CORBIE'S GAME BLOG

Back in the 80's, computer role-playing games were getting quite popular among personal computer users. I was one of these particular fans that loved a good computer rpg. Who could forget sitting in front of the computer screen and mapping dungeon after dungeon on graph paper and creating character sheets for all of the characters in your party. Not to mention the countless hours spent rolling and re-rolling your character attributes. Those were the days when graphics and musical scores took a backseat to simple block dungeon designs and text making up most of the fighting action. During the early 1980's, Wizardry and Ultima made up the bulk of the computer rpg market, but a small company called SSI, decided to throw their hat into the rpg ring and did so with a very unique and fun rpg called "Phantasie".

In Phantasie you controlled your party of six characters and explored regions and dungeons in pursuit of fortune and glory. While there were graphical maps of the areas, the majority of the game and its battle system used text to explain the movements and actions of your party, including the battles that took place at random times out in the field. It wasn't anything revolutionary, but Phantasie just had a unique look and feel that made playing it a joy. Not only could you create your characters from scratch, you could also keep rolling their attributes until you got some you liked. Although Phantasie might pale in comparison to many of today's computer rpgs, both visually and musically, you can't beat one of the all-time classics that proved you didn't need flashy cutscenes and orchestrated soundtracks to create a lasting and challenging rpg quest. Phantasie is still to this day one of my all-time favorite rpgs.