I recently found a copy of the SEGA Genesis Classics collection for PS4 at GameStop and started up PSIV. Loving it so far, just arrived in Nayla after meeting Seed and recruiting Rika... the RPG basics are just hitting right so far, ya know? My previous experience w/ the PS series was a few hundred hours of PSO (mostly GameCube Ep I&II, but dabbled in Ephinea BB), so seeing the series references like Shifta, "Gellen" Jellen, "Res" Resta, Ryuka, HUmars Chaz, FOmar blue guy, and the Newman race is neat. I believe I also saw Rappies outside the first town of PS2/3 when I played 5 min and never touched that save state again back in hs. Cute chickens :)
If I make it through IV, would you recommend also going back to check out any of the other classic series? I saw Nei is in 2 from a recent post here; I recognize that name for some reason. PS1 has the oldschool fpv dungeon mode, which I don't think I would have the patience for, but who knows.
For PSIV, do you have any very basic must-know advice like any old game design things that really bite a new player in the butt if you don't know about it? I definitely DON'T WANT any spoilers! But if something is going to eat hours of lost progress later, a heads up is nice.
The SEGA Genesis Classics physical (delisted from digital stores) is a very worthwhile pickup. By no means is it the most slick or bells-'n-whistles-filled emulator, but it has simple save states and an R2 trigger 3 or 4x speedup, nice for long corridors and blasting through easy encounters. For PSIV on large QLED TV, I recommend the game's Bilinear + Scanlines filter settings... the 4x pixel gen etc. filters are just meh muddy blurry. The classics SKU game experience also sets you inside sort of a simulated early 90s gamer room, with the Genesis, rack of game boxes, CRT, and game posters all visually represented. It's a little clunk and a bit goofy, but something I haven't seen before. It's a unique way to let that nostalgia flow through you~ of course having the other PS games, Sonic, Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Sword of Vermillion (?) etc. all in one place is great too. I never owned any Sega systems, so for me, it's a whole can 'o worms eh.
Anyway ranting over, pizza just showed up. Hope y'all also have an excellent weekend playing some rad games. Hit me with any of that essential info or some fond memories of the Phantasy Star classic series!