Blast Processing!

Started Phantasy Star II today, and already it's a lot different than the first.

The whole plot of the first game was basically "The evil king killed your brother, collect magic thing to get revenge", while game right off the bat has a much bigger Plot in just the prologue before you hit start. The game takes place on the desert planet 1000 years after the previous game, and due to the guidance of a super computer called "mother brain" (gee, can't see that ending badly) the desert had been transformed into a temperate climate full of trees and grass. The computer controls all elements of human life to the point where most don't make any decisions any more. The main character is Rolf (name can be changed) and he keeps having dreams about the hero of the past game fighting the big end demon. He's basically a cop and his assignment today is to check out some odd experiment of the computer that seems to be making monsters. Tagging along is his friend Nei, who is a 7 month old artificially created monster/human hybrid and looks like a teenage elf/catgirl. Their path to the lab with the experiment is currently blocked though by some gang member.

The graphics of the game are a clear step up, going from high end 8-bit to mid level 16-bit, and the whole look of the game has a more anime style to it (looking very much like Gal Force). All the main character (and shop owners) appear on screen in little windows when they talk, there are more cinematic cut scenes, and the sprites are more detailed. The fighting system is changed too, now all the monster appear on screen and there can be more than one type, and the characters are seen attacking. It also uses an odd system where the character can basically auto attack anything, or you can select a strategy of using magic, items, defense, or attacking each turn. The difficulty has been turned down a lot too, you're not risking death every fight when first starting.

The controls are a bit awkward, the confirm button also brings up the menu and a different button is used for talking. So when I want to talk to some one, I'm use to facing them and hitting the action button, but that just brings up the menu and I have to cancel out of that with a third button and select the talk button instead. I hope I get use to that soon enough.