S3E05: Phantasy Star IV -or- Hazy Cosmic Jive

Ryan (Warboss5) is rejoining the party for another quest with Mike and Jaymo as they play Phantasy Star IV (Sega Genesis/Megadrive, 1993), continuing their epic quest to research and review every retro game in the Nintendo Switch Online catalog!

In this episode, we discuss when it’s appropriate to search through someone else’s belongings, try to figure out just how much Phantasy Star IV was really borrowing from Star Wars, and examine the virtues of direct translation compared to reinterpreted dialogue when translating media for an American audience.

Thanks for listening, and a very special thanks to Kristal Fields of The Lazy Circles for our catchy new theme song! Subscribe to The Old SwitchAroo to get more retro goodness delivered straight to your feed! You can also join the fun on ⁠⁠https://www.theoldswitcharoo.com⁠⁠, where you'll find access to our Discord, voicemail, and so much more!

Game on, everyone.

(0:00) Intro

(1:05) Welcoming Ryan

(4:45) Phantasy Star IV

(39:00) Mini-Game Minute: Insanonyms

(43:28) Phantasy Star IV Cont’d

(1:21:58) NintenDO or NintenDON’T

You can find from Warboss5 on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/@warboss5) and Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/warboss5.bsky.social).

The audiobook that he’s recording, Mortzeel's Lost & Found, can be found on the author's web site: https://www.nickcennamosmith.com/

Phantasy Star IV manual:

https://manuals.sega.com/genesismini/pdf/PHANTASY_STAR_IV.pdf

Sega Visions Issue 23, February/March 1995, p20-21 | Archive: https://archive.org/details/Sega_Visions_Issue_23_February-March_1995/page/n23/mode/2up

The 100 Best Sega Genesis Games by Miguel Concepcion and Kevin Wong | Complex: https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/miguel-concepcion/the-100-best-sega-genesis-games

Phantasy Star IV [MD/G – Beta / Unused Stuff] | Unseen64: https://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/14/phantasy-star-iv-mdg-beta/

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium - Animation Sample Video | The Cutting Room Floor: https://tcrf.net/Phantasy_Star_IV:_The_End_of_the_Millennium#Animation_Sample_Video