Forsaken by SEGA on U.S. Shores: The Story of Phantasy Star

Written by James C Smith. Posted in Articles

“It will be then, in the darkest of days that the final lights of SEGA’s love will disappear into the Aether once and for all and the most united of states will feel the cold discombobulating nothingness that is life without Phantasy Star.” –PSO 13:5

For many older gamers, the name Phantasy Star is one spoken with a certain amount of reverence. For those of you too young to remember, before Square released the first installment of Final Fantasy on to the console world in 1990*, there was a game trying to garner popularity for the role-playing game (RPG)  genre way back in 1988. This title, released on the Sega Master System was quickly overshadowed in the U.S. by anything released on the Nintendo Entertainment System – but in the wake of its launch, still managed to manifest a cult following that lives to this day. This game was known simply as: Phantasy Star.

Phantasy Star IV, updated and re-released for the Saturn (Japan only)

The narrative of Phantasy Star was a surprisingly deep one for the time of its release, from political assassinations, to revenge plots and even an elder god manipulating humans so that he could rise to power after hiding in the shadows for centuries. This, coupled with a an overhead map, a rich battle system and a faux-3D first person dungeon view set on the sci-fi/fantasy solar system of Algol – proved to be more than Americans were ready to embrace. This did not, thankfully, dissuade SEGA from releasing the subsequent titles in the series here in the states…for a while.

As SEGA made the transition from the 8-bit generation to 16-bit universe, so too did Phantasy Star. The next three installments of the Phantasy Star series would all take place on the Sega Genesis with each game building on the last in terms of visuals, sound and story depth. Phantasy Star III alone spanned several generations of characters stories all within the course of one game, a concept that is rarely seen at all in modern games and a complete version (mint in box) of Phantasy Star IV is still a highly sought after treasure for game collectors.

Phantasy Star was notably absent for the handheld and 32-bit era in America, with only a series of remakes and spin-offs available only in Japan. However, SEGA was not content to let their beloved RPG go silently into the good night. At the beginning of 2001 Phantasy Star Online (PSO) burst onto the scene, cementing its place into the hearts of gamers everywhere on SEGA’s newest gaming platform, The Dreamcast. Phantasy Star Online was a wildly successful game, and one of the first real online console gaming experiences. PSO eventually was released for the Xbox, Nintendo Gamecube and even PC markets.

With a version update, an expansion and a card based video game spin-off under their belt, Phantasy Star had finally hit the prime time even in the midst of the Dreamcast’s short-lived lifespan. In 2006 Phantasy Star Universe, the next title in the online Phantasy Star series, was released on several consoles and PC to a lukewarm reception. For many, it was so vastly different from PSO that it lost most of the magic of the original PSO experience and the game suffered for it in terms of ratings and sales.

In 2011, the U.S. got their first glimpse of the game that had been waiting years for, a true sequel to Phantasy Star Online. Elegantly called Phantasy Star Online 2, it promised to give American gamers everything they loved in the original PSO and more with features such as more simultaneous players for larger boss fights and a more complex and rich character creation system. The message boards across the internet lit up, eagerly anticipating the next installment of the franchise and year after year when SEGA was asked when PSO2 was going to get released to western shores the only response given was “soon”. With the Phantasy Star festival now over in Japan, we found out that there is a new Phantasy Star Online 2 spin-off dubbed Phantasy Star Nova, in the works and that it is more than likely going to be a Japanese-only release. This announcement, alongside the repeated delays of the American release of PSO2 ultimately begs the question: What does SEGA have against America, when it comes to releasing more Phantasy Star content on our shores?

I mean, who wouldn’t want to down enemies with a giant fish? (PSO2)

If we look back to the franchises history, the decision to not release the remakes and spin-offs of Phantasy Star on western shores does start to make sense . Japan has always fostered the Phantasy Star market in terms of sales where systems like the Game Gear and Saturn under performed in America, at best. This means that the creation cost-to-profit margin is much slimmer when you take into account the amount of resources SEGA would have to spend to have those games translated on top of marketing and publication. SEGA took a risk on releasing Phantasy Star Online to the states when non-PC internet gaming was in its infancy. This gamble did ultimately paid off for them, which leaves many people scratching their heads as to why Phantasy Star Online 2 has yet to see a western release.

Unfortunately, at this time all we have is wild speculation. With SEGA still holding firm to the idea that PSO 2 will be released “at some point” in the west, we can only look to the amount of time it has taken the game to even leave Japan. Reports are saying that around early 2014, PSO 2 had finally entered closed beta in Southeast Asia – nearly two years after the launch of the game in Japan. In 1988, a gap of years like this was commonplace when it game to translation and publication. These days, it can be a death sentence for a game. Gamers who wait too long to play their favorite titles can become disillusioned over time, knowing that the game they have waited to play for so long can never live up to the hype they have built up in their minds.

Phantasy Star Nova, in all its glory

Another factor could simply be the overall cost of releasing the game here. While in 1988, translation and publication times were much wider, (Final Fantasy I was released by Square Japan in 1987 and not released in the states until 1990) those games ultimately had a large cost associated with release such as paying for the localization teams. Phantasy Star IV alone retailed for up to $100 when it launched in 1995. Phantasy Star Online 2, is currently a free-to-play game with buy-in options as a central game mechanic. Most of these in-game purchases are purely cosmetic since there is a physical copy of the game available for purchase should you prefer a non-digital distribution platform. When you take into account the X variable which is “how much does this game make per day?”, it may not be financially feasible for SEGA to take a risk like translating, distributing (bandwidth costs money) and establishing servers for every region. If this is the case, it would only make sense that SEGA would not be willing to take a chance on Phantasy Star Nova here – considering it is a spin-off of the Phantasy Star Online title we have yet to receive.

While American Phantasy Star fans are eagerly awaiting another game release in their beloved franchise, for now they must be content with the videos being published out of Japan of the upcoming series titles until SEGA has finally announced that a new Phantasy Star is coming their way – or at the very least, finally told them why they will be unable to release it here. If the online fan base is any indication, they are willing to wait a very – very long time to once again step into the shoes of a hunter and try and save the galaxy from Faltz once again.

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“The Kicker” by Good Co – A Surly album review

Written by James C Smith. Posted in Reviews

So, “What is Electro Swing?” you may be asking yourself, much like I did when my Surly Nerd pals asked me to review this album. To answer this query, it seemed the logical first step was to give the record itself a first listen. The “swing” half of the genre is heavily apparent. Sassy jazz vocals, lots of brass and big band arrangements have been lovingly sampled. On the other side of the coin is the “electro” half, wherein the very swingin’ 1940s big band instrumentation gets chopped and rearranged with a healthy dose of synths and electronic percussion layered throughout. And sure enough, with a quick look at good ‘ol Wikipedia, it seems like Good Co is successfully articulating the genre:

Electro swing is a musical genre fusing swing styles with contemporary production techniques including house, hip hop, EDM and more. Contemporary artists of the genre incorporate loops, samples, melodies and styles from the swing, jazz and big band era (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro_swing).

What you hear is usually dancy and impressively high energy, given that swing music is hardly sedate to begin with. On “The Kicker”, the samples are well chosen and the digital production is deftly executed. It may not be “new”-new, but it’s new in the way our generation strives for novelty, and it’s certainly fun.

A little taste of Electro Swing at its finest

“Through the Door”, the first track, hooks you into the sound and introduces the varied elements that form the core of the album. A jittery horn intro drops you right into a thumping, two-step swing beat that would feel at home on any dance track. When the vocals command you to “swing, swing”, one is happy to oblige.

Skewing toward nostalgia-drenched while remaining modern enough to be novel is no small feat.

For me, the two aspects that mark Good Co as exceptional within this fairly narrow genre are the live horn players and original vocals. Slipping back and forth between the very timeworn sound of old swing records and crisp new horn sections helps stitch together a convincing connection between disparate elements.

“Lou’s New Suit” has some impressive horn work. It is refreshing to hear a clarinet solo–and it’s quite a good one, at that. Too much material from the 30’s and your record begins to simply sound like a dj’s remix project, not so much a band with its own members and ideas. Good Co cleverly avoids this pitfall. The sonic digital collages that DJs create are amazing in their own right, but even Daft Punk reached a point–leading up to the production of “Random Access Memories”–where they wanted to mix in plenty of flesh and blood musicians.

The mash-up culture that has flourished in the last few decades is an inevitable reaction to so much accumulated history of art and music. The 90’s swing revival leaned more heavily toward homage than evolution, but the legacy that movement left persists. Entirely unique elements of music remain elusive, but the right approach, with a clever mix of otherwise unrelated styles, synthesizes a new material that transcends its original components. Dubstep is a kind of remix logical extremity that I’m surprised artists were able to follow and still be successful. But it’s a solid formula. You’re on the right path when the sum is greater than the parts.

Given how much I enjoyed this record, my only reservations arise when the preciousness of the swing era pastiche overreach and turn things a bit too twee. For instance, “Paper Tiger” is a fun exercise in cheeky storytelling, but I doubt I’ll be eager to hear it again outside of a live show. That said, it’s a minor bump in an otherwise remarkably smooth and entertaining ride.

I can’t sign off without mentioning that I played this record over my bar’s sound system afterhours. Though the choice was, ostensibly, so that I could listen to it a few times in different settings, it won my co-workers over quite thoroughly. Not a bad sign for a record, I have to say.

Our ears are in good company listening to this album

You can find out more about Good Co by visiting their website. They can also be found on Facebook and Soundcloud.  When Cory isn’t being tied to a chair and forced to write reviews for our site, he can be found all around Houston playing music for one of the several bands he is in. Look forward to more reviews from him in the future. 

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