SO YOU WANT TO COLLECT… MEGA DRIVE RPGs

PHINAL PHANTASY

PHANTASY STAR IV

DEVELOPER: SEGA

RELEASE: 1993

■ Between its enduring quality, initial low print numbers and high RRP the current three-figure resale prices for English copies of Sega’s series ender shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Luckily, there’s a slight silver lining in knowing there have been several physical and digital re-releases over the years either in dedicated Japanese Phantasy Star collections or as part of various Mega Drive bundles, as well as an individual Steam release available for under a pound. iOS and Android devices can even download the game for free (ad supported – a small fee will permanently remove these ads) if you’d like to spend some time with the game before handing over money for a cartridge.

Japanese copies of the game are not only adorned with beautiful artwork but also come with a colour fold-out sheet showing an annotated map of Motavia on one side and a list of magical techniques and special skills on the other (in Japanese). This useful item is included as standard, so a second-hand