Phantasy Star Adventure Preview

Like many video games in the early 1990s, entries in the Phantasy Star series were previewed in magazines before their release in Japan. The Electronic Gaming Monthly article below was scanned and typed to promote awareness of Phantasy Star Adventure when little information was available about the game.

Article Text

Ever wonder what type of games players have been downloading and playing through the modem games network? This is one of them and don't let the Phantasy Star name fool you. It is not a heavy duty RPG as the name implies, rather it is a quest game which is played more like a board game. In this you roll the die to determine how many screens you will move. The directions of movement are the basic north, south, east and west and you visit towns, get hints and clues by talking to the people and proceed out into the countryside to battle with the enemy (battles are won and lost by the throw of the die!). Not Phantasy Star caliber, but kind of interesting nevertheless.

Screenshots from an early version of the game were included alongside the article.

1. The title screen, similar to the one shown to the right.
2. A guard of Baron Laboratory. There is also a die, which has been circled in red, in the shot.
   "Roll the die to determine how many screens you will move!"
3. A movement screen, with directional arrows.
4. A portion of the outside world.
5. Travelling from one planet to another.

Comments and Scans

Click the thumbnail below to see a scan of the full article.

This article is interesting for a few reasons. There are a few mistakes in this article, most likely because the reviewer probably didn't have the game itself.

1. The die is not rolled to determine how many screens you move, as indicated in a caption. You can only move one screen at a time. The screen with the die is actually from a battle, where the die is used to determine damage.
2. There is only one town in the game.
3. The countryside is not enemy infested - in fact, it's quite peaceful!

Also, if you take a close look at the upper right screenshot in the article, the movement screen, you can see something that was changed in the final game. The coloration and clothing of the character in the background are different.