Play classic Phantasy Star at warp speed

At the end of this month Phantasy Star: Complete Collection comes out in Japan. Besides bundling the four offline Phantasy Star games on one disc, Sega is adding interface tweaks. The movement speed option does just what it says. Playing with it makes the party run faster. Characters in Phantasy Star I can walk twice as fast. In Phantasy Star II and III the party can move up to four times faster.

Back when Phantasy Star II came out it was a challenge. Compared to modern RPGs it’s a beast. To make the four classics more accessible Sega has a novice difficulty option too. Players can chose between Normal, Easy and Very Easy. The easier levels reduce encounters and grant more Meseta/experience from fights.

Individual games offer a few changes too like hiragana for Phantasy Star I (note: the original was completely in katakana) and extra save slots for Phantasy Star III. So far there isn’t any sign the English ROMs will be part of the package and unfortunately they probably won’t.

Update: As Savory points out there really is an English language option in Phantasy Star: Complete Collection. Thanks for pointing this out.