PStar Series-Who came late?

I'd be interested to hear comments from people who discovered the PStar series late like me. For me, late was 1997 (aged 17) when I played Phantasy Star IV after having avoided the PStar series since 1992 when I first heard of it.
Who else, like me, steered clear of games which appeared to focus on strategy, statistics, team management and elaborate, arty graphics? Give me a decent platformer or scrolling shoot-em-up, with decent graphics and I was pretty happy, though I think I often liked such games better when when they had a little bit of story in them....like Alex Kidd in Miracle World for example.

Is the Phantasy Star series more suited to young adults and that is why I only became interested in it later on? Even at 17 I wasn't especially keen on making the transition to turn-based strategy games, but there seemed to be a lot of those games around at that time, so I guess I felt I should try and go with the pack. The whole thing of getting interested in the so-called more intellectual games, certainly was a big turning point in my life.

While I technically played PS3 as a kid, it put me off the whole series for about ten years or so. I only really started playing the rest of the series about six years ago.

Since then I've determined that as far as overall playability is concerned, PS1 and PS4 are the best. PS2 may have an interesting story but it's such a chore to play, and PS3 is, well, PS3. PS1 is very vibrant and well paced for a highly old-school jRPG, and PS4 just refines the whole series to a wonderful, if not exceedingly difficult, finish.

Long story short, I had nothing against RPGs, PS3 just put me off looking into the rest of the series.

I got into the series at age 11 with Phantasy Star II (this was back in 1990). So, I played them slightly out of order, having played PSI next. I'm probably not the only one, since not many people had the Master System. I played a lot of old SMS games on my Genesis with a converter.

My initial impression of Phantasy Star III was very similar to Meteor9's. I almost didn't get Phantasy Star IV because PSIII really killed my interest in the series for a while. I appreciate the game now for what it tried to be. I feel a bit sorry for it, now that I know it was a rushed game and had an almost completely different crew that developed it (I didn't know this back in 1991/1992).

To answer your question about age and maturity and what-not, I don't know. Like I mentioned, I started playing the games at 11, but I found the long gameplay and strategy a welcome change from platformers that took only a few days to beat.

I was 23 or so when I played Phantasy Star I for the first time (back in 2005). PSIII and PSIV I played back around the time they came out. I never did get around to PSII (though I started it back in 2000 or so).

I played PS I in 1991/92 when I was 7 I think. But it was a long time before I played the others on emulation, so you can imagine how much I played PS I.
I'd heard about PS II and knew what the gist of it was but I never got around to playing it until after I'd played PS IV. But I knew PS IV took place 1000 years after PS II and PS III was something different altogether, so I wasn't too confused by it, though the difference between PS I and PS IV was astounding in comparison. The fact that the characters had more than a few lines of dialogue was brilliant. They seemed alive in comparison to PS I.

PS III: well same as Tanith, except I was older. But when I found out the whole story behind the development it became a bit clearer. And it took a bit of time before I got into it and played it properly. But after a while, given a chance, it actually won me over and I quite like it.

As for maturity, well PS I didn't do me any harm. I am amazed I was able to understand what was going on though, I remember seeing the intro for the first time and actually finding it a little sad. But the gameplay was a good change of pace from the glut of platformers and such out there at the time. I would probably say the same about the others too.
It's definitely earned it's place as my favourite game series for sure. Which is probably why I cringe a little when I hear the old favourite game argument come up. The way I see it, 4 great games all with their own ups and downs and different from the others but not a bad one among them. How often do you get a series of 4 games that are actually good and consistent? Be thankful for it.

I remember playing PSIV when I was fairly young...in fact, I think my family got PSIV when it came out, and I would've been 8 or 9. I didn't play it myself probably until I was 10, shortly before we got a Playstation, but I do remember watching my dad and older brother play it (and I remember watching my brother beat it). And I really loved the game. I didn't play it again, though, until college and the wonders of emulation. It was my favorite RPG, even when I played FFVII on Playstation, for a very long time...until 2 summers ago, when Earthbound entered my life.

So no, I don't think it's targeted at young adults. I do think young adults may be able to appreciate it more and have an easier time with it compared to a younger kid, but that's it.

Well, I've played PSI when I was 7, so that doesn't count too much
But I think these kind of game are really interesting to kids. Man, playing it nowadays is a boring thing, because there is no action at all! You just explore the cities and press buttons hoping the battles end fast to make you reach the next city as soon as possible. 99,9% percent of battles you don't use any strategy at all, since it is not needed.
So, a game with a childish story and no skill challenge (be it motor or brain) will most likely appeal to young people. Like, PSIV will most likely appeal to preteen manga audience (to whom PSIV was made): light history, a bit of drama, pretty girls/guys, a little of childish humor, happy end, etc. For young adults the games would lack challenges and the story would be too infantile.

Of course I'm saying that based on demographics of my social group. I acknowledge that all over the world, culture aimed to children and young adults may vary.

Sadly I didn't grow up during the days of the Genesis but I first played Phantasy Star II, III, and IV on the Sega Genesis Collection when I was around 10, which was back in 2006, shortly after I bought the GBA collection just to play the first one. I found it to be a great change from the usual action games and GTA that I played a lot back then, but it took me only a week to actually beat PS4 even without an FAQ. I guess it has nothing to do with age

As a kid I would feel that turn-based strategy games wern't real enough....I could appreciate the graphics I suppose, but I prefered games that moved in real time.

My first phantasy star game I played was PSIV and it was in the year 1994-1995. I played a lot with this game. Later (like in 2000 or something like that), I Played PSII and PSIII. I Didn't appreciate the PSIII but the second one was great. I continued to play PSIV ^^. After that, When Phantasy star Universe was released, I bought one. And a bought the second too. thats it I think ^^