Collected Editions

During the decades following their initial releases, the games of Phantasy Star have been published again as part of several collected editions. Some of these collections include a variety of other Sega games, while others are dedicated solely to Phantasy Star. This is a brief history of the collected editions of Phantasy Star.

Game no Kanzume

Better known as the "Sega Games Can," Game no Kanzume was a two volume series released only in Japan. These two CDs collected games first released over Sega's Japan game download service. The eight Phantasy Star II Text Adventure games were included in this series, along with several other games unrelated to Phantasy Star. Interestingly, Phantasy Star Adventure, which also first appeared on Sega's download service and has many similarities to the Text Adventures, was not included.

The two volumes of Game no Kanzume were released in March 1994, a few months after Phantasy Star IV.

Phantasy Star Collection (Sega Saturn)

The first collection of games dedicated solely to Phantasy Star appeared in April 1998. Released only in Japan, this Sega Saturn exclusive included the Japan versions of the Master System and Genesis entries from the classic series: Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, and Phantasy Star IV. The collection also included movie and artwork galleries featuring the games and their Japan television commercials.

A few changes were made to the games for this release. Phantasy Star included an option to select Hiragana or Katakana text fonts. Walking speed could be increased in Phantasy Star II and Phantasy Star III to address popular complaints about the speed of those games. Two extra save slots were also added to Phantasy Star III, for a total of four available saves.

Sega Smash Pack

When venturing into creating games for the growing market of personal computers using the Windows operating system, Sega released a small collection of eight hit games from the Genesis era. This collection was dubbed the "Sega Smash Pack" and released in February 1999. Phantasy Star II was one of the eight games. Shortly after the release of the collection, emulation enthusiasts discovered that this collection was actually composed of a special edition of KGen, a popular Genesis emulator, and specially edited ROMs that would operate only with the included emulator.

Sega revived the "Sega Smash Pack" title for other collection releases later. Of those, only one included a Phantasy Star game. This was the Dreamcast version from January 2001. It featured twelve games, including Phantasy Star II once again.

Sega Archives from the USA Vol. 1

Many fans of Phantasy Star have grown disappointed with Sega over the years because most collections and games in the series were never released outside of Japan. In an odd reversal, Sega Archives from the USA introduced Japan fans to the English versions of popular Sega games. Volume 1, released in June 2000 for Windows, includes Phantasy Star II.

This collection includes the exact same games featured as the first Sega Smash Pack, so it may simply be a Japan release of that under a new name. Sega of Japan maintains an official web page for this collection.

Phantasy Star Collection (Game Boy Advance)

This collection shares a name with the release for Sega Saturn, but is otherwise unrelated. It also contains only Phantasy Star games, but was released only in English markets in November 2002. Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star II and Phantasy Star III are featured on this Game Boy Advance title. Development was outsourced to a company called Digital Eclipse.

There are few changes from the original English versions. Phantasy Star is fully emulated, but contains a bug that sometimes crashes the game when saving. The other two games are recreations based on the code of the original Genesis games. Phantasy Star III is reported to include a few enemies that did not appear in the Genesis release.

Unlike the Saturn's Phantasy Star Collection, this version does not include Phantasy Star IV. It was excluded due to issues with the amount of space required to store the game music. To produce a high quality collection, only the three games were made available. (source)

Sega Genesis Collection (Sega Mega Drive Collection)

In the spirit of the earlier Sega Smash Packs, Sega Genesis Collection, known as Sega Mega Drive Collection outside of North America, saw the return of many of Sega's early hit games. Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III and Phantasy Star IV were included. Some bonus material was also included in the form of game tips, history, and box artwork. This marks the first collection to include any bonuses since the Saturn.

In November 2006, this title was released on both PlayStation 2 and PSP. Development was again handled by Digital Eclipse, bringing together staff from the Game Boy Advance Phantasy Star Collection and the author of KGen, the emulator used in the first Sega Smash Pack.

Phantasy Star Complete Collection

March 2008 saw the release of the most complete collection of classic Phantasy Star titles. This PlayStation 2 release features all the original games, including Phantasy Star I, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, Phantasy Star IV, Phantasy Star Gaiden, Phantasy Star Adventure, and the Phantasy Star II Text Adventures. Both Japanese and English versions of games are included, for those that were released in English on their original systems.

A variety of special features were also made available as part of this collection, such as artwork galleries, difficulty settings, and many features from the Saturn Phantasy Star Collection. Phantasy Star Gaiden and Phantasy Star Adventure are bonus features as well; they can be accessed only by holding Left on the console's directional pad when pressing start at the title screen. At the time of release, a complete soundtrack for the classic series was also made available, both separately and as part of a package with the game.

Unfortunately, the remakes Phantasy Star: Generation 1 and Phantasy Star: Generation 2 were not included in this collection. Like those remakes, this title is part of the Sega Ages line.