I like to think of myself as well rounded when it comes to gaming so I'm up for giving games a fair shake but I can't bring myself to enjoy any of the original Phantasy Star games.
The first one did not age gracefully and its predecessors aren't bad by any stretch but I don't see what made them particularly memorable apart from the high fantasy/sifi mix of a setting which arguably Final Fantasy was doing as well.
My first exposure to the Phantasy Star series was PSO so naturally I would prefer it. I sometimes wonder why Sega hasn't made any exclusively single player Phantasy Stars since the Sega genesis days. I would argue the original PS series was so mediocre there was no interest in pursuing single player sequels and the allure of subscription based payment model led the series away from any notion of a single player only adventure for good. This dynamic has of coursed been turned on its head with the free to play route PSO2 has taken but from what I've gathered so far PSO2 is one of sega's biggest money makers right now.
I wonder why no one has used the StarOcean property for an online game. That's a series that could go in a new direction. SO's most recent releases on the PS2 doesn't do justice to the original StarOcean or the PlayStation 1 masterpiece that is StarOcean the second story.
tl;dr. The original Phantasy star games aren't that impressive for me. If it wasn't for PSO no one would be familiar with them.
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