on PC via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

* DualWielding: Possible with every character, starting with ''PSII'', and highly encouraged when it's not more effective to use a two-handed weapon. You can even dual-wield ''shields'' if you need to beef up a magic user's defense.

* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Men get traditional shields, while women instead wear emels -- basically thick gauntlets. Unfortunately, in a franchise which offers higher rewards for DualWielding, these are largely useless except on your {{Squishy Wizard}}s.

* RobotGirl: Mieu and Miun in ''PSIII'', Demi in ''PSIV''.
* ScienceFantasy: The setting is more or less sci-fi, but magic is commonplace in ''PSI'' and continues to exist in the games set afterwards (though its role is mainly taken over by [[PsychicPowers Techniques]]).

* SquishyWizard: Noah in ''PSI''; Hugh and Amy in ''PSII''; Hahn, Rune, and Raja in ''PSIV''.

* ViciousCycle: Dark Force is slated to arrive every millennium to destroy the world.
** Until [[spoiler:a space station slams into Palma in ''PSII'', destroying it, and thus weakening the seal, allowing not one but ''three'' separate versions of Dark Force to slip into their dimension during ''PSIV'']].

* DevilInDisguise: In ''UsefulNotes/PhantasyStarIV'', you are accompanied for the span of one dungeon by [[spoiler:an adventurer named Seth]]. While his name doesn't really say anything of what he really is, using the Talk command from the menu gives subtle hints, and his abilities (most, if not all of which were used in previous fights by [[spoiler: Dark Force]]) are almost a dead give away if you are paying attention. [[spoiler:"Seth" is also the name of the ancient Egyptian god of darkness.]]

* Unannounced ''Phantasy Star'' RPG for [=iOS/Android=]

* MagicAsTechnology: Techniques (typically shortened to "Techs", and at one point called [=TECHNICs=]), which, in most universes, involves manipulating Photons in such a way to perform elementally-charged attacks that are very similar to magic. Notably, the original tetraology had ''actual'' magic, but real magic gradually became rarer after the first game and was only learnt by a select few magicians; their place in the series was phased out by Techniques, which could be taught to most of the characters. Continuities after the original tetraology have opted to remove real magic altogether.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first game in the franchise is notable for being a lot more MedievalEuropeanFantasy than any of the games after it, with standardized concepts like knights and magic. The series would progress to more of a SpaceOpera with science-fiction elements, although the remainder of the tetraology would retain the presence of certain elements from ''PSI''.

* CantDropTheHero: Rolf. ''I'' and ''III'' don't have enough characters per party to use this trope, while ''IV'' selects your party for you up until the end, and then, you only get to choose one OptionalPartyMember to take along with the four required ones.

* RedundantResearcher: Subverted.

Creator/{{Sega}}'s answer to the RPG craze of the late 1980s, the ''Phantasy Star'' series was a classic contemporary to ''Franchise/DragonQuest'' and ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''. Having been in the hands of several of Sega's development studios (in chronological order: Sega [=RD4=], Sega [=AM7=] (Overworks/Sega Wow), and Sega [=AM8=] (Creator/SonicTeam)), the franchise has taken several different forms since its inception.

* SeriesMascot: Rappies, [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter little fat fluffy yellow birds]]. It wasn't until ''PSO'' that they started to fill this role; it's more pronounced in the later games. They also appear in ''PSIII'' by the name "Chirper."

* ShoutOut: In ''PSII Text Adventures''. Shir's quest involves stealing the [[VideoGame/FantasyZone Opa Opa]], a famous treasure.

Sega's continued to make games in the ''Phantasy Star'' series, but they've largely taken place in entirely new settings with only tenuous connections to the Algol System... well, apart from the fact that Dark Force just can't seem to leave the universe alone. For more information on the sub-series that came after the tetralogy, see ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline'', ''PhantasyStarUniverse'', and ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarZero''.

* ''[[PhantasyStarUniverse Phantasy Star Portable]]''

* ShoutOut: In ''PSII Text Adventures''. Shir's quest involves stealing the [[FantasyZone Opa Opa]], a famous treasure.

* LegoGenetics: Numans are humanoids comprised of human, monster, and animal DNA. To top it off, the first Numan may have been created ''accidentally''. (Exactly what happened is unclear.)

* SeriesMascot: Rappies, [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter little fat fluffy yellow birds]]. It wasn't until ''PSIV'' that they started to fill this role; it's more pronounced in the later games. They also appear in ''PSIII'' by the name "Chirper."

* EldritchAbomination: Dark Force in all the games. [[spoiler:The Profound Darkness in ''PSIV'', even more so.]]

* HijackedByGanon: Dark Force/Falz has a nasty habit of appearing in nigh every game in some way, shape or form, [[AvertedTrope except]] ''[[VideoGame/PhantasyStarNova Nova]]'', [[OddballInTheSeries for whatever reason]].

* ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway: Inverted. Though the tetralogy's set primarily in the Algol star system, seemingly in its own universe, Algol is actually a [[http://www.phantasy-star.net/art/algol2.jpg real-life star system]], its name is Arabic for "demon star." [[MeaningfulName Now, think back to the plot in]] ''IV'' ....