Phantasy Star IV the epic finale of the Phantasy Star saga!
Story: You start with Chaz Ashley who goes on his first assignment with his mentor Alys. And what starts out as a simple assignment is getting bigger and bigger. Chaz is travelling all around the planets of the solar system of Algol. Chaz learns more and more from his mentor and meets many people like Rika, Gryz, Wren and many more. And with his mentor Alys behind him he's confident but then all of a sudden he has to stand and fight all by himself without his mentor. He has to lead his people, stay strong and fight and beat "The Profound Darkness". The story of Phantasy Star IV is one of the best I've ever seen in an RPG. It has many twists, interesting characters and many interesting moments. And it's told with comic insertions which give you the feeling to watch a great anime.
Gameplay: The gameplay is typical RPG-like. You fight against all sorts of creatures in turn-based battles, get experience, your characters gain levels and learn new magic spells and skills.The difficulty of the dungeons and fights is perfect: it's never to hard but always challenging. There is also an overhead exploration which means you go on many different planets and satellites, go to cities and dungeons. Of course you have the armories in each city to buy new equipment, the item shops and the inns to heal your characters. The planets are huge, there are many different cities and secret dungeons. And the random encounter rate is good and never annoying. And as you progress in the game you get different vehicles to be faster and to overcome obstacles.
Graphic/Planets/Dungeons: The graphic of Phantasy Star IV is very good and you have some very good animations especially in the battles (probably one of the best looking games on genesis). The planets you can get to look all different and each one has its own charm, even there are some things which are just repeating. The dungeons are well designed. Of course there are not so many differences between them but each dungeon is different and has its own things to offer. And they have a good size and aren't to big and don't have hundreds of branches.
Sound: The tunes of Phantasy Star IV are very good, nothing very special but tunes which don't leave your mind.
Conclusion:
Phantasy Star IV is a timeless RPG! It has good graphics, dungeons and locations, one of the best stories I've ever seen in an RPG. And to it comes the great turn-based battles and the perfect pacing and difficulty. Definitely a game you should have played when you have anything to do with RPGs.

justinfeena1 : Good job on this review. This game is my favorite Sega Genesis game.