History VideoGame / PhantasyStarI

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Both its VideoGameRemake and UpdatedRerelease (on the Nintendo Switch) incoporate an auto-mapping feature; the former featured a limited-use item that would map the dungeon for 100 steps, while the latter features it as a permanent part of the UI that can be toggled. This is to alleviate the labyrithine aspect of the dungeons, as ''every room looks identical'', making it very easy to get lost unless you have an amazing memory or make your own map.

* ForcedLevelGrinding:
** All of the "good" armor needed to survive battle cost an arm and a leg. Then there's the fact that there are a ton of essential vehicle items that cost as much as Alis's ultimate armor (15,000 meseta).
** Noah needs to learn the Open spell for the party to even reach the final area.

** Much of the game requires a guide to get through with ease, especially some of the longer and harder mazes.
** You need to talk to everyone multiple times. If you miss a required conversation the game won't let you continue, even if you know where you're supposed to go next.

* It debuted in America before Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

* ButThouMust: When you finally confront Lassic, he asks you if you really want to kill an old man like him. Answering "no" causes him to become insulted and commence the fight anyway.
** And your party loses initiative for the first round. No small thing in a boss fight in a game that involves a lot of defensive spells you want to cast ASAP.

* DubNameChange: Of the main characters, Alisa/Alyssa became Alis, Tylon/Tyrone became Odin, Lutz became Noah and [=LaShiec=] became Lassic. (Only Myau remains the same.) In addition, most of the monster and spell names were changed to fit size restrictions.

* EnergyWeapon : The Laser Gun

* ForcedLevelGrinding: All of the "good" armor needed to survive battle cost an arm and a leg. Then there's the fact that there are a ton of essential vehicle items that cost as much as Alis's ultimate armor (15,000 meseta).
** In a more literal sense of level grinding, Noah needs to learn the Open spell for the party to even reach the final area.

* GuideDangIt: Much of the game requires a guide to get through with ease, especially some of the longer and harder mazes.

* HopelessBossFight: The team rest at the Mayor's manor and gets attacked by a strange floating mask [[spoiler:(which turns out to actually be Dark Falz's head)]] that one shots your party. But it was AllJustADream.
** MeaningfulName: In the Japanese version the creature is called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Nightmare]].
** With a moderate amount of grinding it is possible to defeat it, but the rewards aren't even close to worth it.

* JapaneseRanguage: In this world, Fast Food Shops are called "First Food Shops".

** The general accepted strategy for Baya Malay is to go get the crystal, then escape and heal then go to the top of the tower to get to the air castle and fight Lassic. This way, you can save after getting the crystal and not have to worry about crawling through all of Baya Malay Tower

* MiniDressOfPower: Alis

* PaletteSwap: Beyond just the enemies, the game's ''dungeons'' are all palette swaps of each other as well.
** Most likely meant to be {{Foreshadowing}} with [[spoiler:Succubus/Nightmare and Dark Falz]].

* ShoutOut: One of the swords in the game is a [[StarWars lightsaber]].

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Dezoris.
** Somewhat subverted in that there isn't any movement difficulty.
* SquishyWizard: Be prepared to heal Noah. A lot.
** Noah is actually an interesting case here. He has the highest base defense in the game and barely ranks 3rd when equipment is included (Odin beats him by one point). However, he does have only the 3rd-highest HP total, and he only hold that by three points.
* TalkingAnimal: Myau.
** A few of the monsters as well, though sometimes you need to use magic to understand each other.

* YouKilledMyFather: Or Brother in this case the whole point for Alis' revenge against Lassic.

** If your inventory is full, you're given the option to discard an item if you find another in a chest. If you decline to make room for a plot-important item, however, it will be LostForever and you will be left unable to finish the game.

* SelfImposedChallenge: The most common are capping the characters' levels or beating the game without Laconian items.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: [[spoiler: Dark Falz's role as the final boss.]]

* FrickinLaserBeams: The Laser Gun

* [[SequelDifficultyDrop Remake Difficulty Drop]]: Its remake is a lot less difficult than the original version. Exploring the many dungeons is also made significantly easier by the addition of an 'Atlas'-item, which helps a lot, despite the fact that it's only temporary and lasts for about 100 steps.
** The Switch port of the Master System version has an "Ages Mode" that includes an auto-map function for dungeons, as well as increasing the amount of Meseta earned from battles.

* DeadlyGas:There is an area of Motavia surrounded by poisonous gas, and a gas shield is necessary for reaching the village at its centre.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: After [[spoiler:Dark Falz]] is defeated and dies, [[spoiler: Alis is very suddenly and undramaticly revealed to be the daughter to the former king of the Algol star system and the rightful ruler. Whether or not she assumes this position is up to you.]]

** This is fixed in the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance version where he's always referred to as male.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Laconian Axe. Statistically, it is the most powerful weapon in the game and is capable of doing heavy damage, especially when combined with Myau's Help spell. In reality, it is often less useful than the Laser Gun, which does a fixed 20 points of defense-ignoring damage and also targets all enemies. Against high defense enemies (including the final bosses), you will on average do more damage with the gun than the axe.
** Another note is that the Laser Gun can't be dodged while the Laconian Axe can.

* DungeonShop: There's a few. Notably, one of the ones on Palma is a([[CashGate expensive!]]) bakery, where you must buy a cake and bring it to a security robot on ''Motavia''. The baker actually {{lampshade}}s how ridiculous it is.
-->I'm sorry I have a shop in such a such a place. Shortcake for 1000 mesetas![[note]]There are six swords in the game. The InfinityMinusOneSword costs 2980. The one before that costs 1120. That's one expensive shortcake.[[/note]]

** If your inventory is full, you're given the option to discard an item if you find another in a chest. If you decline to turn down a plot-important item, however, it will be LostForever and you will be left unable to finish the game.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: If you actually ''do'' give up Myau to Dr. Mad, he kills Myau, then attacks anyway and gets initiative to boot. [[spoiler:You also need Myau to reach Lassic's castle, so this mean's you've rendered the game {{Unwinnable}}.]]

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: If you actually ''do'' give up Myau to Dr. Mad, he kills Myau, then attacks anyway and gets initiative to boot.

* CutAndPasteEnvironments: All the dungeons.

* MoneyGrinding: You'll have to outright buy things to advance. If you don't have the cash, guess what?

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Being an early game translation effort from the 80s, it runs into more than a few problems. In addition to the [[AmbiguousGender gender confusion]] concerning Noah, and weird enemy name changes such as "Devil Eye" becoming "Owl Bear" (despite having nothing to do with owls or bears), we got the classic "I tell you no one can do!"

* PinkMeansFeminine: While she might be one of videogaming's original vengeance-seeking {{Action Girl}}s, being from the 80s Alis can't quite escape this one and her dress and hairband are, as you'll note above, quite pink (and consistently so in-game). Granted, she does wear her breastplate over it, and still manages to ''rock'' the ensemble better than many who came after her, but it's still there.

* CulturalTranslation: In the English version, the healing items "Perolimate" and "Ruoginin" were respectively translated as "Burger" and "Cola". As it turns out, "Perolimate" is a play on a Japanese energy supplement product called "[=CalorieMate=]."

* DubNameChange: Of the main characters, Alissa/Alyssa became Alis, Tylon/Tyrone became Odin, Lutz became Noah, and [=LaShiec=] became Lassic. (Only Myau remains the same.) In addition, most of the monster and spell names were changed to fit size restrictions.
** [[spoiler:Dark Force to Dark Falz.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After destroying both Lassic and Dark Force, the Algol star system returns to normal with Alis and Co. hailed as heroes!

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: After [[spoiler:Dark Force]] is defeated and dies, [[spoiler: Alis is very suddenly and undramaticly revealed to be the daughter to the former king of the Algol star system and the rightful ruler. Whether or not she assumes this position is up to you.]]

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: [[spoiler: Dark Force's role as the final boss.]]

* LastBreathBullet: With his last strength Lassic [[spoiler: transforms the Governor of Motavia into Dark Force.]]
** Only in the English translation. In the Japanese it's unclear just where [[spoiler:Dark Force]] came from.

** Most likely meant to be {{Foreshadowing}} with [[spoiler:Succubus/Nightmare and Dark Force]].

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: After [[spoiler:Dark Force]] is defeated and dies [[spoiler: Alis is very suddenly and undramaticly revealed to be the daughter to the former king of the Algol star system and the rightful ruler. Whether or not she assumes this position is up to you.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After destroying both Lassic and Dark Force, Alis and Co. the Algol star system returns to normal!

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: After [[spoiler:Dark Force]] is defeated [[spoiler: Alis is very suddenly and undramaticly revealed to be the daughter to the former king of the Algol star system and the rightful ruler. Whether or not she assumes this position is up to you.]]

* UpdatedRerelease: ''Sega Ages Phantasy Star'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. It features an Easy difficulty, a [[MonsterCompendium Monster Codex]], auto-mapping for dungeons as an AntiFrustrationFeature, and an exhaustive glossary detailing every item and ability in the game. There is also an FM Sound Unit that lets you listen to the game's music, and the Japanese version also includes the Hiragana text option that originally appeared in ''Phantasy Star Collection''.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Being an early game translation effort from the 80s, it runs into more than a few problems. In addition to the [[AmbiguousGender gender confusion]] concerning Noah, we got the classic "I tell you no one can do!"